(For those new to the column, Forward Migration is our term for companies moving from Wintel machines to Macs — or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use. A Forward Migration Kit is an overview of Mac OS products for a particular occupation, such as photography, optometry, etc.)
About a year ago, Larry Klug — graphics professional, Web designer and Mac fan — rebuilt the Web site of recording artist Suzanne Ciani, herself a big fan of Apple products. Now she’s got her online store up and running, again, thanks in part to Klug.
“Rebuilding the Web site was a huge project,” Klug told MacCentral. “It was like restoring a castle from years of neglect. I created new content (MP3 files, PDFs, QuickTime movies, graphics), repaired broken links and updated her Web pages.”
In October 2001, Klug created a chat room on Ciani’s Web site for special events; the online store opened last December.
Klug tackled all these products despite low vision. He says that the Mac serves as his “second set of eyes.” Klug’s low vision of 20/200, along with low eye muscles (rapid eye movement) has been present since birth. He relied on large-print books, strong glasses (thick lenses) and magnifiers to help him through school.
Klug bought his first Mac (a LC II) in February 1993. A year later, he purchased a Quadra 660AV, followed by, a couple of years later, an 8500/120. Today, he uses two Power Mac G4s and two large LCD panels.
“The Macintosh had some wonderful features that made it very easy on the eyes,” he said. “It made it very easy for me to learn Web design and creating multimedia content on my own. If there are any words of encouragement I would like to tell people with disabilities, it would be this: don’t feel sorry for yourself and expect sympathy from others. Instead, buy a Macintosh, find your talents and dazzle the world around you.”
In other Forward Migration news, a Malaysian school has done Apple proud, according to a TechCentral article. Sri Cempaka became the first school in Malaysia, and the first in South Asia, to be named an Apple Distinguished School earlier this month for its “extensive implementation and use of Macintosh technology in its education curriculum,” the story reports.
The local private school has campuses in Damansara Heights and Cheras in Kuala Lumpur, with a student body of 1,500 spanning primary to upper secondary schooling. Part of Sri Cempaka’s educational projects and curriculum are based on Apple’s learning software and applications, reports TechCentral. Basic video creation and editing is done using iMovie, while more professional work is done with Final Cut Pro.
The Cheras campus recently bought 50 Apple eMacs, adding to the 70 iBooks, 55 iMac G3s, 25 iMac G4s, two Power Macs, two PowerBooks and five Power Mac G4 servers the school already uses in both campuses.
“We use them mainly to train students in video-editing and desktop publishing, since this is where students experience the real difference between Macs and the PC,” Sri Cempaka vice-chairman Dr Iskandar Rizal Hamzah told TechCentral.
Apple Malaysia said that Sri Cempaka was also Malaysia’s first school to use its AirPort wireless networking technology. It’s used to provide multimedia audio, image and video content to students wherever they are located within the school’s buildings.
Have a forward migration story? Send it to us.
Request for help
Now it’s time for our weekly requests for help from folks who need your advice and/or assistance in forward migrating — or at least being able to keep the Mac platform alive and thriving in their businesses. Contact the requesters directly at their e-mail addresses.
Roy Hall of Mac Made Easy in Honolulu, Hawaii: “We need some information for small medial practice software with a focus on psychologists. We have a client considering the move from PC based EZ-Claim HCFA-Helper to using a Macintosh for both home and office.”
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