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Profiles of two Macophiles



Author: Gladys Burritt
Date: April, 1993
Keywords: Known Users SMUG editors mac profile interview
Text: It's not surprising to hear Mack Ransom say that he is in love with Mac. First of all, he really is enchanted with what the Macintosh does for his business. But you have to realize that in his business, enchantment is what it's all about. You see, Mack's business is a dating service, and the perfect match he found in the Macintosh helps him increase and improve the perfect matches he finds for his clients. When he acquired the business several years ago, it was operated out of index cards in shoeboxes! Not very romantic, eh? Although the notion of the impersonal computer approach to dating matches didn't appeal to him at first, friends helped him realize that a computer might be necessary to help him get the business organized. He didn't take the direct route to Macintosh, but instead used a Tandy 2000 for a few years, and learned about Macintosh capabilities through Compuset, where he went to get needed graphics. Soon he was in love! So, for Christmas last year, he bought himself and his business a new Macintosh Plus and Imagewriter printer. Mack is very happy with the user-friendly Macintosh approach, and is totally reorganizing the function and look of his match-up service with the new capabilities the computer offers. He recognizes that the nearly unlimited choices of fonts, type sizes and graphics have an amazing impact on his business, and the Mac recently helped him analyze his advertising effectiveness. After listening to the Tandy's fairly noisy CPU, Mack has also taken a liking to the quietness of his Mac Plus. He's still not sure exactly what software he'll use for the various functions, but initially he is involved in transferring information from the Tandy data base into the Mac (with help from SMUG member Don Brown). The Macintosh will play an increasingly important role in the match-up service, but Mack says he's learned a lot about people and love since he's had the business and one thing is for sure -- the computer doesn't do the matching, people do! ------------- When Milt Boyd says his life will never be the same, he's referring to the impact on his life and work made by his Mac SE. After procrastinating for nearly two years, pondering, analyzing -- MS DOS or Macintosh -- he made the move in June of 1987. Now he sees himself as the ''driver'' of a strong, solidly built, versatile machine. Boyd teaches biological sciences at Humboldt State University and had used computers for various purposes before making the decision to purchase a Mac for home use. He now feels the decision to acquire his Macintosh was one of the best decisions he's ever made. To say he has no regrets would be to understate the tremendous communications power the Mac provides. Boyd's ''home'' use of his Mac includes many hours of ''work'' use. Word processing, extensive record-keeping, statistical tracking and analysis, combining of graphics with text are tasks that are now managed with ease. Before the Mac, for example, an annual report of certain statistics and trends took approximately 20 hours to complete and even then the report had a barely acceptable level of completeness. Now, using graphics and a spreadsheet format, the report is produced within half an hour, presents complete data and communicates strongly and clearly. Software he most often uses includes Microsoft Word, Cricket Graph and Excel, with SuperPaint as an occasional supplement. Boyd has also acquired a number of games which he finds fascinating -- Sub Battle, Flight Simulator and Balance of Power, to name a few. He says he rarely finds time to use them; however, his sons enjoy them. While he's amazed at the power he finds in ''negotiating the streets and highways with the Macintosh work machine,'' Boyd says that as he's able to put more time into learning about the Mac and other software programs, eventually it will be more like maneuvering a sleek racing machine. He likes what he knows so far and anticipates learning even more about the potential of this revolutionary communications vehicle.

Copyright © april, 1993 by Gladys Burritt


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