Ajit Anthony Prem is a filmmaker and Mac enthusiast, despite the fact that he didn’t touch a Mac or start making films until college.
Prem began taking film classes while pursuing a business degree at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. It was with the encouragement of his teachers that he decided to change majors and become a filmmaker.
“I always wanted to do something creative. I would have loved to have been an actor. That would have been great.”
As Prem puts it, “An Indian guy in America, it just seemed so far out.”
So, behind the camera is where Prem became comfortable and was introduced to Macs.
Prem was hired as an assistant video editor during college, when he began using Edit DV software.
“A one time experience was all I needed to believe in that level of technology.”
After that job, Prem was hooked.
“When I got my computer after college, I got a Mac.” It was a 450 Mhz G4.
“It came with Classic, which I still love,” Prem adds.
Then and now, Prem utilizes the vast video editing capabilities of Macs and the available software.
Prem is currently working as both a filmmaker and video editor in North Carolina. He relocated there after spending fifteen years in New York. Prior to that, Prem spent the first fourteen years of his life in India, where he used computers but no Macs.
His current interests in filmmaking and video blogging stem directly from his use of Macs.
“If it wasn’t for that G5 at that moment in my life, I probably wouldn’t have got into videoblogging.”
Squigglebooth.com is where Prem currently videoblogs.
“The idea for Squigglebooth was a videoblog for me and my friends,” says Prem. It was designed to allow people who share the same creative passion to feature their work.
“It wasn’t meant to be just a videoblog for Ajit, it was meant to be a videoblog for a community of people,” Prem notes.
But over time Squigglebooth.com has become more of a personal project for Prem.
“It’s a portfolio of my imagination,” he said. Prem has utilized Squigglebooth.com to showcase his personal projects which have led to more professional opportunities as well, and all in thanks to his Mac.
“I wouldn’t have been remotely interested in half the things in regards to technology, especially in regards to blogging or video blogging if it wasn’t for my Mac.”
Prem adds, “You become a geek after awhile. Stuff I never had a curiosity for, now I do.”
“Mac culture tends to lead you that way, to kind of know more about your computer, know about how the computer runs and why it does the things it does,” said Prem. Since discovering more about Macs and how they operate, Prem has become a bit of a Mac evangelist himself.
“My school, the whole communications department was a PC department and I got that switched over to Mac. They weren’t too far behind. They just needed the extra push to really go there. They got a whole bunch of G5s,” Prem said about St. Francis College’s Communications Department.
Prem boasts, “Every friend I have, I’ve switched to Mac in one way or another.”
Incorporating Macs into his life, Ajit Anthony Prem has completely changed the direction of his life. First with the decision to become a filmmaker and then as his interest in videoblogging grew. Overall, Prem has few regrets.
About being a filmmaker, Prem said, “I wish I was one of those kids that made films when I was like 10 years old, that would have been great.”
But now, filmmaking and using a Mac go hand in hand for Prem who seems poised for further growth in his creative endeavors as Squigglebooth.com has gotten more media attention. Prem thinks the future looks bright for Apple too.
“I’m very positive about where Mac is headed,” he said. When he first began using Macs, “People thought you were kind of crazy for having a Mac system.”
But more recently Prem has noticed that changing.
“We should really celebrate this great decade,” Prem said as he reflects on the successful run Apple has had in increasing sales and the impact of devices such as iPods and iPhones. He believes people have developed an envy of those who can use Macs and PCs.
“It’s great that we’ve lived in this beautiful Mac period.”
Gary, Jay, and Will talk about the new look for Apple Stores, working at the Genius Bar, unlocked iPhones in Europe, the early release of the iPhone SDK, and Steve Jobs on top of a list at Fortune magazine.
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The Using Mac Blog has a nicely-compiled list of keyboard shortcuts for different parts of Leopard.
Just read an interesting blog post from Bill Clementson’s Blog. His 2-year-old PowerBook had a bad line in it and Apple didn’t have a replacement ready to go. So they just gave him a new MacBook Pro.
How to set up more than one USB microphone or headset so you can record multiple people each on to their own GarageBand track.
This week on MacMost episode 31 we report on the iPhone hitting the UK and German markets and the iPhone to hit France on Nov. 29th. We wish the online Apple store a happy 10th birthday and announce the iTunes Wi-Fi store going live in the San Fran bay area. We also report on the comments made by Michael Eisner about Apple. We continue our Hot Tips segment and show you how to set apps to auto startup. We feature Hero Envy in our Podcast Salad segment and suggest Stumble Upon as our Must Download. For more go to MacMost.com
Gary, Jay, and Eve talk about new rumors like the tablet Mac, an ultra-portable Mac, and iPhones in China. They talk about the new iPod game “Phase.” Jay gives some computer equipment recycling tips.
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As cool as Macs are, eventually they become obsolete or give up the the ghost. They also tend to acquire peripherals and accessories that also cease to function and/or become obsolete. This is an environmental concern because a landfill is no place for consumer electronics of any kind. Unless you prefer your drinking water with heavy metals.
Apple is very responsible in that if you buy a new computer you can check a box on the order form and they will send you a shipping label, and they will pay for shipping back and recycling your old Mac. Just one of those things that makes Mac ownership special.
Over the years, my garage has become filled with old Macs, monitors and accessories. And I do mean filled. So over the last couple weeks I’ve been deaccessioning. First I brought some old Macs (some still functioning) in to be used as props on the MacMost podcast set. Next, I cleaned off my G4 Tower, installed OS 10.3.4 and iLife on it and gave it to my niece and nephew to make music on. Cross them off my Christmas list.
Still I had five monitors, two boxes of old SCSI accessories,ADB tablets, mice, and keyboards, a couple old PC CPUs. I called a local electronics recycling center and found that they wanted over a hundred dollars to take my stuff away. So what to do? Freecycle.org to the rescue! Freecycle is an online service set up in many cities where you can go to a Yahoo group and post stuff you need to get rid of for free, and If somebody can use your stuff they email you, claim it, and pick it up. Woo-hoo!
So I posted a list of what I had left and found someone, who likes hacking together old computers and reselling them for cheap. My stuff is gone, I can see parts of my garage floor, and hopefully most of that stuff wont get thrown away, because there is no away.
Victor Cajiao may be the host of the Typical Mac User Podcast, but according to him, he’s, “never been a typical geek.”
“I’m a switcher. I actually started doing a podcast back in 2005, doing a ‘Typical PC User Podcast’ at that time. I had been working with PC’s all my life.”
But all of that changed in October of 2005 when he bought his first Mac, a Mac Mini. Cajiao was drawn to Macs, largely because of the community of users.
“I had never really quite found the PC community, so it was really attractive to me. So I said ‘Ok I’m going to buy one of these and kind of dip my toe in the water.'”
“Wow, there was just no looking back after that,” he said.
Soon he had purchased a 20″ iMac, and in January 2006 he started the Typical Mac User Podcast.
“I’m going to just start something that focuses on people like me, people that are new to the Mac,” Cajiao said about starting his podcast.
He had plenty of computer experience to bring to his latest project, even if he was new to Macs. Cajiao has been an IT professional for a Fortune 500 telecom company for about 20 years. He’s also worked as a professional saxophonist in the Los Angeles area.
“I’ve found the Mac to be a really good instrument to write music with. Specifically, I use a program called Reason by Propellerhead which is really kind of an all in one suite for writing music and it makes it very simple to do so,” he said.
In additional to his Typical Mac User Podcast and writing music on his Mac he also has another podcast called Immigration Tales that deals with immigration and people’s personal stories of immigration. Cajiao immigrated to the United States from Cuba when he was nine. His family is also what what got him into podcasting.
“The Typical PC User was based upon a 70 year old aunt of mine who I got to sit down in front of a computer and she loved horses and within three hours I was able to show her what the Internet was and that she could use that technological instrument to research her passion and I just saw this sparkle in her eye,” he said.
“I went: Wow, if I can do that for her, then you know there are probably 10 other people like her that are typical in that way,” Cajiao said of teaching his grandma.
He adds, “I think that pertains to the Mac as well. I think the Mac is so much more accessible to people like my wife. She was a PC user forever and I was forever having to be tech support for her.”
With a hint of jealousy he notes, “She actually got a Mac before me. I convinced her to buy a Mac before I ever had one.”
Surprised by the outcome, Cajiao describes a change in his household duties.
“All of a sudden, I saw her doing things on her own that I couldn’t believe. This is really cool. My support time has gone down 30 percent, she’s learning things and she just kind of experiments,” he said with relief.
But converting posed some challenges for Cajiao when he got his Mac also.
“I think at first the eye candy helped. I was definitely influenced by the whole iPod generation. When I got to the Mac, I had to learn how to think more simply. As a PC user I was over thinking a lot of things that on the Mac are just very intuitive,” he said.
“I had to have some shifts of approach into the OS and into the desktop and into the Finder. It was those little things that I had to kind of work through,” he said of his first interactions with the computer.
“But then, what I was getting back aesthetically, and literally gaining back in productivity was more than making up for any of those frustrations because I found myself with the time to be more creative,” he said.
Cajiao passionately describes the learning experience with Macs.
“I was able to explore the world from the eyes of a Mac user, and then I was hooked,” he said.
“That, plus the community. There was never a time, never, ever, ever, when I had an issue or a problem that I couldn’t reach out to the Mac community, whether it was in forums, or even my listeners, that was the beauty of it, is I never came into this as a know-it-all or a guru,” he said.
Most Mac users would probably agree that there is room for everyone from recent converts to seasoned experts within the Mac community.
Cajiao further describes the connection between Apple and its community of users by saying, “It’s really interesting to me that we have this entire body of people who are probably more hippies than not, that are willing to absolutely follow ‘The Man,’ when ‘The Man’ is Apple. It’s a really interesting relationship between corporation big business and the cult of Mac.”
But the cult of Mac is no longer just about computers, as Cajiao readily admits.
“Especially today with the iPhone being the next entry vehicle to Apple, with Leopard being the next entry vehicle, with the Apple TV being the next entry vehicle, that’s going to get people to come over (to Apple),” he said.
Cajiao adds that, “Vista has done wonders for Apple.”
He believes that the future looks bright for Apple.
“I think there are going to be many more typical Mac users coming (to Apple) than there probably have been anytime before this,” he said.
He hopes that the community won’t splinter into two groups, the old Mac users and the new converts, iPhone and Apple TV users, etc. Because after all, it was the community of users that ultimately turned Cajiao into a convert just a couple of years ago.
If you’ve got a FaceBook account, you can now join MacMost at FaceBook! Just go to http://macmost.com/facebook and then click on the “Add to my Products” link on the right to become a MacMost fan. We’ve got some behind-the-scenes photos there, and will post some more soon.
This week on the episode 30 of MacMost we report on the iPhone hitting the UK and Germany, MacBook upgrades, iTunes and Quicktime updates, and Eve Online for Mac. In our Quick Tip we show you how to create a favorite fonts collection. We introduce you to Swajana in our Podcast Salad segment and suggest Senuti as our Must Download. For MacMost Loot we ask you to submit your favorite tips to win a prize.
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Gary, Jay, and Eve talk about using Leopard, including installation and features like Spaces and Time Machine. Other topics covered include the new Google Android mobile operating system, using Google apps like gMail, and rumors of a Mac tablet computer.
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