For the last five or six years I have been using an iBook made in 2001 as my laptop computer. This little machine is gleaming white and has primarily been used as a writing platform during my breaks at my day job, running gaming software during my D&D game (3.5 thank you very much), and allowing me and my sweetie-wife access to the internet while away at conventions. Given the machine’s coloration and gaming duties when I had to name it for my network the natural choice seemed to be Gandolf.

At 11 years old Gandolf is no longer to the tasks I require. He is running OS 10.3, unable to utilize the version of Microsoft Office I have, unable to run Scriveners, and the keyboard has become so spongy that double tap key entry seems to be the rule.

Sunday I shopped the Apple store and found a sweet 13” MacBook Pro in the refurbished section, about $200 off the list price. (I have a long history of buying things refurbished from Apple. They come with a 1 year warranty and the saving can vary from 15% to 25%.)

Yesterday the new laptop arrived and I spent a couple of hours installing the software I need. (I omitted installing CIV IV or my iTunes movie library, that’s just asking to waste time instead of writing.) He’s up and running, ready to take over the duties of the retiring Gandolf, but he looks very different.

A solid aluminum body, the MacBook Pro looks like a computer from the 60s, metal and hard and cool, so when it came to thinking of a name for the little guy I went back to genre films. His name is Colossus