About

I’ve been using computers since Sir Clive Sinclair unleashed the beast that was the ZX80 on an unsuspecting public back in 1980, mind you , I had to wait ‘til the next year when the ZX81 was launched, and even then it took some saving (I left school in 1981 – and they had just taken delivery of a Research Machines 380Z (anyone remember those?) ooh the power of that Z80A processor running at a scorching 4 MHz with 4 Kb of RAM – upgradeable to the dizzy heights of 56 Kb !

Your microwave has a faster processor than that! in fact, your wristwatch probably does too.

Always lusted after a Commodore PET too, built in monitor! mono though, colour didn’t arrive ‘til later… Ironically, I do have a Commodore PET now, but I don’t think it works anymore, it’s been sat in too many lofts for that! (suppose I could always build a Mac Mini into it… hmm, now there’s a thought…)

Anyway, after a couple of bleak years with assorted Z80 based machines, I discovered the 8086 processor line and there was no looking back – 286, 386, 486, Pentium… and the rest, as they say is history!

Having used Windows in all it’s various forms (and a few DOS based machines as well) I encountered the Mysterious World of the Macintosh in the shape of a Mac Classic sat on the desk of a Graphic Design company Receptionist – using it to type letters to clients ! oh the decadence of it !

Hope you enjoy following my exploits while swapping over from PC to Mac, and who knows – you may pick up a handy hint or 2 along the way.

I sat down an worked it out the other day, and I’ve been a ‘Switcher-in-waiting’ for 18 years give or take a few days… that’s a long time, but I suppose I have spent most of it convincing myself that I didn’t need one, and they were for ‘Arty’ types, and they didn’t do ‘Business Stuff’ and a whole heap of the kind of thoughts that Apple turned in to reality with the ‘Mac & PC’ ads – both in America, and over here in the UK.

(if you’ve never seen them, a) where have you been? and b) go find them on Youtube when you’re finished here, they’ll make you smile and nod understandingly too…)

So I’d been quietly hankering after a change of computer for ages – but what made me finally take the plunge ? Well, a lot of small coincidences in my case, Apple (bless ‘em) had decided to offer an 0% finance deal for 6 months timed to finish just before Steve Jobs introduced the World to the Macbook Air etc at the 2008 Macworld Expo, and I squeezed in by about 2 days, thanks to a Mac-Mad friend who’s been trying to tempt me from the Dark Side for ages (Cheers Tom!).

So I became the owner of a spanking new Macbook (White, of course – couldn’t be doing with one in the same colour as a generic pile of Windows bricks) and so began my Journey into the world of computing – Mac style. Glad to have you along too – let me know how you get on, won’t you?

Wiz  :0)