'MacSnob' invented TechTool

DailyGeek: What OS do you primarily use?

Baudin: The latest version of Macintosh OS X, of course! I'm a certifiable MacSnob. I owned a PC once. I didn't like it and it didn't like me. One night we had a break-in at the office and someone stole it. When the insurance company paid for a replacement, I used the money to buy a really cool pair of shoes.

DailyGeek: What search engine do you use?

Baudin: I use Google. Have you heard of it? I have one or two friends who use it as well.

DailyGeek: Your preferred Internet browser?

Baudin: I use Safari, which is the default Mac browser. But I may soon move over to Firefox, however. Safari does this weird thing far too often where the beach ball cursor will appear and start spinning and I can hear the drive thrashing about. Of course, I've tried checking the usual suspects: turning off all the options that could be causing it, blowing out the cache, dumping prefs. I even put on an aluminum foil hat and did a little Irish jig. Still no luck.

DailyGeek: What programs do you prefer using for Twitter?

Baudin: Twittlator for the iPhone is my current favorite. I used to use Twinkle, but it always made that twinkling sound and my friends started calling me Twinkerbell.

DailyGeek: What other social network applications do you use?

Baudin: Facebook and MySpace. After years of resistance to Facebook, I finally get it. And now that I've been using it for a few months, I'm hooked. I think the recent update is really cool, too. Sadly, I don't spend much time on MySpace anymore. Though I do miss the slow response time and have fond memories of the way the lights would dim in my house when I visited a MySpace page that had way too much bling.

DailyGeek: Favorite Web sites?

Baudin: That's really a tough question for me. It's like asking, "What's your favorite tool in your toolbox?" So I guess the answer would be the same: the one I currently need at any given moment.

But being a news junkie, I have a morning ritual that involves coffee and the following Web sites in this order:

Drudge Report, because no one can make me laugh and cry at the same time like Matt Drudge.

Press Democrat, because hilarious stuff constantly occurs in this county and the PD always has the scoop.

TMZ, because until recently I used to live in LA and I need to see how much trouble my friends manage to get into without my assistance.

BBC News & Pravda, so I can find out what's really going on in our country without Big Brother's censorship.

DailyGeek: Favorite way to get news?

Baudin: Whispered in a hushed voice preceded with, "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but . . ."

DailyGeek: What type of phone do you use?

Baudin: iPhone. iPhone. iPhone. Before that I used a Motorola RAZR that had a really cool version of Bejeweled.

DailyGeek: What is your favorite cell phone application?

Baudin: There's so many, I can't choose a favorite. As for the ones I use the most, the texting app on the iPhone would be at the top. It would also be at the top of my Least Favorite list. I so wish Apple would spend some time on this thing. I mean, really, it's missing the most basic things: want to resend a message? No problem! Just type the message over again! Want to send a message to a group? What's a group? If Apple hadn't locked us developers out of that portion of the phone, I would have already created the granddaddy of all texting apps. Steve, call me bro. Let's do lunch.

DailyGeek: Favorite productivity tech tool?

Baudin: My favorite productivity tech tool . . . would have to be TechTool, because I invented it! I'm obviously biased. Here's an interesting fact that I nearly forgot: In the early '90s, NASA used one of our products, a predecessor to TechTool, to conduct experiments to study the effects of zero-gravity on computers. At the time, I offered to go along to help with the experiments at no charge. NASA politely declined.

DailyGeek: What is your favorite Open Source software program?

Baudin: I'm in the business of selling software, so free software is the devil incarnate. When communism invades technology, it will come disguised as Open Source. Friends don't let friends use Open Source. Any person who defends themselves in court with Open Source has a fool for a programmer. All kidding aside, I'm a big fan of Mambo and Joomla CMS. We used to pay a fancy-schmancy Web designer to maintain our company Web sites. Every time we wanted to make the most minor change, he'd go "Cha-Ching!" Now with Mambo, we mere mortals are able to make dramatic changes to our site live within a browser, without without having to deal with HTML or any of that nonsense.

DailyGeek: What question should have I asked?

Baudin: First we had the computer revolution and then we had the Internet revolution. What's next?

Definitely the Robotics Revolution. All the technology is there . . . has been for a while. But no one is connecting the dots. This revolution will start with two guys in a garage, just like it did with the PC. And initially it won't be impressive. It will be a basic platform with a very simple operating system. It will be cheap and ugly. But it will catch on with hobbyists. And soon all these new little companies will emerge that makes products for this basic platform. Arms, hands, sensors, software, etc. At that point, businesses and industries will start deploying these things everywhere. After that, any home with cable TV will have one, including my own. I would take my personal robot everywhere I go. Especially if I'm having lunch downtown. That way I can send it off to feed the parking meter so the badgers don't give me a ticket.

Bonus question from last week's Q&A participant Frank Wise, co-founder of the social network for construction workers, www.constructionexchange.com.

Wise: What will be the important drivers behind the iPhone's adoption into the enterprise/business world?

Baudin: Most important is Apple itself. Their recent implementation of full push last year was really significant. Support for Exchange was added as well. One element that has made many resistant is basic phone features that are not yet implemented, a few of which I mentioned above. But I'm happy to say, these will soon be things of the past. I spent part of this morning playing with the beta of iPhone OS 3 and it rocks. Addresses the shortcomings I mentioned and more. The new push API will allow us developers to do some really cool stuff. We already have a new product idea inspired by that.

But I think the real boon to business users is already happening in the App Store. Now that most of the basic software categories have been released, I'm starting to see a broad range of vertical market apps beginning to appear. This is how the PC became king of the business world. There are point-of-sale apps galore. Lead trackers for sales people. Accounting programs, medical applications, etc. Don't be surprised if your FedEx guy soon dumps his scanner and has an iPhone with a barcode unit attached.

Given all that, there will still be a large group of businesses that won't adopt the iPhone because Microsoft is not onboard. And I don't see that happening anytime soon. They're still walking around all butt-hurt because the iPhone has given Windows ME a major trouncing. But I think they'll eventually see the potential dollar signs and will open an iPhone development division in the near future, if they haven't done so already in secret. But then again, maybe not. They could be working a phone of their own. I wonder what a commercial for the iZune will look like?

You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com. Check out his blog at DailyGeek.Pressdemocrat.com or on twitter.com/eWords