Author: Trav

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Status

It’s Been A Year

I didn’t realize this until I looked at the calendar on my Surface Pro this afternoon, but I decided to leave Staples and finally take a chance a year ago today.

It’s hard to believe its been a year, but I won’t bore you with stories about some aha moment where everything in the universe told me that I should do what I wanted to do. I won’t pretend like I wasn’t afraid or that I somehow knew that my bills were going to get paid or my power would still be on a month after I left.

I will tell you that a year ago I was scared and desperate and wanted to know what it was like to work with your head instead of your hands. I wanted to know what life felt like for people who took chances and made mistakes. I wanted to know what it was like to like what you do.

Here’s to a year.

Trav.

Categories
Longform

I Wrote This: An Indian-American Takes Over as Microsoft CEO

“I’d imagine that Nadella’s appointment gives Indian-Americans, the same pride as having Barack Obama winning The White House. It’s proof, tangible proof, that their contributions to America and the corporations that power her can’t be ignored, that they too are winners in the American Dream sweepstakes.”

For GottaBeMobile

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Longform

I Wrote This: Microsoft, Give In Already and Become Irrelevant So We Can All Move On

“Oh and to be clear, reversing the Start Screen decision won’t just return Microsoft to those days of being considering a boring company whose stuck in the past and incapable of innovating. No, Microsoft should be so lucky. Doing so would ensure that the company who staked its reputation on actually innovating and following through with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 would be a laughing-stock. For the next ten years Microsoft wouldn’t be able to make one bold move or innovate on anything less these same people who complained about the Windows Desktop not being forward thinking enough to compete with the iPad rush in and remind everyone that this company didn’t have the chutzpah to follow through.”

For enConnected

Categories
Freelance

I Wrote This: Windows 8 is the New Windows Vista? That’s a Bad Thing?

If Windows 8 is Windows Vista and to be considered a failure, it’s not because of the operating system itself. It’s because of the failure of Windows buyers and Windows machine makers to grasp that progress is a good thing. If Windows 8 is a failure, it’s because of everyday men and women embracing progress and new interfaces with an Apple logo, but failing to understand that to stay relevant and to stay modern they must sometimes use new interfaces and allow software makers to create new paradigms on the PC.

 

For GottaBeMobile

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Status

Working and working

Just checking in. Working hard that’s all.

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Status

A Week in America

Howdy folks. I’ve finally made it home. No more do I have to worry about flight delays, crazy airlines who should be more heavily regulated and some people who can’t seem to follow directions.

This past week I braved frigid temperatures in Chicago. I came up against a monolithic ridiculously complicated bureaucracy in an airport.

And for all of that trouble. For all of that mishap. I’m glad everything worked out the way it did. I’m glad I was stranded in Chicago and got the opportunity to meet real people. Real people with mortgages and careers, real people who work in an airport for a living and attempt to make it bearable for us all. I met journalists who’ve been around the trade show block more than once and give me the hardcore schooling I needed for an event like CES. I finally got the opportunity to meet the team of fellow writers that have taken me under their wing and taught me the business these past 8 months.

It was a hellish, tiring and impossibly stressful week. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Trav

hello from Richmond

 

Categories
Longform

My Review of Madden NFL 25

I’ve been threatening folks with my first video game review for ages now. Here’s my review of Madden NFL 25 for enConnected.

“American football at its best, consumerism at its most baffling.”

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Uncategorized

Coffee Now

While sitting in my office before getting to work on some enConnected content I found myself falling back into Netflix with a few episodes of Lewis. This is some of the best television I’ve ever seen.

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Status

One of those weeks

I’ve had days when I wish there were two of me more often than I used to. Not sure if that’s the cosmos telling me I’m working too much or too little. Either way, I’m spending the afternoon examining where all of my time is going and where it could be better spent.

Hope your stuff is going well.

Categories
Freelance

The Real Cost of Returning the Start Menu to Windows

Recently, I shared my thoughts on rumors indicating that Microsoft could return the Start Menu back to Windows.