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RIP xlr8yourmac ?

macguru212

macguru212

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Apr 17, 2009
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AZ/NYC/Tokyo
Not sure if any old timers out there recall a great tech site for Macs: xlr8yourmac.com

It has been down for a couple of days now.
Mike, the author and creator of the site for ~28 years has either retired, or worse... I really don't know.

Mike's site has helped so many hardcore Apple fans over the years, my first encounter with him and xlr8yourmac.com was upgrading a 7200 PM with a new processor (NewPowr)... And a few more times with other CPUs, Video Cards, math co-processors on a variety of old school PowerPC hardware. I never failed to visit the site, even on vacation, just to peek in on what was happening.

I only only hope Mike is ok, but his site is 'offline' Other tech sites and forums report that he only retired, but I'm shocked nothing is here, seems so abrupt for retirement.

I'll peek in every now and then to see if anyone has any news, I'm traveling and have my nose the grindstone, but am concerned. cheers all
 
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Google turns up a bunch of stories around this. One seems to point to health, family, and usual issues with keeping a site running for reasons to retire.

And Google seems to have crawled the site before it REALLY went offline. Points to gone.

eol.png
 
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I’m really going to miss xlr8yourmac. Mike did an amazing job providing such a wealth of information over the years. Thanks to him, I’ve upgraded and tinkered with several computers. I am glad to know archive.org has much of the content I found useful.

I wish Mike all the best and we’re really going to miss the site. I’ve followed it for more than two decades, and it’s sad to see it go, but I hope Mike enjoys a wonderful and well deserved retirement.

If Mike is reading this: thank you so much for all the hard work and dedication you put into the site.
 
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macguru212 said:
To quote the site: "AtAt was a web-based soap opera obsessively following the melodramatic ins and outs of all things Apple. " ...during the dark days of Microsoft. It was fun, silly, and over the top at times, but always had a heart.
Click to expand...
👍 it’s a really interesting website. Even with the retro  vibes
 
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macguru212 said:
To quote the site: "AtAt was a web-based soap opera obsessively following the melodramatic ins and outs of all things Apple. " ...during the dark days of Microsoft. It was fun, silly, and over the top at times, but always had a heart.
Click to expand...
Did you subscribed to Macweek publication also? Not digital but paper like I did. Remember Mac the knife?... We use to call it also MacLeak since they try and leak secret apple stuff back then.
 
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kagharaht said:
Did you subscribed to Macweek publication also? Not digital but paper like I did. Remember Mac the knife?... We use to call it also MacLeak since they try and leak secret apple stuff back then.
Click to expand...
That's old school lol... Yep, and there's probably a list of many more I wish I could remember!

EDIT: not to mention getting those glorious catalogs in the MAIL: MacMall, MacWarehouse...
 
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xlr8yourmac was my daily go to site since the mid-late 90's through last week. Discovering and learning about 'tinkering' with Macs/PCs, Processors, SCSI cards, video cards and HDs, add-ons and peripherals of all types. Fun stuff!
Thanks Mike for all you have done! Best of days to you and your family.
 
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I literally finally registered on this forum to ask: what's left then? What good websites on the matter are left?
 
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I remember this site back when I had a PowerMac and wanted to upgrade with a sonnet cpu card. Probably a video card too. Very useful. Sadly you can't do that kind of thing anymore. You just replace the mac now. It's been a long time, maybe they just decided to retire. I remember going to macosrumors.com before I heard about this site. That's been gone for a while now.
 
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Pour one out for xlr8yourmac. Harkens back to the eras of expandable Macs, which is now almost entirely in the past. As much as I love the power and reliability of the Apple Silicon Macs, I do miss the days of being able to tinker with and customize hardware.

Now it seems like Macintouch.com is one of the few remaining survivors from the 90s (and speaking of MacWEEK).
 
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Ah, MacWEEK - When I was working, my weekly mail would be topped off with my copy of MacWEEK🤗 I also miss the bi-annual Mac Expos. I have attended both - San Francisco and New York🤒

Ah - The Good Old Days
Scratch Head.gif


Lou
 
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MacWorld SF in January and MacWorld Boston in the summer. At some point in the mid 90s they switched from Boston to New York.

Also went to the Seybold conferences, which were geared towards the print and media industries, and often had Apple keynotes and announcements.
 
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flowrider said:
Ah, MacWEEK - When I was working, my weekly mail would be topped off with my copy of MacWEEK🤗 I also miss the bi-annual Mac Expos. I have attended both - San Francisco and New York🤒

Ah - The Good Old DaysView attachment 2578567

Lou
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The expos were a blast! Saw a Steve Jobs keynote in NY once, and the Apple training sessions were incredible. A week of nothing but Apple. :cool:
 
so, this is my homepage on safari on my Mac... I did an update on my Mac shortly after the last update came out and the site suddenly wouldn't come up, I first thought, what did the update do that caused xlr8yourmac not to come up? I guess it was a coincidence.
 
He should have sold the site when he was offered money for it in the hay day of the .com boom, it's sad to see it go it was ranked very high in any Mac search on google at one time in the PPC era.

OWC can't be far behind, Mac upgrades when no Macs are upgradable.
 
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