The Senior Macintosh Center
My Mac Magazine #36, April ’98

Hi all. Now I remember why I love working on Macs. They’re easy! Yes, that’s it, they’re so easy. Well, they used to be.

I had a customer come in with an SE/30 this week. Problem described: Floppy disk on screen with a flashing “?”. Okay, I put my vast knowledge base into full operation and took a look at what’s going on. Sure enough, there it was in vivid Black &White, my arch enemy, the flashing “?”. I reached for my utility belt (in this case, my tool bag) and from within its vast cavernous regions (man, I haven’t cleaned this thing out in months), I was able to find my superpower tools of technical marvel. Yes, there was my kryptonite-resistant, external hard drive. Aha, there was the laser-enhanced data recovery software (SUM II, remember that? Great stuff!)! Now, on to the challenge! Awayyyyyyyy!

Okay, it really wasn’t that big a deal. I was able to recover the data, reformat the hard drive, transfer the data back on to the drive and it worked perfectly. In and out in less than 1 hour.

With all of the new extensions, INITs, enablers, drivers, etc. that are on the Macs today, it was refreshing to be able to simply repair the Mac without having to run to the Tech Support Batphone or the SuperHero Service Source CD (Apple’s great tech manual). I realize that with newer, greater, faster and better technology that the software has to be upgraded with it for it to run properly.

In comparison to our Windows ’95 counterparts, I know that I have nothing to complain about. The Macintosh is still an easier system to run by far. I work in a service center that is not only Apple Authorized but many of the other major CPU makers are serviced here, too. I have often watched as a technician will get so frustrated because he can’t get the “sound” to work. Sound Blaster or whatever is incompatible with this or that driver. And networking is fun to watch. I chuckle to myself a lot. They are so pitiful to watch. Man, I hope they’re not reading this… :^D

Anyway, just a quick note to let you know that we have progressed in many ways. Macs are still superior machines. Easy, right?

Here’s what’s coming up in the next few exciting episodes of The Senior Macintosh Center. Recently, I’ve had some people ask me to talk about the infamous Upgrade Path (insert scary music) and the journey from Start to Finish. Last month, I wrote about System 7.5.3. I’ll continue on this thought for a while because I know there are some pitfalls that can trip you up and cause some major headaches that you don’t need. We’ll have fun… won’t we? Take it easy… :^D


Ed Tobey (edtobey@mymac.com)


Websites mentioned:
http://www.freetown.com/www/advantagemac.html

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