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The first Mac I ever used was my mother's computer. It was a
Mac Plus that my grandfather
gave her in 1992 after we moved to Florida. My mother had
specifically told us that the computer was for work only, not for
playing games. Yeah, right,we know how long that lasted.
My absolute favorite game of all time (still today) is
Stuntcopter. I loved playing that game on the little Mac Plus. My
favorite thing was drop the guy on the horse - but I digress. My
mother used that computer faithfully for a few years, and then she
bought a Quadra 605 when it
first came out. Again, this was a business computer, not a toy. Ha
ha. One year we got a SupraExpress 33.6 modem and AOL 2.5. We were
on the Net! That is when I realized how incredibly slow it was
compared to my friends' computers. The Quadra 605 and I had a
love/hate relationship.
When my mom bought a Compaq in 1998, she gave me the 605. I
customized and upgraded that thing as much as I could (short of a
PPC upgrade), and I ran System 7.5.3 when Apple released it for
free from their site. Unfortunately, the monitor died (a rather odd
occurrence), but we did have an old PC VGA monitor, so I got an
adapter for that and plugged it in.
My friend, Karen, who owns a Performa 6360, made fun of my computer and
called me "Little Quadra Boy." Needless to say, when her computer
was zapped by lightning and became the world's biggest beige
paperweight, I was the first to laugh.
I used that Quadra 605 all the way up until 1999, when I
accidentally killed it by turning the computer around - and the
monitor adapter sticking out the back hit the wall and cracked the
motherboard. Oops.
I was "Macless" for a while, but my school was getting rid of an
LC II, so I managed to get it. I
just liked having it in the room, and sometimes I turned it on and
played with the icons.
My mom's office's art department was getting rid of their
computers, so my mom managed to get me one of them. It was a
Performa 637CD. I loved it! It
was the first Mac I ever owned with a CD-ROM. It was also faster
than my Quadra 605 (R.I.P.).
I upgraded the Perform to OS 8 and maxed out the RAM. It had
Photoshop 3 on it, so I was particularly happy. I gave it to my
sister for Christmas and purchased a Performa 6115CD for my little brother off
eBay (I love eBay!). I also purchased a Quadra 700 and a Performa 6360 for
myself.
I'm using the 700 until my 6360 comes in, but I'm still sorting
through the mess the previous owner left on the hard drive.
Now for the fun part. In 1999, the school yearbook teacher
switched over to using desktop publishing for the yearbook and
bought three new 450 MHz G4s
(YIPPEE!!!). She needed some guidance, though. That's where I came
in. I became the "Technical Editor" (the guy they call out of class
when they accidentally kick a power cord out and can't figure out
what they did). I also had to network the following (in a
"creative" way): three G4s, two 7200/120s, six 5500/225s, a HP LaserJet 4MP, and a
StyleWriter II (the same kind I use at home for all my printing
needs; it's my favorite). I now "run" the yearbook computer lab,
which is pretty cool.
Links for the Day
Mac of the Day: PowerBook 170, Oct. 1991 - At 25 MHz, the PB 170 was at the top of the original PowerBook line.
List of the Day: The iPhone List Low End Mac's forum for discussing and supporting Apple's iPhone.
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