Workspace Traditions

Every company, every team has their different traditions and specific culture and Microsoft is no exception. Christian Buckley of BlueBadgeMojo.com pokes some fun at what I think is a Microsoft specific tradition of "decorating" offices of people gone for an extended period of time. I remember carting in sand for a "beach house" office decoration way back. Where did it all start? I guess I'll never know.

What funny workspace traditions do you have? Have you seen the office decoration thing outside of Microsoft?

iKnow iDeas

A fun parody of Apple. The product? Paper napkins.

Coming Home

May we all experience a joyful reunion like this! And for those in the United States, Happy Memorial Day.

Blogger 2.0

Some people are getting re-posts of my older blog posts. As far as I can tell, this has started since I moved to the new version of Blogger. When I upgraded this blog to Blogger 2.0, I gained the ability to tag or label my posts. Very cool. I also lost my formatting in all 240 of my older posts. Not very cool. As a result, I'm going through my older posts one by one to manually fix the formatting and add tags/labels to the content. If I modify any one of my posts, either textually or by adding a tag or label, Blogger sees this as an update, and treats this old post, as a new one. I don't know how to get around this. Further, not everyone sees this behavior.

Bottom line: As I work through fixing up my older posts, you might get a re-post of old content. I'm not trying to spam you with re-posts, just trying to clean up my blog. I guess, with Blogger the adage, "You get what you pay for," applies. Maybe in the future I'll consider moving to MoveableType or something like that, but right now, that's not in the cards. Thanks for being patient.

WWDC Tips

Nadyne asks, "So this is my first time attending WWDC. Got any tips for a newbie? :)"

I've got some:

I'd not skip the keynote. ;-) And get there early. Ever since I scored a new mouse for showing up, I'm expecting some kind of keynote give away. Don't do that. It's perpetual disappointment.

I enjoy the Apple Design awards, but I'm less inclined toward the Stump the Expert session.

Take notes about the questions and answers, they are often the most interesting part of the presentations, but not included in the recordings online.

There is a WebObjects talk that is given by a guy (sorry, I don't know his name) but he always creates a song to explain what he's teaching at the end of his session. Sometimes two songs! They are just awesomely funny. I always try to make it to this session. And once again, it's not on the DVDs/online version you can view afterward.

The wireless network will be sketchy and most probably will not work during the keynote. Just know that in advance. Seems like it gets better as the week goes on.

Walk the floor both in the hallways and in the presentation rooms to scout out where the power outlets are. Often there are outlets in the floor, if you bring a small power-strip, you become fast friends will everyone around you.

Trying to schedule your sessions in advance is simply a lost cause. The keynote changes everything. You'll have lunch and time to think on the first day to plan the rest of the week. Don't be afraid to hop sessions, if one session is lame, jump to another one.

The feedback sessions are always fun, but by far the most vitriolic is the Aqua feedback session. I go just to enjoy the banter. :-)

Food goes fast. Get into the rhythm of when the food is set out and try to be there for the first drop. I almost always got the tail end of the Jamba Juices distribution which always meant, I got nothing.

Take some time to walk in the Labs and talk to the engineers. They are friendly and always have interesting things to say.

Oh, ya, there are lots of parties. Enjoy 'em.

The plug-fest is fun, just to see the new hardware devices people bring in to try out.

The Apple campus bash is fun, especially if you've never been there before. Unless you are on the first bus there, don't expect to get into the Apple Store on the Apple campus without a long wait in line.

What are your tips for attending WWDC?

Hyanide: My Tank Bike

I've posted before about my dream car, but I just found my dream bike: The Tank Bike.

German designers Oliver Keller and Tillman Schlootz presented their extremely extreme personal tank concept for the 2006 Michelin Design Challenge, showcasing vehicles made especially for California's diverse and often rugged topography. Hyanide's tread contains 77 (holla!) identical plastic-covered segments of Kevlar rubber held together by Kevlar rope. Each segment flexes independently, allowing fluid multi-directional movement suitable for any conditions including deep mud, sand and snow.

No more bent axles or broken crank shafts for me!

My First QTVR: Petra, Jordan

A few years back, my sister and I went on a travel study trip to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. It was fantastic! I had a digital camera, a wide angle lens, a Kaidan mount adjusted for the focal point of the lens on my Dad's Kodak, DC265 Digital Camera, and enough storage for about 64 "high quality" digital pictures.

Side Note: If in the future, you are going to bring a digital camera to a place where you will most likely never visit again, make sure you have enough batteries and storage to take as many pictures as you can, even if it costs a lot.

Well, I did get a few good pictures, but one of the most interesting places we visited was Petra, Jordan It is was one of the high lights of the trip. I set up the tripod and 12 or 13 portrait pictures later, I had enough to stitch together in Apple's QTVR creation software. It was super fun and I thought you might enjoy the look around. You can also check out the Google Maps images here.

OS X Software for Switchers

Thanks to Ars Technica I've been pointed to another great switcher resource. The post lists software that will make your stay on the new OS much more enjoyable.

Following Directions

Did you ever get one of those tests on how well you could follow directions? I remember a sheet of paper with more than 20 step by step directions (not unlike some usability studies...) and when you get to the last step you realize you've gone all wrong because of a careless reading of the instructions before step one? Well, here's your chance to redeem yourself. Maybe. ;-)

P.S. I must have clicked it at least 100 times before I stopped...

IT Collaboration

Christian Buckley is friend of mine, and not only was he recently hired on at Microsoft, but he works in the same building as I do! MacBU shares the same building with, of all groups, our Microsoft IT department! I love that when they walk into work each day or schedule meetings in the conference rooms on our floors, they get to see all our Think Different posters. ;-) Anyhow, for the IT folk in the audience, Christian just got a new shirt that you might appreciate:

Net Neutrality

There is talk all over the internet and on capital hill about this "net neutrality" and what it is, and why it's important. I've heard several people try to define it, but Tim Berners-Lee, arguably the inventor of the Web, I think has said it best:

Net neutrality is this:

If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.

That's all. Its up to the ISPs to make sure they interoperate so that that happens.

Net Neutrality is NOT asking for the internet for free.

Net Neutrality is NOT saying that one shouldn't pay more money for high quality of service. We always have, and we always will.

When I pay my ISP for connecting to the Internet, I pay for the bandwidth for ALL traffic I choose to send an receive. If it is phone traffic (VOIP), web (HTTP) or video (RTSP), I want my bandwidth and quality of service to be the same across all protocols independent of the payload source or destination. The idea that my ISP (currently Verizon) could give priority to their VOIP services, their movie services and their web sites, while slowing or retarding the quality of other competing services seems repugnant to me and simply unfair. Net neutrality is important because it keeps the Internet a level playing field where competition can thrive.

Switching

This has got to be the best one page guide to the details of switching from a Windows PC to a Mac I've seen so far. I've got a bunch of friends that have recently made the switch and this is what I'm going to have them read.