AVC Hello and Goodbye Mac

My boss, Robert, had a vision for the implementation of microcomputer technology at the high school level. He could clearly see the opportunity for students and staff. For this to happen, he needed me to assist with office staff and grant applications.

Robert has successfully brought administrative computing to the Adult Education office, which he managed daily. He also initiated a number of adult education courses using microcomputer software for spreadsheets, word processing and data bases. The computers were all TRS-80's (Tandy Radio Shack). They were nicknamed Trash 80's, but they worked quite well. They did not have graphics and other cute things like the Apple I had tried in Saybrook.

 I had day-to-day management of the Area Vocational Center, which included all student and most staff issues. After my secretary’s disaster with VEDS running on an Apple II, I had to find a way to bring staff to computing for record keeping. The old record keeping was effective, but slow. Somehow I had to convince her to embrace another program. I decided the only way to support the effort was to become knowledgeable enough to trouble shoot a database program, so I took it home.

With a borrowed TRS-80 computer, I spend the week-end self-learning all the ins and outs of using a database. I made all the mistakes, but eventually learned how the software worked and why it failed. With confidence that I could assist, I asked my secretary to again put faith in using the computer to track student enrollment and attendance.

She accepted my offer for support, and began to track student data on our simple database. With success, came more interest. With my success, I realized I must take classes to bring myself into a leadership and support role.

Robert’s plan to upgrade the business courses from typing and bookkeeping to software management required funds. Our funding basically paid for staff with little extra for equipment. However, we had the opportunity to apply for funds for vocational training through a Judge School Educational Trust . This trust was established as part of settlement agreement for the use of funds remaining after all of the heirs of Judge Scott had deceased.

With the assistance of the teachers, we drafted grants for a business computing lab, computers and software for the auto mechanics lab, CNC (computerized numeric control) for the metal shop, computers for the CWT, ICE, DE (work cooperative classes), and upgrades for furniture and equipment in child care classroom.  All of these grants were funded and we were well on the way to using computers for vocational classes.

The business computing lab was to be on MS-DOS (Micro-Soft Disc Operation System) machines or as we called them "IBM clone". There were many companies selling software for Apple, Radio Shack, Digital and other systems. All of the microcomputers ran at 48 K speeds. .They  ran on Apple DOS or TRS-DOS. None of them communicated with each other. 

 Once IBM entered the market, it dominated with its micro-computers. These were later  called "PC".The most popular software for business were Lotus 1,2,3 and WordPerfect. Both of these ran on MS-DOS machines and some of the other platforms. Bill Gates stroke of genius was to licence his MS-DOS software rather than sell it to IBM. His decision lead to an explosion of IBM clones that were cheaper, but ran all the same software.. This is how Micro-soft became such a giant in the industry. Our new machines for business  were to be 128K, while the Auto shop machines weer Apple IIe.

An upgrade to the office computing involved trying out the new Macintosh. The year was 1984. Robert bought two and told me to learn how to use it. This machine was a strange little machine with its tiny black and white screen. It had  tiny slit for a hard plastic disc, which looked like a mouth and this thing called a “mouse”. It was all one piece as opposed to the multiple devices  (disc drives, CRT) connected to standard microcomputers. It was small and sat on my desk. It seemed a step back because we had already moved to color CRT for most of our new computers. (CRT stands for cathode ray tube or basically a TV screen). 

I found the mouse a little awkward and the computer seemed more like a toy. I had mastered basic commands in DOS and found the graphics slow. I did enjoy the graphics editing, but saw little practical use for it.

After a few weeks, I returned the Mac to Robert. He gave it to one of the teachers. This was to be the last time I would work with an Apple computer.