Bryce Courtney, one of Australia’s most famous authors, has several Macs, according to Stephen Colebrook, who told MacCentral that he’s serviced the systems. The author does a lot of his work on his PowerBook G3, Colebrook said.
“Also, one of our most popular soap operas, ‘Home & Away,’ features iMacs frequently,” he added. “And our version of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ has blue & white 15-inch LCD Studio Displays for the host and contestant.”
Author Charles Bukowski is also using a Macintosh (a IIsi) after finally retiring his manual “typer.” He writes pretty fondly of it in “The Captain,” as William Frizell IV pointed out. This week’s issue of “Time” magazine features interactivity and the digitizing of life as we know it. Nary a word is spoken in the general text about what Apple is doing to enhance our digital lives, but in the cartoon on page 73, the “little people” are definitely sitting at iMacs, according to Gary Sullivan. Ironically the article is about how anthropologists at IBM are helping to smooth out the wrinkles in the way we interface with our interfaces, he added.
Sullivan also pointed out that whoever is responsible for product placement in the New Zealand advertising business deserves five stars. Macs are everywhere, he said.
“There is a classic series for our TV network’s news site ‘nzoom.com’ that has some really funny situations featuring iMacs,” Sullivan said. “The best one has a young kiwi surfing site, checking out the nz weather and sports and becoming more and more upset, eventually weeping before he leaves the internet cafe he is in and walks into the gloom of a London winter.”
And Sullivan’s apparel design company has a relationship with a videographer that makes clips for TV using various digicams and a PC running Adobe Premiere for editing. The thing is becoming more and more troublesome as it gets older, and on our latest project it died completely, he said.
“I suggested using my G4 and iMovie, and he was blown away by how easy it was,” he explained.
FCF Project Manager, Koji Sasaki, is pictured in the February 2001 issue of the ” Family Care Foundation Newsletter,” standing next to a large collection of Macs, iMacs, and PowerBooks that will be donated to orphanages and schools in Cambodia, reports Mike Trivisonno.
David Schulman lives in Palm Bay, Florida, and found out that the Burger King in Melbourne has just been redesigned to include a kids’ play area similar to those found in McDonald’s. In the play area are two CRT screens with a unit that looked like a videoconference camera on top.
“They were turned off, with no obvious way to power them on,” Schulman said. “My wife was there later when a tech was connecting them up — and she saw OS 9.1 splash screen when they started them, and all the extensions loading across the bottom. It seems to be a program that will take a picture of the kid who is at the console and put it into some fun scene. While these do not look like iMacs in a kiosk, she (and both my kids) were quick to notice the OS that loaded. Does anyone know about some deal struck with Burger King?”
Cartoons are all over the Web, but the biggest concentrations of brilliant cartoon expressions can be found on two sites ( http://www.illustratorsdirect.co.uk and http://www.3guys.com ), where a total of 26 cartoonists, representing the cream of the US and the United Kingdom, have banded together to use the Web for mutual promotion and new ways of using their talents in the cyber-environment of the 21st Century. And 25 out of 26 use Macs. John Blair Moore, an American cartoonist with feet on both sides of the Atlantic sees a time when both commercial illustration and publication are primarily based on the Web.
“Portfolios, playful gags and experiments in new entertainment forms share equal space on these massive sites, where thousands of cartoons and illustrated fun fiction and animations are on display, along with everything a potential art buyer could need to find and commission artists for their art needs,” he told MacCentral.
While watching the pre-race show for the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco, Jeff Kendall noticed that the McLaren racing team (drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen) were using a Titanium PowerBook while working on their cars.
“The TiBook was connected right to the car, so I presume it was being used to download telemetry and/or other similar information from the onboard recorders,” he said. “If I didn’t want one before (which I did), I sure want one now. Maybe I can even hook it up to my rusty old Nissan…”
The November 2000 issue of “International Tattoo Art” sported an ad for the Yahoo tattoo.com Web site that featured a young lady holding a PowerBook G3, according to Philippe Bisson.
MacCentral reader Dave Willis thinks “it’s kind of interesting that the acclaimed Blue Man Group (in the Pentium 3 and 4 commercials) solely uses Macs in their theatrical performances.”
Bobby June said that “every” IKEA catalog sports Macs. He also noted that actor Mr. T (“Rocky III,” “The A-Team”) is a Mac man.
In the “New York Times” crossword puzzle, one clue was a three-letter word for a “G3 or G4 computer,” Dave Titus and Lawrence Hargett noted.
And check out a recent ” Dooonesbury ” cartoon, Carl Anderson pointed out.
Musicians
On the new album by French band Air, “10,000Hz Legends,” the second track, “How does it make you feel?” features some robotic voices that sound just like the Whisper and Victoria voices in the Mac OS.
TV
On the season finale of the WB show, “Dawson’s Creek,” Dawson’s dad wanted to buy his son a Wintel laptop. However, our hero informed his dad that in this world there are PC people and Mac people and that he’s a Mac person. In the end, his father buys Dawson a Titanium PowerBook, as several readers told us.
On BBC1’s “Film 2001” show in the UK, a Mac is always on host Jonathan Ross’ desk. Last year it was a 22-inch Cinema Display, and this year it’s a Titanium PowerBook, noted Ravi Hiranand
The Greek Soap Opera, “Lampsi,” features Macs, even listing Apple Computer in the closing credits. The protagonist, Yiango, and his partner both use Classic Macs in their offices, reported John Bryan.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Good Eats,” on the Food Network. The host gave some advice on choosing a ham and said, “Make sure you get a ham that looks more like the back of an animal’s leg than an iMac computer.”
If you were watching the (US) National Spelling Bee this week, you may have noticed that the winner’s father was wearing a black shirt with an X on the front and a white Apple logo on the back, noted Ben Kremer.
Movies
In the new film, “Legally Blonde,” our heroine uses a clam iBook.
The film, “Best of Show” (now on videocassette and DVD) has an interesting Mac related exchange. The character played by Parker Posey and her husband talk about how they met.
“I was on the coffee shop working on my Mac, and he was across the street at that coffee shop working on his Mac,” she said.
(If you’ve sent us an item for our Famous People column, please be patient. It will appear, but we’ve been swamped with entries. If you know of a famous person using the Mac, send it to Yours Truly at dsellers@maccentral.com. If you want credit for your “Mac spotting,” be sure to include your full name.)