In the spirit of Jeremy Keith’s post, here’s 8 random things I see about me:
You’re it.
One of the videos we made the other day made the cut into the final Gmail behind the scenes video. Alistair’s fancy editing shows the three of us morphing between chin up bars with 1:37 left to go.
A second video of ours was chosen as a featured clip. If you got to the page with the final Gmail behind the scenes video and scroll down to the map, our multi monitor video appears if you click the Vancouver icon.
Google is having this contesty thingy. Which basically requires you to make 10 second (or less) videos of how gMail gets around the world. The idea is for people to get the “Mvelope” from the left to the right side of the screen.
Yesterday after work Alistair filmed videos with my and Kenzie’s help, three are up on youtube now:
Macs have always struck me as more of a religion than an operating system. A family friend and I have a long history of a friendly Mac vs Windows rivalry. He’s the Mac evangelist and I was, well, I wasn’t a Windows evangelist but I guess I played the part of a disbeliever.
At some point in 2004 he finally won the argument and I promised my next computer would be a Mac. But then I got cold feet and I signed up for a course that required I have a Windows machine and I bought a some assembly required Windows box from one of those cheep no name computer stores that come and go over night. This particular store had been recommended to me a couple times and had stuck around for 5 or 6 years so I figured it was fairly reputable.
A year later the Windows box self destructed. First I bought a new power supply, then a new fan, then new memory, then a new mother board and finally I stopped short of replacing the hard drive and just pronounced the damn thing dead.
Out of excuses to not buy a Mac and very mad at my last Windows machine. I rented a Mac one for a week to see if I could live with it and decided, at the very lest, the whole command vs control thing would not drive me crazy. Once I discovered I got educational pricing (the job would suck if it wasn’t for the benefits!) I couldn’t even argue with the price. At the very worst I could wipe the hard drive, install Windows, and pretend I never bought a Mac. Apple also has a very articulate environmental policy which doesn’t hurt at all.
I bought a 15″ Mac Book Pro.
The first week I had it there were a couple times I desperately wanted my money back but after two and a half weeks these are my thoughts:
Text smoothing
As screen technology evolves I’m sure it won’t matter but right now with this screen on this computer I miss the way Windows renders text.
Work flow
Work flow is the thing that has bothered me the most about switching. I find I lose windows other other windows and occasionally have to minimize things to the dock one at a time to find them again. Then I have to un-minimize them because you can’t alt-tab to things minimized to the dock.
I really can’t make effective use of dual monitors any more because the menu bar stays on the main screen no matter what and tool bars and pallets have to be moved individually.
I also dislike the way applications just pile up. Every now and then I go to click on a pallet or a scroll bar and suddenly I’m an another application.
Learning an new operating system
Switching from Windows XP to OS X was as easy as switching from Windows 98 to Windows XP. And, lets face it, even Windows users are going have to learn a new operating system when they buy their next computer and just cuz it’s pretty doesn’t mean Vista is going to be easy to use.
Running Windows
Running windows hasn’t been a problem. I’m playing with Parallels and I’m going to give VM Ware a go before I decide on which to use but I’ll be happy with Parallels.
Buying new everything
When I bought the Adobe creative suite for Windows apparently it came with licenses for Mac versions as well. Suite. Unfortunately I can’t seem to locate CS2 versions of any of the Adobe stuff but I’m happily running all the Macromedia stuff in OS X and the Adobe stuff in Windows for now.
As for other software, hurray for educational pricing.
iPhoto Booth
Damn this is sheer dumb fun.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver looks like it could be the coolest thing ever, but it needs to be customized to be used to it’s full potential and I’ve found the basic documentation to be kind of sparse. The basic idea of being able to do any task ever with a keyboard short cut is very appealing. I am all about not having to use the mouse.
Verdict
When I told my Mum that I was buying a Mac the first thing she did was seek assurances that I wouldn’t become an Mac evangelist like our family friend. I don’t want my money back but I don’t think Mum has anything to worry about just yet.
One day I’d like to be able to make the same kind of contribution to the web design world that these speakers have. Trying to find a way to do that is as intimidating as the idea of writing a Master’s thesis. How does one come up with new ideas?
The speakers have all been excellent so far. I always need a few days to process information though so I don’t have much to say at this point other than: Andy Clarke remembered me from Web Directions North! I was flattered.
A few sessions feel like the same information I got at WDN which makes me question just how many of these conferences one needs to go to in a year and makes me feel better about the fact that I won’t be able to attend An Event Apart, mind you I haven’t heard most of their speakers… Are conferences addictive? Either way I’m out of funding sources and would have to pay for that one myself. Since I’m on the market for a new computer that’s not likely.
Or hardly working?
When the network goes down the whole department starts acting like school kids when the power goes out. We sit around waiting for the power to come back on or the teachers to tell us to go home and the longer it’s out the more trouble we contemplate causing ;)
Last night I purchased and then stayed up until 2:00 playing Civilization IV. When I finally tore myself away from the game and went to bed I resigned myself to being late for work today.
Today I got to work 20 minutes early.
I think the lesson hear is quite clear.
I need to do this more often!
