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November 26, 2005
Apple's Customer Strategy
First of all, I think I should mention that I re-combined my blogs (cooking, fitness, and domestigirl) into a single blog. Also, I'm going to stop trying to stick closely to knitting content. This is a Kirsten blog and I am a geek, so periodically there will be geek content. Sometimes I will post photos of random things I find interesting. And heaven knows there's a fairly high percentage chance that I'll find some other new hobby that I feel the need to discuss. However, I get that lots of the people who happen by here aren't that interested in geeky content, so I promise to try to do a good job of categorizing my content, and I have created RSS feeds for each of the categories on my blog - they're accessable over there <<< in the left sidebar.
So now that I have a new "Geek Stuff" Category, I need to rant a bit about the problems inherent in owning a Macintosh. I have one because my work is largely unix-based (told you I was a geek) and, really... prepare yourself... I hate Microsoft. I know, I know, it's a tired old sentiment, but I do love my mac and it does all the stuff I want. But sometimes, just sometimes, I get a yearning to do something *outside* of the sterile, bounded environment defined by the offerings of the Apple Store. For instance, last week I found myself at a customer site in New York. Being a Wall Street Investment Bank, they were fairly protective of their internal network. I was allowed to use one of *their* systems, on *their* network, and not install any additional software. Since our team communicates largely via IRC and Skype, this put me in a difficult position - I couldn't get a network connection for my system, and I couldn't use their system to communicate. So, I need to find a way to use the cellular system to communicate, either on my computer or using a handheld.
After an extensive amount of research (too much, as is my normal habit) I determined that I had 2 options:
- A Blackberry Handheld. The Treo, while more full functioned, is much more likely to die if I drop it. Based on previous experience with my cell phones, this means that I would probably have a single trouble-free month with the phone before a clumsy moment rendered it useless.
- A Cellular Card for my computer
If I get a Blackberry, I can:
- ... sync it with my mac if I buy PocketMac
- Install IRC software on it to stay in touch with my team (only works with the BlackBerry 7230, 7280)
- I can't use it as a modem for my macintosh, though
If I get a PC Card:
- I have found a company in Germany which makes some software to make it work on a Mac. Of course it won't be supported by my cellular service - in fact when I called to ask if the configuration would work the woman wasn't sure what I meant by 'macintosh'. "Does it have a PC slot? Can it do wireless? Then it'll work!" OK, sure.
So it turns out that either one can be made to work. And since I'm a geek-with-a-mac, neither will take me much time to get working now that I've invested 3 hours in finding out how to do so. But I ask you, what kind of strategy is this for Apple? They're trying to target their systems to neophyte computer users, making them more accessable and less threatening. It seems like they might want to try to make it a little easier to do something like setting up a cellular modem on my system since most of their users wouldn't even know where to start looking.
I'm heartened by Apple's recent forays into partnerships with different technologies... their Itunes agreements have given me hope that they'll start looking into other similar possibilities. It'll be very cool when I look at adding some new functionality to my life and find that it 'just works' with the system I love so dearly.
Until then, I'll just keep on googling to find the configuration answers to the puzzles, and sharing them here so I don't forget where they are.
For now, I just need to figure out if I need to decide if I can do enough of my work on the blackberry or if I'd rather be able to connect my Mac anywhere.
Posted by synedra at 8:02 AM | Comments (2)
November 25, 2005
Up for air...
I've been doing the standard 'work yourself silly' startup stuff and it's been a lot of fun, but I now have several days off for a much needed vacation (off to Disneyland) and I'm very grateful for the break.
My new job as a field engineer at SocialText is a lot of fun, I'm learning tons of cool stuff and am surrounded by very smart, interesting people. Sadly it doesn't leave much time for other pursuits. Actually, looking back on the last few weeks, I have been doing some non-work things, they've just mostly been away from the computer.
For one, I've taken up dancing again... this time I'm doing hip-hop. It seems odd that dancing is helping my darned foot to get better, but it actually is... so I'm not complaining. Hopefully soon I'll get to go back to Ninja School but until then I gotta admit there's something really fun about putting some funk in my day.
We went over to visit with some friends for Thanksgiving so I had another occasion to make my Sweet Potato Bread Pudding. As always, it was a big hit. I still have a hankering to brine and cook a turkey, I think it'll have to wait a few weeks until folks aren't all turkey'd out.
After looking over our family's spending habits again, I decided to try again to find ways to get us to eat at home more often. I really like cooking... although I never did like the cleaning part, and cooking seems to be the first thing to go when other priorities intrude on my life. A few years ago we decided to try to eat at home more often by using a personal chef. The chef came, made really yummy food, then put it in the fridge to be microwaved. Guess what? Really chi-chi well-cooked food, when microwaved... tastes like microwaved food. Ah well. But there's a new game in town - Fresh Prep Kitchens - there, I discovered that I really really like preparing food when someone else is cleaning up after me... It's a neat idea - you put together the food the way your family likes it (not so much onion, extra garlic, etc.) and freeze it for future cooking. Then you defrost it, cook it up, and serve it. It's a grand way to save time and still cook yummy food. The atmosphere is fun and the family has really loved most of the foods I made. It's not cheap, but not really that expensive either, considering that the food is included and their portions are generous.
But what about knitting? Well. As I mentioned, I've been really busy. Actually, that's a major understatement. But yesterday, while visiting with my friends at Thanksgiving, I did cast on for that cat bed I've been threatening to make for so long. After all, I knew that Lyssa was going to be there working on some crafty project and I didn't want to feel left out. Victoria is hard at work on a fuzzy soft hat, and we just bought some nifty yarn for Devon and I to make a present for his teacher. Teachers really like it when their students make things for them, so it's worth the extra effort of sitting in a chair with a wiggly six year old boy waving around a couple of very sharp, fat, long sticks. I mean... what could go wrong?
Posted by synedra at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)