Hey. My name is Simona and i’m a Mac user! Hello Simona!

I’m totally going to brag in this post. That’s just a forewarning. My first phone conversation and surfing the net for apps, forums and stuff about Mac experience

And no, not a Mc user, but a MacPro user )

It was love at first sight. It started out like any typical Monday evening. That exact day, on my way home, i heard on the radio a Mac ad something about a sale in .ro shops. I thought this is interesting since i have been thinking about buying a Mac for a couple of weeks and i should check it out.  The surprise was that the Mac came to me in advance, waiting for me at home, in fact.

A new, shinny, 15” MacBook Pro and a Magic Mouse! kudos to me!!! 7 hours battery on a single charge. shinny and silverish 4 giga ram, still so shinny… coafura rezista ) enough on the technicals.

I’ve always known that it will come to this.. Lately, since i’ve been overwhelmed by info on Mac, i have a dilemma: should i buy Office for Mac or iWorks? I know that all that starts with an “i” it’s better for Mac, but still.. i’m a hard user of office tools and the last thing i need is compatibility problem on i’ll move documents between iWork and MS Office.  i like iWorks obviously a hell out more – it’s easy to use and looks a tonne better that office!

but i’ve heard that if i work in a  cross platform environment, there is simply no better solution than using a Mac version of Office.. even if it will come  as a surprise and maybe is a little upsetting if you are a Mac centric dude. Office is told to make the job more easier and “faster” than it gets iWorks to convert a doc, prepare it for office compatibility.  phiu and as this wasn’t enough, i heard about a third option NeoOffice..?

Anyway, you should get a glimpse on how my blog looks now on Mac

New Mac ad

And i’m on the move!

A mac user goes a week with Windows.  Read more about his experience here.  Its kind of nice how he realizes what is important to him.

Per me skype e’ una alternativa a tutti i software di istant messagging e assolutamente alternativo a MSN.

Dopo il dibattito fra eBay e Skype lasciamo le decisioni da prendere al tribunale Inglese che ha rinviato il verdetto per il primo mese del 2010 ma…

Ci aspettiamo la giusta scelta se non che la piu’ ovvia, anche se al tribunale non fanno differenza i 500.000.000 di utenti Skype sparsi per il mondo, il tribunale deve solamente decidere a chi dare ragione e in questo caso io la vedo molto brutta visto che Skype e’ una grande compagnia da 3 MLD di dollari ma eBay e’ la piu’ forte e il torto oramai e’stato fatto. Vi consiglio di tenervi aggiornati sulla vicenda anche se io saro’ qui ad informarvi.

Ciao da EMAPERAPPLE, arrivederci al nuovo post.

http://www.macpostertrilogy.com/

Ya karena berita buruknya bagi saya tidak keterima (oh man, so sad) di SMAN 3 Bandung melalui japres, berarti ga usah diiket rambutnya.

Hei, saya sudah beli MacBook White 13″ inch yang bonusnya iPod shuffle kemarin! Agak ribet bayarnya karena harus cash kalo ngga pake debit BCA. Jadi harus ngambil dulu di ATM. iPod shufflenya warna biru, kereeen! Jadi, jikalau anda ingin membeli salah satu seri dari MacBook, beli lah di ZOOM PVJ, karena selama liburan, beli satu MacBook seri apa saja, gratis iPod shuffle, yang seri lama sih bukan yang baru yang bisa ngomong.

Jadi sekarang saya resmi menjadi Mac User.

Rencana saya sekarang ini beli Adobe Photoshop CS3 di Azimuth. Fixed.

……เพราะMac มีดีที่ OS ครับ…..

ลองถามคนที่ใช้ Window  มาซักปีซิครับว่าเครื่องเค้ายังเร็วและแรงเท่ากับวันแรกอยู่ไหม…?

เค้าคงแทบจะอยากทุ่่มเครื่องทิ้ง..(เพราะยิ่งใช้งานเครื่องยิ่งช้าลงๆ) และมักได้รับคำแนะนำในการแก้ปัญหาว่า “ลงWindowใหม่ซิ”…ลงใหม่ไหนจะข้อมูล..ไหนจะโปรแกรม…ไหนจะไดรเวอร์..สนุกละครับงานนี้…และทางแก้ปัญหาสำหรับคนมีสตางค์หน่อยก็คง..ซื้อเครื่องใหม่ที่สเป็คแรงกว่าเพราะหวังว่ามันจะแก้ปัญหาเครื่องช้าได้…(เกาถูกที่คันไหมล่ะครับนั่น…ปัญหามันมาจากOS เฟ้ย…)

แต่สำหรับMacbook CorDuo 1.83 ของผมใช้เครื่องมาเกือบสี่ปี  ลงOS ใหม่ไปแค่สองครั้ง
ครั้งแรกช่วงเปลี่ยนจาก Tiger ไปเป็น Leopard
ครั้งที่สองเพราะHDDพัังก็เลยถือโอกาสเปลี่ยนHDDให้จุมากขึ้นซะเลย..

และตั้งแต่ผมใช้งานมาผมรู้สึกว่ามันยังเร็วใกล้เคียงกับที่ผมซื้อมาวันแรกอยู่เลย(ประมาณ 90%)…และน้อยครั้งครับที่มันจะออกอาการค้างไปดื้อๆ..ให้เราอารมณ์เสีย…..ผมไม่ใช่คนมีสตางค์มากมายครับ กับเครื่องนี้ผมก็เลย”ใช้ทน” ซึ่งไม่เหมือนกับอาการ”ทนใช้”ของคนที่ใช้windowsบางคนเพราะรอโอกาสและสตางค์ที่จะซื้อเครื่องใหม่

ไม่ใช่ผมไม่อยากได้เครื่องใหม่นะครับ…อยากได้มากๆๆ…แต่ความอยากได้ของผมมาจากสาเหตุอื่นเช่น อยากได้เพราะวัสดุเครื่องสวยกว่า จอสว่างกว่า เทคโนโลยีดีกว่า  แบตใช้ได้นานกว่า…แต่ไม่ใช่เหตุผลที่ว่า..เครื่องเดิมช้ามากๆๆ..ทำงานไม่ได้..ลง OS ใหม่ตั้งหลายรอบแล้วก็ไม่หาย ซื้อใหม่ดีกว่า…(อย่างที่คนเคยใช้windowsชอบบ่นกัน)

พูดง่ายคือ ณ ตอนนี้ไม่มีOSไหนตอบสนองความต้องการของผมได้ดีเท่า OS X ครับ ผมเลือกMacเพราะซอฟต์แวร์ครับ ส่วนเครื่องที่มันสวยงามถือเป็นของแถม… ถ้าAcer Asus HP Compaq Levono ฯลฯ หันมาผลิตโน้ตบุ๊คที่สามารถลง OS Xได้จริงๆ ใช้งานได้ราบรื่นเหมื่อเครื่องMac  และที่สำคัญราคาถูกกว่า มันจะมีเหตุผลอะไรที่จะไม่ซื้อล่ะครับ…. ^-^

แถมอีกนิดเรื่องความคุ้มค้า…(ที่หลายคนชอบบอกว่าMacแพง)
computerทั่วไป + window —–>  ตั้งต้นถูกแต่อายุการใช้งานสั้น
Mac  —–> ตั้งต้นแพงกว่าแต่อายุการใช้งานนานกว่า…คุณว่าอย่างไหนน่าจะคุ้มกว่ากันครับ

ตย. เปรียบเทียบราคาระหว่าง Macbook Pro 15″ 2.66  กับ Dell XPS 16 ซึ่งSpecเท่ากัน

Dell ราคา 1,700$  + 150$(vista home premium) = 1,850$
อายุการใช้งาน  ประมาณ 2 – 3 ปี (เครื่องเริ่มช้าจนคุณรับไม่ได้)
คุณชื้อเครื่องใหม่อีกครั้ง อีก 1,700$ (เครื่องแรงกว่าเครื่องเดิมเมื่อสามปีที่แล้ว..ในราคาเท่าเดิม
ตามเทคโนโลยีที่ดีขึ้น) ใช้งานได้อีกสามปี  รวมหกปีใช้เงินไป    3,550$ (เฉลี่ยปีละ 591.66$)

…………………………….

Mac ราคา  2499$ แถมOSมาให้..OSไม่มีวันหมดอายุ  สามาถใช้งานได้ 5 ปี หรือเกินกว่านั้นแน่ๆ (เฉลี่ยปีละ 500$)
นี่ยังไม่รวมโอกาสที่คุณจะต้องหงุดหงิดและเสียเงินซ่อมเครื่องกับเรื่องไวรัส(Mac แทบไม่มี) เมื่อใช้windowsต่อinternet
หรือ ซอฟท์แวร์ทั่วไปที่คุณต้องซื้อเพิ่มเช่นแต่งรูปตัดเพลง ตัดต่อวีดีโอ(เพราะในwindowsไม่มี หรือมีแต่ใช้ยากชะมัด)
แต่แถมมาให้กับเครื่องmacทันทีที่คุณซื้อเครื่อง(iLife’09)

เฮ้อ….พูดกันถึงขนาดนี้แล้ว..ใครมาว่าว่าผมโง่จังที่ซื้อเครื่องMacแพงๆใช้…คุณคงรู้นะครับว่าในใจผมคิดยังไงกับเค้าคนนั้น.. ^ – ^

I don’t know if I need to do anything else on my iPhone; it already consumes too much of my time, but lo and behold, on June 17th Apple will offer a free upgrade to iPhone software.

Not only can I use my iPhone to quickly answer my students’ emails and update my online classes, as of June 17th, I’ll be able to cut and paste, as well as type on a landscape keyboard so that my hunting and pecking will go more smoothly!

Of course, if I get bored with work, I’ll also be able to download movies, TV shows, and audio books on my iPhone from iTunes.

Here’s a link to the Apple site:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

I’m really just asking a question in this post to get a sense of some of the potential problems students have in accessing course material.  Here’s some background…

I create all my online course lectures in iWeb, a very easy-to-use webpage design program that is bundled with iLife on my Mac.  For the past four years or so, my students haven’t had any difficulty viewing any of my lectures created in iWeb.  All of a sudden this semester (Spring 09), several students have emailed me about not being able to access the lecture pages at all or not being able to read any text on the iWeb page once it loads.

My suggestion to them has been to download Firefox as their web browser, and for the most part, those students have been able to access and view my lectures.

My question to other online professors who use iWeb out there is:

If you use iWeb, have any of your students had any difficulty either accessing or reading lecture pages created in iWeb?

Thanks

Anyone who is interested in all things Apple in general and the Mac in particular always, in my experience, seem to be well read. however, what about those who are newcomers, perhaps having migrated over from the pc. Where to begin? Well, here is my list of great sites to start off with. Its not meant to be definitive but as I have been using Macs since 1992, I have seen quite a few come and go and I think I have a good feel for those that are qulaity sources of information and tips, so here goes.

1. The Unoffical Apple Weblog [TUAW] – this is often my first port of call for the latest news. Lately, however, it has become very iPhone-centric IMHO. Still No. 1 though, at least for now.
2. Mac User – great site from the producers of Mac User magazine. I use it for reviews in particular.
3. Mac World – another online manifestation of a popular quality Mac magazine.
4. Mac Rumors – good source for latest rumors of Apple hardware.
5. AppleInsider – another Apple rumour site.
6. MacInTouch – a venerable site dating from 1994. Still has what it takes though!
7. Macnn – Another of my personal favourites.
8. CreativeMac – Good site for the more technically creative professional among you.
9. Ars Technica – Not just Mac but covers the topic in depth.
10. SecureMac – Great site for tips on making your Mac even more secure.

Well, these are my favourites. If you have any suggestions for other sites why not leave a comment and I’ll add the good ones.

<holofotes cruzando os céus, rufam os tabores>

Inaugurando uma novíssima série dentro do blog…

(voz estridente vinda uma potente caixa de som) …

com vocês: COTIDIANO • NIPÔNICO!!!! (eco-eco-eco)

(silêncio, grilos guizalham ao longe)

Estava procurando uma oportunidade para publicar algumas fotos curiosas que tiro no dia-a-dia com meu celular, mas é difícil encontrar um lugar onde possa usá-las. Então eu decidi criar uma série especialmente para as essas curiosidades que não servem para ilustrar texto algum, exatamente por serem curiosas demais.

Para estrear vou publicar uma saída do forno, quentinha. Essa cena ocorreu hoje a tarde e não pensei duas vezes antes de sacar meu celular e registrar:

A primeira vista não tem nada demais, mas se você olhar bem vai ver que o cidadão está com um Imac novinho em folha, e pelo tamanho da caixa deve ser um de 24 polegadas. Parece que estava em promoção hoje na Yodobashi (esse prédio a esquerda da foto), por módicos 3,505.54 reais. Mas o que mais me chocou não foi o fato do otaku ter comprado um Apple (no Japão Macs são computadores de marca, todo mundo quer só pra falar que usa, tanto que existe o termo “mac user”, geramente para designar aquele povo moderninho). Pois bem, isso já não me surpreende.

O que me espanta é ver o sujeito na maior calma, com um mega-pacote contendo um computador de R$ 3,500 no meio da rua, esperando o ônibus para voltar pra casa e testar o brinquedo novo! Ou seja, o cara gasta pelo menos 158 mil ienes num computador e leva embora de ônibus? Sei lá, isso é MUITO JAPÃO, ou melhor, MUITO AKIBA!

Gostaria de fazer um teste em São Paulo. A caixa pode até estar vazia, mas à mostra. Será que nosso herói conseguiria chegar vivo em casa? Se alguém se habilitar eu mando a caixa… vazia claro.

As the title hopefully unambiguously implied, this post in my Mac User series will detail why listening to music on my Mac is more fun and impressive than yours!  Or, perhaps more modestly, illuminate why I think having an organized music library as well as tools like Last.fm can really enhance the way you enjoy your music!  I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Screenflow since the last post in the series, so I thought I should take some more advantage of this great tool.  Additionally, be sure to check out my new Youtube Channel!  I mentioned before that I chose Vimeo to upload my screencast because of the quality that fullscreen, HD Vimeo videos provide but, given the light dusting that has been traffic to your beloved Crinkled Piece of Cardboard, I felt some attempts at exposure were necessary.

Also, due to maximum time limits, only one of the screencasts is on the youtube channel, but hopefully there are more videos to come.  Hopefully this screencast will motivate those who aren’t taking full advantage of their music experience to grab their library by the horns and whip it into shape.

iTunes Organization and Last.fm!

“Pero, ¿por qué te compraste una Mac? ¡Con la mitad del dinero te hubieras comprado una laptop cualquiera!” Todos los que somos usuarios de Mac hemos escuchado esas preguntas una y otra y… otra vez. Quizás algunos prefieran darle una lista detallada de las ventajas de tener un equipo tan sofisticado y moderno. Algo así como esto:<

• Vida útil muy larga
• Sistema operativo atractivo, amigable y fácil de usar
• Muy rápida en programas gráficos, imágenes o vídeo
• También permite operar en programas básicos como el Office
• La instalación de periféricos (impresoras, cámaras digitales, etc.) es muy sencilla
• Su procesador Intel le permite instalar el sistema operativo de un PC y tener ambas opciones en una única computadora
• Apenas le afectan los virus informáticos
• Diseño atractivo y muy moderno
• Apenas ocupa espacio. ¡Las laptops son las más finas del mercado!

O quizás algunos de ustedes ni se molesten en darle una explicación tan detallada como esa. Mejor contestan algo como esto:

“Bueno, pues algo bueno deben tener, mira quién también las usa… Y ellos no se van a comprar un Yugo, si se pueden comprar un Bentley…”

George Clooney

Jessica Biel

David Bowie

Kayne West

Kayne West las tiene por montones en su estudio

Mariah Carey

Rob & Big

Lindsay Lohan

Tina Fey

Jessica Simpson

Jenniffer Aniston

Cameron Diaz

Paris Hilton

Y hasta Paris Hilton…o sea, ¿qué tan difícil puede ser usarla, no?

En fin, yo lo que le contesto a los que me preguntan por qué me tengo una Mac, es simple y sencillamente: “Pues, porque puedo.”  Y punto.

[update] Here’s a few other things that people should bear in mind when switching from a PC to Mac:

1. your webcam probably won’t work
2. If you buy a ‘mini’ you won’t have a mic, or 3.5mm jack for a mic
3. You won’t have a hash key on your keyboard
4. You won’t have all those valuable shortcut keys in Photoshop.  

[/update]

thanks to DK, I have a new mac mini and its lovely

However – there’s somethings that don’t appear to work or make sense.

1: Using Skype on a PC is easy. When someone starts talking a big popup window appears, making it obvious. On a mac, if I’m already in a conversation with someone, it isn’t so obvious that a new conversation has been started – I get a red circle with a ‘1′ number in it, showing that I have another conversation available. I didn’t realise that – I thought it was telling me I had 1 phone call credit or something (as it was next to my balance figure) Therefore, I missed the conversation :/

On a mac, its clearly cooler – but its not ‘clear’. Interesting.

2: the little green plus icon in the top right of all my window – what does it do? I click it, and I think it will expand the window to full size – what it actually does is very inconsistent. Sometimes it shrinks my window, sometimes it expands the length, and sometimes it expands the width – but it never does all 3.

To me its like a ‘random expand’ button.. hit it and who knows where my window will go!

3: When I change my status of my chat applications – I can’t tell what status is set (hours later obviously) on them until I open them up again. I thought i’d be able to tell by hovering my mouse over the dashboard icons – but no.

On a pc it’s obvious, as a system tray icon changes to reflect my status.

There will be more things, I’m sure.. but this will do for now.

I am not terribly computer literate.  That is one of the reasons I love Mac so much.  I know there are things I sacrifice, but with advances in technology that is getting less and less.  With my Mac I can usually do anything I want with very little worry about messing something up or having a serious system error.  If I don’t know how to do something, I can Google it and usually there is a discussion board somewhere that will walk me through my problem.  The days of PC users only programing for PC’s is over, there are many Mac users out there, and it is becoming an accepted platform now.  (When I first started using Mac’s there was an outcry in the office and the promise of “if you buy it, you are fully responsible for it, and I cannot help you!” from the IT manager.)  I have not only used them since, but have actually requested them when I transferred jobs in the past, not that it would have been a deal breaker, but it would have made me very unhappy if they said no.

So all this leads to my latest problem…  My twin daughters are approaching driving age and for them to get their permits they have to have a certain number of hours of training.  No longer is the training done in schools, now you have to go out to private companies and pay them for it.  We did our research and found one that does one on one instruction at a reasonable price and signed them up.  There is a 30 hour on-line component that they have to go through before they can do the hands on driving with the instructors.  And therein lies the problem.  For some reason the embedded videos on this website will not play on either of our Macs.  We have done the required Flip4Mac download, tried Windows Media Player, and a plethora of other things, (one of my friends set me up with the Mac guy from Best Buy and he spent about an hour trying to help us.  He downloaded things I had never heard of and nothing worked! This guy knows his stuff and has pay for programs that handle even the oddest codecs and formats.)

For weeks I have been thinking this was our problem, the weird Mac people with no tech support available; but now I realize it is really this companies fault.  In the world of YouTube, Podcasting, and on-line video access so easy kids are doing it, it is really time to step up and make the video files available to all systems.  It shouldn’t require searching endlessly for an outdated program (IE6 not supported since 2005ish?) when there are easy fixes.  I was actually relieved after spending hours trying to solve the problem to learn it was not just me!

It is not just you either… when you are in the middle of your problem it is easy to look around and think it is all you, you and you alone are the reason, the cause and have to be the solution…  Not true.  Others have struggled with the exact same thing you are; other people can’t make it work without help either, and the cool thing is, this guy I have never met was willing to hang in there with me to try and find a solution.  There are people around that want to roll up their sleeves and help you too, no matter the mess you are in.  If you truly want help, it may take time, it may take effort, it may require admitting you have made some mistakes, but there are people that will come along side of you and help you.  Even if they cannot solve it, they will let you know it is not just you!

Als Mac-User weiß ich selbstverständlich, welches das bessere Betriebssystem für einen Computer ist. Und ich freue mich auch schon auf Snow Leopard. Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob es schon für die WWDC von 8. bis zum 12. Juni im Moscone-Center in San Francisco bereit steht oder ob Apple nicht wieder das iPhone in den Mittelpunkt rückt. Die neue iPhone-Software 3.0 ist schließlich schon für den Sommer angekündigt. Warten wir es ab.

Abwarten hieß es aber auch am Münchner Flughafen Franz Josef Strauß am vergangenen Samstag. Die Monitore der An- und Abflüge waren ausgefallen. Eine Windows-Fehlermeldung thronte auf dem Bildschirm. Ja, ja das ist Schadenfreude. Ein Kollege war vor Ort und hat ein Foto gemacht (danke Michael). Da kann Microsoft noch so viel Werbung gegen vermeintlich teure Mac-Rechner machen. Die Realität ist der beste Beweis für die Überlegenheit. 

Welcome to another post is my ongoing series, Mac User!  Mixing it up a bit with this post, you all get to enjoy a video instead of pouring over my scintillating posts.  How droll.  Before you get to the video, I would like to point out the struggle I had with this screencast.  This being my first experience with Screenflow, I had some trouble getting through all of the fancy zooming.  It took some finagling, despite this being an extremely user friendly and intuitive piece of software, to tweak things the way I wanted.  Technicalities aside, after some modifying and an hour or two, I was finally ready to encode my magnum opus.  Then I hit the brick wall that is media distribution.  Which site to use!?  There are a few major mainstream options, the most obvious of which is Youtube or Google Video, with some secondary choices including Vimeo or Daily Motion.  Three out of the four options allowed me to embed the video directly into this blog.  Of course, my prefrontal cortex being what it is (as discussed here), I decided to go with the option that I feel delivers the best quality, although at the expense of forgoing embedded viewing.  So enjoy my Vimeo page!  Who knows, I’m toying with the idea of doing some videos periodically that may highlight a few things I’m doing not related to Cardboard!

Without further adieu…

Google Notifier and Quicksilver Screencast!

Click the logos for direction to downloads.  Enjoy and expect some more posts soon.  Next up: Finding My Style – Album Art

Als Mac-User kann man sich über viele süsse Programme freuen.

Twitterrific ist auf jeden Fall eines davon, ist verborgen im Hintergrund und meldet sich, sobald jemand getwittert hat, dem man folgt. Man selber kann auch bequem vom Desktop aus twittern.
Splendid!

As a perfect complement to my haughty smugness, standoffish attitude, close mindedness, and a myriad of other equally as negative traits, I am the owner of a Macbook.  Purchased in May of last year as a laptop aimed at fulfilling my academic needs, it has become my go to gadget for almost all of my daily activities (kind of depressing when you think about it…).  This investment was really my first plunge into the sea of generally overpriced, over hyped, shiny Apple products, and I will openly admit I was skeptical going in.

Videos like these seem to sum up neatly the stereotype I was apprehensive about throwing onto myself:

If I was so skeptical, you might ask yourself, why would I ever even dream of trusting the single biggest retail purchase I will make in the next four years to this guy?

Commercials like the most recent bout of Apple ads didn’t really do much in the way of convincing me that I, as a somewhat literate tech user who loves to immerse himself in lots of activities computing related, would be using my Mac the same way as this hipster.  What did convince me, however, was some conversations with a few friends (Mac and PC users alike) and just a general desire to mix things up coming into a whole new lifestyle college was sure to bring.

I could not have been happier since that hesitant May afternoon.  Since the conception of Ryan’s Macbook, as he is thoughtfully referred to, I have been able to cultivate and integrate a workspace that is more streamlined, efficient, and impactful than I could have dreamed up 10 months ago.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not going so far as to credit a more efficient lifestyle solely to my Macbook.  I am, however, going to say that this operating system provided me with the change I needed with impeccable timing.  I’m far from an Apple fan boy, proud owner of a Zune and Blackberry Curve, but that does not make me any less satisfied with my first substantial attempt at an Apple product.

Over the next few days, I plan on expanding a bit more on what specifically has enhanced my computing experience on OS X, with explanation and a few screen shots of some great tools I think are universally beneficial.  I’m a far cry from a software guru, so if you’re interested in more in depth explanation and perhaps a more Windows-centric approach to computing, I encourage you to click over to my brother blog (how’s that for shameless alliterative advertising!), The Perfect Blend.

I don’t remember how I wandered onto the Apple Business site, but while there, I found an interesting productivity tool called Bento.  I’ve downloaded a trial version to see how I can use it and will post my reaction after about a week or so of  “playing” with the program.

http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento/features.html

Atari Pinball

I remember my first exposure to electronic toys, I wouldn’t call it a computer, but it was definately something that caught and held my attention. It was Atari’s breakout / pinball that hooked up to your TV. I got ahold of one when my grandfather brought one home from a yard sale when I was young. e handed it to me like he had no idea what it was, but thought I might think it was cool. I did, and by the end of the week he was pissed, pissed that it had taken over his television, and that he never got to watch his programs. The next week there was a brand new (yard sale) black and white TV for me to play my games on. The following week it was in the basement where he didn’t have to listen to it anymore. That’s where I spent the majority of my off school hours.

Times Sinclair TS1000

From there I got ahold of a used 2600, and again, played it until it wouldn’t even turn on. What followed was an Intellivision, a Colecovision, and so on. These were great fun, but there were others that caught my eye. I remember seeing the ads for the “real” computers. The Apple II, The TI994a, and the like. What I ended up with was the Timex Sinclair. It was quite the underpowered piece of amazing technology. At the time I was just uber happy that I had a computer. One that I could interact with, and program. I must have spent a total of about a year of my life sitting in front of it typing in basic programs printed in a British magazine that my uncle found for me, I had about 2 years of back issues.

While this was happening at home, the were placing computers into the schools, and I was getting a chance to see the Commodore PET, and Super PET, as well as the Radio Shack TRS80. These were pretty impressive at the time, as I really hadn’t seen something of that stature close up. I still remember seeing the TRS80 being used to play “Adventure” while I was part of the “peanut gallery”. We rarely got an opportunity to do more than just see them used. There were only a couple in the classroom, and they were primarily used for demonstrations.

I used the TS1000 for awhile, and was quite happy with it. I expanded it, and spent days working on programs in basic that played games, tracked money, and basically just allowed me to learn basic pretty well. I was far from a great programmer, but felt like I was doing something credible, and being creative in my own way. It was a great escape.

I remember the Commodore VIC20 being released, but never got ahold of one. I did have a friend that had one, and we did play plenty of games wiith it. It was quite a good time, but nothing too special. Then the Commodore 64 was released. I remember this one because I had been saving for a TI994a for awhile, and the 64 came out, I just couldn’t decide. After a bit I ended up with the 64. I remember this vividly because this would be the first (and only) time that I made the right platform decision.

Commodore 64

That 64 kept me plenty busy. I ended up buying the monitor that went with it, the Floppy drive, and one of the sneakiest things I’ve ever done. We had the 300 baud modems, and used to use them to call the local BBS systems in town. When the 2400 baud versions came out we couldn’t afford them, but bought them anyways. Swapped the 300 guts into the 2400 case, and returned them to the local Fred Meyer. I’m not proud of that one, but it’s a statement to how badly we wanted the latest hardware.Hours spent playing lode runner, and trading games with your buddies. It was great fun, and the Commodore 64 was an amazing machine for the times.

While I was spending my time tied to the 64, a neighbor picked up an Apple II+. He was a little older, and had a real job, so his cash fow allowed him some great toys. I remember being able to see the machine when he got it, and all the goodies that came with it. He had a joystick that was proportional. This was a far cr from the old atari stick I had plugged into the 64. It made for a completely different experience when playing a game, and this machine certainly seemed like a huge step up from the 64. I had a major case of the wants.

(continued in pt2)