When I first started to use Macs in the late 1980s, I was the oddball. Most users of personal computers worked on traditional, text-based PCs, such as the ones from IBM. When I visited a computer store — yes there were many of those — to buy apps for my Mac, the clerks often gave me a sideways glance that smacked of derision. Sometimes they actually had a few titles stuck on a rear shelf catching dust.

I actually reveled in the fact that computer viruses had mostly ignored Macs to my detriment. Weeks after my new Mac iicx was set up at my home, way back in 1989, it caught a virus. Worse, it was from an infected software floppy containing a screen saver utility from a firm known as Fifth Generation Systems. I ended up reformatting the Mac and reinstalling everything, except for that one. An online search introduced me to a solution to future problems of that sort, something known as VirusDetective (discontinued many moons ago). I wasn’t certain if it was best, but I liked the title and, besides, it was something you don’t find often these days — shareware. I didn’t have to pay if I didn’t like it, but nobody would disable it if I decided to just continue to use it. Yes I paid.

As you might imagine, there was no online checking of serial numbers; access was just too slow in those days. Remember this was before broadband Internet was actually available in many parts of the country. That occurred beginning in 1996.

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All right, I couldn’t resist the pun. But let me put my cards on the table. You see, I have owned a number of Apple gadgets over the years, beginning with a Mac and a LaserWriter. As things go, printers are commodities, so it didn’t make sense for Apple to make them without adding something special to the mix. My printers today are built by Brother and HP, and they are both way less expensive than Apple’s former entries,, and the output quality is way better.

That said, I did not engage with the Newton MessagePad either. It’s main stock-in-trade was handwriting perception, and nothing is powerful enough to parse my efforts. I suppose the iPad is in essence a linear if a lot more powerful and flexible successor.

Computer gamers have often been depicted on TV and in the movies as wearing some sort of goggles that presents virtual reality images of some sort of game. They appear to work well enough, but they are otherwise grotesque appliances externally, even though owners may be perfectly content use one, quite willing to experience the immersive existence they provide.

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How things have changed. Consider the state of Apple Inc. 30 years ago, when it was known as Apple Computer. In many descriptions of the company from the mainstream media, the word “beleaguered” inevitably appeared. It was hard to avoid it, and you had to be optimistic that the company would succeed in a world where Microsoft’s dominance only grew larger.

By 1995, for example, the arrival of Windows 95 made Microsoft’s graphical OS good enough; well at least if you preferred a clunky, if serviceable user interface to something reasonably attractive and user friendly. But I’ll set aside the politics and the business issues Apple faced then, or about the acquisition of Steve Jobs’ NeXT company, which paved the way for an amazing revival and the arrival of Mac OS X (as opposed to macOS 10 and so on and so forth).

In those days, I happily boasted about buying the latest and greatest Apple gear, even though it wasn’t cheap. Almost every year, Apple touted some great new feature that was destined to change your computing life. It meant, for example, that you could type along at a reasonably speedy rate and not wait for the letters to appear on your display. When you wanted to save a large document, you didn’t have to consider a restroom break while the process completed. Well mostly.

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In the early days, I didn’t intend to become expert at using Apple gear. I didn’t even intend to learn word processing or even typesetting. But the situations at hand forced me to adapt.

In the mid-1960s, I decided to create a magazine devoted to my favorite subject — flying saucers or UFOs. All right, I guess I was sort of an eccentric teenager, but I preferred reading and writing to athletics, although I was a weightlifter.

In any case, as an avid newspaper and magazine reader, I preferred justified text, something not readily accomplished on a simple electric typewriter, such as my SCM. So I followed the scheme employed by my friend — and first employer — Jim Moseley — someone well known among followers of UFO lore. And that meant typing twice, taking the page and entering the number of characters needed to fill a line. You then type again, adding extra spaces as appropriate, and, poof, you have justified text.

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