Now, this guy works for schools, so its not like Bill Gates coming out and saying “Hey, Apple Bad, Buy MS” or anything.  But what he IS falling prey to is that we MUST keep lowering the bar on everything.  Software has to all be the same or else how can we deal?  Shockingly, kids deal with this just fine.  If they want to.  Further, the more they DO want to, the more they DEMAND better software, the more other companies will have to respond. 
What I dislike even more about this is the subtext that we should sacrifice kids creativity to make sure they know how to handle crappy software that inhibits their creativity for the sake of…what…learning to install drivers and how you have to reboot every time after you print?
Oh self-fulfilling prophecy…thy irony is sweet…

$800 Mac Mini? I’m all set, Apple | Education IT | ZDNet.com

However, even iLife has its drawbacks in an educational setting. It simply hands so much to the students that they struggle with software (whether Windows, Linux, or even pro-level software on the Mac) that isn’t so brilliantly plug and play. Yes, iLife rocks in many ways, but the level of spoonfeeding it encourages actually makes me think twice about using it widely, especially at the high school level.

(h/t to Fireball)

Looks like Dean Heckler followed through on his response to my initial posting about the very cool OneLessDesk.  The new version is steel (with a limited edition stainless steel) and only $649.00.

Is it worthwhile?  If my iMac was my work machine, then I would say ‘yes’.

Alas…

Anyhow, big kudos to Dean for listening!

I am returned!

Anyhow, a few things spring to mind before I actually start letting myself be informed about the world again (yes, I admit it, living in a box is very nice).

1. The two most under-rated bands of the 80s: Oingo Boingo, Missing Persons

2. If you hate your PC now, switch to a Mac and then try using the PC again.  You know no such hate.

3. Marvel Studios should just close their doors and give it up if they don’t bring Favreau back for Iron Man II.  Current rumor is that there’s a lot of penny pinching going on.  Favreau made them a blockbuster.  Don’t get me wrong, Downey was great, but it was Favreau’s film.  Unfortunately, there’s a class of moron that gets to make decisions about movies who really thinks that anyone can make a flick, and that the actors only matter because the public sees them.  Marvel has made mistakes before when letting money people make decisions (see Spider-Man 3…the money guys demanded Venom), and this could really kick them in the nuts.  No matter how much it costs to keep Favreau, its gotta be cheaper than making a bomb.

4. Metal Gear Solid 4 rocks.

In a very cool move, Dean Heckler, designer of OneLessDesk that I posted about gave us a reply:

Thanks for the kind words. I am exploring producing a standard steel version of OneLessDesk (in addition to the original version) in order to have a lower priced product. The stainless steel of the current desk is what keeps it pricey. Stay tuned…

If he can get that thing down to 500 bucks, I’m there.

Hmmm…then again…those pointless Bush-Tax-Rebate-Checks are coming so…

So, I need to keep my laptop setup so I can work at home (I don’t want to do work-work at the imac) so I need a second desk.  I stumbled into a few interested desks designed for the iMac specifically.

There’s the reasonably priced, sexy as hell, but virtually useless, iGo.

There’s the insanely expensive, well designed, sexy as hell, and just plain old interesting MILK desk.

Then there’s OneLessDesk.  This is killer design, iMac or otherwise.  Lots of real estate, little space.  All sorts of room for mouse and keyboard, but no room for clutter.  Expensive?  Yeah at around 900 bucks a pop, but not cripplingly so.  Will I get one?  Probably not soon, but maybe. 

Before I start, I should make this very clear: I loveliveeatbreath my mac.  The thing just plain old works and works well.  Photoshop starts up in the blink of an eye.

There are, though, still some things I need to figure out.  Little things, like how to switch between multiple windows of Firefox, for example, or how to highlight a complete line of text (which I think is command-shift-arrow).  Just stuff I have to look up.

Its been a long time since I had to learn a new OS, and I have found that the less I try to actively learn, the more I do.  For example, I downloaded a photoshop video that was a split binary file.  I now know how to join those.  Further, the method for installing software on the Mac is somewhat different than on PC and each time I learn a new thing, and get a utility for it, I learn more and more about installing.

The question is, am I learning so quickly by doing, or is OSX just plain old easy.

The one thing I’m dreading is installing Windows through bootcamp.  I know it is just supposed to work.  I know this is all going to be fine.  But I so love the thing that I fear screwing it up.  I dunno, maybe I’ll pass and just invest in a desk for my laptop.

ugh.

I can’t even imagine the size of this problem, if true

I also don’t understand the logic behind the decision that spawned this.  If going to Windows7 means buying all new software, and/or patching code so extensively as to pale the Y2K crisis (and, contrary to the post, I believe it would far exceed Y2K) why does Gates et al. think that anyone would bother staying with the MS product line?  At that point, you are faced with two choices: virtually start over from scratch, or actually start over from scratch.

I have a very hard time believing this is true, but I also have a very hard time believing Vista got released.