Fusion- Week 1

I work in a very microsoft dominant environment. Being one of a few Mac guys in a PC habitat can present some challenges.

I've overcome most of those through the use of a couple of Automator scripts to help mount network drives. Recently though everyone went to office 2007.

So I needed a solution for playing elegantly in their world. After all the remainder of the organization are my clients. I have to interface with them in the way they expect it.

After reading several reviews and seeing a great comparison chart in MacWorld (May 2007) it looks like VMWare's Fusion is the way to go.

We installed it last week and I've been trying to make the change over. Here are my notes as of week one:

• It is amazing to be able to have a full version of windows alongside my native Mac apps.
• It is giving me a lot of functionality that I had lost being siloed on a Mac
• The program runs quickly and I haven't had a single crash yet (even though it's running windows) PS-- I went to send an email while typing this... It crashed.
• I love that it can see all my peripherals including all my drives and anything plugged into a USB outlet.
• Unity mode adds a cool element that allows me to use Expose to view ALL windows open, instead of looking at a window within a window.
• Drag and drop has worked pretty well. Dragging an attachment from an email to the desktop is a little buggy.
• One negative- It is chugging my system down. I typically have the entire Adobe CS3, Entourage, Stickies, Itunes, Ichat and FireFox open at all times. My system (2.33 core duo with 3G of RAM) usually handles that effortlessly. Since installing fusion it's been a challenge when working with large files.
• One other thing making the switch challenging is email. It doesn't look first at my contact list so I can't just start typing and it picks up the name. Sure that can be changed in some option menu.

Overall I like it. It's working pretty well and it allows me to function the way I need to, without an additional computer. I'll keep you updated on whether or not I can make the switch. I'm still keeping entourage close by and reaching for it often.

_sl

My take

Viral marketing is the most powerful. If you can't get your own people to proselytize their friends towards your product back away from the marketing. You should start to investigate your product instead of your communications.

Reactions?

God thinks he's funny

In case you didn't know it's blistering down here. It's been around the one hundred mark for some time. Today it's 95.

So, it made sense when I came back in from lunch knowing that I would have to leave again quickly that I left my windows down.

When I turned my car back I was greeted by the sound of static. My FM transmitter was gone. They took the ipod too.

First thing when I sat down at my desk this popped up. God's funny. In all things praise him. Whoever took it needs an ipod more than me.

First Impressions

I saw this as I was driving the other day. This was a small church near my home.

Question is what should a church marquee say? What should it communicate?

I'd love to get feedback then I'll put up a post on a couple of my thoughts.

What do you think?

A couple of months ago on Friday at 3:00 p.m. I got a request for a design, for that weekend.
The event was an evening of worship with the them of a disturbance. That as Christians we would be a disturbance to the status quo around us. The impetus for positive change.

I laid out the card quickly and showed it to a few people. One designer that I respect a lot responded with, "that's really disturbing, in a good way."

So what do you think?

What I learned from Giants and Spiders.

How much do you have to do today? How full is your calendar? How many tasks are there in your inbox? Okay, now the tough one, how many emails will you have to ignore today because there isn't enough time?

If you know me at all lately you know that the answers to some of those questions for me would be unbelievable. Write down all the things you've done over the last five years. All the brainstorming sessions, tasks, errands, and projects. Now do those over the next three months. That's pretty much been me.

I told my supervisor, Randy, the other day that some days it feels like all of these plates are spinning and you have to select which one you're going to let fall. Some days you just know you're going to need some new plates. But in my field that isn't an option. A plate is a relationship and those can't be bought.

This is the stress level I've been living with lately. It's manifested itself in my relationships and in my body. My wife is amazing. She is so supportive but some days she just looks at me and doesn't know what to do.

All this climaxed this weekend. Through a set of circumstances that I was unable to control (not that I couldn't but just wasn't able to) I was left heartbroken, or at least just broken. I wrote my resignation (I'm not turning it in, it was just a creative exercise to get some stuff out).

The next night my family watched the movie Facing the Giants. I've heard from many people that they felt the turning point of the movie was a scene were the coach encouraged a player to finally give his 100% towards the team effort. To not give up. The player achieved more than he thought he could.

That may well have been the climax but certainly not the turning point. The turning point was the night before. The coach completely in despair, did the only thing he knew. He turned to God. In what was an amazing scene his wife wakes up and sees and empty pillow beside her. She looks up to see her husband in his study reading. She turns, gets on her knees and prays.

Oh to have that faith that the first place I turn was to God not to my own understanding. Proverbs 3: 5-6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Tonight my wife and I were watching Charlotte's Web. Have you figured out I love movies (maybe I should write why one day)? Thirty minutes or so into the movie Wilber finds out his fate. He isn't a pig, he's pork. He's crushed. He cries out "I want to live."

Charlotte drops down and tries to console him. This leads her to a promise to save him. When he asks how she doesn't know but reconfirms her promise. Wilber accepts that and walks away.

Oh to have that kind of faith. His very life is on the line but he trusts his existence to a spider he can barely see. But we have a Big God. Our God is eternal, immutable, self-sufficient, wise and just. How much more should I lean on Him.

As I was talking this through with Sarah we started naming off the times God has been faithful. We've seen many miracles just in the short time since we've been married. God has protected us and our family.

Why then when faced with times of trouble am I not on my knees? Why do I think Outlook and I can tackle anything?

If we ever understand the grandeur of God we couldn't be paid to get off our faces.

Go back and look at the answers you had to the first questions I asked. Confess how many times you think you could solve the problem. Reflect on how much you prayed about each.

I heard it attributed to Ben Franklin (although I've also heard rumor he was an atheist) that he once said, "I often find myself so busy that I don't have time not to pray."

Psalm 9 says:
9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.

10 Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

_SL