Posted on January 30, 2009 @ 5:53 am
I met with ITG (the IT Group) at Columbia yesterday and found some interesting statistics about Mac usage. My J-term 2010 class has one of the largest percentage of Mac users the school has had, with approximately 20% of students using Mac laptops. Of the class of 2010 (including Fall and J-term), 17% use Macs. And of the entire school (‘09 and ‘10), 15% use Macs. It’s great that ITG actually supports both Mac and Windows — which gives students an opportunity to make the jump to Mac when they enroll.
As for downsides of using a Mac, there aren’t really any. The only slightly annoying thing is that Excel for Mac doesn’t have the features we need for a decision models class, so Mac users have to let ITG install Office for Windows on their laptop for just that single class. Fortunately the school has a site license for Office, so the only extra cost is the price of Windows and/or Parallels, in case you don’t want to use Bootcamp.
While Mac usage at the business school is steadily growing, it doesn’t look quite like this yet:
Posted on January 24, 2009 @ 1:13 pm
With the transition to business school, one of the things I struggle with is using Entourage for email and scheduling. For the last few years I used Gmail and Google Calendar at work. It was a relief to stop using Outlook — and at the time I vowed that I’d never go back. But apparently not every institution (Columbia) is comfortable with reducing their licensing fees and technology overhead costs.
Here are the pain points for me right now:
* Searching isn’t intuitive in Entourage. I have to use the search options to expand my search to include different folders and to search over the title/body/etc.
* Because search is a pain, I often resort to sorting my email (e.g. to find a message from a particular person or with an attachment), but that is even more time consuming. Then I have to unsort the mail when done.
* Organizing email is time consuming and restrictive. I used to just archive my email and not think about it. Now I’ve had to create folders for my email and file everything. In order to replicate the Archiving experience, I created a general folder called “archive” and just stick things there instead of deleting them (in case I need to reference them later).
* The outlook ‘Flag’ feature isn’t a substitute for staring messages.
And here are some of the benefits I’ve found from using Entourage and Exchange for my email/calendar:
* Nice integration with the iPhone, with push email, syncing and event notification. When will Gmail support push email?
* Entourage calendar syncs well with iCal, which I sometimes prefer to use.
* I like the ability to put the message preview pane on the right side of the screen instead of having it beneath the list of mail.
Posted on January 10, 2009 @ 9:51 am
Monday January 5th marked my last day at Google and my first day at Columbia Business School. Working at Google over the last 5+ years was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had. I had mixed feelings about leaving the company, but do so knowing that I’ve built a number of solid relationships and friendships that will last no matter where I end up.
Orientation at Columbia caught me completely off guard. The level of energy and enthusiasm that the current students put into welcoming the new class was impressive and definitely helped ease the transition back into school. Here we are with 180 people with vastly diverse backgrounds and interests — but just after 5 days it’s already feeling like a tight-knit group.
We have introductory courses beginning next week and I’m taking an exemption exam tomorrow, so I really need to go study for that.
I’ll use this blog over the next 16 months to keep everyone updated on my experiences at Columbia and in New York City.