System Administrator Doesn't Do Macs, But Will Give It A Try.

Howard Lindquist, a system administrator at Yoyodyne Propulsion, pointed out he doesn’t “do Macs” when recently asked to assist with the set-up of a newly acquired G4. “The IT group doesn’t support ’em,” Lindquist stated, pulling his belt up high around his ample stomach. “But I’ll take a look for ya.”

Martin Yang, a designer in the company’s Graphics Department, contacted Lindquist shortly after accepting delivery of the new dual-processor PowerMac G4. “I know the IT group doesn’t support Macs, but I wasn’t sure how to configure the TCP/IP settings in the Network control panel,” Yang said. Yang handled the rest of the machine’s initial set-up himself, physically putting the machine together, partitioning the hard drive for OS 9 and OS X, and installing Microsoft Office, PhotoShop and several other graphics applications. “Actually, I was going to do it all myself and only called to find out if we use DHCP or if I should put in an IP address. But Howard seemed pretty concerned by my question and came over immediately.”

“I thought he had a Windows 2000 machine,” Lindquist explained, pushing his glasses up on his nose and squinting. “That’s the standard. I didn’t want him to change anything we had already set up.” Lindquist was surprised to find the G4 when he arrived. “I don’t do Macs,” he reiterated. “I heard the Graphics Department still had ’em, but we don’t support ’em.” After several minutes of haggling, Lindquist felt it preferable to try to input the settings himself, rather than have Yang complete the configuration.

Sitting down before the flat-panel Apple monitor, Lindquist encountered some initial difficulty. “What the hell’s wrong with your mouse?” he asked loudly, turning the heads of the other members of the Graphics Department. Yang then demonstrated how to use the “no-button” Apple Pro mouse. Gingerly holding the mouse with his fingertips, Lindquist first began slowly navigating to the lower left hand corner of the screen before being visibly startled by the absence of a Start button. After several mumbled comments to himself and deep breaths, he veered the cursor to the upper left hand corner and accessed the Apple menu. From there the network configuration proceeded without significant incident. Lindquist was surprised to find that OS 9’s Network control panel contained essentially the same options as those found in Windows 2000.

Emboldened by his success, Lindquist smiled broadly and again hiked up his belt as Yang resumed control of the G4. “You let me know if you have any more trouble with that Mac!” he called out as he exited through the Graphics Department’s glass doors. The settings now in hand, Yang quickly rebooted and configured the OS X environment before starting work on a video presentation for a client conference.