Reading Dave Winer’s recollection of first seeing and using the Mac on the 30th anniversary of its introduction has me reflecting on my first encounters with the Mac during my freshman year of college in 1984-85. My work study assignment was the undergraduate computer science lab that was for all practical purposes put together specifically to be the home for six of the newly minted Macs. The CS department used the lab for teaching an experimental class in Pascal, but also came equipped with MacWrite and MacPaint. I was immediately enamored by these little computers that I had the good fortune to use whenever there were no other students using them, and I lusted over them for all five years I was in school. The price for the Macs were well out of my price range as were the IBM PCs that I could buy on a student discount. The first computer that I purchased was an Atari 800XL during my sophmore year, which I used for programming classes via VT100 terminal emulation connection to a mainframe and for writing papers. After I got my first job I bought an Atari 1040ST, which mimics the Mac UI but cost much less. Finally I bought my first Mac, a Mac Mini in 2005.