“Hey, Amazon.ca, that’s the online bookstore or whatever, right?”
“Yep.”
“What’s the website for that?”
“...Amazon.ca.”
- Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

If you follow CurrentMarketing’s Facebook or Twitter feeds (and if you’re not, just why don’t you?), you probably noticed the amazing pillows that showed up here in the Geek Suite yesterday. For those of you out of the loop, bask for the first time in their downy glory:

Besides being totally sweet, these really show how much digital culture has meshed with every day life. Every one of these icons is tied so deeply to its brand, they’re easily recognized, even from a distance, on all sorts of forms.

I remember as the 90’s progressed, and web addresses began to propagate on billboards, business cards and napkins at an exponential pace, the whole concept seemed unbelievable. The world of computing was private and poorly-understood. One did not simply announce to the public that they were on the internet, because no one would know what you were talking about. They would ask you where the “internet” button was on their keyboard. Was it on a CD-ROM or a floppy disk? These were valid questions.

A decade or so later, who doesn’t prominently advertise their web presence? The idea is ludicrous. One might as well attempt to attract customers through the tried and true methods of smoke signals and semaphore for all the success you'll have. Your website is the point of first contact for near-on any human with a curiosity about your business. Whole advertising campaigns are created and disseminated through the web. It needs to be your best face. Do it well, and you might just be on a pillow here in the Geek Suite someday.

Okay, so admission time - I’m a PC guy.

In the main, this is a function of personal history - I cut my pre-teen computing teeth on Windows 3.11 and Sierra adventure games (ah, Roger Wilco, we hardly knew ye), and surfed the Mesozoic age of the web on the stalwart S.S. Netscape Navigator. As time went on, I learned to cobble together my own machines out of disparate bits of motherboard and RAM, giving life to inert parts in a process both primal and alchemical. Sure, they were rough around the edges, but there’s an undeniable charm to using a computer built with your own two hands.

Macs have always been...the other computer. I was never much interested in the sports rivalry between the competing machines, but I honestly didn’t like using Apple’s OS. The supposedly slick and intuitive user interface confused me. What’s with these programs that don’t close when you close them, and where was my C: drive, damnit? I crave simple file trees; without them, the jitters come.

Having recently come aboard at CurrentMarketing, I found myself tossed into the deep end of Macintosh use. My work machine is a comely beast, it must be said, but I intended to keep the relationship strictly business. One can use a Mac all day and come home to a PC every night, right? No big deal. That big LCD screen was mighty tempting, sure, but it didn’t mean anything. Honest...

Wait, what’s this? Coda? Well, isn’t it nice that someone made what Dreamweaver has always wanted to be in its innermost fantasies. Wish I could use that at home...

My PC is infected with the hideous AV Security virus? Ugh, there goes the weekend. Glad that’ll never be an issue for my work machine. Wow, once you get to know it, this user interface really is fantastic...

So, that’s it. By slow erosion, my CurrentMarketing experience is turning me into a Mac Guy. There’s no shame, really. It feels good. Natural. Like it was always supposed to be this way.

Song for the Day: “Truth Skull” by Lymbyc Systym (don’t let the title fool you - it’s quite tame!)