The Macintosh is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary tomorrow. At Apple.com thay asking people about their first Macintosh. Here is my story.
In the Spring of 1993 I was studying my ass off for the USMLE part 1. Medical school was going pretty well but the class before us had gotten creamed on part 1 so we had the fear of God. When it came studyiong for microbiology I kept making tables of all the bacteria of a certain class with all of their characteristics layer out. One table of all the gram positive cocci, one of the gram negative rods, another with mycobacterium. It was tedious and I kept wishing there was a book filled with these tables.
I heard rumors that some medical students at University of Michigan had written a book of the charts but the rumor was ephemeral and I could never get a hold of them, but it did give me the idea of writing a set myself. I told the idea to my girl friend at the time, Sarah Faubel and she agreed to write the study guide with me.
So right after USMLE part 1 instead of going on vacation or taking a day off we drove down to CompUSA and each bought Macintosh’s, she got a PowerBook 140 and I got a PowerBook Duo 210.
The Duo was the MacBook Air of its time.
The first Duo models were introduced in October 1992 alongside the PowerBook 180. The low-end Duo 210 includes a 25 MHz 68030 CPU, 4 MB of RAM, an 80 MB hard drive, a 9” passive-matrix display capable of displaying 16 shades of gray and sold for $2,250. The high-end Duo 230 is the same as the 210 with a faster 33 MHz 68030 CPU and an optional larger 160 MB hard drive for $2,610. Both have batteries that last about two hours on a charge. In comparison to the PowerBook 100s of the time, the Duos are noticeably smaller — 38% thinner (1.4″ vs 2.25″), 38% lighter (4.2 vs 6.8 lbs), and slightly narrower and shallower. The cost of this weight savings is the lack of expansion ports, lack of a floppy drive, smaller and softer keyboard, smaller trackpad, and smaller passive-matrix display.—Jason Taylor
- Two hours of battery life
- 1.4 inches thick
- 4.2 pounds
The 210 and the 140 were trusty companions that along with Microsoft Word 5.1 were the right tools for the job so that ten weeks later we had a 260 page book, the Microbiology Companion. The computers served us well as for the next couple of years as the book was updated to a second edition. The books sold all over the country, received an A- in First Aid for the Boards and convinced us to write a second book, a decision which ultimately turned both of us into nephrologists.
The personal computer revolution was so seductive because it empowered Davids everywhere to do battle with entrenched Goliaths. The Duo was my sling and I have been an Apple Slut since then.
