Famous People: Oneworld2u, AAFES, more

Oneworld2u — a traveling exotic, imported furniture company is currently residing at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL, until Dec. 31, when it will move to Florida. What makes it interesting is that the store has no cash registers.

“Instead, buyers must make their purchases through the company Web site on Internet ready indigo iMacs,” says Mike Gnutek, who sent this nugget our way. “The store has 10 or so such Macs — all equipped with the new keyboard and Apple Pro Mouse.”

Also, after several years the AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Service) is once again carrying Macs (iMac DV, iBook, PowerBook and Cube) in their catalog, according to Terry Zach.

Zach also notes that in this month’s issue of Discover there’s an article called “Machines That Think.” It mentions an undergraduate at RIT named Al Biles who also plays jazz. He records and performs with the Al Biles Virtual Quintet. To quote the article: “He is the only human member of the ensemble. The rest, who improvise on a variety of instruments, are virtual musicians produced by a genetic algorithm that resides in his Macintosh PowerBook.”

There is a funny Joy of Tech cartoon about an imaginary game “Barbie, DotCom Rescue.” Artist Nitrozac has drawn Barbie scooting her way out of the screen of an iBook “to find and care for ailing dotcoms.” And the Dec. 17 “Doonesbury” comic strip had a green iMac in it, notes Carol Silverstrom.

Finally, there’s an interesting feature on using the Cube and iMovie to create your own films in the printer version of “Time Out New York.” In fact, it takes only four paragraphs before the author tells how he used the Cube. He obviously loves the computer and iMovie, according to Sandee Cohen. The print version of the article features a nice photo of the Cube; however, there’s an electronic version of the article (without the Cube picture).

(If you’ve sent us an item for our Famous People column, please be patient. It will appear, but we’ve been swamped with entries. If you know of a famous person using the Mac, send it to Yours Truly at dsellers@maccentral.com. If you want credit for your “Mac spotting,” be sure to include your full name.)