Skepticism. Doubt. Unwillingness to accept "unlikely" explanations. Sure, these may not exactly be common afflictions among the majority of AtAT's faithful viewers, but there are definitely those who tune in without a healthy "willing suspension of disbelief." Every once in a while we'll reveal a diabolical web of intrigue uniting Microsoft, Scott Adams of "Dilbert" fame, and the National Dairy Council in a particularly intricate and chilling conspiracy to seize control of the world's candy corn reserves, and all we get are letters from "concerned" viewers advising us to get more sleep. Here we go to all this trouble to warn our beloved viewers that only lead shielding can protect your precious candy corn from the dreaded "Trick or Treat Ray" this Halloween, and that's the thanks we get. You poor, poor fools.

Hmmm, we seem to have digressed a bit. Anyway, our original point was this: just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean that everyone isn't out to get you. For instance, to those of us in tune to the whole conspiracy vibe, it didn't take a degree in Shifty Business Practices to figure that the "Blue Blocker" scandal was obviously an intentional move on Apple's part. For those of you whose subscriptions to "The Lone Gunman" have lapsed, we're talking about the discovery that Apple's firmware update for blue and white G3 Power Macs effectively disabled any G4 upgrades that a user might later install. Beige G3s worked fine with prototype G4 upgrades. Blue models without the firmware update also seemed to hum along happily with a G4 under the hood. But install the update, and that same blue G3 wouldn't boot with the G4 in place. Just a coincidence, or was it an Apple Trojan Horse designed to encourage purchases of new Power Mac G4s? (Upgrade vendors have since figured out ways to make G4s work even in Blue-blocked systems, but the question of intent still stands.)

Well, for those of you who thought the theory of an Apple-intended Blue Blocker was simply the product of paranoid, sleep-deprived minds, we can only point cautiously to a Computer Times article which confirms what's been whispered in the shadows and shouted from the rooftops: yes, Apple crippled the G3s on purpose. The article claims that Apple's senior director of worldwide product marketing, David Moody, admitted that the firmware update was designed to "deter processor upgraders." The motive? Not to boost G4 sales, he says, but rather to protect the user base: "G3 computers were never meant to be fitted with G4 processors." You can decide for yourself whether or not to accept Apple's stated reasoning for the move; personally, we think a simple "we caution our customers that G3 systems aren't built to handle G4 chips" might have been more effective and less of a PR nightmare than the whole Blue Blocker scenario, but hey, we're not running the company. The lesson here is this: they are all out to get you, so wake up and stop being so darn Scully on us. The candy corn you save may be your own.