I’ve been seduced. I’m not quite sure who should get the credit, Steve or Ted, but I should probably “blame” it all on Ted. So much of what has gone on in the last 15 years of my life has been due to his influence.  When I first met him, he was a 20 year old computer whiz kid, and damned cute!  Since that first meeting, he’s tried to teach me computers, with various levels of success.  For years, he’s been trying to get me to switch to Apple, but I’d resisted his charms, and Steve’s as well.  Well, I finally was forced to give in.  Steve may have designed the hardware, but the credit has to go to Ted for making me actually bite the Apple.

My first was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer.  It had chiclets for keys, and was a pain to type on.

I’ve also, over the years, owned a couple of Commodore 64’s, a Commodore VIC 20, a Commodore 120, and a slew of IBM clones.

A few years ago, another friend gave me an iMac that he was no longer using, so I tried it out.

I must say, I wasn’t impressed.  It seemed slow, and the GUI was strange to my Windows trained eyes and fingers, and it just never seemed like a very useful machine to me.  The fact it was obsolete when I got it might have had something to do with that.

I resisted the come-on’s and siren call of Apple for some time.  Finally, I made a concession to the Dark Side.

My cell phone was clunky and not real user-friendly, so I ordered an iPhone 3GS when I saw them on sale.  I must admit, I liked the phone, and found it to be a good step up in capability.  I was beginning to soften on the whole Apple thing.

Not content to leave well enough alone, Ted decided that wasn’t enough.

Always on the lookout for the latest and greatest, and not happy with AT&T’s service, Ted got himself the new iPhone 4 with Verizon as the carrier.  Since AT&T and Verizon systems are incompatible, he had to order a new phone.  He gave me the old one.  So now I’ve got this almost-state-of-the-art Apple (it’s almost impossible to actually keep up with ‘state-or-the-art’ with Apple unless you buy a new phone every six months, something I’m not going to to no matter what they say about it!) knocking around in my pocket, whispering that siren song of Steve’s, “come to the Apple store… we have a computer waiting for you!”.  Well, I resisted that, too.

So I guess it’s safe to say that I was entirely able to resist seduction attempts made by Steve, but not those made by Ted!

(and Ted’s early attempts weren’t strictly technological, but that’s another blog altogether!)

Recently, Ted was again nicer to me than I ever deserve, gifting me with another Apple product.

Yeah. A MacBook Pro.

It’s a screamer.  Almost instant on, no stumbling on videos, incredible screen, and light as a feather.

I’ve come full circle, though.  Look at the keys on the Color Computer, and at the MacBook Pro:

I’m back to Chiclet keys!

But, one thing about these, they are better sized, spaced, and the mechanics are well thought out, so it actually works pretty well.  I was thinking I would be all over the keyboard trying to type, but I can zip along at a pretty good pace.

The MacBook Pro has usurped all my other computers, and is now my primary machine.  I hardly fire up the Compaq laptop I bought last year, and the “main” computers in the ‘computer room’ are seldom touched now, doing nothing more than hosting my Amateur Radio webpages, and providing a connection to the external hard drive.  Several other machines sit unused, collecting dust and taking up space.  Someday I’ll probably dispose of them.

I’ve bitten the Apple, it seems, and the odd thing is, it almost seems like I’ve gained admittance to computer Eden by doing so, rather than being kicked out!  I suppose I should keep an eye out for a vengeful angel with a flaming sword, but so far all I’ve heard are faint echos of “we told you so!”.

Thanks, Ted!

(as you can see, still a hottie!)