Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Memory lane and Apple along the way...

As I started Junior High, the school added a computer lab.  A thing called an Apple II computer captured my young imagination. (they also had "knock offs" we called "Black Apples" that we used...).  To my vocabulary was added "diskette", "boot" and a game called "Parachute."  Along with that came an infatuation with this technology.  Before school started, and after it was over, you'd find me and a handful of kids, sitting and playing... some were actually programing.  I started to write simple programs.  I learned "IF / THEN" statements. Something like "RUN" and later "BRUN". It was new and exciting.  As the tech grew we went from II to IIe and C... As I began high school I was introduced to a guy in a wheelchair.  As I remember he was that way from a High School football accident.  He had limited mobility and couldn't type with both hands, but by placing something on his hand, with a pencil in, it he would type. I was amazed at how this Apple computer could help him. I was at his house frequently and, at times, wondered if I wore out my welcome.  Still, when he was willing I would come visit him and use his computer to play games and write programs.  One of our favorite games was the "Eamon" text games.  It was kind of like a pre Dungeons and Dragons thing.  I laugh as I remember things from it like, "You've been attacked by a rabid rabbit!"  Somehow a friend figured out how to make your character invincible by changing the programing... it came in handy when you were trying to beat something like a Minotaur! Moving in the game came from your responses to what the details of the room were... with no joystick, just text, basic questions and directions of N-E-W-S... you would find your way through the game.  On those Apple computers we also played a Star Wars text game. As you were saving Princess Lea you would have to swing across from doorway to doorway (just like in the movie...).  Because of the programing, it would have a "Random" chance to break the rope.  When it happened you would read, "EGAD the rope broke!"  Funny, when things would go bad you might occasionally hear me utter those words.  Amazed at how I could sit and play for hours...
In High School we had computer class.  The first day of class the teachers says, "If you have any questions ask Steve, Mike or Lonnie." Needless to say I was helping a lot during class and doing my work after school!  The Apple computer was here and our lives were changing.  As I graduated and went to college the Personal Computer (PC) was brought into the mainstream.  About the same time Steve Jobs and Apple introduced the Macintosh, or Mac for short.  It was about then that I began to think that Apple was about to disappear. Apple and Steve Jobs had decided that he didn't want "knock off" Mac's being sold.  PC's, on the other hand, were made by IBM and others, which flooded the market with cheaper computers.  As I remember, Apple's share was really dwindling.  About the only place an Apple would be found was in Academia... and a few hardcore believers homes... I found a family that were hardcore Apple people... they allowed me to type a few papers for college with it... I vaguely remember having the paper nearly finished and then having it shutoff... Oh the thoughts I had about Apple... bad Apple...  From that experience I moved on, so I thought, from Apple.  I played around with a Commodore 64 for a while and then on a friends IBM PC... got my own PC, and then another, and another... as years passed I watched the Apple product line change.  Their stuff became more "all-in-one" and then thinner, lighter... always less buggy, less hassle... or so I kept hearing.  My reintroduction with Apple came as my wife won an iPod music player with Tim Horton's "Roll up the rim to win".  I was amazed at the fact that in my hand was the same processing and greater storage than the Apple II's I grew up using.  A couple years after that I purchased my first iPod Touch... 3rd generation... yes it took me that long!  But since then, I've logged plenty of hours on it playing a game or checking e-mail, surfing the web and writing notes to remind me of things I need to do, or a song that "just came to me".  There are days I wonder what I did without it.  I think one of the more amazing things is that it has a touch screen... no mouse or clunky keyboard to attach, just pinch and swipe your way around.  We just got my youngest his own iPod Touch 4... I can't wait to use the "Facetime" feature with it.  The built in camera has already gotten lots of use.  Funny, to me how this is the only Apple my boys have known...
So what does this trip down memory lane mean?  How about... One life can change culture, vocabulary and even direction. Steve Jobs had the creative imagination to suggest, "What if..." and then he surrounded himself with people that could help make that happen, and they did.  They pushed the boundaries of what was and began to shape a world.  His other lesson might be... Capitalism is not inherently evil.  Capitalism allowed him the room to innovate... Jobs created jobs (excuse the pun...)!  His achievements represents the best part of that economic view point.  To imagine... a 19 yr old getting off his butt and doing something to change his world for the better.  Steve Jobs is probably upgrading the tables that God gave Moses even now...

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