It has been a long, long time. Forgive me.

More topically, I just bought a fancy new MacBook Pro. I needed a bigger hard drive, but I didn't feel comfortable completely disassembling my old MacBook Pro to replace it. That and I felt compelled to have a 64-bit processor and more than 2 GB of memory. It just sounds good.

What I really love about the new machine, though, is not the zippy processor or the more capacious hard drive — as compared to my previous computer — but the build quality of the laptop's case. Unlike the aluminum PowerBook and original MacBook Pro — whose cases were cobbled together from a mishmash of stamped aluminum, plastic gaskets and fasteners — the top case of Apple's latest offering begins its life as a solid block of aluminum, which a series of machining operations whittles down to the final product. The result is something to behold.

My two previous computers, a PowerBook G4 and a first-generation MacBook Pro, never seemed as well constructed as their price tags led one to believe. To be certain, neither computer feet as flimsy as an inexpensive Dell Inspiron. But for $2000, a laptop should be constructed like a tank. Yet, both the aluminum PowerBook and the MacBook Pro would creak whenever I picked them up or warp slightly when the processors were running at full bore.

The new "unibody" MacBook Pro, on the other hand, feels like a $2000 computer. There are no seams, far fewer joints and thus no creaking. The computer is built like a tank. Not to mention it looks great too. I especially like the sleep light, which disappears completely when it's not in use, thanks to some rather brilliant engineering on Apple's part.

Of course, the new MacBook Pro has a few flaws. First and foremost, Apple does not offer the 15" model with a matte display. Admittedly, I like the screen more than I thought I would. The glare is not that obtrusive, even in bright sunlight. At the same time, however, I cannot help but wish I could chop the screen off my old computer and superglue it to my new one.

A FireWire 400 port would also make a nice addition. While I appreciate at least having a FireWire 800 port, unlike the unfortunate folks stuck with no FireWire whatsoever on the new unibody MacBook, the absence of a dedicated FireWire 400 port annoys me. First, I can't use the FireWire hub on my gorgeous Apple Cinema display. The cable is built-in to the monitor and, so far as I can tell, no one sells a FireWire 400 to 800 adapter dongle. Second, without a dedicated FireWire 400 bus, the super speedy FireWire 800 will drop in speed if so much as one device on its tree cannot operate at FireWire 800 speeds.

All in all, though, I like the new computer. It's nice not to crawl along with only a gigabyte of free space on my startup disk and the new made-from-a-brick case is nothing short of wonderful. The glossy screen is not so irksome, both on its own and, in my case, when there is a big matte Cinema Display to use instead.