I ordered an 18GB hard drive for my PowerBook today. We'll see if I actually get it or if it gets back ordered. Looking at what I want to get in the next 12 months in terms of computer stuff, I've decided to scale down some of my expectations and satisfy some of my immediate needs.

What I would really like is to get a Mac OS X Server and a new PowerBook, which together would cost about $10000. Take a look at the server, do I really need 512 MB RAM and 36GB HD space? I'm only going to use it as a web/ftp/mail server. You don't need that much memory unless you have a lot of people or it's an application server. Hard drive space is nice if I'm going to use it as a fileserver, but otherwise I don't need that much space. Still, it's nice to backup stuff to a separate machine and archive stuff there too.

For the PowerBook, a new one would give me USB and Firewire support, which is nice for digital cameras and camcorders. DVD ROM support for watching DVDs is also nice. Faster processor and a bigger hard drive are other plusses. Do I really need USB and Firewire? Probably not for at least six months. DVD ROM is also something I don't need right now. My current PowerBook is fast enough for now, and it has an adequate amount of RAM (160 MB). What I lack is hard drive space, which I'm constantly fretting over.

So the plan is to replace the 2GB drive with an 18GB one. Three 6GB partitions so that I can use one for the OS and applications, one for user data, and one for scratch space and to upgrade the OS at leisure. Six months down the road I can get Mac OS X and slowly make sure that everything works without commiting to it prematurely. When I get another PowerBook, it'll probably have a bigger hard drive, so I'll leave this one with 18GB and use it as a fileserver.

An 18GB hard drive for all the stuff that I keep on the fileserver. Six months down the line upgrade to Mac OS X. Six months after that get another PowerBook, making this onw be the new fileserver. That's the current plan, and perhaps one that I can live with. We'll see if I go nuts and buy a Mac OS X Server anyway...

The rest of today has been rather wasted. I'm catching up on my journals, which I'm having a hard time doing day after day. I also helped Shankar with some JDBC problems that we had a hell of a time tracking down. Other than that it's been a pretty uneventful day. Dave said that we can throttle down to 100% (less for the really stressed out people) for a couple of weeks, which for me means that I'm rather prone to goof off even more.

Speaking of which, I've gotten over half way down with Marathon Infinity. It's kind of schizophrenic since I work for Durandal for a couple of levels, then I work for Tycho for a couple of levels. At the end of a level Durandal says that I need to help the humans talk to some alien computer, then I find myself with Tycho, who wants me to kill the humans and stop them from getting to the alien computer. It's kind of fun. And now the humans are actually a bit of a challenge because they have body armor and fusion pistols, and they keep calling me a traitor.

The levels at times are bigger and more complex than previous games, and at other times they're rather simple. Also, some levels are reused, as you only get a small part of it before you go on to the next level. It also seems to me that I'm missing a lot of areas. Lots of doors that don't open, several rooms that I can see into but don't need to enter. More secret areas and such than previous games. Certainly continues the tradition for one of the best games to come out for the Mac.