Shownotes:
We’ve been doing GeekBrief.TV since December 23, 2005. I don’t remember exactly when, but I know it was early on that I met SwitchingGranny (Martha Garrett). She told me I was one of the major influences in getting her to switch to the Mac, but as we began to talk, what drew me to her was her obvious love for technology. She’s a grandmother who didn’t appear to feel the overpowering hurdle that technology can present to some of our parents and grandparents. She didn’t understand everything at first, but was open to learning and asked lots of questions. In 2003, she was diagnosed with MS, and instead of letting the disease ruin her life, she connected to the online community and it’s enriched her life. She’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met!
After about three years, she has become a valuable part of the Geek Brief community, and we invited her to spend some time here at the GBTV studio. Heck, we had to invite her…she promised to cook for us!! It’s been a wonderful week of geeking out and getting to know someone who has not only been part of our lives because of this crazy Internet world, but also has become a part of so many other GeekBrief.TV viewers’ lives through twitter.com/switchinggranny
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Technical Note: Neal wrote a post on the Geek Brief Blog about Brief 602 and working with the latest Final Cut Studio upgrade for the first time. We love experimenting even when the experiments don’t work perfectly.
twitter.com/switchinggranny
facebook.com/SwitchNGranny
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July 28th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Great as always!
July 28th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Haha “Twitter is the Wal-Mart of the internet” Wouldn’t that be Wal-Mart.com?? :)
July 28th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Martha is one of the most upbeat positive people I have ever met. Well wait a minute, we have never met in person, but we really have. We just live across the river probably about 10 minutes from each other but all our communication is online mainly on twitter.
She is my prayer warrior. She is a total inspiration to me and to many others in the online community. Thank you for being so kind and hosting her this week.
Because of Martha and people like her I feel like that I am a better person.
Thank you and keep up the great work! Your videos are the best!
Nibby Priest
Henderson KY
@Switchinggranny TweetHeart!
July 28th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I started following @SwitchingGranny because she followed you, Cali. I only found out later that we both deal with MS — in my family, my wife is afflicted with relapsing-remitting, which some describe as the “mild form”. But it still has a major impact. It’s nice to hear Martha speak about it and to know some of her experience — thanks for sharing!
July 28th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Was her microphone switched off ? Her voice sounded reverbed by the walls. :)
I found the “Apple is sooooo THE solution” theme disturbing… but, as a Linux fan, I can be very binary too (“MS is evil, Linux is good, blahblahblah…”). If we want to pass along our knowledge, we should try to avoid chapels or at least to moderate ourselves.
It’s good to encourage people to learn about computers and their OSes but, as fans of one system or one brand as we can be, we have to try to begin “agnostically” and say “you’ve got problems with this particular computer, with its OS ? You have to know that alternative*s* do exist. The learning curve can vary from one to another, that’s true, but there is always more than one path to be “at peace” with your computer(s). There’s more than one OS, more than one spreadsheet software, more than one internet browser, etc… This said, you can then add “alternatives exist and, among them, may I suggest (because I know and am happy with it) Linux/MacOS/BSDs/AmigaOS/FreeDOS/ on this particular (because I know it too) kind of hardware ?”
July 28th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Cool story about someone who tried something different and lived to tell about it. I’ll bet Martha has always been that type of personality – thanks for sharing her story.
I’m a Mac user and will agree with AP that the segment on why she switched reminded me of the testimony times at a Come to Jesus tent revival.
Was it just my feed or was the audio just a touch bit out of sync on the “small” version? Some of the jump cuts were harsh.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Amazing episode, but dang, talking crap about Windows when you probably have dozens of crapware installed just isn’t right. If you have a decent PC, do a CLEAN install of Vista and you’ll know how fast and stable it is (compared to OS X). You just have to give it a chance!
July 28th, 2009 at 10:26 am
@BeSweet – The problem with Windows is that you have to constantly keep up with cleaning it. You almost have to reformat it once a year in order to keep it running as fast as Mac OS X. I have been using PCs for a long time and went to college to work on computers but they are such a pain sometimes! It was because of Martha that I switched to using Macs and started watching GeekBrief. Thank you Martha and Cali!
July 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Lol, I’m not taking the mick but I love it when people call it the “Internets” without a hint of irony.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Nice episode. I really sums up how the online community as well as online business has been made available to everyone.
Quick ? Where do u get those mugs?? ; )
Pura Vida
Jose – Dallas
July 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Ah, the mugs were given to us. I don’t know where to find them, I’m sorry!
July 28th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Great show as always!
Alejandro
From San Juan Argentina!
July 28th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I couldn’t finish watching the end… I have a mac right here and it’s he most non-user friendly and unstable computer I’ve used. I was going to show this episode to my mom since it sounded like her at first. Not anymore.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Cali: I have never written before, but I was encouraged to do so by switching granny. She sort of described my frustration with PC’s, and the reason i “Switched”
I now have an Imac G5, a G4, and a G4 lap top. Yes I’m a true convert, and have never looked back. The crashes, and frustration of trying to make things work were all solved when I purchased my first Mac. I soon discovered your show, and a lot of “tech” shows that have helped me so much. You and your hubby do a great job! P.S. I’m 69 years old, and I help my friends with “Garage Band” often.
I’m a working musician (Sax player with 5 groups in this area, and I’m retired from my job as a sound system designer, and love life!!
July 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I really, really enjoyed this episode Cali & Martha! :)
July 31st, 2009 at 2:12 am
I’m not sure if that was a plan but …
combining MS – horrible ,sneaky, viscious illnes
with imperfect OS like any other, maybe except i5
;P), cruel viruses and missing registry entries(what
the hell was that!?) and the rest of the world’s evil vs mac – easy and friendly,(maintenance &
malware free? -rotfl)and generally “apple: the
miracle drug” was a little low blow…even like for the apple ad.
I’m disappointed.
P.S.
All the best for SwitchingGranny!
August 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 am
If anyone REALLY wants an Apple mug, as are on this episode, you can sometimes find them on eBay (one’s on there now, about $50 with postage). Search “Apple Mugs”.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Is it me or were the audio levels crap in 602, I can hear Cali, as for switching granny, her mike was not turned on, very painful to watch
August 6th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
My husband and I are debating about a Mac. We’ve never had one and we are in desperate need of a new laptop.
This has given me more to think about, for sure. :)
August 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I hate mac’s! My school has them and they are not working almost every other week. I run windows at home and it’s never been broken!(except for when my power supply blew up!)