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I love gadgets. I get giddy
when it comes to digital toys and I make no apologies for it. I love the smell
of new electronic gadgets when they first come out of the box. I love the sound
of the doorbell when I'm waiting for the UPS guy to deliver a package. I attempt
to convert my friends from PCs to Apples. I've flown from Boston to San Francisco
twice to go to the Macworld Expo. I'm the guy my friends call when they need
computer advice. I am a nerd.
When I was little, I had a Commodore 64 computer that I don't think I ever touched. I didn't understand what it was supposed to do. My first school experience with computers was in grade 7 (1981) and I hated that class. In High School I got C's in computer class because I just didn't care. I got through 4 years of college (no lie) with a typewriter. I think the reason nothing made sense to me was because I had never touched a Mac. In 1992, a year after college, my friend Steve Daniels was helping me with some promo materials on his Mac Classic and I finally realized what computers were capable of. Shortly after, he helped me buy my first Mac; a used Mac SE with 4 MB of RAM and a HUGE 60 MB external hard drive! And I got a DEAL on it... only $900, USED! I spent hours and hours on that thing learning MacPaint, SuperPaint and Word. In 1995, I upgraded to a PowerMac 6100 with a 15 inch color monitor and started designing promo stuff with Photoshop 3.0 and Freehand. I made the first versions of smirk.com on the 6100 typing code by hand. In 1998, I upgraded to a PowerMac 8600/300Mhz. I used the 8600 just about every day for three years and that's what I really learned web stuff on. For my birthday in 2000, I bought myself a G4 450 Dual Processor which I use pretty much exclusively for video and audio editing. And then in the summer of 2001, I got a good deal on a 400Mhz G4 (single) which replaced my 8600 (sold!) Now I'm all G4, all the time. In September of 2004, I purchased a 15" Apple Powerbook and now I'm wondering why I waited so long to get a laptop. Holy crap! What a fantastic machine. Now I'm totally mobile! I'm a Mac snob. I use my Powerbook every day. I will always own a Mac. There is no reason for me to touch a PC. The only Microsoft product on my computer is Internet Explorer, which I use to cross-preview the web pages I design. I'm a big fan of Apple's "iApps" and I use Filemaker very often. For web stuff, I use Photoshop CS and Dreamweaver MX. I use Freehand 10 for just about everything not related to web design. I used to surf with Explorer... that is, until Safari came out. I love Safari and use it exclusively now. Apple strikes again! The Dual G4 contains only Apple software so far (iMovie, Final Cut Pro) and it's screaming away with no crashes yet! In the Fall of 2002 I upgraded the G4/400 to OS X 10.2. The Powerbook came with 10.3 installed and it is wonderful. 10.2 never crashed on me and neither has 10.3. Now I have 10.3 on all my computers and I can't wait to go to 10.4... Go Mac!
I purchased a Palm Pilot Professional in 1997 for my trip to Singapore. I didn't want to drag my laptop (at the time) across the planet, but I still felt the need to have some sort of digital technology with me away from home. It came in handy on the 24 hour flight (both ways) and I got lots of practice writing with Graffitti. I used it regluarly when I returned home for a year or so. Mostly, it became my address book and phone number database. I used it as a to do list for a while, but then stopped because I hated carrying it around. In 2002, I bought a Samsung I300 Palm phone (on Ebay) to replace my old cell phone and my life will never be the same. I LOVE using and carrying this phone. I mean, I'm going to carry my phone around anyway, so combine it with a Palm and it's the best of both worlds. Tons of information at my fingertips, full organizational tools, sexy form factor... and it's a PHONE. AND it syncs up with my computer whenever I want so all my info is backed up regularly; which comes in handy when you drop and break your phone as often as I do. I'm currently on I300 number 3.
I bought an Olympus 450z digital (still) camera in the summer of 2000. It's another thing I didn't think I needed, but now I love. I've been bringing it to shows and handing it out to people in the audience. I just tell them to click away... it will take about 75 high-res shots, which I can go through and take out the good ones. I usually get 5-10 cool shots from every show and I haven't developed a roll of film since April of 2000. I really only intend to put the shots on the web, so the (rather small) 1.3 megapixel resolution isn't a problem. Great little camera and I didn't spend a ton of money on it so I don't have to be overly protective of it. In 2004, I purchased a Canon Powershot s70 (7 megapixel!) camera and it's just great. Amazing photos and amazing features. I'm still learning how to use it. It's a little beyond my needs, but I'm having a ton of fun with it.
Something I've wanted for about three years and I finally broke down and bought... A digital video camera. Holy crap! Why did I wait so long? Digital video is the only way to go. So simple. With my new G4, I just plug the camera in the back of the computer and I'm editing video in about two minutes. It's the coolest piece of technology I've ever owned. I got the Sony TRV-900 (a smaller, low-end, three chip) on the recommendation of a few friends. It was a bit pricey, but I'm really happy with it. The video on my other site was all filmed and edited with the TRV-900 and my G4.
Aside from my microphone, mini disc is probably the technology that has affected my show the most since I began. Before Mini Disc, there was cassette tape. With tape, I had to cue songs before shows and I had to have different tapes for each show I performed if the routine order changed. Now I can have ONE disc with 74 minutes of music on it and shuffle tracks in the middle of a show, or re-edit the entire disc moments before a show if I change something. There is no better overall technology for performing. MP3 is a close second, but you can't edit a disc minutes before a show like you can with a portable MD recorder. On my computer, I can edit music from any format, including MP3, and then output the files to MD through the RCA outputs on the back of my Mac. It's not digital output, but it's super quality. I think MD is a more flexible format than MP3, overall. The other thing I enjoy doing with MD is recording LP records onto digital Mini Discs! I can then add track marks and enjoy the pops and clicks and warm sounds of a record while driving in my car, ahhh... Bringing vinyl into the 21st century! |
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