Meet Katia—My PowerBook G4

Posted October 29, 2005, 8:23 p.m.

Thanks to everybody who submitted names (some of them came very close), but ultimately I decided on a name that I kinda stumbled across on my own. The new PowerBook G4, which arrived on Wednesday, will be known as Katia. See, Nadia had been my primary machine, but it was a desktop. Kitka was my notebook but was slow compared to Nadia. Put them together—a notebook serving as my main machine—and you have Katia.

Regardless, the machine has been excellent so far. All my data has been moved over (in fact, I turned Nadia over to Melissa today with emptied hard drives) and pretty much all the software is installed. It has gracefully handled everything I’ve thrown at it, the battery life is impressive (>4 hours, even with the wireless card running), the light-up keyboard is quite nifty in the dark, and I’m already hopelessly hooked on the two-finger scrolling feature in the trackpad.

Read on for specs and a picture ;-).

Katia

Precessor: Freescale G4 1.67ghz.
RAM: 1gb DDR2.
Hard Drive: 100gb (5400rpm)
OS: Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Display: 15″ LCD at 1440×960 resolution.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been well organized.

If America’s wealth were spread around the world it would soon be dissipated, but if her system of free government and free enterprise were spread around the world, nations would soon find them to be perpetual producers of wealth.

In so far as religion is gone, reason is going. For they are both of the same primary and authoritative kind. They are both methods of proof which cannot themselves be proved.

The poor have the same basic pleasures as the rich, and the rich will always resent it.

He who confuses political liberty with freedom and political equality with similarity has never thought for five minutes about either.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again.

The compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can perfection spring from such materials?

If we attach great importance to the opinion of ordinary men in great unanimity when we are dealing with daily matters, there is no reason why we should disregard it when we are dealing with history or fable.

Nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. . . . We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know.

Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.

I can be presidential, but if I was presidential . . . [only] about twenty percent of you would be here because it would be boring as hell.

There is a kind of selective memory that afflicts men when they view the past. They see the good and overlook the evil.

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Spread love everywhere you go. . . . Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.

He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.

Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible beneficiary.

Moreover, the concentration of economic power in the hands of government is something every true friend of civil liberties should, by now, have learned to fear.

I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both.