In observance to today’s holiday, I want to share a few recent articles and postings that represent the evolution of technology and enable me to stay in business.

There is an interdependence present in how technology changes over time, users need to continuously exercise their learning muscles, and I get to play a role in coaching them.

Apple Lisa

Lisa, the Mac’s predecessor by just one year, was Apple’s first public attempt at a modern, graphical computer experience. For early adopters when it was released 40 years ago, Lisa demonstrated a new approach to computing, some of which is still present on a modern Mac. However, the model ultimately flopped.

The Verge recently published a 30-minute documentary on the rise and fall of the Lisa. Apple literally buried many Lisa units in 1989 and the film lifts the veil of this mystery that led to Apple’s eventual success in the technology world.

Copy & Paste on iPhone

When the original iPhone shipped in 2007, it lacked copy and paste options. The story goes, there just wasn’t time to include them. The third generation model, iPhone 3GS, arrived two years later and finally brought these foundational commands to life.

Yet, some iPhone users still don’t know how to use copy and paste on mobile devices. There’s so much opportunity to discover by simply tapping where the cursor is already flashing. Lacking a mouse to click, it’s a way of saying, “I want to do something right here.” Try it out for yourself!

Mac Slowdown Solutions

Even the modern Mac is imperfect. As a platform that supports a wide range of configurations and setups, especially with third-party applications and background processes that utilize underlying capabilities of the computer, things often go wrong.

Randy Singer is a frequent respondent on I/O MUG, the Internet-Only Mac Users Group. He and I were prior members of East Bay Mac Users Group, which shuttered in 2019 when Yahoo Groups shut down. That’s when we transitioned to I/O MUG, which is hosted on Groups.io, an online group platform I find more reliable than Google Groups.

Randy’s new post, Mac Slowdown Solutions, offers 14 categories of fixes that are worth considering when troubleshooting a slow Mac.

In my line of work, it’s a big compliment to be put out of a job. I learned this chatting with a colleague at an informational event that preceded breaking ground to develop Eastern Village, a cohousing community on the edge of Washington, D.C.

The evolution and increasing speed of change result in new opportunities to help users get acquainted with new products, features, and capabilities. As a result, I get to form ongoing relationships with those who face unforeseen challenges and/or want to learn something new.

Thanks in part to Grandpa, I’m able to retain a wealth of knowledge over time. With this in mind, I can serve users with disparate situations and attend to each one’s unique set of needs, preferences, and expectations about how technology should work for them!