Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Post Your Mac Setup: Past & Present (Part 20)

M

macquariumguy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2002
857
361
Sarasota FL
DeepIn2U said:
Dayum! I love the modern setups we've seen in this thread over the last few short years just as much as the next guy ... but I really REALLY appreciate golden era setups like this.

@macquariumguy
you must've been on the forefront or Mac OS and Desktop publishing back in '88.

Very curious just how much did you make back then, profitable or extremely profitable?

Very curious how much stocks did you purchase back then and still was able to hold beyond 1997-99.

Lastly ... what's your current setup today?
Click to expand...

Heh, I never made back my investment. Hell, that Laserwriter Plus cost something like $6000 and everything together was close to $15K. I bought all that stuff and a few months later an office supply company offered me a stupidly big salary to manage their print shop and modernize it so I took it and desktop publishing became a part time hobby. I still have a big binder full of stuff I produced with that setup, though. It's fun to look back at.

I wasn't thinking far enough ahead to worry about buying stocks and investing in my future back then.

These days I have a MacBook Pro from 2012 and my wife has an iMac. Nothing fancy at all. I don't think anyone who wasn't into computers in the 80s can appreciate how cheap and long lasting they are these days.

By the way, I still have all 3 of the Macs in that picture. Sort of. Two of them were made into aquariums 20+ years ago and the other is now a planter. When I threw away the Laserwriter, I kept the main logic board. I'll make it into a wall clock someday or frame it or something. When it was new, it was the most powerful computer Apple made.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: GalileoSeven and DeepIn2U
triptolemus

triptolemus

macrumors 6502a
Apr 17, 2011
875
1,774
macquariumguy said:
My Macs circa 1988. I was running a little desktop publishing business at home.
img200.jpg
Click to expand...

I can hear that ImageWriter II.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U
M

macquariumguy

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2002
857
361
Sarasota FL
macquariumguy said:
My Macs circa 1988. I was running a little desktop publishing business at home.
img200.jpg
Click to expand...
If anyone's interested, this is what's in that picture. From left to right.

An original Imagewriter, but note the cord coming out the front. That is a "Thunderscan." It replaced the ink ribbon cartridge with an image scanner. You rolled the picture into the printer and it would zip back and forth and scan one line at a time.

Behind that, a Laserwriter Plus. On top of it, a Waycom digitizer tablet. Don't remember the model.

The left Mac is a 512Ke with a 68030 board installed. That thing was blazing fast!

In the middle, a Mac Plus. There's a USR 2400 baud modem sitting on top of it and a Jasmine 80 Mb SCSI hard drive underneath. That Jasmine was a miracle at the time - 80 MB for $1200 was crazy cheap and no one could imagine needing more space. The floppy on the left of it is an 800K model.

On the right, another 512K (non-e) sitting on top a 10 MB Tecmar hard drive with a serial interface (over $2000 in 84). The Tecmar required a floppy to start up the computer and during the boot process the floppy would eject and the hard drive took over. The floppy drive to its left is a 400K model. This was my first Macintosh that I bought (with the Imagewriter I) in late 84, years before all the rest of that stuff. Its job at this point was running Red Ryder Host BBS software.

Finally, on the right, an Imagewriter II.

Everything was connected with an AppleTalk network. It was all rather brilliant at the time.

That's it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bgosh, sanzo, ecschwarz and 1 other person
mj_

mj_

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2017
1,618
1,281
Austin, TX
The other day I stumbled upon an old photo of my setup from way back when, back in my college days (aka circa 2001/2002): PowerMac G4 Sawtooth (350 MHz), 128 MB of RAM, 20GB hard drive, and a stunning 15" LCD. When you look very closely you may be able to spot my older LC II on the shelf in the left-hand corner as well, but I cannot for the life of me remember the specs.

1.jpeg


Those were the days....

Anyway, today's setup looks very different. I went fully digital and minimalist several years ago, and a setup as pictured above would drive me nuts nowadays. Instead, my main workspace now looks like this:

2.jpeg


I know what you're thinking but no, this is not staged (if it were the dog bed and mouse would be aligned). I keep my desk and, as a matter of fact, entire office clean and free of clutter and cables. I need a clean space to focus on the tasks at hand, and since I work from home full time (and have been for the past 12 years) I am very meticulous at keeping my stuff organized, digitized, and free of clutter. There ain't a single piece of paper or clutter to be found anywhere around here. As soon as I get something in the mail that I need to keep I scan it and throw it away immediately (except in those rare cases where I actually need to keep the original, in which case I store it in a binder sitting on a shelf in the office closet).

I am even seriously considering hiding that cable on the right-hand side behind the wall somehow but I haven't really figured out a way just yet as there are two massive beams in the way behind the drywall. Maybe I could go straight down and hide the cable behind the baseboard instead but that would be a major undertaking.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Caliber26, circatee, 1042686 and 8 others
Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,009
56,028
Behind the Lens, UK
mj_ said:
The other day I stumbled upon an old photo of my setup from way back when, back in my college days (aka circa 2001/2002): PowerMac G4 Sawtooth (350 MHz), 128 MB of RAM, 20GB hard drive, and a stunning 15" LCD. When you look very closely you may be able to spot my older LC II on the shelf in the left-hand corner as well, but I cannot for the life of me remember the specs.

View attachment 903089

Those were the days....

Anyway, today's setup looks very different. I went fully digital and minimalist several years ago, and a setup as pictured above would drive me nuts nowadays. Instead, my main workspace now looks like this:

View attachment 903093

I know what you're thinking but no, this is not staged (if it were the dog bed and mouse would be aligned). I keep my desk and, as a matter of fact, entire office clean and free of clutter and cables. I need a clean space to focus on the tasks at hand, and since I work from home full time (and have been for the past 12 years) I am very meticulous at keeping my stuff organized, digitized, and free of clutter. There ain't a single piece of paper or clutter to be found anywhere around here. As soon as I get something in the mail that I need to keep I scan it and throw it away immediately (except in those rare cases where I actually need to keep the original, in which case I store it in a binder sitting on a shelf in the office closet).

I am even seriously considering hiding that cable on the right-hand side behind the wall somehow but I haven't really figured out a way just yet as there are two massive beams in the way behind the drywall. Maybe I could go straight down and hide the cable behind the baseboard instead but that would be a major undertaking.
Click to expand...
Hope your still not using the password you have on that post it note.
Definitely prefer the clean look.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U and WillFisher
mj_

mj_

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2017
1,618
1,281
Austin, TX
Apple fanboy said:
Hope your still not using the password you have on that post it note.
Definitely prefer the clean look.
Click to expand...
DeepIn2U said:
LMAO ... excellent eye there. I'm curious with no reply meant his MR Forums account used that? Cleaner setup is nice. Interesting books from the old pic as well.
Click to expand...

Common sense dictates to keep your password post-its under your keyboard or mousepad :p

Honestly, I wish I could decipher what that post-it actually says. The only thing I am able to make out is the word "Samstag" but that's pretty much it. Y'all are welcome to do your best to see if you can decrypt it. Here's a full-resolution snippet:

post-it.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple fanboy and DeepIn2U
Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,009
56,028
Behind the Lens, UK
mj_ said:
Common sense dictates to keep your password post-its under your keyboard or mousepad :p

Honestly, I wish I could decipher what that post-it actually says. The only thing I am able to make out is the word "Samstag" but that's pretty much it. Y'all are welcome to do your best to see if you can decrypt it. Here's a full-resolution snippet:

View attachment 904148
Click to expand...
Sorry it wasn’t your passcode.

It was your bank details!

I always like to see what things people have in their home offices around their desk on this thread.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeepIn2U
AZhappyjack

AZhappyjack

Suspended
Jul 3, 2011
10,183
23,657
Happy Jack, AZ
BF1M said:
Don’t you find it too far to reach to use the Magic Mouse or do you move the Trackpad when you need to?
Click to expand...

Not at all... guess that I just got used to it bein there... don't move the trackpad at all... and probably use both mouse and trackpad about the same amount... just how it seems to work for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BF1M
B

BF1M

Suspended
Nov 17, 2018
1,043
1,694
dwfaust said:
Not at all... guess that I just got used to it bein there... don't move the trackpad at all... and probably use both mouse and trackpad about the same amount... just how it seems to work for me.
Click to expand...

I only ask because I’ve been thinking of adding a trackpad to my set up as well and I have the same keyboard\magic mouse set up. The only way I was thinking it might fit, without having to give up the mouse, was giving up the numeric keypad.
 
AZhappyjack

AZhappyjack

Suspended
Jul 3, 2011
10,183
23,657
Happy Jack, AZ
BF1M said:
I only ask because I’ve been thinking of adding a trackpad to my set up as well and I have the same keyboard\magic mouse set up. The only way I was thinking it might fit, without having to give up the mouse, was giving up the numeric keypad.
Click to expand...

I think the wider desk pad helps. Previously, I had a wide desk pad, but it wasn't wide enough for the mouse to track on... so I had another mouse pad to the left of everything... this desk pad is wide enough that the mouse is actually closer to the keyboard/trackpad,if that makes sense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BF1M
jck1634

jck1634

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2009
312
139
Odysee said:
My Keychron arrived today! How are you finding it? I went with the Red keys, what about yourself?
Click to expand...
Oh man I love it! It’s my first mechanical keyboard and I honestly can’t go back to the magic keyboard. Mines the rgb with brown switches.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Odysee
C

Celso

macrumors newbie
Jan 28, 2010
16
6
Nazaré, Portugal
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: avanmd, 1042686 and MacHead84
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom