Mac360: The Past, The Present, The Future.

Tera was fond of saying that ”nothing improves without change.”

Yet change is what we sometimes fear, clinging to the past, though looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a strange situation.

Mac360 began a few years ago as a simple web log for Tera and I to share Mac and Apple related information with the Mac community, with specific focus for the average, non-technical Mac user.

Over the 800 or so articles we’ve covered as many topics as we could; some we knew something about, others where we obviously did not, but that didn’t stop us.

As a Mac community we’ve gone through good times when Tera was vibrant and strong and prolific, and times when she was not. 

We’ve shared knowledge and pain, comfort and joy, heartache and sadness.

All of us a Mac360 thank you for helping us, helping others, sharing your knowledge and questions and a quest for a better computing experience.

We thank you for your participation in the Mac360 Forums, for your comments, and recently for your heartfelt prayers, concerns, and condolences.

That was then, and this is now. It’s time to remember the sunset but look forward to another day, another sunrise.

We’ve greived together, laughed together, and looked forward to what’s new and different and better on the Apple scene.

That’s what Tera did. That’s what we’ll continue to do at Mac360.

The present has been somewhat painful for all of us this past week. First, let me apologize for the site outage Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, we received notice from our host server, Site5, that Mac360 was causing undue resource problems on our shared server.

Site5 blocked access to Mac360 without notice. It was a full 24 hours before Site5’s customer service representatives responded with additional information about the cause.

As best we could tell, traffic to the site was higher than normal, though not much higher than previous busy days.

Second, to prove to Site5 that Mac360 wasn’t the cause of their server resource problems, our sys admin (that would be Ron) moved the whole site to Tera’s Mac mini.

Tera started her own little site with Ron’s help and my design skills (Tera couldn’t design her way out of a paper bag, but she was good at getting someone to help-- me), we introduced TeraTalks on a Mac mini that Ron bought for her and kept on his desk.

It was fitting that Mac360 ran just fine this week from Tera’s old Mac mini. As Ron said, even from the grave Tera came back to help us out in a time of need.

This morning the site is up and running again but this time on a PowerMac G with OS X Server.

That’s the past and the present.

For the future, we look forward to getting back into a groove, but building on the past and moving ahead with more perspectives on Apple, the Mac, the community, and with more product reviews.

That may require some adjustments in the current site as we undergo a few design changes, add a couple of writers to help out Alex, Carol, Jack, and me.

All of us thank you for your continued support and appreciate the kind words.

Tera had always hoped the Mac360 Forums would be a good place to share Mac issues, concerns, problems, opinions, and perspectives.

Help me to honor Tera’s hope with a renewed interest in forum participation. It’s easy. Register and post something, even if it’s a complaint.

Who knows what the future holds? Apple’s track record over the past five years has been stunning.

In the meantime, Microsoft has done everything they could to shoot themselves in the foot; over and over again.

Tera thought we live in exciting times. Even without her reasoned passion, I must agree.

What’s the next great thing? Will we ever see Tera’s beloved iPad (wireless tablet Mac with video)? Whither art thou, iPhone?

What’s the next great thing from Apple?

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.