In 1990, I was a cub reporter at a small daily newspaper in Southwest Florida, and someone brought in a Macintosh computer to the editorial department. They asked, "Who knows how to use one of these?" I raised my hand, saying that I had used them for a short time in college (the journalism school had just started to use Macintosh systems and QuarkXpress in their computer labs).
"Great," the editor said. "You're our new graphics guy."
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With that, I began drawing small maps and creating small charts and other infographics for the newspaper. I then continued to use Macintosh systems at other newspapers, which was especially helpful when I helped redesign a central Massachusetts newspaper in 1993.
When I joined Network World in 1999, however, I worked mainly as a Windows guy, until I finally got frustrated enough with Windows Vista (and now Windows 8 - there was a small time when I enjoyed Windows 7) to finally get my first MacBook Pro for both work (for iMovie and Final Cut Pro purposes) and home. I'm fully in the Mac camp now, although I may get another Windows machine at some point for gaming purposes (at the moment, console gaming is holding my attention).
-- Keith Shaw, Network World Cool Tools columnist and Multimedia Content Editor
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