A big step after 21 years with DOS and Windows? No, no at all. I expected there to be some toothing pains, some awkwardness during the transition, some problems and frustrations. But no, none of that. I switched off the Windows laptop, switched on the MacBook and started to be productive almost instantaneously.

Apple and I go back a long way. In school I worked with Apple II computers during the early Eighties. In 1983 I saw my first Apple Lisa, the predecessor of the Macintosh. While owning Commodore and Atari computers (and in the early Nineties my first PC’s) I wrote newspaper and magazine articles covering Macintosh computers, and even wrote a book comparing the Macintosh to other computers.

But somehow I never managed to get my own Mac. The machines were to exclusive for my budget, and later I was firmly integrated in the Windows and Linux ecosystem, compensating lack of finances with inventive spirit and the willingness to spend hours on end building my own machines and troubleshooting incompatibilities. In addition to that, two “traumatic” experiences alienated me further from the Apple universe: a rather unsuccessful experience with Apple stock (bought during a period which Steve Jobs recently called Apple’s “Near Death Experience” – and worth many times its initial value had I held on to it), and the outcry of over a hundred angry Mac users regarding an article I wrote for the ZEIT Magazin.

I grew tired of Mac evangelists, tired of the almost sect-like attire of Mac aficionados. I got angry when Apple managed to make even my parents think they invented the MP3 player. And I got annoyed by the smug “I’m a PC – I’m a Mac” advertising. But now  can freely admit it: all the time I actually liked Apple, actually liked Macs, and would have loved to have one for myself.

True, there is a lot to criticize about Apple. The tightly controlled environment. The secrecy. A certain arrogance of some of its promoters. My friend Bernhard had a quite nasty experience in the early days of iTunes. But after all Apple does what every company should do: maximize profits and controlling their market segment. Only with the addition that Apple tries to do this with perfect products, while other market participants seem to have lower standards for themselves.

On May 1st I turned a new page in my professional career. I started working with an exciting new startup company, and I switched from PC to Mac. Im looking forward to an exciting ride.

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I am pretty sure that a “Pizza Diabolo” should have article number 666. In today’s lunch order it turned out to be aricle number 444, which was sort of anticlimatic.

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Ulrich Mühe on Wikipedia

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Michael: What resolution does your phone have?
Sean: 3 Megapixels

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There were two subdirectories with images from the “Jugend forscht – Schüler experimentieren” science fair from 1982 and 1983. I participated about 5 years in a row, mostly with Biology topics, but also with IT projects.
Already at my first event I won a First Prize, and was elegible to participate at the next stage, the State competition. This competition was sponsored by IBM, and it was there that I had my first experiences with the then brand-new IBM PC. This was probably the most important milestone for my carreer path, since until then I planned to pursue an education path in biology.
The image above shows me exhausted after the award ceremony. The title of my exhibits reads “The effects of different types of water available at my hometown on germination and growth of garden cress”. We had a small creek running behind the house, plus a couple of springs and wells and of course tap water. Back in the 1980ies, the farmers were quite careless with fertilizers so the water from the creek was quite full with phosphate. Unsurprisingly, the cress watered with the creek water outgrew all the other samples, but then the plant actually got burned by the fertilizer.
I participated with two follow-up projects the next two years, and met both acclaim and criticism by locals and press. A few of the farmers did not quite like what I did, but the overall reception was good. In retrospect I have to say that fertilizer use became quite a hot topic several years later. Not that I claim credit for this though.

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We have a Gravis store in our town, so I checked availability via the web and since stock was low I used Gravis’ central ordering service to reserve a machine. The telephone rep was quite helpful and when I asked when the machine could be picked up, she said that once she closes the database entry the shop gets notification, and that the machine will be reserved for 48 hours. Pleased at the speed and competence – it was a call-center after all – I prepared to go immediately and was in front of the Gravis store some 30 minutes later.

When I got there, the door was blocked by a Gravis employee in vivid conversation with what must have been a friend of his. Reluctantly, they let me pass so that I could enter the store. It was held mostly in white and light wood textures and must have had some 100/120sqm. Apart from me there was only one other customer, standing at the service counter complaining about some issues with her iPod. Since I had an order number, I went to the service counter too and waited politely. And waited. Politely. Waited. The employee did not send the slightest signal of acknowledging me being here. Meanwhile, the other employee still stood in the stores entrance and talked to his friend. I looked around, bored. I spent some time watching the funny Windows error messages which were projected to a wall. Not only was the projection pretty bad, the error messages came mostly from Windows 95 or 98, one even from Windows 3.x. I thought Apple was all about style and cool superiority? This display seemed rather childish to me. Finally – still being ignored by both employees – I spotted a third employee behind the checkout. I didn’t noticed her at first because she was dressed mostly in white, and because she stood almost still, laboriously wet-cleaning the keyboard of her PC Mac. I went to her, showed her my order number, and – I have to grant her that – she immediately went to the back of the store where she rumbled around a bit until she found employee #4 (#1 was still talking at the door and #2 still sorting out the iPod issue) to process my request.

When I was at the checkout 5 minutes later, Miss Keyboard Cleaning was still performing her task, reluctantly putting it aside to take my money. However the task seemed rather difficult to her (after all it was not only the Mac Mini but also a keyboard and a mouse), so she got Mister iPod Issues to help her. He, in turn, expressed his opinion that Mister Door Conversation could use some practice with cashing and hustled him over. Now that was a surprise, because it seemed that this guy had training in cross selling. And while he tried in a rather pushy tone to sell me a 3-year-maintenance pack, Miss Keyboard Cleaning continued to clean a keyboard. Having made my point that I didn’t needed a maintenance pack, I asked her if the store was a bit more crowded on Saturdays? She admitted that it was a bit more crowded, but that in general they were pretty much bored in here. As if that admission and everything that happened before was not enough unprofessional behavior, they started to make jokes about how bored they were. Slightly shaking my head I left the shop. The whole event took half an hour.

OK, I know that lifestyle is important for the “Apple system”. That’s probably why these employees were really young. Most likely thy were Mac enthusiast (at least the guys – I don’t know if the girl is enthusiastic about anything else than her outfit, her nails, her hairdo and the cleanliness of keyboards), and probably they thought they were working in a cutting edge bastion against mediocrity. But I know that Apple is pretty much about making money too. And if Steve Jobs would have witnessed this “performance”, I’m pretty sure that four twens, and probably their manager too, would have to pursue a career in serving or taxi driving by the end of the day. The only reason I endured all this was because I needed that Mac Mini fast.

So, I’m interested in feedback. Did I choose a bad day, when the B-crew was in? Or is this a little piece fitting into the huge mosaic? What about other countries? Does lifestyle and coolness justify bad service? Maybe I didn’t look “hip” enough, or maybe it was wrong the chose the cheapest Mac available? What are your experiences?

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