Drool

I really want a new Power Mac. My poor machine is nearing it’s 5th birthday, and while it’s no dog and I’ve shoved a hefty amount of upgrades into it, I can no longer deny it’s suffering from bus speed inadequacies and the woe of upgrades which are only partly compatible (for example, the FW 800 card I have in the machine prevents it from sleeping properly. WTF?)
So, I’ve been drooling over the Dual 2.7 G5 with all it’s water-cooling goodness, and then I see this on MacObserver today hinting at dual-core machines from Apple based on the latest 970 from IBM. Perhaps September. Perhaps never. Whatever, I really want to love one of those machines, as a dual-core 2.7 is 30% faster than two 2.7’s separate. Imagine two dual-cores in one machine. Oh, just imagine.
This isn’t unlikely. IBM announced the chip last month, the only real potential large-volume buyer of such a chip being Apple. It may appear at the Paris Expo next month.
If Apple loves me, they’ll deliver this machine as a testament to the PowerPC. The chip offers an ungodly amount of power and cutting-edge technology. So, Apple, please, give me one last PowerPC-based Mac before you stumble into the Intel world. I’ll wait a few years until you get all the kinks worked out then happily get my Intel-powered Mac.
And, no, I won’t buy a Windows machine. They totally disinterest me, with the exception of being able to play City of Villains.

Yuppie Scum… Interrupted

So, the house fell through. Not my fault. I lost no money, blah, blah, blah.
But I’ve come to two conclusions: when buying a house, banks are your friend and realtors are dicks.
First, a little background. The house appraised for far less than I was paying for it. There was some question as to whether the appraiser was qualified for SF and the area, so that brought some level of vagueness into the picture. It was given a peer review at the appraisal company and still came in far under. Comps for the area made everything very questionable, making it seem almost a bargain. All sorts of conflicting data, but I need to be primarily concerned with resale value.
Let me explain the rest. The bank basically has the same interest as you: they will only float a loan as long as what you’re buying is deemed worth the price. This makes sense simply because if they have to foreclose, they do not want to loose money. Like, um, duh. Also, my loan agent is forthright and completely honest — a friend of a friend who I will recommend to anyone any day of the week. In a nutshell, she kicks ass.
Secondly, my realtor, who is supposed to work on my behalf, was lobbying me to buy something despite me having all evidence to the contrary. When things were falling apart today, all he could really offer me was “Oh, well, if you want to come up with the difference in cash, you can still buy it! You should consider that!” My response: “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a fucking money tree in the backyard with $65k ripe and ready to fall off. Um, are you fucking retarded?” Aside from that, he was offering up his own appraiser to the loan agent — without telling me. Oh, and prior to that, he tried to tell me the selling agent wanted to close early, when in fact he had a planned vacation and just wanted to collect his payday before his holiday. Nutshell: he wants to get paid, and basically had no interest in my long-term success, despite being my neighbor for the past 7 years!
Moving along… I’m gonna keep looking. My heart wasn’t in this place, so I’m just fine with the fall-out. I didn’t loose any money, and I will find the right place… as soon as I find a new realtor.
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In a completely unrelated topic, happy anniversary to Mike & Stacy. And special praise to Stacy for putting up with that crusty old fuck for a full year. 🙂

Wingnuts are Fun!

OMG. This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages — a comic depicting a bleak future run by liberals! (Ohhhh… scary!)
I mean, this is genius:

It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. America is under oppression by ultra-liberal extremists which have yielded governing authority to the United Nations. It is up to an underground conservative group (known as F.O.I.L.) led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North to thwart Ambassador Usama Bin Laden