Newton Poetry

Of course they’d use Macs in such a sleek working environment.

[Via ISO50 Blog.]

Crunchy-granola type of work environment.

I’m guessing it’s a PowerBook because of the open button on the front, and the lineup of I/O ports along the left. Am I right?

[Via Ffffound!, via 2 or 3 Thing I Know.]

Talk about a view.

And yeah, the stuff outside the window’s nice, too.

I like how the iMacs are floating, with the stands taken off and the main screen held up by a swivel bracket. There are some more detailed shots at the Contemporist, where this came from.

[Via badbanana.]

My first Mac, the iBook G4, in a stylish attic work environment.

[Via Desire to Inspire, via Ffffound!]

Here’s an Intel iMac caught in the wild – held up by a cool modern table. IKEA, maybe?

Thanks to Thomas Brand for reminding me what the different is between an iMac G5 and an Intel iMac: the iSight camera at the top.

The new, aluminum iMacs are gorgeous, but I’ll always be partial to the gleaming white iMacs, starting with the Snowy White G3s, of the PowerPC era.

[Via Ffffound!]

Isn’t it wonderful how well the G5 and newer iMacs fit into a modular workspace like the one above?

Check out more great workspaces at The Shelby.

[Via ISO50 Blog.]

Happy National Bring Your Mac To Work Day, everyone.

Wait, what? You’ve never heard of NBYMTWD?

Here’s how it started. I have some video projects to do at work, and Microsoft Movie Maker just isn’t cutting it. First, I’m new to video editing and codecs and file types. Second, Movie Maker will only let you edit movies in a certain format.

My solution? Bring my iBook to work. The MPEG files I have will work fine with iMovie (I think), and I can do some translating with VLC.

Plus, I can set aside the Dell and work with a real computer.

I almost brought my PowerMac G4, just so I could use my work LCD and keyboard, but the G4′s video card isn’t up to snuff – I got a warning that said transitions and the Ken Burns Effect might not work without a Quartz Extreme-compatible video card. Oh well.

January 9. Let this be a day we can revisit every year: bring your Mac to work to get things done. Make it a good one!

Demigods in Canada, and virtually unknown in the U.S., The Tragically Hip are the greatest live band I’ve ever seen.

So it was a heckuva treat to see some classic Macs sitting at the desks during the Hip’s “My Music at Work” video:

Gord Downie, the lead singer, has either a classic 128/512k Mac or a Mac SE – I can’t make out which. The video seems to be a rip on the drudgery of work, but they picked the wrong computer to represent such an idea; a Packard Bell would’ve worked much better.

They look like they’re having some fun, thanks to Gord, though I bet an office environment would be infinitely better with a Mac SE at every desk.

“Wow, it’s so big!”

In low-brow humor circumstances, that would seem like a compliment. But in relation to the Newton, it’s kind of embarrassing.

I whipped out my MessagePad at work one day to scribble in something I didn’t want to forget, and my boss saw it over my shoulder.

“What the heck is that?” she asked.

“It’s my Newton. I use it to keep my memory straight,” I said.

I told her it was the first PDA, invented by Apple, and hails from the early 1990s. “That thing is huge,” she said. I didn’t blush, but I did agree that we’ve come a long way since 1994. She knows I’ve been saving up for an iPhone, so I told her the Newton was my stand-by.

Newton users get a similar reaction fairly often, from what I’ve read. It’s happened to me twice. The other time I brought my Newton to a friend’s house while working on Newton Poetry. Someone saw the MessagePad and couldn’t believe it was so bulky. He switched it on, played with the handwriting recognition, and called it a “giant green brick.” I explained what it was, too, and we had a good laugh about the advance of technology.

And it’s true. When I rest my iPod on top of the MessagePad, it still amazes me the size difference. My iPod has a 30 GB hard drive and the ability to hold thousands of songs. The Newton, on the other hand, needs a 2 MB flash card to store data. Plus it’s monochrome and lacks the lush, movie-playing screen of the iPod.

But still, having the Newton around is a great conversation starter. Everyone has an iPod these days, but Newtons are so rare they inspire outbursts like…well, like the one above.

If you checked out today’s earlier post, you can tell I’m a big fan of April Fool’s Day. Always have been.

So last night I crept back into work after hours and installed a “new” computer for one of my coworkers. A Mac SE.

I came up with the idea months ago, but I originally meant to replace all of my coworkers’ workstations with vintage Macs – all four of them. The logistics, however, made me think twice. Lugging two Mac SEs, a Quadra, and an LC 550 up the office stairs didn’t seem worth it. So I pulled some other fun pranks instead.

I even made a “Punch In” alias on the SE’s desktop that mimics our timecard software. It was a MacWrite document, and said, simply, “Happy April Fool’s.”

They got me back, too:

Someone caught me in a woman’s hat at a recent event. One of my coworkers printed off 10 copies and posted them all over the office. It was like 1984, with Big Brother’s face plastered everywhere you went. The above spot was my favorite, however.

My boss, who was not spared in the tomfoolery, liked the Mac SE prank the best, which makes me feel good. For a minute, I thought I was going to walk into work in deep trouble. Thank goodness for good senses of humor.

Happy April Fool’s!  And happy birthday, Apple!