Cohost of the TransMissions Podcast. Writer, Blogger, Musician.
I woke up to a fosty morning. It seems last night the clouds parted and everything cooled outside. I started the car and threw on some long johns. I even snapped this picture of my mail box.
I guess summer is offically over. Though it still seems weird to me that things are frosting over in the begining of October.
I normally go home on my lunch brake. I don’t live to far from my office and eating at home is cheaper then going out anyway. Plus, with our run of bad weather people just have not been wanting to go out for lunch as much anyway. So I go home and make myself something to eat and walk the dog and come back to the office.
Well today was a little bit different. I took our dog out for a walk pretty much like normal and we did not make it past my mail box very far when I noticed and brown nose black bear staring at me from the next door neighbors yard. I could tell it was a younger bear but still he was giving me a pretty good stair down. I wanted to run but something inside me just said to keep the dog close and don’t move.
Eventually the bear lost interest and started walking through the neighbors yard and only quickened it’s pace when my dog started barking at it. I pulled out my iPhone and was able to snap a couple of pictures before he hopped a fence across the street and was out of sight.
It was quite a thrill and a shock for me. I have seen bears in Alaska, but never that close. It made me think it’s mother must be around somewere. So the dog and I quickly made our way back to the house.
For most of the summer, the weather here in Juneau has been less then impressive. Cloudy and rainy would be how you could best describe our summer. But this dose not seem to stop people from getting out and doing things. I have seen people jogging and riding their bicycles in the rain. They refuse to let the weather keep them down and out.
Today Hannah and I where running around town getting our errons run for the week when we happened to see a beautiful rain bow show up out of no and wear. Hannah grabbed my iPhone and snapped a quick picture of it before it dissapeard.
Is owning an Apple product a status symbol to people, like owning a thousand dollar suit? This idea was recently presented to me because of the iPhone. The company I work for has been working with iPhones more and more setting them up for our clients. This has basically been the result of AT&T finally coming to Juneau Alaska and making the iPhone available to all the local’s here.
Some of our clients are not hesitating when it comes to getting an iPhone. However others remain skeptical. One case in particular, the owner of one of the companies we service is most reluctant in letting her staff use an iPhone because she feels they are only want one for the “status symbol” is provides.
This caught me off guard a bit. “Status symbol?” I asked myself. I really never looked at it that way. I have used Apple products most of my life because, quite simply, they just work. I never got an Apple computer or device because I wanted be the cool kid on the block. No, I got Apple products because they worked and where easy to use.
For the last several years I have worked in some form of I.T. or another. A vast majority of my time has been addressing issues with Microsoft Windows. I am reminded on a daily bases why I don’t own a Windows based computer. Microsoft pays my bills, plain and simple. When I come home, it’s to a Macintosh based Apple computer that just works. The last thing I want to do at the end of a day (or my weekend for that matter) is spend one moment troubleshooting computers.
But the quesiton here is; are people in Juneau getting iPhones because of the status symble they feel it provides? Maybe, I guess. I can say this, Every iPhone I have setup for a client since AT&T came to Juneau has worked. I have not had one follow up call asking for any kind of assistance at all. To me, that is a mark of a great product. I wish I could say the same about the BlackBerry phones everyone around here used to use.
Rage Against the Machine showed up late and without a permit and did not get to perform, resulting in a crowd protest [Link]
[Adam] and [Jamie] from Mythbusters built a paintball gun with 1100 barrels as some graphics card marketing gimmick. It’s a formidable beast, but we’re sure it takes forever to prep. [Link]
After this press conference to announce Google’s new Web browser, Chrome, Google cofounder Sergey Brin asked BoomTown’s Kara Swisher if she’d try it out. “But you don’t have a Mac version, baby, so no,” Swisher tells him in this clip, excerpted from Swisher’s longer interview. “I know, I know, it’s embarrassing,” says Brin. [Link]
TVSquad.com is reporting that Jeff MacKay has passed away at the age of 60. Known for roles in “Magnum, P.I” and “JAG”, he is perhaps best known to Transformer fans as the voice of the Aerialbot Fireflight in the original 80’s cartoon. [Link]