When my father made the decision to buy an iMac, it was a pretty huge leap of faith on his part. He's not a very technically-minded guy. It's one thing to use a Mac at work, with the entire IT department of a large university there to install software, perform backups, and be a safety net; it's another thing entirely to buy his own computer, set it up himself in his apartment, sign up with an ISP, etc. when his best source of technical support (yours truly) is a thousand miles away. But the iMac is the first computer he's ever seriously considered buying for his home, and it was inviting enough to get him to make the commitment.

As we had mentioned earlier, the night he brought the iMac home I was waiting for the phone call asking for "hand-holding" support: am I really supposed to plug this cable into that port, what's the flappy thing on the back of the keyboard, all that kind of stuff. But instead, when the call came, my father proudly told me that he had assembled the iMac entirely on his own and that it was up and running. It's not surprising that he was able to get the thing running without help-- after all, it's a really easy thing to do-- but it's rather significant that he felt comfortable enough with the iMac to do it all without even calling for encouragement or confirmation that he was doing the right thing. The whole look and feel of the machine just says "go ahead, I won't hurt you." Whereas your typical beige boxes are another story...

The next big hurdle (and we mean "big" in a very relative sense, as all of the iMac's hurdles are quite small) was getting online. After getting the iMac set up and running, he had decided to explore the system for a couple of days before trying to sign up with an ISP and connecting to the Internet. That, I figured, was the task for which I would probably need to be available for phone support, given all the little things that can go wrong, all the control panels that might need to be tweaked, and all the other stuff that can make setting up a computer for internet access such a trial. So imagine my surprise and delight to receive email from my father late last night, with a subject line of "test" and sent via his brand new EarthLink account. (As it turns out, they do have a dialin in his town, though for some reason it doesn't show up on their web site.) Once again, my father goes it alone, and I only hear about the process after the fact. Why? Because the Mac OS is almost as inviting and non-threatening as the iMac's physical design. It encourages exploration and doesn't punish people who try. (And the EarthLink Total Access software is a marvel, too.)

Of course, the fact that my dad is getting along so well with his iMac means that my tech support role is somewhat diminished. Without crises, I'm more of a knowledge base than an emergency problem-solver. But to a certain extent, I think my father can pick up most of what he needs to know simply by using his iMac. Kudos to Apple for passing the Dad Test. As my father said in his first iMac email message, "Slowly but surely, I am learning."

AtAT junkies are by now well aware that we have very few gripes with Apple's consumer übersystem, the iMac. We agree with Apple that the floppy drive is passé, and if people really need to have one, multiple USB options will soon be available. Yes, we've had our share of connection problems with the modem, but we've have identical problems with our Global Village external 56K modem, so we're willing to accept that our phone lines just may not be up to the task. Heck, we even like the round mouse, which seems to be a common whipping boy in reviews that try so hard to find something negative about the iMac. In fact, just about the only characteristic that we really find problematic about the system's design is that it can't be fitted with a 3D accelerator card suitable for playing the latest games, which is (in our opinion) a crucial omission, as one of the primary purposes for consumer computers is to run entertainment software. That translates into a lot of people in the iMac's target audience who won't buy one.

Originally it seemed that the iMac's lack of a PCI slot and its integrated monitor meant that the possibility of installing any kind of 3D card was nil. But then about a week before the iMac was officially released, we learned that it actually uses an internal standard Mac DB15 video port to connect its display to the motherboard. And not only that, but shipping versions of the iMac would retain the mysterious "proprietary expansion slot" (now known as "Perch"), a PCI-based slot which is a variation of Apple's "personality card" architecture. That led us to speculate that some enterprising third party vendor could create a special iMac-only Voodoo card to sell to the thousands of iMac owners who are itching to play Quake, Myth, Unreal, etc. in all their true hardware-accelerated glory.

Now it sounds like we may have been right, as Mac OS Rumors reports that not one, but two vendors are investigating the possibility of relasing just such a card. If it comes to pass that iMac Voodoo accelerators hit the shelves in time for the holiday shopping frenzy with a sticker price of $99 (or Voodoo 2 cards for $199), one of the big objections to getting an iMac would melt away and there may be a lot more big orange boxes showing up under Christmas trees. And that's why we wish that Apple would stop actively discouraging third-party development for the "mystery slot" and release the specs. We know Apple has their own big plans for that slot, but more choices should be a good thing.

Tsk, tsk... A golden opportunity has come and gone. Bill Gates finally gave his deposition on Thursday in the ongoing "Redmond Justice" case, and the press wasn't there to tell us about all the juicy details. To recap, Judge Jackson had ruled that the deposition be open to the public, but Microsoft appealed; then the appeals court stayed the order, declaring that the deposition be videotaped so that if Microsoft eventually loses the appeal, the tape will be available to anyone who wants to see it. Read more about it in an InfoWorld Electric article.

Of course, we're much less concerned with the public's right to know than we are with every individual's right to be entertained. We hate to see a potential media circus go to waste. As for the possibility that we may someday get to see a videotape of the deposition, well, there's something lacking about that approach. It's kind of like watching taping the World Series and watching it the following week; even if you've somehow miraculously managed to avoid learning who won, you know you're just watching a tape instead of the live events unfolding before your eyes. It's just not the same. On the other hand, we suppose it's better than nothing.

We're also amused by the double entendre in InfoWorld's headline, Justice Department Deposes Gates. If the case turns out the way the DoJ wants it to, perhaps InfoWorld can reuse that headline with its other meaning someday. ;-)