It must’ve been back in the early 80s when my grandmother first introduced me to an Apple ][e. Something clicked (and it was more profound than a mouse button). I suppose if she would’ve gotten us a Commodore or some other box I might be making $250,000 a year right now, if I weren’t retired and living on an island somewhere.
I used computers on and off, then, through junior high and high school. But it wasn’t until college and my Mac SE FDHD that I realy started getting into computers. That was the summer of 1989.
After the SE came the LCIII and its infamous pizza box design. That sucker ran at 25 MHz!! The LC III made way eventually for one of the fruity iMacs, which was replaced by one of my favorite Macs, the iMac DVSE in graphite. After I’d had that for a while, I was lured into another Mac purchase — and my first portable — when the iBook SE (FireWire) was released in Key Lime. I came to like this computer even more than my iMac DV (which is still in service at a friend’s house). I finally sold the Key Lime on eBay (and got a great price for it).
The Key Lime really marked a turning point, as it awakened me to the wonders of wireless computing. For a while there I’d even sworn off desktop systems altogether. After selling the Key Lime I picked up a 900 MHz G3 iBook, the last of the G3s. That’s what I’m using now, and it’s been pretty solid. Thinking back now, it’s downright miraculous I haven’t had more problems with all these computers than I have. The latest iBook was the first one that ever had to go back to Apple for anything (bad logic board). That was fixed promptly and satisfactorily.
The 900 MHz iBook was also that machine on which I started messing around with serving Web pages from home. I built a Gallery site and started adding pictures to it so family and friends could keep up on our lives. I bought myself a SLiMP3 device and started serving music online to selected, high-quality individuals.
As my digital photography and music obsessions grew, it was becoming clearer that I needed a dedicated machine for hosting all this stuff. First I built a PC with tons of invaluable technical and hardware assistance from Kevin. It’s a dandy machine when it’s not running Windows.
After the PC I came across a good deal for a G4 Cube, a computer I’d always admired from a distance. I bought it, dropped a larger, faster hard drive in it and bumped up the ram to 1GB, and the nicheplayer.net server was born (don’t tell Mediacom). This blog is just the latest addition to the server.
Through it all, I’ve had my eye out for solid, good quality hardware that wouldn’t give me too much trouble. I’ve been lucky. In fact, I’m starting to think that I’m just too darned lucky. So lucky that I’m wondering, for example, if I’ll ever have to buy another digital camera. The model I own now is my trusty Canon A70. I’ve taken well over 5,000 pictures with it. I’ve carried it around in my backpack and bike bag without a case. It took a four-foot drop onto a ceramic tile floor, cracking open its case and fouling the lens’ telescoping mechanism, but I’m damned if it hasn’t now fixed itself! I just popped the case back together, and the lens would make a disconcerting grinding noise every time I powered on the A70, but that only lasted a couple weeks. Now it’s like nothing ever happened to it.
Well, almost. A couple times lately I’ve taken shots that just haven’t come out right. Usually I’d chalk it up to user error, but closer examination of the image reveals that there’s definitely something going on with the camera. I don’t know if it’s the flash, or the lenses, or the sensor, or what, but I think this may be the beginning of the end of the A70 (Lord knows I’ve been wrong before).
And though I’ve really enjoyed this camera, there are some really compelling models out now that would make great replacements. It’s amazing how much camera goodness you can get for not a whole lot of dough. My current plan is to baby this A70 as much as I can until it just flat out stops performing. I took a series of macro shots with it last night, and it still seems to be doing all right. Now I just have to pray that Canon doesn’t come out with anything too tasty before this camera dies. Please don’t come out with something too tasty, Canon. Please?