This month found the AppleCart inbox full of information that needed to be shared. August was focused on the Trailing Edge and the excellent buys available across the board this summer. Everything from PowerBooks to Desktop G3s have seen big price drops, almost before the ink was dry on the original warranties.
Not only has the power user been smiling at the plummeting prices for last year’s high-end Apple desktops, budget travelers have had a hard choice deciding between the user-friendly 1400 series, the 2400 lightweights and, most recent King of the Hill, the 3400s with their wonderful screens and their zippy performance. Then in mid-August, the current crop of G3s hit “fire sale” pricing to make way for the iMac and the even more powerful next generation of G3s.
But the main focus of the August AppleCart was on the last hurrah of Umax and the SuperMac. Not only were the rock bottom prices below $1000 for a S900/200 (and lower yet for the J700, C600 and C500 series) both the quality and speed blew my computer-gourmet son away.
Still, for guys like Chris, enough is never enough. And the empty slot in his SuperMac S900 was churning him up inside. No matter that suddenly he was blazing away as never before. That graphics loving, speed addicted kid was yearning to try out dual processing for himself. How fast would Photoshop and LightWave do their thing if only Chris could figure out what was needed, where to find it — and, a frowny face here — how to afford it? Alas, it looks like he may never know.
As I was continuing my web search for some solid information on the secondary processor, I received this email from Kennedy Brandt of the Umax SuperMac support team.
Kennedy:
Greetings, Ms. Howerter -
I just came across your “Summer of the SuperMacs” article at mymac.com. (August 1998, issue #40) It’s good to see that someone else agrees with me that older boxes are often the best way to go. It’s also very gratifying to see that the terrific systems myself and many others worked so hard to create are still getting some appreciation and recognition, even at this late date.
I do have one comment and one question on the article. The comment is on your suggestion that “With Umax out of the Mac business at the end of July, it seemed like a good idea to get the answers pinned down fast.”
Good advice, but UMAX will be around. Our license to build new systems expired on Friday (7/31/98), but we expect to be selling until the end of the year and will most likely continue our compatibility and integration testing until April of next year.
Plans are for us to gradually merge into UMAX Technologies Inc.’s PC system division early next year, and with two-year warranties on all new S900′s sold after 3/1/98, service & support will have to continue anyway. I expect that by the end of the year, the SuperMac web site will transform entirely into a Product Support center.
AppleCart:
Thanks for the feedback on the SuperMac article. As a new owner myself, I am glad to know that Umax will still be there for us. I’m especially pleased about the two year warranty as we bought in June of this year. Both my son and I registered online, but haven’t gotten any feedback from Umax. Could this mean we didn’t actually get through? I’ve learned to be a little leery of the Internet — you know, that iffy thing that Steve Jobs thinks can serve all our backing up and file management needs on Apple’s new iMac.
Kennedy:
Getting no response from the online registration doesn’t indicate anything, really, as historically, most companies simply archive the product and demographic information they get through each registration, checking it from time to time to see whether their marketing efforts seem to be reaching the intended customers or not. Most importantly, registration really has no bearing on one’s warranty at Umax. It’s the original sales invoice showing date of purchase that defines, more than anything else, when the warranty coverage officially begins.
With some companies, registering is indeed vital. Digidesign, for example, provides no support or warranty service unless and until the product is registered. SuperMac and Radius, on the other end of the spectrum, had one person to manually enter years’ worth of registration card info and then simply threw it all in the trash bin about two years ago.
AppleCart:
Thanks for the quick response. Your information on registering was very interesting. I think most of us assume that registration is vital — which is why we feel so guilty about all those little cards we will never get around to sending in. So, the real answer is to hang on to those receipts. Thanks. (But… better keep your registrations up to date, folks. Many companies have a different policy than Umax does on registration.)
I slanted much of the article toward high tech users, such as my son, who might be needing a secondary processor card. I see that Small Dog Electronics, who apparently received all the remaining cards, are almost sold out. If you know of another source I would appreciate the information as I am likely to get questions during the month.
Kennedy:
Being outside our Sales & Marketing organization, I’m not the most in touch with where various processor upgrades went, but I’ve also heard that Small Dog was the largest recent recipient. I’ll ask two of my buddies up in our Fremont office, as they sometimes know not only where products are in the sales channel, but also when they arrived and on what store shelf they’re currently sitting. I’ll let you know what I can as soon as I hear back from him.
AppleCart:
Thanks. If you are able to find any news on other
sources of the secondary processing cards, I would
appreciate it. There were only a couple dozen
newly listed at Small Dog and they were apparently snapped up by hungry users. I have seen a few 180s mentioned in some of the online catalogs but don’t know if they can be used with a S900/200.
Kennedy:
My quest for a secondary 200MHz processor has had mixed results. All remaining finished-goods units for resale appear to have gone to Small Dog, and as of yesterday afternoon (8/8/98), they had ONE of the secondary 233MHz cards left.
If you check the information at
http://www.online1.supermac.com/cgi-bin/kbdisplayrecord/KB00172
,
however, you’ll see that the secondary processor does not have to match the speed of the primary processor in order to operate — it’ll just operate slightly slower if it’s not the same speed as the primary. The two processors negotiate a mutually agreeable bus speed that allows the primary processor to run at its intended speed while the secondary gets as close to that as possible.
If, for example, you were to put a 233MHz secondary in your S900/200, the secondary would clock itself to run at 225MHz and the primary would still run at its intended 200MHz. Even the 180MHz secondaries that you’ve seen here and there on the net wouldn’t clock themselves any lower than 175MHz in order to work with the 200MHz primary, so your options may be a bit broader than you first thought.
Hope this helps. Either way, I’ll keep your situation in mind and might be able to offer something else in the future.
AppleCart:
Thanks for all the technical stuff. It’s just what the power users among us need to know. Having checked out your SuperMac site and, especially the FAQ listings (see URL at the end of this column), I can see that there is a huge amount of good information online.
Kennedy:
My quest for secondary processor cards is not going well. The product sales manager told me that all available cards were sent to Small Dog, but he’s rechecking inventory. While I don’t yet believe we’re out of them, I’m not surprised to find that they’re so elusive. Asymmetric
multiprocessing wasn’t embraced by the developer community at large, though the applications which can take advantage of it do so to very impressive results. We probably produced more secondary 180MHz processors than any other speed, with 250MHz ones next, then 200MHz, and 225/233MHz at the bottom of the list.
Now, considering that a G3 upgrade isn’t sufficiently friendly towards asymmetric multiprocessing to work with even a G3 secondary processor (none of which exist outside of engineering labs), anyone who upgrades from a DP system to a G3 system will have a secondary processor lying around. You might want to check out the SuperMac User Group mailing list at http://www.mactimes.com/lowend/supermacs and raise a flag there that you’re looking for a secondary processor to buy…
Best regards,
Kennedy M. Brandt
UMAX Computer Corporation
http://www.SuperMac.com
AppleCart:
Thanks so much for all the hard work and the information. I will post your findings in the September ‘Out of the AppleCart’ / My Mac Online. With all the SuperMacs sold this summer, I know the information will be much appreciated.
Thanks So Much,
Susan Howerter
My Mac Online
http://www.mymac.com
So there it is. Not great news for all the SuperMac-SuperSlot hopefuls out there. It doesn’t appear that there was ever a large supply of the ASPD cards needed to turn your powerhouse Umax into a juggernaut processor. And the few remaining leftovers sent to Small Dog Electronics went like hot butter in a Texas summer.
As Kennedy mentioned, SuperMac owners will also be interested in the information found in MTN Dan Knight’s Low End Mac, SuperMac site. Begun 6/20/98, this is “A Low End Mac email list for users of Umax SuperMac computers. Maybe they, or possibly ClassMac, will eventually have a second-hand secondary processor slot sale. Do not say the preceeding with a mouthful of popcorn.
On another note, with PowerComputing long since gone, warranty work seemed gone as well. Apparently DecisionOne is now handling Power’s computers. Thanks, J.C. for for the tip. Wonder why warranty owners didn’t get the same information through the mail or via email?
DecisionOne’s site requests that you click the “infoReQuest” button or call 1-888-287-9200. That call leads you to 1-800-287-9200 which sends you on to 1-800-448-8986. The good news is that real humans intervene along the way with real information.
When you, at last, reach the proper number all you need is the serial and model number of your computer. I was not able to test service further as the PowerBase in question has been stuck in son’s closet all summer and said son is out of town. Sure hope he makes it back before his warranty strikes midnight.
Umax & SuperMac Information:
http://www.SuperMac.com/products/index.html
http://www.SuperMac.com/service/index.html
http://www.SuperMac.com/service/faq.html
http://www.mactimes.com/lowend/supermacs
PowerComputing Information:
Power Computer Users Support & Discussion
http://www.powerwatch.com
Re: Warranty / DecisionOne
http://www.decisionone.com/home.html
Susan Howerter
susan@mymac.com
Websites mentioned:
http://www.online1.supermac.com/cgi-bin/kbdisplayrecord/KB00172
http://www.mactimes.com/lowend/supermacs
http://www.SuperMac.com
http://www.mymac.com
http://www.SuperMac.com/products/index.html
http://www.SuperMac.com/service/index.html
http://www.SuperMac.com/service/faq.html
http://www.mactimes.com/lowend/supermacs
http://www.powerwatch.com
http://www.decisionone.com/home.html
With this column, I’ve been writing the AppleCarts for My Mac for about a year now. And what a year it has been! We’ve seen Apple go from emotional high to emotional low and back sky high again in just one year since Steve Jobs became our unofficial CEO.
This seemed like a good time to recap the ups and downs of Apple and what could be more fitting than a bit of nonsense verse set to the tune of The New Christy Minstral’s version of ‘The Cat Came Back’.
It would be hard to find a better introduction to the early years of Apple and the Mac than Steven Levy’s book “Insanely Great”.Wonder about Steve’s vision? What’s all this about pirates? Read the book. It helps make sense of where we are today.
I would also like to thank Glen Sanford for all the hard work at his site, Apple-History.com, in putting his Apple timeline online for those of us who came to computing late and can’t keep it all straight. I’ve been having trouble getting into the site lately. Do you suppose I wore it out?
A note to those who like to sing along with their Macs, the chorus follows the tune (as best I recall it) fairly well, but you could twist a tonsil trying to make music out of the rest.
In 1976 when Apple’d just begun
Steve and Steve broke ground with their Apple #1
In 1977 what was left for them to do
But Wow the World again
With their Apple #2
Then… In 1981, The Woz fell from the sky
With a company to run, for Jobs t’was do or die
He knuckled down to business, Gee Whiz! He worked ‘em late
For Steve had found a vision
That he called ‘Insanely Great’
And the Mac was born the very next day
(Well 1984 wasn’t all that far away)
The Man had a plan and it felt like fate
If you can’t be a Pirate
Be Insanely Great
Now, the Mac came of age with a smile on its face
The very first day changed the human race
Yes the Mac was born and the World couldn’t wait
It took us all by storm
It was Insanely Great
But in 1985 with the Mac in disarray
Scully at the helm and Our Steve had gone away
Would the Mac survive or was it all passé
They had to let the workers go
Because they couldn’t pay
But the Mac came back the very next day
Yes the Mac came back, it just wouldn’t stay away
Don’t call the Undertaker, Shout ‘Hooray!’
PostScript and PageMaker
Saved the day
Now 1989 was a nervous sorta time
Far too many PC clones coming down the line
And that 1990 Windows wasn’t just a pretty face
It came straight from the Macintosh
Thanks to Mr. Gates
But the Mac came back the very next day
Yes the Mac came back, it just wouldn’t stay away
The Mac’s more fun cuz they found a better way
To help us get our work done
And think of it as play
1991: Saw the PowerBooks come
1993: Saw Scully out the door
1994: The PowerPCs prevail and Performas are for sale
In every store
Then in 1995, Poor Apple took a dive
And 1996 could barely keep the faith alive
The Doomsayers said our beloved Mac was Dead
And about a Billion Dollars in the Red
But the Mac came back the very next day
Yes the Mac came back, it just wouldn’t stay away
If we lost the Mac, our hearts would surely break
It wasn’t just a box
It was Insanely Great
Still, the DarkSide had a ball, as they damned us one and all
Like hyenas on a hunt, just waiting for the fall
Besieged! Beset! Kaput! Beleaguered was our name
Doomed! Deceased! Defunct!
‘Down with Apple’ was the game
Lame duck! Washed up! Hanging by a thread!
Outta luck! Dumb cluck! Dontcha know you’re dead?
December ’96, were we castaway?
Without a Mac to cling to
Without a prayer to pray
But the Cat came back the very NeXT day
Yes the Cat came back, guess he couldn’t stay away
Some rang the death knell and some sang his praise
But all he ever said was
“Give me ninety days!”
And what a rocky ride! It cannot be denied
Many times in ’97, I thought I’d run and hide
Oh me of little faith,I was shaken deep inside
As the Media kept on saying my beloved Mac had died
But both fists raised, his face ablaze
Steve spit’em in the eye and cried
“Give me ninety days!”
G3s, PowerBooks, Chiat Day
A bushel full of iMacs at Comp USA
Three Quarters running, the profits kept a-coming
Apple riding high, Wall Street kept a-humming
Steve just grinned and kept on a-strumming
“Hey! Hey! Hey! What did I say!”
“Gimme ninety days and I’ll blow you away!”
Yes, the Mac came back the very next day
Stocks were on a roll! Our Steve had led the way
Now none can say that my Mac is second rate
How is my Mac?
It’s still Insanely Great!
Yes the Cat came back! Put Apple in the Black
Now the Whole Wide World is on a Mac Attack
So, how does it feel in 1998?
How does it feel?
It feels Insaaaaanely Great!!!
Levy, Steven. Insanely Great
New York: Viking Penguin, 1994
http://www.echonyc.com/~steven
Glen Sanford at Apple-History.com
http://www.apple-history.com/history.html
Susan Howerter
susan@mymac.com
Websites mentioned:
http//:www.apple-history.com/history.html
http://www.echonyc.com/~steven
We met, briefly, on iMac Eve in “IMAC EVE: Sure Cure for the Dog Days of Summer” but, due to a glitch, any email you may have sent – pro or con – is out surfing the ethernet. Sorry about that. We really do try to respond to our readers.
This is a new monthly column slated for the end of each month. In it, we will take a light look at the current state of the Mac and an occasional poke at Microsoft and other computer nonsense that catches our fancy.
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When it comes to computers, I agree with Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com, one of My Mac’s faithful sponsors. The trailing edge is where it’s at. Machines come and go so quickly that obsolescence can be merely a matter of weeks. Who can keep up? This is more true for the Wintel world, where reverse sticker shock leaps from Sunday circulars to boggle the mind. But with the first G3′s now disappearing from the Apple Store, the six slot PowerMacs all but gone and the last of the clones doing a swan song, the trailing edge has never been sweeter.
Especially if your needs run to T-Bone and your budget to tuna wiggle. Which is where we were at the end of May when my son suddenly found himself Macless with a fast approaching deadline. The 6100 had gone on to a new home and the PowerBase had simply gone blind. Oh, it sounded lively enough, but nothing would bring up the monitor–any monitor.
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Gangway for Microsoft! Say you’re on a mountain road pushing the pedal to the metal and right on your tail is an eighteen-wheeler going ninety miles per hour and closing. The rules of the road are clear. Speed limits were written for those juggernaut giants and us compacts alike.
But when it comes to Microsoft, the rules of the road no longer hold. Worse, they somehow get rewritten in the process. Take for example the case of a small Internet provider near Chicago, Dhiren Rana of SyNet, who dared to stake his claim to the term ‘Internet Explorer’ back in 1994. And was brought to ruin for his presumption.
Microsoft’s flotilla of highly paid lawyers must have been too busy fighting everyone from Apple to the DOJ to notice that they were sticking a previously registered moniker on their much-hyped web browser. When the rightful owner had the temerity to put forth his claim, those crafty, expensive lawyers were outraged.
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As anyone knows who reads the monthly AppleCarts, I write fluff. Impassioned fluff, it’s true. But fluff all the same. So I was surprised to get several serious responses to a guest editorial I did in May for MacTimes‘ Thinking Different. “Let Them Eat Cake” was a typical lightweight piece extolling my enthusiasm (and concern) over the newest Mac.
When I first saw the iMac on the Apple site, it was all I could do to keep from leaping through a time warp and dragging one home. Sure there was no SCSI. Adios scanner, both Zips and four-count’em four-APS drives. And, okay, there wasn’t any serial port. So long QuickCam, Wacom and my new banner-making printer. You will be surely missed.
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Got a letter from Mom the other day. “Sonny,” she said, “Great Aunt Bertha writes that she wants to join the computer generation before it’s too late.”
Too late? Aunt Bertie’s ninety-something if she’s a day. A great old gal and all that, but computers? Now? Her hard drive’s full and her RAM’s on empty. And the sands of time are running low. Well, I guess she can afford a fling if anyone can. She’s rolling. I go back to Mom’s letter.
“I promised Aunt Bertha you would help. Find something suitable. Give her a few lessons to get her off to a good start.”
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“Why don’t you write something about my Mac,” says Number One Husband, setting a plate down close, but not too close, to the computer.
“Your Mac?” I say, waving a fork. “Mmmm, this is good. But I don’t understand. I’m always writing something about my Mac.”
“Not your Mac.” He watches with interest as I dislodge a piece of cheese from between the keys. “My Mac.”
‘But Honey,” I try to break it to him gently. “You don’t have a Mac. You’re an IBM sort of guy.” It’s true. He has a perfectly good Pentium 133 in the living room. It even has a new modem. One of these days I’ll have to make time to show him where to plug it in.
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A little background for those who don’t have time to keep up with Microsoft vs. the DOJ. Due to pressure from the courts to show why the Gates’ guys shouldn’t have to follow the rules like the rest of us, Microsoft has decided to beef up their public image. And who knows better how to affect the minds of millions than America’s PR men.
Seems Microsoft has hired some of the best of the best to orchestrate a vigorous campaign targeting the nineteen states that filed antitrust suits against Microsoft. One plan, so we hear, was to encourage a deluge of agency originated, ‘unsolicited, grassroots support’ for Microsoft and Windows in the local press. They’ve even had form letters written for the digital bigwigs to sign and held a pep rally in the Big Apple with Big Bill as cheerleader. ‘Gimme a ten! Let’s hear it for M!’
And the chips and slicks? Well, in order to encourage a swing to Microsoft Explorer as the nation’s number one, bar none browser, Microsoft intends to give away NT 4.0 Server software and assorted goodies to ISPs able to sign up at least 500 subscribers using a new customized MIE browser.
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When Jack Broke Bread With The Giant
(Were The Apples For Dessert?)Lots has happened since Jack first broke bread with the Giant last August; some good, some bad.
The upside? Well, in addition to a quick shot of cash, Apple saw an actual profit for a change and the stock market obviously thinks Steve is doing something right. Even the media seems more aware of Apple’s existence, due to our high-profile non-CEO. Then there are those spiffy ads seen coast to coast. And, as a result of that high-level lunch, we have Office ’98 which, if it doesn’t overload your System Folder, is, by all accounts, worth forking over some bread for.
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There once was a boy who lived far away in the here and now, high on a hillside among the mountain orchards. The road which encircled the mountain was an infinite loop which soon gave rise to the saying ‘What goes around, comes around.’
Now Mountain Apples, not to be confused with mountain oysters, were the only crop native to this highland hillside and could be grown nowhere else. These marvelous Mountain Apples, unlike their Lowland cousins, were sweet and juicy, cool and crisp. And, as Apple lovers can attest, they kept well for many years. All who tried them agreed-one bite and you were hooked for life.
Lowland Apples, on the other hand, were known to be tasteless and tricky to chew. Worse, more than one tooth had been broken trying to get to the core. (Dentists were their biggest fans.) But the greatest drawback to the Lowlanders, other than the continual spitting of teeth, was their exceedingly short shelf life. Buy a bushel in the fall, and they might well be past their prime by spring.
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The last Mac just left town. We have become a PC desert by default. There is now no place in Topeka to try, buy or even browse for a Mac. Where will I send friends and family to whet their interest? Where will I counsel perfect strangers on the joy of Mac ownership? Where will I spend my weekends?
True, the Mac was not always well served in its various locations about town. Its corners were dusty and rapidly shrinking. Its salespeople were often confused or disinterested. Sometimes downright hostile. But, dust bunnies notwithstanding, there it was. A Mac you could touch.. Buyers had a choice.
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I’ve been wanting to do a story combining the ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ with the current headless state of Apple for some time. It wasn’t easy. No matter how I tried, it was hard to imagine Steve Jobs as the cowering Ichabod Crane. As for Billy Bones Brom… well, you must decide for yourself.
If this story seems unduly pessimistic, chock it up the the fact that the last new Mac just left town. The ‘Store Within a Store’ is all very well if a CompUSA happens to be located in your neck of the woods. But here, in our own little backwoods prairie of 150,000 some souls, it’s now Pentium II or bust.
Looks like Topeka has been abandoned to the Pumpkins. Have you?
So I counted. I found that rather than being devastated at the lack of new Mac/Win stuff this year, I could hardly keep from smiling as I noted the paltry selection for the old ‘gotta be Microsoft’ crowd. By the way: Mr.(or Ms.) 486 is an amalgamation of all those media mavens, coworkers, friends and relatives-mine’s named Uncle Mikey, how about yours-that attack us like Minnesota mosquitoes every time we mention our Macs. Hey, Mikey. Let’s go shopping.
“Got us a new Windows machine a couple years back,” says Mr. 486sx25, as we bump into each other at Best Buy just before Christmas. “It’s one of those Microsoft/Intel things you see on TV. You can be sure we won’t be obsolete anytime soon. Compatibility! That’s the name of the game. And, speaking of games,” he grins, “I’m after some new games and stuff for the wife and kids. Gotta keep ‘em up with technology.”
He throws a sneer over his shoulder toward the admittedly anemic Macintosh aisle at Best Buy where I have been doing my regular stint at evangelizing. He’s been listening in. “Don’t you know the Mac is dead? That Apple stuff’s obsolete before you get it out of the box! Wanta be compatible? Stick with Microsoft!”
I bite my tongue. I’d rather bite him, but I’m cool. “So what did you have in mind,” I say as we head toward the software. I’ve been casing the games area of late and have a pretty good idea how things stand.
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In this never – ever – ever – ending tale, you may note a certain telescoping of events, not to mention a tendency to mix Kings and Presidents like raisins in a pot of porridge. But, even if we humble Web browsing souls could keep it all straight, unlike corporations and kingdoms with unlimited resources, we have a column to get out and a life to get on with. Still, long live the various Williams who should keep us in copy ’til the cows come home.
All this happened a long, long time ago, when William the Marketable was King of the land. Just before, in fact, he was proclaimed Emperor.
(No. No. Not that William, Son. That’s another story altogether. That William, they do tell, shot the head off his own Apple. You remember. People still say they see him on a frosty autumn night lurking beneath an apple tree, his head tucked snugly beneath his arm.)
No, this other William, our William, had a grand Palace by the sea and a very large Court of assorted Flunkies. His coastline was the longest in the known world and his harbors had, by default, a stranglehold on nearby ships and shipping. He also maintained a line of fine monasteries across his kingdom. Between the ships on the sea and the monasteries on the land, he was well in control of his world.
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I have a new policy. If a game is not made for the Mac as well as the Microsoft crowd, I don’t buy. Admittedly, this fervent campaign has not exactly brought the game world to its knees. Mostly it has meant that I searched the Christmas shelves for Mac versions of family friendly games such as Clue and StarWars Monopoly with nothing but sore feet to show for it.
Hey, Hasbro, you just missed a couple of hot sales. Don’t come crying to the Mac millions if the holiday season didn’t sizzle. And Sierra! What happened to the Hoyles? How hard would it have been to add some Mac stuff to those board games that sprung up for Christmas. We’ve all been good Sierra customers for years. Who do you think you are, treating your faithful customers this way… Apple?
True, there are some excellent Mac games around. RIVEN, of course, though it has pretty heavy requirements for the average machine, Mac or otherwise. And there seem to be a fair number of blood and thunder sorts about as well. But those have been well documented. I wanted gentle timewasters. Solitary companions for long nights in dull motels. I especially wanted something that could be run on a PowerBook 1400 sans CD. And so I persevered.
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If there were no Steve, as a wise man once sort of said, we would have had to invent him. Open letters, addressed only to ‘Steve’, punctuate the Web. Sometimes laudatory. Sometimes derogatory. Sometimes desperate. But always, just ‘Steve’.
“Steve,” we say.
“Steve!” We shout
“Steve…” we plead on bended knee.
No wonder he has an ego the size of Alaska! But does he listen? Does he know? Does he even care? He certainly doesn’t answer. And when he does, beware. Beware the charm. Beware the wrath. Beware the reality distortion field.
The ancient Greeks and Romans would have understood. Fits of hubris, rage and jealousy? All just a part of the heavenly circus. And what of the charm, the wit, the charisma? The ability to change our world with a word or a whim? Pure Pantheon theatrics.
Zeus on a shoestring. How badly we need him. In our troubled drama, with both comedy and tragedy awaiting us in the wings, we need more than a faceless company, certainly more than a headless committee.We need a lead, larger than life, prancing wildly center stage. In short, we need a Hero. An anti-hero will do. Or, if all else fails, a whipping boy.
But we need something, someone, somewhere to focus our fears. To hear our prayers. Maybe, even, to answer them. And, as Steve himself once sort of said, he’s the only shot we’ve got.
So, as the Mac world stands transfixed, a giant meteor on the horizon hurtling headlong on a collision course with the rest of us, we scan the skies and cry:
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I got a phone call from my son last week. Most calls start with something like “Hi, umm, would you happen to have an extra modem cable around and maybe a couple of empty Zips; oh, and you got a SCSI 25/50 I could borrow?” After that, it’s all technical.
As a child, this boy lived buried beneath piles of monster comics, King Kong posters and 8 mm film, dreaming dreams of special effects. Now he lives entangled in a welter of wires, cables, SyJets, null modems and external drives linking an Amiga, a Performa 6116, a close-out PowerBase and a used Pentium to make those dreams come to life. LightWave and an Amiga 3000 changed his destiny.
Self taught, he has made up in dedication and fanaticism for a rather late start. We both touched our first computers at the same time: Summer of ’92. But, while I gingerly explored cut & paste and played with my screensavers, he surged bravely forward.
“You touched your Motherboard!” Winter ’92. I was filled with awe. “My son actually touched his motherboard !” I bragged to totally disinterested, not to mention, discombobulated friends and family. “But what, exactly, do you do ?” I asked.
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“Damn computers anyway!” Alice Ann took a hasty look around the room before she remembered that in the dorm, ‘damn’ was an adjective, not an expletive. All she’d meant to do was type her name and suddenly the screen went black. She smacked the mouse in frustration and, surprisingly, the screen cleared.
Why? Why had her brother insisted that she must have a computer to survive in college. He’d practically forced his old LCIII on her. There had been enough miserable adjustments in the last couple of weeks without having to change her whole way of thinking. Oh, for her beloved word processor under the bed back home. This thing swallowed her desk as well as her thoughts.
Though how could anyone even have thoughts in a dorm with three rowdy roommates who seemed to have no need for sleep or study. One of them had spent the evening hunched over her guitar while the other two simply drank coffee and giggled. Probably about her. It seemed obvious to her that they had already pegged her as Little Miss Midnight Oil. Well, why not. She had assumed, naively it seemed, that studying was the thing to do while in college.
A loud but tuneless singing accompanied the guitar.
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MyMac Podcast #403
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