Alan Stafford
 As of December 1998 (check your calendar) Alan is Editor in chief of MacHome magazine; he has spent more than two years toiling as a sub-editor for MacHome. Before that, he had absolutely nothing to do with the close-knit Macintosh community, so you probably don't care to hear any more about it. |
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| How did you personally get into using the Macintosh family of computers? | One of my previous pseudo-journalistic jobs was working for a construction news service, which used a proprietary software package running on a Unix server. Unfortunately, you couldn't print from that sucker, so we hooked in a Mac IIvx, Kermitted it over from compiled text files on the server, poured them into Quark so we could reformat, print them out on a laser and make plates from the lasers. Torture! But using the Mac was actually fun, as opposed to slaving over a dumb terminal. | |
| Status: | Well, let's see, EICs are usually bigwigs, but there's no deep-pocketed, faceless corporation behind me (Oh, I wish it were true), so I'm probably a hopeless geek wanna-be. | |
First Mac:
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That I actually paid for? A Power Mac 7500. | |
| Current Mac:
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Power Mac 7500 (same one), with a G3/400 upgrade card. Until they take it back. | |
| When did you get your first modem? | I appropriated a 8088-powered PC clone with a built-in 2400baud modem in 1988, I think. I bought a 28.8 with the 7500 in 1995. | |
| Who did you call first? | With the 2400 baud modem: I called a second-class service that AOL had for people with slow computers and slow modems. It sucked. | |
| Present Occupation: | Editor in chief, MacHome. | |
| Claim to Fame: | Um, well ... I don't have one. Thanks; now I'm bummed. | |
| Dream Job: | This one wouldn't be half bad, if I could get one of those deep-pocketed, faceless corporations behind me. |
| Not So Random Thoughts... | |||
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| Was there ever a time in your life that you had to "Think Different?" What was the situation and what did you do? | |||
| I grew up in Indiana, so being the naturally rebellious type, I *always* thought different(ly). Now that I live in San Francisco, though, by local standards I'm a centrist. | |||
| How has using the Macintosh computer changed your life? | |||
| It's given me a career, most of all. If not for MacHome, I'd be toiling away at some construction magazine, which wouldn't be nearly as much fun. | |||
| What is the weirdest thing in your office right now? | |||
| Me. Second place: a five-foot-tall wooden cat. It's been cat-napped once already. | |||
| My Passions are: | |||
| No Answer. | |||
| If you could have dinner with one person dead or alive who would that person be and what would you ask them? | |||
| Jimmy Carter. "Do you use a Mac?" and, "What do you think of Reagan now?" | |||
| Do you play a musical instrument and/or are you in a band? | |||
| My playing days are over. | |||
| When I grow up I want to be: | |||
| Having more fun. | |||
| The question never asked: | |||
| To Jonathan Ive: "What's your favorite color?" (Had to ask it in a follow-up; didn't work as well.) |
| Just The Facts, Please... | ||||
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| Biographical Tidbits: | See above. | Education: | B.A., Indiana University, 1987, double major -- journalism and English. | |
| Location at Birth: | Indianapolis, IN. | Current Location: | San Francisco, CA. | |
| Where you've been in between: |
Indianapolis, Boston, back to Indy, Mountain View, CA, Sunnyvale, CA, San Francisco | Astrological Sign: | Cancer | |
| Available? | Married. | Chat Nick: | I don't chat, unless it's via Timbuktu. | |
| Favorite Books: | Prayer for Owen Meany, Cider House Rules (Irving), Truman, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chesapeake (Michener), California Gold, Homeland (Jakes) | Favorite Music or Band: | REM | |
| Favorite Food: | Ice cream. | Cat or Dog Person: | Cat (Chuck). | |
| Alan's Personal Web Site - It's down. I'm working on it, I'm working on it. How about, www.machome.com. It's pretty much my personal site these days, but please don't judge me on it. Yuck. | |
| Alan's Professional Web Site (MacHome) | |
| Favorite Web Site: | Wrinkle in Time |
| "I'm a closet claustrophobic." |
Created Wednesday, February 3, 1999; Edited: