I have known Wayne for some time now, so was excited and pleased when he said that he was going to “branch out” into podcasting and blogging with a site dedicated to his local community. I was then delighted when he agreed to record the process and share it with me via this site. Hopefully you will enjoy sharing this experience with him as much as I will. So, over to you Wayne!
Believe it or not, I saw my first iPod only a little over a year ago. It was an iPod Mini owned by one of my daughter’s friend. I thought it was awesome! Before that my only mp3 player was an iRiver 390 with a whopping 256 MBs. Now, I’m not technologically challenged. My first PC was the IBM PC with an 8088 processor and 16k of memory. I learned to type by playing Zork! I’ve been building my own PCs ever since I sold my IBM PCjr, for those who remember those. Oh, wait, I did have a PC II. I believe that was the one that looked similar to the Mac, it was an all in one job.
Then I saw that iPod. That Christmas, (2005,) I received a Nano as a gift. The next thing you know, I was at a Apple retailer a couple months later buying my first Mac. A Mac mini. I’ve never looked back at Windows again. I reformatted my Windows machine, and now the kids use it as a gaming machine. I occasionally hook up to it as a storage device.
Using a Mac has brought me into an entirely new sub-culture. Anyone who owns a Mac knows exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a culture that has one using a computer not as a means to an end, necessarily, but actually wanting to use it because it’s fun. It’s more of a social camaraderie, something you have in common with others, something different. PC users don’t seem to rally around their computers and applications. No one seems to mind or care what the application icon really looks likes. It’s just not a big deal. But I get it now. It’s an experience. It’s being a kid again and liking things because they’re “cool.�?
Because of all this, I’ve decided to make a real website. Of course I have a site made with iWeb for the family, and I believe it looks great! iWeb is a no-brainer when creating a terrific looking site. I then started trying my hand at podcasting, using GarageBand, for a Mac Magazine that I had been writing articles for. These two ventures started me thinking about taking on a new project, for Macs seem to do that. I am far from being a creative person, but it seems this little Mac mini has done a lot to bring out a need to create and share. Perhaps it’s the ease of it all.
So now we are up to the present day. It took all of one year to go from interested, to halo effect, to being fully immersed every day in such incredible technology. I’ve decided to set up a website and podcast for our village in Vermont. I wanted to give something back to the community, and have decided to do so with a one-stop shop for local community schedules and news. I hope to do it, along with this record of my trials and tribulations, justice in the upcoming weeks. Hope you enjoy it, learn from what I do right as well as what I do wrong, and hopefully we’ll converge both ventures into a winning combination!