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May 01, 2005
A New Chapter Begins
Right about now one of my coworkers is handing over production of our Online Reports to a new group in Canada.
In July of 1998 I moved from working in the Television group to the Online Desk. It has been six of the best years in my professional life. I got to do everything from editing content to creating graphics to writing software and designing entire systems for the creation and delivery of content. I've worked with big and small clients, I've helped other groups within the company, and all the while doing this with a fun group of people.
Tomorrow is their last day in this job.
I am certain of one thing, and only one thing: these people, these coworkers, these friends of mine, they are starting a new journey that will take them places they have been wanting to go. None of them will be left wanting, none of them will find it too difficult to find a job. I'm also starting a new job, in another division. But I'm still left saddened and a little morose.
I couldn't have done it all these years without them. Some, I'd never seen before my stint on the desk. Others I'd worked with across jobs and companies. A dozen years here, eight there, and five here... It adds up to real time. Real friendships.
At work, we always had a fun atmosphere. They made the bad days bearable and the good days great. They helped guide me professionally and they were there when I needed someone to guide me personally.
The hardest part is not that they will be without jobs -- I don't think they will be for long. The hardest part is knowing that most of them are leaving. To be sure, we'll stay in touch, but it's not the same.
It saddens me to see this happen. It saddens me to know the laughter and the poke-poke-poking won't be there. But, to each and every one of you, I salute you, my friends.
Thanks for the many great years, and here's to many more.
Posted by Samer at 10:45 PM | Comments (2)
Tiger
So, Tiger has been out for a couple of days. I don't own it -- yet. I will, and the reasons are many.
The technologies behind the new operating system are, simply stated, big moves. Apple has essentially identified really granular things that the OS should be doing and moved them where they belonged. They've finally made APIs available to developers that won't be broken in the next OS release. They've opened up major technologies for easier access by developers. And they have laid the ground work for even more innovative programs and features in future releases.
Apple could spend the next two or three OS release cycles leveraging everything that Tiger is introducing under the hood. And that's why I will spend the money, and recommend anyone else spend the money, on an upgrade. This isn't a small performance boost and it isn't improvements meant to make the OS more stable and more usable (though those are there). This is, conceptually, as big a leap under the skin as was OS 9 to OS 10.
I could go on and on about the changes but, lucky for me, John Siracusa over at Ars Technica already has. In an impressive dissection of Tiger, Siracusa takes you into the guts of the new OS, as well as showing you the new applications and user interfaces. He digs under the hood and provides the reasons for speed improvements and shows all the building blocks that have to go together to make those new technologies work.
I know it is very long, sometimes rather technical and often preachy, but it is worth every minute you spend reading it. The future is there, it has to be harnessed.
Posted by Samer at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)
Not Enough Time
So, I know I promised you all updates about my trips to London and Iceland, but I've been really swamped. I've got too many things going on, I'm partly too depressed to do much writing, and I'm certainly not in a happy place to go through all the happy pictures I had planned on posting.
It sucks, but I will get to them. Just not in the next couple of weeks. I'm off to Toronto for a couple of days, mid-week.
Posted by Samer at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)