Attention to Detail
Friday, October 05, 2007 - 12:09 PM
One of the things that many people (non-Mac using people) don’t understand about why Mac users are so passionate about their platform, and why the Macintosh experience is so superior to Windows (and, yes, Linux), is Apple’s attention to detail. This is something I’m constantly noticing when using Apple products. It’s something that I’ve noticed for years, and years. It’s not just within the OS, either, it’s all around; software and hardware.
This is a perfect example of that: http://rentzsch.com/notes/applesantiCAPSLOCK.
How many PC manufacturers would think of that?
This is how you normally notice Apple’s attention to detail, completely by accident. It’s usually while making a mistake, or doing something that has unexpected (favorable) results, that you run across the things that make you think “Gee, I’m glad they thought of that” or “Boy! That’s COOL!”
I have a good example of this. It’s something I notice on my iPod quite some time ago, and that is: if the headphone cable becomes unplugged during operation, the player stops. The iPod actually pauses itself when the headphone cable is unplugged. Think about that. The Apple engineers had the foresight to realize that if you accidentally unplugged the headphone cables (by, say, shifting the iPod around in your pocket) you probably wouldn’t want to miss any of what you were listening to when it happened. The first time it happened to me, that attention to detail blew me away.
This is an example of designing things towards the user experience that other companies don’t get (and thereby, people using other companies’ products don’t understand, either). Other companies focus on the features of their product, on how they think their product should be used. Apple focuses on the actual user experience, on how people actually use the product.
There are many, many examples of this all throughout OS X (and with the computer hardware, as well). If any more come to mind, I’ll point those out as well. (And, if there are any Mac users out there who actually read my ramblings want to share, feel free to in the comments.)
Randy’s Restaurant and Funhunter’s Brewery
Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 03:38 PM
It suddenly occurred to me that I never wrote about one particular part of Carrie’s and my trip to Wisconsin last month, and that was our dinner at Randy’s Restaurant and Funhunter’s Brewery (possibly the longest name of any brewpub I’ve been to).
It might seem odd to find a quality brewery/restaurant in rural Wisconsin, but Whitewater holds a campus of The University of Wisconsin, so it’s a bit of a “college town”. But, I digress.
I’ll start with the food, which was very good. We started with the “famous” Colby Curds (fried Colby cheese curds - think of a fried cheese stick, but in a ball) - which were as tasty and addicting as they were most likely detrimental to our health (sometimes you just have to indulge). We also had some beer-battered onion rings, which were good, but nothing special. We waited a while before ordering our entrées, since we wanted to just hang out and enjoy a few of their beers before dinner. When we did eat, I had the Pulled Pork sandwich, which was excellent - the BBQ sauce was very tasty! (I don’t even remember what Carrie had; I think it was one of the burgers. I do remember that she enjoyed it very much.)
Anyways, the reason we’re here, on to the beer. We both tried a few different selections (and, of course, sampled what each other had ordered). All of the beers were good, but nothing really stood out. I don’t even really remember, at this point, what I ordered (I really should start taking notes when I go to places like this). There was one exception to that, however, and that was the Oatmeal Stout. If you’re a stout lover, and you find yourself anywhere near Whitewater, WI, make sure you find your way to Randy’s. That was one of the best Oatmeal Stouts I’ve ever had.
We do plan on staying at Pine Ridge again in the future, and I’ll definitely find my way back to Randy’s for that Oatmeal Stout when we do.