Okay, we admit it: we were truly amazed by the Mac community's response to the Yosemite modem situation. To recap, according to Apple's price list, none of the retail Yosemite configurations include the internal modem option, and Apple isn't selling the internal modems separately-- and since there are no USB modems out on the market which yet include Mac drivers, that means that customers who need to use a Yosemite with a dial-up Internet account don't have too many choices. (Remember, Yosemite has USB in place of the DIN-8 serial ports that "Mac" modems expect.) The most obvious solution is to order a Yosemite from the Apple Store and add in the internal modem as a built-to-order option; of course, then you're paying Apple Store prices, plus sales tax and shipping and handling.

But there's another solution out there that many, many AtAT viewers wrote in to recommend: get a USB-to-serial adapter, and use a standard Mac modem. Now, while we were aware of this solution (no, really, we were-- honest!), we were pleasantly surprised that so many of you consider this to be an acceptable workaround, because of the added cost involved. For example, Keyspan's USB-to-serial adapter costs $79. If memory serves, we paid $115 for our Global Village 56K modem, and that included a copy of Mac OS 8. Value the Mac OS 8 license how you will, but to us it sounds like getting the USB adapter essentially doubles the cost of the modem. So how come everybody (including noted curmudgeons like Don Crabb) sees this as a perfectly acceptable solution?

But after thinking about it for a while, it started to make a lot of sense. First of all, the Keyspan adapter gives you two serial ports, so when all's said and done, that $79 lets you hook up a "standard" external modem and any other serial device of your choice: QuickCam, QuickTake, Palm Pilot (or in our case, Newton), etc. But perhaps more importantly than that, the Yosemites are cheap. They range from $1599 to $2999. When was the last time that Apple's highest-end professional computer cost under $3000? In that light, throwing in another $79 for a couple of serial ports (if, and only if, you need them) doesn't seem like a big deal at all. Whatever. In any case, we're told that Yosemites with internal modems will be available via retail channels as early as this week-- and there are even rumors that Apple will supply their internal modems to resellers so that they can be installed for customers who need them. All told, it's a tempest in a teacup. We're glad that's over with.

Okay, in case you haven't noticed by now, we're self-confessed worrywarts. We worry about all kinds of stuff, especially stuff we can't change. We know it's not healthy, we know that it'll eventually bring on all sorts of fun problems like bleeding ulcers and high blood pressure, but hey, it's just who we are. (Would anyone who wasn't a worrywart produce a soap opera about Apple Computer day after day?) So here's our worry of the day: that we won't ever be able to buy a copy of Connectix Virtual Game Station.

You've heard about this product by now; it made a solid appearance during Steve Jobs' keynote address last week. Basically, it works like VirtualPC, but instead of emulating an Intel-based personal computer, it emulates a Sony Playstation. The upshot of this is that owners of G3 Macs (iMacs included) can run all sorts of Playstation games right on their monitor screens. Sure, not all Playstation games are yet compatible, but so far, user reports of both compatibility and performance are very good indeed. Good enough, at least, that we've got our $49 in hand, ready to plunk down to whomever can sell it to us first.

And there's the rub; no one's selling it yet. It was available directly from the Connectix booth at last week's Expo, but beyond that, it's only expected to ship to retailers by the end of the month. Not that we can't wait; we've got plenty to keep us busy in the meantime. No, what we're worried about is that the product might not ever make it to retail or mail order at all. Selling VGS at the Expo booth before releasing it anywhere else (it's not even available from the Connectix online store) seemed to us to be a way for Connectix to test the waters, legally speaking; Sony, after all, might not take too kindly to Connectix shipping an "unauthorized" emulator. In fact, the latest rumors already indicate that Sony is filing an injunction in preparation for a lawsuit. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen-- while we think a lawsuit would be a poor move on Sony's part, given the market share VGS will gain them, we certainly don't think it's an altogether unlikely scenario. Meanwhile, we'll just sit here with money in hand and fret silently.

Here's a quickie that makes us smile: how many of you know who Hiawatha Bray is? (Some of you are groaning right now, we can hear it. But bear with us.) He's a tech journalist for the Boston Globe who frequently exposes his anti-Apple prejudices in his columns. You know the type-- still referring to Apple as "beleaguered" even after five profitable quarters, that sort of thing. Bray, however, often does have valid criticisms of Apple and the Macintosh, but we often get the feeling that he digs up those criticisms not for their own sake, but because he has his own personal axe to grind. That's just a matter of opinion, of course.

What is not a matter of opinion is the fact that Bray has a long history of Apple-bashing, and we're sure that if someone out there is keeping a list of the most flagrant anti-Apple journalists, he's on there somewhere. But he may have just slipped down a few notches, now that he's publicly recanted his earlier prediction that the iMac would be a dismal flop. (After 800,000 units sold in the first four and a half months and the iMac topping the list of best-selling computers at retail, we suppose he had little choice, but he could have simply tried to ignore that he ever made such a prediction.) So says he, "I've already owned up to my most idiotic prediction of the year, the inevitable failure of the Apple iMac. Some failure; I'm using one of them right now." So not only are they doing well, there's a reason they're doing well-- they work as advertised, which is well enough to persuade Bray himself to use one.

Many of you aren't going to think this is big news, but for those of us in Boston who know Bray's anti-Apple rhetoric from way back, it's very interesting indeed. Granted, it's not like he can ignore the figures and claim that the iMac is really a failure after all, but the fact that he actually wrote his column on one is very telling. Is this Bray's first step on the road to becoming an Apple advocate? That depends-- on Apple, mostly.