Last week I finally gave in to my inner urge and purchased one of those fancy new DVD/CD burners/margarita makers/pinatas. This thing does it all. Very cool. Soon I'll be backing up all kinds of data and doing whatever cool stuff can be done with optical media.

Or at least THAT was the plan. I got it today after much waiting and much wanting. Well, I go to install it, and I come to find out that whoever installed the current CD drive in my Mac G4 Tower has designed that thing to be one part rubics cube, one part hellraiser puzzle box, and they sealed the whole thing up with a touch of elfin magic that even the most discerning eye simply cannot penetrate. I took out the only visible screws. I took off that tinny sheet metal type stuff that comes installed with all drives and that must do something other than simply waiting there to get bent or cut me despite my most careful of explorations and proddings.

That thing is still in there as solid as the day is long. I think I may need to remove the power supply and maybe take the entire computer apart to get into those cramped little crevices.

I don't expect that everything in my computer is going to be easy to get to and remove/replace, but seriously, it's like they deliberately design these things to mess with me. It's too late to wrestle with it tonight. I'll have to wait until I have time and daylight to get back in there and see what's what.

In the mean time, what am I supposed to do with all this margarita mix?

Update: Whoa - that was a lot easier than it appeared. You just need to know where th elves hid the magic button. I'm burning a CD as I type. Sweet!