It's time to revive a once-popular pastime that's fallen out of favor in recent months: "Guess the CEO!" Remember several months ago when speculating about who would take the helm at Apple was all the rage? It was practically the national pastime. Remember when things got really out of hand, and people started thinking that Lee Iacocca was going to fill Steve's shoes? Well, that fun little fad all but disappeared as Apple's "interim" CEO continued to kick more and more kiester as time progressed, until we reached our current state of hardly thinking of Steve as an "interim" anything anymore.

But it's time to start using that imagination, because earlier today, MacInTouch mentioned that one of its readers was speculating that Richard Wolpert's resignation from Disney Online may have been so he could return to Apple as the permanent CEO. Now, it may be a fascinating idea, but MacInTouch later noted that another reader claimed that Wolpert plans to join a small software company instead, so there really isn't much behind the speculation; mostly it just reminded us that Steve is still doing all this as a temporary kinda thing. We had honestly and truly forgotten.

So that's the wake-up call; even though Apple claimed that the search for a permanent CEO had been put on the back burner, there's still a chance of a surprise announcement one of these days. Even just thinking about a non-Steve CEO gives us a wiggins. We wonder what would happen to Apple's stock if Jobs announced he was stepping down tomorrow? Widespread panic? Mass hysteria? Riots in the streets? We shudder to think... We're still sticking to our original theory, however: Steve plans to be Apple's "interim" CEO forever. Not taking the job officially lets him keep his "I won't be Apple CEO" promise to his Pixar employees (sort of) while really running the company. Still sounds right to us.

Not one day after we once again bemoaned CompUSA's advertising of Apple systems (which typically ranges all the way from anemic to nonexistent), Reality posts comments from a source who claims the CompUSA rollout of the iMac will be enormous. According to an anonymous source, Apple and CompUSA are working together to make the event one to remember.

Remember the Windows 98 events a few weeks ago, at which people waited in line for a chance to purchase a $98-computer? For the iMac rollout, expect an event that's similarly attention-grabbing. Before that, in a week's time, CompUSA will supposedly announce that customers can pay $250 to reserve an iMac, and also receive $800 worth of rebates on certain peripherals. (Reservations may be important, as a few sources report the nervewracking news that Apple simply may not be able to fulfill the initial demand right away.) The real question is, will this supposed list of iMac-related events and deals show up in CompUSA's circular as a three-inch announcement on page 6, sandwiched between specials on Celeron systems?

Incidentally, the same anonymous source states that most CompUSA's will be receiving demo iMacs within a week or so. For the small percentage of AtAT's viewers who just don't see what all the hype is about, we strongly suggest you check out an iMac in person when the demo models show up at your local store. The difference between seeing one in a photo and actually using one is unbelievable. They're beautiful to see and to touch. The screen is the crispest thing we've seen. And the system runs faster than a Power Macintosh G3 266. All for $1299. The word "revolutionary" gets overrused a lot in the computer world, but once in a great while that adjective fits perfectly. The last time that happened was probably, say, 1984.

Yalegate seems to have drawn to a relatively quiet-- yet satisfying-- close. When we speak of Yalegate, we are of course talking about the infamous letter sent to Yale's incoming freshman class a few months ago by Daniel Updegrove, who warned that Yale would not support Macs beyond the year 2000, and therefore all students should show up toting Wintels instead. (Did anyone else notice the irony of not supporting Macs beyond 2000, given that every Mac ever shipped has been year 2000 compliant?) Anyway, above and beyond the scandal of effectively "banning" the Mac OS was the revelation that Updegrove had applied for a huge Intel "migration grant" in the same time frame. which he had indeed won. Shifty, no?

Updegrove's letter caused a ton of uproar and outrage, both within Yale and without; for instance, the medical school effectively "seceded" from Yale's information services regime, stating that they'd continue to use Macs, encourage their students to use them, and support them all themselves if they had to. There were all sorts of fireworks going off. We hadn't heard much about this for a while, until MacCentral just posted that Yale's Microcomputer Sales Center now not only includes Apple systems, it actively promotes them-- and links to the Apple Store for Education.

Success! Whether Updegrove had a change of heart, or was simply overridden by someone a little more reasonable, is unknown. Perhaps Apple's recent comeback (including better education systems like the All-in-one and the coming iMac, as well as the Apple Store for education use only) simply convinced the higher-ups that Macs are still a viable choice; Apple has seen a sharp increase in education sales over the last quarter, following a steady decline. Or maybe Apple just figured out whom to bribe. Regardless, chalk up another school where the future of Macs seems a little more secure.