Geek

I’m a tech snob. This isn’t something to be described as a negative aspect of my personality, it’s actually something that I’m kind of proud of. With technology where it is today, I think that the right tools are available to do what the masses need to do. I also fully believe that if you’re going to embrace technology, you need to do it properly, with the best tools you can get your hands on. This is something that has taken me years to realize; saving money isn’t going to save you money in the long run.

About a year ago, when I found out that I was going to be on a more frequent work on-call rotation, it was suggested that I finally get a company mobile phone. I took this advice and filled out the appropriate forms and waited for the red tape to unwind itself a bit. Our company is aligned with AT&T, so I knew that my smartphone choices would be different than what I was familiar with on Verizon. I was fairly surprised when I was told that I couldn’t have a smartphone of anytime, but rather I had two or three choices of flip phones to choose from.

Oh joy.

I ended up getting some Samsung flip phone that is so poorly designed that I have never used it. I have never given out my company mobile number to anyone, not even to the company. Instead, I opted to get a Google Voice number, which I can then direct anywhere I want to direct it.

Now, I’m not wasting company funds. When I am officially on-call, the Google Voice number is directed to my personal iPhone and to the piece of crap Samsung flip phone. The latter direction is just so that I have something audible to startle me awake should I get a call in the middle of the night. The piece of crap Samsung flip phone sits on my nightstand and does nothing even mobile related. The moment I am officially off-call I power down the phone and shove it away in a drawer.

The piece of crap Samsung flip phone doesn’t hold a charge for longer than 24 hours. It beeps and burps and chirps randomly at all hours of the night. I don’t know if it’s some sort of audible notification stating, “my battery is charged!” or what but it’s annoying. If I pick up the phone like you’re going to make or answer a call, I always hit the PTT button on the side by mistake which throws the phone into some sort of warning notification hell telling me that my PTT is going to charge me something. I don’t even know what my PTT Is. There is a constant notification on my screen stating that I missed a call on the 29th of December, even though I have pecked at the keyboard to get beyond this notification countless times. And did I mention that my iPhone has a better battery life than this thing?

The folks at work were kind enough to provide me with a holster to carry the phone on my belt. Sorry ma’am, but if I’m going to carry a holster that size on my belt, it’s going to have a Glock in it and people are going to be impressed, not laughing uproariously at me.

Through casual observation at work, I have noticed that most of the folks that you would think have a company cell phone actually carry a personal smartphone instead, with their company number forwarded to their personal phone. Most of the time the personal device of choice is an iPhone. Smart choices for smart people!

Flip phones were quaint back in their day but it’s time to move on. I don’t care if it’s an iPhone or an Android device, but in today’s business world where you need to be connected, you need to have a device that isn’t on the cheap and is going to do the job properly. Especially when you’re part of the telecommunications world.

Guess what I’m not packing with me for my business trip today.

So I wiped out my Flickr account earlier this week. Before I did to, I remembered to back up all my photos and save them to my primary desktop computer, an iMac running iPhoto.

It was at this moment that I remembered that I had wiped out my iMac a few months ago and had never loaded my photos back into iPhoto.

I then panicked, thinking I had lost all of my photographs of the last ten years. It turns out I had saved everything on an old hard drive. I restored my iPhoto library successfully but all of this panic was a stark reminder that I need to get a backup solution back in place for our various computer systems. I checked with the budget department and was approved to purchase a Time Capsule for our Macinhouse. Off to the Apple store tomorrow!

I’m such a geek. And as a reminder of this, here is a restored picture of me from 2009 playing the part of Mr. Telephone Man.

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.

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.

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).