Computers Are Both Fun and Practical, WWDC, Apple’s worldwide developer conference, is held every year.
The big show is always the keynote, where Apple reveals their plans for upcoming software. 바카라사이트
If you’re a casual Apple fan, that might be all you care about. If you’re a developer, there are a ton of new sessions and APIs to learn.
For a non-developer nerd like me, the best stuff comes later. All of the articles, podcasts, and interviews that come out of WWDC week are my favorite part of the event.
Every year, John Gruber’s Talk Show live is one of my favorites. It’s become a tradition.
Greg Joswiak (SVP of Marketing) and Craig Federighi (SVP of Software Engineering) returned for the second year in a row as guests.
It’s a good interview with a lot of good moments, but my favorite came at the end, when John asked how they first became interested in computers.
I bought a silly T-shirt with clip art of a couple of kids at an 80’s-style generic PC 20, 25 years ago.
The slogan on the t-shirt simply stated, “Computers are Fun and Useful.”
That phrase has stuck with me aside from the fact that computers are fun and useful, there is a subset of people who think Apple computers are especially fun and useful.
That’s why you came to work at Apple, you said. You didn’t want to work in the computer industry;
You wanted to work for Apple, right? There was no backup plan because there was nothing else like the Mac.
As a final question, I’m just curious. When was the first time you realized, way back when, that Apple computers are unique and that you fell in love with them?
I watched this interview a few months ago, but that phrase is still ringing in my ears.
Computers are both entertaining and useful. I’ve always felt that way, but I never gave it much thought.
For the majority of people, they are simply a tool, a means to an end. Something you must use in order to complete your work. A piece of equipment.
I’m the polar opposite. Computers have always piqued my interest. I’m always curious about how they work and how they could be improved. I’m interested in how this model differs from that model, or how this brand excels at something. I’m very concerned about the differences, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a computer snob. But I can’t help myself. For better or worse, computers consume the majority of my time.
Ubiquitous computing enables so much of modern life, and it’s easy to take it all for granted.
Sometimes I like to pause and reflect on how we got here.
My Personal Computing Background
I’ve used a Mac since I had the option to do so. But I haven’t always had the option to choose.
My father was a professional photographer who started his own business when I was growing up in the 1990s.
He always used Macs, and I was fortunate to have Macs in our elementary school computer labs.
- I didn’t realize it at the time because they were just computers.
- Didn’t care about the details back then; all I wanted to do was play Oregon Trail or Number Munchers.
- Realize it until much later, but I enjoy learning how things work, particularly technology.
- I was always taking things apart as a kid, trying to figure out what made them tick.
As I grew older, I developed an interest in computer history. I’m still fascinated by Xerox PARC, Engelbart’s Mother of All Demos, the history of ARPANET
And how we arrived at the interconnected world we have today. I also have a soft spot for old computer advertisements and promotional materials.
Playing SkiFree on an IBM ThinkPad 700 in “IBM beige” with Windows 3.1 was one of my first computing memories.
It was a bad computer by today’s standards. It was a big, clumsy laptop with a sluggish, monochrome passive-matrix LCD screen.
I didn’t mind the ghosting and viewing angles, as well as the performance and battery life. I just wanted to have fun while playing SkiFree.
That laptop was eventually replaced by a series of PowerBooks and Mac clone desktop computers.
I recall this strange beige tower, a UMAX SuperMac.
It was our first nice computer. I recall playing with the disc drive and the ripples on the front side of the plastic.
It appealed to me because it was entertaining.
My father liked it because it was practical — it was less expensive and faster than other Macs at the time.
But it wasn’t all roses. We also had some truly awful computers, such as a parts-bin desktop that a nerdy friend managed to upgrade from Windows 95 to Windows 98. Windows 98 performed like hot garbage.
I still despise Windows 98 because of what it did to that poor computer. 카지노사이트
To put things in perspective, this was the era of America Online trial CDs, and the Internet was more akin to the Space Jam website than the world-dominating force it is today. Those were happy days.
The Mac Genesis
The UMAX SuperMac and Classic Mac OS eventually left. It was replaced by the coolest computer I’d ever seen. It was the Titanium PowerBook G4, and it was around 2001.
It was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It appeared to be from another planet — one with better designers.
The impact of the PowerBook G4 was well covered by Jason Snell in his excellent “20 Macs for 2020” series.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the PowerBook G4 helped shape my ideas about what computers should be.
In comparison, beige Macs and PCs appeared dull and boring. If the computer is the mental bicycle, the PowerBook G4 is the motorcycle.
It was unquestionably cool. If my father had been a Windows user
I would have assumed that Dell or Gateway desktop towers were the way to go. Fortunately, this was not the case.
Another thing I didn’t realize until later was that I was witnessing one of the greatest business turnarounds in history.
The acquisition of NeXT and the return of Steve Jobs resulted in many significant moments in my computing life
As well as a slew of fun and useful computers along the way.
Apple’s redemption arc from the mid-90s lows to the iPhone’s peak is astounding. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed it firsthand, in real time.
I was eventually old enough to have my own computer. Because I was a fool and my mother thought Macs
Were too expensive, I persuaded her to buy a cheap Dell laptop.
We replaced it with a white plastic MacBook after 4 broken power supplies and one iPhone announcement.
It was November 2007, shortly after the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
My sister thought it would be amusing to race home from school and take it out of the box
Before I could open it, causing me to open an empty box. That continues to irritate me.
Aside from minor sibling annoyances, I remember the video that played when you first turned on the computer. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
A working (and magnetic!) power supply was also pretty cool. I adored that computer.
My sister thought it would be amusing to race home from school and take it out of the box before I could open it, causing me to open an empty box. That continues to irritate me.
Aside from minor sibling annoyances, I remember the video that played when you first turned on the computer. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
A working (and magnetic!) power supply was also pretty cool. I adored that computer.
The difference between a typical PC and a Mac at the time was enormous. Windows was still in the Vista era, with annoying security popups and slow performance.
Following the Intel transition, Mac hardware was competitive, and in some areas, it was far ahead of the majority of PC vendors.
They got a lot of things right, including the 16:10 screen ratio, full-size keyboard, MagSafe, overall design, standby battery life, and sleep mode.
The multi-touch trackpad was the most noticeable difference for me. It was the first time a pointing device didn’t irritate me, and it felt like a natural extension of my hand.
Swiping around with gestures, using Exposé and spaces, and smooth scrolling with two fingers made the Mac feel like it was made for me in a way that no other computer had before.
It wasn’t just better than the Dell it replaced; it was also more enjoyable to use.
Mac software was also important to me. I spent countless hours experimenting with Photo Booth
Garageband, iMovie, and all of the other fantastic, free applications included.
The moment I opened that MacBook for the first time and saw that video, I knew I was an Apple guy.
I’d put up with Windows and dealt with the computers I had, but I knew if I had a choice, it would have to be a Mac. Here we are, 14 years later.
The Modern Era
Since then, I’ve owned a slew of MacBooks, with the occasional Mac mini or MacBook Air thrown in for good measure.
My primary computer is currently a 14-inch MacBook Pro, and I am surrounded by others.
I carry three computers: one in my pocket, one on my wrist, and one in each of my ears.
I have computers that I can communicate with as well as those that work silently on my behalf.
As many of us are, I am surrounded by ambient computing. 카지노 블로그