512 Pixels

This weekend was a big one.

My day job is running the IT/AV/Multimedia/Design department for a faith-based non-profit that just opened a 104,000 square-foot community center. I’ve been on board with this project for three years, and seeing it open was the realization of lots of dreaming and even more hard work.

While we enjoy a good amount of autonomy, this weekend, loads of people from our divisional and territorial offices were in town for the opening events.

And man, did I get some comments about the technology I’ve installed.

See, our corporate side is Windows-centric, all the way down. All of our internal communication happens within the garden walls of Lotus Notes. Only last year were iPhones added to the list of approved phones for employees to carry. (Thousand of Blackberrys were turned in, I bet.)

And I installed a ton of Macs.

Our office runs on Windows. We’ve got a HP server in the closet, an Active Directory and things like mapped network drives and terminal servers keeping everyone connected and working.

Outside the office, however, I’ve deployed a lot Apple gear. We’ve got something like 40 Apple TVs, and over a dozen Macs driving our various AV systems.

Yesterday, I was sitting behind one of two stupid, thin new iMacs in one booth when an out-of-towner came up to me.

You’re that Mac guy, right?

Turns out my installation of non-standard equipment has made ripples across the organization. When someone brings it up, the conversation goes one of two ways.

Most people think its cool, and express some jealousy over my ability to do what I want when it comes to this gear. Sadly, these are often the same type of people who try to find common ground, like the dude who tried telling me about the “G5 Mac Pro” he was looking at buying. After I explained that he either had a G5 or a Mac Pro, based on what architecture the system was based on. He walked away when I said it was easy to tell what he had, based on the number of optical drive openings in the front of the case.

(In hindsight, I probably came off as a little pedantic.)

Other people try to write off the Mac (and other Apple products) as toys, inferring that I’m not a “real” IT guy because I prefer OS X over Windows. Bring up AirPlay, and they talk about Wi-Fi security. Talk about the iPhone, and they mention something about keyboards and being “closed.”

Sadly, the people in this camp are often in IT themselves.

The truth is, I believe in options. I choose the best tools for the job. I’ve got Windows, OS X, iOS, Linux and Cisco-based gear under desks and in racks. Apple isn’t always the best fit, so I don’t always use the company’s products. But my reputation has stuck, and until people see otherwise, I’ll be the weird Mac guy in Memphis, breaking the rules with his shiny, silly machines.

I’m part of a new generation of IT director. I trust my users and deploy what I need to get the job done. I don’t see why that causes such a stir.

Dalton Caldwell:

Although App.net has had only paid account tiers thus far, we initially conceived of App.net as a freemium service. It took some time to get to this point, but we are now ready to make this vision a reality.

The details are pretty cool. Free accounts require an invitation from a paying member, can follow a maximum of 40 users, and get 500 MB of available file storage, with a 10 MB-per-file limit.

Speaking of invites, here are two:

• http://join.app.net/p/xxxjgpvqrm
• http://join.app.net/p/bnqzllwmwy

I’m @ismh over there, too.

Marco:

I hastily built a basic site while I was waiting for the app to be approved. I only needed it to do two things: send people to the App Store, and show something at the sharing URLs for each article. Since The Magazine had no ads, and people could only subscribe in the app, I figured there was no reason to show full article text on the site — it could only lose money and dilute the value of subscribing.

That was the biggest mistake I’ve made with The Magazine to date.

I’m glad that Marco is opening things up a bit. When my article was published, lots of people were talking about it, and it would have been nice to have the whole thing public. While Marco’s policy of letting writers publish their pieces on their own sites later is great, this move is a great one for generating conversation after an article is pushed to The Magazine’s readers.

The Magazine is perhaps the most interesting thing happening at the intersection of journalism and Apple at the moment. Don’t miss Marco’s interview with Ben Brooks, in which they discuss publishing, iPads and more.

Shame on you, Samsung.

The Verge has a great video of Joshua Topolsky trying out Google’s smartglasses. Here’s a bit from Steve Lee, Glass’ Product Director.

People want to be connected, and technology has enabled that. But a problem is that the technology creates distraction and takes you out of the moment.

[…]

How do we solve that problem? How do we get technology out of the way when you’re doing activities, but have it there when you need it?

At this point, Topolsky asks if this is a way to combat people glancing down at their phones all the time. Google’s answer?

A key part to us solving that problem is bringing technology closer to your senses.

That’s a big, bold statement, but Google’s project is big and bold. Here’s Topolsky:

The screen is not disruptive, you do not feel burdened by it. It is there and then it is gone. It’s not shocking. It’s not jarring. It’s just this new thing in your field of vision. And it’s actually pretty cool.

That’s good to hear. Two days ago, I wrote this:

The beauty of the iPhone is that you can leave it in your pocket.

Maybe Glass being off is like having your phone in your pocket after all, but I can’t reconcile having technology so close and so transparent at the same time.

But maybe I’m already too old to think this sort of thing is cool, or that it will work. There’s no doubt in my mind that Google Glass is pushing some serious boundaries, but I’m not sure what they’re pushing against is something I want moved.

Earlier today, Google took the wraps off the Chromebook Pixel, a notebook with a 12.85-inch, Retina-quality touch display, 1TB of cloud storage (for three years) and optional LTE.

Google touts its Chrome OS as the way forward:

Pixel boots-up in seconds and stays fast, requires almost zero setup or maintenance, and comes with virus protection built-in. Best of all, it stays up to date with seamless updates every few weeks.

At $1200, this machine flies in the face of previous statements made by Eric Schmidt. I guess since netbooks died out, Google decided to copy the MacBook Air, right down to the chiclet backlit keyboard, glass trackpad and its “machined anodized aluminum alloy” chassis.

And what does the company think this notebook is best for?

On the Chromebook Pixel, your favorite Google products – like YouTube, Gmail, Hangouts and Drive – shine.

You know what else Google products “shine” on? Any. Other. Notebook.

I really think Chrome OS is a cool idea, but this just seems silly. I have no doubt the company will push this product, but the software doesn’t seem to justify the hardware Google’s thrown at it.

Linus Edwards has complied a list of doozies.

With myself being ensconced in a fugue state, Myke and I address a grab-bag of topics ranging from Lenovo Thinkpads to Google Glasses and iPhone Homescreens.

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This morning, Google rolled out a new webpage for its Glass project, which includes this video of people using the product.

Google Glass is insanely interesting to me, but that’s not to say I’d be interested in owning a pair of the $1500 smartglasses.

The idea of having an ever-connected device seeing what you see is about as from-the-future as you can get, but I’m not sure I’d want Google being in between me and what I’m seeing. The beauty of the iPhone is that you can leave it in your pocket.

Jim Dalrymple:

Apple on Tuesday admitted to being the victim of a hacker attack by the same people that went after Facebook last week. Apple said it is taking steps to help its customers, including releasing an updated Java malware removal tool.

The first comment on Jim’s post is awesome.

Also awesome? That Apple looks out for its customers, even though the issue is with Java, and not OS X itself.

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Jim Grey:

Car logotypes are meant to convey something about the automobile to which they are attached.