Steve Barnes' World of Happiness

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The end of The Maccast.

… Back 19 years ago, I was very involved in Macintosh user groups and I think user groups were… a very important and integral part of this community, especially in the early days… and I thought, at the time, podcasts could maybe fill some of that void and create the sense of community, not just locally but on a global scale, and that was really the idea behind me starting the Maccast.

I've listened to the Maccast almost continuously since 2005, but, as with many intriguing creations, I had to hear the creator's undisguised thoughts for that to click.

Adam Christianson's humble, one-person show, with no music save a few seconds of stock rock for the bookends, kept its simple and seldom-changed format through this month's finale. It was a true podcast in the spiritual sense as well as the technical. Now I see why he didn't feel the need to dress it up: unlike many of the endless range of glitzier or more self-serving tech podcasts of today, his inspiration was already satisfying.

I've been to a few user group meetings growing up, and what I remember were handfuls of adults led through any shared hesitancy or shyness by enthusiasm. What always came through were subtle feelings of good will, intellectualism, excitement, humility, and humour.

I doubt I would have experienced that growing up in today's world, so I thank Adam back for preserving a hint of it through to now.