Conchango man ends up in INQ shed

GOOD MORNING! It’s been a while since we’ve had anyone
in our interview shed, what with the eight bags of
potting compost we bought, the broken pots from the
storm, the sit-down lawnmower taking up so much space
and the wife putting the summer veranda and her old
china in there.

But we’ve had a trip down to the
charity shop, dumped all our rubbish on the doorstep
and we’re delighted to welcome

Mike Altendorf, joint MD of Conchango, a consulting
company a lot of you will have come across, especially
if you’ve spent time planning an all-guns-blazing,
extra-bells-and-whistles web site.

Q. Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your
hand? Or is it a mobile phone/smartphone/PDA and if so
please could you describe it and give your opinion of
said item? (Actually, that joke still doesn’t work as
it was designed for our first interviewee in this spot
and his name was Joe. But just ignore that and imagine
you were born as a Joe.)

A. Currently I’m using an HTC Touch. It’s small, light and brings me all that Windows Mobile brings to the party such as push email
and some bespoke applications built for me here at
Conchango. Far better than any ugly BlackBerry. But
it’s missing one thing - a good keyboard. So I’m
thinking of moving up to a HTC Touch Dual, though I’ve
been known to change my mind.

Q. Would you describe yourself as a gadget freak, that
is, a consumer of gewgaws and electronic fripperies,
some say nerd?

A. God no, I’m no nerd… geeky, not nerd. I do have all
the latest toys though but I stopped short at an
Iphone. No point, as the Touch has all the trimmings
without the 18 month contract.

Q. What's the coolest item in your rig?

A. The Sonos music system. It
just works… music in all my rooms, music I choose or
what my family want in their own rooms at the same
time from one source. Brilliant.

Q. And the one you feel ashamed to tell us about,
omitting no detail, no matter how small?

A. The Apple Newton. It was a great idea but, hey, we
all know that no-one has the same handwriting as Steve
Jobs.

Q. What else have you got in that part of the house
you call your study but your partner refers to as 'the
utility room'?

A. As before, the Sonos, but I’ve also got a 10-inch
I-mate Momento - they just rock. I can have all my
pictures from the server just floating around on the
screen in a slide show, but at the same time it will
give me the latest news feeds or allow my family to
send camera phone pictures of me whilst out and about.

Q. To have a desktop or not a desktop -- discuss.

A. Nope, don’t be tied down. I’d go as far as to say
some people don’t need a laptop either. Mobile devices
nowadays are powerful enough to get most of my
day-to-day stuff done.

Q. Are you a lunatic, style-obsessed Mac zealot or
sober, Harris Tweed-wearing PC man?

A. There is a line nowadays? I’m not sure. OK, so
Windows Vista is Mac-like. So what, Macs are similar
to BeOS and we all saw what happened to them.

Q. What sweet piece of kit would you like to purchase
next, once your dependents take a break from raiding
the bank account for so-called necessities?

A. I’d love to be able to buy a Telsa, bringing
together my love for cars and tech, but they’ll never
pull their finger out and get it over here. So it’ll
have to be a Microsoft Surface table for the living room. µ