1995 Gran Canaria: The Land of the Geeks

I'd spotted the long-sought-after Apple logo! My step quickened; I was enboldened by the thought of reinstalling system software and removing whatever bad bit (or three) that was causing my PowerBook to occasionally plummet into a section of the operating system named "John hates ZoomRects". I closed the distance quickly.

In my travels around the USA and the world, I've found that Apple stores tend to be staffed with very well-meaning people who are, ironically, a bit behind the times, technologically. (I guess this is because they focus on selling, not showcasing new technology. I've found that competence in state-of-the-art toys and tools impresses clients, but Apple seems not to stress this aspect of the Silicon Revolution.)

My stereotype held true in this Apple store as well. (I noticed that I never use the phrase "Apple store" in the USA; there it's always a "Macintosh store".) I stepped inside to be greeted by a decade-old "I'd rather be driving a Macintosh" bumper-sticker, several Macintoshes (none less than four years old), and two very nice people.

I put down my backpack, opened it, pulled out my Apple Apple QuickTake 100 camera, my Apple Newton (transparent), and my Apple Macintosh PowerBook. Feeling a little like Arlo Guthrie's proponent in Alice's Restaurant, I related my technological adventures and horror stories of the last months to Eduardo Crossier Perez, the store-owner. He understood my, err, how should I say this, innovative use of the Spanish language, and commiserated with me when I got to the poor electrical quality on Eivissa, my rental machine blues, etc. (Unlike Arlo's male lead, I didn't have six part harmony.)

By the end of my story, were were all having a great time on the Group 'W' bench - oops - I mean in the shop. Señor Perez looked at my PowerBook, heard my stories about Apple in the USA, my tales of writing up a web pages of my trip report that I was trying to upload daily, and saw some software that I was beta-testing for Apple that he hadn't yet heard of through official channels. (Fear not, Apple attorneys. I did nothing to violate my non-disclosure agreements. He saw some interesting Control Strip items and a splash screen or two.)

Assistant He agreed that what I needed was to reinstall the system software. He showed me to the back of the store, where they'd installed a small computer lab to hold classes for their clients. Because my PowerBook 150 wouldn't recognize their Apple-brand CD-ROM no matter what we tried, we finally made installation floppies. Then we sat and talked some more, and I showed him some of the hidden power of MacOS 7.5.1. We talked about his business, and the reach of technology into the islands. There's now one ISP, but they market themselves as PC-only. (I'm not sure what that means; if I have PPP or SLIP software running on my end they can't tell whether I'm using Pentium or a Texas Instruments calculator.) As befitting an Apple store, they weren't on the net, but were charming about it.

Well, to make a long story short (TOO LATE!), if you're in a position like this, or you know of someone who is, just sing a few bars of - err, I mean, visit this really great little fortress of Appledom in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria:

Mac Computer, S. A.
Eduardo Crossier Perez, Gerente
Calle Angel Guerra, 21
35003 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Las Palmas, Canarias, Espana
Telefónos:
36 60 00 (vox)
36 56 10 (vox)
36 49 22 (fax)

Now the menubar on my PowerBook looks like this:

I left Señor Perez and his assistant just as siesta was about to begin. With my errand done it was time for me do do a bit more exploring.

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!

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