Jan 24 2009
The Mac Turns 25 Today
Some pics of cats and computers (what else is there?)
In honor of the Apple Macintosh turning 25 today, I thought I’d scribble a paragraph or two about computers in general and the good ol’ Mac in particular.
I have a good friend, John, who was always into computers. His interest was so keen that one day back in the early 80′s, when he decided he needed a VIC 20, I decided I had to have one too. Yep, though I had no clue as to what I’d do w/ the thing, John’s interest and excitement was so infectious I thought,”yep, that plastic keyboard thingy is for me! Let’s go to Longs and buy it right now!” Needless to say, I never did a heck of a lot w/ that VIC20. I think I ended up giving it to John soon after.
Go forward about a decade. In the years since my ill-fated VIC 20 purchase, I’d given little thought to computers. However, at some point in the early 90′s, I started putting out a comic book newsletter (yep, very geeky) using a word-processing program (WordPerfect?) on one of John’s PC’s. It was during this time that I truly discovered the power and the majesty in never having to use Wite-Out—no matter how many times I messed up. IT WAS AWESOME!
Soon after my “no wite-out, EVER” discovery, I purchased my first “real” computer from John, a 386sx running MS-DOS w/ 4 MB of RAM and a 100 MB HD, for $100. Luckily, Jill had experience with computers, so she was my tech support during this time of transition. I later upgraded the 386sx to Windows 3.1 and a color monitor. Man, that was a pretty sweet set-up for a guy used to banging on typewriters.
Later, Jill’s stepdad Peter showed me his Macintosh IIci (thanks, Peter) and that was all she wrote. At that point my 386sx seemed slightly less AWESOME and I knew it was only a matter of time before I brave little toastered it to the curb and got a mac of my own.
Mike’s Past and Present Computers: Power Mac 7100/80, Power Mac 8600/200, Blue & White G3, Original Mac (found next to a dumpster), G4 Quicksilver, Power Book G4, G5 Dual 2.0, (and for PC’s: homebuilt tower, Sony Vaio Tower, Asus EEE 700 Series, T43 Thinkpad.)
For Jill: Power Mac 5400, Aluminum iMac, and white Macbook.
And just for fun, here’s Steve Jobs introducing the Mac back in 1984…
Jan 24, 2009 @ 08:24:56
i seem to remember i had a pre-imac all-in-one in there somewhere (5400?) and we had an apple ii as kids…and my dad always had the pricey apple laptops (1400c?). and i used a mac in college…albeit in a lab (not owning one). so i was always an apple person, even as you discovered the 386. oh, and jobs and woz went to my high school.
Jan 24, 2009 @ 12:04:29
I forgot about that 5400. I’ll add it to the list.