Disjointed Kitsch

Funny. I was about to write a post on Apple computers the other day and for one reason or another stopped. Glad I did since today’s more appropriate given that it’s the 30th anniversary of the first Apple computer going on sale.

30 years is a lot of water under the bridge and as many have commented Apple is hardly recognizable from the company that Woz and Jobs started – except perhaps in one area: pushing the envelope.

Apple has always been out on the cutting edge with innovation, industrial design, quality, customer relations, etc. From the humble Apple to the Lisa, Mac and and all subsequent Mac computer lines, Newton, PowerBooks, iPods, OS X, Macbooks, AppleTV, and now the iPhone, Apple’s out there pushing and not in a “me too� way. They are pushing that envelope way out.

Not everything is a success, e.g. Newton and perhaps AppleTV, but it’s out there. You can love ‘em or hate ‘em but you can’t ignore them because they drive innovation in whatever industry they choose to target - computers, music, phones.

I’m a fanboy but a realist. Apple products are not for everyone. You have to be a bit of a “risk taker� to own an Apple product. You’re putting yourself on the line to step beyond conventional thinking and into the “think different� arena.

I’m excited to think about the next 30 years of Apple products and where Apple will push things.

Guy Kawasaki is a familiar name to me. I’ve been reading his stuff and about him since his days at Apple. His work as an Apple Evangelist helped a lot of the faithful keep our collective “head upâ€? during some fairly dark days. He’s moved on since then getting involved with startup ventures and what not, but he’s still an evangelist at heart – always promoting, encouraging, and telling the world at large what he thinks and experiences.

His “By The Numbers” post in his blog is a prime example of his evangelism – relating the startup of his latest venture Truemors in a way that makes the entire venture seem worth the effort despite setbacks. True to his style, even the negatives have a positive edge. Truemors will succeed or fail, but no matter what, Guy will positively promote the heck out of it and in the process educate those that bother to read in and between the lines.

My oldest is about to graduate high school. All the adages about it doesn’t seem so long ago certainly apply. The road to this point has not been easy but it has been worth it. There were many times that I didn’t believe he would actually make graduation on time with the rest of his class. There have been arguments, fights and punishments over things large and small, over effort (or rather lack there of), grades, and attitude.

It’s not that he’s not a smart young man. He’s very bright (ok, all parents say that) when he applys himself. It’s just that he has a hard time of doing just that. He must have decided that it was worth it and since late in his Junior year he’s applied himself more and I think been pleasantly suprised with the results. His Senior year has actually been quite good. Perhaps he just has Senior-itis since the beginning of 8th grade.

His next level of education is life: job, driving, making his way into the world. Perhaps that’ll involve additional schooling or the military (which he has talked to us about). I want for him what my parents wanted for me: success in whatever you do coupled with a secure and supportive place to return to while spreading the wings.

Since we’re planning an extended vacation to Hawaii to celebrate this event, he won’t be looking for a job right away, and I don’t think it’ll start to seem strange until September when my youngest heads back to school and he doesn’t. I image he’ll live at home for a while and that’s OK with his mother and me. Learning life takes awhile.

While reworking my site I installed the Mandigo theme. I noticed that the FAlbum plugin that I use for my photos page was formatting oddly. I was able to resolve the problem by using a theme specific “falbum.php” file and replacing the basic “get_header” php statement with the following:

<?php
get_header();
$alwayssidebars = get_option('mandigo_always_show_sidebars');
if ($alwayssidebars) {
	include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar.php');
	if (get_option('mandigo_1024') && get_option('mandigo_3columns')) {
		include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/sidebar2.php');
	}
}
php?>

That’s it! FAlbum started producing the correct page layout.