See? We told you that a healthy dose of pessimism can bring you a happier, healthier life. Ever since we first took the Mac OS X public beta out for a test drive, we've been 100% dead certain that there was absolutely zero chance that the 1.0 release would be ready in time for next month's Macworld Expo. In fact, given the beta's lack of what Steve himself lovingly refers to as "fit and finish" (and taking into account the sheer complexity of what Apple's trying to accomplish), we figured that a Mac OS X release anytime before May of 2001 was a mythical beast best lumped together with flying pigs and the Easter Bunny.

Which means, of course, that while all the doe-eyed optimists out there are crying into their beer about the latest leaked Mac OS X release date, the AtAT staff is pleasantly surprised that Apple may actually get the product out the door that early. As faithful viewer Jeremy Albert kindly pointed out, ZDNet claims that Apple plans to pull the covers off of a shiny 1.0 version of Mac OS X not at the Expo itself, but rather at a "special event" some six weeks later. Reportedly the magic date is February 24th, so mark those calendars, people.

Actually, we should mention that our natural pessimism is still in high gear. We're not totally sure that we trust ZDNet's sources on the February 24th date, since it just happens to fall on a Saturday. While that's not necessarily a deal-killer, we're slightly skeptical that Apple would usher in the future of the Mac platform (and its best chance of getting back into the good graces of both the media and Wall Street) at a "special event" on a non-weekday. Then again, the iMac first shipped on a Saturday, so maybe it's possible... but by that point, the iMac had already had its share of high-publicity media events. And none of them took place on a weekend.

Still, until we hear otherwise from Apple, we're tentatively reserving February 24th as "X Day." And for those of you who went into hock to attend next month's festivities assuming that you'd be present at the dawn of a new Mac Era, hey, don't sweat it-- at least you'll be able to tell your grandkids that you were actually there live and in person when Steve Jobs officially announced the Mac OS X release date! So smile! (C'mon, we gotta give the optimists a silver lining to play with, right?)

Ever since Steve Jobs bluntly admitted that Apple's impending $250 million quarterly loss was due in part to the way in which Apple "completely missed the boat" on CD-RW drives, we've been wondering exactly what he meant when he said that the problem "will be fixed soon." Obviously that implies that at least some Macs will sport CD-RW drives in the relatively near future, but with Apple, the hardware is only half of the equation. In fact, we've always assumed that one reason why Apple never included CD-RW drives in shipping Macs is because they aren't exactly the easiest things to use.

We know, we know, it's not rocket science, but writing data to recordable CD media still isn't quite as straightforward or as forgiving as just dragging a bunch of files to a disk in the Finder. Several viewers tell us that fresh advances in the field are changing that (especially on the Windows side, unfortunately), but until recently, burning a CD meant getting all your files arranged ahead of time, and then sending everything to the recorder in a single uninterrupted stream. While software like Toast does an admirable job of making this process as simple as possible, there's always room for improvement. And that's where Apple comes in.

Faithful viewer David Triska notes that AppleInsider is on a tear lately, with updates posted three days in a row following its unexplained six-week hiatus. We all knew that Apple's box office smash iMovie was just the first in a series, and AppleInsider's latest report discusses the company's next effort, which is currently in production. Apparently Apple's genetic engineers are working to splice the DNA of MP3 playing software together with the CD-burning genes they secretly acquired from Radialogic a few days ago, resulting in a recombinant beast that the company hopes will be another killer app: iMusic.

Yes, just as iMovie brought moviemaking magic to the masses, iMusic strives to let Mac users create their own custom audio CDs from MP3 files with a minimum of muss and fuss. Assuming that Apple's lab rats can whip the mutant into a publicly-showable state in time, expect DJ Jazzy Steve to take iMusic for a spin during his upcoming Macworld Expo keynote. But whereas iMovie marked the onset of the consumer desktop video revolution, will iMusic really draw the crowds? After all, burning music CDs isn't exactly ground-breaking, earth-shattering stuff. And what about an easy way to make data CDs and backups? Here's hoping that iMusic is just one prong of Apple's writeable media strategy. (Given that Apple's still sitting on that DVD-mastering software it bought from Astarte last April, we don't doubt it for a second.)

Now that we've mostly physically recovered from the mild stroke brought on by Apple's most recent earnings warning, we're looking for ways to help us get back on our feet mentally and emotionally. Aromatherapy seemed to be helping at first, but the scents of peppermint and orange blossoms kept getting overpowered by the stale odor of Apple's bitter defeat. But that's alright; faithful viewer Josh forwarded us an article in The Register about Xtrem, and in doing so has proved that laughter really is the best medicine (provided you're not suffering from massive arterial bleeding, or anything like that).

You remember Xtrem, right? These are the guys whose stated business plan is to buy official Apple Power Mac G4 systems, butcher them for parts, wave a magic wand, and then assemble and sell microphone-looking XtremMac 1200 systems which allegedly run standard Motorola G4 processors overclocked to the decidedly un-Motorola-like clock speed of 1.2 GHz. Well, while the Swedish company isn't quite going to make their original end-of-the-year ship date, representatives have told The Register that the XtremMac will indeed surface before the end of January, for a price of $2000. So if Steve takes the wraps off a dual-processor 600 MHz G4 system and you just can't muster the excitement to buy one, just wait another three weeks and you'll be able to get an XtremMac for probably about half the price.

By the way, don't forget-- in addition to a magical 1200 MHz G4 and a really stupid looking enclosure, that $2000 will also buy you "a 320 MBps SCSI RAID controller; DVD or DVD-RAM; CD or CD-R; Zip, Jaz, or Orb removable storage; and ATI Rage Pro 128 or Radeon, 3dfx Voodoo 5, or Nvidia GeForce 2MX graphics." Why buy from Apple, when Xtrem can give you so much more for so much less? (Ignore that small print about how the "final specification and optional extras are subject to change," okay?)

Laugh? We thought we'd die. But we thank Xtrem for cheering us up in such a depressing time, and as always, we'll gladly recant every derisive thing we've ever said about the company if it actually ships its mythical Mac. But you'll all forgive us when we say that finding out that the $60 MacThrust accelerator kit consists of a set of jumper blocks didn't exactly inspire confidence in Xtrem's ability to overclock a processor to more than twice its rated speed...