Monday, December 22, 2003
I think you missed the point of my post. Or I wasn't very clear. I have nothing but respect for good IT people. I myself have worked in IT professionally for over 10 years. I "think" I'm an IT professional. I don't think I'm a web designer. I've worked doing support, systems adminstration and IT Management. I do know that weblog design is a burden for a lot of people who don't want to bother with it but do want a reasonably attractive and functional weblog. I do think that helping to connect people with this technology is a worthwhile. My post was about IT people who do more harm than good. I think we need a professional oath in this industry.
5:53:30 PM
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The Farmer's Red Socks: A Christmas Story Just in time for Christmas. I wrote a new original Christmas story and Jenn contributed some illustrations. I hope you enjoy the story. We want to put out a little book with full color illustrations and potentially more stories. If you're interested let me know and I'll contact you when I have more information. Comments are always welcome, even if they're criticisms.
12:23:48 PM
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9:16:06 AM
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I'm a big fan of the Macintosh Platform. I've been using Mac's for all of my adult life and for the past 10 years or so it could be true that not a day has gone by that hasn't seen me interacting with a Mac in some way. I'm also an IT professional. At times I've actively sought out positions that have at least been willing to consider the platform, this is much easier to justify since the arrival of OS X, more specifically 10.2 (10.1 was a bit rough around the edges). Don't get me wrong, I'm no Mac zealot. I go to lengths to know as much as I can about every relevant platform I come across. By 'come across' I mean any system that could potentially interact with a system I maintain. This has included the Mac, every significant version of Windows, Linux, Unix-like operating systems, the BeOS, VAX systems, etc. (including some pretty funky stuff from my short stint as IT Director of the Computer Museum in Boston. If we were to stand back from the debate and be absolutely honest all of these platforms have strengths and weaknesses. Strengths can be maximized, weaknesses minimized through proper implementation, administration and management. Modern networking primary, among any number of other factors have brought these platforms closer together, even as these same factors have polarized the debates about which is good for what and how and fuck you, you inferior-piece-of-shit-loving asshole or soemthing to that affect. And let's also face the fact, that most of the problems we stumble over are our own fault. The vast majority of you reading this, whether you agree with most of what I'm saying or disagree, and though you probably feel entitled to your opinion, most of you have no idea what you're doing. Now there isn't anything wrong with not being an expert, it's the way you go about it. Here's where some of you might start recognizing yourselves.
You act secretively because you don't know what you're doing and you don't want others to find out. You justify the fact the you don't put together adequate documentation to others by saying you're too busy and you justify it to yourself as some form of job security or some privilege due you for showing up to work and just doing your do, I suppose. You perceive every technology discussion as a potential threat. When you start to investigate a problem you actively set out to prove that it's someone else's fault. You chase solutions that fall within your narrow area of expertise before honestly evaluating all or any other options available to you. You're slow to adopt new technology. Your answer to security is to be antagonist toward end users and management locking down anything that might be useful while you leave giant holes open for yourself attached to admin accounts in the name of convenience, which you call necessity.
I could go on, but if you don't recognize yourself by now then you're in denial. Ask someone else, and they'll tell you if you're this type of person, assuming, a) they don't work for you b) aren't one of your equally clueless friends or c) you haven't tricked them or hid from them into thinking you know more than you actually do.
As a group we bash vendors for security problems even though,
a) they get fixed and serious flaws get fixed seriously quick most of the time; b) the majority are almost purely theorectical assuming you've taken care to do your job properly.
I'm not saying that you deserve what ever misery you bring down upon yourself (I guess) but neither would I blaime the vendor. One of you is acting in good faith and it ain't you. As much as I hate hashing something out with Microsoft I greatly prefer that over trying to talk over mail delivery problem with some other sys admin on a Friday night, or any night for that matter, or in the morning or before lunch, or early morning smoke break, pre lunch goof off session, after lunch rant, pre going home wind down, or even during the 20 - 40 minutes of honest work the average sys admin puts in on an average day... afterall those 20 minutes are pretty damn busy.
This brings me to my biggest dig at MS, that I'm going to mention here, that MCSE is a cult of incompetence. It's a good start but it's hardly an end. I like the whole certification thing to tell the truth, well at least I like it more than I don't like it (with a few key exceptions which I probably won't get into). But MCSE specifically is broken. It's turned into a confidence of theives. Microsoft pushes MCSE certification as a quick and easy route to a career in IT. People pay their dues (literally) and get certified which does apparently make them hireable but these people only know MS technology and they cling to it like the strap on a life raft, unqualified to do anything else and without the basic skills necessary to learn and grow as an IT professional these people are Microsoft's biggest proponents inside of corporations. Microsoft uses MCSE as a way to get sales people hired inside of corporations and get paid in the process. The reason why Apple and Linux and every other prime time OS are fighting for table scraps isn't a technical one. People have been arguing technical superiority with Microsoft and within the rest of the industry for as long as there's been an industry to argue over and none of these arguments amount to anything. Does anybody remember the BeOS? Of course you don't have to look any further than Apple. The one reason that no other vendor is in a position right now to make any progress against Microsoft's dominance in Enterprise is MCSE. I've worked for a lot of different types of companies, some large, some small in several industries and I've been around many others and I don't know a single one that would be willing to shitcan their entire IT staff from management to administration and support to bring in new people capable of working with technology not covered by the MCSE. Microsoft has done a god job of separating itself from other technologies, for good or bad is irrelevant; making their technology different enough that skils don't travel well and pushing MCSE as a quick fix is a great way to attract just the right number of just the wrong people that you don't have to worry about MCSEs turning. Why has Apple historically done well with creative types and small business? Is it because the platform offers some technical advantage, that might be true but that's not the reason why. It's because these types of places don't have IT staff.
Now that we're back to Apple, I'll pull this around and finish up.
Mac OS X (specifically 10.3) is a fantastic OS, if you don't agree with that then either you aren't being obective or you haven't looked closely enough. I won't get into it all now because this isn't about the platform it's about Apple itself. I may write a post about the platform in the future. The larger question is, do the technical merits of the platform even matter when you're talking about proprietary technology linked to a company like Apple (yes I am well aware of Darwin and Apple's many, many contributions that aren't directly tied to Apple any longer). Apple has problems and they start at the top and filter down and impact every customer, every employee and every product. You name a hot apple hardware product and I'll name a serious flaw. 3G iPods have horrible battery issues, OS that can seem to have a mind of it's own, and a hold switch that at times seems no more than a polite request that the device feels free to ignore. PowerBooks have a history of problems with latches and serious display problems, iBooks suffer from display problems as well and they lately they've developed a little habit of consuming their own logic boards. There are problem with iMacs, eMacs, xServe's. On the plus side... So far I've been pretty happy with my wireless mouse from Apple. < p/> I'm pretty confident sayinging that Apple's software is to a large degree limited and shitty. iCal was practically broken when it was first introduced, it's been improved in the latest revision but the interface still leaves a lot to be desired. Why does information have to be presented in a drawer permanently glued to the side of the already to large main iCal window? It takes up a lot of screen space. iPhoto is a very limited application I terms of functionality and performance. Using iPhoto basically requires that you use hack-y shareware to manage multiple iPhoto libraries - something you can't do with iPhoto itself. (Not quite true anymore with the ability to archive to CD and DVD.) iTunes is pretty good but Apple's claim that iTunes for Windows is 'the best Windows application ever developed' is absurd. iDVD and iMovie are good applications but have many many problems and Mail keeps getting better but there are rough edges. This could get to be a very long and I'm being overly general in the interest of pushing through this, so I'll stop here. Quicktime, numerous pro audio and video applications, all of the consumer apps, Appleworks, all the hardware including the iPod and Apple's push toward consumer electronics (digital lifestyle), the accessories, WebObjects & new development tools... these are all part of the same problem. There was a point when Steve Jobs insisted that we should believe that Apple, a company that historically has had problems delivering and following through on reliable products and services could be trusted now because they were going to 'put the A Team on everything'. Well, either the 'A Team' has grown quite a bit since the time when Steve Jobs insisted that the key to Apple's success was focusing on four core hardware products and one operating system, or the same A Team is now working on Apple's 80 gazillion projects and they desperately need a vacation... maybe that's the reason for the rash of bad hardware recently or the half-finished software products. And I've missed some of the big ones.
At a time when Apple is supposedly pushing back into education, their could-have-been-great Power School solution is a joke. I think they have turned over the entire department 3 or 4 times in the last 3 years and they still haven't found a way to sell it, and I'm not talking about marketing; I'm talking about the actual logistics of selling it. I haven't used it recently because I can't get my hands on it, but I can't believe it works. If it does work it had better work perfectly, because Apple service and support is miserable. And how could I forget the retail stores? You can hardly fault the concept of opening hip retail boutiques in the best locations in every city in the country and exposing your products to consumers controlling every aspect of the experience from distribution to promotion, product placement, sales, etc... until you realize that none of this is free, that Apple isn't making money on the retail stores, that they can't manufacture their employees like they do their computers, they are pulling from the same primarily dopey pool of minimum wage-ish people that everyone else is; and I have yet to see a good argument for why Apple thinks they can do this better than anyone else can (other than the fact that Steve Jobs is a control). I don't know that they had any other options, but this doesn't make the retail stores a good idea it just means that Apple has found itself in a very bad spot after numerous (and continuing) failed retail strategies. What does it mean to Apple as profit margins continue to slip because of initiatives like the Retail Stores and the iTunes Music Store? I don't know but Apple ain't pretty no more (at least on paper) and for anyone paying attention that may look like a bad sign. I was in line for the opening of the first Apple store and no I don't live anywhere near Tyson's Corner, VA. I bought my first iBook outside the store while in the line still waiting to get in... and now I dread having to go into an Apple store. I can say that nothing has ever happened to me personally in an Apple Store to which I can attribute my change in attitude. Well that's not true, there is no one specific event but I can think of plenty of examples of ordinary, vanilla bad retail and Apple's own special brand of bad retail. And it's all wrapped up in the same Apple hype that oozes out of every product, announcement, event etc. It's showcased in the retails stores thoguh, as it always has been for Apple, because in the retail stores you'll find the starkest contrast between what Apple tells you it delivers and what it actually, literally, puts on the shelves, and you see how bad, good and great technology are all bound by the same basic rules and limitations. As exciting as Aple would like it's products to be, they don't exist in an exciting world. The result of this weird juxtaposition is that you leave the Apple Store feeling tricked a little, or a little uneasy (or I do at least).What do I mean?
I'm stunned by Apple's Genius Bar concept. I'm amazed by the shear ridiculousness of it and people's willingness to buy into something that so obviously makes no sense at all. I've worked in IT a long time and I've worked with a lot of different people some very Jr. And some very Sr. I'd confidently put some of the horrible people I've worked with up against anybody's worst. I'd bet money on it. I've also worked with some really bright people. I've worked with people who had a drive and commitment to IT decades worth of knowledge and experience and a genuine knack for IT. I've worked with people who have been underpaid before, I myself was at one time doing project management and research for less than would be typical of a mid level support person. The first job I held professionally I worked for $13,000.00 a year (plus a $2,000.00 check I was given when I went, hat in hand, to beg for money to pay my bills) and I worked close to 80 hours a week building and supporting a CRM database solution for a small financial firm. I've also worked with and for people who have been drastically overpaid. I don't know that I'd call any of these people genuises. I do know that if I'm to believe that Apple has found talented, dedicated IT professionals to work retail hours and pull a retail paycheck to report to a retail assistant manager and work a lousy support job for people walking in off the street, instead of making considerably more money working normal hours these people aren't geniuses, I don't care what their job title is. The selection of peripherals is poor as is software selection. There are often boxes of sale priced returned products littering the theater area. 3rd party product lines they do offer are available in only limited configurations, with some not all of the product line represented. They do a good job at showcasing headline products but everything else seems to just be thrown around in a compromise that breaks the model of distinct areas of the store dedicated to specific claases of products. Signage in the stores is often wrong, sometimes suspiciously so. A week or so after the release of the current crop of PowerBooks the Apple Store in Cambridge was selling the previous model at full price which signage implying that it was the most up to date version and there was no mention of the newer model anywhere. Along with the signage, brochures and demo models all ignored the new release. I assume that they either had none of the newer model in stock or that they were trying to unload the old model, but to my way of thinking this is horribly deceptive, the worst of what the retail experience can be. When I asked specifically about the new model I was told that they were out of stock. Someone else might not have known about the new model or could have assumed that the model on the floors being sold as "new" were in fact the just released model. Expecting people to pay full retail price for an outdated product is wrong-minded at best and purposely manipulative at worst. This reminds me of another great example of Apple being deceptive, the way that they refer to their computer models. I have a 12" inch PowerBook... Oh, is it the new one?
The old new one?
the newish old one?
the old one?
Is it the gray one or the other gray one?
You know the slightly different gray? I like that one. Apple likes to brand it's products. They give them a personality that glosses over the technical details that make one distinct from the next. That may seem to make sense but I know it confuses people and it can make Apple look like it's standing still with it's product lines, while at the same time exacerbating that unavoidable feeling of being left behind when the newest generation replaces the old. It gets in the way of Apple talking to it's customers and customers talking to each other, friends, family and strangers about Apple technology. It makes it harder to sell Apple computers. I'm no salesman but it seems obvious to me that you shouldn't make people feel confused or uncomfortable when selling to them.
Back to the store, I've yet to see Apple doing anything innovative with their retail stores. Listen I don't pretend to be a retailing guru but as a consumer I would put Apple's retail efforts at par at best. At the same time Apple is turning up the heat on Mac resellers to meet increasing demands to keep their status as authorized support and sales providers. Apple loves to screw this group. It's a bit like Apple's treatment of the clone licensees back in the bad old days of Apple/Mac. The difference of course is that then Apple could say they were fighting for their survival and now it looks clearly like bullying when they withhold product from resellers or requires them to consent to handing over customer account info, which Apple could use(?) to beat smaller shops to the punch for large accounts. And there are the recent reports of Apple insisting that authorized support providers go to ridiculous and expensive lengths when providing warrantied service, like replacing G5 cases as a part of routine hard drive replacement, to the tune of as much as $500.00 for which Apple will not reimburse providers. Of course Apple plays by a different set of rules itself. Apple support is at best no better than what anyone else is doing, at it's worst it's much worse then that. Apple's own discussion databases read like harsh criticism from Apple's fiercest opponents, except these are Apple's own customers. Loyalty stats are usually right up their but these reflect the loyal opinions of a bunch of loyal users. Windows is the platform people use when they feel like they don't have any other choice, people use Apple technology because they want to. Microsoft is going to get a more sobering assessment from users than Apple and that has nothing to do with Apple. In fact if Apple's marketshare dipped a little more, I'd bet the loyalty stats would go up. I really need to end this but I do want to make one more statement. Why Apple feels that it's necessary to challenge developers for dominance over consumer applications is beyond me, especially when there are seem to be so many holes at the when it comes to enterprise applications. Apple needs a unified enterprise strategy to make inroads into that space and if Apple doesn't do it no one else will. The xServe is nice but people need more than a file server and generally find that they need to dump AMS and other components in favor of other options that work far better. While Apple usually tries to push it's technology as the best of the best, when it comes to the enterprise, solutions from Apple look watered down and I'm not talking about processor speed. Apple is missing a core component that feels like unified management to an administrator and immediately identifiable services to end users. People know Exchange/Outlook when they see it, people know GroupWise and Notes when they see them. Apple needs an identity here, in a space where blurring the details in the name of branding could make sense. In the consumer space it's confusing. Here it would give users and management something to talk about, something to identify with. Power School could be that in the education space if Apple would squash the soap opera and focus on the solution. Why am I seeing WebMD push themselves in commercials as the medical information solutions provider? You have got to be kidding me. I guarentee you those solutions won't run on Mac OS X powered tablets and PDAs. You could go industry by industry and find a missed opportunity while in the consumer space Apple pushes willing developers out of the way. This is a strategy that works for Microsoft but will never work for Apple. Microsoft is in a position to abuse developers and end users not Apple. Microsoft is in the position to spend resources on consumer jazz while leaving vertical solutions to 3rd parties because Windows is the obvious choice, and Microsoft helps it's cause by making people feel better about the decision they were going to make any way. And Linux of course is all about targeted solutions development and Linux has the additional advantage of never being at odds with 3rd party developers (though some of the distributions are going in a different direction) An xServe, crappy support, poor documentation, few training options, and a bunch of retail stores and does not an Enterprise strategy make.
2:00:28 AM
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