Giving new meaning to the term high tech, a couple of stoners have turned an old Macintosh into a bong.
"Agapornis" and "Prozac," a pair of 29-year-old computer nerds from Austin, Texas, traded chips for hits when they transformed an old all-in-one Mac into a device for smoking marijuana.
"It has a lilting touch of death-like intoxication," said Prozac. "It's treated us well."
The Mac Bong, or iBong, is made from a water-filled bong mounted inside an old Mac SE 30. The bowl of the bong protrudes from the front of the computer, just below the screen. The mouthpiece sticks out the back.
"It looks like any other dingy Mac," said Prozac. "But it doesn't draw as much suspicion if you do have to take it outside the house. We haven't taken it to Macworld, but it has been to a couple of computer swap meets. People like it. They laugh. It gets the usual, 'Whoa, dude, that's crazy' reaction. Everyone wants to try it."
The iBong delivers a killer hit, according to the pair. After smoking the iBong one evening, Prozac wrote about the experience and posted it online.
"My bong burnt bright," he wrote, "electrifying fractals dancing in the raging embers, smoke curling like a halo around my bowed and fatal head.... The restlessness of a millennium's solitude soared through my rushing blood, the roar of being alive skipping like a jumping spark through my brain."
The iBong was inspired by the MacQuarium, a famous modification of Apple's old one-piece Macintosh computers that turns them into fish tanks.
"We saw the MacQuarium and said, 'Let's put a bong inside one instead,'" Agapornis said. "We were probably stoned."
The two have actually made three iBongs. The first was made in 1992 and attempted to incorporate both a fish tank and a bong within the casing of the old computer.
"We were working on a way to make an aquarium with the bong inside it so that the person taking the hit could watch the fish," Agapornis explained, "but the aquarium took up too much room."
They also found the stem was too long, which made it difficult to take a hit; it required drawing in too much air.
The second model, which had a shorter stem, was too harsh. "It was like a pickle-jar bong," said Agapornis. "It was pretty painful."
The third attempt was just right. "It's not bad," Agapornis said. "It's pretty easy hitting."
But after 10 years of perfecting the design, they are smoking less and less pot; they've gone from chronic to occasional smokers. "We're not going through four quarter bags in a weekend -– each –- like we used to," said Agapornis. "We're not into a void like we used to be 10 years ago."
Still, "the Mac bong is the best thing to have around when you're listening to the first four Burzum albums," he added.
Burzum is a Norwegian black metal band.
There is a strong connection between Macs and pot. Both are countercultures, in the loosest sense of the word, appealing to people who are creative or artistic, people who, as a particular ad campaign might say, "Think different."
"The entire personal computer revolution came out of the San Francisco Bay area and was pioneered by pot smoking members of the counterculture," said Steven Hager, editor-in-chief of High Times. "Because these people tend to be highly creative and because Macs are the choice of most art and video professionals, I guess that's your story."
A couple of veteran journalists who covered the creation of the Macintosh in the mid-1980s claim pot had a profound influence on the design of the machine. That's a claim denied by others, including Jef Raskin, the head of the Mac's design team.
"The Mac building was a very loose outfit," said one journalist, who asked to remain anonymous. "The building was permeated with a certain odor."
Another journalist -- the former editor of a famous Macintosh magazine -- said the Mac's engineers and programmers were always smoking weed.
"Agapornis" and "Prozac," a pair of 29-year-old computer nerds from Austin, Texas, traded chips for hits when they transformed an old all-in-one Mac into a device for smoking marijuana.
"It has a lilting touch of death-like intoxication," said Prozac. "It's treated us well."
The Mac Bong, or iBong, is made from a water-filled bong mounted inside an old Mac SE 30. The bowl of the bong protrudes from the front of the computer, just below the screen. The mouthpiece sticks out the back.
"It looks like any other dingy Mac," said Prozac. "But it doesn't draw as much suspicion if you do have to take it outside the house. We haven't taken it to Macworld, but it has been to a couple of computer swap meets. People like it. They laugh. It gets the usual, 'Whoa, dude, that's crazy' reaction. Everyone wants to try it."
The iBong delivers a killer hit, according to the pair. After smoking the iBong one evening, Prozac wrote about the experience and posted it online.
"My bong burnt bright," he wrote, "electrifying fractals dancing in the raging embers, smoke curling like a halo around my bowed and fatal head.... The restlessness of a millennium's solitude soared through my rushing blood, the roar of being alive skipping like a jumping spark through my brain."
The iBong was inspired by the MacQuarium, a famous modification of Apple's old one-piece Macintosh computers that turns them into fish tanks.
"We saw the MacQuarium and said, 'Let's put a bong inside one instead,'" Agapornis said. "We were probably stoned."
The two have actually made three iBongs. The first was made in 1992 and attempted to incorporate both a fish tank and a bong within the casing of the old computer.
"We were working on a way to make an aquarium with the bong inside it so that the person taking the hit could watch the fish," Agapornis explained, "but the aquarium took up too much room."
They also found the stem was too long, which made it difficult to take a hit; it required drawing in too much air.
The second model, which had a shorter stem, was too harsh. "It was like a pickle-jar bong," said Agapornis. "It was pretty painful."
The third attempt was just right. "It's not bad," Agapornis said. "It's pretty easy hitting."
But after 10 years of perfecting the design, they are smoking less and less pot; they've gone from chronic to occasional smokers. "We're not going through four quarter bags in a weekend -– each –- like we used to," said Agapornis. "We're not into a void like we used to be 10 years ago."
Still, "the Mac bong is the best thing to have around when you're listening to the first four Burzum albums," he added.
Burzum is a Norwegian black metal band.
There is a strong connection between Macs and pot. Both are countercultures, in the loosest sense of the word, appealing to people who are creative or artistic, people who, as a particular ad campaign might say, "Think different."
"The entire personal computer revolution came out of the San Francisco Bay area and was pioneered by pot smoking members of the counterculture," said Steven Hager, editor-in-chief of High Times. "Because these people tend to be highly creative and because Macs are the choice of most art and video professionals, I guess that's your story."
A couple of veteran journalists who covered the creation of the Macintosh in the mid-1980s claim pot had a profound influence on the design of the machine. That's a claim denied by others, including Jef Raskin, the head of the Mac's design team.
"The Mac building was a very loose outfit," said one journalist, who asked to remain anonymous. "The building was permeated with a certain odor."
Another journalist -- the former editor of a famous Macintosh magazine -- said the Mac's engineers and programmers were always smoking weed.
