posted under category: Life Events on July 23, 2009 at 7:53 am by MrNate
Last month before our AZCFUG meeting, we (the UGMs and ACEs of the Phoenix area) were hanging out with Ryan Stewart (who has an adobe go link now) at Four Peaks Brewery. It became quickly obvious that only Rob Brooks-Bilson (who has his own wikipedia entry) and myself were on dumbphones. Rob picked up his iPhone that following weekend. I held out for 2 more weeks (hey, we had a baby, cut me some slack). My wife & I had planned to upgrade to something, I was leaning towards Android, but, thanks to HTC's mediocre Android devices and my employer's fantastic corporate rates with AT&T, we switched and I got an iPhone 3GS.
I've had it for a couple weeks now, and I've got to say, wow. This thing is great. Really. Everyone should have one. From the seamless phone and ipod controls to the connectivity and web browsing abilities, to the apps and games available, it's been really, really fantastic.
One thing I like the most is that it's easily a hundred devices in one. With nothing added, it's a great phone, navigation system, media player, web browser, PIM and camera. That's just brushing the surface, and of course doesn't cover the thousands of apps you can download, many for free.
Case in point: This last weekend we wanted to play mini-golf with the fam. Alanda (my wife) found an indoor place in North Phoenix - 113 is hot enough to stay indoors! Using the camera and Facebook app, I dropped an adorable picture of Aubri (1 yr, our 3rd child) owning the course. From there, we wanted food. Thanks to the iPhone, we were at in-n-out burger in 5 minutes. Finally, we had to get back to Alanda's Dad's camp trailer. Thanks to the map, we saved at least 20 minutes of driving. As we wound through Fountain Hills, I showed Alanda the Zillow application. She was having so much fun as it showed her the estimated prices of all the houses we drove by, live, as the app tracked us on a map with the iPhone's GPS.
I was especially impressed with how I could buy the device and never need to plug it in to a computer. You can download music, podcasts, movies, apps, games, everything without even owning a PC to plug it into. You'll probably want to, but you don't have to this time. This is in contrast to how my iPod Video was simply a sattelite of the media in iTunes on my desktop.
Repeated conclusion: Everybody should have one. Really.
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posted under category: Life Events on October 6, 2008 at 8:39 am by MrNate
I had completely promised myself that I would NOT join MySpace, just as a fundamental stand against poor web design, even if they did write it with my favorite programming language. As a result, I had mentally discarded social networks in general, but, when you get married, you know, you make some compromises. So anyways, a few weeks ago, Alanda talked me into joining Facebook (in exchange for me taking out the garbage and cutting down a tree and giving her a massage -- I think she got the better end of the deal).
If you don't know social networks, basically, you find all your friends and talk about yourself so they can keep up with your life. It's less formal than a phone call or even an email, but better than spreading hearsay and 3rd hand information. Then they can comment on what you say and vice versa.
Facebook is especially nice in that the usability of the site is fantastic and the design is consistent throughout. Pretty much any activity I would like to do from any given area is already there. Thus far, they've thought of everything. As far as social web sites, including ones I've worked on, it's the best I've seen, by far.
Just in this past few weeks I've found a friend from school I didn't know was living in town. Anyways, if you feel like it, come look me up.
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posted under category: Life Events on April 20, 2008 at 3:30 pm by MrNate
I tend to keep my personal & family related blogging exclusively on my family's blog. The same segregation works in reverse to keep my family from yawning at the content I typically post here. My aunt, the pharmacist doesn't want to hear about functional programming with ColdFusion any more than you want to hear about the fruit trees in my back yard.
Rarely have I posted cross-over entries, but, today is a different day, so I've added a category for life events.
Today, Aubri Gail Strutz was born. This is my 3rd child. She is perfect and healthy. Her mom is recovering quickly and her siblings are excited. It's been a long night.
Now, I'm not saying I'll start telling you all about my fruit trees, but I think it helps when a blog has a touch of personal life thrown in. Something I feel I've lacked here.
I will, however, make no promises on blogging at all for a little while. But who knows, I've got the week off. :)
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posted under category: Life Events on September 23, 2007 at 11:25 pm by MrNate
It's sad when the time comes to leave the best job you have ever had, the best team you have ever collaborated with and the most fun projects you have ever worked on. That time comes for me this Thursday, September 27th. My +2 year term at Interactive sites has been just that. Thanks to everyone who made working there great. Future employees, this is a great place to work.
It's not all sad, however. I'm taking a CF developer position at Boeing thanks to a good friend of mine. The money is even more respectable and the travel time should be less than half of before. Deals like this don't come around often. It's a great opportunity for myself, my family, and hopefully for Boeing.
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