Update on the Apple Battery Scandle of 2007

So if you haven't been keeping up with my blog (I am not sure why you would) it appears as though my Apple MacBook Pro battery had some serious issues.

The battery was either unable to charge or not keeping a charge. This was on a MacBook Pro from November 2006, so a fairly recent MacBook.

I went to the Apple Store in the Cherry Creek Mall this weekend and had their "Genius" take a look at it. He was very cool, tried a few things, replaced the battery and voila it worked.

I really fault Apple for not doing a proper job on their manufacturing and product development. The battery is not a product that Apple makes themselves (at least I certainly hope not) so this is really a case of mismanagement and just bad process.

It's been clear to everyone that Apple did a very quick turnaround when moving to Intel. I questioned whether or not it was possible or prudent to move so quickly. I think all of the manufacturing bugs and firmware issues are probably likely consequences of making that move so quickly.

Quality Problems and Grand Thinking (without execution) were hallmarks of the era prior to Steve Jobs and were the main reasons that Apple brought Steve back to Apple and forced John Scully out. Let's hope that this recent set of issues isn't a sign of things to come for Apple.

Windows (on the Mac) - a review

I have been running Windows on my Mac since I first got my Macbook back in May 2006.

AMD IT requires me to use Windows and Internet Explorer for a number of critical functions (expense reporting/Ariba purchasing manager) and access to our internal IT helpdesk. I rarely need IT help, but I do love having my expenses paid.



Apple Bootcamp
Apple released this as Beta software last year in time for the Macbook launch. With Bootcamp you create a partition on your HD and boot into _either_ Mac OSX _or_ Windows.

I find this to be the less optimal solution only because I am using a Mac to enjoy Mac OSX. This also means that I have to move between OS environments in a pretty painful way should I need something that's Mac-bound.



VMWare Fusion for the Mac
This is my preferred environment for running Windows on my Mac. I actually have it installed on my Macbook Pro and it runs awesome. I must admit that I have "worked from home" a couple days simply because I enjoy using my Macbook Pro so much and having it able to run an AMD version of Windows makes it the best of both worlds.

After VMWare announced pricing on Monday I went ahead and "pre-ordered" a copy. After working in software as long as I have, I usually know better than to pre-order. For VMWare Fusion I want to make an exception! $39.99 is a steal for technology as good as VMWare pumps out.

I am not sure if VMWare is yet using the Intel VT virtualization technology thats enabled in hardware. If it is indeed using hardware enabled virtualization then the performance hit from running a simultaneous copy of Windows/Mac OSX should be very minor.


Parallels
I have not yet run Parallels product for the Mac but from what I hear its pretty competitive to VMWare. That being said I don't know anyone at Parallels currently and the VMWare guys are on a pretty good roll with Fusion.

The one thing I can say in support of Parallels is that they are indeed using the hardware enabled virtualization at the processor level. As processor level enhancements for virtualization improve the world may come down to how well you take advantage of the hardware enhancements provided to you.


Steve Jobs: please consider letting us users CHOOSE to use AMD processors for our solutions.
That is a totally selfish request because I would like to use my Mac all the time! You set Safari free to exist among multiple platforms, let your OS do the same!

Entitlement: remember your place in the world

I am convinced there is a natural tendency to feel entitled. This sense of entitlement is silly and we should avoid/mitigate it while we can.

I was out at a bar this evening with one of my friends. During the day we had been chatting and he mentioned how excited he was that he was finally getting a work laptop from his high tech company. Apparently this took some kind of action from a VP.

Naturally when I first heard this excitement I blew it off. I had "assumed" that most companies offer employee's laptops as part of the hiring process for any type of "knowledge worker" position.

After driving home from the office today (my laptop safely tucked into its carseat) I realized how much computing power was going to waste on me and various other "knowledge workers". Here I have a nice new Fujitsu Lifebook (complete with a nice AMD Turion mobile processor) but I also have a Blackberry and then at home I have my Apple Macbook Pro.

With all of this power I am going to do a grand total of 5 tasks this evening:

1. Email / Calendaring (Microsoft Outlook)
• I check my mail daily in the evening and clean up loose ends
• Checking / Printing my Calendar for when I travel
  
2. Powerpoint (Microsoft PowerPoint)
• Reviewing a preso being used for a meeting with strategic customers
• Writing my 2H2007 goals and plan
  
3. Uploading pictures from a flight excursion I took a couple weeks ago with friends
4. Blog something
5. Do my expense reports and organize the receipts
   

Do I really need such powerful technology from my laptops with the complete functionality they provide? I say no, what I really need is a properly developed ecosystem of "thin" edge devices that provide me with gateways into resources of very powerful technology stacks that are managed by someone else.

The wave of thin and managed client solutions is coming fast. Citrix and the Windows Terminal Server world have ruled the software side of the thin client for sometime with a great deal of innovation happening at the server layers. When you mentioned "Thin Client Hardware" to me last year all I could tell you about was the Wyse boxes I had seen.

In 2007/2008 we will be seeing the actual "client" innovation start to show up from the likes of Teradici, Microsoft and VMWare. AMD has been in the "thin client" game for quite some time with our Geode processor line. I can promise you that we are working hard to make sure we provide solutions to empower this market.

With a software infrastructure enhancing the client side to work with new layers of hardware form factor there should come a day where user's don't feel an entitlement to have the latest and greatest processors sitting on their desk and instead can trust those computing resources to be distributed appropriately to data centers and left in the hands of IT Professionals.

Let's face it, for most of us the most complicated technology we really need is our Blackberry and our TiVo.

Kyle's Raspberry Infused Vodka

Seems people actually liked this batch so here was the very simple recipe


(1) Use Effen Vodka
-> get a good sized bottle, find some friends and drink up

(2) Once you are finished drinking the real vodka (bottle_1) go buy another bottle (bottle_2)

(3) Use bottle_1 from step 1 and fill it with raspberries you washed

(4) Stick the "new" Bottle of Effen (bottle_2) in the Freezer

(5) Stick bottle_1 filled with raspberries into freezer
--> throw a party and use the remains of bottle_2 ;-)
--> save this bottle, its important

(5) Wait a day then take the vodka in bottle_2 and pour it over the raspberries in bottle_1

(6) Leave this out for a day and let the raspberries melt into the Vodka

(7) Alternate moving the bottle from freezer to room temp every other day for a week

(8) When ready to drink use a coffee filter or strainer and a funnel to remove anything like seeds from the vodka

(9) Throw a party and make good cosmo's and teach your friends that YES they can drink Vodka straight up over ice