| I've got a friend who has worked on the Macintosh | | | | publishing system went down, we put out a few |
| computer since "before day one," as he puts it. | | | | 44-page issues of a four-color magazine with it, using |
| Seems he worked at a think tank in Palo Alto, heart | | | | Aldus PageMaker software (which was at version 2 |
| of Silicon Valley, and saw the "two Steves" (Jobs and | | | | or 3, I believe). It was a real workhorse, although |
| Wozniak) bring a prototype in to show to some folks | | | | today you can carry more computing power on your |
| who'd been influential in the design. People like Andy | | | | wrist with a "smart watch." |
| Hertzberg and Bob Metcalfe (the latter invented | | | | Just consider the advances in 25 years. I now work |
| Ethernet). | | | | on both PCs and Macs (as I always have), and the |
| My friend, whom we will call "EJ," has been waxing | | | | 24-inch iMac I have runs at 2.16GHz and can do just |
| nostalgic of late over the spate of "Mac's 25th | | | | about anything - for $600 less that the Mac Plus. For |
| Birthday" articles in both the tech and popular press. | | | | extra storage, I just bought a 2TB Firewire 800 hard |
| It brought to his mind the incredible advances made, | | | | drive, for about $300. Here's the math on the hard |
| not just in the Mac world but the tech universe as a | | | | drive progress: It has 100,000 times the storage |
| whole. I thought I'd share his recent "love letter" to | | | | capacity of my first hard drive, for less than half the |
| the Mac that he distributed this past week. To get | | | | price. If anyone wants to know what capitalism does, |
| around having to put in quote marks or make the | | | | this is a sterling example. |
| whole thing italics, I will separate his story with a | | | | It is fun to read the 1980's and 1990's Mac magazines |
| dashed line, because I will be back after the tale with | | | | (or any tech mags, actually) to remind myself what |
| a closing remark or two. | | | | was being predicted for the future that has now |
| As soon as I saw that first, little Macintosh box, the | | | | arrived. No one prognosticated very well, actually. |
| 128K model, I was hooked. What's this funny thing? I | | | | The present crop of touch-screen PDA's and |
| wondered, looking at what now seems like a quaint | | | | miniature netbooks and WiFi devices up the wazoo - |
| antique, the first Mac mouse. Wow! Hooked! | | | | no one had a clue. Therefore, I don't trust anyone, |
| I used other people's (and companies') Macs for the | | | | least of all myself, to make any predictions about |
| first year, then bought the first model that would | | | | where this is all going. I am happy just to be along |
| support an external hard drive, the Plus. As I recall, it | | | | for the ride. |
| listed at $1799. This little beauty had an 8MHz 68000 | | | | EJ loves his tech stuff, that's for sure. I have a |
| Motorola CPU, a high-density (1.44MB) floppy drive | | | | rather different relationship with computers, viewing |
| and a 9-inch monochrome screen - but it did have a | | | | them as tools, but have just as much respect for the |
| SCSI port! I attached a 20MB hard drive from | | | | minds that make them as anyone else. I simply |
| Seagate that cost me $800. | | | | cannot imagine going back to "the old ways," with |
| I used that same little Mac for almost ten years. In | | | | manual entry bookkeeping, page layout with waxers |
| fact, when I took it back to Boston for a managing | | | | and paste-up boards, all that laborious stuff. No |
| editor gig with a political magazine, I brought it with | | | | thanks! |
| me. When the mag's punched-paper-roll Atex | | | | |