Perchance to dream

· technology ·

One of the design features I've always really loved about the current series of PowerBooks is the sleep light. The slow cycle of brightening and fading of the white light — at the same frequency as the breath of a sleeper — is oddly reassuring, and encourages you to think of your computer as a character.

I realised the other day that I may have gone a little too far down the road of computer anthropomorphism. Ever since I installed the last batch of system upgrades, the PowerBook goes through a period of the sleep light being very dim and irregular when it is first put to sleep. When I first noticed it, I caught myself wondering if my little 'Book was having a nightmare. Do PowerBooks dream of electric Tigers?