Celebrate the 30th birthday of a revolutionary

I'm writing this post on a Macintosh computer, 30 years after the Mac was introduced to the world in that memorable Super Bowl "Big Brother" commercial. At that time, my family had a PC Jr., or maybe it was an earlier Radio Shack computer. We could do little more than word processing on whatever it was. There was no Internet, and the only things online were birds and fallen limbs.

The Mac was revolutionary (which justifies the Super Bowl commercial) with its small, monochrome screen and its (voila!) mouse. The computers I used at the newspaper in those days were very basic, monochrome DOS machines with a blinking green cursor and green type. Commands had to be written in arcane code to do something as simple as boldface or italicize a word. There was no mouse and no icons.

It was a lot like the Apple IIC computer that I used in a BASIC programming class I took at Atlantic Christian College in 1981. Everything was in code, and you better get it right! The early Apples had been heavily marketed to schools, and many of today's adults got their introduction to computing on Apple IIs.

My wife got to use one of the early Macs when she went to work as a church secretary in the mid-1980s. She soon mastered the word processing, page layout and spreadsheet functions, creating her own church software package. Macs swept the newspaper business, and sometime in the late 1980s, my newspaper bought one Mac for the use of the entire newsroom. We used it for designing logos and occasionally for getting online. Later, the Associated Press stopped sending photos via its patented Laserphoto scanning machine and began posting photos online so that member newspaper could download them, via that Mac computer.

When that Mac, which cost about $8,000 with its software, monitor, printer, etc. became archaic, I purchased it from the newspaper for a few hundred dollars, and it became our family computer. We could dial up to get on AOL, and we used the installed word processing and other software. We used the mouse to get around.

It was the 1990s before the newspaper invested in Macs for the entire newsroom, and we became a truly connected newsroom for the first time. I loved the Mac and got into good-natured arguments with my older brother, a long-time IBM employee who sneered at all things Apple.

The newspaper stuck with Macs for as long as I was there. We had the basic rectangular box Macs and the short-lived Mac Cube (with its "toaster" CD drive), some early iMacs and some eMacs. When we were contemplating a major software change in the 1990s, we considered dumping Macs because Apple Computer was deeply troubled and rumored to be headed for bankruptcy. Then Steve Jobs returned, the iMac and iPod came along, and Apple became one of the most admired and loved companies in the world.

When our oldest daughter went off to college, we bought her an electric typewriter. Four years later, when her sister headed to college, we bought her a used Mac Classic — which looked just like the original 1984 Mac. When her Mac's screen failed to light up, I purchased from a friend (for shipping charges only) an original Mac — one without a hard drive; everything was on those revolutionary 3.5 inch discs — in hopes that I could swap out the monitors (picture tubes) and have her Mac working again. When I got the case off (no easy task, by the way), I discovered that the "yoke" that held the wires connecting the monitor to the guts of the computer had fallen off when she hauled the computer home from college. I put the yoke back, and it continued to serve her needs. I ended up using that original Mac for a bookend.

Our family is on its sixth or seventh Mac, some bought new, some bought used. My current working companion is a Mac Mini, a cube barely larger than a CD case that has all the speed and computing power I need. It's hooked to an HP monitor (I went cheap). We've had three iMacs, none of them the fruit-colored plastic blob that was the original iMac style, and now we own iPods, iPhones and iPads, too.

Computers have come a long way, and so have we, in the last 30 years. The ingenious, revolutionary Mac led the way.

Steve Jobs: One shock after another

Steve Jobs' death came as a shock Wednesday. He was a modern-day genius who changed technology and, by doing so, changed popular culture and society. (I wrote about this recently in this blog post.)

As we look back on Jobs' legacy, we get another shock: The iPod is only 10 years old. It's hard to remember a world without it. Not so long ago, my children were listening to music on a Sony Walkman, which seemed so compact and convenient, capable of playing 40 minutes or so of consecutive music on a cassette tape. The CD version of the Walkman seemed like the ultimate in personal listening. Now, I have hours of music on an iPod shuffle that is barely larger than a postage stamp. It was Jobs' visionary creativity that gave us these devices and others. The iPod led to the podcast, which makes all sorts of radio programs and other information or entertainment available at our convenience. The iTunes store revolutionized how we buy music, as well as movies and television shows.

I've been using Apple products for more than 25 years and have always found them preferable to the alternatives because Jobs demanded products that were not only technically competent but also easy to use, intuitive, practical and elegant. In the process, he created one of the most successful companies in American history. The company had its first office and manufacturing facility in the Jobs family garage.

Here's another shock: Jobs' genius was so little appreciated that he was actually forced out of the company he had co-founded. During his exile beginning in 1985, he went on to other imaginative ventures, including NeXT computers, which was later bought by Apple. When he returned in 1996, Apple was losing money, and consumers were leery of Apple products, fearful that the company might soon be bankrupt. But Jobs directed the development of the odd-looking iMac and then a whole range of new products, including the hugely successful iPhone. Jobs took big risks — the iMac was ridiculed at first because it had no floppy disk drive. Critics said consumers wouldn't by a computer without a floppy drive (Apple's original Mac had led the change from 5.25-inch floppies to the less floppy 3.5 inch disks), but the critics were wrong.

It seems doubtful that Apple will be able to maintain its creative boldness without Jobs, but I hope his sense of inventiveness, perfectability and user-friendliness has so pervaded Apple that the company will remain an innovation leader.

Apple computers, Steve Jobs and me

I've been using Apple products since the mid-1980s, only a few years after the first, boxy little Macintosh came out. I've personally owned five Macs (three bought second-hand) over the years. In fact, I had some experience with an Apple IIe computer that I used in taking a BASIC programming course in about 1981. I've always enjoyed the intuitive, simple interface of the Macs I've used. Jumping from a Microsoft DOS-based computer at my office to the Mac's graphical user interface with point-and-click selections and simple commands in the early 1990s was like going from doing algebra in Roman numerals to using a calculator.

When the newspaper I was editing faced a decision on a new production system in the late 1990s, it was at Apple's low ebb. Some forecasters were saying that Apple would soon be bankrupt or would get out of the computer business altogether. It's recent innovations (remember the Apple Newton?) had flopped, and its personal computers had performance and reliability problems. I remember calling a trusted consultant who advised sticking with Macs; he thought Apple would dig its way out of that hole.

Did it ever! Only a few years later, Apple introduced the iMac, which took the computer world by storm. Following quickly were the iPod and iTunes. By the time he iPhone and iPad came along, Apple's ascendancy to the top of the innovations market was complete.

I have no doubt that the credit for this remarkable turnaround belongs to Steve Jobs, the Apple founder who left the company only to return years later to resurrect his baby. Jobs has demanded creative thinking, simplicity of design and reliability. I am writing this blog on a Mac that is about 10 years old but still reliable (although slow by today's standards). At work, I now use a Windows computer, which I have become accustomed to and don't think much about its differences. But occasionally some task will emphasize to me how comparatively simpler and more intuitive Apple's interface is.

Steve Jobs announced Wednesday that he was stepping down as Apple CEO. He has had serious health problems, including pancreatic cancer, for years. The news can't be good for Apple; one doesn't replace such an innovator so easily. I hope the culture that Jobs created at Apple will live on and that Apple will continue to create dazzling new products that make me say, "Wow!" and "I want one!" I just wish I could afford more of those toys. I might start by replacing my old Mac.

The iPad is wonderful, but ...

This week's introduction of the much-anticipated new Apple iPad has some news media analysts thinking that the 10-inch touch-screen device could be the manifestation of a decades-long quest for a newspaper that is delivered instantaneously and without the expense of a printing press. Like all new Apple products, the iPad is being promoted in jaw-dropping videos of its capabilities that leave viewers like me salivating.

CEO Steve Jobs describes the iPad as the best device for surfing the Web, and he might be right. The touch-screen interface seems as advanced, at first glance, as the click-and-drag mouse was in the first Macintosh computers. Want to see a picture bigger or read a story on a Web page? Just tap it with your finger. Want to turn a page in your electronic book? Just brush the bottom right corner of the "page" with your finger. Want to select a new Web address from a list of favorite? Just tap it. Need to type an address or fill out a form? A virtual keyboard magically appears. I'm impressed — and salivating.

The iPad is more portable and more readily usable than a laptop and easier to read than a smart phone. Its size and light weight make it nearly as easy to carry around as a newspaper or a book. I'd love to own one, or at least get a chance to play with one.

Still ... . Despite all the advances in electronic connectivity and screen display, there's something missing. Although I've never held an iPad, I know it doesn't feel like a book — or a newspaper. The New York Times has already signed on as a provider for the iPad, and the video I've seen touts the similarity between reading the print Times and the iPad version. It may be a while before I get a chance to experience what it's like to read the NYT on an iPad, but I can tell you that reading most newspapers online via a computer is nothing like reading the print version. Besides the loss of the tactile sensation of holding the paper in your hands, the online reader misses the overall page display, including the advertising, and the serendipitous aspect of turning newspaper pages, never knowing what news you might find. Online readers tend to be more focused, seeing only what they search for. As a result, they miss the broader horizons that print readers experience.

Print newspapers still have value and still provide experiences electronic versions do not. Printed books, likewise, provide experiences e-books don't. I think the iPad and its competitors and successors will have an impact on publishing, but the proven, 500-year-old technology and effectiveness of print will still be around for generations to come. And I expect to be sharing the morning newspaper with my wife over coffee, swapping sections back and forth, for many more years. The iPad (or something similar), if we have one, will be a supplement to the format we like the best.

The Word gains new ground

"In the beginning was the Word ..." — John 1:1

But some of us rebelled against The Word — not the Word of God Incarnate but the Word of Microsoft, the ubiquitous word processing program that, like it or not, has become a nearly universal standard for written communications in this Digital Age. When I bought a new computer eight or nine years ago, I opted to save the $100 or so the vendor would have charged for a special, discounted copy of Microsoft Word. I could get along without it. The computer came with a built-in and quite usable word processing program that was even able to open Word files — most of the time. When we bought a new, more powerful computer about four years ago, I made the same decision again: We could live without the Word.

This week I caved in and bought the home version of Microsoft Office, which includes Word, along with the Excel spreadsheet program and PowerPoint's (also ubiquitous if you go to any classroom or meeting) presentation software. I managed to catch it on sale this week and couldn't resist the possibility of saving a little money and saving some headaches. I've occasionally received e-mail attachments that wouldn't open in my word processor or that had tabular material that wouldn't tabulate in the translated version. I also realized that if I were to find any work as a freelance editor, I would almost certainly need a reliable version of Word.

Although I'm a little reluctant to admit it, I'm pleased with my purchase. No longer will I be unable to open Word attachments. No longer will I have to borrow my wife's laptop to fill out online application forms that come — you guessed it — in Word. It's the national, if not worldwide standard, and it really is impossible to resist. A few court systems, I understand, are holding out with Word Perfect, but the rest of the world is a Word world.

That hegemony is part of what made me resist buying Word. I used to kid people that every time they used Word or Internet Explorer, they were giving Microsoft founder Bill Gates another nickel — as if he needed it! I have a tendency to pull for the Little Guy, and Microsoft hasn't been the Little Guy since about 1981. Just under 90 percent of U.S. computers run on Microsoft Windows, which many experts will tell you is a power-hungry and "clunky" operating system. Microsoft's dominance is evident in the fact that even though its new Vista OS was panned by reviewers and caused all kinds of problems for users, millions of people eagerly switched to Vista because it was the latest thing from Microsoft. Some users then wanted to uninstall Vista and go back to Windows XP. (The new Windows 7, which will replace Vista in the fall, is said to be a vast improvement.)

At any rate, my resistance movement is over. I'm on board with Microsoft Office. I'll be able to read other folks' attachments and send them my attachments without converting my writing to a PDF. I'll now be computing on a level field with the rest of the world, and I'm sure Bill Gates will be happy to get the news. But I still like my Apple Macintosh computers. I can't abandon the Little Guy altogether.

Apple gets state deal; Wilson is ready

The General Assembly has approved some tax breaks that are intended to lure Apple Computer to North Carolina. The legendary creator of iPods, iPhones and iMacs plans to build a server facility, presumably the service its iTunes store and other services. Two weeks earlier, Wilson City Council met in closed session to discuss a potential industrial client. Council took no action on the matter.

Coincidence? Maybe. After all, Wilson County has several available industrial sites that could catch the attention of a new industry. These closed-door meetings are not all that rare, and most of them never result in anything.

Still ... Wilson has what a company like Apple wants: a super-high-speed, state-of-the-art fiber optic network that would be ideal for a server farm such as the one Apple wants to build somewhere in North Carolina, or perhaps in another Southeastern state. Apple's server farm is just the sort of high-tech industrial client the city of Wilson had hoped to attract with its gamble on a $28 million fiber-to-the-home network. Apple needs a "big pipe" to send its iTunes songs, television shows and movies to customers. Wilson's 100 MB upload/download speeds provide that big pipe, and it's already in place.

I have no idea whether there is a connection between the state's provision for tax advantages for Apple and Wilson's fiber network, but it would make sense for Apple to look at what Wilson has to offer.