[AGL] Mac Attack

[Gerry]

Byron,
Yeah, you're right. My comment about horses was directed at MM. I too have heard lots of raves about the iMac 24. But my first question is: do it run AutoCAD? And Macs don't. Many years back they made a version for the Mac and it was major dud, hence you will find no Macs at engineering offices and the like. And since AutoCAD is my illustration and desk top publishing tool I don't do Macs. 

In 1959 I worked at an insurance company home office. Trained in the DP department and eventually (6 months) promoted to assistant manager. In 1961 went to programming school and started writing programs for IBM mainframes, until 1965. This was back before packaged programs were available, every company had programmers who created the software.  Then a long break from the world of offices while I pursued the life of a professional musician, skirt chaser, and dope fiend.

In 1980, having surfaced from the underground and become gainfully employed once again, I purchased one of the first personal computers, an Osborne. Toted that dog around on airplanes, etc. while I was a union rep. Then an original IBM PC, great machine for the time. In 1985/86 studied computer drafting and technical illustration at TSTI and learned a little AutoCAD. In 1987 went to work as a mobile AutoCAD instructor, toting a dozen or so units (all PC's of course) around Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma in a van, setting up classes in rented motel meeting rooms. In 1988 taught at College of Santa Fe, AutoCAD and PageMaker. In 1989 moved to Seattle, working for The Austin Company, a builder of large, hi-tech buildings. My job? AutoCAD supervisor, 30 engineers and designers working AutoCAD. Took a course at U of Washington in PC repair and began long subscription to PC World magazine, was very current for a long time. In 1991/92 worked for architectural/civil engineering firm as Computer Manager, mainly AutoCAD but everything else in the office as well. In 1993 managed 5th largest AutoCAD training center in the USA, Eastern Washington, Hanford Works, for Gonzaga U. Seattle is a PC town, just as Austin is a Mac town...strong prejudices. AutoCAD on a Mac is sick joke, you never see that combo in the work place. Only Macs I saw in the work place were for architectural renderings, never for drafting or design.

Moved to NM in 1993 and started drawing on the PC using AutoCAD. Started arts and crafts business peddling the art work created on PC. Met a few other digital artists in Las Cruces (there were 3 of us in the southern half of NM in those days). The most incredible work was by a woman who uses the sketch tool in Word Perfect as her drawing software, a Philipina with superb talent. Don't know how she does it, but then again, I hear the same kind of comments about my using AutoCAD instead of an illustration program. I have "made" my last two computers, barebones, select the components and assemble them. Not possible with Macs. Quite easy to make one that will run circles around a Mac for about 1/3 the cost. The styling argument leaves me cold. I don't look at the box, it's under the desk.

I have used my personal computer to make a living for many years now, long before the internet and modern communications and packaged programs. Always have a laptop and a desktop and various parts and peripherals lying about, also a variety of printers and scanners (large format). But I will admit that in recent years, with my system working like a charm, I have not kept abreast of all the many changes in the world of computers. The late versions of Windows have home theater software too, haven't tried it, don't need  it. I did buy another IBM laptop on e-bay last year to replace one that had become dated. Hardly ever use it. My most common source is newegg.com. Check them out sometime and see what all you might get if you build your own and/or need to save cash. 

Macs have always been the most expensive, low-power machines on the market. I guess if price is no object and the main use is gossiping on the internet and processing photos they are fine. But lots of us do have to consider price and the other performance categories I mentioned in the last post. And, like I said, they still rule in the field of graphic arts, but except for Mac towns you hardly ever see them in offices. (Back in the '80's Apple gave thousands of computers to school systems with the idea that it would pay off in the long run. Austin and the UofT were recipients of this generosity, and from that beginning Austin became a Mac town. Once I made the mistake of taking drawings--on disks--to Austin media shops to get them printed out. Not one shop in town had AutoCAD installed, Mac format only. In Seattle the opposite was true, not a Mac to be seen in the pro shops. So it becomes a case of "dance with the one that brung ya" and for me that is the PC, siempre). 

I guess there is something about watching a movie on a larger screen that appeals, but in the darkness of my ignorance I am under the impression that my 17" monitor and Walmart sound system is just fine...when it becomes dated I will make another one. I am looking at the new HDTV's as a home movie theater but not too seriously yet. I live in a small house. And I am in the market for computer sound that wires directly into one's hearing aids...
G


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: bakhirun bakhirun 
  To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
  Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 3:33 PM
  Subject: [AGL] Mac Attack


  I am trying to remember the quote from Spanish. It goes something like "...lo que sabe el burro de matematika..." (but it is probably dirtier).

  I too have a rather long history of rasslin' with personal computers. Artist friends in Montreal first baptized me with a creaky Mac 512 in 1986. I well remember the mental agonies required, at the age of 45, in having to learn to follow every tiny rule and neat keystroke. Then I moved in with an old pal in New York and used her MultiMate, on DOS. When I came to Indonesia and started working as a copywriter I had to use WP5.1 because everybody else was. Bye-bye Maccy at that point.

  But I am basically a visual expressionist and the lure of the wild has always hovered at the (event) horizon. I took a look at the iMac 24. Jeez, it looks like a home theatre. And all the reviews, even from the non-Mac crowd, are replete with wows. 

  So I'm going for it. As we used to say at the Campus Guild, "Faint heart never screwed the cook."

  Thankee

  BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB


  On 3/6/07, Gerry <mesmo at gilanet.com> wrote:
    You know about as much about computers as I do about horses... 
    G


    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "michele mason" <yaya.m at earthlink.net>
    To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s" 
    <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
    Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 1:45 PM
    Subject: Re: [AGL] The Baron is either (a) or (b)


    That's okay. But, not flexibility, or bang for the buck—know where to 
    buy and from whom. Software/hardware, maybe, maybe just a little
    inferior.  One may get used to a corncob, but I prefer Charmin.  Yes, a
    macsnob, but I don't mind.  mm

    On Mar 5, 2007, at 12:24 PM, Gerry wrote: 

    > <<Macs are better in every sense!<<
    >
    > Except cost, bang for the buck, flexibility, general availability of a
    > huge
    > selection of software and hardware, etc.
    >
    > The one and only area that Macs established an early following and
    > have been
    > able to keep it is graphic arts...oh yeah, and cuteness...
    >
    > Not intending to start a "my computer is better than yours war" but 
    > resisting such an extreme statement as yours.
    >
    > On the DOS platform since 1985,
    > G
    >
    >
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "michele mason" < yaya.m at earthlink.net>
    > To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
    > <austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
    > Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 9:38 AM
    > Subject: Re: [AGL] The Baron is either (a) or (b)
    >
    >
    >> Macs are better in every sense! That's my story....and you know.
    >> Sincerely, I am a Mac-person and wouldn't have anything else. Its just 
    >> a matter of which one you need. That ?, I would direct to Dave
    >> Moriaty.
    >>
    >> Best regards,  Michele
    >>
    >> On Feb 15, 2007, at 5:49 AM, blacky at cbn.net.id wrote:
    >>
    >>>
    >>> I have decided to plunk down two thousand clams for a 24-inch iMac,
    >>> primarily to use for photo work and video editing.
    >>> 
    >>>
    >>> (a) Hooray for you, Byron. Go for it.
    >>>
    >>> (b) Yer bonkers, mate.
    >>>
    >>> Considering that all the furniture in my house is waterlogged, and 
    >>> that
    >>> this sum represents a prodigious amount of dough for me, my esteemed
    >>> colleagues and most valued peers are staring at me like I have lost
    >>> my
    >>> fucking mind. 
    >>>
    >>> Wish me luck folks. Anyhow the way I look at it since I spend 25% of
    >>> my
    >>> waking hours staring at a stupid screen it may as well be a
    >>> whizz-bang 
    >>> one.
    >>>
    >>> Any, er, comments? Feedback? Warnings?
    >>>
    >>> BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
    >>>
    >>
    >>
    >




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