Some things are tough for the mortal mind to grasp. For instance, it's been weeks since ZDNet's avowed Windows fan David Coursey publicly revealed that he's getting in touch with his Mac side; you'd think that by now we could hear him dish our platform a compliment or two without having to suppress the feeling that Rod Serling is lurking in our linen closet, ready to pounce. Nonetheless, with each passing week, David gets a little more Mac-friendly... and we still find ourselves nervously poking a broom handle into the shadows behind the guest towels just in case.

Of course, in light of Mr. Coursey's latest article (which we found via Peter Kirn's posting over at the PowerPage), we can perhaps be excused for thinking we've gone straight past the Twilight Zone and wound up deep into Night Gallery territory. Here's a Coursey quote for the record books: "Frankly, I am getting a bit tired of telling these Windows bigots-- people who don't even know why they use Windows except that everyone else does-- about the wonders of Macintosh." Say whaaaa? Is Mr. Coursey perhaps channeling the restless spirit of a circa 1997 Guy Kawasaki? Our Serlingometer just buried its needle. Rod? Rod, is that you?

Granted, this isn't a total conversion-- yet-- since Coursey insists that he still hasn't "become a Mac zealot." But judging by at least some of his words lately (e.g. about the aforementioned Windows bigots: "I'd hate to push them into a non-conformity they just couldn't handle." Oooh, snarky!), his newfound "very healthy respect for the Mac" may well be tugging him involuntarily in that direction. Oh, sure, now he's just railing against the so-called "Mac voyeurs" that clearly want to switch from Windows but can't muster the guts to suck it up and make the leap. But from there it's a short hop to dyeing one's hair Aqua and penning manifestoes about how the Macintosh Way represents the ultimate liberation of the human spirit from the shackles of creative oppression.

Not that we think David Coursey is really a likely candidate for that sort of wholesale platform conversion; more likely than not, he's going to finish up his month with a Mac and then return to daily Windows use with a far more balanced and informed attitude in his writing. Oh, wait-- we just noticed that his 30 days of Mac use just turned into six weeks because of "illness." Hmmm... suppose Coursey's one to fake a cough just to score an extra fortnight in Macland before having to trudge back to boring ol' Windowsville? Perhaps the transformation really has begun...

Those of you who have gotten into the habit of badgering Adobe on an hourly basis via email, phone call, or belligerent personal appearance about the lack of a Mac OS X-native version of Photoshop may soon have to find a new hobby. Faithful viewer Greg Lindley tipped us off to an allegedly leaked PC Advisor review of Photoshop 7.0 which was supposed to have been embargoed until the product's official release-- this coming Monday. Links to HTML and PDF versions of the article posted by MacNN might be dead by broadcast time, but the text still appears in a MacRumors forum thread courtesy of faithful viewer evildead. If it's legit, we won't have much longer to wait before we're all pushing pixels sans Classic.

Note, however, that we said "if." We have no particular reason to doubt the legitimacy of that article; it reads like what it purports to be, it's not attributed to one "I. P. Freely," it's not rife with misspellings and swear words, etc. But it definitely strikes us as a tad askew that Adobe would choose to announce the release of what is possibly the most eagerly-awaited version ever of its most important application next week-- right after Seybold closes. After all, right this second there are scads of creative professionals from all over the world crammed into the Javits Center, representing pure, concentrated Eager Customer for this product. Why the heck would Adobe want to wait until those rubes scatter back to their domiciles before saying, "oh, yeah... folks, we've also got this new version of Photoshop, here"?

Then again, any company that could demo a quick and dirty Carbonized version of Photoshop 5 (yes, 5!) back in May of 1998, comment on how quick the Carbonization process was, and then not ship a final product until two product revisions and nearly four full years later-- not to mention almost a full year after the release of Mac OS X itself-- is presumably operating according to a logic that does not resemble our Earth logic. So heck, maybe Adobe really is planning on shipping Photoshop 7.0 on Monday. But if you'd feel better about a slightly less bizarrely-timed release date, look no further than Think Secret, who claims that Photoshop 7.0 actually isn't slated for shipment until next month. So if Adobe doesn't make a big announcement to the Seybold masses some time this week, March might be a more reasonable ship date to which you can cling.

Either way, it sure sounds like a Carbonized Photoshop is finally just around the corner. Of course, what this really means is that, as early as Monday, Adobe will cease to be the Mac OS X Laggard poster child and suddenly the entire creative Mac community will turn the full force of its spaceborne Flaming Complaint Ray™ onto the nice people at Quark Incorporated. Ahhhh... Change is refreshing, isn't it?

We're not big sports fans 'round here at the AtAT compound, but heck, everyone knows who Shaquille O'Neal is! He was that big guy who played Kazaam, right? Well, whatever-- apparently at some point he got tired of the Hollywood hustle and bustle and decided to make a career move into basketball. From what we hear, he's actually got quite a knack for the game, so in addition to the fame derived from his movies, he's also garnered a respectable amount of celebrity among people who dig basketball, too. Good for him!

And good for Apple-- because according to faithful viewer nattybobo, Shaq was recently spotted on television offering up what appeared to be a spontaneous and unpaid endorsement for the iPod. It seems that Shaq is tired of his teammates "dragging around CDs and tapes" everywhere they go and is refusing to let anyone back on the Lakers bus until they've got iPods of their own. MacNN has posted links to QuickTime captures of the segment, in which two other members of Shaq's team head off to the Mall of America to buy iPods at the Apple retail store so they won't have to hoof it to the next game. Apparently "seven or eight guys" on the team joined the iPod Club on that trip alone.

What's nifty about all this is that, in addition to the throngs of film buffs who have followed Shaq's movie career over the years, there are probably also going to be a few basketball fans falling all over themselves to go buy iPods just because Shaq said so. And really, Apple couldn't pay for better publicity than a couple of Lakers on national TV standing next to the giant glowing Apple logo and saying, "Wanna ride with the Laker show? You gotta have top-notch technology!" Note to Apple's advertising department: shell out the cash and buy that clip from Fox, edit it down to a thirty-second commercial, and run it constantly during every Lakers game that ever broadcasts from now until the end of time. We doubt you'd be sorry. Oh, and run it during airings of Kazaam, too.