Suspended Thoughts

I always though that Apple could use a better web address for their US store. I also thought it was kind of strange that it had a phone number in it. I guess I got my wish. As far as I know, it is new.

Now, when you load the Apple Store page, for just a brief second it displays http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-Apple/WebObjects/AppleStore, before it redirects to http://store.apple.com/us.

In a Growl notification box in Mac OS X, I think I see a grammatical error.

Nick Munce would like you to share their screen.

It should be…

Nick Munce would like you to share his or her screen.

Yeeeeeeeesssssssssss…

I don’t know what to think about this. Part of me thinks this is Apple’s fault, and another part says it is Adobe’s.

Apple’s fault

What is Apple doing discontinuing development for 64 bit Carbon? Why would they work on it so long, and (as far as I know), give Adobe no advanced notice about stopping development?

Adobe’s fault

They should have known the end of Carbon development was near. What took them so long to start re-coding in Cocoa?

I don’t really know where to stand on this subject.

I was reading Robert Lemos’s article about ditching the Mac for PC. First of all, I’m not a PC hater, I just like using Macs better. I’m not one to sit here and argue for hours on end about Macs being better than PCs, I just think the Mac would be better for average users, and, more importantly, for me. Just want to tell you what I think about this.

1. Productivity trumps religion

It’s easy to fall in love with the aluminum cases used in Mac hardware and the slick interface design of the Mac OS X, Keanini said. Those are two reasons why more people are moving to Apple products: Apple announced that shipments of its personal computers grew by 44% in the first quarter of 2008, beating the 15% growth in PC shipments worldwide, according to market researcher IDC.

Yet, depending on how a company uses Macs, trying to integrate the computers into a company’s workflow can kill productivity, Keanini said. The applications never quite match up, data has to be massaged to be useful, and the company has to design work-arounds for each issue, he said.

“My rule is to find the technology that makes your company most productive and be honest with yourself about it,” he said. “Don’t bring religion into it.”

Macs are less productive? I hate how in Vista I accidentally navigate through several folders and double-click on that application. Thank God for Vista warning messages. I also hate all of those (0) viruses on Macs that always (never) crash it. I’m not saying Macs never crash, but, in my not-so-humble opinion, a virus free computer is just a bit more productive than a virus infected one.

2. Work-arounds waste time

As soon as a company allows a different operating system onto workers’ desks, employees have to start dealing with all the little problems that crop up. Calendar programs no longer sync with the rest of the company, and documents created in one office software suite have to be converted to another, usually Microsoft Office. If your company uses Microsoft Exchange, as Keanini’s does, this adds another layer of problems.

“Everything is going to be a little bit different, and that little difference in everything eventually adds up,” Keanini said.

One company engineer woke up Keanini the night before presentation slides were due for a conference, his voice cracking with stress, because his slides — exported from Apple’s Keynote presentation application to Microsoft PowerPoint — looked nothing like they had on the Mac.

While such mistakes can be avoided, the effort required to keep the company’s data working on two platforms eventually saps productivity gains, he said.

First of all, just a minor gripe. Are you going from Mac to PC or PC to Mac to PC. Sounds like the latter. Anyway… how about you stop looking for work arounds, try using applications and see how they work. Yes, everything is a little different. If you didn’t want to have something different, why would you switch to Mac in the first place? If you don’t like the way Keynote exports to PowerPoint, try using PowerPoint for Mac.

3. It’s hard to abandon favorite tools

You may become quite attached to a Windows application or two and decide that Apple doesn’t have a comparable equivalent. Apple is well known for creating user-friendly applications, but for Keanini, Microsoft has a lead with at least one program: OneNote,, which he uses for personal information management.

The application, originally created for Microsoft’s tablet PC platform, allows the user to bring all sorts of data into a single notebook format. Also, OneNote does not have a Save dialog box, Keanini said. Microsoft recognizes that if a user enters data into his computer, he is going to want to save it.

Keanini finds himself using OneNote as an organizational hub for his day.

“It integrates so well from Office,” Keanini said. “I can send mail from it, I can do To-Dos from it. Bottom line, does it make me more productive? Yes.”

Try to find some new favorite tools. When I am using a PC, it seems strange without Aperture, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Mail, iCal, Adium, and NetNewsWire. The Mac seems to have a much healthier indie development community. Again, if you need OneNote, why did you buy a Mac anyway?

4. The Hotel California factor

“The designers of Mac — again, this is their priesthood — are not thinking about letting their users go,” Keanini said. “It’s like Hotel California: They are not expecting you to leave.”

Companies that move over to the Mac OS X should expect to spend a lot of time converting data if they decide to move back to Windows, Keanini said.

The CTO said that moving all his data back to the Windows platform took more than week. Among the problems: Contacts and appointments exported from the Mac’s applications had to be cleaned up, he said. Also, there’s no simple way to get e-mail out of the Apple Mail application, he said.

“Today, companies need to be thinking about interoperability,” he said. “It’s the users’ data, not the vendor’s data.”

Excuse me, but, umm… WHAT? I’m pretty sure the reason for that is Microsoft using proprietary formats. Mail uses IMAP for its protocol. iCal is short for iCalendar, a standard for calendar data.

5. You may feel the heat, literally

Aluminum cases make MacBook Pro laptops, like the one Keanini chose, very sleek. But, Keanini said, the focus on design overlooked the fact that the computers throw off a lot of heat; so much so that he found he could not use the computer on his lap.

“The religion made me blind,” he said. “I was bringing [the MacBook] on business but leaving it in the hotel room.”

Moreover, the heat causes another problem, he said: The computers’ lithium-ion batteries tend to have a shorter life span when they run hot. Having to replace the batteries on the laptops more often hit the IT budget bottom line, he said.

Now, the executive runs a Lenovo ThinkPad. “It’s a monster, but it runs cool and it’s very fast,” Keanini said.

First of all, you must have an old MacBook Pro. The heat issue, I’ve heard, is fixed now. And is a hot laptop really a reason to switch OSes?

Is it just me, or is this the dumbest notable day (actually not a holiday) ever?  Just think about this: when was the last day you can remember where no one pulled a prank or at least messed with someone?  NEVER.  That would be like celebrating America’s birthday every day of the year, but July 4th is obviously the best day to do it…  I don’t know.  That was a horrible analogy, but I just think a notable day could be used for a better cause.  NATIONAL GLOBAL WARMING DAY!  Oh, wait… that too is every day.