I just had my first anniversary.

Last November, I switched from PC to Mac.

Violent MSFT dissent. XP no more. So long, spyware. Etcetera.

Best. Day. Ever.

Launch Day

After a few months of consistent and dedicated whinging, I’d managed to persuade my tech lead that I needed a MacBook Pro to edit video on (and you can see the eventual results). We had plans to make videos to help explain concepts that had thus far been explained by unfriendly, bank statement-esque tables. This is how it turned out:

Justgiving Fees – Explained in Video! from Justgiving on Vimeo.

A month previously we’d been at FOWA ’07, and I remember a different tech lead remarking at just how many Mac laptops were on such wanton display. I think his words were something along the lines of:

Why are there so many fucking macs in here? They’re shit!

Now at this point, it would be dishonest of me to not mention I really wished I had one. Kai and I were idly sipping (Adobe) beer and had a chat with a guy from the Czech Republic who was an agency CEO. I don’t recall the name of the company but he was suitably clad in black and denim. He was speedily tippy-tapping away on a pristine white MacBook. So we asked him why he had a Mac over a PC. He said:

Well. It just works, you know? I open it. It turns on. I can do my work. I send email. I know the battery won’t run out after thirty minutes. I know where everything is. It just feels right, man.

This was the discussion that tipped me over the edge. I had to procure one. It would be life-changing. My workflow would be transformed. I was a Pre-Hardware Fanboy.

So a few weeks later, freshly hungover on a crisp Friday morning, ignoring the behest of the current sysadmin (dude, if you get a Mac, I’m not letting you on the network) we bundled into a black cab and went to the Regent Street Apple Store. The house where dreams come true. The cathedral of chrome. The creative’s temple.

I scampered throughout the store like an over-caffeinated child in a Toys’R'Us. I chose my MBP, I rifled through the accessories, grabbed iWork AND MSOffice, bought a ridiculous bag to put it in, and had the whole lot walloped onto somebody else’s credit card. To those of you who have shared that experience, it’s a special one isn’t it?

We then quickly caught a cab back to base so I could start tinkering.

And this is how it is meant to be. The pure Apple retail experience. I know it sounds weird and simperingly geeky but I’ve since shared other people’s Mac-buying experience and it was perfect. The Apple dude was nice. The shop wasn’t too crazy. The smiles of the store rep, knowing they’ve got another convert.

Now at this juncture, it’s worth making a quick cultural point.

I work for an extremely Microsoft-biased organisation. MSFT is legend around here. We are Windows. I have colleagues who own Microsoft watches, and who think Vista is actually good, and that Windows Media Player is great and Sharepoint is usable and all kinds of other Redmond-related insanity.

Me, I’m an Xbox 360 fan and that’s about as far as it goes.

So the arrival of an Apple computer into such a hostile environment was marked by a combination of apathy, mild derision and claims that it would ‘never be able to get on the network’. Which it did. Really easily.

Me and most of the London tech collective attended the Future of Web Apps conference in a cold and desolate part of docklands this week. I’m going to post a series of thoughts on it over the next week or so.

On the way from crappy hotel to Excel on Friday morning, I shared a bacon sandwich with a guy from Microsoft. They had a booth in the corner of the expo floor with some 360s, a Microsoft Surface table (underwhelming, over-expensive) and some marketing guff about Expression Web, Visual Studio and other bits and bobs. Not a peep about asp.net anywhere to be seen.

He told me that Microsoft came to these events now because they want to be more associated with the web2.0 crowd that attends these shindigs. Working for a Microsoft-driven house, I thought this was interesting, so as we shared the ketchup I picked his brains on a few bits and pieces.

Firstly we talked about Apple evangelism, a bit about the upcoming fall dashboard release for the XBox 360, and we ended up having a long chat about .net and it’s perceived shortcomings in relation to rails, php and other ‘groovier’ frameworks that are evangelised among big tech communities.

I said that MSDN is all well and good for achieving its goals, but compared to php and rails in particular, there is no decent community around asp.net. He readily agreed with me, and I told him that really since they’re the only true commercial framework, it’s their responsibility to nurture a grassroots community of .net evangelists and to help properly showcase some of the good work that’s being done with web apps using MS technology, beyond their shitty PR-heavy press releases.

He totally agreed with me. Hiring .net developers is a great deal trickier than finding a php fanboy. Comparatively, they’re concealed behind a wall of underinformed recruitment consultants and don’t contribute to the same kind of projects as their open source brethren.

They need to sort that out. Let’s hope they do.

More FOWA posts on the way.

Future of Web Apps starts next week. Exciting.

Probably my favourite event of the year, and in 2007 it was partly responsible for helping our team really push forward. Just like a really great conference should.

So here’s my (unashamedly honest) FOWA todo list.

Talk to Kevin Rose without coming across as a babbling fanboy

Steal a Microsoft bean bag

Get at least another ten Twitter followers

Learn amazing stuff from Matt Biddulph

Try not to lock myself out of my hotel room

Find some brilliant UI developers who don’t shrink at the mention of ASP.

Find a really, really talented freelance Facebook developer (or agency)

Don’t lose all my expenses receipts. Again.

Stay awake during the Zuckerberg keynote

Drink lots of Adobe beer. Party.

Are you going? What’s your FOWA strategy? I need more ideas!

Disclaimer: I am totally trying to win this competition.

Back in the wet disappointment that was August 2008, Sophie and I were talking about work stuff over email.

We’d just discovered Ryan Carson’s (of Carsonified and FOWA and wearing-hats fame) fundraising page on Justgiving.

The following exchange happened:

From: Simon Doggett

Sent: 11 August 2008 15:30

To: Sophie De Albuquerque
Shall we make a fuss over Ryan carsons pfp? Could make for some good pr!

On 11 Aug 2008, at 15:54, “Sophie De Albuquerque” wrote:

Good idea.
Very happy to write a blog post this avo…

From: Simon Doggett
Sent: 11 August 2008 16:23
To: Sophie De Albuquerque
Subject: Re: RE:

Tell you what, I can write one today and then you do another one on
Thursday? When he does his headshave?
On 11/08/2008 16:42, “Sophie De Albuquerque”
wrote:

Plan. Do your blogging worst.

Or even (love this)… Blog it, Doggett.
From: Simon Doggett
Sent: 11 August 2008 16:25
To: Sophie De Albuquerque
Subject: Re: RE: RE:

Done. And my retort is:

Well you are over thirty, de Albuquerque.

And that’s where bloggett came from. In contrast, I doubt Sophie is considering blogging at overthirty.com but I guess we shouldn’t rule anything out should we?