The last Plugged In column by my colleague Mike Himowitz appears in today’s print editions of the Baltimore Sun, marking the end of a 34-year tenure at the paper and a quarter-century of technology columns.

He became a tech guru almost by accident, as he tells the story in today’s column. But by the mid-1980s he was writing a weekly column about computers for the Evening Sun.

When I arrived at Calvert Street in 1990, Mike had become universally known in the newsroom as “Whizzz.”

Sitting on opposite sides of the Mac/PC divide, we often engaged in good-natured verbal sparring matches over the years.

After witnessing a few of these, Business Editor Bernie Kohn tried to persuade us to do a series of real-life “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” segments either for this Web site or the Your Money & Business TV show that appears Thursdays on Maryland Public Television. Luckily for viewers, it never happened.

Although I never succeeded in convincing Mike of the superiority of the Mac OS, he did at least like the iPod and more recently, the iPhone. Maybe if I’d had a few more years to work on him….

Anyway, Mike’s departure – like those of dozens of other Sun staffers departing this week as a result of voluntary buyouts mandated by our corporate parent, the Tribune Company – will leave a void in the newsroom.

Good luck to you, my friend.