Have you ever wanted something badly enough that you were nervous to even try for it, for fear of rejection? I’ve been thinking about applying for an internship at Apple for at least a year. Because they don’t visit the University of Rochester on their fall recruiting trips, I knew it had to be me that took the first step. I acquired the email address of an Apple recruiter about a month ago, but it has sat unused on my desk through school break, when I had more than enough time to compose an email and update my resume.
I kept putting it off, however, and it wasn’t until today that I realized that I was so worried about not getting a job there that I hadn’t done anything to try to get the job. The same thing happened to me earlier this year. I really wanted to work for the Admissions Office at school as a tour guide, but I was quite nervous about what I had heard was a grueling application process. Yes, the process was awful, especially during final exams, but I came away from it more experienced with interviews and public speaking, and I got the job.
I’ve never been a person to give up on great opportunities just because there is risk of failure. However, I have had such a string of successes in my life, most recently with scholarships and college applications, that I feel like at some point I’m going to lose out on a big one. But this is no reason to stop trying.
There are so many reasons I want to work at Apple, first and foremost because I love their products, but also because I want a new experience. I’ve been in Burlington the past two summers working at IBM, and I want a chance to explore California and meet some new people.
So let me announce it publicly. (deep breath) I’m applying for an internship at Apple this summer. I’ll let you know how it goes.
iTunesVolume (download link below) is an awesome little program that I found a few days ago via macosxhints. It has a number of features – the ability to start and stop iTunes, change the volume, rate the current track, and display the current track’s info and lyrics – all conveniently accessed from the desktop! My favorite feature, however, is that it displays the current track’s album artwork on the desktop (fully resizable). I love being able to see the album artwork of the track I’m playing, and I think that the desktop is a perfect place to put it, but few programs offer this option.
I’ve been using iTunesVolume for a few days now and it works well, always changing the artwork within seconds of changing tracks on iTunes. The display preferences are numerous – the three components can made transparent and not all of them need to be shown. I only have the volume controller and the artwork running, as seen in the screen capture below:
One caveat: activity monitor shows that this program seems to utilize the CPU more than it should. I didn’t notice any significant speed issues while I was using it, but bear that in mind if your Mac seems slower after installing it.
The author’s website is currently down due to overusage of bandwidth, but the program can be downloaded at this mirror until the site is fixed.
P.S. Jokes relating to Coldplay and The 40-Year Old Virgin will not be appreciated 
While I was playing with iPhoto over the vacation, I discovered a neat way to quickly review all the cool things I had done last year. If you use iPhoto to manage your photo library, and you take a fair number of photos throughout the year (I have around 1200 shots from last year), then you may enjoy this little trick. It is by no means earth-shattering, but I thought it was a uniquely visual way to reminisce about the year.
Choose the year you want to review from the source list. The years are found under “Library” which should be the first item on the list. After adjusting the pictures to an appropriate size using the slider in the lower right hand corner, click on the scroll button and drag it at any speed down the scroll bar. As you do this, the months of the year will overlay the photos so that you can see everything that happened that month. You will only see the overlay if you are using iLife ’06.
Last year brought me my 19th birthday, many track meets, my 5th Vermont City Marathon relay team, jaw surgery, my first lobster, a Dave Matthews Band roadtrip, a week of camping in Deering, New Hampshire, many visits to friends and family, a Ben Folds Concert, and a fine Christmas. I hope 2006 was good to you as well.
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