Postcards From Myself

I am a Mac fan, user, and evangelist. On the other hand I earn my living on PCs and Windows machines. And yes for those of you out there, I have used Linux too and continue to use it from time to time. But truth be told, they are all a pain and each one has its positive points and drawbacks. You have got to admit it — no matter how fond you are of the machine you use, at times you just want to scream at it.

You need to take a look at this video from YouTube. Basically a Southpark style remake of the famous Mac / PC ads from Apple, it hits the nail dead on the head. And in the end I do mean dead.

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted…

“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

I just love a hotel with good wireless Internet! I am currently lying on my hotel bed at the SpringHill Suites in Knoxville, Tennessee. The nice thing - other than the good food and Borders Books nearby, is that I have full a full strength wireless connection. Most of the time, even in very high end hotels, I either have to sit at the cramped little desk and plug into an Ethernet connection or I have to do some strange gyration to get a wireless signal. You know those odd body positions that hearken back to the days of trying to get a signal with the old rabbit ears on the TV? One time I finally had to give up and sit in the lobby of the hotel to do my work. Another time I totally gave up and used the hotel’s public station. I really hate that for security reasons.

But the hotel I am at this evening is wonderful. Full and fast access from anywhere in the room. And yes, I even tested it in the bathroom - not that I am going to take the laptop in the tub or anything!

I really wish more hotels would come up to speed like this. I would gladly sacrifice the television with 60 channels of absolute junk for a good Internet connection. These days I think most of the business people who travel would think about the same thing. Of course with kids around the television is a necessary evil, but as they are getting older even they want a good connection in the room.

Had any good or bad experiences with trying to get an Internet connection while traveling? I would love to hear them. Did you end up in the local library or Starbucks? Does this type of thing figure into the picture when you are planning where to stay?

I work with computers. I am currently and I.S. Manager and System Administrator. I used to be a programmer and web-developer. I have done this type of thing since the very, very old DOS days and have used machines running DOS, Windows, OS2, Mac OS, Linux, Unix, and more. I even taught this stuff at the college level at one point. In other words, I am comfortable around computers. The problem is that often times I am too comfortable and have forgotten how other people feel.

I am now remembering how it feels. I recently bought a nice new camera. I finally treated myself to a digital SLR and got a Nikon D40x. Then for Christmas my wife bought me a telephoto lens and some filters. All very cool, except I haven’t got the faintest clue what I am doing. I don’t even think I know enough to be able to figure out what it is I don’t know. I used to play with photography when I was young. Had my own little darkroom and a few neat cameras, but that was a long time ago. For the past 25 years I have been using point-and-shoot cameras moving from film to digital. So having a nice camera with all the controls is a real education. You cannot treat a good digital SLR like a point-and-shoot any more than you can treat a computer like a typewriter.

But, I have some good books, and I have a good friend who knows his stuff. (You can check out Pat’s photography here.) And next week while I take a short vacation I am going to take the camera, the books, and some time to shoot lots of pictures and experiment. Hopefully I will make some progress in learning this new device. But happily, I have already learned one thing, or more appropriately remembered it, and that is there is no shame in not knowing. And that we all have our areas of ignorance and expertise. You know, little humility can go a long way.

And speaking of feeling ignorant and having things explained to you, I was recently pointed to a great site that has video lessons explaining a lot of the technology that some of us take for granted. Common Craft has short three to five minute videos explaining things such as RSS feeds, blogs, and social networking. You may find it far easier to point some of your co-workers, friends, or family to this site for introduction instead of trying to explain these things yourself.

Imagine this - you are quietly surfing the web on the computer in your bedroom in the early morning while your spouse slumbers peacefully in bed nearby. Suddenly and unexpectedly music starts blaring from the speakers! Ahhh! You try to find the volume control as quickly as possible, but it is too late. “What are you doing?” comes the grumble from the bed. Yup, you have been nailed by a website with auto-play music.

Or you are happily surfing away on your lunch hour at work, because you certainly wouldn’t do it during normal work hours, when all of a sudden your computer springs to life and starts screaming, screeching, and maybe even rapping. All eyes turn towards you. There is no happiness in cubicle land today, for you have broken the silence as surely as if you had let one fly after dining at Taco Bell. But no, all you did was visit a blog where someone has a music video with auto-play enabled.

Now trust me, I love music as much or more than the next person. And I love watching funny videos on-line or even stupid ones. Hey, I even watch music videos on-line. But the nice thing about the web is that it I can use it, surf it, or ignore it on my schedule. Please let the sounds be the same way. If I want to hear the music you have on your site or watch the video demonstration you created to pump up your “I want to make a million on the Internet” business site, then I will click Play. Otherwise, please leave it off. What is the end result if you don’t? The result is that I, and lots of others like me, will just stop visiting your site. Rough yes, but it is the truth. The best you can hope for is that we will turn of the volume before we get to your site, so what is the point anyway?

Additionally, auto-play just chews up bandwidth. And that is really annoying when you are trying to multiple things at once. Just sucks away the traffic flow.

Maybe it is just me, but I find this really annoying. Am I wrong? Am I missing something here?