A love affair with Apple

A notes to readers   My eyesight makes it difficult to write and edit the blogs.   I try to get spelling errors but grammar editing is a challenge.  My apologies and thanks for your patience.  If it wasn't for Apple screen zooming capabilities I wouldn't be able to to this at all.

As I transitioned to work at Micro, my love affair with Apple Computer was reignited because Micro was very Apple oriented.    Not surprisingly, I'd always had a thing for Apple as one of the major pioneers in the industry and because Steve Jobs and Woz were such great early entrepreneurs.

While I sold a tons of Apple II's and ///'s at ComputerLand, I did not really sell all that much Apple gear during my time at Micro with some notable exceptions that I'll explain.    This is more about my personal tech affair with Apple.

My second personal computer was an Apple II+ (my first was a TRS-90 color computer, which I loved).   I loved the Apple II.    I spent an a lot of time programming and learning on it, and kicked off my addiction to video games  on a classic title called Wizardry, and early adventure-type game. 

Wizardry was a game that would literally kill you and your entire adventuring party if you were not careful.   If the graveyard showed up on your screen, you were starting the game over - no matter how many hours you had put into it.   After seeing the graveyard a few too many times, I actually bought a special external floppy disk drive that had a large buffer - which gave you a few seconds to turn the game off before you were dead.    That gave you a chance to try something else to save your party.   

That external Rana drive would surface again when my pet boa constrictor went missing for a couple of weeks.  I found him when I went to play Wizardry again - all curled up in my Rana drive.

I've also related that I bought my second Apple computer before leaving Alaska - the first model of Macintosh, a 128k single-floppy system that couldn't do much.    I had that system for a long time we had many adventures together.   At one point I traded it for  boat and spent the summer water skiing - but fortunately, my trading partner missed his boat and I missed my Mac so we traded back.   I definitely had more fun that summer on the boat than I would have on the Mac.   I can't remember what happened to that Mac I certainly wish I still had it.

Not long after I went to work at Micro my dad called.   He had decided to leave the law office he worked for and put out his own shingle, and asked if I could put together a good system for him.   We had just received the "new" Macintosh Plus computers at Micro, and (unfortunately for my dad)  I put together a configuration for him including a Mac Plus and Microsoft Word.      The Mac Plus was a short-lived model, and for good reasons - I think Apple had tried to figure out what to do with the old Lisa chassis they had laying around, so they adapted the Mac to fit into the chassis.   Unfortunately, the video screen dimensions just didn't work well with the Mac operating system at that time, and that played heck with all of the Mac software displays - especially word processing.  The other thing you have to know is that legal documents that attorneys work with really require great word processing functionality.    The result was that dad's secretary was torturned by the Mac Plus and Word for a couple of years before he got a better system. 

That didn't stop Dad for being a great customer over the years.   He always looked the other way on such gaffes (of which there were more than one), and never mentioned them.   Thanks Dad.

Apple really struggled during the years I was with Micro, especially after firing Steve Jobs.    We all lived through Scully and Gil Amelio, the Mac II and Apple Talk, and (ye gods) the Newton.    I only bought a couple of the many models that came out during these years, and (except for Dad) didn't sell that many Apples.   

My serious Apple habit didn't kick in until quite a few years later, when I discovered that two great loves of mine had joined   Computers and music.    THEN I went nuts.   I purchased my first Apple laptop around 1998 or 1999, (possibly earlier).   I had the old  Mac OS, and had great music software for recording.    It wasn't long until I'd built out a home studio, and populated it with as many Macs as I could.   By the time Jobs had come back and introduced the new Imac line as well as the new Unix-based (from Next) operating system, I was very hooked.    I used Apple computers for everything, including the business PC's at my new company when it was founded.  I even used them as my gaming rigs for PC gaming.


When Quosal was formed, we because an early adopter of Microsoft's Azure platform.   They wanted to come to our offices and do a video story on us for their web site.   They were going to do it in my office, but decided against it because I had 7 different Apple devices visible - my iMac, an external Apple screen, my iPhone, my Apple laptop, an Apple speaker system, an iPod,  and a couple of other devices.

Here's a partial list of the Apple computer models I owned from 1981 forward:

Apple II+, Apple IIe, Macintosh 128k, Apple IIc, Macbook, Macbook Pro (multiple models), original IMac, Macintosh G4, Macintosh G5, multiple OSX Imacs, All generations of Iphione from Iphone 2 to 8,  multiple models if Ipad 1, 2, 3, 4, and Pro.    Anne and I currently have 3 IMacs  (one is in my studio), 2 Ipad Pros, Iphones, etc.    Looking at this list I can see I need to find a support group for Apple addicts.

Another reason I love Apple is that they've always been a great investment, and I've always done well with their stock (but haven't always invested in them as I should have). 

Finally, Steve Jobs has always been a business hero, warts and all.   Still is.

I've admired Apple as a company over the years - much less so when Jobs was fired, much more so after he came back.   I've had more trepidation since Steve passed on, but still think Apple is doing some great things.    Apple had stayed Apple, and they've provided a counter sync to Microsoft that was needed. 

My famous game designer friend Chris and I used to  admire Apple packaging when we'd unwrap the newest model Iphones we'd talked each other into buying.    Everything about those devices screamed quality, even the packaging.    We loved it.    Apple's innovation has gone beyond their technology to include marketing, merchandising, and retailing.   

Do I wish I had the zillion dollars I spent on Apple gear back?   Maybe I should have waited a little longer instead of paying full price for the original Mac, and the IIc was kind of a waste.   Other than that, I've loved every one of those boxes.

Beginning with Micro my career became about business systems and solutions, and I was never successful selling Mac into business.   While I know of some that were, I don't know that Apple has been as much a success outside of specialized industries.  Aside from my own (mandated by me) use of Apples at Quosal for our own use that is.

As mentioned above, Apple's tech has been a huge boon for me has my eyesight has worsened, literally extending my working life by several years.   I've used the equivalent Microsoft tech and there's no comparison. 

I've seen worse addictions.  You can have my Mac when you pry my single button mouse from my cold dead fingers.

Phase 2 of a tech career - back in the industry!

 In mid December 1984 I landed back in my home state of Washington with the clothes on my back, enough room on my credit card to buy  a car, and some skill in the industry that would drive the US economy for many years to come.   Before the end of theyear, I had a new job at a company I'll call "Micro".

(You may have noticed I'm only using people's first names and semi-fictitious company names.    I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings with my recollections but you never know).

Gary, the CEO of Micro, founded the company in 1982 and quickly had 2 retail locations, both in malls including Bellevue Square Mall - at the time, one of the hippest and trendiest (and most expensive) malls in the country.    The business was primarily based on Apple Computer sales to consumers as well as educational institutions, which was and continued to be a cornerstone of the company.

Ass previously blogged, I was brought in to sell the IBM line direct to business through an "outside" sales effort, the first the company had attempted.    Gary was looking for high margin sales - and his definition of high margin really was high.   He believed (and time proved him right in my opinion) that value added sales of hardware and packaged software only made money at 70 points of gross margin, and such were my marching orders.

(My first question was "what's gross margin?  What are points? is 79 a lot?" - All the selling I'd done was from list prices, with allowed discounts.    This was my first exposure to margin-based sales).

To introduce a few of the players at Micro:

Gary (CEO):   One of the most business savvy people I've ever worked with, and a successful entrepreneur many times over.   Also a renaissance man - a skilled contractor who did all of his own leasehold improvements personally (retail store and commercial office) - well, and quickly, and with high quality.    Also one of the most physically imposing people in my experience.   a former athlete.    He was stern and firm in business dealings, yet one of the most fun people I've met as well, with an infectious laugh and a high likelihood to start a snowball fight.      

Ron (Bellevue Store Manager) - in many positions over the years, Ron was usually Gary's second in command.   Capable and well thought of, a good problem solver and a good person.

Jeff (outside sales) - Jeff worked in the Bellevue store with Ron but soon joined me in the new outside sales division.    Jeff was about my age but without the hard knocks.   Funny, funny, smart-ass funny.    Smart to the nth degree.    We imbibed many a pitcher of beer after work, and Jeff went on later to a double masters program at a prestigious East Coast school and a long career at Microsoft, whence he has recently retired.

Renee (outside sales) - the other addition to the new outside sales team.   Renee also came from Bellevue and looked the part - professional and smart.   No point in dancing around the fact that she was also very attractive and stylish.   She liked to make fun of my "new" '67 Camaro.

Doug (programmer).    Doug was a programmer Gary had hired to try to automate some internal controls.    We would work together on some projects and encounter each other off an on over the years.

While I was hired at an "outside" sales specialist, the simple reality was that I had no such experience and had always worked from a (business) retail base.   There was no appreciable marketing effort or personnel,   nor any real plan.   There were desks and phones.  The retail store provided some business-centric traffic, and that was a start.

At that time, the business PC lineup ;was the IBM AT.    The Intel 386 chip would not be released until later in the year, so one of our "R&D" efforts was overclocking the 80286 chip with faster "crystals" to get appreciably more speed - with similar efforts with hard drives and controllers.    Most configurations I sold were frenkensteined in such ways.    As PC-based networks were in their barely functional infancy, I immediately ran home to Momma and discovered that Xenix (a version of Unix put out by Microsoft and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), but actually available through IBM) was available for the AT.  My very first sale for Micro was a three-user Xenix configuration to a local business in janitorial supply.   The IBM version of Xenix was limited to 3 users, but that's all they needed.   I sold them Open Systems Accounting software, and we were off to the races - at 70 points of gross margin.

This first sale kicked off a flurry of activity, not th e least because Gary was quite excited that we could actually get that margin and that I actually knew how to pull all the pieces together, and that the customer was quickly up and running and happy with the solution.

First, Gary wanted to implement Open Systems Accounting  for his own business, and wanted me (with Doug) to do what I'd done before in Alaska - modify the software to include Point of Sale functionality.   This will be a blog entry in itself.

Second, when Jeff came on board he did some pre-internet research  and found that Xenix was available from much better sources than IBM, and got us in contact with a distributor called PGI in Arizona.    This was a great resource for years to come.

Third, Gary accelerated his plans to expand the outside sales effort and added Jeff and Renee.

I was also very interested in exploring Mac for Business.  I had purchased (at full introductory price) a 128k Macintosh when they came out in early 1984.   I was as thrilled by the possibilities but as disappointed in the reality of the Mac as the rest of the market, and by early 1985 Apple was getting into serious trouble.     Steve Jobs would be fired later in 1985.   

The years I spent at Micro were great years, and it would not take long for key elements of my future in IT to begin to fall into place.

Phase 2 of an IT Career:   Transition

My time in Alaska provided the incubation period for the start of my IT career.    This began with time at the National Weather Service as a computer operator, giving me exposure to some of the first business PC's as well as a Prime minicomputer system.   A year at Computerland followed and we terrific experience.   Another year at the Radio Shack Business Computer Center in Anchorage followed, and then time as a combined office/accounting/systems manager at a construction company.    

This was all valuable business and systems experience to add to six semesters of school before dropping out to live the computer revolution full time.   

These first couple of years were not just about a massive amount of technology-related learning, but also about honing my sales skills - skills that would be a primary focus of the next 20 years as I would become a kind of "technie salesman", or a technical person who could also sell.     On both quests I was somewhat on my own;  good mentorship in sales was to come later, as would good collaboration on the technology side.   While much of the selling I did was "smaller ticket" (less than $5k in early 80's dollars), I also did a fair amount of higher-ticket solution sales of complete systems for business, in the $20-$50k range.   

...

My last ten months in Alaska was a difficult time.   

My relationship and marriage to my high school sweetheart was ending ugly; it was a mess.    We had no kids, which was a major blessing.     

i'd  left the industry that I loved to work with a customer - something I ended up being thankful for, not only because of the business experience but the good folks at that company became close friends that helped me through this difficult period.   Mike, Corrie Chris and George have been my friends for most of my life now and as it happens we're all practically neighbors at least some of the time, just a short ferry ride away.    

In 1984,   I bought my first Mac and decided it was time for me to leave the Great Land.   Alaska was at the beginning of a very tough economic period, which would feature (along with Houston, Texas) one of the biggest real estate crashes in U.S. history.    Can you guess who had purchased an overpriced condo at 17% interest in 1983?  Good times.

I left Alaska on my birthday in December 1984.   I landed "back home" with my brother Keith and his wife Kitty back in my Washington home town of Marysville.    

Needing work, I applied for two jobs and received offers from both.    I was in a down and doubtful frame of mind and was not overly diligent in my job search.    I turned down a job at the Seattle U district Radio Shack Computer Center (I felt that Tandy was getting off track with their PC clones and direction).    

Very fortunate was my acceptance of  a position  with a small chain of stores based In Everett, Washington.    I didn't know it at the time of course, but this job would have a tremendous impact on my future, my approach to doing business, entrepreneurship - and within a few months, I'd meet and hire my wife of 30 years and counting.    But I'm jumping ahead.

The owner of the company, Gary, was a very successful entrepreneur.   I would later learn that he was a renaissance man - the kind of guy that could (and did) build his own house as well as run a thriving company.    He had a keen eye for quality.   He was also one tough son of a gun, but had a great sense of humor once you got him laughing.    He told great stories of his rowdy past - which he'd set aside to have a family, which was the most important thing to him.   He was a religious man, but neither pressed his faith on others nor required it of them.

Gary's business had been primarily sales to consumers through the stores, and an educational business to school districts that continues to this day.   He was looking for someone with experience in business sales with the IBM computer line that he'd brought on but not had much success with, and that was my "in". 

I learned more about business from Gary in a few months than all my previous years of work combined.    The PC business -  business to consumer, business, and government - were all far more competitive in "the lower 48" than in Alaska.   The first thing I learned from Gary was how to calculate prices based on gross margin.   In Alaska, sales were all list-price based.    We went on from there.

Gary became a mentor and a friend, and would one day become a partner in business.    

So, within a few short weeks I'd left my home and job in Alaska and had embarked on a few adventure back in my home town.    The next phase of my IT career had started.

My tales of Alaska are not over by a good sight, and  we'll visit there from time to time.  In Alaska, I'd learned much that carried me far in my career:   

Sales skills as a "straight commission" sales rep

Multiple PC platforms - Apple, IBM, TRS-80, Fortune, Osbourne, Atari

Operating Systems - CP/M, MS-DOS, TRSDOS, Unix, Xenix

Software - Various Accounting; Word Processors, Visicalc, Lotus 1-2-3, Multiplan (forerunner of Excel), Supercalc, Dbase II, IDOL

Programming Languages - Basic, Business Basic, Fortran, some assembly

More PC games than you can imagine.

I had 2 1/2 years in the industry under my belt when I left AK.

A Catch-Up Post for Restart Purposes


Well, just like that it's been a solid month since m last post.   Before embarking on weightier matters, I thought I'd do a catch-up post on recent events.   Blogs and best intentions go hand in hand.

Most recently, we've returned from a 9 day trip to Florida and over the weekend I played in the WA Senior Chess Championship Chess Tournament with about 20 other over types. 

The trip to Florida was great.    I had a board meeting to attend, so we built a few days in the sun around the meeting date.    We spent 5 days in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, then travelled BY UBER to a couple of other destinations, staying with friends and ending up near my brother and his family in a city called Stuart on the east coast of Florida.

Our stay in  the St. Pete area was very enjoyable, with decent weather for much of the stay.   I have to admit, Anne and I agree that we've been dragging bad weather around with us since our trip to Palm Desert.    We had a couple of windy days in St. Pete, and on the last day we were there a real downpour of a type I've not seen in that area.  Usually, downpours last five minutes and in another 15 you would never know it rained.  This went on for hours, including the start of our car ride to our next destination.   Scary.

Our hotel was nice but expensive for a four-star (the Don Cesar).   It is a cool building constructed in 1928, with an obviously long history that includes time as a World War II hospital and many years of being shut down.   AND they have GHOSTS.    Nothing too gruesome, but some definite stories.

The room was somewhat small but nice enough, but they definitely zing you for all extras, including beach chairs, umbrellas, etc.     Eighteen bucks for a pot of coffee is a but much for me.  You can't eat their beach however, and we really enjoyed it (a little too much, as my sunburns attest.   We never got sa sniff of the pool until the last day, when the Easter holiday crowed dissipated a bit.   

We enjoyed visiting friends in the area, and had some GREAT food in St. Pete.    We found a little restaurant in a former actual diner called the Mad Fish (I kept calling  Bad Fish but that would make no sense).    THey had an incredible menu that included some of the best New England lobster I've ever had, and is one of the few restaurants I've been to that offered Chateaubriand.    We went there twice it was so good.    The lobster was a huge tail for only $27.    We went back for the chateaubriand, which WOULD HAVE been excellent but it was served barely warm - partially because the waiter stopped at almost every other table in the place to show it off and "sell some" s he put it.    The flavor was excellent.   If you get to St. Pete, try the Mad Fish.

The highlight of the trip was our visit with my brother Mike and his wife Anna, and my nephews Luke and Ben.    Ben was the newest McNall until midway through our visit, when my nephew Brandon and Natanya announced the newest McNall, young Caden (sp?) McNall.    Funny story - both Luke and Ben were the youngest McNalls for only a short time, before the spot was usurped - first Mike's son Luke by Brandon's son Caleb, and now little Ben by Caden.   I digress.   It was awesome to spend more than a few minutes with Luke and Ben, not to mention Mike and Anna.

My brother Mike has built a career in golf, working as a club pro and a caddy at high-end resorts.  He's built up a clientele at a club on Long Island as well as a club in Florida, and the family travels to New York in the spring/summer months, then back to Florida for the winter months when glolf is still played.   Mike is 16 years my junior.   While I'm the oldest of my siblings, Mike is the oldest of my rather's two children with Judy (called "Gramma JooJee" by Luke), so we've always had an interesting dynamic between us as competing eldest siblings.   There's no competition when it comes to gold, at which I was never of any account even when I could see the ball.    Mike's the best golfer I've ever seen with my own eyes.   He t3ells me of the vast gulf between pros and even excellent golfers like himself - which I'm sure is the same in every sport.

My nephew Luke has an extra gear too - of smiling glowing cuteness.    He literally attracted a crowd at the hotel cafe.    One lady kind of kept going on and on about Luke - perhaps his first official groupie.    She even started up the next day when they came back to hang at our hotel pol. 

Anna's a schoolteacher and a great, calm mom.    She also takes terrific pictures.   We enjoyed being able to renew our relationship, as we simply haven't been able to spend a lot of time with our only East coast close family.

I mentioned we Uber'd all over the state, and that actually went quite well.    We had a 2 1/2 hour car ride from St. Pete, then a 3 1/2 hour car ride to Stuart.    In both cases it was far less expensive and less time consuming than flying would have been.     One thing I learned is that Uber has changed their car types:  Uber  X is now much less well-cared for cars than it was, and they now have a new class "Uber Select" that seems to be what UberX was, and which is still below Uber XL. 

We got back in good order, and after a plane ride that needed at midnight Friday I hgot up to play chess on Saturday AM.   This was a two day tourney at the Seattle Chess Club.    I played well the first day, then equally not well the second day.    Still struggling to regain my former strength and starting to realize I probably won't.   

As the tourney was only for 50 year olds and above, there were no kids present.    While this was good from the standpoints of noise and crowding (the chess club is not very big and gets packed in many cases), I actually missed the energy of the little buggers.   While I've developed a phobia  of losing to 12 year old girls, I have to be quite pleased at their level of skill and the growth that competitive chess has experienced because of the youngsters. 

Next, we're heading to Vegas for 3 days in the sun.    We don't really gamble, but friend Tod has offered to show me how to play craps.    Hopefully we can find a 50 cent table to learn on.

Medical news:   Annual visit to the eye doctor.  She indicates I'm legally blind - corrected vision of 20/200 in both eyes.   I've noticed the bad progress in the last couple of years, but it's been a pretty steady decline for the last 25 years.   Still no treatment - although the doc says I also have developed cataracts and she wants to operate.   Mom had a bad experience with this operation, so I have to think about it.   Everyone has their problems; my vision is mine.    What sucks is that this is hereditary:  Gramps McNall had it, my dad has it, one of my brothers has it, and one of my sons may have it.    I hope and believe they'll come up with treatment in my kids' lifetime.

The only negative about traveling is losing the thread on my exercise regimen.    I think it is making a difference, so I'm looking forward to getting regular again.  So to speak.

Ok, we're caught up.   Be well.