The past few years have been among the most tumultuous of my life. Personal and business challenges have stressed me nearly to the breaking point, and amazing events have rocked my world and the world at large.

I’ve questioned (literally) the mental health of my fellow Americans who re-elected the most corrupt government we’ve ever had. My disgust with the whole thing crushed my spirit and clouded my view of the future. Closer to home, I faced a tremendous crisis of confidence regarding my worth as a person, my ability to provide for myself and my family, and my ability (and desire) to continue writing my book.

The world around me seemed to have gone mad; or maybe it was me?

20% Annual Return – Guaranteed!
The absolute stupid excesses of the housing market finally hit the wall of reality, and in spite of the pain this caused many (me included) I’m glad it happened. The fraud of the whole system has been obvious to me for years, and I’m hopeful that the crash will restore some small semblance of sanity. Of course, before we get the benefits from our more prudent outlook, we have to bear the consequences of our collective folly.

Change or Die
For me, these consequences piled on top of the already difficult conditions at my company, Wired Inc. For years we had designed and manufactured professional MPEG encoders for video professionals. They enjoyed a great reputation and became the best selling product of their kind. But starting about three years ago, the market began to change; we were hit by the double-whammy of the increasing speed & quality of cheap software-based systems and the saturation of the market for DVD creation tools. Realizing that the end was near for hardware-based MPEG encoders, we began work on an ambitious new product, to be called the Mason IP. It would be a revolutionary tool for companies involved in the creation of DVD and Bluray discs. We estimated it would take a year to develop and that the sales of our traditional products should last long enough to fund its development.

Unfortunately, our estimates were off by a factor of three and sales dried up much faster than anticipated. Still, we were not deterred. We believed in the product and kept pouring money into its development. When cash stopped flowing, we cut salaries; first by half, then by three quarters and then to zero. My partner and I burned through our reserves and still it wasn’t enough. We kept it up as long as possible, but after more than two years of no income, with the mortgage due and no products to sell, we realized something had to give.

For the first time in many years, we each had to find an alternative source of income, commonly known as a job.

Getting Out the Rolodex
As I often did in my years as a consultant, I turned to my contact database and started calling and emailing everyone I knew. Typically I am a very optimistic person, but the past couple years had taken their toll, and I was filled with doubts. Who out there could possibly use my odd blend of marketing genius* and technical skills? Was there really anyone out there who would find my experiences from Astarte and Apple and Wired a good fit for their business? Could I find something that would solve the short term problem and hopefully develop into something with a future? I called and wrote and waited and worried. Day and night the hollow sound of my empty bank account rang in my ears.

Impressive German Engineering
But then, there came a much more pleasant ringing sound: a phone call from an old friend and former client who just happen to need some help with a project that just happen to match my qualifications. The caller was Dr Markus Fest of Elgato. Markus is the original creator of Toast, the best-selling disc burning software, now sold by Roxio. In the early days, Toast was marketed by Astarte and I managed the US portion of that arrangement. Later, when Markus sold Toast to Adaptec, I worked for him again, writing user manuals and managing production. And again when Markus’s company was busy creating drivers for USB floppy drives and for the first FireWire hardrives, we worked together.

Suffice it to say, Markus knew my work (and my limitations) and I knew his. It took only a few days for us to agree to a trial engagement. It was a small project, managing the launch of a minor product, but it helped to reverse my negative cash flow and left me some time to continue to work on my Wired project.

This was about two and a half years ago, about the same time I pretty much vanished from this website and most other non-essential pursuits. There was so much to do, and Elgato had so many interesting projects underway, that it wasn’t too long before Markus and I agreed it should be a full-time deal.

And so it has been. I am officially the EyeTV Evangelist, helping to spread the word about one of the coolest Mac-related product lines on the planet. I work on the user forum, handle training for the Apple retails stores and am part of the marketing team. It’s an awesome company, and I feel privileged to work with such a talented group of people.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Three months before I hooked up with Elgato, I had another life-altering experience: I became a grandfather! My eldest son had a son, named Jack. Unlike turning fifty and other recent ‘mileposts’ of getting older, which tend to get me down, becoming a grandpa is a totally wonderful and amazing thing. Whenever I get to spend time with Jack I feel completely recharged. For those of you who have yet to be grandparents, I can recommend it without reservation.

The Book Really Stalls
As you might expect, my new-found work with Elgato and being a grandpa keeps me very busy; finding time to work on the book is difficult. But there was another much larger factor that basically stopped it in its tracks: Steve Job’s life-threatening illness. Once it became public that he was sick, and the morbid curiosities of every hack on the planet were played out on the world wide web stage, I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of working on my fluffy little pamphlet. And what if he died? From a business point of view, I knew it would be the perfect time to have a book ready, but the thought of it disgusted me.

It seemed the less real news there was about Steve’s condition, the worse it got. People who had obviously never worked with him, or even met him, were writing stories about every aspect of his existence. Much of it was heartless, some if it appeared to be fabricated (or at best highly embellished), and almost none of it actually added anything to the world’s understanding of this unique person. I just didn’t want to be part of that.

What’s This Thing All About?
Besides those reservations, I found myself struggling with the basic concept of the book. I named it ‘Jobs I’ve Known’ because I intended the book be about my whole career, and how my many jobs and seemingly random decisions over the course of many years resulted in my working at Apple and getting to work with Mr Jobs. But it became pretty clear from my work on this blog that all anyone really wanted to know about was Steve Jobs. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I have enough real experience with him to make a whole book out of just that.

Inspiration Returns
Three things happened recently that make be want to get back to work on the book. First, the fascists were run out of Washington. Hope has been restored.

Second, I bought an ebook reader (the Sony, in case you wonder). It has brought me back to reading again, after far too long an absence. This joy of reading seems to be sort of spilling over and motivating me to write again.

Third, Steve Jobs returned to Apple. While it’s clear from his appearance that he’s not out of the woods yet, his reemergence into the public eye makes me a little more comfortable writing about him again.

I Get a Hat
As part of my newly invigorated self-image, brought on by my fantastic family and matchless colleagues, I’ve decided to start a campaign to bring back hats. If you’ve ever watched a classic movie from the forties or fifties or flipped through an old magazine, you’ll realize the world was a much more civilized place when everyone wore hats.

To kick off the campaign, I bought a nifty Panama hat from a street vendor in New Orleans. Then last month in Munich, I picked up a classic felt Fedora to wear to Oktoberfest. Now it’s your turn to go out and get a hat. I’ll wait here.

*Your opinion may vary.

A few month later when OS X rolled out (March 2001), Steve spoke to a gathering of Apple employees in Cafe Mac. A lot less gray hair and a lot more of him. That almost looks like a bit of a gut hanging out.

Because today, like the past two days, I’ve been trying to figure out what really happened with the iPhone price cut, and the subsequent outrage that led to Steve apologizing to us early-adopters. Was it planned from the beginning, and carefully orchestrated (as has been suggested by many commentators)? Is Steve some kind of evil genius who plans these things out seventeen moves in advance, with no regard for how it affects his loyal customers? Or was is a simple case of Apple/Steve underestimating the backlash and then doing the right thing? I want to know as a marketing professional, and I want to know as a long-time Apple observer and Apple fan.

As I’ve poured over some of the countless articles and forum posts which have appeared since Wednesday, I’m unhappy to find that the cynics do make some valid points. I’ve also reached back into my memory bank to find any clue or scrap of evidence which might help illuminate this problem.

What I Think I Know

Conclusion
Considering these points, I just can’t buy the idea that Steve and company deliberately delayed the announcement of the rebate to see if they could ‘get away with it’, thereby saving a lot of money. It seems far more likely to me, although still difficult to understand, that Steve was advised by his inner circle that there might be some backlash, but not enough to worry about. So he chose to go ahead without any sort of gesture of appreciation for the early adopters. Only after the announcement when the switchboard lit up with unhappy customers, and forums everywhere were flooded with vitriolic posts, did they realize the error they had made.

To their credit, they acted swiftly to set it right. Even though it will cost Apple at least $50,000,000. Or that’s what I’d like to believe.

On the other hand…maybe it really was all planned in advance and it won’t cost them that much anyway, as everyone will use their store credit to buy a new iPod, and the drama of the delayed announcement will make those users even more loyal Apple customers.

I’m so confused. I wish I knew Steve well enough to ask him. But I’m not sure anyone knows him well enough for that.

What do you think?

It sounded like a reasonable explanation to me; perhaps it’s a preemptive strike against malware that might masquerade as a widget*. Reflecting on the pros and cons of such a system reminded me of a conversation about similar things in the Apple boardroom several years ago.

The iApps Review Meetings

During the big push that led up to the new products being released at MacWorld, there would be a regularly scheduled weekly meeting where Steve would review the progress on the ‘i-apps’. It was held in the Apple boardroom and usually attended by the product managers and engineering lead on each of the applications. Senior execs, like Avie Tevenian, Eddie Cue, or Phil Schiller would also attend if there were particularly important things to review. Each product group would bring a Mac configured with latest build of their software so Steve could check it out.

I always enjoyed these meetings, in spite of the intense pressure that went along with them, because it was a chance to get more of the ‘big picture’ view of what was happening with the new products. Apple is quite compartmentalized, so it’s common to not know what other groups are working on; but at the review meetings, the barriers were temporarily lowered. It was a rare opportunity to how Steve worked to bring all the details together to achieve Apple’s overall goals.

Steve would review each project in turn, confirming that previously discussed changes had been implemented and discussing what needed to happen next. Both large and small issues were covered. In spite of what you may think you know about Steve’s methods, there was always a lot of give and take during these discussions. Everyone present was welcome to contribute to the debate, even if they weren’t technically part of that application’s team. I have said this before, but it bears repeating: the goal was to make great products, not just to do what Steve said. On the other hand, the product had to actually ship eventually, so practical considerations had to be discussed too.

It was never dull.

Questions About DVD Burning

The decision to include DVD burners in the new Power Macs was risky. The drives increased the cost of the computer considerably, and we had to make pretty big commitments to the suppliers of the drives and the blank discs in order to get the best deal possible. But it was the kind of gamble Apple had taken many times before when they introduced new technologies before most people had even heard of them (ie 802.11). Although everyone on the team felt it was the right thing to do, the reality was that no one really knew if customers would embrace the idea of making their own DVDs, or if $10 per blank disc would be low enough to get people to use the feature regularly.

So it happened that during one of the review meetings, there was a lengthy conversation about how to measure the adoption of the DVD burning technology. We could get a very rough idea by looking at the number of SuperDrive systems sold. But some customers would choose the configuration featuring the SuperDrive simply to get the fastest G4, even though they may not care about, or use, the DVD burning capabilities. The sales of blank DVDs also gave some indication, but people could buy blank discs elsewhere, making our information incomplete.

Steve’s Suggestion

The iDVD team (which included me) arrived a little late for the next review meeting, having been delayed by a problem setting up our demo machine. As we came into the room, Steve was saying something like ‘how about instrumentation? wouldn’t that work?’ to those who were already there. I had no idea what he was talking about, but my fog cleared quickly. He was asking Avie and Eddie about the concept of including a ‘metering’ function in iDVD that would count how many time the application was launched and how many discs were burned. This data would be totally anonymous; no IP addresses or user names or anything like that, just the number of times launched and the number of discs burned. It would be great information to have, to help validate the decision to push DVD burning technology.

The reaction of those present was unanimous (and about what you’d expect from a bunch of passionate Mac people): bad idea. Everyone agreed it was not Apple-like to do this sort of thing secretly. The only way such a plan would be acceptable is if it were an ‘opt in’ deal where the customer was asked if they would like to voluntarily participate. Of course it was obvious to everyone that as soon as you make it optional, the collected data is pretty much useless.

Shot Down

Steve’s ‘trial balloon’ was completely perforated, and the idea was dropped (as far a I know.) The conversation did result in one change to iDVD though; the inclusion of a menu item to order blank DVDs. That feature was later removed when DVD media became widely available.

Personally, I hate applications that phone home. I hate automatic update checking and I hate HP printer software that asks me if I want to send information about how much I print, and I hate software that checks over the network to see if I’ve got other copies running. I really hate the concept of iTunes showing me other music it thinks I might like, based on what I’m playing. But I know, from first hand experience, that the motives for such things are not always sinister, and sometimes the people creating these systems are genuinely trying to improve their products or services. Just don’t get me started on the deceptively named Windows Genuine Advantage!

*This has been confirmed by a statement from Apple to CNET.

Five year ago, some people thought Steve Jobs was crazy to open Apple-branded retail stores. I’m sure those people are ‘thinking different’ today. As usual, Apple’s managed to create a media frenzy over its snazzy new store in New York, and looking at the photos, it’s easy to get caught up in it even from here.

I figured the stores would work out well. The existing Apple resellers (especially in the US) were not doing the best job of reaching non-Mac users. If you found Macs at all, they were being ‘explained’ by the same 18 year old kid who was selling car stereos and washing machines two aisles over. Who better than Apple to tell the Apple story to the uninitiated? Besides, if Windows users had a chance to actually see and touch a Mac, they are much more likely to ultimately buy one.

The Minnesota Connection
But there was another reason I knew the stores would succeed…the guy who Steve chose to run them: Ron Johnson. Ron came from Target, where he helped them achieve their incredible success. It was obvious to me that Apple was serious about the stores if they they put someone like this in charge.

I met Ron shortly after he joined Apple and was surprised to learn we had two things in common: we were both from Minnesota, and we both commuted between Minnesota and Cupertino. (Most people don’t know it, but Minnesota is something of a retailing Mecca. The first enclosed shopping malls were here, the largest mall is here, and Target and Best Buy both started here and have their headquarters here.)

Product Manager Heaven
Until the first Apple store opened, the only places where you could find copies of my products, like DVD Studio Pro was online. Maybe, if you lived in New York or LA, you could find a very specialized dealer somewhere with one copy in stock, but otherwise you’d have to go to one of the mail order places. So imagine my delight when I made my first visit to an Apple store (the one in Beverly Center in Los Angeles) and encountered this…

DVD Studio Pro, in stock at the first Apple store!

I know…it’s a sight only a product manager could love. But it was a thrill for me.

Much has changed with the layout of the Apple stores since then, but they still stock all the good stuff that you just can’t get at other stores. Almost 150 stores later, it’s nice to know that if I’m in Manhattan and need a copy of Final Cut Studio at three in the morning, Apple will be there to help me.

Here’s the clip (7 MB in QuickTime MPEG-4 format) mirrored on three different servers; pick one:

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY APPLE!

I hope you stay ‘crazy’ for a long time to come.

While in China I spent a day in the ciy of Anji, known as the City of Bamboo; not without reason. Bamboo was growing all over the surrounding hillsides, and everywhere you looked were immense piles of bamboo being dried, stacked, cut, sorted and trucked to the many factories, large and small, turning the bamboo into wonderful and useful products. Pillows, purses, placemats, chairs, chopsticks, hats, shoes, edible bamboo, and even bamboo beer (which was pretty good.) Everything bamboo.

Unfortunately, no panda sightings.

Bamboo is remarkable for its renewability; the samples shown here are only about a year old, and nearly ready to be harvested.

Getting Down to Business
My work took me to a factory making bamboo flooring, where I saw the entire process of turning the bamboo ‘logs’ into beautiful hardwood floors, ready for shipment around the world.

A careful eye selects the logs to begin the process.

The finished product

In the Anji market, it’s bamboo everywhere.

Everything in this shop (and numerous others) was made of bamboo…except the young lady

Popular bamboo mats

The bottom end of the large bamboo plants are carved into incredible figures.

Steve looks a little distracted, but really he is just concentrating on the monitor in the front row of the auditorium which shows his next slide.

*National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Chicago – June 2001.