| Lucky Me!Richard J.E. Dalziel-SharpeIn 1993, at the age of 53, I first sat at the keyboard of
a computer. O lucky me -- it was a Mac. In early 1992 I sold my business and, after some months
of well earned rest, I started up a new business. I was
coordinating a team of over 50 people of all ages to deliver
advertising material to 20,000 homes. I obtain the pamphlets from retailers, advertising
agencies, and any other willing victims, and then charge
them and pay my team to deliver them at the time and to the
households required by the client. After send out hand written bills and keeping the records
for over 50 part time employees for a few months, I realised
that it simply was not going to work. I was spending more
time on book work than out convincing clients that I was
their man. What was needed was a computer. So my studies started. I went to the library and read
about DOS and Windows 3.1.1 and the Mac. The consensus of my
reading seemed to be that DOS computers were the real thing,
that Windows 3.1.1 made DOS computers easier to use, and
that Windows was a poor mans version of the Mac. Being a
complete novice, I had no way of evaluating what I was
reading factually, but what seemed to be evident is that for
a beginner Mac's were probably best, and then you could
later get a real machine. So came the fateful decision. O lucky me, I decided it
had to be a Mac! But which one? I can't remember now what the model range
was, but in my reading I had come across these new and
revolutionary machines; the 660av
and the 840av. I talked to my wife about the likely cost and she,
understanding as she always is, said, "If that's what you
want, get it." I kissed her and drove off to the Apple Shop
with my cheque book grasped in my sweaty palm (It was
January and very hot in Australia, nothing to do with my
excitement). I arrived home 3 hours later with Aus$8000 less in the
bank and a Centris 660av, a 14" AV monitor, a GeoPort modem,
and a StyleWriter 2 printer. The Centris had ClarisWorks 2,
Norton Utilities, BestBooks (a junior version of MYOB.),
Quicken 4, and System 7 installed. It had a CD-ROM drive, 8
MB of RAM, and a 230 MB hard drive. I plugged everything in and nervously switched on. The
chime and the smile made me a Mac man. The only problem I
had at first was understanding the Application Menu and the
ever changing Menu Bar. It took me an hour or so to work out
what was happening when I accidentally clicked on the
desktop and the window I had been working on disappeared and
the menu bar had changed. Whenever I have a freeze now (rarely in OS 8.6) my wife
laughingly reminds me of my white faced trembling stare the
first time it happened. She says she has never seen me with
that look of horrified fright before or since. Needless to say, I had my business running on the Centris
in just over a month. MYOB and its smaller derivatives are
great Mac programs, and it is to BestBooks and the Mac
interface that I owe this. If I had bought a PC, I would
probably be still getting the printer and monitor plugged in
so that they would work. My Centris only gave me one period
of hell, and that was when the PRAM battery failed. After 5 years of faithful service, I sold my Centris and
got a 7300/200 with a 1710
AV monitor. Despite all the problems that the 1710 AV had in
its life, mine has worked perfectly. With the standard 2 GB
hard drive, I have an extra 4 GB drive and have recently
upped the RAM to 192 MB. I have a Miro capture card that I
use for making videos with Premiere. I still have my
StyleWriter working perfectly, and BestBooks manages my
business, one for my 28-year-old son, and another for my
wife. Quicken 4 still manages all of our home finances. As you may have gathered from the foregoing, I enjoy my
Mac every time I use it. O lucky me!! Richard from Australia. - <this article available in a printer-friendly
version>
My First Macintosh- Macs get the job done, Todd H. Cheong,
4/11/2000
- Complete PC nut goes Mac, Fred Forney,
3/29/2000
- The compelling Mac, Sean C. Cunningham,
3/21/2000
- Under my skin, Katherine (BondiBlue2),
3/14/2000
- A rescued Fat Mac, Jonathan Wise,
3/6/2000
- A boy and his Mac, Glenn Dawes,
3/1/2000
- Absolutely essential, Hans
Echterbecker, 2/22/2000
- My First Mac index
Want to share your story on My First Mac? Send email to
dknight@mail.iserv.net.
- <back to My
First Mac
index>
| . |  System Profiles
Lisa/Macintosh
XL
Compact
Macs
Mac II
Mac LC
PowerBook (68k)
Performa
500 Series
Centris/Quadra
Power Mac
PowerBook
(PPC)
iMac
Maclone Profiles
Earliest
Maclones
DayStar Genesis
Motorola
StarMax
Power
Computing
Umax
SuperMac  Mac Resources
Mac
Daniel
Best Buys, Used
Macs
LEM Help Desk
Memory Upgrade
Guide
Troubleshooting
Mac Software
Mac Classified
Mac
Dealers
Low End Mac
Museum
Best Mac Links
56k Modem Page
Email Lists
Compact
Macs
Vintage
Macs
Quadlist
(68040)
PowerBooks
PowerMacs
The iMac list
SuperMacs
Mac
Webmasters
more lists
Other Pages
Filtering Spam
The
Macquarium
Apple
Timeline
Macspeak
Top Pages
Support Low End Mac
Outpost.com
MacMall
AuctionMac
Amazon.com
MusicForce - More resources on the links
page.
| . |