About Me
I’ve been using UNIX since a Pascal class in 1980 (I learned ex, then later was shown the ‘vi’ mode, and was hooked). I’ve been using Apple computers since almost that long ago. My dad got a “Fat Mac” (512k Macintosh) that was upgraded to a Mac Plus, and when I went back to college in 1991, our computer classes were all on Mac II’s. But there were several years that I didn’t use Apple computer.
In recent years, especially since OSX, I’ve gravitated back to Macs. Being an old UNIX geek at heart, I like the fact that somewhere under the Macintosh UI there still is UNIX. I dabbled in Linux (and still have a Linux server in the basement), but was frustrated by dealing with various missing or broken components in the user experience (notably, sound and video). Getting lazy, I decided to give Macs a try again. What can I say? I like it when things just work!
At present, I either own or am responsible for 9 Apple computers (ranging from a couple iPods to a Mac Pro).
Apple attracts a wide variety of fans, the more passionate of which are called “fanboys”. Despite my enthusiasm with Apple products, I don’t consider myself one (some may disagree). I consider fanboys those whose opinions start with the assumption that everything Apple does to be perfection. I know it’s not, but Apple does do a lot of stuff that I consider good.
Last year I bought my first iPhone. I’ve since bought two more. Shortly after I bought mine 3GS, I bought my wife a 3G. Then this year I bought an iPhone 4 (and gave the 3GS to my wife and the 3G is now a “family iPhone”). If I could design the iPhone for myself, I would give it all the features that jailbroken iPhones have. But the iPhone isn’t designed for me, it’s designed for less sophisticated users. And for them, it’s a very good phone. Despite that, the iPhone is a wonderful product (even for me). Part of it’s power is the app store. With a (mostly, except when it’s jailbroken) closed platform, there’s a guaranteed revenue stream for developers. That means there are plenty of applications for it.
