Synthesis Studios

Because I needed some extra room in my clothes this holiday season, I decided to pull everything out of my pockets to see what I carry around day-to-day:

• Swiss Army MiniChamp II Pocket Knife — a portable blade is incredibly useful, and it prevents me from having to try to cut things with my car keys.
• Utili-Key XT — one may consider this to be redundant, given the Swiss Army knife, as it does have a screwdriver, a small saw, a file (a bit too slippery to be useful), and a sharp blade. The one incredibly useful aspect of it, however, is while I take my pocket knife off my keychain when I get on a plane, I’ve never taken the Utili-Key off my chain.
• Micro-Light II LED Keychain — seeing in the dark is not one of my strengths — and this helps me.
• Credit card survival tool — this may be getting redundant, but yes, I do have a lot of tools on me.
• 4GB Walletex USB drive — I hate all the form factors of “standard” USB keychains, and I would have a feeling that I would leave them wherever. I love my Walletex because it fits in my wallet perfectly (its the size of a credit card, and maybe only twice and three times the thickness). And, on its 4GB, I keep a whole suite of PocketApps on it so that I can appropriate any computer that I happen to be stuck at.
• Business card holder — I’m tired of getting all my cards wrinkled.
• iPhone — I’m still in a complete love/hate relationship with this device. All I want is really good e-mail support.

(if you want a trip through time — check out this sister post from 6 years ago…). So - what’s in your wallet?

There are a few things that have a special little place in my heart: bunnies, cheese and Top Chef. Oh, and also the environment. Now of course I know how very trendy it is to say such things, but what can I say? I’m trendy.

At Synthesis, something we’re incredibly interested in is maintaining as green a workspace as possible.

Honestly though, here at Synthesis, something we’re incredibly interested in is maintaining as green a workspace as possible. We’re still working on what we can do to make our little perch in Cambridge more eco-friendly. We recycle of course; most of us live within walking distance to the office; we use high-efficiency bulbs and paper made of post-consumer materials; if we could be happy living on an exclusively locally-grown diet, we would probably do that too.

That’s what I think is biggest the trick to being environmentally-responsible — understanding what you are willing to adjust within your lifestyle. Which is why this week we decided to give Poland Spring the ol’ heave-ho and signed up with Atlas Watersystems to get a water purification and filtration system hooked up in our office.

The whole process was so simple that it’s almost ridiculous. All we had to do was have a consultation — during which we were told that installation would be so simple that it would be almost ridiculous — and then sit back while the plumber did all the work. That was literally it on our end. Now we pay significantly less than we did with Poland Spring, we’re supporting a local business and we have fresh, great-tasting water that’s not being carted in from Maine. Oh, and I’m not tripping over the empties or spilling gallons down my front whilst trying to replace the ginormous containers. So basically, everyone’s happy.

With a few iPhones floating around the office, and no iTunes enabled Starbucks in sight–we were feeling a bit disenfranchised up here in lovely Cambridge. Given that, and our love of “just in time” information, we felt we had to take matters into our own hands. And so we did.

Want to check it out for yourself? It’s easy: stand outside our office, and fire up the WiFi iTunes store. Now check out that Starbucks button!

Want to check it out for yourself? It’s easy: hop on the T to Porter Square in Cambridge, stand outside our office, tune to the “tmobile” WiFi network (you should be able to pick it up from the street), and fire up the WiFi iTunes store on your phone. Now check out that Starbucks button! (you’ll notice that we’re hiring too)

Any student who took “Every Bit You Make” should be able to pull it off as its pretty straight forward. All it took was an Acela ticket, and a morning in New York in the Times Square Starbucks with my laptop, my iPhone, and a bunch of network snooping. Granted, I probably got some funny looks while being overly caffeinated and staring intently at my laptop…