Member profiles - Tim Wyles How long have you been a Mac User? I first came across Macs in 1992 when I was working for Northern Telecom (now Nortel Networks) for my industrial placement as part of my degree. I was smitten instantly - my experience of computing to date had been some rusty old Apricots running DOS, Wordstar and SuperCalc. I had never seen a proper GUI until I got my Mac (a IIci running System 7.1), and was blown away by it! I was using Telnet to access remote Oracle databases and just being able to do it in a multiple, small coloured windows rather than chunky text was awesome! I'm not saying it was the only way it could be done, just that it was the first time I'd seen it. Then there were the system sounds to play with too... oh and copying and pasting! I loved the Wastebasket, the...   OK, so you're a Mac fan then? Er, yes!   Do you own a Mac yourself? Yes, but I'm on only my second Mac to date! My first was a Performa 6200CD which I bought in about 1996. I thought it was great - it did everything I wanted and more, but I gather it's actually a contender for the worst Mac ever! Shows what I know... Then I bought my current machine - a 500MHz PowerBook G4 in September 2001. It was a case of lust-factor 10 when it was released in January, so I started saving up... I've maxed the RAM out at 1Gb and added an AirPort card, so there's not much more I can do with it. I have my eye on a G5 though!   Do you use Macs at work? Whenever possible I use my PowerBook. The database software I mainly work with is typically installed on remote servers running Unix of some flavour so it doesn't really matter which client platform I use. I work as a consultant which means I often work at client sites so easy to change configurations are a definite plus. So my Mac usage at work is somewhat limited - it's a gateway to what I'm really doing, I suppose. We are provided with a Windoze laptop, but the first thing I did with that was install Linux!   What do you primarily use your Mac for? Oh everything! It's starting to become the digital hub in my house for sure! On the back of having the PowerBook I bought a Canon PowerShot S40 digital camera (now upgraded to an EOS 300D), a Panasonic NV-MX350B digital camcorder, an Epson Photo1290 A3 printer and more recently a 30Gb iPod. I've done a bit of video editing of some profiles videos with Final Cut Express, and dabbled with DVD creation with DVD Studio Pro. I got myself an ADSL connection which has been a revelation, and pretty much stay connected all the time.   Have you produced any masterpieces that you're proud of? A couple - way back I made a calendar for my brother which had twelve images scanned from Laserdisc covers and then his face or whole body placed within the picture. Took me about three months to do the whole dozen pictures but it was worth it to see he face - of course, I picked the most embarassing pictures I could find... Another one would have to be a couple of quizzes which I did in 2003 - a movie quotes quiz and a music quiz. They took ages to do, but they were good fun.   What's your favourite piece of software? Tough one! Rather than pick the usual contenders like Photoshop, or iTunes I'm going to go for a long-gone piece which you could put in your Wastebasket and when you emptied it, Oscar from Sesame Street would pop up and sing!   Have you ever had a 'Mac moment'? Not sure what a 'Mac moment' is, but there are a couple of examples that for me sum up the Mac nicely. First was when I was buying my digital camera. I took the PowerBook into the shop and said I wanted to make sure they were compatible. Of course the box said that Windoze of some varient was required, so I wasn't too hopeful. Anyway after getting the assistant to open a box and charge up a battery, we took a picture and connected the two. The result being that iPhoto opened and told me I had just connected a PowerShot S40 and that there was one photo ready to download! Zero configuration, straight out of the box. Another was whilst watching a DVD when working away from home. I was tired so decided to finish watching the film the following evening. I simply closed the lid and went to sleep. The next evening I opened the lid and the film continued playing exactly where it left off the previous night. No drama, no crisis.   Would or could you ever consider switching to Windoze? At one stage before getting the PowerBook, I tried. I bought W2K and it was OK to be fair. I was also learning Linux and had installed that to have a dual boot machine. I was using Linux mainly and occasionally switching to W2K, then one day I tried to install a new keyboard driver in W2K as I had a fancy keyboard with shortcut keys on it. After installing the driver, the keyboard wouldn't work until I rebooted, which I did, only to find the keyboard still didn't work and therefore couldn't log into W2K to fix it! Could I do anything about it? No. I ended up rebuilding the whole machine and have never considered getting a Windoze box since. I don't doubt there was probably a simple way round the problem but I couldn't find it. A similar thing happened with my father's laptop over Christmas - he had disconnected from a second monitor, but then couldn't log into Windoze (XP - plug and play remember) because the configuration still thought there was a second screen attached, even after rebooting loads of times. So he was without his PC for two weeks over Christmas. Luckily he also has an iBook!   Anything you dislike about the Mac? Of course there are a few things that annoy me, but they tend to be more Apple related, like their US customer-centric approach, the self-destruct mode they seem to be in all the time, and the lack of bite the UK arm has.   What would you say to those considering buying their Mac? Don't go straight off to places like PC World - they are hopeless. Their sales staff have not been trained and will try to dissuade you from buying a Mac with silly out of date excuses - you only have to search online for such examples. Initially, make contact with your local User Group to float ideas. Typically at our meets there are a couple of laptops present and people are more than happy to demonstrate. Failing that, find a magazine with adverts for dealers, pick one with a showroom and visit. The most important thing of all though is to be prepared for a long haul. It's not easy owning a Mac - it's certainly easier than it was, but you still have to research whether peripherals will work properly, and accept that some parts are more expensive than their PC equivalent. However, if you really want to drive an Aston Martin, you're never going to be happy with a Lada are you? Go for it and welcome to a very special way of life!   But there aren't many games available on the Mac! Well boo hoo. There are actually quite a few, but if it's a games machine you're after, then go buy a Nintendo... Having said that, I do have a GameCube, but also have The Sims, SimCity4 and Icewind Dale for the Mac.   What's next in your shopping list? Well now DVD writers are cheap I'd like one of those, but I think a G5 with a SuperDrive might be a preferred purchase! I'm also looking at a Cinema Display... I've just bought a new desk with a monitor stand and I'm not afraid to use it!   Top