This is so cool, we wish we’d have thought of it: DieselSweeties has a T-shirt with the phrase, “I was a Mac user when Apple was doomed.” This will, no doubt, resonate with many of our readers, and so we thought we should point you to it.
The shirts are offered in a variety of styles and sizes at US$15.99 and $16.99.
← Previous Article
Apple Releases iTunes 10.1 with AirPlay Support
Apple released iTunes 10.1 on Friday, adding support for iOS 4.2’s AirPlay video and audio streaming features. The update also…
Adding to list…
© The Mac Observer, Inc. -- All rights reserved. All information presented on this site is copyrighted by The Mac Observer, Inc. except where otherwise noted. No portion of this site may be copied without express written consent. Other sites are invited to link to any aspect of this site provided that all content is presented in its original form and is not placed within another frame. The Mac Observer is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple, Inc.
27 Comments Leave Your Own
At long last, a nerd shirt I would actually wear.
As an aside, it boggles my mind that there is an entire generation that only knows Apple from the latter Jobs years. I remember well the days when asking about Mac software in a store was like asking about condoms (i.e. awkward). 
Pretty dang cool.
I would like this even better if the font was Carbon.
How about a Tee Shirt with some of the Death Knells printed on it….
The font size would have to be small to include them all.
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/death_knell/
Or you could just hang an iPad around your neck and have the text scroll up the screen.
(Pat. Applied)
I like it, but it would be even better if it said “I Was a Mac User When Apple was Beleaguered”
It needs the rainbow Apple to make it complete. Cut _me_ and I _still_ bleed six colors. I even still have one of those static cling Apple stickers u just moved to my new car from my old.
Was there ever a worse Mac computer than the Performa/PowerMac 6500?
Yeah, the Mac IIvx, AKA Performa 600. And to add insult to injury, Apple had the temerity to introduce the Centris 650 just six months later, built on the same platform, but much faster, and much cheaper. Trust me, I think this guy wins the award for worst.
-Jon
Blasphemer!
My Dad had one for several years. He was able to create and manage a couple of dozen websites on it using Frontier from Userland.
Wasn’t that an “Instatower” model? I do know the 6400/6500 mobo was used everywhere, but I’d say the B2CJ Apple (Before the Second Coming of Jobs) struck the bottom when they unleashed the Steel-clad 4400/7220.
PowerMac 4400 Innards
It was basically a stamped steel box like the Moto and PCC mac clones of its day.
P.S. If you need a giggle, look at that photograph and note what a CPU heat-sink looked like back at the time.
What!? It’s no longer doomed? Well where’s the fun in that?
Very nice shirt. Many thanks for the notice.
I second both furbies’ suggestion for the Death Knell T-shirt (and recommend that Bryan and Jeff come up with a nice graphic), and JonGI’s suggestion for the rainbow Apple.
A contest?
A collaboration!
The ‘evil’ genius meets the ‘twisted’ genius - again.
I’d like one that says I was an Apple user when there was no Mac.
+
I second VaughnSC regarding the PowerMac 4400 as the worst ever, but more for just its innards. I ordered the “Business Edition,” which amounted to the most user-unfriendly Mac ever: Just a giant steel box and a bunch of CD-ROMs with no apparent rhyme or reason. I can’t believe, using what I’m using now (Intel iMac), that Apple ever released such a bundled mess.
As for the days when Apple was doomed, remember some of those great websites that sprang up at the time? As the Apple Turns (AtAT)? Crazy Apple Rumors Site (CARS)? I say there aren’t too many Apple/Mac sites like that anymore simply because there’s not enough drama left!
Interestingly, they did sell.
In that vein, what was the ‘best’ Mac (or pre-Mac) that never caught on?
I expect that Apple still retains the trademark rights to the six-color logo and is unlikely to allow anyone else to use it for commercial purposes.
I started my comic on a 6500. I still have it!
the SE30 was a screamer in it’s day. The IIfx was also a great machine.
IIsi was a solid attempt at making a small but still usable machine.
But my favorite I think was the IIci. Had the right about of umph and expandability. Those days, a “cash” card had a different meaning.
Still have mine. And still have the big bag for lumping it about.
Added an ethernet card and extra ram from eBay just for the heck of it a few years ago.
I still have my first Mac, a PowerBook 100. I bought a few months after it had been discontinued in late 1992. (I had an Apple //c that I bought in late 1984.) I don’t know if it would turn on—the batteries are totally gone. They were sealed lead-acid, rather like a car battery, and tended to swell and warp when they got old. It might operate on the AC adapter without the battery. I had a 14.4K modem—a big step up from the 300-baud modem I used with the //c. The PB100 was sort of the “MacBook Air” of its time, as it didn’t have an internall floppy drive. It came with an external floppy drive. WIth a 16 mHz 68000 and a max of 8 MB RAM, it was faster than the Mac Classic. I even used a Mosaic browser—text only, as the 1-bit display didn’t do too well with graphics.
Yes, now that you mention it, it was much the ‘Macbook Air’ of its day. As I recall, the PB100 was essentially a Macintosh Portable for all intents and purposes: Apple handed it off to Sony to reengineer/build the same parts/specs into a smaller package. Apple did the PB140 and PB170.
I still recall the unveiling at a distibutor soir?e (no keynotes then): the speaker had a small canvas knapsack and said “I have a Mac in here.” I remember thinking ‘Nah’. Then he said, oh, wait, there’s THREE in there! I was blown away. (Funny thing is one of those demo Powerbooks walked away ‘by itself’ in less than 15 minutes)
How about, ?My first Mac was an Apple //e.?
In my time I owned 2 Apple II’s (the //e and a IIgs) as well as a whole slew of Macintoshes. I remember putting a PC transporter card in my IIgs so I could run DOS and learn IBM ASM language.
Of all the Macs I’ve owned, I still say my favorite was the Quicksilver with the mirrored drive doors and dual processor. It rocked!
And I always thought of my Duos (have [I hope] three of them) as the original MacBook Air. I used to pull my 230 out of my briefcase, from underneath my books, and people would look in amazement.
I later upgraded to a 2300, but that didn’t last long until I got my Pismo (and I never liked my PB 1400—still have its rotting carcass, but how does one throw these things away???) In fact, the only two Macs I’ve owned and no longer have are my Classic (still regret that one!) and my Performa 600 (no regrets there—though I did upgrade the logic board to an overclocked Quadra 650)
And I also thought of my Newton(s) as a bit of a pre-MacBook Air as well…
Wow… thinking back on it all—Apple’s come a long way.
There is no doubt that Apple has had some stellar products along the way.
I’m still curious, though, as to what anyone thinks was the sleeper of the Apple lot, the best kept secret that no one really picked up on. Or is it that, of the products that flopped, they did so deservedly?
IMO, it was definitely the Newton. I never show mine to somebody and their eyes don’t pop out! Even now, over 10 years after it was _discontinued_, it’s an amazing device and OS. And add to it the rabid fans who are working to keep the NewtonOS relevant, it is still chugging away (but only just)... I would have to say that the Newton wins this one hand’s down. All the Macs were just that—models in a long line of models (and also, IMO, the Pismo belongs near the top of the pile), but the Newton was a completely different (sorry to use the word) paradigm. And I have my doubts, in fact, that the iOS would be what it is today were it not for the Newton. But that’s just me.
-Jon
My parents bought me a 128K Mac with 400k external drive and Imagewriter printer back in 1985. A couple years later, I got an LC575 (which was hideous). Then, moved into a Corp America job and needed a PC. I stayed with a PC for many years right up to last month when I purchased my new iMac 21.5. I have come home.
I’d agree with that. I owned a 110 and a 130, and loved them both. Carried the Newton everywhere, and my boss at work thought it was cool that I actually used it since there had been so many jokes in the beginning about bad handwriting recognition. I never had a problem with bad recognition, it always seemed to know what I wanted to do.
Add your comment