Category: Macintosh

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Further Insights Courtesy Of Apple Training

  • PETA’s protestations notwithstanding, monkeys are funny and automatically add to any advertisements they grace. Case in point: Trunk Monkeys. I have got to get me one of those.
  • Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie absolutely nails the tech support experience.

What’s this have to do with Apple? Precious little, other than the fact that our instructor shows a brief clip or two to start off each afternoon’s session.
Heh. “Trunk Monkey”.

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Lessons Learned At Apple Training (Thus Far)

  1. Apple: good company, compelling technology, horrible coffee.
  2. LDAP: Basis of distributed OpenDirectory setups, difficult to understand, even more difficult to navigate using commandline tools. Use LDapper instead.
  3. Powerbooks: worth their weight in gold.
  4. Steve Jobs must love that Apple logo, ’cause it’s on everything here.
  5. Those 30″ Apple Cinema Displays? Drool-worthy at no less than 50 paces.
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The View From The Road

I’m on travel this week in Reston, VA attending an Apple OpenDirectory training course. My job description doesn’t call for much travel and so this has been an adventure of sorts.
I picked up my rental car from Avis yesterday afternoon – a newish grey Chevy Malibu with Texas plates. My wife must be wearing off on me, because I had a definite sense of vicarious pride to be driving a Southbound car with TX tags, I tell you whut.
I’ve not had a chance to drive the newer Malibu prior to this and I have to say, it’s making me miss my old GM cars. There’s just something about the design of my accursed Taurus that rubs me the wrong way. The car is nice and it seems to get great gas mileage, particularly for a V6.
The trip down was surprisingly brisk, despite all the dire predictions of those at work experienced in the Philly to DC Metro drive. It took all of around 3.5 hrs, which was just fine with me. The bulk of the traffic seemed to be headed in the opposite direction which doesn’t bode well for my return journey, but that’s a bridge I’ll have to cross Friday, I guess.
The class has been going well – I’m really learning quite a bit and I do believe the knowledge acquired is going to come in quite handy as we try to reign in the wayward Macs.
I’ve noticed that this area of Virginia has more than its fair share of corporate office plazas, with quite a few tall buildings being occupied by many representatives of Fortune 500 companies. I’ve also noticed that there seems to be a great number of young couples with young children in the area, at least if the populations obtaining sustenance at McDonalds, Chic Fil A and Baja Fresh are any indication.
It’s time to hang it up for the night, though. There’s unrestricted access to the ‘net from the classroom via a nice Airport hotspot courtesy of Apple, so hopefully I’ll be able to toss off a couple of posts in between class sessions tomorrow.
G’night.