Can't Be The Only Mac Guy

[bp fick]

Snow Leopard only runs on Intel based Macs, so it would not even install on your wife's G4 iBook.

Mike, well aware. Just was commenting that Tiger/G4 was stable and problem free that's all.
Wasn't looking to "upgrade" her, as in a new MacBook/Snow, any time soon.

 

[Wesdor]

Long time Apple user here. Began with an Apple ][ in 1979. Moved to a 512 Mac in the mid-80s. Now have several at home, including a Quad Core 27". I also run windows on my Macbook Pro. Currently run XP but this month plan to update to Windows 7 which has been sitting in my desk at work since it came out. The beauty of running Windows in emulation mode is that when it gets corrupted, I just trash the 3 gb file, bring the original saved file to the hard drive and I'm back and running. Takes less than 5 minutes.

I upgraded to Snow Leopard the week it cam out and find it to be not only faster, but takes less disk space.

 

[Stampeder]

Been a Mac guy from '70s. Started with a LISA. Older guys will remember that. Great machine. Fully integrated text AND graphic way back then....
Made my living on PC's though. Mac's don't run Visio natively so you need a newer one with Intel and Windows.

Currently have a ton of PC's but still have a G4. It has the old logic board problem and blown fan. Will add the fan in a little while and run an exterior monitor as I don't need it for portable.

Kids all have Mac's not to mention iPods. I also have an iPod classic...love it for travelling....want ot replace my Blackberry with iPhone when Verizon and Apple finally get a agreement.

Always loved the Apple byte and recommend it whenever possible.

G.

 

[srs]

I've had a Mac for 1 year now and really like it. I use Microsoft at work where I have a lot of tech support if I run into problems. No tech support at home but if I have a Mac question their t/p support is incredible, plus you can understand them, if you know what I mean.......

 

[dmccarty]

Been a Mac guy from '70s. Started with a LISA. Older guys will remember that. Great machine. <snip>

I REMEMBER LISA. I *** AM *** NOT an old guy!

Even though the kids call me old.....

I started with an Apple II+. Last Apple I owned.

The hardware expense vs Windows made having an Apple a moot point. Though what Mike just said about running the Apple OS on a Dell box is interesting.

Later,
Dan

 

[irvingj]

I remember LISA, but was out of computers at the time... anybody remember/use a GE235? IBM 360? (They weren't exactly what you'd call "portable"....)

 

[bp fick]

Over the holiday, I put 4 gig of ram in my MacBook. It originally came with 1.

 

[bp fick]

I actually came to Mac from a different path than Lisa.

I started with main frames in the late 60's. Wang programmable calculators, remember those? Bought a TRS-80 Model I in the pre-dawn hours of personal computing in 1977 I think. Learned Assembly, Basic, Pascal, TRS-DOS. Fun stuff.

Moved through the Windows world of 3.11 and stayed current in Windows through XP, like everyone else. Had a small business building/selling/reparing machines. Meanwhile, I worked on the side with RedHat, Debian, Xandros, Lycoris, Ubuntu and most every other Linux distro.

When Apple's OS X became mature, long about 10.3, I finally took the plunge. Peaceful. Calm. No "dialog boxes" popping off every ten seconds and extremely intuitive and intelligent design. I found the underlying Unix file structure to be sensible and familiar. The lack of constant virus attacks was a big plus. I also found pretty good software support for cross-platform, mainline software such as Adobe InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator, QuickBooks, MS-Office, etc, a great help in integrating and communicating with others in my professional client world.

I confess I find the iLife series of programs (iTunes, iPhoto, iWeb) to be simple and easy to use and believe they are valued added to a Mac machine.

 

[MF1455v]

Got a iPhone back in June with the release of the 3Gs. I loved it so when my vista laptop failed after only 2 1/2 years I didn't have much interest in trying 7. So Apple got my attention. Ordered my 13in MacBook Pro and it arrived on Dec 22. After 2 weeks it was the best computer purchase I have ever made. Wish I had made the move a lot earlier...

James

 

[Barton]

IBM 360?

I grew up with one of those. Mod 30, then 40. Also, 1401 and a Univac III. The 360 was in late 66 or 67. It's been so long I can't remember.

 

[MikePA]

370/145 was my first. Then 370/158, 168, 3033, then various Amdahl and NAS boxes then back to IBM mainframes before I moved to the LAN then security.

 

[Reg]

Funny thing with memory size, Moore's Law, etc.
Looking back;
Remembering making transatlantic flights to repair downed systems, where "Repair" could mean tearing into an 8K (one microsecond) memory stack and figuring which steering diode needed to be replaced (with a soldering iron).
Didn't even know if they were memory problems before booking the flight, just that the local branch didn't carry spare stacks due to co$t (~$3K as I remember it) and the locals had been working on it all day.

Today;
I bought more of the 16 Gig SDHC cards, for $34 at BJs (-:
No particular reason, other than they're cheap and it is "Nice" to have some standalone Linux systems on semi conductor memory that is a lot faster than hard disks.

Looking forwards;
Supposedly it will be another 100 years before they get to the storage density of mammal brains.


......and today my wife asked me HOW digital X_rays work (-:
Like, how do they get the picture into the computer without having to take it off of film ?
(-:

 

[Reg]

I grew up with one of those. Mod 30, then 40. Also, 1401 and a Univac III. The 360 was in late 66 or 67. It's been so long I can't remember.

As I recall (Hahh, memories fade...) I interviewed with IBM in '64 and the 360 was unannounced, but everyone knew it was imminent.
Looking back a few months later my primary tech interviewer was CLEARLY on the 360 development team.
Looking back NOW, probably a VERY good thing I didn't take it...... Oh, the "Structure" at IBM in those days, I wouldn't have lasted (without ulcers)

Anyway, I'm putting the 360 at late '64 - s'pose I could Wiki it, but don't care THAT much (-:

 

[irvingj]

Reg, that would be about right.... I was a junior in high school; our "computer club" had a timeshare teletype hookup to Dartmouth's 360. That would have been school year 64-65.

I just don't remember which came first, the 360 or the GE235; Dartmouth switched 'em over at some point, but I think it was the 235 that came later. Continued to work with those, off & on, until USArmy time in 1969. Didn't touch computers again until my Mac Plus in 1980-something.

 

[Reg]

Reg, that would be about right.... I was a junior in high school; our "computer club" had a timeshare teletype hookup to Dartmouth's 360. That would have been school year 64-65.

I just don't remember which came first, the 360 or the GE235; Dartmouth switched 'em over at some point, but I think it was the 235 that came later. Continued to work with those, off & on, until USArmy time in 1969. Didn't touch computers again until my Mac Plus in 1980-something.

SomeHOW I avoided the GE machines, I was probably too fascinated with what I actually DID work with to pay much attention to what else was out there.
I didn't have anything to do with Dartmouth until they started buying (or "Accepting" ?, I think they might have been donated) dec PDP-n machines.
Farthest back I can remember was probably a PDP-7 around 69/70 and then a PDP-9 or two.
I don't even remember a department or prof name there, which is TERRIBLE !
I think they had a PDP-6 or 10 there at one time, that would have been more central than departmental and supported by a different group at dec.

PS I did wiki the 360.
It says announced in April '64. (not that wiki is PERFECT, history writ late is largely the collective hunch).
I thought my interview was 3 or 4 months before the big announcement, but can't remember much about dressing up for that.
Dark suit - Yes. White shirt - Yes, Conservative neck tie - Yes, matching dark socks - Yes.
I don't remember having to keep the BLACK shoes clean from snow/slush with overshoes, or if I had sweating problems in my non air conditioned car.
Those are the sorts of things I would remember from dress up interviews.
So, it could have been late Winter of 63/64, but '64 for sure (-:

I didn't get a break from the (ever evolving) computer industry until 2003.
(2003 - 1962 = 41 years... Oh My Goodness,,,,, time flies like the wind (but fruit flies like bananas))
Now my computer time is largely hacking around with various Linux distributions and Amiga emulations.
Ubuntu 9.10 is my current favorite, but that could change (-:
I'm not liking Amiga Forever "packaging", though the underlying WinUAE is still very good.
I gave up on mac emulation on Amiga, err,,,, probably not a good tangent for THIS thread.

I stay current on Oracle, but not much else in commercial scale computing.

 

[bp fick]

Reg, that would be about right.... I was a junior in high school; our "computer club" had a timeshare teletype hookup to Dartmouth's 360. That would have been school year 64-65.

Gosh, that triggers memories. 1965-66?? High School. AP Algebra II, final unit of the year, Miss Irwin, the teacher, leads us in computer theory with flow charts all over all the blackboards. Didn't even have access or a terminal, being a rural school. I hadn't thought of that in years.

 

[Reg]

Gosh, that triggers memories. 1965-66?? High School. AP Algebra II, final unit of the year, Miss Irwin, the teacher, leads us in computer theory with flow charts all over all the blackboards. Didn't even have access or a terminal, being a rural school. I hadn't thought of that in years.

I have an interest in when anything started to get taught and what - outside of manufacturer's classes, i.e. in schools and colleges.
OK, Van Neuman machines, instruction sets, addressing modes, loops and counters, binary arithmetic, then what ?

When I first heard of a Degree in computer science (1968 maybe ?) it seemed as if it would be useless, given the speed of industry advances and a 3 or 4 year lag for course development and delivery.
I could have "gone academic" at that time, but saw staying in the industry as the best way to stay current. Hardware courses were 6 to 8 weeks, programming maybe 3 weeks.
I couldn't see material enough to fill out a degree course, heck there wasn't even much HISTORY to lecture on.
Once upon a time Charles Babbage....

Come to think of it, those early degrees might have been computer engineering... ??
Layered on electrical engineering and/or math ?

 

[bp fick]

I
Come to think of it, those early degrees might have been computer engineering... ??
Layered on electrical engineering and/or math ?

Yeah, they were. Double E or math/specialty. Not so different today, really.

In the end, it's productivity anyhow. Seem to recall even Bill didn't finish school. Wall decorations get ya in the door?, but after that, its about what you can do/accomplish/solve.

 

[Reg]

Yeah, they were. Double E or math/specialty. Not so different today, really.

In the end, it's productivity anyhow. Seem to recall even Bill didn't finish school. Wall decorations get ya in the door?, but after that, its about what you can do/accomplish/solve.

Self modifying code was a very useful part of position independence.
For example when entering a sub routine a constant would be added to the contents of the program counter at the point from which the sub routine was called.
The result of that addition would be a value equal to a jump instruction to the instruction just following the call.
That jump instruction would be stored in the last address of the sub-routine.
Ta Dahh,,, call/return.

SOMEONE (name withheld) was responsible for the (then industry unique) idea of actually SELLING self corrupting code (-:
Until then op sys and utilities were freebies to support hardware sales.
Commercial success; sell bug fixes(not really FIXES) to bug fixes, to bug fixes, a self perpetuating business.
Not much innovation, some would say none, some would say a DRAG on the industry.

 

[jsboening]

Switched to MacBook Pro a couple of months ago and I could not be happier. It's been great. No freezing up even when running multiple applications and it does what I want it to do. I was really worried about the switch from a PC, But it has been painless. I'm now considering buying an iphone but am unsure about at&t service in my area.