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My First Mac

I'm Never Going Back to Windows

- 2007.11.29

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Hi, I'm Ben, and I haven't created an AppleScript in 16 hours.

Who do I have to blame?

My half-dead, dented, grimy Titanium PowerBook. (Okay, so technically it wasn't my first Mac, but it was the first one I kept without selling in a week.)

15-inch iMac G4 It all started, I suppose, in the 4th grade at a Montessori school I was attending. Our school had recently acquired one of the brand spankin' new iMac G4s, and it was sitting forlornly in a corner, unloved. When the teacher dragged me to it to type a report, she couldn't drag me off. I was hooked!

After this, I began to use it every time I could; even starting an iTunes play-count war, where students tried to get their songs played the most. Unfortunately, after that wonderful year, I somehow lost interest in computers and returned to more typical things like trading cards and cartoons.

Later on, in December of 2006 (almost a year ago), my 7th grade language arts teacher quit. Luckily, the replacement owned a 12" Little AlBook. As you can probably imagine, my general understanding of computers had progressed beyond the "oh look, shiny Dock!" level, so I was hooked again - and even quicker than the last time.

I began obsessively browsing eBay and the local Craigslist for affordable listings, the nature of which became broader as my savings did. Eventually, I decided that I wasn't going to wait anymore, and the next decent ad I would spring for.

Sprung I did, sprung I did. I've ended up with a second revision 667 MHz titanium PowerBook G4. It now has 768 MB of RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, and a 4x slot-loading SuperDrive. Of course, like any computer, it has a few flaws. Unlike most computers, which generally have turned out okay (provided they're Macs), my TiBook has a busted backlight, a frayed inverter cable, a chipping case (which is slowly coming away from the internals), and the keyboard smells like a 120° locker room after a marathon.

However, I'm never going back to Windows. Never.

This obsession has provided me with a new thing to collect. Since this escapade, I have acquired two Sawtooth Power Mac G4s, two iMac G3s, four PowerBook 5300s, and a heavily upgraded Power Mac 7500/G3. All, of course, except the 5300s, are sitting on my desk loudly running SETI@Home. If there's gonna be iJunk in my room, it might as well be iJunk used in the name of science.

I've installed some of my software archives, including MacTracker, iLife, AppleWorks 6, Office (ugh!), and my browser of choice, Camino. I mainly compose music in GarageBand on it and use it to edit my blog. Of course, I'm only 13, so Reckless Drivin' is on my apps list as well. My setup is very basic. PowerBook, speakers (Advent), new Apple keyboard, Razer Copperhead mouse.

I fully intend to run this PowerBook until the last possible second.

Share the story of your first Mac experience by emailing with "My First Mac" as your subject.

Recent My First Mac articles

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Mac LC III Still a Most Useful Machine, 07.30. A love affair that will last as long as they make Macs began with a used LC III in 1997, and it's still being used today.
Hooked on Macs, new and old, 07.15. Starting with an old Quadra in 2000, Royal left behind Windows and began acquiring his own stable of Macs.
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Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
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November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
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