Welcome to Macintosh!

Name the most expensive personal item you’ve ever purchased (not your home or car).

One of the projects I’m currently working on* has the working title of Digital Tech Memoir. It’s a recounting of my life with computer technology, reflecting both the development of said technology and how I’ve used it in my personal and professional life. The latter certainly has a higher profile as a result of my immersion into the world of tech, and I’m often a little stunned myself at how the many things I played with or experimented with over the years were actually quite ground-breaking.

This is the preamble to answering today’s prompt. Besides homes (very expensive) and my two Toyota Prii (expensive but worth it—and here’s me being an early technology adopter again, starting with my 2002 Prius), the most expensive things I ever bought were Macintosh computers. Back when my Commodore 64 died and I could have purchased a PC clone, I instead chose to procure a Mac—and have continued to buy and use them since 1987.

Sure, they’ve always been more expensive but, like my Prius, I found the investment worth it. The Mac graphic User interface (GUI) worked for me, I liked playing with HyperCard (an easily programmable piece of software that produced results like index cards), and the Macs did everything I needed to do and more. Plus I found some cool games, such as Marathon, which I recently found to download (and I can’t for the lives of me play the same; I think I might have had an extended keyboard for some of the controls).

I won’t rehash the PC vs. Mac arguments here (they’re in my DTM) since I hope we’ve finally left them behind. My final answer to such a discussion was always: “Well, it’s what works best for you.” For me, the Mac was the best choice. In one faculty position, I even leveraged some grant money to get a Mac Lab with iMacs and Final Cut video editing software for my Mass Comm students since that seemed the best (affordable) option for a Digital Cinema class.

Do I wish the Macs over the years were less expensive? Of course. Did I still buy the higher end model with more RAM and larger hard drive? Of course!

The laptop I use for most of my work is reaching the end of its lifespan. I can no longer update the system, and some of the newer versions of things (such as Second Life) can’t even load anymore. It looks like a new computer purchase is in the cards soon. So I’ll be checking into the latest Macs when it’s time.

*I started this post with, “I’m currently working on” and realized that that made it sound like there was only one project. The stack keeps growing.