A Love of Simple EleganceUp until a little over a year ago, I considered all computers to
be the ultimate expression of Evil with a capital "E" -- one of the
main causes of everything that is wrong with this world. In this age
when children are born wired to the Internet, I suppose I must
explain my blatant "Ludditism." I have long considered computers and their related milieu as the
essence of "Big Brother," and this has definite generational roots:
I'm currently 41 years old, a misbegotten "Child of the Seventies"
(we were forbidden by the school board in our small South Texas town
to use them-there new-fangled "scientific pocket calculators" in our
high school physics class in 1975. If we couldn't do all that complex
calculation in our heads, then we weren't really learning, were we?).
My vehicle of choice is a 1963 VW Beetle named "Gertrude" (still
proudly 6-volt). My stereo has tubes. I prefer LP's to CD's Get the picture? Be it indeed a situation of temporal circumstance or just the fact
that I've always felt I was born ten years too late, I got just
enough of the Sixties in my bloodstream to make my existence in the
Eighties and Nineties pretty much an unbearable case of genuine
1984-esque culture shock. I found comfort in that which came slightly before me. I
understood that tubes sounded more "real" to my ears than
transistors. Similarly, an early model vintage VW had an "air" about
it that later (post-'67) Bugs didn't. Everything on a vintage VW was
finely crafted and had a purpose, and it fulfilled that purpose with
a sense of simple elegance that defied and mocked that which came
after it. When things were later changed from sturdy metal to cheap
plastic to appease the demands of the masses, the VW (for me) lost
its integrity somewhere in the process. My "Dynaco Stereo 70" tube amp, built from a kit around the time I
was born, had a warm sound with a presence that said "High Fidelity"
to my ears. All my friends' new solid-state Panasonic amps sounded
pale and flat in comparison, even with their many-slidered graphic
equalizers as opposed to my simple bass and treble pots. I have
always appreciated that sense of "simple elegance" I discovered in
the vintage VW, where functionality blended with inspired design
yielded something truly unique and wonderful: a machine that one
could actually bond with. In short, a truly "Fahrvernügen"
experience turns my proverbial crank. Around the beginning of 1999 I was asked to do a bit of anarchic
writing for a friend's website. I prided myself as I noisily clacked
out page after page on my old Brother word processor. How clever I
was to avoid the very technology my words would end up being
displayed by! Ah, the self-righteous and smug expressions that I'm
certain crossed my face as that little glorified typewriter did it's
thing. I eventually hung out with my friend enough to see him reboot his
Power Mac 7100/80AV countless times
(not the most astute troubleshooter, this guy, but that's another
story!). After one of his "Three-Finger-Salutes," I took notice of
the cute little "Happy Mac" that showed up on the screen at reboot.
Something in me started to soften. My thick Luddite skin started to
crack and peel just a bit. If ever there was a way for me, a
confirmed hater of "high technology," to finally enter the computer
age, then this had to be it. Anything that smiled at you as if to say
"Hi! I'm happy! Let's have fun!" when it turned itself on had
to be worth checking out. In February of last year, around my birthday, a friend of mine who
had just gotten a WallStreet
PowerBook asked if I wanted to buy her Power
Mac 7200/120. She would even take payments. I couldn't refuse, and on February 7, 1999, I brought home
"Rocco," my first Mac. Decked out with 128 MB of memory, a 4.2 GB
Seagate Medalist hard drive, and OS 8.5.1, Rocco certainly served as
a great intro to the Mac experience. Being a "fixit-guy" at heart, I
immediately started digging, rooting about on every Mac-related
website I could find. I dug into my system folder. I dug into the
Apple TIL. I dug into archived news messages on university BBS's from
the "old days." I found that the Mac thought very much the same way I
did. I "grokked" it in a way that I didn't have to think about. I achieved the same sort of "Fahrvernügen" with my 7200 that
I had with my Bug almost immediately. Within a couple of months I was
doing things with Photoshop that veteran MacHeads were agog at. I
built websites using only my homemade Photoshop graphics and Netscape
Communicator's "composer" feature. I found an old Apple Service
Source CD and read all the Service Manuals I could find. I popped
open my 7200 and figured out where everything was. I diagnosed a
defective 16 MB DIMM within the first few months of having the
machine. I learned to troubleshoot most common problems with the help
of a plethora of Mac books, especially past editions of the wonderful
old Mac Bible series, so plentiful in used book stores in Austin. I
found myself eagerly absorbing as much as I could about something
that I had abhorred (and wanted nothing to do with) only a short time
before. Put plainly, I absorbed as much of the Macintosh Mythos as I could
in as short a time as I could. I found the "underdog/underground"
aspect of the Mac irresistible: If ever there was a computer with an
actual soul, one even a grumpy old Hippie like me could actually
love, this was it. "Macintosh Venceramos!" I bought the whole thing,
as they say, hook, line, and sinker. I considered myself a "MacHead;"
armed with my 7200, I could now enter the fray of the Modern World. I
settled into a smug and comfy state of MacUserhood, secure in my new
knowledge. Little did I know this was actually just the first stage
of a progressive (and seemingly incurable) new affliction. My true descent into incurable Macoholism occurred a few months
later when I was thrift-shopping with the girlfriend one Saturday
afternoon. We found a couple of little compact Macs in great shape
for next to nothing. I'd stumbled upon the  Low
End Mac and Jags House websites (those bastions of Old Mac
Love-n-Lore) and had been itching to find an old compact to play
with. Sitting for five minutes with a Mac
Plus running System 6.0.8, booted from a single 800k floppy disk,
and I felt I'd finally found the real Macintosh. The Power Mac
paled in my sight. Franki Valli and the Four Seasons sang in my head:
"Workin' my way back to yooooou, babe!" That "simple elegance" thing
was blasting at me full volume with every mouse-click -- utter
MacFahrvernügen. Here was the "vintage VW" of the Macintosh world! I found an
upgraded 512k for six bucks a few weeks later and fell deeper in love
with a machine than I ever had before. Of course, having found solace
in Tolkien's Middle Earth as a disaffected youth, I had to name the
Macs after Hobbits. It seemed the only correct thing to do. I began to collect Macs of all flavors. They came to me. People
gave them to me. I dug into every "new" model with a vengeance: Where
were the RAM slots? Can I slap another hard drive in there? It occurred to me that I really was unearthing history as I went.
I took to using the signature "MacArchaeologist" on all my list
postings; it was the best way I could describe myself to this
newfound community of really cool people I'd discovered on the
Low End Mac lists. The Compact
Macs list continues to be my main group of "homies," people who
understand the effect these little machines can have on you, people
who encourage and support you in your addiction! (Hi, guys! ;-) The
parallel between vintage VW's and vintage Macs rings even truer when
you consider "Mac Folks" are the same kinda crowd as "VW Folks,"
always ready to help solve problems, give you goodies you've been
searching for, and generally aid and abet your disease. During the holidays this past year I collected, tweaked, and gave
away six Li'l Macs to folks who (like myself) had never had any use
for (or had been scared by) computers their whole lives, tossing some
weekly "MacLessons" into the deal, consisting of the tips/tricks I'd
found out on my own so far, and through the excellent resource that
the Low End Mac email lists are. Seeing the looks on their faces when
their Li'l Macs talked to them for the first time, or when they
actually wrote their first letter and printed it out on their very
own printer . . . well, it gave me warm fuzzies. Those folks are
still happily playing with their Pluses and SEs, and are about to get
their first color Macs, thanks to a friend who's office caught
"upgrade-itis". The thought that I can set up a compact Mac and a printer for
someone for basic pocket change, sign them up for a free email
account, and help them get empowered in a way they never would have
taken the steps to be themselves, well, it gives me a charge. It
makes me feel like some sort of crusader. - Cut to scene of a windswept hilltop. b.b. stands at the
summit, "Indiana Macintosh"-style-hat cocked at a jaunty angle, a
chiselled Art-Deco-30's-Worker-Poster look about him. Copland's
"Fanfare for the Common Man" plays in the background as he tosses
L'il Macs into the outstretched arms of the waiting Proletariat.
The title of our little film rolls across the screen (in 3D
Photoshop text, of course): "The Adventures of Johnny
MacintoshSeed."
I can hear all the grizzled old MacHeads out there chuckling. They
know I've fallen victim; they know I cannot refuse the call! I began to see how each model of Mac has its own personality, its
own characteristics. It just rocks my socks to know that a fifteen
year old machine still does exactly what it was intended to do. That's another thing about the whole Mac Experience that I can
appreciate: If you understand the limitations and abilities of the
machine, there is no reason to be disillusioned with its performance.
I don't expect to go 85 m.p.h. in a 40-horsepower Bug, and I likewise
don't sit down at my SE or 512k and expect to do 3D graphics or play
the latest game. Instead, I appreciate the little bugger for what it
can do, what it still does so efficiently and so elegantly. I love
reading email on the SE. It gives me a sense of "having been there in
the Old Days." Yes, that "Mac Mythos" has me by the short and
curlies, and I am really not complaining. It's now a little over fourteen months since I brought the 7200
home. As I sit here typing this, there are eleven "flavors" of Mac up
and running in my living room: - Rocco (still "head of the family"), 7200/120, 112 MB RAM, 4.2
GB HD
- Bilbo, PowerBook 5300, 24 MB
RAM, with external monitor setup
- Meriadoc, dual-floppy SE, 4
MB RAM, external 46 MB HD
- Faramir, dual-floppy SE with "engineered" 80 MB internal
HD!
- Lillie, IIcx, 20 MB RAM, 80 MB
HD
- Jewel, Centris 610, 36 MB
RAM, 350 MB HD
- Blossom, IIvx, 8 MB RAM, 80 MB
HD
- Geronitus, IIvx with DayStar Turbo 040 accelerator card, 20 MB
RAM, dual internal HD's
- Tom Bombadil, Plus with Apple HD20, 4 MB RAM
- Rose, Performa 637 CD, 16
MB RAM
- Will Whitfoot, Classic
II, 10 MB RAM, 80 MB internal HD (soon to be a mail
server.)
- Master Samwise, the 512k,
is currently under the weather. A couple of evenings with Larry
Pina's legendary book and a soldering iron, and he'll be feeling
sprightly again soon!
- Given away during the holidays: Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Pearl,
Priscilla, and The Gaffer.
Most all are LocalTalked together with simple phone wire (need
more phone wires!), able to print to a pristine LaserWriter Plus
given to me by the same friend whose office caught a bad case of
"upgrade-itis." Their loss, my rockin' crispy prints! I am getting
people I don't even know calling me to "fix" their Macs. People who
have been Mac users for years are asking me what to do when their Mac
crashes. I've downloaded everything I could click on (and learned
some hard but valuable lessons about Virus Protection Software!). I
have sent Macs and MacStuff all over the globe, and have also
received Mac Goodies from around the world, sent to me by others
afflicted with Macoholism, just for love of the machine. I correspond
regularly with fellow MacHeads in England and further. I have been "assimilated" -- and I love it. To say that getting my first Macintosh changed my life might sound
overly dramatic, but it's true. Macs came along at a time in my life
when I was totally disillusioned about "career choices" and feeling
like there was nothing I could do for a living that wouldn't (in the
final analysis) cause some sort of harm to myself, someone else, or
the planet in general. Yesterday, a lady smiled and handed me $80 for
spending two hours helping her get to know her new iMac better. She
was happy that I could tell her things she didn't know. She was happy
I knew what I knew, and I was happy knowing that she appreciated that
fact. A very "clean" exchange, and one that carried no "bad money
vibes," and that totally rocks in this age of "dirty dollars!" And guess what: after all is said and done, I still get to be a
"Luddite" of sorts! "G4s? We don' need no stinkin' G4s!" My First Macintosh- My First Mac Clone, Spencer, 8/15/00.
Sometimes your first Mac isn't even made by Apple.
- Midlife Mac lover, Chris Volpe, 7/18/00.
"I once vowed I'd never own a computer, but that began to change
when I left journalism in 1998...."
- Salute to a Classic II, Max Thom Stahl,
7/11/00. "What I remember most was the games."
- When Randy met Mac, Randy Peterson,
7/4/00. "Maybe I finally had real work to do, and getting it done
was more important to me than the mental exercise of coaxing a
computer into submission."
- The Cure for "Mac Envy," Dave Beekman,
6/28/00. "After almost ten years, I've finally found the cure for
Mac envy: buy a Mac."
- My First Mac index
Want to share your story on My First Mac? Send email to
dan.knight@lowendmac.com. Recent New Content on LEM- Building rumors, fooling
Slashdot, Anne Onymus with Dan Knight, 8/18. We didn't set out
to fool Slashdot or anyone else -- and we explain how to build
your own rumors.
- Don't upgrade that Quadra
630, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 8/18. Most upgrades for
this particular model just don't make economic sense.
- Browse different, Dan
Knight, Mac Musings, 8/18. One way browsers could improve the Web
surfing experience.
- Mac-N-DOS list. Yes, it's
a bad pun, but if you have to use both Macs and Windows, this new
list could be a great resource.
- New iMacs: Something for
everyone, Kel Taylor, Mac to the Future, 8/17. "...the iMac
has grown into a family, and a large one at that."
- Apple ditching G4, Anne
Onymus, 8/17. Apple embraces IBM and the G5, leaving Motorola
behind.
- Happy Birthday, iMac!, Dan
Knight, iMac Channel, 8/16. "The iMac has redefined the industry
and redefined Apple as a trendsetter."
- Be thankful for Apple
secrecy, Stephen Van Esch, Mac Scope, 8/16. There really is a
good side to Apple secrecy.
- The Land Before Silicon,
Manuel Mejia, Mac Daniel, 8/16. Travels in Russia with a PowerBook
100.
- The G4 Cube and Radeon fans,
Paulo Rodrigues, Tangerine Fusion, 8/16. How ATI spilled a trade
secret. Oops.
- New @ Low End
Mac: Receive email information on new links.
- <go to My
First Mac index>
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