There's less than a week to go until Apple's planned "press event"-- though you'd never guess that fact by digging through Apple's web site. For our part, we were unable to find a single mention of the shindig at Apple.com, which implies to us that either Apple's trying to keep things calm before the storm, or the web elves are too busy playing Escape From Monkey Island to post an announcement. We're betting on the former scenario (though the latter isn't without a certain gleeful charm).

Our interpretation of the vaguely disturbing silence blaring from One Infinite Loop right now is that Steve and company are hoping to launch a sneak attack this Tuesday; by keeping quiet about the fact that there even is a press event just around the corner, maybe they hope to quell most of the attendant speculation, at least among the less Mac-frenzied populace. Of course, that just leads overexuberant fans like us to assume that there must be something really big in the works. Really, really big. And we're not so sure that a new iBook-- even one that heralds Apple's return to the subnotebook market-- would qualify.

For example, MacSlash claims that Apple has "confirmed" the Mayday event (though no source or link is listed) and that it will be taking place at the Flint Center at DeAnza College. If you're reasonably up on your Apple history, you probably recall that the Flint Center has been the site of many Apple turning points over the years-- most notably the introduction of the original Macintosh in 1984, the unveiling of the original iMac in 1998, the announcement of the Power Mac G3 and the online build-to-order Apple Store in 1997, and the advent of iMovie in 1999. All of those announcements were huge, and most of them were surprises-- and not just to the press and the average populace. Even the die-hard Apple-watchers did a triple-take when the iMac was unveiled.

So are we in for a mammoth surprise come Tuesday? It's true that Apple's own retail stores would represent a major paradigm shift on par with the 1997 debut of the direct-sales Apple Store, so an announcement like that would almost certainly justify a Flint Center event. Still, even your grandmother and her cat know that Apple's going retail, and given Steve's love for flashy surprises, we can't help but suspect that he's got something else up his sleeve. If so, here's hoping that it's something that none of us sees coming.

Mac OS X has been available for a month, now-- have you ever wondered how many people have taken the Aqua plunge? Sure, we heard some interesting factoids from Apple in its recent quarterly earnings conference call regarding the new operating system, which Fred described as having prompted a "favorable market reaction": it raked in $19 million in revenue in its very first week, with roughly a third of the copies sold through the Apple Store. If you do the math, that comes out to maybe about 170,000 copies sold in the first seven days of availability. Unfortunately, that still doesn't really give us a feel for what percentage of the Mac population is actually using it.

Luckily, MacCentral has a slew of interesting usage stats courtesy of Macworld's "independent research study." Granted, the numbers only apply to Macworld subscribers who were tapped for the survey and not Mac users overall, but they're still pretty encouraging; for example, "more than two-thirds of Macworld subscribers are either already using or planning to adopt Mac OS X by mid-year." It breaks down like this: one out of five of the subscribers polled is already cranking along in Mac OS X, an additional 8% "plan to buy the current release" but haven't gotten off the couch to do it yet, and two out of five plan to upgrade "when the next [presumably major] release is available," i.e. when Apple starts preloading Mac OS X 10.1 on every Mac it ships starting this summer.

Moreover, of the people who are already using Mac OS X in some fashion, over a third are hardcore users who have pretty much left Mac OS 9 behind, embracing the future for better or worse. (The AtAT staff can't quite live up to that degree of commitment, since we rely on Virtual Game Station for occasional doses of thumb candy-- but otherwise, our PowerBook pretty much stays booted into Mac OS X.) All told, it sounds to us like Mac OS X is gaining some crucial footholds even at this early stage of its life-- and that bodes well for Apple's attempt to pull off yet another death-defying architecture change, on par with the transitions from the Apple ][ to the Mac and the 680x0 to the PowerPC. And that's a reason to heave a pretty hefty sigh of relief, because if Mac OS X doesn't catch on, well, the consequences would be dire at best.

Hey, who says the little guy can't win? We're not going to invoke that whole "David & Goliath" thing as proof, because a) people debate the tale's historical accuracy, and b) we've never fully understood how claymation about a boy and his talking dog serves as a parable about triumph despite overwhelming odds. We must be missing something. But anyway, you don't need to look any further than Redmond for evidence that sometimes a 900-pound gorilla can get pinned by a goldfish-- provided said goldfish is sufficiently ticked off. And who's better at ticking people (and goldfish) off than Microsoft?

This inspiring tale comes courtesy of faithful viewer Matthew Guerrieri, who pointed out a gem of an Associated Press story about a Florida man who successfully sued Microsoft over his "malfunctioning Microsoft Internet service." Stephen Thomas, a retired philosophy professor, reportedly signed up for MSN service sometime last year in what we can only interpret as an act of existentialist despair. Or maybe not, because he apparently expected things to work; when the software he downloaded from Microsoft last August "caused computer trouble ever since," he appears to have been surprised by that turn of events. Microsoft tech support was unable to help (we're guessing the phrase "it's working fine at this end" figured prominently) and Prof. Thomas canceled his service, but was still charged $21.95 for a month's worth of MSNy fun.

Despited his protestations, Microsoft refused to refund his twenty-two bucks, and so Stephen Thomas did what few mere mortals have the intestinal fortitude to do: he dragged Microsoft to court. For a mere $68.50, he filed a small-claims case in January, seeking to recoup his $21.95 plus "several thousand dollars in damages based on the time he spent trying to fix his computer." And while the judge rejected Thomas's claim for damages, he did order that Microsoft not only refund Thomas's twenty-two smackers, but also pay the $68.50 filing charge. Chalk up almost ninety bucks transferred from Microsoft's coffers to the Unsinkable Stephen Thomas. (Expect a sizeable ding in Microsoft's next earnings report.)

For that, the legend of Stephen Thomas will likely echo throughout the ages: fathers will inspire their sons with tales of how he defeated the Redmond Beast; evil will cower when it hears his name; religions will be started in his honor. More importantly, perhaps others will follow suit, and Microsoft will suffer a death of a thousand cuts. (Actually, at $90 a pop, it'd have to be more like the death of 4.15 billion cuts, but who's counting?) So if malfunctioning Microsoft software has you hopping mad, don't take the law into your own hands-- you take 'em to court.