I am a geek. I admit it. I’ve been fascinated with computers since the ’70s. I remember my first (and only) computer class in high school, one featuring several terminals all hooked to the same massive machine which used real live computer tape. You know, the strips of paper with holes punched in them? Check out any movie from the ’60s or early ’70s featuring the menacing machines. You’ll see the stuff.
In the mid ’80s when personal computers entered my world, while the whole Apple mystique appealed to me I never bought one for the simple reason I couldn’t afford one of the things. An Apple II was a thousand dollars, more if you wanted, oh, a monitor. Macintosh? $2500. Ah well. TI 99/4A time, followed by a Commodore 64. Eventually, the first in a string of PC clones, thus introducing me to the wonderful world of Windows 3.1. Apple? BAH! Who needs ‘em?
A couple of decades and not a few computers later, I was forced into the land of Mac by an sordid incident at the workplace when yours truly, after overcoming the complaints of the printing company with which his employer had contracted to print its annual report and which desired nothing but Apples in its orchard, delivered said report to the printer just in time for it to be hastily committed to ink and paper for presentation to the board of directors… who were none too amused to discover the financials were in several places a single string of numbers. Given how the column this placed them in was the total amount of policies written for the year one would think they would have been delighted at this dramatic growth spurt, but no. Some people, I tell you. No pleasing.
Anyway, during the subsequent spate of accusations and recriminations I was of the firm opinion the printer was to blame (which they were), since everything was fine on my end when the files were sent their way. The printer blamed me for using (gak!) a Windows machine for all this, and worse yet Microsoft software to put together the report. My boss came down firmly of the side of… the printer. You’re getting a Mac and you’re using the software they want you to use and that’s that. So much for the customer always being right, what say?
Anyway, the Mac came. I hated it. Not so much for the computer itself, but rather having to learn the different ways of doing things that for me on a PC were second nature (“whaddyamean there’s no right button on the mouse?”). There was also the challenge of assimilating Photoshop and Illustrator and InDesign, otherwise known as Adobe Software’s obscenely overpriced cash cows that regrettably are industry standard for respectively digital imagery and graphics and desktop publishing, pretty much on my own. Actually, entirely on my own. Great fun.
That all said, as time progressed and I became at least semi-comfortable with the machine, I found myself expressing a begrudging appreciation for what Steve and Woz had wrought. Adobe, not so much; the stuff’s rather a pain to do much of anything with without jumping through multiple hoops. But as to the computer itself, it did run more efficiently than my PC at work. Considering it’s your typical company-supplied work station, i.e. a clunk bucket no matter how I utilize my full barrage of Windows tips and tricks learned over lo these many years to massage it toward something vaguely resembling usable, this isn’t saying much. Better to say it ran efficiently period. For a confirmed Microserf such as myself this was a bit of a revelation. All this time I had been under the impression the devotion to Apple was solely because it wasn’t Microsoft. Son of a gun if the fanboyz weren’t right. Not as much as they believe themselves to be, but still correct.
When the time came to contemplate buying my next computer, I seriously considered the Mac. Granted, it would be quite the investment, especially in new software. But the more I thought, the more I realized I wanted to move toward the computer that worked better. Also, should I ever desire to dabble in freelance graphics or such ‘twould be far better to attune myself with the rest of the known world. MacBook it is.
There’s one small problem, though. Besides the aforementioned obscenely priced Adobe software (and the computer ain’t cheap, either).
Am I allowed to one one?
Being the only Orange County Republican living in the San Francisco Bay Area, to say I go against the grain puts it rather mildly. Now, add to that the cult of Mac adhered to by its followers. To me it’s just a computer. A very nice one; easily the best I’ve ever owned. But still, it’s nothing more than a computer. Hardly a lifestyle.
Now, include as part of the picture how Apple is hardly shy about making its liberal political views known, devotees following suit. I strongly suspect my Palin in ’12 persona would be about as welcome at an Apple club meeting as… oh, Sarah Palin herself, much to the Appleaholic’s loss.
But hey. I like the computer, and Apple obviously didn’t care whether the one who sent money for same adhered to its preferred views of things. Besides, the machine’s quite virus and worm and spyware resistant. Unless I wake up one morning to discover my home page has been switched to worshipobamaordie.com, I’m not all that concerned someone in Cupertino has taken umbrage to a user of one of its machines doing so in the cause of being not politically correct…
… but correct politically.
