Midlife Mac Lover- Chris
Volpe
I'm a technology flip flopper. I love literature, especially when it comes on age-mellowed paper
between the covers of a real old-fashioned book with real pages. I
make my living writing and teaching. What happens on the page is
usually more important to me than how it gets there. I once vowed I'd never own a computer, but that began to change
when I left journalism in 1998 and landed a job writing about
technology for a public relations firm that parked me in front of an
Internet-ready Pentium-class PC for nine hours a day. I aspire to simplicity, and I'd avoided computers all my life. I
wasn't particularly thrilled with my brand X operating system and its
frequent crashes, but I was learning first-hand about a stunning new
world -- technology. For one thing, there was the Web. One of the first things I did on the Web was haunt online auction
sites for vintage manual typewriters. I spent a year off and on
reaching into the past through cyberspace, importing these gorgeous
relics of vanished technology and using them for my creative writing.
I still had no desire to own a computer. Then, in September, 1999, a friend gave me an inherited Mac during
a difficult break-up with a woman I had almost married. I didn't
really need it, but I thought I could probably sell it, so I took
it. It was a PowerBook 540c running
System 7.1. As far as I could tell, it had been purchased for
business use, booted up once or twice in 1995, and then packed away
with all of the original manuals, floppies, and mid-90s accessories.
It was immaculate. I threw myself into it to forget my broken heart. The first thing
I did was order System 7.5.5 from Apple in order to get online --
three days later, the OS arrived on 19 floppies; it took me nearly
two hours to install it! But once I was connected, I logged onto
Apple's technical information library and learned everything I could.
The more I learned the more interested in technology -- Apple's
especially -- I became. I bought a printer, an external CD-ROM drive, and an Ethernet
adapter, upgraded the processor with a 100 MHz 603e, maxed out the
RAM at 40 MB, picked up OS 8.1, and spent long hours fine-tuning my
system. I began slowly migrating all of my writing -- and a good
portion of my life -- onto the PowerBook. I typed a book manuscript
into it, took it to client meetings, networked it with the 40+
Windoze PCs in my office, used it for games, email, news, graphic
design, Web site creation, shopping, travel directions, QuickTime
movies, and general Web surfing. I have yet to use it to bid on a single Swiss-made manual
typewriter circa 1955. I'm enamoured of my Mac's elegant OS, sturdy construction, vivid
screen, and graceful design. Tomorrow a brand new PowerBook
2000 (a.k.a. Pismo) will be delivered to my door. I'm not at all
sure I'm ready to part with my 540c, but one thing I am sure of --
I'm completely in love. And I'm never looking back.
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.
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Mac: Receive email information on new links.
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First Mac index>
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