One Bad Apple Spoils Things for Everyone

- 2006.01.18

About a month-and-a-half ago, I got a job at a movie theatre here in Denver. I was shocked to find that there was nothing in the break room for the employees, not even a clock!

I asked why they didn't put anything in there, and they said that they just never got around to it. So I asked the General Manager if I could bring in a few old compact Macs and set up a mini computer lab.

She was ecstatic - apparently the room had been empty since the theatre had opened about a year-and-a-half ago, and the crew had been complaining about it.

So I went home that night and got to work setting up my old Mac SE with a bunch of old games, including Brickles (Breakout), Hangman, Shufflepuck Café, Risk, MacMan (Pac Man), and Missile Command. I even installed At Ease on it so it would be easier for the crew to access the programs.

I went in the next day, and the General Manager had one of the other managers (who has a new PowerBook G4) help me rearrange the break room so the SE would fit.

Is Everybody Happy?

Most of the people I work with liked the little SE, but a few were rude, basically telling me that only a fool would ever want to use such a slow machine that can't even go online. But the overall response to it was good. A few people were actually fighting over who would use it, so I decided to set up my old Classic II the same way as the SE and take it in.

At this point almost everyone was really happy to have something to do on break - but there were still a few people who would look at the two machines and criticize them, without even trying them.

I explained to those people that I was just testing the waters, seeing how good the reaction was before I brought in newer machines. I went on to explain that even newer machines couldn't go online in that room because there isn't an ethernet port or even a phone line.

For the next few weeks things seemed to be going fine.

Some people couldn't stop thanking me for bringing these old Macs in, others couldn't seem to tear themselves from them, and some complained that they were too slow and they couldn't play the game on albinoblacksheep.com.

Vandalism

But then something bad happened. One day I went to sign in, and I noticed that someone had signed in as "James Bond" on the lab sign in sheet - and then went onto say, "This computer is very slow and has less technology than a calculator."

At this point I was starting to get a bit frustrated. I thought I had made it fairly clear that these machines are not the bleeding edge of technology. Oh well, I'll just print out a new log sheet.

So I sat down at the SE (which has a StyleWriter II hooked up to it). I moved the mouse, and it seemed like it was stuck.

I opened it up, and low and behold, someone put gum inside it. I tried to clean it out, but it got in the rollers and just screwed things up to the point that it couldn't be fixed.

At this point was mad, really mad. I went to my manager and told her what I found, and she was shocked. Who would do a thing like this? she asked.

I don't know, but I did know one thing: My computers were in danger, and I couldn't let them spend a second longer in the break room than they had to.

I explained to her that I knew that even if I brought in a new mouse, either it or something else would get broken, and I just couldn't afford to keep them there.

I called my dad and explained to him what happened. Then asked him to come and get them. He understood and showed up to get them up 20 minutes after I called.

Some people think I jumped the gun by taking them out so quickly, but I disagree. If I kept them in there, they would just get vandalized more, and that's something I will not put up with.

It's too bad, because I was just about to bring in a Beige G3 for them to use - but that isn't going to happen now. Someone ruined it for everyone by breaking one of my mice, and I just won't risk anything else.

There is an ongoing investigation to find the person who did this, but I doubt we'll find that person.

I think I'm going to look for some people who could really use a computer. I'm sure there is someone out there who doesn't have a computer and would appreciate getting one for free, be it a Mac SE or a Power Mac G3.

Lisa Coming

It looks like I'm going to be getting a Lisa 2/10 as a birthday present in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. My next article will be about it.