About Me


I am a child of the seventies, albiet only by 2 months. I grew up when computing was at its ripest and the smaller companies were battling it out for supremacy, before Microsoft claimed its hold on the computer world.

Early on I was bought a Commodore 64. I then convinced my parents to buy me an Acorn 3010 as we were using them at school.

It wasn't until I was at work that I entered the Windows world with a then out dated 486 DX2-66 from my employer. Shortly after that a colleague and fellow computer enthusiast built me my first decent PC.

It was a Pentium 133 with 64MB of RAM, 2GB hard drive, a 4MB graphics card and Orchid Righteous 3Dfx card. I upgraded a few parts then scrapped it and built my own 450Mhz AMD K6-2, 256MB RAM, 10GB hard drive and 64MB 3Dfx Voodoo 3 graphics card.

I met my wife at the start of the millennium and bought a Packard Bell 733Mhz laptop and it was a terrible machine with very poor performance for its specs.

In 2001 I entered the Mac world. After years of owning a PC I knew there had to be something different. Progressing through each version of Windows I knew there had to be a better alternative. I had been a keen observer of Macs for a while but they were way out of my price range.

I began my professional career on an old Mac Quadra in a publishing house. A year later I blagged a Beige G3 333Mhz tower from my employer who was upgrading machines. It wasn't top of the range but it was a foot on the Mac ladder. Hooked to a PC monitor and an old 14.4kps modem it was a little come-down spec wise from my previous computers. However, I didn't mind. It was a Mac, it was where I wanted to be.

I then bought an iMac G3, slot loading 450Mhz model packed with 384MB of RAM and running OSX. It also had a 56k modem which made a lot of difference. I then moved to broadband and life was sweet. I had this for a long time, before the call of a G4 became too much and bought my first eMac, a 1Ghz G4 and my first ever brand new Mac.

From the heady days of OS9 on the Beige G3 through to the fantastic OSX 10.4, I knew Macs were where I wanted to be. The simplicity and cleanness compared to Windows is amazing.

I need a laptop and Apple laptops were expensive so I picked up a cheap Toshiba laptop, but the call of Apple got too great and bought an old PowerBook G3 Lombard, which of all my computers I miss the most.

I sold it to make way for a G4 PowerBook, which I sold for a Clamshell G3 iBook which after only days of using hating it. I then bought an old PowerBook G3 Wallstreet, but it didnt cut it and so sold it and left the laptop market in favour of a smartphone/pda - my Nokia E61. I recently picked up another PowerBook G3 to restore and it has gone very well, this then went for sale and I got a PowerBook G3 'Pismo' maxxed to the hilt and it is fantastic.

I sold my G4 eMac and moved straight to an Intel iMac 1.83Ghz Core Duo which I had until it died recently. I now have a PowerMac G4 'Sawtooth' until I get another fast Mac.

I have had a huge range of 'second Macs' ranging from iMac G3s, PowerMac G3s, LC2s and even a Classic 2 for basic tasks. I have used every version of both Windows and Mac since the early ninties and versed myself well in them. I have strayed even further than the confines of Microsoft by delving into the weird world of Linux.

Every computer I've owned I have ripped open (except my Intel iMac). Most Macs aren't supposed to be 'user serviceable' according to Apple, but that doesn't stop me. From building a PC from scratch, replacing hard drives and optical drives in iBooks, fitting new hard drives in eMacs or logic board replacements in iMacs to name but a few, I have developed a wealth of knowledge.

Ive never been content with just using a computer, I have to know how everything works and how to fix it in both software and hardware terms. Whether it be installing an operating system (Mac, Windows or Linux), setting up a small network (wired or wireless) or resolving software/hardware conflict. More recently I have been learning HTML and CSS and used it to build this website.

I have earned the reputation of nerd and proud to live it. To people I know I am a one-stop-shop for computer problems and questions.

From a professional angle, I have been a business journalist and graphic designer for 10 years. Now taking a career break and an opportunity to spend time with my wife and three children I am looking for a change of direction. A future in computer repair may be my new direction, but time will tell. I have recently started as a regular columnist on LowEndMac, check out Mac Spectrum
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Aside from computing I love listening to music and have a wide taste ranging from garage, hip hop and drum 'n' bass to disco, new romantic 80's synth pop and rock. I also enjoy science fiction (as most computer geeks do).

And there you have it, me summised in a few paragraphs.
This article/page was written/updated by Simon Royal in 2008. If you would like to add your comments, disagree with my views or believe it is stolen, or find it offensive then please email me.

TheMactivist logo was designed courtesy of my great pal, a fellow Apple user and very talented designer Simon Carpenter-Foster.