When life takes a turn (or: a convert in the making)
We had a very nice Christmas, relatively quiet, lots of food, fun, games. Santa been berry berry good to me…. he didn’t cost me an arm and a leg for one thing! 
On a serious note, and don’t let this one concern you too much, for I think we’ll be OK when all the dust settles–although I am looking for a good parent support group to help us through this–my kids have taken a turn in a direction that “scares” me.
This is a clear case of peer influence here. I should have seen this coming, what with the kind of crowd they have fallen in with, the ominous looking symbols on their laptops should have been warning enough….. My sons went and bought one of “those” computers. You know, the one with the fruit logo on it that has a little ‘bite’ taken out of it. Yes!! One of *those* !! ah!!!! I am so ashamed!! I was in shock! Were did I go wrong?!? I should have talked with them more about market share, industry standards, the beauty of DLLs….. My wife and I sat up all night talking about what in the world went wrong. Big help she was. She actually said “maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe it’s for the good…” What!! uuggg! Leave to an end-user to say something like that.
Don’t panic, Brent. Deep breaths, think happy thoughts…. You can handle this…. But to have that thing in my own home!!! I never thought I would ever see such a day!
I think they were brain washed by all those cute “Hi, I’m a Mac” commercials. I have seriously considered whisking them off to a de-programming type camp for kids who have fallen into the ‘fruity computer’ cult.
“OK campers, today we’re going to learn the complete history of DOS. Let’s start by a discussion of a topic that is my personal favorite, and I’m sure it will be yours as well. Open Volume One of your manuals to HIMEM.SYS “
But on the other hand, the thing is kinda cute. And it really does work right out of the box. And the GUI is slick! And it runs FinalCut (video editing app) really well. And viruses, what viruses? So, I compromised a little, but just a little mind you.
The conversation with my kids went something like this:
“There, it’s on our home network. Are you happy? And just remember, I did this under duress. Just as soon as we can find a shelter for that thing, it’s out of here. Don’t give me that look, like ‘dad, we know you’re not that mean’! And DON’T feed it your video games or we’ll never get rid of it! For heaven’s sakes, stop touching it and moving the mouse around. You want to get some germ or something? Yes, I see the pretty icons. Yes, it’s cute. No, you can’t sleep with it at night–and get if off that desk! Great! Now look at it, all snuggled in. Oh, OK. One night on your desk, but that’s it. Tomorrow I call the “useless computer” shelter. Tomorrow, I mean it. No, I won’t pet it. Well, just this once, but… uh, oh, ….(wow, this is amazing, very user friendly)…… but, but… tomorrow it’s outa here. Tomorrow, I tell you!”
Alright, alright, I admit it. After all this time, we still have that “thing” in our home. But what was I to do? The kids bonded with it immediately (and it with them, I’m sure). I even caught my wife sitting next to it, petting it and talking to it. The confounded woman even let it check her email! “No, honey… don’t… oh! don’t teach it to fetch… now look what it’s doing…. it made a cute flyer for your mom’s group.” ggggrrrRR!! “Why don’t you just give it some warm milk!? And stop telling me that it’s purring.”
Looks like I’m stuck with that cunning little beast forever. I admit that it’s grown on me too, but just a little. I did poke around in it some, checking its config files and whatever its version of Regedit is, but somehow, I lost interest in “checking under the hood.” I got caught up in just using it, I guess. It is a very pleasant experience. It edits videos extremely well, and the graphics program rocks! And, lo and behold! It does the kids homework assignments quite well too! Word processing–no problem. They can even use the “powerpoint” app and the spreadsheet if they want. The clever little sprite even gets along with my PCs just fine, they play nice on the network and share files and everything.
I still draw the blinds when they turn it on, though. And how in the world am I going to tell my parents? It was tough enough for my Dad when I bought a “foreign” car, but now a non IBM compatible computer in my home? He might start talking like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof: “let out one little thread, where will it end? where will it end? …… TRADITION!!” As you may recall, Tevye fought a losing battle to keep their family’s traditions. I think I just lost a battle as well.
And yet, I wonder. I am starting to think that a little “diversity” in our home’s computing environment is not such a bad thing after all. Mind you, I’m not ready to allow one of those things in my computer room. But I have been reading up on them, and experimenting with ours a little. I’ve begun to ask some questions, and I have even met with some “Lovers of the Fruit like computer” zealots. Pretty reasonable people, actually. Mind you, I won’t be making a public profession of “faith” any time soon (I think for “baptism” they take you to a public hotspot like StarBucks or something, but I’m not sure). On the other hand, I did sit in on some of their investigative forums called “We got questions, and they’re BIGGIES.” I think I will sign up for one of their seeker small groups.
And I picked up that book by a former IBM Compatible guru called “The Case for iMacs.” He talks about how intelligently designed they are and how life is more fulfilling with them, and the peace of mind and sense of purpose that he has found, and all that sort of stuff. But, to his credit, I’m actually getting answers to some of my questions.
I don’t know, maybe I’ll cross the line some day. But for now, there’s too many questions. It’s all so new, so radical. I just wasn’t raised that way. PCs are my friends. I have spent my entire career being devoted to them. I’m not ready to turn my back on them, not yet anyway. And speaking of friends, what would all of my I.T. peers say? Would they understand? Would they still accept me? Would they get the wrong idea and think that I’m just out to convert them too?
Still, what I have experienced so far is rather amazing. I must continue down this path, seeking answers to my computing questions. So many of my beliefs have been turned upside down. I need to sort this out. I’ll keep you posted.
