Personal Victories in Grand Rapids, Michigan

May 2001 – Back in 1998, the new Director of Management Information Systems at the Grand Rapids (MI) Public Schools (GRPS) decided to move the school system to Windows. Mac using parents and teachers fought back (see Grand Rapids (MI) Schools Standardizing on Windows).

Adoption Notice for an SE/30

2000 – No, Annie and I have definitely not adopted a child. We haven’t given one of our many up for adoption either, although, on any given day, we might rent any one of them out cheap. :-) This is the short tale of an abandoned Macintosh SE/30 that I found sitting on the floor […]

A Mini-Tour of My Mac

1999 – Early last Monday, the teacher across the hall poked her head into my classroom and said, “Last Monday to teach of this millennium,” and closed the door before I could begin chuckling. We get two weeks off for Christmas vacation. There are some advantages to being an educator.

Cal State Is Going Windows

June 1999 – An employee of Cal State informed me that the final decision has been made: The California State University (Cal State, CSU) Chancellor’s Office has put a freeze on future Macintosh purchases and will begin buying Dell PCs over the summer.

Apple Is a Leader

January 1999 – The following letter was sent to the technology coordinator and members of the school board of the South Kitsap (WA) School District in response to Macs Under Fire in South Kitsap (WA) School District. A few clarifications have been added between [brackets].

Follow Up Report: Macs Under Fire in South Kitsap (WA) School District

January 1999 – Response to the article Macs Under Fire in South Kitsap (WA) School District is really great! Unfortunately, the district has just recently approved their course of action in the matter. I’m just hoping that the school board gets enough email to possibly reconsider changing the policy. It’s never too late with this […]

Time to Let the Big One Go

“Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general […]

Grand Rapids (MI) Schools Standardizing on Windows?

June 1998 – The Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) appear to be standardizing on Windows, if their current $795,000 purchase of Windows-based computer systems is any indication. This may mean they will phase out millions of dollars worth of Macintosh equipment (estimated at 2,000 computers), some of it installed as recently as the 1997-98 school […]

Not Thinking: University of Texas Business School

April 1998 – You’ve probably heard that the University of Texas McCombs School of Business will require students to purchase or lease a specific Dell laptop running Windows NT beginning in the Fall 1998 semester. (Special thanks to thessaSource for following the story.)

Macintosh, a Long Term Solution

March 1998 – This letter was written in response to news reports that the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, was considering phasing out Macs in favor of Windows computers. This letter should be appearing soon in Imprint, the university newspaper.

Macs Under Fire in South Kitsap (WA) School District

A source in Kitsap, Washington, writes, “I read the articles about the Grand Rapids (MI) Schools trying to go to PC only, and I couldn’t help but relate to the problems in Grand Rapids. The South Kitsap (WA) School District, where I live and where my wife teaches, is going through the same horror. I […]

Macintosh Support at Yale

April 1998 – The following editorial was written some months after the explosion caused by a letter from Dan Updegrove, Director of Information Technology at Yale, advising incoming students to buy Windows computers instead of Macs. In light of an article in Rumpus (no longer online), the Yale student newspaper, Low End Mac reprints the […]