A good friend of mine, Ryan Rea, has just started his own blog “Think Microsoft” and has written his first article about why he Thinks Microsoft which was inspired by my earlier post “My Microsoft Life”. Read the full article below or check it out on Ryan’s website, you can also follow Ryan – http://www.twitter.com/volvoshine
Why would someone think Microsoft? is that even proper grammar? questionable grammar aside, thank you for stopping by and checking out my new blog! I’ve created this blog so that I have a centralized place to put my random experiences with Microsoft and the Tech industry in general, in perspective. Many of you reading this know me from Twitter or one of my other social media ventures. However I want to go back farther and tell you just how my personal & technological background made me who I am today.. a Microsoft\Technology geek that is
You could say that I was predestined for geekness, growing up in a creative and non-traditional family. My dad is a designer\architect who for most of my childhood and teen years, created and built exhibits for children’s museums. My mother is a stay at home mom who homeschooled me and my siblings. No matter what you think of homeschooling, it allowed for some interesting experiences that normal kids would not be able to do. I was able to accompany my dad to work & sometimes even have free reign in the museum after hours (little kids DREAM).
You may not be able to tell it today, but my very 1st encounter with a computer… was a Macintosh.. one with a black and white monitor at that. From the moment my fingers 1st hit the keys, I was hooked. It wasn’t long after that that we upgraded to a PC (thank goodness) . I believe it had windows 3.1 loaded on it, what I do remember about it was that I got my 1st taste of PC gaming. Microsoft Flight Simulator was bundled with computer on huge “real” floppy discs.. and I do mean floppy discs. My mom had to physically pull me away from the screen, (should have been a clear warning) after hours and hours of playing.
For my next computer, I switched sides again after a rich aunt donated her “old” (= 8 months old) Apple PowerBook. I used and abused this computer for a few years before moving on the greener pastures of the PC. Around the time I was 12, me and my dad built our 1st computer, an 800Mhz AMD Athlon monster costing about $900 running Windows ME for good measure. I must have crashed and rebuilt that computer dozens of times. By now my family firmly understood the risks of me getting a hold of a computer. If all went well the computer would be a speed demon, however If I crashed it.. it crashed…hard. To this day, if there is ever a computer problem.. its instantly my fault, whether or not I caused it.
I had always enjoyed using Microsoft’s products, but the obsession didn’t really start until around the time Vista\Longhorn was in beta. Managing to get a hold of a beta version, I promptly tried to install it on my underpowered Toshiba laptop. It quickly threw up the white flag of surrender, then rolled over and died. Undeterred, I upgraded an old Pentium 4 PC to Vista capable specs. From there on out, its had been a trail of Franken-PC’s all the way to the computer I’m writing this on, An overclocked quad-core machine.
My obsession with all things Microsoft goes beyond PC’s and the like….
Back in 2007, I was on the hunt for an MP3 player & like most people the only thing I could think of was an iPod. This all changed when I took a position at my local Targets electronics dept. While I was admiring the iPod’s display case, something caught my eye. At the opposite end of the aisle was a small but tasteful display for something new. The Zune from Microsoft, the original Zune was a brick to be sure.. but it was different and exciting looking. That night I went home and bought online a 30 GB Zune from Woot.com for $99.99.. The rest as they say.. is history. I’ve had a Zune & accompanying Zune Pass in some form ever since. My family has also joined in the fun, with just about every member of my close family owning a Zune.
Even in my so far short Microsoft fanboy career, I’ve seen a lot… from the public and press backlash following the launch of Windows Vista to the Praise heaped on their newest OS, Windows 7. From almost being fired from my retail job for recommending a Zune over an iPod (true story) to being instrumental in bringing news of the upcoming Zune HD to the web. It has been very random, exciting and at sometimes completely terrifying , but I have enjoyed every moment of it. Mostly because of social interaction with people just like you, and its for the same reason that I want this blog to be fun & social place where you can catch up on what’s going on in the world of Microsoft & Tech. Remember, if you ever need to contact me.. I’m just an Tweet or Email away.. You can find me on twitter at www.twitter.com/volvoshine and you can email me at volvoshine at live dot com
Ryan RC Rea
A great first article and an insightful post about how you have used a variety of tech product and services, I look forward to more articles on your site.
