The Never-Ending Mac vs Windows Debate
My first Apple computer was purchased while at Florida State in about 2005. I got an iMac Desktop and I fell in love quickly. After I got past the differences in the operating system, I realized how much easier it was to use. Even little perks like dashboard and expose were genius to me. A simple way of displaying all your open windows and easily moving from one to the other, and a place to put sticky notes as reminders, ESPN scoreboards for scores and news, weather, etc, were great ways to make life easier for you. The all-in-one monitor was also a huge deal to me. Not having a huge tower getting in your footspace under your desk was an awesome improvement from Windows computers. My second Mac is another newer model iMac, and I plan on buying a new MacBook Pro in the next couple months. The main thing I notice was the newer Operating System on my iMac, Lion. It fixes some of the minor things it could have, and added some cool features. One of these is being able to use spaces which essentially puts different windows and programs into different spaces on your Mac, which lets you swipe your mouse to get to the next space easily.
Apple has been around since the late 80's, and Windows only a couple of years before that. So, there's not a big advantage there. I remember the older apple computers in the 90's, with their bright colors. I didn't actually get on a Mac until I started college in 2005. My friend had bought a MacBook and we also used iMacs in all of my design classes. As stated before, the Operating systems are different, but easy to get used to. But, for some, after being with Windows for most of your life, any change is a big change. But, once you do its definitely worth it. Part of the whole argument for Windows users to switch to Mac would have to be the pricing. These days, there are hundreds of PC's being sold for half the price of any Mac. You're not getting the power that the Macs come with in those cheaper PC's. Mac's always come stock with higher-end processors, aluminum casing, and great battery life. Most PC's can't stand up to Mac, unless your willing to spend the money. Another thing is the selection you could get with a PC compared to a Mac. Mac has the one brand, Apple. Windows has much more to offer, with Sony Vaio's, Dell's, Asus's, Toshiba's, HP's, etc. Macs have a little more straight forward approach, with different screen size choices, etc.
So, I'll leave you hear with this subject. Choose wisely and enjoy your new computer. Take what you will from this blog and others about this never ending debate and make your own decision. Although I'll never go with another Windows doesn't mean I won't be happy with a Windows, I just prefer my Mac.
Mad Men Marketing Making Moves to Downtown
We could not be happier to make this announcement, as it has been our goal since we started this company to end up downtown – and after outgrowing our current offices back in January, the time is finally upon us! We will inhabit a portion of the Holmes Building which faces E. Bay Street, which is significantly larger than our current offices. This move was very strategic to the expansion efforts of our company and acquiring a larger space will ensure our future growth and success.
What makes this opportunity even more exciting, is the fact that the revitalization of downtown is a personal goal of mine, so not only will we now be down there, but we are also now able to directly contribute to bringing commerce back downtown. Hopefully through our excitement and involvement in downtown activities, we can help continue the trend and bring more businesses to the area!
We truly couldn't be happier and look forward to seeing you all – Downtown!
“Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city… Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty… How can you lose..? The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, and go Downtown! ” 😉
Did the Towncenter Ruin Downtown Jacksonville’s Chance for a Revival?
I have no doubt that the introduction, popularity and growth of our Town Center fosters further financial stability for our city, as well as, our very own fancy attraction for current residents and distant travelers alike, but what does this mean for the future of downtown? I fear that as the perceived incentives grow to bring stores or restaurants to the Town Center area, fewer “name brand” businesses will see our downtown as an appealing location to set up shop.
But then, my fears turned to optimism, and actually brought me to an interesting question. What if… just what if… due to the fact that these businesses are, in fact, doing so well… could it, in turn, strengthen mainstream corporation's faith in the Jacksonville market; potentially leading them to open additional stores in other new locations throughout the city? If that were the case, then a solid argument could be made to create a new retail district, in an area where space is cheap and there's a lot of it – but where could that be..? Oh, I know! How about our very own downtown! An area I know we are all desperate to see come back to life.
Bear with me here… We have several store front properties that are vacant, countless empty lots begging to be developed, corner store locations which would be perfect for any pharmacy or corner market, among a painful amount of other real estate opportunities in a reasonable square block radius. (Do me a favor and Google Map our downtown and give it a one over, you will see SO many vacant lots and undeveloped buildings it will make your head spin… mainly West downtown). So, if the right retail businesses could be coerced into investing a little money, (and I know our city is already offering incentives for businesses to move downtown) I think our downtown has massive potential to support this type of growth, and to create our own areas like Chicago's Michigan Ave or NYC's 5th Avenue… With so many “conversion friendly” properties and vacant lots, to me, it's a no-brainer. Do I even need to mention how much potential The Landing holds…?!
Now, the argument that America is a consumer driven, materialistic, buy now – pay later, “in over our heads” in spending debt – type of society is beside the point. My main focus in this is… if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! And, as our Town Center has proven, Jacksonvillians like to shop… so lets spread the wealth, shall we? There are plenty of business men and women who believe it or not, don't live at the beaches… therefore; they might need to head north, or west to get home. What if they need to stop and get a new suit jacket due to spilled mustard, or replenish that make-up supply? Please forgive the stereotypes, but this is simply my way of trying to get a point across that these types of retail providers would do well in our downtown, just as they have in countless other metropolitan cities.
So, this is my plea… Lets pull together and bring our downtown back to the roaring 20's – or maybe revitalize by looking ahead to the roaring 2020's! I think it can be done. I think it should be done. Let's stop talking about the new courthouse and get some outsiders to start putting their dollars into our city, dollars we might actually see a return on… Let's not let the Town Center kill our downtown – let's let it inspire its comeback! I'd love to hear your thoughts.
A Flawed System (part 1 of 2)
As I’m writing this, an advertisement for Barack Obama has just aired on the television, condemning the fiscal policies employed by Mitt Romney during his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts. The commercial uses visual aids like bar graphs and pie charts to compare the state of the economy before Romney as well as under his leadership. The advertisement cites web sites such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics as the source of their data. Can you trust the data that you read though? Surely, a government entity like the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be above the kind of corruption that cynical Americans believe to be commonplace in the daily activities of government officials, right? The truth is that we have altered different statistical models at different times in our history to skew the numbers so that they don’t look as bad as they really are.
How does the Bureau of Labor Statistics gather its data? The short answer is that they use surveys, and because they use surveys a great deal, there is an inherent flaw in employing this method of data collection. First, people are not completely honest about how much they earn. It can be a source of pride or shame for some people, so disclosing that kind of information is a sensitive subject. Second, when you do a survey, your sample size has to be highly randomized to get an accurate sampling of the population. Third, your sample size has to be large enough to extrapolate and make a generalization regarding the remaining population. The Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledges their payroll survey’s confidence interval is suspect due to the admitted lack of randomization and built-in bias. Recently, the BLS has adjusted its bias factor. Instead of merely adding 150,000 jobs per month to account for new job creation and no job loss, the BLS have now accounted for that possibility and numbers have ranged from -321,000 to +270,000 in past years (Williams, 2004).
In order to better understand unemployment in the United States and the formula used in the past and the one used now, it would be beneficial to understand the concept of what exactly a discouraged worker is. A discouraged worker is any physically able person with the will to work, but has given up searching for a job because of the perception that there are none to be had. As much as I like President Clinton, it was during his tenure that he removed these people from the unemployment formula. Clinton removed all discouraged workers who had been out of work for more than a year and did not include those people in the data at all. Not only did Clinton shore up his unemployment numbers by omitting these unemployed people, but he also lowered the survey sample size from 60,000 to 50,000 or a 16.7 percent change. Before George W. Bush took office, the survey sample size had reverted to its original sample numbers, presumably to make Clinton look as though he were the one responsible for higher employment numbers and less poverty, leaving Bush to take the blame for economic downturn.
Please don’t get the impression that I’m trying to throw the Bureau of Labor Statistics under the bus, I’m not. They have the monumental task of accounting for statistical data in a manner in which they are directed to collect it. The only problem with the BLS is that they don’t have any way of collecting the kind of data that can be representative of the entire nation, often through no fault of their own. Perhaps the majority of the population isn’t ready to know the real unemployment numbers; maybe the outlook is just too bleak. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
False Advertising
Honestly… how many times have you purchased a product, due to a very convincing commercial, so excited about the results they boast… only to be disappointed that you seem to somehow have different results than the beautiful model with perfect hair or the handsome man who's getting all the ladies due to his new body spray?
Advertising can be a businesses' best friend, but it can also ruin you just as quickly. Here enters False Advertising. As a business owner, I would much rather be honest about the product I'm selling, because at the end of the day, what is more important – getting 100 people to buy your product once and be disappointed, or have 50 repeat customers for years to come..?
As a consumer, I am frequently discouraged when I see a convincing commercial about a product that will supposedly make my life easier, or my hair smoother, make my skin better, or make me smell like a movie star.. but at the end of the day – I simply can't understand why a company would advertise in a way to go for the quick buck, taking advantage of the naive consumer, instead of taking the time to actually make a quality product that will keep them coming back for more. Now, speaking as one of the naive consumers out there, I have a vested interest in improving the market and what it provides. I'm saddened by the loss of trust that buyers have (something we commonly experience as a business ourselves, when speaking to potential clients). Every deal in the market now seems “too good to be true”. It makes it that much harder for the honest, hardworking businesses to convince the jaded public that they indeed do have a good product that will provide exactly what it promises.
I understand there is no immediate fix to this 'false advertisement'/'lack of trust' problem. Unless folks somehow regain their conscience… it's going to be here for a while. But, I do ask the consumer to try and hold onto your faith. Don't lose it completely. If something sounds too good to be true, as they say, it probably is… but sometimes, just sometimes… a business, service, or product comes along that prides themselves on providing quality. And those are the ones worth listening to. They are the ones worth buying into who deserve your loyalty, respect and repeat business.
Not everyone out there is trying to trick you – but it takes some attention and a good eye to spot the ones who aren’t!