Apple T-Shirt that fits the Do Not Talk Fight Club data center rule

Data Centers in general obey the infamous Fight Club Rule “You Don Not Talk About Fight Club.”  “You Do Not Talk About Data Centers”

Apple has created version of this rule in a T-Shirt.

Apple Souvenir T-Shirt Jokes About Company’s Secrecy

Monday July 11, 2011 2:03 pm PDT by Jordan Golson

This $17 t-shirt sums up most visits to Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino. Available only at Apple’s Company Store, it’s a bit more classy than “I visited Apple HQ and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” — but sends the same message. The shirt reads:

I visited the Apple campus. But that’s all I’m allowed to say.

This is too funny and I had to get one.  Which is being modeled by not daughter asking, “Dad, why is this funny?”

Think Different switch back to the Mac from Windows

I worked at Apple from 1985 to 1992.  The Mac was introduced in 1985 and 1991 Apple shipped System 7. I spent much of time working on Mac OS 6.0.x and System 7 was years of being immersed in Mac development.  When I moved to Microsoft to work on Win3.1 my coworkers and I spent much of time using Macs as we were working TrueType and the vast majority of tools where on the Mac.

Even though many of my friends used Macs I didn't take the time to switch.  But, yesterday I switched to a 3rd generation MacBook Air and the Lion OS.

Switching from Windows to Mac is an interesting experience for me as it is bringing back a bunch of memories working on OS design.

The main reason I switched to the Mac were:

1. I needed a more powerful content creation laptop.  My Lenovo X200T was good, but not a good performer.  The MacBook Air i5 processor is much better with Sandy Bridge and SSD.
2. My main tools are Blogging, Photo Imaging, e-mail, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, so moving to the Mac is not a problem.
3. The Lenovo was light, but the MacBook Air is hard to beat for weight.

The funny thing is when I started using the Mac again, it brought back a bunch of memories of working at Apple and the way I used to work.  It's kind of old, 20 year old neurons were reconnecting on how the Mac has different priorities.

I have written a few blog entries with MarsEdit.  Downloaded photos from my Canon 7D.  Installed Office, Aperture, Lightroom as well.

I was much faster writing with Windows Live Writer, but it's only my  second day switching back to the Mac after almost 19 years.

Steve Jobs Keynote serious about data centers, compares Apple, Amazon, and Google

Steve Jobs gave his iCloud keynote http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

at minute 115:00 you can see Steve Jobs compare Apple, Amazon, and Google cost of music cloud services.

To make the point Apple is committed to iCloud he makes the point Apple is serious about data centers.  Steve discusses its 3rd data center in Maiden, NC at minute 116:00.

Steve says this data center is as eco friendly  as a data center can be with modern technology.

Steve is a great show man as usual and wows people showing the scale of the building.

and points to two dots on the roof that are actually people, getting laughs from the crowd.  When is the last time you heard someone laugh when they talk about the scale of their data center.

"Full of stuff.  expensive stuff."  More laughs.  Who would ever call millions of dollars of IT equipment stuff?  You won't see Jobs calling an iPhone, iPod, or iPad stuff.  Do you think he is making fun of the other stuff he doesn't make?

It's been over 20 years since I worked at WWDC as an Apple employee, and never would have thought Steve Jobs would be talking about data centers.  A lot has changed in 20 years.  Wow 20 years, and there are people I know that have been there the whole time.  This video was probably some of the first pictures they've seen of their mothership data center in Maiden, NC.

The Media Data Center War - Apple started with Music, Amazon started with Books, who will win?

Engadget reports reports on the Amazon Android powered Tablet for the Summer of 2011.

Amazon to take on Apple this summer with Samsung-built tablet?

By Thomas Ricker posted Apr 21st 2011 6:35AM

You really should pay attention when Engadget's founder, Peter Rojas speaks about the tech industry. Especially when he leads into a story like this:

It's something of an open secret that Amazon is working on an Android tablet and I am 99 percent certain they are having Samsung build one for them.

Which makes sense to follow the announcement of Amazon's cloud drive.

One data center guy I was talking to said the Apple guys aren't worried about Cloud Drive as Amazon will get sued.  I made the point that that makes sense if you are Apple, but not necessarily if you are Amazon.  Apple has had media companies like Apple Records battling the company for decades.  Amazon is looking to disrupt Apple's business models.  The huge margins Apple makes are opportunities for Bezo's crowd.

The battle for who will win the next media battle will be fought in the cloud in addition to the devices.  The data centers are key to the strategy. I place my bets on Amazon.  The media and loyal Mac users will be on Apple.  Amazon's thin retail margins has forced them to think efficiently, whereas Apple promotes think differently.

BTW, thinking efficiently usually aligns with less energy which is better for a green data center.

Is working at Apple the end of the career for a data center executive?

Sometimes I wonder if Olivier Sanche would still be alive if he had stayed at eBay instead of going to Apple.  If Olivier was still at eBay he would most likely be the VP that replaces Mazen Raswashdeh vacant position as eBay's VP of Technical Operations.  But, Olivier had a passion for Apple products including the dream to work there.  I spent 7 years working at Apple from 1985 - 1992 during the good years of early Macintosh Development, yet I never think should I have stayed at Apple.  I have friends who are still there with 25+ years, and some have left and gone back

What would have happened if I had stayed at Apple all these years.  Well, I would have hit 26 years at Apple this year and still be living in the SJ area.  I was raised in Saratoga, CA, went to schools in Cupertino and went to  UC Berkeley.  But, what kind of person would I be if I had spent 26 years at Apple?

Apple is a 35 year old company, but the number of data center executives who came from Apple is unknown.  Apple hired one of top data center executives with Olivier Sanche's arrival.  His replacement is not known publicly and is not Kevin Timmons.  Thanks to my blog post on Kevin leaving Microsoft for Apple., there is huge speculation Apple has big data center plans and cloud computing.

But, let me tell you another side of what happens after I posted.  Some of my data center friends cautioned me posting on Kevin leaving Microsoft going to Apple as "your post will make Kevin famous and known in the industry."  True.  But, I'll tell you one thing that happened immediately after the news spread.  Apple PR called Kevin to make sure that he doesn't talk to any media.  Not about Apple,  Not about Microsoft.  Not about anything data center related.  How do I know?  Did I talk to Kevin?  No.  But, this is exactly what happened when I blogged about Olivier Sanche leaving eBay going to Apple.  Olivier and I had no idea the news would be so big, but one of the first calls was from Apple's PR department to figure out who this data center guy was that media guys were calling about.  Apple PR is probably trying to figure out who the hell is this Dave Ohara and his green data center blog, telling the world about the data center executives we hire.

With Apple PR clamping down on data center executives like Kevin Timmons's, high visibility virtually disappears over time as there no other words shared.  With Amazon's Cloud Drive, new media services from Google around the corner, and the media watching for Apple's next step it is quite possible the Apple PR team is clamping down even harder on any data center news being shared.

Which gets back to my title question.

Is working at Apple the end of the career for a data center executive?

Working at Apple was the end of Olivier Sanche's career.

Can Apple's data center solution be put on course with the hiring of one data center executive, Kevin Timmons?

What is not totally clear is whether Apple can operate data centers to compete against Google, Microsoft,  and Amazon.

The media has their opinion.  But, would you run a data center based on what mass media thinks?  Think about that one for a while.

I trust my data center advice from the insiders who run data centers 7x24 365 days a year with decades of experience.