Life passes by SO fast.
The classical saying is: time passes by so fast.
However, as matter of fact it is the life that passes by so fast because time will continue existing after our dead. At least what we consider as time. So, time does not disappear with us, it will continue its function.
Most of this year I have been eagerly seeking to re-connect with myself. It has been a long and bumpy journey to reach 2012. This year for me is a transition, due to the achievement of my dream…. (need to post about this! )
But….
then….
What….
is next?…..
and I am aware:
1) that the clock is ticking…
2) each life is unique…..
3) the real answers come from within….
4) things are moving, slowly, but moving……
Then, today I got this quote on a special card:
“I just play all the time and am fortunate enough to get paid for it” – Martin Gardner, 1998. Honestly, since I found Gardner’s books, he got my admiration. However I did not know this quote, which it is like sugar for me!
The card was accompanied with this book: Select Papers on Fun and Games from Donal E. Knuth. I didn’t know Knuth, so research starts. It is when I read about his most important life’s project when things start to come together: what is the most important project of my life?
I am EXTREMELY lucky because as far as I can recall, my most important dream has been achieved. Now, it is time to work for the most important project 🙂 (Thank you Mikko for this present! )
Somehow I know it. It is matter to figure it out how to verbalize it, prioritise steps and gather the courage to jump for it. It is going to be an interesting decade!
light in my special day. Each day is magical and full of surprises!
For over a decade I’ve been using Apple computers blindly. One of the reasons of my loyalty has been: I can focus on what I need to do instead to invest valuable time on fixing the computer in order to do what I want to do. I subscribe myself to the philosophy: plug & run 🙂
When the operating system OS X came out in 2001. It was a time of glory! It was possible to increase the potentiality of the Apple machines making them even more interesting.
Then apple’s “branding” has been growing stronger over the last years. Myself I keep married with the principles that make me adopt apple long before: I want a reliable machine with a plug and run philosophy. I am not patient to solve unexpected problems. However those principles that made me adopt Apple computers are slowly being blurred by an uncritical attitude of the actual brand philosophy.
Let me give vent to my actual frustrations with this brand.
1. What type of globalisation is promoted by Apple?
Perhaps the globalisation is on the hardware, because one can get the same machine in most of the countries that have the buying power. But I have questions about the applications.
My apple account is from my home country, Mexico, and I want to keep it like that. I have my personal reasons to support my decision. Because it is a Mexican account, when I search for software at the Apple Store I only get the offers available for the Mexican market. I have no visibility of what other countries offer unless I get into those markets. So, I created an account for the USA, German and Finnish market, and I can tell you there are differences.
Is Apple building a bubble of information in a market that by nature should be global? at least to my understanding. Additionally, to have access to other markets today implies to put an effort and of course to posses several credit cards!
2. Does Apple Inc. want to bridge the digital divide?
Some publicity might say yes. Apple is interested in education and schools. On practice, I have my doubts. I think the educational market is a very profitable market. But I do not see the intention of bridging the digital divide in practice.
For example: if one wants to update the operating system to Mountain Lion (10.8) it must be done via Apple Store. I really search to avoid this approach, but there was not other option at least here in Joensuu unless I go to an authorize distributor and pay extra money to update my machine. So, let’s assume all apple owners posses a credit card, because you MUST have one to buy on the apple store and you download OS 10.8
Now Apple Inc. might think that all owners of an Apple computers have good Internet connection. Of course we are paying a considerable amount of money for be in the apple world, so it might be natural to assume that all these consumers have all the state-of-the-art infrastructure Well, the assumption is wrong. One could read the thread of discussion in apple, some people needed to spend even days updating the operating system.
If people have to pay per minute the Internet, this is a fortune!
3. Does Apple Inc. keep supporting plug and run applications?
Hmmmm….. for its authorized software yes.
The company wants control, perhaps always wanted that, but now I am able to see it and it is sad for me.
I downloaded software that is not on the apple store. Then, I needed to do different things in order to run it, as the machine directly told me:
no authorised software
Besides that, I need to re-find the library folder, which is a powerful folder and in OS 10.8 is hidden. *** AGHR***
I admit these were not HUGE problems. It took me some time to find out, and now it works. Well, at least most of the things, and I regret that I update my machine. But what bothers me is why these changes? which one is apple’s vision?
Summarizing: the three facts I describe in this post I live them while updating my MacBook Pro and they trigger my frustration and disappointment. The question that I have now is: What is the price I am willing to pay for a computer that offers selective plug & run possibilities? What is the actual value?
Perhaps nowadays for me the cost is not only on money, but it is stepping on my principles. The “value” is getting a bit too high I confess….
This post was mainly written after I met Peter Harrington at the vs-games conference. I admit that time pass by FASTER than my ability to accomplish the things I want to finalise during my 24hrs of life that I have each day. Nevertheless, I keep on crossing out items on my constant growing TO DO list. Slowly but surely. 🙂
I met Peter because he sat on a strategic spot, according to my opinion, at the social event of vs-games. Later, I was fortunate to share the dinner table with him and have a quality conversation! Peter is the director of SimVenture. He is an entrepreneur himself, with decades of experience. So, I was eagerly hearing all what he was sharing to me, and being honest. I was also asking and talking (part of my nature 🙂 ) . It was an enlightening evening!
The advices I listen often from people with life experience, as Peter or Christian, are full of common sense: focus, build trust, establish discipline. These three characteristics that entrepreneurs should acquire, and imho, could apply equally to individuals in research and academia.
Now I can play SimVenture and publish this post. The simulation is a bit challenging I must say, but so the real life stuff.
To published this post took me longer than expected because I wanted to play the game before posting. At the moment SimVenture is for windows machines. Hence, before to make the necessary arrangements to run the game on a MacBook I decide to update my machine. Ohhhhh! that was a WRONG decision. Apple Inc. is not making my life easier……
playing SimVenture
next I will write about my frustrations generated by Apple Inc.
Honestly, I am lucky because in the conferences I had been in, I always learn and discover something new and interesting. I enjoy them.
However, it takes me a time to digest my learning experience. No-one has asked me to summarize my learning experience on writing in this events, but I start to believe this would be a benefit. The idea emerges few weeks ago while organizing my papers and some of them are related to conferences. It has been refreshing to go through the material. Now I want to start a “habit” to summarize at least some key points. So, here some memoirs of my learning experience at vs-games.
The keynote from the representative of the European Commission (Marco Marsella) mention about the importance of design games for different context. I am sure he did not refer exactly of what I have on mind about context. In any case, it is the first time that I listen explicitly about the term, specially when innovation is part of the key words nowadays. What a good time to finalize my dissertation: Hypercontextualized Games. The new funding process of the European Union, in my opinion, is interesting and also challenging….. ideas spinning and time to move forward! 🙂
To re-counter with persons I met at the beginning of my journey is priceless! Hope to keep in touch with them properly now. One example is Rafael. Great to see you again and nice talks. Looking forward to follow your very interesting projects!!!
Knowledge! It is other topic I am very interested. See my dissertation again. Well, the research done with Prof. Lim is extremely interesting…. I learn much from him and Aparajithan while talking with them. Really inspiring talks!
A common interest from GALA and DiGRA at this moment relates to methodologies. Challenge I do not see any time soon to be solved. However, the talk of Igor Mayer was very inspiring in reference to this topic.
At the time to see and play games, I detect the game of Latin America from global-conflicts. Unquestionably I needed to talk with the person at charge of the stand. People who know me are aware I have specific and strong arguments about this type of games. So, here I have the opportunity to exchange to try to understand more of the minds behind the games. I am glad I have the conversation with the person presenting the games, which his business card I cannot locate 🙁 . A post about this topic will show up at some point in time, as it requires a discussion as a sensitive topic as it is.
Gamification was also present. I am not subscribed to the ideology of gamification. Actually I am against, specially in the way it is used and described. One day I will write about this because it also requires a post of its own. However, when I hear the talk of Donald Brinkman from Microsoft clarifying that for them gamification is to pay attention to the process and evolution of it, I got positively surprised. Microsoft saying this, when other companies are actually trying to promote gamification without much analysis or understanding of the topic. Donald even showed an interesting slide pointing the arguments related to gamification in academia (photo below, the slide was good and my camera dead, but my phone did an attempt to take a photo). I wonder why he did not mention Jesse Schell in his talk.…. Hmmm…. Schell has a critical talk about gamification at google (link). More about this topic will come, but this is a brief summary.
Gamification Rethoric – Talk by Microsoft
Gamification Joke – Talk by Microsoft
Several talks, games and papers were interesting, which I encourage to read in the proceedings published at Elsevier. This summary focuses on my learning experience…. Hmmm… I guess I need to elaborate in the “term”: learning experience.
Here some memoir photos, of the event in general. Somehow the location remind me home….
Faculty of Engineering
Walk towards the Faculty of Engineering after the previous sign
The actual building of the Faculty of Engineering, end of the previous road
In conference
walk towards my hotel, view of the city
walk towards my hotel, view of the city and the see (2)
