Geek
iPad.
So, aside from a complete flirtatious betrayal last fall with a Google Nexus 7, I have been an iPad fanatic since the days of the first generation iPad (it took me about six months to get my hands on the first one). Though on a couple of occasions I have tried to convince myself that I would be better off with a laptop, the truth of the matter is, I love the portability, the convenience and the computing power of my iPad. I take it everywhere and I use it for a myriad of reasons.
I love it.
When I went on my business trip last week I brought my iPad along for the ride. Since we were traveling in Canada, I felt a little stifled due to the lack of cellular data availability (US carriers have some of the stupidest cellular plans known to the world, and yes, I realize that is a ‘first world problem’) but I still brought it along, figuring I could use it in the hotel room. There’s something very nice about being able to FaceTime with your loved one back home. I didn’t think I would bring it along for the meetings that we were traveling for; I’m often the only one in a conference room with my iPad and sometimes I feel self-conscious about that. Besides, with the lack of data connectivity, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to access the documents I needed for the trip. So I printed what I needed and brought along my leather binder with a fresh pad of note paper.
Imagine my surprise when I sat down at the conference room last Thursday morning and came to the rapid realization that I was the ONLY one at the table without some sort of computing device. The vice-president that I was traveling with had her iPad 2, complete with a portable keyboard. The vendor representative had his iPad 3 and a Lenovo laptop. The others in the room all had some sort of Windows XP power laptops.
Suddenly feeling self-conscious of the fact that I did not have an iPad with me, I started fiddling with my iPhone 5. To compensate, I asked the host, “do you have a wi-fi hotspot for public use?” The vice-president was happy that I asked, though the answer was to the negative.
After the meetings and on our way home, I asked the VP if she liked her portable keyboard. She answered in the affirmative and that led to a lengthy discussion about iPads and Macs and the like. Outside of the building that I normally work at, it seems to be standard operating procedure to bring along an iPad or a laptop. The company is definitely headed in that direction and the culture of the company is following suit. In fact, the use of personal iOS devices is leading to Macs becoming much more prevalent throughout the corporation I work for.
I find this all very exciting.
So when I leave for the next round of business travel on Sunday, you know that I’ll have my iPad with me and that I will be ready to use it in the training seminars and at the meetings that I will be attending. To make it all the better, my Apple Bluetooth keyboard case will be arriving from Amazon today (yay Prime membership shipping!).
I’ll have to share a photo with the gentle readers.
Telecommuting.
I don’t work for Yahoo. I do work for a Fortune 500 technology company and it’s a job that I like. I complain about my job from time to time, but earlier today my supervisor told me that I was a valued employee and I responded that I love what I do. And that’s true. I have a good gig.
One of the many reasons I love my job is because I have the flexibility of working from home three days a week. I love this benefit and it has boosted my productivity considerably. I’ve always been a loner. I work best when I’m in my own little zone with minimal distractions. I’m not much for water cooler chatter and I’m easily thrown off my game with what I call “fly-bys”: people stopping by to ask a question or tell me a quick anecdote or something like that.
Another plus is that there are times when I feel my most creative at 3 a.m. Because I have a home office setup with all my work goodies in its own little office space, I am able to go downstairs and start writing code any time I feel the urge to. And because my company has excellent collaborative tools (phones, IM, webcams and the like), I still feel part of the team that I work with. While next week I will be meeting several of my teammates face to face for the first time, the truth of the matter is I feel like I already know them. And while I think we’ll work together even better when we all meet each other in person, I think I’m part of a really good team now. Our collaborative tools give us the opportunity to brainstorm and be the team that we are.
Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo (the sixth CEO of Yahoo in six years, I may add), announced a ban on telecommuting for all Yahoo! employees. To foster teamwork and improve productivity, come June, all Yahoo employees must work from the office. “Shoulder to shoulder. Brainstorming. Creative collaboration!” All of this can only be accomplished in person at Yahoo, apparently. Perhaps they’ve never heard of Yahoo! Messenger. Perhaps they have and have finally given up the ghost of using it for anything productive.
I don’t know about other telecommuters, but when I’m working from home I’m focused on my productivity. I know that working from home is a privilege and I’m not going to compromise that privilege by slacking off. I’m focused on getting stuff done. When I work from my office, I’m focused on the number of hours I work. And the number of hours I would spend commuting. And the price of gas. And where I’m going to go for lunch.
Not all jobs lend themselves to telecommuting opportunities. But many positions in the telecommunications and technology sector do; heck, we make the tools so that others can telecommute! And doesn’t Yahoo sell services for telecommuting purposes? I think this speaks to the quality of Yahoo’s products if they can’t even effectively telecommute using their own products and platforms.
We often hear about green companies and ways of scaling back on the damage that we are doing to the environment. Telecommuting actually helps with this; there’s simply not as many vehicles on the road burning up gas just so people can get to the office. As a productive, happy and proactive telecommuter in a team environment, I am lending my talents to making great things happen at the company I work for. I feel like we are soundly in the 21st century and I want to do what I can to make that experience better.
If I worked at the office five days a week, eight hours a day, it’d be just another job.
Perhaps Yahoo just wants to be another mediocre technology company. With decisions such as Marissa Mayer’s telecommuting ban, it seems like they’re headed in the right direction for that.
And that direction would be backwards. I’m happy that I work in a company with forward motion. I look forward to contributing to that motion by working where I work best.
And sometimes, that happens to be at home.
Training.
So today at work I began four days of training classes for the week. For five hours of each remaining work day this week, I sit in front of my laptop in the privacy of my home office and, along with nine other class participants, get guided through an overview of a multi-million dollar software package. Later this month and next month is when the real training takes place, with in-depth coursework designed to stimulate all sorts of neurons in my head.
The training was originally suppose to take place in exotic places such as Dallas, Texas and Rochester, New York, but the company discovered that it is cheaper to have everyone participate virtually and remotely, via the very technology that we provide to the masses. As a result of this epiphany, most of the travel plans were scrapped in favor of this telecommuting arrangement. I am still traveling to Dallas for a week in the beginning of March for some of this frivolity in person. That week will be the first time that I meet most of my peers face-to-face. I am looking forward to the experience.
I have to be honest and admit that this telecommuting way of learning is actually working well for me. Maybe I should have done this for most of my educational career. Sitting in front of my computer in the solitude of my office and not worrying about what other people around me are doing or wondering how my flight home is going to go is actually helping me stay focused. I don’t feel distracted, I feel energized. Forty years ago my kindergarten teacher identified me as a “loner” and I guess that’s one thing she got right. (We ignore her other assessment of me, in which she told my mother that I was learning disabled. She just didn’t get me as I didn’t really fit into the “no child is really any different than any other child” mentality.) I’ve taken lots of notes, I’ve shut down anything that could be distracting and I’m actually learning something. Just from this first class I have come up with several ways to integrate my software package into this platform that we’re developing. My inner geek is excited and I can’t wait to implement some ideas and learn more when we get into the more in depth classes later in the month.
I’m looking forward to the next session tomorrow.
Interruption.
I was less than a half mile from the house when my Spidey powers kicked in. I felt a disturbance in The Force. My ying was not quite in tune with my yang. Something felt off and because of this a disconcerting feeling fell over me.
I grabbed at the chest area that was obscured by my two layers of winter jackets. I felt my work badge right where it was suppose to be, so that wasn’t it. I looked over on the passenger seat. PopChips? Check. Work MacBook Pro? Check. Lunch Pail? Check.
It wasn’t until I was on the Thruway several minutes later that it dawned on me. Like the sun that was rising in the east at the time, the realization came over me, followed by a brief moment of panic, which was quickly replaced by a feeling of emptiness. Helplessness. Incompleteness.
I had forgotten my iPad.
What on Earth was I to do during my work lunch hour with my iPad? I couldn’t read. My books are all on my iPad (I’m currently reading Emily Post’s “Etiquette”). I couldn’t play a game because my games are on my iPad. And I surely couldn’t listen to the radio during my lunch hour because I needed my iPad to interact with the hose.
I. Needed. My. iPad.
Turning around to go get my iPad was inconceivable. Since I was on the Thruway, the exits are spaced many miles apart. This helps keep travelers away from the native population, lest their money mingle into the local economy as the traveler pollutes the area with his exhaust fumes. The next interchange was nearly 15 miles away and by the time I turned around and went home it’d be lunch time, so that wasn’t an option.
Forlorn, I moved on, though I had reconciled my feeling of emptiness, it never quite left me.
Never to be deterred, I did what any self-respecting geek would do. All was not lost in a pit of blackness for I still had my iPhone. My nice little iPhone 5 with similar powers to my iPad was as snug as a bug in a rug in my pocket and it would serve me well during my lunch hour. When lunch time came around, I simply paired the Bluetooth keyboard that is always present in my Jeep with my iPhone and I sat down, PopChips and an unsweetened iced tea in hand and I typed a blog entry.
And here it is.
The Lunchtime Whine.
I am working from home today, and as I sit here at the kitchen table and enjoy my lunch, I can’t help but notice that the house is being buzzed by some very large airplanes today. This is not surprising; this sort of thing happens when you live a couple of miles off the end of one of the longest runways in the United States, despite the fact that the Air Force Base that houses this runway has been officially decommissioned for nearly two decades.
He’s bigger than he looks in the photo.
I find these planes fascinating. From what I can tell, they’re Lockheed Galaxy transports and I believe there are students flying the plane. I think two planes are taking turns doing touch-n-gos. One of the planes markedly pulls back on the throttle just as they’re approaching the house and it looks like the jet is coming to a complete standstill. The other plane opens up the throttle and the engines whine about it, higher and louder. The second plane was loud enough to get Tom’s attention (must be the frequency of the whine) but not loud enough to wake up Jamie, who’s still asleep as of this writing.
Maybe they’re both used to the noise.
So the planes go ’round and ’round and I watch them fly over wishing I was up there with the students and whoever else is on the plane. I bet they’re massive on the inside. I could see myself enjoying the view with a parachute strapped on my back and awaiting for the leader to give the signal to jump. That’s a different passenger approach than the planes that most people fly on. There’s probably no first-class section divided from the rest of the plane by a limp, blue curtain. The curtain probably isn’t even camo or anything because there’s no first class. Honestly, skydiving would be a first class experience to me. The idea of skydiving from a big plane like that (or even a small plane) is awesome. I told Earl that I want to skydive for my 45th birthday this year. He looked at me with fleeting panic but then calmed down. He knows that I’m adventurous enough to do such a thing. To tell you the truth, it’d be quite an adventure to just be in one of the Galaxies when they feel like they’re coming to a halt in the air.
For now, I’ll listen to them whine while I whine with envy a little bit.
Just as I was finishing up this entry the whine was replaced by the traditional roar of jet engines usually heard around passenger airports. Since Griffiss doesn’t have commercial service, I had to take a look to see what was flying in and saw that DHL must be having some jets serviced by that does that sort of thing on site. Nifty! I need to work at home on Thursdays more often.
The Positive Intentions.
So the geek in me was rather excited about an announcement coming out of Canonical, the company behind the open-source platform of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux, one of the many operating systems available for computers and computing devices. It serves the same purpose as Microsoft Windows or Apple’s OS X, and like the differences between Windows and OS X, Ubuntu does things in its own way as well.
Now while we are an Apple household, my primary laptop computer is actually a Lenovo ThinkPad T430. A recent purchase, this laptop runs the latest version of Ubuntu Linux (12.10 or Quantal Quetzal). It does take a little extra effort to get my Linux laptop to fully cooperate with everything that goes on behind my walled garden of Apple, but for the most part I love the experience and I really appreciate what Canonical is doing with Ubuntu. (Though I can get cranky and state otherwise once in a while).
Anyways, today Canonical announced the planned release of Ubuntu Phone. This looks like an exciting project, and watching the video now available on YouTube, it looks like it’s going to have a really cool interface. The new guy in the smartphone category is going to have a really tough time competing against the likes of iOS and Android but I think they are coming up with their own spin on things and I wish them the best of luck. I appreciate their excitement. It is infectious.
The thing that has bothered me since the announcement, which was less than an hour ago, is the snarky, naysayer, doomsday comments from the tech crowd. “Good luck with that.” “What commands do you have to type to respond to a text message?”, etc. Folks are already populating my Twitter and Google+ feeds with crappy, barely witty one-liners all in the name of dooming this project before it even gets off the ground.
What a crappy way to start 2013.
So I’ve been deleting people I follow on both services. In fact, I haven’t been limiting this practice to the Ubuntu-commenting folks. I’ve decided that if someone can only repeatedly complain about life on their Facebook feed or whatever, I don’t need the negative energy in my life. I don’t need other people bringing me down when I am looking straight ahead and reaching for the stars.
Do I think the Ubuntu Phone is going to be a success? Who knows. I know that they do have a tough road ahead of them and if I were going to hedge any bets at the infancy of this project, I would say that it has a better chance outside of the United States where the cell providers aren’t trying to financial rape anyone and everyone they can with their overbearing control. Personally, I’ve tried smartdevices outside of the iOS realm and quite frankly I haven’t been impressed. The Nexus 7 looks nice but there were too many glitches. If I were to tag any device that I really liked outside of my iOS world I would say it was the Zune that Microsoft gave up on a couple of years ago.
I like Ubuntu’s idea of plugging your phone into a dock and that it turns into your desktop computer. That is cool to me and I think it’s a step closer to the Corning Glass vision of what’s to come in the relatively near future.
I think the world would be a much better place if people concentrated on the positive and weren’t so quick or eager to find the negative. That’s one of my goals in 2013; to be a positive influence on society and to contribute more than I receive.
I hope others try to do the same with me. And best of luck on your project, Ubuntu Phone. I will be watching your progress and when the time comes, you might end up on the top of my phone consideration pile.
The Social Interaction Situation.
My buddy Erik recently mentioned on Facebook that he was thinking about quitting the service and concentrating more on his blog and website. Like many things that Erik says (we tend to think alike), I could easily see where he was coming from on this thought process. After all, I have pondered the thought of giving up Facebook as well for a couple of reasons, but I’ve never gone through with actually deleting my account.
I’ve written before about my frustration with everyone writing is short blurbs these days. Corporate emails from people higher up the food chain contain little nuggets like “LOL”. The intrusion of Instant Messaging in the workplace has nullified many social norms, such as well thought out, professional communication. The biggest thing about Facebook and it’s arch enemy, Google+ is that all of their revenue is made via advertising. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you are not the customer on Facebook, you are the product. All that data gets shipped off to folks that want to advertise and all that data is provided so that ads can target you. As a person that used to write ad copy for a living (way back in the day), I have to tell you that that kind of sucks. I hate advertising and if there’s any way that I can buy a service instead of using an ad supported service, I’m going to make the purchase.
The one thing about Facebook that appeals to me is that it has connected me with many people. The other night I chatted with my former college roommate and friend. We haven’t seen each other since 1987. Earl and I have met quite a few people in person that we have met online and we are looking forward to doing more of the same in 2013. Facebook provides an excellent way to keep in touch with family that is flung both near and far. I have no issue with the service itself, it’s the data mining and the advertising connection that bugs the crap out of me. That’s one of the reasons I wiped out my Instagram account and started from scratch during the whole “we didn’t really say we were going to sell your pics to ad agencies” Instagram mess a couple of weeks ago.
When I try to give up Facebook the attempt is usually short-lived. Google+ is easy to ignore, there’s hardly anyone there that I know. Twitter doesn’t work the same; I can write all sorts of nonsense on there and god knows who will read it but I use that service with that in mind. But Facebook provides the easiest way to share photos from our vacations or to see what old high school buddies are up to. So it’s a balancing act of sharing what we want to share while weighing the ever present “don’t put it online unless you wouldn’t mind it on the front page of the New York Times” mantra.
I am willing to bet that Facebook could make a ton of cash if they offered a premium, paid service to their users. For example, sign up at $10 a month and we won’t share your data with anyone and we’ll give you privacy setting options that reinforce that fact. I think a lot of people would be willing to jump on that ship, especially since Facebook is starting to be the AOL from the 1990s, what people this is “the Internet” (but without the floppy disk shoved in everything from dish detergent to magazines).
So for now I’ll cautiously continue to use Facebook. And I’ll share my stuff knowing what I’m sharing and with whom I am sharing it (unlike Randi Zuckerberg).
Retro!
I miss TV theme songs. This one clocks in at 100 seconds; one would NEVER find a theme song of this length on today’s television.
Here’s “Different Worlds”, sung by Maureen McGovern, from the second season of “Angie”.
Glass.
I really like the concepts shown in this video, and I find it interesting that this technology is being developed in Upstate New York. The future looks wicked cool.
