The day my father bought a mac. ( essay )
The day my father bought a mac. ( essay )
1.sep.2004
If this had been some years ago, I would probably assumed that hell had froze over. But lo and behold, my father has bought a mac.
Up until recently, my father was among the conservative "if it doesn´t do MS Office, it´s just a toy" category. As quickly as he bought a pc, he forgot the brand-name and never dived into the computer to find out what he actually could do with it. He never used PowerPoint, never used Access, turning the whole MS Office package ( and a dominant contributor to Microsoft's enormous wealth ) into a application for making graphs. Never in my life have I ever seen him do anything more useful than reading/responding to e-mail and browsing the internet. Other than that, I know that there has been some intense solitaire moments in his home-office.
Using his pc to edit his dv footage, or to manage his digital camera ? Forget it !
To him, upgrading Windows was just to get new icons and other eye-candy.
On the other hand, since I bought my iMac 450 DV+, I have become the family´s biographer. Churning out home-movies for all different kinds of occasions. After I installed MCE´s superdrive into my G4 Cube, some family members get home-dvd´s from time to time. (it takes a looong while to make a dvd on a 450 Cube but it is worth it ! ). And my homepage ( homepage.mac.com/zenarcade) is filled with photos.
I think that my dvd from my sisters wedding was the turning point. It was a result of good planing before filming, Final Cut Express 2 and iDVD 2. A nice mix between video and photos, some effects here and there. Some sepia there, and some slow-motion there. Every time I pop that dvd into a dvd-player, the opening menus always bring a tear to my eye. And probably to my father also, because shortly after, he gave me a visit.
. . . . When you kiss a girl for the first time, when you see the meteorite for the first time , when you become a parent for the first time; how do you feel ?
I am still using my G4 Cube, patiently saving up to some faster hardware, but to my father, used to beige boxes, a G4 Cube is a clear indication on something very special. It is a display of smartness, of power, and of true coolness.
Giving a grand tour of Mac OSX 10.3, panther, my father got very silent. Very silent indeed. There were no questions of megahertz or ram or whatever technical. Not a word about 64bit.
It was all about experience. A lot of "oohs" and "aahs" when showing of Expose, the dock, iLife, multiuser switching. And all those things that simply works. installing and erasing applications. The structure of my home-folder. I must confess, I have Konfabulator installed and some of those gadgets are WAAAYYY cool ! And after I had shown him this UNIX machinery, we just sat back and watched a slideshow with iPhoto. And, by some weird timing, my son buzzed me with iChat. Video-conferencing with the family is the second-best in the world ! My poor father had no idea that the "thingy" on top of my monitor was a camera.
And when he left me that evening, I knew and he knew...
And now he is happily computing on a brand spanking new iMac. This is the 2.4 GHz anniversary iMac. The price felt right to him, the 17´ monitor was just what he wanted, iLife´04 is making him spend countless hours in his home-office. And now, after almost 10 years with a computer. He is actually doing things.
Not because of the hardware, but because of the software.
1.sep.2004
If this had been some years ago, I would probably assumed that hell had froze over. But lo and behold, my father has bought a mac.
Up until recently, my father was among the conservative "if it doesn´t do MS Office, it´s just a toy" category. As quickly as he bought a pc, he forgot the brand-name and never dived into the computer to find out what he actually could do with it. He never used PowerPoint, never used Access, turning the whole MS Office package ( and a dominant contributor to Microsoft's enormous wealth ) into a application for making graphs. Never in my life have I ever seen him do anything more useful than reading/responding to e-mail and browsing the internet. Other than that, I know that there has been some intense solitaire moments in his home-office.
Using his pc to edit his dv footage, or to manage his digital camera ? Forget it !
To him, upgrading Windows was just to get new icons and other eye-candy.
On the other hand, since I bought my iMac 450 DV+, I have become the family´s biographer. Churning out home-movies for all different kinds of occasions. After I installed MCE´s superdrive into my G4 Cube, some family members get home-dvd´s from time to time. (it takes a looong while to make a dvd on a 450 Cube but it is worth it ! ). And my homepage ( homepage.mac.com/zenarcade) is filled with photos.
I think that my dvd from my sisters wedding was the turning point. It was a result of good planing before filming, Final Cut Express 2 and iDVD 2. A nice mix between video and photos, some effects here and there. Some sepia there, and some slow-motion there. Every time I pop that dvd into a dvd-player, the opening menus always bring a tear to my eye. And probably to my father also, because shortly after, he gave me a visit.
. . . . When you kiss a girl for the first time, when you see the meteorite for the first time , when you become a parent for the first time; how do you feel ?
I am still using my G4 Cube, patiently saving up to some faster hardware, but to my father, used to beige boxes, a G4 Cube is a clear indication on something very special. It is a display of smartness, of power, and of true coolness.
Giving a grand tour of Mac OSX 10.3, panther, my father got very silent. Very silent indeed. There were no questions of megahertz or ram or whatever technical. Not a word about 64bit.
It was all about experience. A lot of "oohs" and "aahs" when showing of Expose, the dock, iLife, multiuser switching. And all those things that simply works. installing and erasing applications. The structure of my home-folder. I must confess, I have Konfabulator installed and some of those gadgets are WAAAYYY cool ! And after I had shown him this UNIX machinery, we just sat back and watched a slideshow with iPhoto. And, by some weird timing, my son buzzed me with iChat. Video-conferencing with the family is the second-best in the world ! My poor father had no idea that the "thingy" on top of my monitor was a camera.
And when he left me that evening, I knew and he knew...
And now he is happily computing on a brand spanking new iMac. This is the 2.4 GHz anniversary iMac. The price felt right to him, the 17´ monitor was just what he wanted, iLife´04 is making him spend countless hours in his home-office. And now, after almost 10 years with a computer. He is actually doing things.
Not because of the hardware, but because of the software.
Comments
I didn't even notice the future date until I got to the 2.4 GHz part and stopped reading.
It's not a bad piece of fiction, mind you...
. . . . When you kiss a girl for the first time, when you see the meteorite for the first time , when you become a parent for the first time; how do you feel ?
Pass the bag, i'm going to be sick!!!
is there a point to this? what the hell does a future 2.4GHz machine add to this story at ALL?
I don't know whether to yell at you or feel sorry for you.
I'm just going to shut off the computer now and go outside.
The G5 is a great CPU. But just about every advantage in the essay is here now, and it works now. If you weren't so hung up on what Apple isn't shipping yet you might be reporting a switch instead of fantasizing in public.
I read that whole thing thinking it was a real story only to find out that it's made up.
Originally posted by murbot
I'm just going to shut off the computer now and go outside.
Dude...isn't it cold in Canada?
And the story was...uhhh...what the crap? Not bad writing though.