If I may, I would like to take a moment to voice my frustration. Not with anything particularly important. But frustration nonetheless.

Usually, I’m a big fan of competition between business. It usually leads to lower prices and better products and I’m all about that. (Come on wireless providers, someone take the plunge into affordable wireless PC connections!). But sometimes, companies that compliment each other well and together offer something great, do something stupid. Like trying to deliver the whole package themselves.

See, like people, companies are often good at one thing, while being weaker at something else. Hence wonderfully symbiotic business relationships. But, when those companies decide they want to compete with each other, rather than work together, I, the customer, lose!

Who else could I be talking about besides Apple Computers and Google.

 

I’m a huge fan of both of these companies. Apple does the whole personal computers and handheld devices really, really well. And Google does pretty much everything internet really, really well. Maps, docs, calendars, wave, voice? Hello! It’s freakin’ amazing. Google’s integration on the iPhone couldn’t be any more convenient. Google is even Safari’s default search engine. Of course, because that’s the search engine we all use and love.

But now, Google has gone and done something stupid. They decided they wanted to make their own browser (Chrome, which is pretty great), and their own OS (also Chrome, which is kind of a joke), their own mobile OS (Android, which the jury is still out on) and now their own branded handset which goes head to head with the iPhone (the Nexus One). By the way, did you know that Google doesn’t have call centers ready to answer people’s questions about their products? Yeah, even the $500 Nexus One handset. And of course, now customer service satisfaction is at a dismal low. Probably because it doesn’t exist.

(Interestingly enough, you know who does have call centers and one of the highest customer service rankings anywhere? Apple Computers.)

Of course, Google couldn’t just stick with what it was actually good at. Instead, they had to move into this whole new realm of physical devices and thereby forcing Apple to make other plans. (Possibly even with Microsoft!)

Now, Apple has bought a maps related company. Presumably in anticipation of edging Google Maps off their devices in the future. And, there’s even talk of replacing Google as the default search with Bing. Bing! Are you freaking kidding me? I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s what the rumor sites are saying. That steaming pile of crap they call a search engine is not what I want to use. I want to use GOOGLE!

And seriously, Apple, are you going to send thousands of camera equipped vans all over the world to give us street views for your maps application? No! Of course not! You’re product isn’t widely adopted enough!

Ugh!

So, Apple—please don’t be afraid of Google. Continue to embrace what they do well and give us what we want. Integration with Google and it’s horde of amazing products.

Google—Your web stuff is awesome. But your whole cloud computing, netbook, ChromeOS thing isn’t going to work out unless you also plan to give everyone dedicated, 100% internet. I spend too much time away from a wifi hotspot. ChromOS, useless. Stick to what you do well and don’t run my mobile computing experience into the ground by making other great companies choose lesser solutions.

Microsoft—Just start over completely.

In Conclusion

Competition isn’t always good.

This rant has been brought to you by my frustrations with the unfolding situation between Apple and Google. Now that it’s out of my system, hopefully it won’t come up again any time soon.

To continue briefly in yesterday’s line of discussion (last time, I promise!), here is a short video from the grand opening of the first Microsoft retail store. Look familiar? Lets just say, ‘case and point’.

(Can’t see it? Watch the video at YouTube)

Let me take a brief detour from the type of thing I normally write about here to talk about something else. Before I start, I will say that I don’t write as a pro-Mac user (although I am one), I write as an anti-Microsoft user. In other words, Mac or not, I don’t care. My agenda is not for Mac, it’s against Microsoft. That’s it.

Microsoft is a terrible company, making mediocre products, continuing to exist solely because of it’s size—and the user ends up suffering for it.

With the exception of the xBox 360, Microsoft has never made a truly top-notch product. Most have been passable, but always playing catch up to competitors technology. But because of it’s visibility and novice user’s lack of operating system options in the PC marketplace, no one realizes it.

Did people stick with Windows XP for ten years because it was the best? Definitely not. It’s just all that was really available. Meanwhile, developers for Linux suits and Mac OS were continually putting out enhancements to its software to improve user experience. Of course, Linux is filling a smaller, lesser known market. It was happening nonetheless.

So how come in a competition based economy, the inferior product Microsoft makes is able to stand? I submit that it’s about 80% size.

Think of it like the thick-headed quarterback on a small town high-school football team. Even though he’s dumb and for all intents and purposes shouldn’t be passing his classes, he is because he’s the quarterback.

With its usual line of products, Windows should’ve fallen behind and off the map a long time ago. But because if the size of the company and its resources, it isn’t able to fail. Meaning Microsoft never really has to work to develop a truly great product because it’s never really in danger of losing to another business. Instead, they can wait three or four years, take good ideas off other companies, implement them with dazzling mediocrity  and the media will praise them for their innovation.

In this way, it becomes virtually impossible for the novice to average user to get a really great product unless they’re able to pay premium prices for a Mac—which, as much as I love them, is simply out of some people’s price range. This shouldn’t have to be the case. And, if there were real competition, it probably wouldn’t be.

So, come on people, let’s do ourselves a favor and let Microsoft die.

I don’t really ever play video games. I have an xbox 360, but it only gets my attention for about 45 minutes once ever couple months. Most people would probably call that a good thing. Well, in this case it actually turned out to be the problem.

See, I signed up for xbox Live about six months ago. (In case you’ve been under a rock for the past three years, xbox Live is the online is the online multiplayer subscription service offered by Microsoft). The subscription costs about eight bucks a month. A comparatively small sum. I signed up for the service thinking that I might play online with friends. This never happened.

Several months went by. I didn’t use the service. Instead the system collected dust. At one time I attempted to cancel the service, but I couldn’t find a way to do so in the xbox menu. So, I gave up, rationalizing the purchase by thinking perhaps I’ll decide to play in the future. This of course never happened.

Fast foreword to today.

I was going through some general lifestyle cleanup. Taking care of old papers, cleaning out drawers and cabinets. And, coming upon the xbox, cancelling an unused expenditure.

So, I called Microsoft to cancel the account. They asked for the usual information. Name, email, username, last four digits of the credit card used for billing. I gladly gave them all of these, but they couldn’t get into my account. It would seem that somehow I didn’t have the credit card anymore.

I became increasingly frustrated with the billing representative as she basically said, “If you can’t give us those numbers, we can’t cancel the account”. I was pretty steamed. So I asked for her supervisor. Which, in fact, just proved to be a reboot to the whole process. Eventually, I let her have it. All of my frustration with the corporate system (and likely pent up rage against Microsoft over the years) spilled out at this poor woman on the phone.

I felt justified in my lashing out. At least until I caught a subtle tone in the woman’s voice. Something like, “I really am trying as hard as I can here and I’m frustrated too, just stop yelling at me”. I know, it’s impressive that I could pick that all out of a tone. But it’s the truth it was all there. Suddenly, I felt pretty bad.

It also happened to be at this moment that the woman came across an account that was almost exactly like mine, except missing a letter. She asked what password I signed up with. When I confirmed it she was able to see all of my information.

To my horror, I discovered that I had given her none of the right information in order to look up my account. Why? Because when I signed up months ago, I used false information. Not even a real address. The problems in the billing department couldn’t have possibly been more clearly my fault. Once this was done, she sped through the cancellation process. She asked if I needed anything else, then jumped quickly into a closing script that concluded with a the phone hanging up.

I wanted to apologize. I wanted to explain my frustration and tell her that it was wrong of me to have lost my temper with her.

But it ended too quickly and I didn’t get a chance to say it.

It’s too late now to express my regret. But it was indeed a shot in the arm from my nemesis in the software world. Humility is a bitter pill—with any luck I won’t need to take it for something like this again!

I know that it’s been a few days since I’ve written anything of any real consequence. I suppose I just have quite a few posts like these to work out of my system.

Yesterday, I was watching television at a friend’s house. A commercial for PC’s kept coming on. The concept was simple: a computer shopper would be given the challenge to find a good computer for under $1500. If they could find it, they’d be given the money to buy the computer.

Here’s the commercial:

This commercial got me thinking. It’s interesting that a company as huge and powerful as Microsoft is going through all this trouble to deliberately combat this tiny little competitor called Apple Computers. It’s a bit curious. Apple must really have them nervous.

Well, in light of all this, I thought I’d share my top five reasons I love my Mac way more than I ever loved my PC—and why you would too.

There are no secrets. I spent a pretty penny on my Mac. It’s a maxed out 15” , unibody, Macbook Pro, on which I spent about $1900. My old PC was a Toshiba laptop which came from Best Buy and cost about $1600 at the time. Among the most impressive machines at the sales floor.

So, here we go.

1. Consistency: why should time change anything?

I’ve had my Mac now for about six months. With very little deliberate preventative action, it’s running just about as smooth and clean today as it did the day it showed up in the mail. I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve had to restart my Mac and I’ve never actually turned it off.

By the time I got to six months on my PC, I’d already had to restore it to factory defaults and sent it away for repair.

2. I don’t see anything I don’t need to see.

I was PC user all my life. I grew up learning to use them and I worked as a tech for an internet service provider for several years. I’ve also built more personal computers than I can remember. I know a lot more than most about what my computer is doing and why.

So, when my PC would feed me dialogue after dialogue of questions about permissions, or firewalls, or error codes, or warnings, or whatever, I knew the language and it was okay. I dismissed them and moved on. But not everyone is so fortunate. My mother, for example, is quickly overwhelmed by them—usually driving her away from the machine altogether.

My Mac doesn’t show me what I don’t need to see. 95% of the dialogues I was seeing weren’t crucial enough to interrupt my work. And the 5% that are crucial enough, can be written in plain, human language, that anyone can understand.

My Mac won’t annoy me, and it won’t scare off the novice user.

3. Windows actually runs better on my Mac.

VirtualBox by Sun Microsystems is free software that will allow you to run Windows inside your Mac. I mean inside. It runs Windows as if it were an actual program inside MacOS. You can even flip between applications as if they were running on the same system. It’s pretty remarkable.

But, what’s even more remarkable is that Windows running inside my MacOS system is actually running a lot faster than it ever did on it’s own dedicated machine. And my non-windows applications running in MacOS barely suffer. I can still use Photoshop and surf the net and listen to music without a hiccup.

4. The hardware.

By Apple’s own admission, their really a hardware company (which unfortunately could be their Achilles heel eventually). And, it just so happens that their innovations are simply brilliant. Little things go a very long way.

For example, the power adapter is magnetic. Get it close enough to the power port and it sucks itself into the right place. Not to mention it saves you the worry of the machine getting pulled off a table when someone trips on the wire. Or how about the wire itself? It’s made of soft rubber that doesn’t remember it’s shape so it’s not as messy.

Or the track-pad. It’s nice and big and the whole things a button. There’s a camera built into every screen, standard. And I’m not worried about breaking the CD drive when I use it as a cup holder.

The hardware couldn’t seem less technical or less threatening. There’s no mysterious buttons or switches. (My Toshiba had at least three).

5. It’s designed for me!

I read an article today discussing the upcoming Windows 7, which I think Microsoft better get right or else they’ll be in real hot water. Here’s a quick excerpt from the article.

“Windows’ dominance relies heavily on third-party software developers who keep churning out compelling new programs. To give those developers as many options as possible for reaching PC users, through the years, Windows spawned confusingly redundant features…”

This is exactly the ideology that makes the Windows experience so comparatively poor (although, with nothing to compare it to, most people don’t even know).

If I hired someone to build a house for me, I would want them to build it so that I will enjoy living in it. I want rooms that make sense to me the way that I live. The last thing I want is for the developer to be thinking about all the possible things IKEA might want to manufacture.

Microsoft has apparently been thinking about IKEA, Apple has been thinking about me.

The Mac system is smooth, comfortable, intuitive and natural. Most PC users when switching, have a little trouble getting used to the new system. Not because it’s actually hard, but because they’re thinking too hard.

6. The bundled software.

When I bought my Toshiba, It had so much crap on it, I can’t believe it. I mean, seriously, there were easily a dozen programs starting up. None of them were particularly well designed and all of them were eventually uninstalled. To this day, I’m not even sure what some of them did.

This is the experience of a whole lot of people buying new PC’s. There’s just so much crap you didn’t ask for and almost all of it sucks. (Best Buy offered to remove it for me, but it would cost $60. Really?)

This experience tainted my expectations of my Mac. I thought that bundled software had to be junk. Not so on the Mac. iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, Garage Band, so on and so forth—this really is world class software. It’s powerful and really easy to use.

Where most bundled software just slows things down and confuses users, the Mac bundled software is, in itself, a reason to love the computer even more.

7. Third-Party software is usually better, too.

I used to worry that if I switched to a Mac I’d have trouble finding software to do all the stuff I wanted to do, because it’s no secret, there aren’t as many people developing for Mac as their are for PC.

But, you know what I learned? Where there might be 10 programs available on PC—usually one one of them is actually any good. On the Mac, there might only be one program available, but it’s usually great. With only two exceptions (out of dozens) this has been my consistent experience.

There are applications and widgets for almost everything you could ever want to do and they’re usually as intuitive and easy to use as the MacOS system itself.

8. The workflow.

Whether you’re a professional or not, when you use a computer you have a workflow. Always, there’s no way around it. Where Windows feels like manipulating a machine, MacOS feels like an organic interaction.

For example, people complain that some Macintosh screens are too small. If you were operating Windows, you’d be absolutely right. But not so with a Mac. Your screen may only have 13 inches to work with, but MacOS gives you as many desktop spaces as you want and switching between them doesn’t even require clicking. It’s as easy as a flip of the wrist. Before you know it, you won’t even realize the screen is 13 only inches.

Or, take this for example, in Windows, if you want to open a program you navigate a menu and find it. Or if you want to modify your desktop image or sound preferences, you go through the control panel and find the right dialogue and have to remember to press “apply”.

On a Mac, you don’t even touch your mouse. Anything and everything you want is as simple as press Command+Space (they’re right next to each other) and typing the first few letters. And, with free software like QuickSilver, it’s even easier.

the Workflow doesn’t stop there, either. I just don’t have the time or ambition to go into all of them.

In Conclusion

It’s all about the experience. And it’s not even necessarily that Mac is that great (although it is excellent)—It’s more that Windows is that bad and it’s not healthy to stay in such abusive relationships.

I’m not married to Mac. If Windows 7 came out and it really was a huge leap in software development that left Mac in the dust, I’d have no reservations about going back to Windows. But, this hasn’t been Microsoft’s character in over a decade. I don’t see why it’d be different now.

Mac is indeed trendy. And, it’s definitely an aesthetic statement. But, it also happens to be the best computing environment available right now and probably for some time to come. With more-than capable Notebooks selling at $1000 and family desktop computers at just $600 Mac really is the best choice, even for most budget computer shoppers.

It’s unfortunate though really, most PC users won’t realize the huge benefits of a Mac until they’ve actually switched over. A quick demo at Best Buy is only going to confuse and frighten them because it takes more time than that to forget the abuse suffered at the hands of Microsoft Windows and learn to trust again.

But take it from me, it’s worth the leap. Life is better on a Mac.

I don’t usually use this blog as a sounding board for frustration with trivial matters, but today, there isn’t much else I can bring myself to think about.

There are three things I need my computer to do:

2. Run Photoshop
3. Don’t throw a temper tantrum

For some inscrutable reason, mine won’t do either. Frankly, I’m not surprised. It spends more time not doing what it’s supposed to be doing than otherwise. Every six months some computer component demands some decent chunk of money from me. About once in every four times that demand is made, I nearly lose sensitive information and lots and lots of time attempting to correct the problem, or at the very least to damage control.

It seems that this will be no exception. You see, last week, one of my hard drives started to click. Now, for those of you who don’t know what that means, I won’t explain. I’ll just say this: it’s a very bad sign. Something like your computer physically screaming, “the British are coming, the British are coming!”

So I responded tactfully, I went online and purchased replacement hard drives. I also purchased an external hard drive to run automatic backups of the important files. Wise thinking, if I do say so myself. Of course, I was kidding myself to think this would go over smoothly. There’s no way. It’s never happened in the past and it’s certainly not going to happen now.

I installed my new drives today. The computer has come to a standstill. It still starts up, but has become quite useless. Like a body rejecting an organ transplant. The computer just sits there looking ill and being totally unproductive. My best efforts cannot seem redeem her.

There is little doubt in my mind that this has something to do with Microsoft. I run a shotty Windows XP 64-bit, which it turns out is the pinnacle of incompatibility a poor planning. When software runs, it’s amazing. When it runs without error, it’s a miracle. Now, who would have thought that this great new Windows XP 64-bit system would have trouble with a few minor hard drive upgrades?

I will say it again. Microsoft is a joke. They make a joke product and if it weren’t so expensive for user’s to switch platforms, they’d be out of business. I’m getting a Mac, the first chance I get. Scratch that, I’m getting two.

UPDATE: Thanks to a helpful reader the iCal link and public google calendar are both now up to date. Unfortunately though, the Microsoft Scheduler link is dead now. So, it’s been removed. Happy studying folks!

A few days back, a friend of mind posted a blog talking about the value of using a bible reading plan. It’s correct to assess that this generation does not embrace the bible reading plan quite like some of the older generation. It’s true that many, if not most, look on the idea of a bible reading plan with distaste. We tend to see it as inorganic (oh, God forbid) or unauthentic.

As if the only value of God’s word is found when you spontaneously come across some incredible revelation amongst candles and finger-paints.

How do I know this? Because I’m less than a year out of those waters.

I see now the great potential value of a plan for reading the bible. God’s word is God’s word and it behooves us to listen to it regularly. Among the most important lessons I’ve learned so far as a Christian is that consistent bible reading is an absolute must. Even if it’s only one chapter a day. It’s absolutely imperative that a believe be daily in the word.

A bible reading plan can either be a great stumbling block or an incredible encouragement and source of motivation and accountability. Unfortunately, most bible reading plans fall, for the average person, into the former category.

A reading plan for the rest of us

Where most bible reading plans err is in the failure to acknowledge people as inconsistent creatures. We have times of great devotion and consistency and other times of utter failure. In the right conditions any bible reading plan can provide excellent structure to keep a believer organized and on track. But in most hands, folks get discouraged when they miss a day and fall behind then the sheer size of the bible scares them away from picking it back up right away.

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan takes that into consideration.

DJBRP (whew; long acronym) is an standard reading plan, with readings each day from the Old Testament, poetry, Gospels and Epistles and gets you through the whole bible in one year.

What makes it different though is that each month only has scripture assigned to 25 days. The rest of the days are left blank in order to encourage people not to walk away. If you find that you’ve fallen behind, Didn’t have time for some reason, or by chance, were taken hostage, there are several extra days so you don’t fall any more behind.

For many (including me), that’s just the little extra nudge of encouragement they might need to stick with it.

I started using the plan a short while back and it’s been an excellent mix of scripture. I find that the assigned reading ends up being right around 20 minutes. What’s also nice is the Gospel and Epistle readings are granular in size, but contain much more in a small space than you’d imagine when you slow down and take it bite by bite.

Some extras make DJ ultra convenient and easy to use

DJ is available in a few different ways making it very easy to keep track of where you are and where you’re supposed to be. Here are five.

PDF Format
Designed to be printed on two sides of one sheet of paper. Stick it in your notebook.

Online
Keep track of where you are on this website.

iCal File
Load your calendar into you iCal or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Public Google Calendar
This one here is my handy work. If you use google calendar or gmail, you can susbcribe to the calendar and get daily notifications on what the daily reading is. It’s pretty sweet.

So get on with it!

This an excellent plan that I (and apparently John Piper) are using. Through it, the Word of God stands to transform you. So get on with it; lets see what God will say to us when we listen!