Techno-Lust Retarded

It’s getting to be that time again. The old CPU seems
sluggish, despite regular maintenance and spring cleaning, and we have
access to software our hardware can’t handle. It happens like clockwork,
every three years or so, and starts as a mild but nagging interest in
the latest offerings from Apple. Within six months or so it usually evolves
into focused lust for one particular configuration, which like all true
lusts gradually aggravates until it becomes intolerable until consummated.

This time, however, we are at a loss. The new Intel
Macs are intriguing, although we learned long ago to eschew the first
iteration of any major revision of hardware or software.  Plus,
universal binary versions of the tools we use daily, (Office, Photoshop
and Dreamweaver), will not be available until late ’06 or early ’07.
Meanwhile, even Apple advises against using Rosetta emulation to run
"Professional level" aps like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro.

Plus, we still love the iMac’s gorgeous 17-inch screen
on the infinitely adjustable articulated neck. The screen is as bright
and brilliant as the day we took it from the carton, and we love it more
than any screen we have ever had. Why? Because of the neck.

Sometimes, early in the morning, after an industrial
mug of Flor de Manabi coffee, we are wont to sit up ramrod straight,
and need the screen high and tight. Other times, like late at night,
watching some pirate video or reviewing a movie for possible classroom
use, we slump in our chair like Caligula at a seder, and need the screen
down low and dirty. Sometimes we keep it at a respectable distance and
keep our spectacles on, sometimes, for detail work, we whip off our glasses
and pull the screen right up to our eyeballs.

Unfortunately, Apple no longer makes a model with an
articulated neck.  The new iMacs have a one-piece processor/screen,
which can be tilted, but not raised or lowered, or moved closer and further
away. We even looked for third-party monitors, figuring we could get
a Mac mini or G5, but could find no reasonably=priced monitors as elegantly
articulate as the iMac’s.

So our question is this: Is there any way to connect
a new computer to the iMac and just use it’s screen? Some kind of screen
sharing or remote desktop? How about a direct connection from the new
computer to the video card on the iMac, which unfortunately has no video-in
port? How long will we have to wait for infinitely resizable windows
floating in thin air, a la
"Reboot"?