The people around me at the moment must think I'm some sort of pretentious idiot. I'm sitting at a metal picnic table next to the soccer fields of a local elementary school. It's my daughter's night for soccer practice. As my daughter and nine other eight-year-olds are put thropugh their paces, I sit here typing away on my shiny 17 inch PowerBook listening to Pink Floyd on the iPod. If I had a cup Starbucks sitting next to me, I'd be making myself nauseous.

The sad truth is I could really use a cup of coffee and if their had been time to stop and get some without making my daughter late I probably would have. What's next for me a luxury mini-van?

If I were James Lileks this would be the point in the post where I seamlessly tie all of that into a meaning full and insightful commentary on international politics or American culture. But I'm not. So I'll just dive in.

I have decided that the next computer I buy for myself will be a PowerBook. In truth it will be whatever fantastic new thing has supplanted the laptop by the time I can afford to replace my G4 cube. Why? One word. One word that sums up the Wow factor of cool technology. One word that serves as a digital metaphor for freedom. My new favorite word. WIRELESS

I'm not actually new to wireless. We've had a wireless router and card for my wife's PC laptop for a while. But though the system gets heavy use from the kids it is essentially a desktop machine. Wireless was a solution for networking it, without wires!

The PowerBook my employer bought for me changed my feeling about wireless. Every day I unplug from the office network, close the lid and slip it into the nifty backpack case they bought to go along with it. I get home, open the screen and the Airport card finds the router and I am on line again. If I want, I can open a VPN connection to the office and it's like I never left. (O.K. that part kind of sucks.)

Tuesday I was at a photo-shoot. While the photographer was busy perfecting the lighting and shooting test shots, I noticed the Airport Base Station mounted to the studio wall. I hooked into the company network and as he tweaked shots, he sent them to me. I dropped the shots into the layout and sent jpegs to my marketing contact. I got feedback, we changed the shot and a new jpeg went out.

This was particularly good since the vast majority of the marketers I work with have zero visualization skills. If I had showed them the shot and said picture this in the layout I would be met the same blank stare I would expect if I asked my daughter to define Pi. (Right before she asked if I meant apple or blueberry.)

I love wireless. I pretty fond of pie too.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 01:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment