NiMUG are having their January 2009 meeting tonight. Agenda CrossOver Office- Simon Whittaker to give a demo using Crossover Office on the mac to get outlook/project 2000 etc in a Windows office. He has been a Mac user for about 5 years and uses a MacBook Pro for work and a G4 PowerBook for home. … Continue reading “NiMUG meeting tonight…”
CrossOver Office- Simon Whittaker to give a demo using Crossover Office on the mac to get outlook/project 2000 etc in a Windows office. He has been a Mac user for about 5 years and uses a MacBook Pro for work and a G4 PowerBook for home. He works as the Infrastructure & Hosting Manager for a local company where they use predominantly Windows XP workstations and Windows 2003 servers. He says he loves “the ease of use, stability & security of my mac and have found ways over the years to make my experience of working in a windows environment much easier which I would like to share with others. I am also a strong believer in using open source software where possible and practical.â€
Troubleshooting and Housekeeping – keeping your Mac running during the Credit Crunch!
I’m a little early with this but that’s no bad thing. It’s time to think – to reminisce – and maybe even to plan. Next Monday night, NiMUG will be holding another meeting but this Saturday is much more auspicious. On January 24th Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be … Continue reading “1984”
I’m a little early with this but that’s no bad thing. It’s time to think – to reminisce – and maybe even to plan. Next Monday night, NiMUG will be holding another meeting but this Saturday is much more auspicious.
On January 24th
Apple Computer will introduce
Macintosh
And you’ll see why 1984
won’t be like “1984”
This Saturday is the 25th Anniversary of the Apple Macintosh, heralded by this advert shown during the Superbowl, which has since attained cult status and still wins awards even now. For this advert, Apple hired award-winning director Ridley Scott (best known perhaps for Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) and the result was a a masterpiece.
Like them or love them, you can’t ignore the Macintosh. While I was exposed to the Mac in university, my first own Mac was a second hand LCII. With the under-clocked anaemic processor and a 10MB RAM ceiling, it wasn’t fast (though as I was used to a Mac Classic, it was no slouch). As soon as I could afford it, I upgraded to a Performa 5400, a 180MHz Black monstrosity that provided me with TV as well as the ability to mess with video clips. It also provided me with my first taste of internet at home with it’s 33600 baud softmodem. I remember buying a 64 MB RAM chip for it and it costing over £100 – bringing me to a whopping 80MB. My next machine was the original Bondi iMac – the machine that arguably saved Apple. This was joined a short while later by Pismo, a 400 MHz svelte black PowerBook with a fantastic batter life and it was on this machine that I took my first tentative steps into Mac OS X – Apple twinning a much improved version of their famous GUI with UNIX was a master step – even if some didn’t believe it was ready for prime time – and those guys probably still aren’t happy. I picked up the Public Beta at Apple Expo and never looked back. I migrated later to a 1 GHz Titanium and then to a 1.25 GHz Aluminium PowerBook. Then to a 1.67 GHz Aluminium model before making the jump to a MacBook Pro. The rest is just recent history. I’ve played around with other “Apple” products such as a Quicktake 150, a Newton MessagePad 120 and 2000, umpteen Stylewriters over the years and there was never any doubt that the next machine would be a Mac. And it’s not for lack of choice – I’ve always, since starting my first professional job, had access to the latest Windows, Solaris and Linux – but none of them held the same shine.
While we might be all ga-ga about the iPhone or concerned about our stocks and shares if Apple’s CEO trips and stubs his toe, it’s about time that we considered how the world would be like without the iPhone, the iPod and the Mac.
Apple finishes their press releases with:
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Look at your screen with your windows and buttons, with the rounded corners and overlapping windows. Consider how far we’ve come based on the hard graft of that little company in Cupertino. There’s barely a computer in the world which doesn’t bear the mark of those pioneers in Apple. Others have done admirable work – but they were standing on the shoulders of giants.
“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,†said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
Thanks, Apple. I’ve enjoyed the last few years – here’s to many more.
2008 is beginning to look like the year of the grassroots gathering. Belfast Open Coffee Club (BOCC) has been growing, we just had BarCampBelfast 08 and NiMUG have been having monthly meetings as well. On top of that we’re promised some sort of TechLudd-type meeting towards the end of the year and the XCake people … Continue reading “Someone must stop them…”
2008 is beginning to look like the year of the grassroots gathering.
Belfast Open Coffee Club (BOCC) has been growing, we just had BarCampBelfast 08 and NiMUG have been having monthly meetings as well. On top of that we’re promised some sort of TechLudd-type meeting towards the end of the year and the XCake people will have a meeting by the end of the summer. And lastly, BLUGhave woken up.
With all these geeks meeting and greeting, they’re going to gain social skills!
Andy recently posted that his efforts to build Co-Working Belfast have been bearing fruit as he gets QUB and Belfast City Council on board. For my part, I’ve pledged that Mac-Sys will buy a desk every month and put some loaner kit down there as well to foster mobile types into using it. Co-Working Ireland … Continue reading “Co-Working”
Andy recently posted that his efforts to build Co-Working Belfast have been bearing fruit as he gets QUB and Belfast City Council on board. For my part, I’ve pledged that Mac-Sys will buy a desk every month and put some loaner kit down there as well to foster mobile types into using it.
Co-Working Ireland started over a year ago and I was invited to blog about it. I wrote a few articles there
but not long after I changed jobs (long story) and being office based I’ve not really had the time or opportunity to blog more about it on coworking.ie though I have managed to put some stuff together here in my Bedouin and Co-Working categories.
I’ve got an article in the making for coworking.ie, a year after my last one. Woo-and-hoo!
Just over two years ago, I wrote about Venture Capitalists and how their use these days was not the money but rather their contacts; it was their address book and not their cheque book that entrepreneurs should be interested in and, to this day, I agree. That’s not to say I’d wouldn’t be interested in … Continue reading “Venture Capitalism”
Just over two years ago, I wrote about Venture Capitalists and how their use these days was not the money but rather their contacts; it was their address book and not their cheque book that entrepreneurs should be interested in and, to this day, I agree. That’s not to say I’d wouldn’t be interested in a VC or business angel wanting to help me set up the best co-working place in the world (but I digress).
“VCs generally don’t add that much value beyond cash. They will try to say otherwise. Unless they are famous for adding such value (check Google) they are probably lying. Aside from the fact that they are probably incapable of adding much value, even if they could, VCs are extremely busy managing their portfolio, meeting new companies, dealing with limited partners, etc. If you want your company to succeed, you will really have to do it yourself. Believing that a VC is going to add some incredible value that is going to help make your company is foolhardy.”
That’s almost the opposite of what I said back then and these days I’m inclined to agree. I’ve done enough networking over the last decade to see me through though I’m always interested in meeting new people and listening to new opinions (which is why I’m enamoured with NiMUG, OpenCoffee and other social events).
I’m certainly man enough to admit that I don’t know everything and that there are people that I want to spend more time with just to learn the pearls of wisdom given out so casually (and no, I’ve not met any of them at $BIG_COMPANY.) I’ll also admit that last night, while furiously tapping in code, it dawned on me that I might actually be too old to do anything else entrepreneurial. I had my shot and created a moderately successful company that will likely last a long time but never buy me a sports car. Since then I’ve been too pre-occupied to do much more than plan.
The new plan, after the wedding is all done, is to finish off some things I’ve started. I’ve got half a dozen domains sitting as constant reminders of unfinished work. And the code I’m writing is a means to an end so that I can stop depending on other people to do the graft and start depending on myself. Eating my own dog food so to speak.
“VC’s have been my best friends and my worst enemies, in ways that are not always within my immediate control. In the process, ironically, I have come to respect Venture Capitalist as a profession, which I believe is the least understood if not the most misunderstood. And I am convinced that mistakes I have made with VC’s (eventually turning many of them into my worst enemies) were a result of my inexperience as a CEO compounded by a total lack of understanding of who VC’s are and what they do for a living.”
I’ll be honest. I don’t even like the idea of a Venture Capitalist: I just want the money. Doing stuff on the side just means it remains small fry and you don’t get to realise the big plan that kept you awake until the birds started twittering (presumably from their mobile phones) the next morning. So what do you do? Get in a VC, beg your way through the interviews (trying not to sound like an insufferably arrogant prick) and then be happy with the 3% of equity you retain?
I am amused by how my own opinion has changed over the last two years, borne out of frustration.
NiMUG are having another meeting!. They’re also looking for some Professional Mac users who might want to show off a demo of what they do with their Macs. Or why they use the tools they do. Anyone fancy a few minutes of free advertising? Related posts: It’s a busy week…. NiMUG meeting Monday 24th March … Continue reading “NiMUG Meeting: Monday 18th Feb, 7 pm”
They’re also looking for some Professional Mac users who might want to show off a demo of what they do with their Macs. Or why they use the tools they do.
It was a long time ago that I started NiMUG and for the last three years it’s been somewhat dormant. But tomorrow brings us the first proper NiMUG meeting in a very long time. We have a room. Hired from Windsor Lawn Tennis Club in Belfast. We have a projector. Kindly donated by Mac-Sys Ltd … Continue reading “Northern Ireland Mac User Group meeting tomorrow in Belfast.”
It was a long time ago that I started NiMUG and for the last three years it’s been somewhat dormant. But tomorrow brings us the first proper NiMUG meeting in a very long time.
We don’t have an agenda. Tomorrow is just the meet and greet. It’s designed to get things started, see what numbers we can generate and otherwise get the ball rolling. For future meetings I’ve had pledges of demos from quite a few people, and demo pledges are very welcome!!!