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... to the MacBook. This is the first of many postings from my gleaming white new Mac. After years in the PC wilderness, I have finally seen the light and now I know what all the fuss was about. I remember, years ago, a paper by Umberto Eco in which he argued the the contemporary PC-Mac division is a virtual worlds equivalent of the Wars of Religion. When I hear other Mac users talk, impassioned, about their love (yes, love) of their system, I see what he means. Yesterday, a friend told me he loves his Mac more than anything else in his life. He was only slightly overstating the point. Another told me if his house was on fire, he'd rush in to save the Mac -- then, and only then, would he pull his partner from the house. I really hope that was a massive overstatement (it was, after all Valentine's Day).

I don't expect to become quite so obsessive about my new purchase. Some users speak of having mystical experiences when removing the packaging from their machines; others record that sacramental moment on video and place the record of their unveiling on YouTube. That strikes me as particularly sad -- perhaps even maniacal. I fully expect, having written this, that other Mac users will write with accounts of iMystical experiences, and that appropriately cynical PC users will write to excoriate the Mac types for their techno-idolatry.