Strung out on eMac

Congradulations are in order, as I've become an Educational Institution without even knowing it. It's true, I found out today while computer shopping with my mother.

You see, ever since 2002, when I made "the Switch" I'd been remorselessly touting the pros of Mac OS X and eMacs over that of other... well, crap, to be utterly frank. I got hooked into this glorious world of painless computing by the $999 eMac G4/700 (keep in mind this was Oct 2002 -- I've since squeezed every dime out of it; still am in fact).

Anyways, back to here, now, today, April 2006; 3-and-a-half years later. My mother, bless her heart, is finally ready to make the leap to buying a new eMac (she had bought a used iMac G3, but I fried the modem and blew the green-rod in the monitor while upgrading the poor thing; it's now an excellent iTunes jukebox - but that's another story...).

She knows what she wants, gets her money together, we pile in the car, drive all the way down to Zombieland Mall, get to the Apple store... and notice the balding lack of eMacs. I approach the already skittish looking Manager behind the counter "Do you not carry eMacs?" I inquire.

The Manager blinks at me like I have three heads, "We only sell eMacs to Educational Institutions... the "e" stands for "educational" so yeah really we only sell them to schools."

My turn to blink; I had brought my mother all the way down here on $3.00-a-gallon gas in a V8 station-wagon, and they had no eMacs? "Look here, I bought one back in 2002 down at CompUSA and you're telling me that you, here at the Apple Store, don't have any eMacs?"

Fluster, bluster: "We have iMacs," as if it was the best thing since sliced bread!

"We can only afford an eMac though..."

"Well, there's the Mac Mini--"

"Right, and by the time we get a monitor and all that we might as well spring for an iMac."

He stared at me.

I tapped my fingers on the counter... "Look, I'm not blaming you, you know. Where's Steve Jobs when you wanna bitch him out, right? Heheh, thanks anyways." And we left.

I was so pissed -- I mean they really should put in plain sight the sign that reads You Must Be This Rich To Get Into Computer Heaven.

I guess what really gets me is that I was caught by surprise -- it never occured to me that Apple would want to phase out the eMac, or limit it's release to institutions only -- or heaven forbid, succumb to the philosophy of planned obsolescence... but then maybe that's the only way to keep the share holders happy and to hell with what the customer wants.

Me though, I feel lucky and blessed to have experienced the eMac G4 -- and now I'll be offering online degrees and certificate programs as soon as I come up with a name for my Educational Institution. Any ideas?

~Liriel