Joann Cleer
I started work as a Department Secretary in the Computer Operations Department for Philco-Ford and fell in love with computers (even tho we ARE talking mainframe, teletype terminals and keypunch cards!) Eventually, Philco-Ford begat Ford Aerospace, which begat Loral Aerospace, which begat Lockheed Martin. I've had various careers during my 30 years of employment; the last 15 years have been happily spent providing software, hardware, training and administrative support for, at one point, almost 500 Macs. Unfortunately, those were the "good ol' Mac days" before Lockheed Martin went over to the "Darkside", and I'm supporting less than 100 Macs now, most of which will be gone by 2001 (sniff!). For the last two years I've been part of the Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems Division (aka EIS, or as we call it--the Borg!) which is supporting the M&DS Division here in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA.

My love affair with Apple began with a part-time job on weekends at a small retail computer store which sold various computers including the Apple II's. This is where I got my frist "Apple computer training." When the Macs came out, Apple made a special offer to sales personnel of "Apple Authorized" stores to purchase the NEW 128k Mac for less than the 2000-something dollars selling price--such a deal! I loved my 128K Mac and I've still got it at home! I did, however, upgraded it to a Mac IIci and will probably make the giant leap to a G4 in the near future.

At work I've used and supported a succession of Mac Pluses, SE's, Mac II's, and PowerMacs, and currently have one of the very few beige G3's ever purchased (mine was the "spare part" Mac; luckily it hasn't been needed!) I am known as the Macintosh "Grand Poobah" (a title I obtained from a Mac-trivia test in a magazine ages ago.) I am the keeper of the "Official Mac Support Magic Rubber Chicken", which is hanging by a noose on my office wall and is only used for EXTREME MacSupport emergencies. I have four computers in my office--my G3 for doing real work; a Mac 7300/200 for testing/troubleshooting software; and two Borg-issue PC's running Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows 2000. Windows support is interesting, but MacSupport ALWAYS is and will be more fun!!