Matthew Brewer

Staff Writer

mbrewer at maccompanion.com

iChat Hinsightr@mac.com

About Me

I’m a workaholic and I’m constantly busy. With classes going, I spend most of my time working on campus as a tech support guru. I work with about 3 other students and we provide support for around 100 faculty members and graduate students at any given time. This ranges from installing software updates, setting up new printers or other hardware, dealing with a virus outbreak on campus and more. I now know that I don’t want to be in IT for the rest of my life.

During the summer I spend the majority of my time working at Wendy’s hamburgers as a shift manager. It’s a nice break from the seriousness of working on campus and I get to socialize a lot more. Gets a little frustrating at times, but I enjoy it.

I’m a college student and that’s the main focus of my life right now. I’m currently studying as an undergrad working towards a major in Computer Science. I’ve already taken enough Calculus to last me a life time, but I really enjoy my computer classes and spend a lot of my time either coding for my website, Mac Fanatic, or just surfing the web for new projects to get involved with, my latest undertaking being the Camino web browser.

I enjoy mowing the lawn and working outside, working on my car that constantly needs repairs, and going to the movies with friends. I love to go bowling and I’m pretty good with an Alto Sax. I also spend several hours a week just trying to keep my fat cat fed.

Why Macs?

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a recent Mac user. This doesn’t mean that I’m not crazy about them, but I’ve only had a Mac for just at a year. My first encounters with Macs left me bitter and disgusted, back when OS 8 was still in place and we used Hyperdraw in school on those G3 All-in-One computers. However, I was out at Circuit City one day and ran across a first generation iMac. I’d seen them before, but they were all running OS 9, which was hideous and far behind Windows (as I thought at the time). This particular machine was running something amazing though. I stared at the screen to see all of the colors, the blue gradient background, the amazing interface. I’m sure I yelled for my parents and brother to come take a look, and paid frequent visits to Circuit City over the next few months.

Once I had played with 10.0 on that iMac for a few hours over the next couple months, I was hooked. Windows just wouldn’t cut it anymore and I switched to Linux on my cheap eMachines tower that I’d bought with some spare money. I dabbled with various distros over the next few years, always secretly admiring Macs from afar, never having the money to buy one. All that changed this past year when I started college. I’d saved up enough money and was so excited to make the purchase. My new iBook couldn’t come from China fast enough. I was already pretty good with most tasks on a Mac by that point having spend several hours of my life reading about the whole experience on the net. I’ve been a happy Mac user since, recently acquiring a black Macbook and loving the switch to Intel. I use my Mac because it’s got the best software and I want to make great software. My Mac lets me do what I want to do in style. I love my Mac!

Why Write for macCompanion?

I find the reason I’m here writing for macCompanion somewhat humorous actually. I started my website back in mid-December of 2005 after using a trial version of Rapidweaver from RealMac Software and becoming hooked. I didn’t know a thing about hosting or coding a site and went from there. My site has grown over the last few months and I’ve attracted some loyal readers and listeners. I hadn’t even heard of macCompanion until I got a few emails from Robert, the head honcho, asking me if I’d like to join the staff here. Just goes to show you that no matter how much time you spend on the web, writing in Mac forums and talking with other Mac users, you can still miss out on something really great in the community.