OSNews reader Henrik “rain” Petersson writes: “In a drafty shed in rural northern California is perhaps the rarest Macintosh ever made: an electronically shielded Mac used by a spy or military agency. The machine appears to be unique, and is so secret, no one knows anything
about it.” Part I and Part II of the article at Wired.
A Top-Secret, One-of-a-Kind Mac
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Well, I doubt apple would ever make one of these today. a layer of steel in the case would ruin the whole translucent colored plastic means performance look. This is something I have wondered about macs for a while, they have no metal sheilding like most all other computers do. Seems like the might have issues with noise. Those I think tend to like PC cases just cause they are steel and can take a beating, i’m afraid off breaking mac cases.
To bad there isn’t more info on this computer. It’s probably been used so much sence the days it migth have been in service there is no way to get anything off the HD. Thats the other thing, if it was ever used It would have not got back into the hands of the public. It would have been broken up and dipped in acid or something like that.
‘I’ve got your top-secret mac right here, sonny’
http://www.geocities.com/~compcloset/Apple1_Ad.jpg
(Thanks Borad)
Mac cases are much sturdier than they appear from the outside. I can tell you that the blue/white and graphite cases for G3 and G4 systems definitely have sheet metal on the inside, as well as steel skeletons. Do a search on Google for G4 mods and you’ll get to see the insides. As for iMacs, the only ones I’ve seen and used up close are the original ones. The actual computer is located in a metal box under the monitor.
I’d much rather trust the insides of my X86 to my SO’s blue & white G3 case than the poor-excuse-for-a-b&w-case Antec case that I have. Her case feels like one solid piece if I pick it up, while the plastic skin on my case creaks.
I remember talking to a guy once who had been at a presentation given by Apple years ago. I think he worked for the Government or Military or something like that and Apple wasn’t presenting normal systems. This was the days of 100MHz CPUs but they were presenting 400MHz systems.
Probably couldn’t produce them in big enough quantities for the consumer / Pro market at that stage but if someone *really* wanted a few…
hrm, must be i missed the metal in them. Still my experiance with a G3 case was was it was flimsy. the case distorted making it hard to get thedoor shut back on it. Granted I have seen some real flimsy PC cases to. But IBM’s and HP’s tend to have a tank for a case. Some you could throw your back out with cause you didn’t expect them to be so heavy. Don’t know that I have seen a heavily plastic PC case, most that look like plastic or have a plastic outside are just a covering of plastic over steel. Hrm this is making me want to fire up my old ps/2 tower that thing nearly took two people to move. built like a tank, course toaster size HDs that weight 10+ lbs don’t help ether. I swear that thing would defy and EMP
and they say that Apple computers were to expencive. that thing was a good 2 grand less than the PCs at the time.
Secret product:
http://www.raytracer25.btinternet.co.uk/iToilet/itoilet.html
even more secret
http://www.mecha.net/iBrator/ibrator.htm
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~prc/Parodies.html
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~prc/Jobs16Mu.wav
I have a cheap pc case and a few years ago my brother kicked it through the side of my desk (granted its a flimsy desk) and it was none worse for the ware after I wiped off the size 12 sneaker print.
Umm perhaps you have not used OS X, but it neve crashes.
No os is crash free, os X may be very, very, stable but it is crashable.
well, when uptime is measuered in weeks and months, it never crashes.
The same could be said for windows then, my computer has been up for 2 weeks so far (in win 2k), and I did have this exact same pc up for over a month in 98se. My point is no os is crash free.
There is a ugly bad combination in which u use OS X’s finder – and ‘pop goes the weasel’.
Bye, bye baby.
OS X freezes very well.
No matter.
Even rock-solid BeOS freezes.
F.ex. if you restart the input_server with BeRestart on BeOS <:oP (on a terminal it works anyway 😉 – no mouse, no keyboard.
Apps & services still running properly anyway (a slight difference;-) to OS X, btw).
*g*