About
Hi. My name is Rick Yaeger ( @RickMacMerc ). Let me tell you a little bit about MacMerc ( @MacMerc ). Would you like the short version or the long version?
The Short Version
MacMerc chronicles my pursuit of Mac Awesomeness. I don’t want to announce the newest stuff the fastest. I want to announce the most amazing stuff that will make your Mac using experience the best it can be. I’m all about creatively encouraging people to find the freedom in using technology and interacting with others through it.
The Long Version
MacMerc.com started its life as a personal blog promoting my freelance print production work. I was a Mac Operator for hire; a Mac Mercenary.
Over the course of the first year as a freelance and a blogger, I found that a lot of the Production Managers relied on me for information about what was going on with the Mac operating system (this was during the transition time between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X) and news of updates to QuarkXPress (then the industry standard) and the rumors of the upstart application from Adobe, InDesign.
I answered many of these questions on my blog as a way to sell potential clients on my knowledge and expertise and it soon grabbed the attention of Mac enthusiasts outside the “desktop publishing” world. I started writing about the new iPod device and other new Apple products and the accessories they inspired. MacMerc slowly turned into a Mac enthusiast blog and I was loving it.
I kept writing like this for several years. I even had help for many of those years from awesome Mac bloggers Jon Gales ( @jonknee who got us using a CMS), Brian Burnham ( @brianburnham who wrote the popular Freeloader Friday articles) and James Huff (who was our crash test dummy with reviews and tech support). We became a band of Mac Mercenaries.
Then little by little the band fell away. But at the same time, I was coming into my own. I started making regular appearances on a television show called The Lab with Leo Laporte where I got a taste for being in front of the camera and helping people get over the intimidation of technology.
When the show ended after one year, I was still hooked on finding awesome applications, hardware and web services that enhance and enrich the Mac using experience. I really got a charge out of helping people actually enjoy using their Macs from something more exciting than email and web surfing. I had to keep going with this somehow, so I started my own podcast, MacMercTV.
I worked with my director, Maria Petersen ( @mariapetersen ), and recorded 5 episodes and started releasing them one per month. I promoted them heavily on Twitter and Facebook while also doing interviews with Ken Ray ( @macosken ) on Mac OS Ken and Victor Cajiao ( @victorcajiao ) on the Typical Mac User Podcast. The shows were extremely well received and I was really enjoying making them.
Shortly after I launched the podcast, I started up a friendship over Twitter with Greg Grunberg ( @greggrunberg ) from NBC’s HEROES. He is an amazing guy with all kinds of projects on the go. At the time he told me about an idea he had for an iPhone app that would bring up coupons based on where the user was in proximity to the stores. He wanted to know if I knew anyone who could develop it. I did, of course. I connected him with my friend from my days on The Wizards of Technology, August Trometer ( @august ).
That was the start of the whirlwind of activity that became Yowza!! Mobile Coupons ( @yowza ). In the early months it took over a lot of my time and even distracted me from my day job a fair bit. I had no time to write blog posts, much less scripts. There was definitely no time for shooting and editing.
In the midst of all that, a hacker came a-hackin’ (it’s what they do). Somebody was repeatedly compromising MacMerc.com’s security and posting all kinds of filth and horror. With all the other stuff happening in my life, I couldn’t handle this as well. The only person that knew the site well enough to defend it was also the guy I recommended when Greg asked if I knew any coders, and he was busier than me.
I was sunk.
My only defense was retreat.
Through my friendship (and internship) with Cali Lewis at GeekBrief ( @calilewis ), I had met some amazingly wonderful people and made some great friends. One of them, Daynah ( @daynah ) came to my rescue and put up a “be back soon page” and went to work converting the data from my antiquated pre-Typepad content management system over to WordPress. She did a great job and I am so thankful for her help.
My participation with Yowza!! is much less than it was and I, once again, have time for blogging, script writing and podcasting.
Now, I’ve relaunched the site and I’m moving it in a more focused direction toward Mac awesomeness. I’m tired of reporting on maintenance updates for this or that program. I don’t care about telling you that the iPod case that was available for last year’s iPod has now been updated for this year’s iPod (unless that case is particularly awesome). Those stories don’t excite me and I doubt they excite you much either.
MacMerc chronicles my pursuit of Mac Awesomeness. I don’t want to announce the newest stuff the fastest. I want to announce the most amazing stuff that will make your Mac using experience the best it can be. I’m all about creatively encouraging people to find the freedom in using technology and interacting with others through it.
…and THAT is why they call it “The Long Version”