Giant Ginkgo

Yesterday I went and picked up a cheap ($149) and fast (32x10x40) AcomData Firewire CD-RW drive from CompUSA. When I got home, I took out the drive, plugged it into my Mac, turned it on and inserted a blank CD. OS X asked me if and how did I want to format the disc. I made my choice, it took a few seconds to initialize it and I then copied a bunch of files onto the disk and burned it. It just worked with no installation of any additional software.

As for CompUSA's service, it can leave a good bit to be desired. The first 'salesman' I talked to adamantly told me that they didn't carry that brand. When I mentioned that I was sure of the existence of the drive, he led me over to the CD aisle so he could wander off. Since I had already looked there, I told him that I had seen the drive on their website about 10 minutes before (which was true) - and it was in limited stock. He looked at me like I had grown three heads, and went to the back to check. Surprisingly enough, a minute later he returns with the news that they didn't have any.

After he wandered off to 'help' somebody else, I asked another employee about the drives. He knew that they were there, and had a stockroom guy go get it for me. I couldn't help but grin as we passed the earlier rep with the drive in hand.