I was picked to write PCMag's 40th Anniversary "Most Influential PCs" feature because I'm the geezer who remembers them all—I worked on TRS-80 and Apple II monthlies starting in 1982 and served as editor of Computer Shopper when it was a 700-page monthly rivaled only by Brides as America's fattest magazine. I was later the editor in chief of Home Office Computing, a magazine about using tech to work from home two decades before a pandemic made it standard practice. Even in semi-retirement, I can't stop playing with toys and telling people what gear to buy.
I wish I still had my TRS-80 Model 4P, Laser 128 (educational toymaker VTech's Apple IIc clone), Psion Series 5, and ThinkPad 701C with the fold-out "butterfly" keyboard.
My main machine is a Lenovo Yoga 9i all-in-one desktop with a 13th Gen Core i9 and 32-inch 4K display running Windows 11 Home, Microsoft 365 Family, and Norton 360 with LifeLock. My wife and I get 400Mbps Spectrum internet as part of our homeowners' association fee, but I pay a fortune for streaming services.
I also have a Google Pixel 7 Android phone and pay Mint Mobile $15 a month. We share a Volvo XC60 Recharge plug-in hybrid; I'd have a car of my own, but it seems wasteful to buy a Corvette E-Ray to drive 10 miles a week.
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