Keep Dave Typing

My buddy Dave is an amazing writer and editor. He worked for AOL writing about all things Apple and Mac at The Unofficial Apple Weblog for nearly a decade. He’s darn good at what he does, and that work showed through every day.

AOL recently did that thing that dumb corporations do: they closed down TUAW and sent everyone packing. Dave was one of those who lost their job, and along with that, he had to send back his daily work laptop. Expected, sure, but it left Dave with nothing to type on. As a writer, that’s a bit of a challenge.

For now, he’s borrowing his wife’s ancient MacBook Air, but it barely keeps up. Seriously, I think it’s older than both of my kids. But he’s dealing with it because he has to. He and two friends launched a new Apple-centered new site called Apple World Today a couple of months ago, and they are cranking out amazing content. For Dave, though, the crank turns too slowly.

So I want to buy him a new Mac. I’m doing this in secret because I know him well enough to guess that he would tell me to stop. He’s got some pride, as all of us New Englanders do. But I really love this guy — heck, I’ve co-hosted a podcast with him for over 3 years! — and I want to help him out.

The $1300 goal is a bare-minimum. That would get him a 13-inch MacBook Pro to replace what AOL took away. Anything over that goal would give him the flexibility to pick something different. So, if you’ve found this page and it already looks funded, don’t let that stop you.

I know, I’m basically asking people to help buy a guy a laptop. A real “first world problem”, right? But this would make it easier for Dave to do the writing he’s good at, take on more freelance clients, and work more efficiently. He’s got a wife and two kids to support, and without a gift like this, his writing career might suffer too much to carry on.

So help Dave out, would you?