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Security Leak (9/7/98)
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Who says the armed forces can't think differently? According to NoBeige, the U.S. Navy has decided to use iMacs for its new Navy Connection Service, which sounds basically like a Kinkos type of rent-a-computer-for-an-hour sort of deal. In particular, people will be renting time on the iMacs specifically for Internet access.
So has the Navy decided to go cybercafé? Well, sort of, but the apparent goal of this enterprise is to allow people without home computers or Internet access the ability to send email to family members in the Navy who are out at sea; most naval vessels are "wired" with email capability. The iMac really is a no-brainer for that sort of application: small footprint, easy to use, unthreatening enough not to scare off non-computer-users, low maintenance, all that good stuff. So now we have the iMac as the Internet communications bridge between members of the Navy and their families. What could be more wholesome?
Unless, of course, the real reason behind the Navy's use of iMacs is something a tad more unsavory... You are all, of course, aware of Microsoft's ongoing initiative to secretly catalog the browsing habits and Internet commerce transactions of the entire Internet-using population? Why else, after all, would they be trying to crowd Netscape entirely out of the market by giving away Internet Explorer for free? The iMac comes preconfigured with IE as the default web browser-- and Outlook Express as the default email client. We can see it now; deep in a secret underground bunker in the Seattle area, scores of Microsoft agents are poring over all correspondence sent via the Navy Connection Service, looking for chinks in the government's armor, should push come to shove over this whole "Redmond Justice" thing. Mark our words, someday it's going to be war... and Microsoft plans to be prepared. (Insert dramatic music here.)
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SceneLink (995)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/7/98 episode: September 7, 1998: Amazingly enough, it appears that Apple's new PowerBooks are actually available. Meanwhile, as some businesses deploy current iMacs on the corporate desktop, Apple's engineers are hard at work on a mutant version uniquely adapted for that environment, and the U.S. Navy uses iMacs for Internet access, unknowingly feeding Redmond with the information it needs for world conquest...
Other scenes from that episode: 993: Breaking the Drought (9/7/98) It could be the end of an era-- or the end of an error, more likely. Ever since their introduction last May, high-end PowerBook G3's have been harder to find than a Mac at OfficeMax. As of last week, several customers who had placed orders for the zippy new laptops were still waiting for the goods, and the Great PowerBook Drought of 1998 may go down in history as one of Apple's biggest availability botches ever... 994: Business, As Usual (9/7/98) By all accounts, less than a month out of the gate, the iMac is a big success. Apple's selling a ton of them (several tons, if you want to Think Literal), primarily to existing Mac owners who wanted to upgrade their older units, but a significant number seem to be going to first-time computer buyers and PC users fed up with all that DLL and Registry nonsense...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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