A Little History

My first computer was a Commodore 64.

Ahh, memories. It was great. On the C64 was where I learned BASIC, and got to play Infocom text-based games, and even translations of cool arcade games. A few years later, I bought an Atari Mega ST.

Empire, anyone?

By the time I started working, I finally did jump into the vast PC pool, and until last year, I never got out, not even to the shallow end. So over a period of about 15 years, I had all manners of PCs: a Dell, a few home-built machines, a couple of local store-built ones, and two laptops.

But last year was when I finally jumped ship. I bought a Mac. Here’s why:

Reasons I Switched to a Mac

• Price – Over the years, I made a lot of friends who used the Mac, so it was not like I knew nothing about them. In fact, the first Macintosh I was exposed to was the Mac 128 (and I was very impressed), and over the years various friends had IIci’s, Quadra’s, G3’s and iBooks. And throughout those years, I was always aware that Apple hardware came at a premium price. But in recent years, getting the best “bang for the buck” no longer meant only looking at PCs. In fact, because of the next reason, pricing is very competitive for similarly spec’ed machines.
• Switching to Intel Chips – When Apple in 2006 announced the reasons (price and performance) they were switching to Intel chips, that really piqued my interest. Aware of the EAS (Early Adopters Syndrome), I patiently bided my time while paying close attention to each and every announcement of new models. Knowing I wasn’t going to buy one right away allowed me to simply take in all the hoopla surrounding each model, and read the subsequent (positive) reviews on Mac performances. I paid attention to PC emulating software (Parallels and later Fusion), and knew then that my time was coming. The couple of crucial PC software that I use can now be run on the Mac.
• Ease of Maintenance – Thanks to a lot of tutorial videos, both on the Apple site and sites like YouTube and MacSales.com, I was definitely looking forward to having an easy-to-maintain desktop (as I’ll explain below). I was not to be disappointed.

I made the switch, and bought a Quad-Core MacPro tower late last summer.

6 Months Later…

I’m as happy as can be.

For me, it wasn’t like, “What took me so long?” but rather, “I’m so glad I waited and now I got one!”

So, in my limited experience so far, the things that jump out are:

• Simplicity – For years I’ve admired the design of Apple products. Sleek, elegant, clean, simple are all words that come to mind, and now that I own one, those same words still arrive! From the way the machine comes packed, to the way the designers managed the wire-handling, there’s a rhyme and reason to how everything works. My Mac is the most beautiful thing to look at — I only wish those designers would come and clean up my office!
• Ease of Upgrading – The MacPro can hold 4 hard drives. How long did it take me to install one hard drive? 5 minutes. I undo one latch, open the case, slide out a metal frame, screw on the new drive to the frame, slide it back in (no connector, wires, or power supply to fool with), close the case, push the latch to the closed position, and I’m done. Boot up the Mac, and it tells me there’s a new drive, and asks what should I do with it (format it).

Contrast this with my last experience adding a drive to my PC. I open up the case and locate a free spot to install the drive. I need to knock out one of the small panels in the front of the case so that I can put the drive through. I secure the drive with the screws. Now I connect the data cable from the motherboard to the drive. For the power cable, I need to free one of the extra cables that the manufacturer has secured together with a cable tie, attach the power cable to the drive, and then tie up the remaining cables with a new tie. Now I massage all the wires back into place so that the case can be closed. I boot up the PC. The monitor is blank. What the?! After a couple of retries with the same result, I boot into Setup, and find out that there’s no boot drive. Hmmm. I open up the case again, and find that during my installation of the new drive, I had loosened the data cable to my boot drive. Okay, reattach that. Reboot. Okay, it finally works. Format the new drive, proceed with life (after I’ve wasted an hour and a half). Which brings me to the next discovery about my Mac:

• It Really Just Works – I’ve been hearing in ads and from users about how Macs just works. And it’s all true. The operating system is very stable. Some programs still crash, yes, but those are far and few in between, and certainly at a much, much smaller rate than Windows programs. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to shut down the computer due to a rogue program. Compare this with my PC, when a cold reboot was necessary at least once a week. Many of the bundle applications on the Mac are quite robust: iTunes, iPhotos, iDVD are all programs I use on a regular basis. (I use Gmail instead of Mail.) Updates are easy and painless. Do I need to mention the PC equivalents? I thought not.
• I am Much More Productive – And because I spend less time needing to reboot the computer, or tinkering with upgrades, etc., I have more time to spend writing blog pos–I mean, being productive, like complete work for my clients, spend time with family, etc.

I’m happy with my computer. Are you?

One of the best recent books I’ve read that perfectly illustrates critical thinking skills is Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.

In it, Mr. Diamond espouses on a number of theories that help explain how early human societies throughout the world developed, evolved and eventually wound up with today’s nation-states.

It’s amazing how he is able to illustrate in detail a broad picture of the development of human societies — in many ways, the “story” almost resembles one of those world conquering video-games like Age of Empires, or Civilization and their ilk. For instance, mankind in the beginning had to contend with simply finding (gathering) enough food to eat. But with the introduction of new “technology” like hunting, more food became available to support a larger community beyond a family. Thus, began tribes, villages, and eventually cities, kingdoms, etc. (I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those game creators had read the book for research).

It really is a fascinating look at the reasons why and how various societies developed, who was able to succeed, why others failed, and especially why current national powers exist where they are. Factors such as geography, natural wildlife, plant species, and luck are all examined in detail. And of course, later on in the book, we find out more about the influence of “guns, germs and steel”.

It’s an eye-opening book.

I’ve been slowly exploring the excellent blog, Zen Habits — one of the inspirations for this blog — and author Leo Bautista has a wonderful post entitled Best All-Time Children’s Books. It’s an extensive list, and I agree with his choices, at least for the ones I happened to have read.

I thought I’d write my own little post on books that I recall first borrowing from the library:

• Henry Huggins – by Beverly Cleary. I distinctly remember reading this book in 4th grade, when I first got my very own library card. It was great fun to imagine the seemingly ordinary life of young Henry Huggins, where nothing happens until the day he comes home with a stray dog. The various situations he gets in are fun, yet filled with the kind of lessons every child should learn. I believe these were the first books where I became fully immersed in the world of the characters, feeling what they were feeling, and experiencing their challenges and how they overcame them. I read many of the other books in the series (such as the Mouse and the Motorcyle, and really became aware of how to find books by author. Zen Habits recommends the Ramona series, which I have not read, but it seems anything by Cleary is good. I noticed that many of Cleary’s books have been recently reprinted with new illustrations. I’m partial to the original, but still, I would highly recommend any of her books.
• The Mad Scientists’ Club – by Bertrand R. Brinley. I was enthralled with books that really emphasized independence from adults. It was a chance to escape into a different world, into a kid’s world, and to see things from their perspective. Since I WAS a kid at the time, it was easy, and appealing. And in this book and others in the series, I got to do that. It really helps that the title was really enticing: mad scientists as in bwah-ha-ha-ha, and a exclusive club — how much more of an invitation does a kid need? In this series, a band of kids often uses science as a way to pass the time but sometimes achieving something more. Whether it’s pranks or something heroic like rescuing, the series is truly entertaining. If you’re really interested in learning more, there are a couple of websites worth checking out:
  • www.MadScientistsClub.com – looks like the official website by the author’s son, Sheridan Brinley
  • www.PurpleHousePress.com – a site dedicated to bringing back great children’s books from years past
• Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint – by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin. Here was another series of books that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on: Danny Dunn. With young Danny always being headstrong — his strongest trait — and always rushing into things, his friends Joe and (later in the series) Irene who help him, and Professor Bullfinch the absent-minded scientist who’s usually the raison d’etre for the invention or “MacGuffin” in each story, each book presented a fun adventure replete with scientific premises and what-not. It was really, really hard for me to put any of those books down.
  

It’s a short list for now, but I would say these stories are great for ages 9 through 13 or so. I think the key feature for all of them was how engaging the stories were, how each world drew me in. There are a lot of great books today, but of course these were the ones I actually read as a child.

I actually remember getting my own library card in the 4th grade, and always wanting to visit my local branch every week or so — one might be hard pressed to find kids like that in today’s world of high-speed internet and Nintendo and Playstations.

I happened to drop by my old neighborhood recently and popped into the library on a whim, and everything is so different now: computer terminals everywhere, and it’s quite a bit more noisy than in the ol’ days.

Anyway, I feel these books really helped shaped and developed my appreciation for fun, involving stories, and set the stage for my my burgeoning childhoold curiosity of science.

If you have some favorite childhood books, I’d love to hear about them.

I hope to continue writing about them as periodic topics in the future.