First week at the White House has been a technological trip back in time for Obama's team. Hardly surprising, yet also ridiculous; no wonder it takes the government so long to get anything done.

It's amazing how your personal productivity gets tied to the technology you are most comfortable with. When I have to sit down and use earlier versions of OS X or Windows that are lacking Spotlight, Quicksilver, and all the other stuff I am accustomed to, I go nuts. Even something as simple as being able to open Console on OS X to see what is happening under the hood is sorely missed on less transparent platforms.

On our daily sync-up call with the Phoenix office, the Ops guys were saying that the Oval Office didn't even have Ethernet jacks. Apparently Obama is the first president who has wanted to make a computer a full-time fixture on his desk. I haven't validated these claims in any way, but it would not surprise me if they were true.

Of course, a major reason for the tech lag is the increased security requirements; once you have a secure setup it's hard to change it without opening holes. That being said, I know that Macs have seen an increasing use in military applications since OS X came out, so fingers-crossed the White House will soon become the Mac House too.