business on the mac

Science careers

When I was growing up, I always thought the coolest thing I could be was a scientist. I love science, follow it closely (at least in the “popular” journals like Science, Scientific American, etc.) and love to think “the big thoughts”. Unfortunately, science can be a painfully dull experience in real life, and one I found out that I wasn’t really all that excited about when I was actually doing it. It turns out that, according to this article below, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Women in Science.

A well written article, to say the least, and one that should open up some eyes concerning why we have so many “marketers” and a whole lot less real “engineers” and “scientists” these days.

(Found via Daring Fireball )

Of new gadgets, gambling and buying stuff.

After 2-3 years of using a crusty old cell phone (which was reallllllly cool when I first bought it), I finally broke down and got a new one. I’m a T-Mobile guy, by virtue of their T-Mobile hotspots and my desire to work in the coffee house atmosphere, so when it comes to picking new phones, fortunately, I usually have a good selection. Well, much hemming and hawing later, I decided to go with the RAZR. Not exactly the most newest and coolest phone out there, but at least it’s thin.

Well, I finally got it the other day, ran out to Best Buy, got the requisite Bluetooth borg-wear, a little case to store the phone in the car and am now the proud owner of a brand new cell-phone “system”.

One of the nice things about the T-Mobile phones is that their Bluetooth capability isn’t locked like it is with Verizon. Up went some pictures, a new cell phone ring (I’m so clever… I now have the Beastie Boys’ No Sleep Till Brooklyn as my ring tone. Which, by the way, is probably the most inappropriate ring-tone to come blaring through a phone at inopportune times. I think I’ll be changing it shortly… after I’ve had my fun as “person with most obnoxious ring-tone I know”), and now, all is good in cell phone land.

Wandering around Best Buy, something slightly bothered me after my recent cellphone consumer purchasing explosion, though. I didn’t realize what it was until after I went gambling the other night. The other day, I went with some friends to Mohegan Sun, an “Indian” casino in eastern Connecticut. If you happen to live in the area, and you like gambling, Mohegan’s definitely the place to go lose your money. It’s nice, clean and doesn’t have that “cheesy” feeling that Vegas and Foxwoods (a nearby Indian casino) has.

Well, lo-and-behold, I actually won something. After a good run at blackjack, and against my better judgement, I ended up playing $25 craps (which is about $20 more then my regular craps limit). Astonishingly enough, I actually won pretty big-time there… or at least, big time for me…. I even used the fancy new cell phone camera to take a picture of the purple chip I managed to squeeze out of the dealers. Yay me. (I have to say though, the picture quality really isn’t all that great. Very unfortunate.)

Well, the next day, and now heavily burdened with money burning a hole in my pocket, I wondered what tech-toy I should purchase with my new-found wealth (savings and future financial security really has no place in my world with regards to gambling winnings). Cars, yachts, personal islands and big-screen plasma TV’s were a bit out of the question, as I didn’t exactly win that much money. Still, I have several hundred extra bucks in the pocket, and wondered, what fantastic new gadget can I buy with this money?

I couldn’t think of anything. I just bought a new phone, so I didn’t need that. I don’t travel that much, or end up being somewhere where I have a lot of time on my hands to kill very often, so a PSP or a new video-iPod seemed kinda pointless. The Xbox, which I thought of purchasing a month or so ago, just didn’t seem all that compelling anymore, especially as all reports seem to indicate that sales were pretty slow, and the fact you still can’t get the thing. I have just about all the high-end stereo stuff I could think of buying (except for that super-TV I’m lusting after, but I guess that’ll have to wait.) Frankly, I’ve been really working at finding a way to blow money on some sort of technological wonder that I can find a real use for. Frankly, I haven’t found one yet.

This made me wonder, though. How does everyone else spend their money? Is it all spent on clothing? Personally, I hate clothes shopping, and avoid it like the plague. iPod accessories? What does everyone else buy while they’re all driving forward our massively consumer-based economy? What is it that keeps all of these stores in business?

I have no idea.

I have, however, come to the sad conclusion that either I’m getting old and crotchety, or consumer electronics just aren’t all that compelling anymore. I don’t see anything really new out there anymore. Something that makes me sit up and take notice. Something that makes me lust for it. The iPod was one such device, but now newer ones are just merely evolutionary steps up the ladder. Fantastic new cellphones are the same thing. Sure, they look nicer, take slightly better pictures… yet, they still can’t make a decent phone call half the time, and at the end of the day, they’re not really all that different from the phone I had 3 years ago. Tivo and other DVR devices? Got it, nothing new there either. I suppose I could go out and buy the new Intel iMac or something, but I put that into the “capital expense” category and it’s already planned for… which naturally makes it far less exciting then any spontaneously purchased consumer fun gadget.

I find it unfortunate that we’re seemingly in-between technological revolutions. In the 80’s we had computers. In the 90’s we had the internet and Palm Pilots, and then shortly afterwards we had the iPod and other personal gadgets of that nature. Now, we have… basic evolution of existing designs and concepts. True, it’s not a bad thing, the refining of existing products, but still… I miss having something really new - really exciting - something that really made me want to rush out and buy it. I’m thinking the next big thing will probably be e-paper (or e-ink… flexible display technology) based e-book readers or something like that. However, I think we have a few years to wait on that.

I guess my new found fun money will end up going towards my stomach with dinners out and the usual stuff I end up doing. I suppose I’ll be buying new clothes eventually when the gut can’t squeeze into the old pants anymore though. Ah Ha! I’ve finally figured out how the economy works! People keep eating out at places like McDonalds, TGI Fridays and the other fried-franchises, this makes their waisteband keep expanding, which makes them run out and buy more clothing! Now I see what’s keeping the economy alive and kicking!

Social Networking Bites.

You ever get the feeling that some people get too engulfed in hype without really bringing themselves up for a bit of fresh air? I do. I tend to consider myself a “realist”, and watching people go all gaga over “social networking” is just baffling as hell.

Since Guy Kawasaki started posting a blog, I’ve been interested in what he has to say. Because of what he’s done, the ideas and stories that he relates, and the talent he’s shown in his writing, I generally find him a good addition to the voices online. I also noted that he’s been promoting an application called FilmLoop. It’s a “social networking” tool that lets people share their photos with a photo “looping” software. As far as I can tell, it’s like a Flickr-type system that has a client-side piece of software that continually “loops” pictures uploaded by your “social network”.

This got me thinking about the whole concept of social networking… especially when you see a lot of companies trying to figure out how to make a dime off of it. Now, Guy Kawasaki is a venture capitalist… or at least he hooks people up with VC’s. I haven’t exactly figured out what he does in that line. Nonetheless, I’m pretty sure that he’s not promoting the whole social networking thing, and being heavily involved in the FilmLoop organization because he’s just a free-love and happiness type of guy. I’m pretty sure he, and everyone else involved in the FilmLoop company, are in it for the eventual monetary payout.

Hmm…

Once upon a time, desktop publishing was new and exciting. Laser printers and new Mac’s allowed people to “desktop publish” just about anything. No longer were people stuck with the limits of what Microsoft Word (or Wordstar at that time) could do. Aldus Pagemaker was going to let everyone create beautiful and elegantly designed materials that would revolutionize how people published themselves and help bring attention to their works of art.

Well, I think we all know how that worked out. Turns out that most people were really lousy designers and should have stuck with Word as their Manifesto writing tool of choice. That, and that fact that not a lot of people had much of anything to say didn’t help either.

Fast forward about a dozen years. HTML, the Web and 56k modems are all the rage. Finally, a way for people to post their own content online! Anyone who wanted to could make their own websites! No longer would the world’s population be dominated by the big, evil content conglomerates that kept us down! We can all stick it to the man! Let a million voices ring through and loud!

Well, that came and went with a lot of crappy, poorly done personal websites that nobody visited. Quickly and quietly, the personal website “revolution” died. The Globe and other forgotten personal website companies folded or were bought out by other hype-invested companies and the world once again was ruled by evil DRM-d content producing mega-corps.

And now we come to this new age. The age of the blogger and social networks. No longer would websites really matter. RSS and Blogger.com would free everyone from the need to actually have to make decent websites. Now people can just worry about “ideas”. Someone else will worry about the actual delivery mechanism. “Social networks” like Digg and others would bring everyone the precious pearls of wisdom that you write. Flickr will also expose the world to the fantastic photos you take.

Excuse me for being a bit, shall I say… skeptical… about this newest revolution that we’re involved in. I have nothing against the idea that people should be able to publish what they want to publish. I have nothing against the fact that people want to publish their pictures for the world to see. I have nothing against Digg and their like letting people “rank” what they find online. I also respect Kawasaki and what he’s done with his career. I’m just cruel enough to throw some “reality water” on the party. That’s all. Here are some of the spouts that are filling my bucket, and why I think this particular fad will eventually fade away and join the Pet rock and personal-webpage pantheon.

Spout one: People would prefer to consume, not create.
When I first started writing my software, I was asked by a few people, “What’s going to stop someone from writing the same thing you write and taking away all of your customers? How can you stop someone from duplicating what you’re doing here?” I always had a similar answer to this question. “How come everyone out there who has a command of the written language hasn’t knocked off Stephen King or James Patterson as bestselling authors? Everyone has access to the same ‘code’, they all know how to put pen to paper and write… why is it that there aren’t millions and millions of authors becoming rich and famous?” What it comes down to is, in general and in mass, people just don’t have either the energy, desire or skill to do what comes naturally (or by association, in the case of Patterson) for top selling authors. Anyone can write. Not everyone does it, basically because they don’t apply themselves to the task. Mostly because they just don’t care enough to do so.

In general, people would rather sit down and watch the TV then write the next great novel. As much as I personally hate the word, “consumer”, most people out there really are just consumers. They consume television entertainment, they consume dinners out with friends and loved ones, they consume purchases from stores, they consume words they read in a book written by someone else. It’s easier, and frankly, it’s usually more fun.

This basic consumption philosophy underscores much of humanity. We “consume” structure and order from a government which we (hopefully) elect. We “consume” enjoyment (via the financial and mental rewards) from work. We “consume” just about everything.

Second spout. Not a lot of people really have the energy, time or talent to actually do what everyone is so excited about.
Weblogging, writing music, playing an instrument, contributing code to a GPL’d project. Time is a commodity which is always disappearing. Every minute you spend writing a line of code for Linux is a minute you’ve lost forever. For someone who derives entertainment from this activity, this is a minute well spent. For those who don’t consider this sort of thing entertaining, that’s a minute they’d probably rather have back. Unfortunately, they can’t. Therefore, they’re not even going to do it in the first place. Or learn how to do it, or even conceptualize themselves knowing anything about the subject. Let’s take a look at the weblogger, aka blogger. Blogging is one of those fancy new things that everyone needs to do to be cool. Just like personal web pages back in the late 90’s. Remember those? Remember how so many people would be getting on ye’ old super-information-highway with their own super-duper websites because it was so easy to do? Well, it turned out to be a lot more work then everyone thought it would be. So, a few ambitious companies and people made it easier for the average person to do, creating preset “spaces” that someone can, without needing to go through the hassle of setting anything technical up, write what they want to write, post what they want to post and generally be what our personal webpages were supposed to be. To some degree, this has worked out pretty well, but let’s examine the reality behind the new services like Technocrati, Flickr, Typepad and Myspace.

My girlfriend is, by nature, a “writing” type of person. She has her masters in literature, she teaches english, and has kept a hand-written journal for years and years. I thought blogging would be a perfect new outlet for her, so I told her what it was, how to go about doing it using one of the available free services out there, and “set her loose”. That was about 8 months ago, shortly after she had gotten her first ever computer (for home use). After an initial flurry of posts, her usage of weblogging has quickly died down to about 1 post a month, and she spends most of her time on the computer reading the NY Times, Slate, Entertainment Weekly and other similar news or entertainment sites. Her total readership probably includes myself (only so that I can make sure she’s not saying too many awful things about the stupid things I do), and a half-dozen friends. I don’t think she’s ever once gotten a comment on her site.

Why is this? Does she not have anything interesting to say, or the ability to write well? No. She’s actually a very good writer, and generally has something to say that quite a few people would find interesting to read. Still, her blog sits idle and unused for weeks at a time. One amongst the millions of blogs that everyone else has. She, by the way, is the only person that I personally know in my little friendship “circle” that actually blogs. The people who I’m friends with aren’t dumb people. Some of them are quite literate and computer savvy people. They’re smart, ambitious people who do well in their lives. They’re also the ones who, when coming home from a day at work, don’t sit in front of the computer that much. As the wife of my friend put it to me the other day, they “Get home, pull something out of the hat for dinner or go out to dinner, plop down in front of the tube for a few hours, then crawl off to bed exhausted after another hard day of work.” If they’re lucky, they have the energy to either go shopping for the stuff they need or perhaps meet up with some friends. For them, non-passive entertainment occurs only on the weekends or days off when they’ve got more time and energy to pursue such things. Blogging, the act of writing and being creative for a probable non-existant audience that won’t really care if you’re there or not, is not even on the entertainment agenda. It’s just not that much fun. Neither is posting their pictures on Flickr, putting together a profile on Myspace or a zillion other “Web 2.0″ stuff. All of it takes up way too much time, too much energy, and doesn’t have any real entertainment “ROI” versus going out with friends, shopping, or even simply lying around and reading a book.

Third spout. People are generally pretty boring. Now, I know that not too many people would like to hear this about themselves, but, let’s face it. We mostly all live pretty boring lives. Even when we don’t, and we’re all going clubbing every night, skiing the Swiss Alps and cruising with P.Diddy in his Pepsi truck, other people are going to usually find your life boring… to them. Combined with generally poor writing abilities, people trying to describe their normal, run of the mill life, can be a pretty dull experience for the people who are going to be reading it. Doubly so for pictures of random people who you don’t know doing the same dull stuff you do yourself at some nightclub or bar in some random place you haven’t gone to. It’s not that these events are bad and not picture or description worthy, it’s just not very exciting to people who those pictures and descriptions have no relevance too. It’s like going to a party where you don’t know anyone, at a place you’re not familiar with, and no one wants to talk to you. The voyeur experience is fun for only so long.

Fourth spout. There’s only so much new and interesting stuff to talk about out there.
This point was raised in a happy coincidence while I was writing this post by none other then Robert Scoble himself, even if it wasn’t the point he was making at the time. One of his posts asked the question, “Why don’t you use a memetracker?”. I thought this response, by “Jake” was most telling.

The two worst aspects of RSS and the blogus-sphere are the echo chamber and the republished press release (dittos). The memetracker is the echo chamber amplified.

Echo chamber is exactly what I see on a regular basis. Mind you, this is not to say that there’s nothing new out there of interest, or that no one is coming up with interesting things to say or news to read. It happens all the time. It just doesn’t happen every second, of every minute, of every day on the subjects that you are interested in. Consequently, you’ll see lots of people bouncing the same articles and ideas around without much new content.

For myself, I find that I prefer to use websites or personal blogs who have similar tastes to mine, and see what they have to say (or link to). It’s a time-saving tool for me, and generally highlights content that’s well done rather then the 90% garbage or repeats out there. True, I could “miss” something, but frankly, what’s out there to miss? Anything really interesting or important will find its way to the top of the list, and therefore make its way to my limited selections.

On a side note, I was somewhat happy, and disappointed, to see that John Gruber, of Daring Fireball went from a content creator to being more of a content aggregator. To some extent, I thought he had written some excellent content, which is what people like myself were interested in, and I’m unhappy to see that go by the wayside. On the other hand though, he manages to pull some good links and content out of the ether. Because of this, the ongoing and regular usefulness of his site has increased in my value, even if the original content value has decreased. Sites like this, I feel, are a lot better then Digg or other trackers for finding relevant content that’s well done and interesting to view.

One more final side note on this: I despise and loathe the use of “techie” sounding words to make things sound cooler then they are. “Meme” falls well into this category. Yes, it’s a real world that’s in a dictionary somewhere. Yes, some people will know what you mean when you say it. But really, to my ears, when someone says “MemeTracker”, it just sounds like someone basically trying to make the phrase “Link Tracker” sound all cool, hip and future-y. As another reader says in the Scoble post…

Take one (important) step back. Ask anyone on the street what the word “meme” means, and what do you think their reply will be? Hint: be prepared to see a lot of blank stares.

You can also add the word “Grok” to the list of words I hate most to hear from people who try too hard to sound cool.

Fifth and final spout. Where’s the payoff? I know, some people out there are happy with the concept that “information wants to be free”, yada yada yada. I’m not one of them. I pay, in either time or money, to get the information I need, or to create the information someone else needs. For me, writing my blog is, A: entertainment value for me because I like to write and hear what other people think of my opinions and B: a marketing tool that, because of my ever so precious pearls of wisdom, you’ll be interested in trying my products that I sell, and therefore I’ll make more money. That’s my payout. Oh, and C: I’m just working on my writing skills so that, one day, I can become that science-fiction author I keep thinking would be a cool thing to do. What’s yours for writing a blog or posting to your Flickr account?

I suppose I could do this without either one or the other incentive, but frankly, I kinda doubt it. If I didn’t like writing, I probably wouldn’t do this because the marketing return on this blog is probably non-existant. If I didn’t lie to myself with thoughts of my blog bringing in millions and millions of people to my site, I probably wouldn’t have the incentive to sit down, find the time and actually write this stuff. If a particular post I write gets picked up by some larger news aggregate, then I’m tickled pink. First, I’m always happy seeing my name in virtual lights somewhere, and secondly, with any luck, some of these new people who would be attracted by that link might also check out my wares.

Right now, there’s a thrill for people to write something online, with the implied idea that someone out there is going to find it interesting, and subsequently, find them, the writer, interesting. It’s human nature to want to be liked. But how long will people continue doing it with no payback and no reward. Not everyone is like me with my nefarious marketing goals. Others just like getting the recognition and the sense of community that’s out there somewhere. But do they get it? And, once they do, is it worth the effort to maintain?

Wired.com had an article recently exposing just such an issue. Podfading takes its toll. I’ll let you read the article yourself, but the down and dirty is that a two people who were doing a really popular podcast (of more then 15,000 listeners) decided to call it quits because there just wasn’t any real payoff in it. Another former podcaster from the article also puts it well….

“Podcasting is one of those things that’s cheap and easy to begin to do but takes a tremendous amount of time to keep going with no payoff”

I think this quote pretty much sums up a lot of what a lot of people will find with our new-found love of social networking tools. Podcasting, Flickr posting, blogging, FilmLooping and MySpacing sounds like a lot of fun, and it is when you first get into it. Eventually though, finding something unique to say, doing it well, taking enough pictures to keep things interesting and other “requirements” of user-generated content tends to become a bit of a drag, and a lot of work. A lot of work that, at the end of the day, doesn’t really pay off in any metric -monetary or otherwise- for a lot of people.

Who at Apple had the brilliant idea to…

… Make the garbage-pail keyboard. Okay. We all know that keyboards are basically cesspools of waste and dirt. We sit in front of them, eating our Bowl-O-Noodles, slurping happily away while little flecks of noodle, noodle-juice and other contaminants spray onto the keyboard. Hair falls in to them (especially after too many coding sessions), dogs slobber on them and basically the things just seem to attract every bit of odd and bizarre dirt.

So why or why did some Apple designer decide to make the current generation of keyboards act even more like a garbage collection bin?

For those who don’t know, the current Apple (wired) keyboard is a nice, bone-white keyboard, with which, I’m guessing, everyone at Apple uses white-gloves while using. It essentially has no “border” around the keyboard, as the actual keyboard keys (and the backpanel they’re attached to) are sitting slightly recessed within a clear lucite plastic shell that’s only millimeters thick. Okay… Good. Looks nice, even if the white keys themselves are bound to get dirty. Well, the fine folks at Apple decided to keep the empty space within the keyboard (like between the number keypad and the directional keys) open and also recessed. This creates nice little zones of “garbage pileup”. Zones that your finger’s just a wee-bit too fat to get to, yet every dirt particle and stray piece of food in a 30 meter radius manages to find and make a home in. I’m right now deciding wether I should go out and buy one of those little vacuums for your keyboard (which I’ve never seen work all that well), or just go out and buy another keyboard. One without the convenient garbage bin. My current keyboard is just getting disgusting in there, and frankly, I’m just waiting for the time that that eyeball eel-thing from Star Wars pops out of there and pulls me down into it’s murky depths. Remember, if that happens to you… fire anywhere.

… Make the non-cleanable scroll-ball. Keeping on the dirt theme, let’s next talk about the Mighty Mouse. Great little rodent with a nice, elegant candy shell. Except, like all mechanical devices created since the dawn of time with a greater-then-zero coefficient of friction, the thing starts to pick up dirt after a while. No problem. A quick wipe down of the bottom with a moist rag solves that area. The little wheel at the top, however? The one that, you know, if it picks up enough dirt doesn’t really work all that well? Ya. That one. You can’t get in there and clean it.

That didn’t stop me from trying, however. Jumping to Google, I did a quick search on “How to clean the the Mighty Mouse”. One of the first links was to a page that nicely detailed popping open the mouse, unscrewing various elements of the interior and getting access to the little ball and it’s much needed-to-be-cleaned rollers.

Oh, the horrible fate of a do-it-yourselfer working with Apple hardware. The site basically said, using a shiv of some-sort, pry open the mouse through the side buttons and then pop off the bottom ring. From there, you can then pull apart the rest of the mouse casing (taking care of the wires) and so on and so forth.

Well, apparently Apple changed the design of the Mighty Mouse between the time this page had been created, and the time that I purchased my particular Mighty Mouse. Or, what seems more likely, they created specifically for me, and only me, a Mighty Mouse designed, engineered, and manufactured solely for the purpose of getting even with me for those derisive comments I made about their hardware and software back in the early nineties. Either way, lo and behold, the interior of my Mighty Mouse was different then the one on the site, and secondly… the little ring on the bottom? Well, it turns out that mine’s not really a “pop off” thing. It’s more of a “break off” thing. That, and pulling the rest of the casing off would’ve resulted in a lot more “break off” stuff that didn’t look like it would be going back together all that easily.

If anyone wants a slightly damaged, yet mostly functioning Mighty Mouse with a dirty wheel ball, just drop me a line and I’ll give you a good deal. I’m convinced it’s a one-of-a-kind.

… Have Apple-D’s with Double Duty. This one seems to get me a whole lot more then it probably should. When you’re in the Open and Save panels in OS X, there’s a fantastic little keyboard short-cut that jumps you directly to the Desktop. As I am most ashamed to admit, I tend to place way too many things on my desktop, so this keyboard command gets a little over used. (Actually, every now and then, I clear up my desktop by basically just creating a folder called “Desktop Stuff”, and dumping the entire contents of the desktop into that folder. I’m now up to a “Other Other Other Desktop Stuff” folder though. That’s how bad I’m getting.)

Well, imagine if you, like me, had a ton of stuff on your desktop, and whilst cruising your hard-drive in a finder window, wished to quickly jump back to the Desktop to get at something. Instinctively, I hit Apple-D. Instinctively, Mac OS X seems to choose the largest possible folder in the directory I’m looking at, and starts duplicating it.

Groan.

…Get rid of the reset button. Do you ever feel that, just perhaps, Apple may be feeling a bit too hubristic? Yea, yea… Mac OS X never crashes and it can compute the number of angles that dance on a pin, etc., etc. Except… it does and it can’t (yet). Admittedly, Mac OS X crashes very, very rarely (at least in my experience), but it still does crash from time to time. In my particular experience, and most often with with my laptop, I would often have the computer just completely lock up, or, more often, not come out of sleep okay. Usually, a “blind” Ctrl-Apple-Delete restarted the computer fine. Sometimes, however, the computer would stay completely locked up and be completely unresponsive to the keyboard and even the power button. With the PowerMac, I would then have to scurry behind the desk and just yank out the cord. With the Powerbook, however, I’d have to remove the battery and wait a few minutes for the internal battery to die.

Would it have been so bad, Apple, to just include a little “restart” button. You remember… like you used to have on PowerMac G4’s? It could be small, tucked away in the back somewhere, hidden between the unused Firewire 800 ports you’ll be sure to put back into your systems. We promise not to tell any of those mean Windows users that it’s actually there. That’ll be our little “flux capacitor”.

…Blow the same guy out of the water not once, but twice!. Okay, this really has nothing to do with either software or system, yet I can’t help but feel pretty bad for this guy. I suppose it’s a good thing that the software you make is of such high quality and usefulness that Apple’s going to go stepping on your toes. That, and a web-design app like Sandvox was just begging to be included in iLife, so it just seemed a matter of time. Nonetheless, I have to say, it must really suck to have Apple go in and pretty much wipe out a large part of your market with an app that’s very similar to yours right before you’re about to release the damn thing!. Not once, but twice. Perhaps the esteemed Mr. Wood should design a Mac OS X home media center as his next venture. It doesn’t seem that Apple’s going to be getting into that arena any time soon.

A funny thing happened on the way to the update.

For those who’ve ever wondered about the secret, delicate inner-workings of how a piece of software lives, breathes and becomes more mature, allow me to recant my tale for you. Take it also as a cautionary tale of how not to do a minor update.

It started innocently enough. Redlien Account Executive (my CRM app for the Mac) is at version 1.5.3. There were, unfortunately, some bugs that needed to be fixed. Also, I wanted to take it to the next version of my development platform, which would require some work as well. I estimated that this total process would take about 2-4 weeks. Bug fixes to be included were initially targeted at iCal synchronization, display issues, some weird double-click issues that were popping up and some other things.

One other thing, though. I wanted to add a new feature as well.

Within a week or so, most of the bug fixes I wanted to do were implemented, and, as a change of pace, I started working on the new feature. I soon discovered that, to implement the new feature correctly, and to do it “the right way” I would have to rework a significant portion of how RAE dealt with its internal data.

No big deal… fortunately, the way that I originally setup RAE’s internal data structure is pretty flexible. I knew that at some point, I’d need to make some major changes (for reasons I didn’t know at the time), so I built it with that flexibility in mind. Still, there’s a large volume of “elements” in RAE that required to be updated and adapted for the new feature. Along with this data structure updating, some new, visual user-interface elements would have to be added as well.

Again, on its own, a visual user-interface update is not a big deal. But the needed changes were quickly mounting. To some degree, to handle the new feature, almost every single element of RAE would need some minor tweaking, and some would require some major changes.

Further and further I delved. I updated one window, changed another to use the new data structure. I updated various elements of the main window to handle the new system. As I worked on the new feature, it suddenly bloomed from a mere minor element that added “just a few data points” to an almost complete revamp of many of RAE’s systems.

Days and days passed, and I kept tinkering and tinkering. Some elements of the new feature, and the program itself worked fine. Other elements where in complete disarray, from the UI to working with the new data structures. Essentially, I had a half working program. And still, time passed on.

And now we have the real problem…
Whenever I finish an update to RAE, I have a little ritual. First, I copy the entire directory of the source, all of its external elements (original graphic elements, notes, odd bits of code, etc.) to another location on the hard drive (labeled Old Source). This is my first backup. I then make a few more backups. One onto a CD, another onto my external LaCie HD, and finally, just the code itself is encrypted and posted onto a remote location server for that “just in case everything else fails” situation. After all that is done, I go back to the original code-base that sits in my development directory, I rename the main source file to the next version (1.5.5 or whatever), load it up, rename the various elements within the software that need to be renamed or renumbered, and whola, I now have my next versions code “base”. From that base, I then add features, fix bugs, etc. for the next version.

A couple of things went drastically wrong this time, though.

First, I combined a minor tweak and bug fix with (what turned out to be) a major feature implementation. Something that should not be done lightly. Major features take a long time to add, and during that time, major parts of the software can be either unusable, or not fully implemented correctly. Usually, it’s only towards the end of a major feature implementation that things start “gelling” together. Conversely, bug fixes and tweaks generally take a relatively short period of time to implement, and (at least according to my philosophy) should be released on a regular basis as needed. They also don’t generally impact that many systems within the application, so they’re relatively “safe” to do. Also, when doing bug fixes, you can usually find and weed out other bugs that may be lurking as a side bonus. Feature implementation is basically the exact opposite of bug fixing. Essentially, you’re adding potential new bugs with every line of code, all of which must be accounted for, and stamped out should they arise. As you can see, when you’re doing bug fixing and feature implementation, you’re basically burning a candle at both ends.

Second problem. I forgot to do my little backup “ritual” after 1.5.3 was released.

Now, this isn’t as big a deal as it may sound. Remember, I have at least 3 copies of every source code for RAE for the last year and a half of updates, including 1.5.2 (actually, for almost 4 years of development, I have multiple copies. One of these days, I have to dust off some of the older screenies and code and do a little “evolution of an app” thing).

Now the crux of the problem. I’ve got at least another month, maybe even more, to implement the new features that I want to do. This, however, is too long a time to push back for the minor update that fixed things like iCal sync, and other elements. No problem, I’ll just re-open my 1.5.3 code, and retrofit the update code from the new (1.6) code base.

Oh wait. I don’t have that 1.5.3 code base anymore. It’s now warped and twisted into the frankenstein that is pre-alpha 1.6.

Aw crap.

So, now the crux of the problem. Do I take the 1.5.2 code, dig out what I did for 1.5.3, retrofit it to that code base, then do the same for the 1.5.4 stuff? Or do I take the current, 1.6 base, strip out the stuff I’ve been working on for the last month or two, and use what’s there.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the latter option is really an option at all. For me to strip out all of the 1.6 work would probably take as much time as it took to put in there to begin with. So, dusting off the 1.5.2 code is probably the way to go. Fortunately, my coding style (and that of those who work with me) is pretty good, clean, and (most importantly) usually well documented, so doing that work shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It’s just time and energy to essentially copy and paste. So that’s what I’ll have to do, I guess. Either that, or get a good code-management system in place that can do all off this for me automatically.

With any luck, in the next few weeks, I’m going to be bringing on another person to help out with RAE. This is great, and I’m looking forward to the day. What I’m not looking forward to, however, is trying to further make the code base more “multi-programmer” friendly. Frankly, it’s a pain in the butt, and one that just takes time away from getting stuff done. Of course, as the lesson above showed, it’s exactly those “pain in the butt” procedures that saves the aforementioned rear when you end up doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Something like I did.

So… to the current programmers and hopeful future software engineers out there, take a lesson from the above melodrama. Versioning, backing up your code, and putting together a proper action plan of updates before tinkering with your code base can save a lot of time, and a lot of frustration. To my customers, my apologies for taking so damn long to fix some basic elements, which should have been fixed a month ago! I’ve learned my lesson, that’s for sure.

Finding RSS religion and a wacky new marketing ploy.

Some time back, I asked the question, what’s the point of all those RSS readers out there? Frankly, I just didn’t understand the need for these advanced RSS readers that had fifty different features and let you dice and slice feeds seven zillion different ways. Since then, I’ve received comments and points about why a RSS reader is useful, seen how others have used them, and although I’ve stopped short of using one myself, I can at least now stop thinking that major portions of the online population are either delusional or lazy. I still don’t see the need to be up-to-date on 500+ blogs (many of which just regurgitate other peoples news), but I’ve found some rather clever uses for it. Perhaps one day, I’ll be fully up-to-date on this whole interwebby thing after all.

How then did I find the RSS religion, you’re asking? I went looking for an XBox360. First, I went to the local stores. That didn’t work out as they were all sold out of the apparently “to hot to handle” device. I then went to eBay. There were plenty of them for sale on eBay, however after having had some shady dealings occur on eBay (and reading about many more) I’m always a little skeptical of using it. Frankly, if I’m going to be forking over a few hundreds of dollars to a total stranger, I’d rather do it in person. After I’ve confirmed the validity of the product I’m purchasing. I’m just wonky and paranoid that way.

So I went to Craigslist.org. The nice thing about Craigslist is that, aside from being a go-to point for just about anything, it’s all very locally based. Craigslist is setup with different locations (newyork.craigslist.org, newjersey.craigslist.org, etc.) so that if you’re looking for a product (or person, or job or whatever) just about everything in those particular sections will automatically be close to the location you selected. This fulfilled my requirement of being able to buy an Xbox after being able to check it out first. By default, the person selling would be in an area close enough for me to go trek out to see.

There were some problems, however. Searching on Craigslist is easy and works well, but I live in what’s effectively known as the New York City Metro / Tri-State Area. This means that I’m close to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Within those locations are several zones, including New York City, New Haven, Hartford, and a few other NY regions. If I wanted to search all of those locations, I’d have to go to each location and run those searches manually and individually. After those searches are run, I then receive a whole bunch of links, click on each one, email the person (if the ad looks good and legit), keep track of whom I’m emailing (so if they email back, I know what they offered), go to the other locations, and keep trying.

This got pretty “click” intensive, pretty quick. Especially as a lot of the people I emailed were either completely fake or had already unloaded the goods to someone else. So, wash, rinse repeat every day or so to see what else came up. Of course, whenever I did the search over again, I had to remember, “Did I already contact this guy?” or go through my Sent email to see if that was the case or not. Very, very droll.

Then, like the light of the gods shining down, I noticed the little RSS symbol at the right side of the Safari location bar. Whoa. The wheels started churning, smoke started pouring from the cranium and the hamsters in my skull started running their little treadmill. I thought, well… I could just save all of these searches in a folder on Safari’s menu bar… or… or… I could completely geek out and build a little tool that would let me do all of this searching automatically.

Guess which option I chose.
It’s really no fun being an engineer if you can’t take a simple idea and completely blow it out to do something different and more fun. So, at night and on my “off” time from working on RAE, I started building a little craigslist search tool. It would let me pull down searches automatically and let me keep track of them. Wait… I know! I could keep track of whom I email. I could have it run the search automatically! It could do more and more!

A few nights later, I had a pretty simple, working product that did the job. I could run searches in multiple location, have them update automatically, keep track of whom I email and I could append a note just so I can keep track of what I was doing on Craigslist. I showed a friend of mine (an avid user of Craigslist) and he loved it. He asked for a copy. He started using it to find freelance jobs and look for Yankee tickets (yes, we start early here in NY). I then found some other uses. Do you have any idea how few contract / freelance jobs are out there for Objective-C or REALbasic programmers? Not a lot. I did manage to find quite a few using my newly minted tool, though. By the way… Apple is hiring Quartz Composer programmers, Pixar is looking for a good software engineer and a company in San Diego is looking to change the way the world watches television with OS X cocoa and quicktime titans.

The lightbulb went off in the ole’ noggin. Other people might find this little tool worthwhile. And judging by the number of people who use Craigslist, quite a lot of them. Hmmmm…..

So, I spent another week or two making my little app more “production” ready. Bought some icons, cleaned up the interface, added a couple of features. The entire time I was doing this, I’m still working on RAE during the day, but it was fun to be “stretch my legs” a bit playing with something new.

Still. I’m an unabashed capitalistic swine. How can I use this little tool of mine to make some money perhaps? Sure, I could charge for it… a nominal fee, but I’m not sure just how many people who use an ad-free, no-cost community site are going to pony up money. I came upon a better idea.

Advertising for Redlien Account Executive. Free advertising at that. I’ll charge money for the product ($14.95 USD actually), but you could use the software for free if you like. No holds barred. The only catch is that if you don’t pay for it, every time you open up the software, a splash screen will be presented with a little ad for RAE on it. This screen will also stay a second longer for every day you have the software unregistered (like how Fetch does their opening “buy me” message)

Hence my new, wacky marketing ploy. As any independent software writer will tell you, writing good code and a product people like is only half the battle. And sometimes, not even half. The real battle is getting good recognition for your product. Just for example, I released RAE v1.5 in October with a press release, a new website, and a whole bunch of mentions on various websites. Downloads went through the roof and sales skyrocketed. Come December, without any promotion and no press release, downloads slumped considerably which ultimately led to a sales slump as well. In this business, downloads equal sales. So, without sending press-releases or having promotional events every month (which would quickly get ignored by most press and consumers at that frequency) how can I raise the visibility of RAE?

Well, I think I might have found a partial answer in cl.Finder, the tool I was talking about above. It’s a simple, inexpensive tool that caters to and assists with what a lot of people are doing… using Craigslist obsessively. By that definition I believe quite a few people will try this tool out. This translates to a lot of eyes on the software, and consequently, a lot of eyes on the RAE advertisement in the opening splash screen. From this, a certain amount of people (should) click on the ad and try out RAE, therefore raising downloads and (hopefully) raising overall sales. Of course, for the people who don’t wish to have the bothersome opening splash screen, they can just pay the $14.95 and be done with it, but either way, I win out with a little extra cash I can put back into RAE.

I can be so clever some times.

Update — As I was “going to press” on this little blog entry, as well as cl.Finder, I was cruising by the normal blogs I read, and saw with interest the post by Drunkenbatman about Growl. Growl is a system-wide notification app (it displays a little window saying stuff depending on various application alerts, etc.). I thought it looked interesting, and seemed applicable to cl.Finder, so I added support for Growl in cl.Finder. So far, it seems to be working pretty well, except I can’t quite get the cl.Finder app icon to show up correctly in the Growl display alert. That fix may have to wait till a 1.1 release.

Expanding the market a bit
The story doesn’t end here, though… cl.Finder is written in Real Software’s REALbasic. One of the major benefits of using REALbasic is that you can compile software to run natively on either Mac and/or Windows (and theoretically Linux). Did my newly acquired PC perhaps have some foreshadowing? Ya. Okay. Suspense over. So now I’m going to try and see if I can get cl.Finder working well on the PC side. Actually, it already does. The problem I’m finding now is how to make a “Windows-style” user interface.

The nice thing about developing for the Macintosh is that, visually at least, so many things have already been thought out and refined to near perfection that it’s pretty easy to come up with a good looking interface. Between Apple’s (oft ignored in certain places) Human Interface Guidelines, Apple’s own applications and many good looking and functional 3rd party applications, many of the quirks that can come up in Mac-based interface design have already been hammered out. Therefore, when it comes time to design a new interface for a product, the developer is usually able to pick and choose from visually appealing and very functional design concepts that are already proven. While some people may call this interface “borrowing” stealing, I personally think that going with what users already know, and are comfortable with, in GUI design makes a product more readily acceptable and easy to use for those users.

On the Windows side however, this interface “magic” does not seem to be so well thought out or consistent. Where does an application keep its main graphical toolbar (the functions that are the mainstay of the application)? There’s the toolbar ribbon concept, of course, which Microsoft uses in their Office products. There’s the side-bar that some other software uses (like ACT!, and to a lesser degree, Outlook), but then there are even more variations and concepts… with separate control windows, simple basic menu items only and HTML like buttons in a main window.

As far as I can tell, there’s no real “defined” way to present a software’s basic feature set in a graphical manner on Windows. I’m doing more research though, trying to see what’s the best way to do it. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the little toolbar ribbon, as A: I’ve got nice, big beautiful icons I’d like to use, and B: it doesn’t tie in well with a single-window interface. Ultimately, I have a feeling I’m just going to recreate the top toolbar concept in the Windows version as there doesn’t seem to be any real problem in doing so. Still, if anyone out there’s a Windows interface guru, I’d love to hear your opinions.

Of course, if I’m doing a Windows version, the advertisement for RAE is going to be falling on mostly deaf ears. I’m still deciding what I should do about that. Perhaps change the wording to: “Throw out your PC, go buy a Mac, re-download this software for your new Mac, then TRY MY SOFTWARE!!”? I don’t think that’s going to fly too well. If anyone wants to get in on some nice, cheap ad space, let me know. Otherwise, I guess I’ll just be in it for the money on Windows.

Of course, there’s still the final frontier: Linux. I’ll try playing with REALbasic’s Linux compilation abilities later this month. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Oh, and about the Xbox? I never got the thing. I started doing this cl.Finder app on the side for the last month or so, and I completely forgot that I wanted an Xbox! Maybe next month.

In the meantime, if you’re a user of Craigslist.org (and have a Mac), give my new tool, cl.Finder a try! If you’re a Windows user and you’d like to be involved in a beta test once that version is finished, email me at clfinder@redlien.com.

Prognistication fun.

Predictions are always fun, especially when you have a whole year to get proven right or wrong. What I put down in writing now can’t really be disproved until next year at this time, and by then (should my predictions be all off base), I can quietly let the matter die. Of course, should one or more of my projections and prognostications actually become reality, be sure to check the pages of this annal approximately one year from now to hear me trumpeting my Nostradamus-like forecasting abilities. So, without further ado, here is a list of my some hopeful, some probable, and some most unlikely Mac-related events that I foresee.

Laptop innovation - Combination flash and hard-drive based Intel Powerbooks.
Unless you’ve lived under a rock, I’m pretty sure everyone in the galaxy now knows that Apple’s intent on eventually ditching the PowerPC line of equipment in favor of Intel-based products. Of course, the total switch-over may take a few years to complete, but in the meantime, I expect that we’ll see some new Intel-based equipment, and quite a lot of it, more sooner then later.

One of the first “professional”-level Intel-equipped Mac’s will most likely be a Powerbook. Why? Because that’s what everyone wants. I’ve always felt, and I still feel, that the main reason that Apple went to the Intel platform, and specifically Intel over AMD, was because of the need for Apple to get seriously competitive in the notebook arena. As all of us who have suffered the long, dark and cold last few years of G4 Powerbooks undoubtedly know, the Powerbook, while a finely designed and engineered laptop, is getting a little long in the tooth. I’ve now had my 17″ 1.33ghz lappie as my main machine for a little over a year now, and I see no real desire to upgrade to Apple’s current stock of Powerbooks. Frankly, the only reason I upgraded from my original 550mhz Ti Powerbook was because I wanted to do some video editing and I’m an impatient man. The PowerPC-line of G4 Powerbooks, and iBooks to a lesser degree, are definitely on their way out quickly. Good riddance, and it can’t happen quick enough is what I have to say.

Still, this leaves Apple with a conundrum. How will they differentiate themselves amongst the multitude of existing Intel-based laptops? The aluminum- and titanium-based portable is already played out. IBM even did the Magnesium-cased laptop, so that metal’s out as well. I suppose we could look for carbon-fiber, or some other exotic composite material, though. The widescreen, and (once) mega 17″ screens are old-news. Wireless built in is so 2005. Where else can Apple go now? Holographic, 3D displays ala Star Wars? Nah. As much as I’d like to be able to project my head like the Emperor onto someone’s 30″ desktop via iChat, I don’t think that that’s in the cards quite yet.

Flash memory, however, is very much in play. Especially with all the wheeling and dealings that Apple’s been doing in that arena with the Nano and Shuffle. They have the dedicated producers, and they have the best deals and prices in the industry. This is definitely an area that they exploit better than anyone else.

Imagine a Powerbook with all of the OS in Flash. Ready to go, and with no real startup time required. Combined with the general stability of Mac OS X and faster processor performance, an 8gb flash drive would be the perfect way for a laptop to maintain its state even when powered down… allowing instant turn-on ability and a substantially more secure and stable system. No longer would you have to worry about a bad sector or two in the HD (from, say, dropping your computer) knocking out your entire system. Your system can still boot, allow you to have at least some access to your impacted hard-drive for repair or data retrieval.

Now, let’s say you have a system at least partly based on a flash RAM disk. What’s to say that Apple couldn’t make it removable. Combined with the hard-drive space of an iPod, you quite easily be able to sit down at any compatible Mac machine, pop in a flash drive, plug in your iPod and whola! Your entire system, exactly as you like it, is there and waiting for you.

I can tell you, this would be a nice toy to have, and a feature that would definitely give Apple some marketing breathing room in the Intel laptop market. Looking further into the future, I could see integrated Mac OS and iPod Nano’s that allow you to have your system (and some data) available to you everywhere you go. Just pop it into the slot, and away you go.
Likelihood of occurrence: 6/10

Tablet form factor in the Powerbooks, without that bad tablet aftertaste
Another avenue that Apple could pursue in the their new Intel-based Powerbook line is the tablet form-factor. Or, specifically, tablet functionality without the sacrifice. All of the pieces are in play. Inkwell is an established and relatively mature technology. Intel will provide Apple with fast enough chips to make it work well, and designing a case that looks good in either tablet or notebook mode is definitely well within Apple’s strengths.

As with USB and Firewire, I could definitely see Apple just ditching the whole “optional” category, and just make every Powerbook (or perhaps iBook) a tablet / laptop. This would certainly increase the usage capabilities of the portables line, and get Apple noticed again as a “leader” in the portable field.
Likelihood of occurrence: 8/10

Home media center
This is probably the low-hanging, easy fruit to pick, but I’ll still bite.

Back when Steve Jobs originally took over at Apple (again), one of the goals for the new iMac, iTunes and the eventual iPod were to make the Mac the center of a consumers digital life. Music, movies, photography. All of these were developed to support a consumer as he or she wandered through life with all of their digital equipment like MP3 players, video camcorders and digital cameras.

Well, inevitably, that very same consumer who has spent so much time arranging just the perfect playlist in iTunes, edited their holiday and Johnny’s first steps videos till smoke poured out of their computer and have now downloaded the complete Knight Ridder collection from iTunes will want to eventually step away from the iMac, and actually enjoy the fruits of their labor in a less “computer-room” situation.

First was the iLife suite. Then came Front Row. Along the way, we also got a video-enabled iPod that, with the proper cables and connections, can play videos on your fancy 50″ plasma-TV. TiVo and Microsoft’s Media Center have blazed the path for a “PC” in the living-room. Now, all it takes is for Apple to swoop in and “iPod” it.

Remember how there were MP3 players prior to the iPod? I see the same thing happening in the home media center stage. Consumers are ready for, Apple now has access to the chips that can enable it, and they have the experience in designing quiet, living-room ready devices (ala Mac Mini). All Apple has to do is beef-up Front Row a bit, stick the ‘Mini in a more “home-theatre” style case and add a remote control to create the perfect media center experience. A media center that combines all aspects of a consumers digital life together in one place, and lets them enjoy it all from the comfort of their couch, not from across the computer room like the current iMac does now.
Likelihood of occurrence: 8/10

Limited “non desktop based” cloning.
Okay, okay. I know this one’s a stretch, but I’ll throw it in here nevertheless. I’ve already made my case for it, and I still think the idea holds water.

While Apple concentrates on its iMac’s, iPods and the rest of its mostly consumer line-up of equipment and software, there is still tremendous opportunity for them to enter the business world more fully, especially now that the stigmata of running “exotic” hardware like the PowerPC is no longer. How would I see this done? When Apple originally went with IBM as their G5 producer and main PowerPC partner, I though Apple would sub-contract their server and other “big-iron” equipment to them. Well, we all know what happened with that partnership.

Still, the opportunity remains for Apple to team-up with a well-known and reputable (Dell?) Intel provider for business servers and other non-primarily desktop-based equipment. Along with allowing Apple to stretch it’s legs a little bit in the business world with a minimum of risk, this would also allow Apple to have a “second source”, something that’s vastly important when dealing with big-business and government, and open up new sales channels.

I can dream, can’t I?
Likelihood of occurrence: 3/10

Decrease in total Apple Quality
This one pains me to say it, but I think the handwriting’s on the wall. Apple’s future as a boutique, “quality” provider of digital goodness may be in decline.

Why do I say this? Because the tell-tales are already out there. Corners are being cut, products look like they haven’t been tested enough. The Aperture debacle.

Now, this isn’t to say that I think Apple’s going to start down the path of Gateway or Packard Bell, but I think the days of Apple really, really caring about every -single- elements of a device, wether it’s an iPod or a Mac, may be coming to a close. Look at the reduced packaging of the new iPods. See how easily scratched the Nano’s were? Notice that fewer and fewer “freebies” are forthcoming from Apple. Firewire, technically a great specification, and one of those little things that made the iPod such a nice and quick device, is on its way out. Why? Cost controls. When you’re selling to hundreds of thousands, and even the low millions a year, a few cents on an additional Firewire port, or a slightly better hinge on a product box don’t really matter that much. Add 10X to that figure, as is happening with the iPod, and to a lesser extent, the Mac, and all of a sudden those extra pennies starting adding up to real sums of cash.

The same holds true for all other divisions of Apple. As more and more people start using the Mac, especially after the Intel transition, Apple’s going to have more and more requests for particular features, have more specific needs to fulfill, and generally have a more diverse class of customer then it’s previously had to contend with. This is going to force Apple to start making more compromises and cut more corners as any company will need to do when faced with limited resources and additional demands (and all companies have limited resources, even Microsoft. Throwing 2,000 programmers at iPhoto won’t make it significantly better, no matter how much money it costs you.)

Up till now, Apple has done pretty well at balancing new features with stability and reliability in their software and hardware, however, as more demands are made on them, I have a feeling that the bean-counters and marketers are going to start coming in and suggest, just perhaps, that the OS group, for instance, add this one little feature that will “sell” X amount of more Macs. Then another feature and another feature, and so on and so forth. Why? new features sell stuff, wether it’s a computer, a car or a microwave. Whenever someone sees the words “New”, all of a sudden, there’s a lot more interest in that product then the one that just says “and now works better!”.

What the bean-counters and marketers don’t necessarily understand (or perhaps just ignore) is that, while new features may grab you more “up-front” customers and increase sales in the short-term, a better product will let you keep your customers for a lot longer, with a lower dissatisfaction level, increasing longer-term sales. Looking at Mac OS X, I think Dashboard definitely falls into the category of “created just to drive the ‘new gadget’ sales.” It has some neat things going for it, and I’m sure plenty of people find it relatively useful, but I think it was just rushed into service to cover the gee-whiz effect that 10.4 needed to sell.
Likelihood of occurrence: 7/10

Things I don’t think we’ll be seeing this year from Apple
In addition to the things that I think might happen, I’ve gotta couple that I think won’t happen.

The iPhone. After watching the debacle that is the iTunes phone, I think the likelihood that Apple will throw their hat into the mobile phone category is just about nil. First off, who is going to provide them the network access? Every mobile carrier wants to get the money that apparently their consumers are just throwing at them for digital music. $2.49 USD for a ring-tone?!! Who pays this? Personally, I want just a simple “ring-ring”. I still can’t find it, no matter how much I’d be willing to pay for it on my T-Mobile phone. If Apple decided to enter the arena with an iPod-Phone type device (which is the only thing that would make sense), I very highly doubt that Apple would be able to provide the type of service that they’d want to, or at least in a profitable way. At best, consumers would probably get some sort of overpriced Frankenstein-phone contraption that just didn’t meet the needs of anyone. Just like the Motorolla iTunes phone. 100 songs limit?!

Handheld device. I think this ship has sailed on for good for Apple. If Apple had stayed in the game with the Newton, I think they could have been a real contender. Now, they’d just be a also-ran. I think we’ll see more of a small-formfactor iBook laptop/tablet design as a “handheld” type device from Apple. We may have to wait till 2007, though.

Well, those are my picks concerning our favorite Fruity company for this upcoming year of 2006 Anno Domini, a.k.a the year of the Dog according to our Chinese friends. Check here in about a year to see how well I did. Anyone else have other thoughts?

Checking out the dark side…

Well, after 5 or so Mac-filled years, I finally have a Windows box of my own again.

Last year, only months away from her wedding, my friends (soon to be) wife had her PC completely borked. No ideas why, it just up and died. Naturally, she was pretty crushed, having had all of her OCD-inspired wedding to-do lists and all on the machine. Well, time moved on, she re-created all her missing checklists and the machine slowly sunk into obscurity in another friends basement.

Well the other day, I gotta hold of it, thinking that perhaps I should play around with this thing called “Windows XP” a bit. First things, first. Wipe the drive, and see if I can do a complete restart of the machine.

No can do. Turns out the HD was fried and completely dead. Well, that explains what happened last year. Off to the used computer store, and $30 later, I had an 8 gig hard-drive. About an hour and half later after that, I had Windows XP installed. First off, I won’t even talk about the performance, mainly because this machine turned out to be a Celeron 433 with 192Mb RAM on it. Frankly, I’m surprised the thing even booted with XP. Still, the speed is acceptable, if a bit slow, especially when XP starts thrashing the HD for its virtual memory.

First Impressions
Not sure where to start with this one. The last time I used Windows on a full-time basis was back in 2001/02. Then, and up till now, the most amount of Windows exposure I’ve had is with Windows 2000 or 2003 server. In XP, nothing much has changed I see, except that it A: doesn’t like you actually viewing your files on your HD. B: The amount of options on doing something is just staggering, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Jobs’ had a real point when he compared the simple remote control of the new iMac with the Dell equivalent. Having only the options that mean something for 90% of the time you need it is a lot better then having every single option in existence, all presented with the same “weight” as every other option. Someone needs to send Microsoft a copy of the book The 80/20 Principle. That and send them someone to break that damn ugly stick they keep using on all of their interfaces.

On installation, the first thing I noticed that was kind of weird: XP doesn’t ask me for a login password. It creates an account for you, and lets you setup other users accounts, but it doesn’t provide a means for securing the account from the git-go.

Networking: Getting Internet access is relatively easy. At the moment, I don’t have a wireless card for this machine, and because I don’t feel like drilling holes and running CAT-5, I’m only providing this machine with network access through sharing with the Mac. That works great, and also ensures I don’t leave the PC connected to the internet all of the time to get infested as at the moment, I don’t have any virus software, etc. Networking, however, seems to be a different story. On both the Mac and XP machine, neither machine is visible in their respective network locations. I was able to connect to the XP machine from the Mac using a SMB address name, but that only worked once. At the moment, the only way I can share files is with the XP machine connecting to the Mac off of an IP address.

Trying to get networking going is frustrating to say the least. As I said before, the number of options present at any given point in the file system (For example, Setup a home network, See your network settings, etc.) doesn’t help. Nowhere can I find a unified “This panel sets up your networking, allows you to share your data, and lets you share particular services on this machine” like the Mac has. Instead, I find many different little “areas” that let you setup or work with your networking spread out throughout the system. True, some of these networking settings seem to have more access control than their Mac counterpart, but as I can’t seem to get any of them working correctly, I fail to see how that helps anyone.

All in all though, XP isn’t much different then Windows 2000. If anything, it seems less refined, less fluid and more convoluted in its operations and mannerisms, and if anything, more difficult to use then previous versions of Windows. Why do various items keep showing up and disappearing from the Start Menu? What’s with all the little icons on the bottom right, and why do they keep telling me things over and over again? How in blazes do you get the hard-drive to show up on the desktop?! The list goes on and on. Say what you like about the Finders metal interface, but frankly, between that and the big, blue monstrosity that is an XP window, I’ll take a bevelled brushed metal with curb feelers and fuzzy dice Finder window any day of the week.

Of course, the real reason I wanted this machine was to install Linux on it, and see if there’s something worth playing with on that system. Maybe just make it into a database server or something. If anyone has any recommendations for a good distro to play with, please feel free to drop a line.

After I’ve had more time with it, I may do a bit more of a comparative study, and try and see just what is it about Windows that so many people are drawn to it.

MLM Pitch Running Commentary

Right now, I’m sitting at a Starbucks, working away on the lappie. Normally, I’m pretty oblivious to what’s going on around me, but I thought this was just too good to let through.

Across from me (as I sit in one of the comfy chairs), there are 3 young “professional” types (and I use the word loosely), and one college-age guy. The lead professional is giving a full-force press on a multi-level marketing program to this kid.

I swear, this kid looks like a deer caught in headlights.

As I’m working away here, I’ve listened to the MLM guy talk about how Bill Gates got wealthy because he let other people into his “secret”. How Wal-Mart has become so successful because all their customers told all of their friends to go to Wal-Mart. It goes on and on.

Wow. Honestly, I can’t say anything else. The incorrect and out-of-context information the MLM Pro guy is giving is just breathtaking. Is this sort of thing even legal?

Oh wait… now the kid just perked up a bit and asked if this is a pyramid scheme. Go clueless college student!

MLM Pro is now talking his away around this surprisingly insightful comment, spouting words of “financial freedom”, “get yourself a M3″, “teach a person to fish…” analogies.

I’m always amazed that these types of scams are still around and vibrant. Seriously, who does this stuff? Once in college, I got cornered by a guy who tried to get me into his Amway scheme. Boy, I couldn’t get out there quick enough.

Clueless college student looks like he’s losing the battle though. He’s sinking back into the conversation. I’m really wondering if I should say something. Maybe I can grab the kid before he leaves and tell him, “No! Find something you love, figure out how to make money doing it, and persevere at it! That’s how you’re going to get where you want to go!”

I have to hand it to the MLM Pro, though. He’s been talking now for at least 45 minutes. Interestingly enough, as part of his spiel was going over the “time = money” bit, I’m wondering just how much money he can expect from spending so much time on clueless college kid (CCK) here.

Ahhh…. now the money pitch is coming. The CCK’s posture is changing. He’s becoming less open and closing up. Where the CCK was sitting closely, rapt in attention as the MLM Pro went over diagrams and charts, he now is sitting back with his arms crossed. The MLM Pro is good though, he’s softening his approach, talking about how this is an investment and opening his own stance in response. I love following the body language almost as much as I’m really digging the conversation they’re having.

Now the testimonials are coming in. MLM Pro’s best friend in the program is making “well into the six-figures”. MLM Pro’s “sponsored” student, Jackie, is being used as a case study also. She’s a low-talker, so I can’t quite make out what she’s saying. Oh well.

Okay… got the price structure now. CCK’s foot is flailing around under the table. He’s definitely nervous.
$350 for the initial fee, Includes:
$45, goes towards business “license”, lets the organization “shelter” the person from taxes. (How in blazes does that work?)
$250 goes towards initial startup kit. (the stuff they’re going to sell, I guess)
Special going on now! $100 goes to ticket to Ohio. Learn from the masters! WOW!
Rest goes towards CD’s, books and other training materials

Now, I’m not one to quibble, but the above doesn’t really add up to $350. Who are these guys that they can be such fabulous independent sales people, but they can’t add?

Final, close up sales pitch. MLM Pro telling CCK that he’ll be making a ton of money within the first year. Two lackey’s finally pitching in here, telling CCK the benefits of the program. Real heart-felt testimonials.

I still haven’t figured out what exactly the MLM company is, but they’re selling consumer products like Amway and most other MLM companies do.

Well, I’ve gotta run. I promised a friend of mine I’d go to the Apple store with him to help him pick out an iMac for his parents for Christmas.

It’s a pity I can’t go all Batman on this kid, though. Plant a homing beacon on his car, follow up with him later, see what he thought of the whole thing. See if he was going to go through with it.

I’d also love to interview the MLM Pro and see what he’s thinking about. Does he really think this is such a great opportunity, or is he just trying to make the best of a bad opportunity?

Ah well. Some day I’ll find out. Anyone out there ever get involved in these things and followed through? I’d love to hear about those experiences.

Where’s Apple?

The other night I went out with an old friend and occasional colleague. Amongst the free-flowing booze and food, we naturally got into the conversation of business (a favorite topic of both him and myself) while his wife and my girlfriend looked on in boredom. He’s the COO of his family’s business, a promotional merchandise manufacturer, where they employs about 30 people stateside and work with, or is partnered with, several factories in Mainland China.

As he drank more and more beer, he finally comes out with, “I hate being IT! I haven’t done a damn thing in at least 3 months, all because I’m always running around having to fix someone’s computer, making sure the Exchange server is running, or cleaning out virus and spyware”.

This is not news to me. Almost every time I talk to him, he’s gripping about something going wrong with his computers. Still I listen to him though, providing the virtual “shoulder” for him to cry on.

“Last month, I was in China for 3 weeks!”, he continues, “95% of the time I was there, I spent my time cleaning out their computers. Brand new computers, that within days, had become completely infested and unable to perform.” I could personally confirm this, as a matter of fact. Before going to dinner with him, I had met him at his office where he was in the process of deleting 11,000+ (really!) virus emails from a Chinese-based exchange email box.

Like I said, his was not a large company. They don’t have a large IT budget, and what budget they do have goes mostly to an on-call consultant. Wherever my friend can do the job himself though, he does. He just can’t afford the $150+/hour for a trained contractor to come in and fix their Exchange server on a regular basis.

Continuing his story, he then proceeds to tell me about what his high-priced IT Windows-based consultant told him when my friend calls him from China seeking help with their new virus-infected computers.

“Did you just buy those machines?” The consultant asks.

“Yes. They’re not 2 months old, and already they’re acting like shit.” replied my exasperated friend.

“Oh, that’s too bad, because if they were old machines, I would have told you to just throw them all out, and buy some Macs.”

Mind you, this is coming from the guy who makes his living (and a comfortable one at that, I’ve met him a couple of times) servicing Windows machines.

My friend finishes telling me this, and, knowing that I’m the “Mac guy”, asks if this was sound advice.

Now I’m not one to overly pontificate on things like a computer to friends or personal associates. For the most part, I feel it’s a personal decision what computer you use, and I also realize that in many large organizations, Windows is the only game in town… not because it’s better, but because it has many more business applications written for it. Still, he did ask me, and like the vampire invited into the home, I started in with my “Macs have no virus, no spyware, is more stable, buy my software…” spiel.

I didn’t get too far, however. The no virus thing stopped him cold.

“What do you mean, there are no virus?” He asks.

“I mean that there are no virus out there for Macs right now, nor is there any spyware”, I replied. “That’s not to say that there won’t ever be any virus out there for a Mac, but because of the way the OS is built, the Mac is just a lot more secure then Windows out of the box. The likelihood of a virus attacking and infesting itself within a Mac is far less then with Windows XP.”

I then went on to explain about the underpinnings of Unix, what that meant, and how that related to less virus and security holes within the Mac.

He was left virtually speechless. “What about software?” He asked.

“Well, depends on what you need, I guess. You use mostly web-based stuff for your line workers, so that’s no big deal. Also, MS Office is available and, for the most part, there are plenty of alternatives to the Windows stuff you’re using now on the Mac.”

On and on into the evening we talked. At one point, I think his wife and my girlfriend went off to go pick up other guys or something, and still we talked. He was completely taken aback by what the Mac had to offer. He then asked me, “If the Mac is so great, how come I never hear about it like this?”

“Good question.”

Good question indeed. Where’s Apple with their marketing support? Where’s Apple with their messages of no virus, more secure systems, systems that just work.

It’s the applications, stupid.
Of course, my friend can’t just throw out the Dell’s and buy all new iMac’s and Powerbooks. How would they track inventory, accounting, their business? Right now, they use Microsoft Great Plains, and, as far as I can tell, there’s no application even remotely close to it on the Mac. Which, by the way, isn’t saying much. Great Plains is no panacea of software excellence, that’s for sure.

What else does he use that can’t be replicated on the Mac? Exchange. Frankly, without proper Exchange support, I think the Mac’s just dead in the enterprise. Shared folders, decent email support, shared calenders. These are all essential tools that Exchange handles relatively well (for some people… personally I despise most of it). Again, there’s no real alternative (or decent connectivity to Exchange) on the Mac.

Most of what he and his company does can be replicated on the Mac, however. Their sales force uses ACT!… fortunately, he has a good friend who happens to be in that particular business on the Mac side. He does a lot of video conferencing to China. iSight and iChat. MS Office is an essential part of their life, and nothing needs change on the Mac side. If nothing else, he could easily switch most of his client machines over to a Mac, and there would be almost no difference in the majority of their working life.

You know what he knew about the Mac before our little computer “heart to heart”? It’s a graphics workstation. That’s it. He’s got a couple of them in his design department, and as far as he knows, Mac’s just come with Photoshop and that’s it. Like probably 80% of the small to medium sized businesses out there, he had no idea that the Mac could actually be used in a “real” business sense and not just for making pretty pictures or storing your iPod’s music.

Where’s Apple telling him, and other companies like his, that this “old-school Mac image” just isn’t true?

I have no idea. Off playing with iPods and their new entertainment-industry friends, I guess. I can tell you this, though. I bet you the next time my friend gets a phone call from a computer vendor, it’ll most likely be from Dell. They’ll tell him all of the wonderful advances they’ve made (wether they’re real “advances” or not), and they’ll probably get the sale, just like always. Why? Simply because they showed up.

My dad had a great piece of advice for me once. 75% of completing anything is just showing up. Through the years, I’ve learned the value of this lesson over and over again, and it still holds true.

Where’s Apple? Apple’s nowhere to be found. And as the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.