The Cult of Mac
I saw an graphic during my travels through the Internet today, which described an equation for the Apple Mac:
iMac + MacBook Pro + iPhone == Fanboi
I’m not quite an Apple Fanboi, but I did come a bit closer to it today – a brand new Apple Macbook Pro 15″ turned up on the doorstep. I have the iMac, now the Macbook Pro, and *feebly* I have plans to acquire an iPhone.
Does this make me a fanboi?
What’s prompted this latest acquisition?
Why am I becoming so, umm, fanboi-ish?
It’s a long story, but the short version is that I’ve had what I’m calling an ephemeric period in my life over Christmas – I took the time to think about my work, where I want to go, and what I’d like to do for the future. Having three weeks off work with a case of Bundy, a bottle of Port, a bottle of Baileys, and lots of time allows one to contemplate life.
Over Christmas and New Year, I had a lot of “tasks” to do, related to my hobbies (gliding and photography). I performed 1/4 of the tasks I’d set myself. The rest of the time, I was playing on the Xbox and thinking about work.
One aspect of my current work situation that I was particularly unhappy about was the sheer number of tasks I needed to work on. The Christmas period was traditionally the period where work slowed down – not this year. It seemed to ramp up. Within the space of a few weeks, we had a dozen sites that were relocating, being established, or wanted link upgrades. I also had to start the design process for new core networks in two other locations, as well as work on the personnel aspects – organise training, approve leave, etc.
So, predictably, my task “list” blew out, and I lost track of what needed to be done by when. It was a real mess, I knew it, and was quite ashamed and disgusted by it too.
Ah home, I was using my Mac to help me manage the tasks I needed to do at home – I would enter in all the tasks for the various home projects, and track them to completion. I was loosely following the “Getting Things Done” philosophy, and decided to try and follow it at work.
When I returned to work in the new year, I started the process by goign through all the papers around my desk, throwing out junk and stuff that’s no good to me. My boss turns up, and asks me what I’m doing, “I’ve decided to follow the GTD philosophy”. He turned up the next day with the famous book Getting Things Done by David Allen. Two days later, my desk was clear, the recycling bin was full, and the boss was amazed.
One point Dave Allen stressed that I needed to have fun whilst following through the processes and procedures detailed in the book. I could have fun by managing my tasks using a Mac, so I bought a Macbook Pro.
I’ve been playing with the Macbook all day now, and here are my first impressions:
- The aluminium shell is amazing – great look, great build, and the overall product is quite solid.
- The edges of the Macbook are quite sharp. After a stint of typing, I have deep impressions on my forearms from the edges of the laptop. It’s not uncomfortable, but certainly noticeable.
- The screen is good. I don’t think I’ll be using my Macbook for photography work – I know Rob Galbraith thinks that the MacBook Pro screen is not up to the task – I have my iMac for my photography workflow.
- The Magsafe connector is interesting. It’s my first time I’ve seen this technology, and I’m wondering how many times people have ripped power cords out of laptops to prompt Apple to produce a “safe” power cord.
- I just love the Mac, and the way the Mac works – it just works. I’ve had no problems with my iMac so far, so why not continue using the OS?
Over the next week or so, I’ll go through my “inbox”, which is a stack of paper about 50cm high, and work out all the tasks I need to do, and enter them into the Mac. Then, I’ll have a good idea of the tasks I need to do, and which ones I can delegate to the guys in the team.
Because I don’t have an iPhone, I’m not a fanboi (yet!).
*starts iPod Touch, puts in headphones, selects a RadioHead song*
… aahhh… bliss at last!