View from the Catwalk May 2008

DADDY MAC

Goodbye PC. "I never knew you at all but it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind".

There is no turning back for me now. I've made the call and am diving head first into the digital world. It's either sink or swim. Geek cool or geek fool. I do have to say I'm a little bit nervous but my friends say don't worry. They tell me "once you go Mac you never go back".

The move to join the growing army of "Mac Heads" was not planned for me. Hell, it was only just last month I was planning to take my PC on a romantic cruise to Cabo. But almost overnight our long term relationship turned sour. I realized that after all these years I really didn't know P.C. at all.

The realization came after I bought a new P.C. a month ago. My trusty 5 year old PC was getting a bit slow and I figured it was time to put it out to stud. The new one died after 3 weeks (apparently a bad hard drive). That's when the fun began. I won't bore you with the details so I'll skip right to the punch line. I bought an iMac. In fact I'm typing on it right now.

Wow! It's like a different world. Everything is big and bright with cute little noises. I see the capabilities and potential but right now I wish I could just work out where the undo button is. The dudes and dudettes down at the Apple store have been great and are making me feel a like a member of their cult (whoops I mean community). I even have a one-on-one personal Mac trainer who is helping me get through PC Rehab.

Looking back, I'm going to miss the conversations with the Hewlett Packard "support" people. We became close. The Canadian lady whose driveway is covered in snow. Harry, the Indian guy who had my wife perform surgery on the computer. All the other nice people who played that really nice music for us while they put us on hold. And of course all the nice people that tried their hardest to help us and even though they couldn't, they would always ask us if there was "anything else they could help us with". So thoughtful...

Oh yeh, and then there's the Circuit City guys. Thanks for the advice guys. What was I thinking when I didn't take your "insurance plan" extended warranty past the 14 day in-house warranty. I'm going to miss you guys and all the other guys in the product distribution chain. Being treated with that special mass consumer touch where we are all treated equally bad is going to be hard to give up.

I'm a little nervous about leaving PC but think it's time to take my iPhone and iMac and move forward. There is no "i" in P.C.


- Enjoy the game

Willy J. Allison
May 2008

PS: The writer does not have any shares in Apple. He wouldn't mind some but can't afford it after paying a motza for his new Mac.