July 2001 || Volume 01, Issue 12

Memory Lapse

Some while ago, I and other dedicated folks convinced an elderly gent to buy a computer. We did it for two reasons: he needed one and we were acting in self-defense. He was a scholar and he corresponded every single day with people all over the world -- via his network of friends with computers. We finally shamed him into buying a computer. The sticking point was what kind would he buy.

Nearly everyone told him to get a Windows PC. I kept going over the pros and cons of both until I couldn't stand it any more. I finally told him to get a PC if that's what he wanted, but just don't call me for help. So, of course, he bought a Mac. Funny how that works.

Unfortunately, being cheap, he snatched up the cheapest Mac he could find -- which just happened to be a closeout bargain at Sam's Club. It was a purple iMac, a 333MHz model with a whopping 32 MB of RAM.

Despite the best efforts of myself, Norton Utilities, Disk Warrior, and other fine assistance, he suffered chronic crashes. By chronic I mean many, many crashes a day. He could hardly get out an email without the poor purple pariah locking up. I had convinced myself it was something he was doing.

I had him deliver the computer to my house so I could play with it for a week while he was out of town. Yep. It crashed consistently here also.

About to call Apple, figuring the logic board was cooked, I noted something at MacFixit. Seems iMacs with only 32 MB of RAM were setting land speed records for crashing. Hmm... Could it be?

Knowing that he really needed more memory even if that wasn't the cause of the crashes, I called the good folks at Tahoe Peripherals and chatted with them. "Yes," they told me, iMacs crashing all across the fruited plain with 32 MB of RAM were being cured miraculously. Hallelujah! Pass the RAM.

I made him give me his credit card and ordered a 128MB module. Indeed, it fixed my friend's problem. But, a reasonable person is forced to ask this very simple question "Is Apple's testing process so lame they didn't find this obvious problem or did they know about it and inflict it on the public anyway?"

You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time...

The current iMac specifications.

Imagine my surprise when discovering that the two lowest models of the current version of iMacs only come with 64 MB of RAM -- despite the fact that Apple themselves say a computer requires 128 MB RAM to run OS X. Even if we're not talking about OS X requirements, 64 MB of RAM is grossly deficient. Period. Even if new iMacs are introduced this July at MacWorld sporting more RAM, this is something that should have been done in January.

It is preposterous that computers costing $900 or, worse, $1200 don't have more than 64 MB of RAM. Pick up nearly any catalog, such as MacMall, and you'll find them throwing in at least an extra 64 MB of RAM on top of the installed 64 MB when you order from them. (If they can do it, you know Apple can do it and make more money as well.) The computers are a few dollars cheaper as well.

Apple owes it to their customers, and themselves by the way, to insure that the computer experience is a pleasant one. Happy customers sell computers. The scads of people, for example, that saw my elderly friend stabbing all day long at his computer with a paperclip (for heaven's sake a damn paperclip) will have that image etched into their brains for a lifetime. How's that for the ultimate dichotomy? Desperately poking at a high-tech piece of equipment with a somewhat untwisted paperclip. Yep, that would make a great ad -- for Dell or Compaq, that is.

But, worse for Apple than looking stupid, there may even be a legal penalty involved here. As I think back to those golden days of yesteryear, I recall a principle in Business Law called "implied warranty of merchantability" (or something similar, it's been quite a while) which states plainly that a product must be able to perform the job for which it is sold.

I can assure you that my friend's iMac with 32 MB of RAM did not perform the job Apple sold it as being able to do. I only hope that Apple has adequately tested the current computers and found them to work and work well with only 64 MB of RAM. If they are sold without enough memory to do the job they are alleged to be able perform, I hope somebody levels a class action lawsuit against them and gives them a giant legal wedgie.

Apple may sell their products short of memory and they may be short of memory themselves, but people like myself are not. In my book, they got by with this sleazy trick once. As far as I'm concerned, that's their one chance to treat unsuspecting customers like easy marks.

Craig Cox - craig@macosjournal.com
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