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June 27, 2003

Final Day of Geekdom

This is it. I have one remaining seminar (AppleScript for SysAdmins) in about an hour, and then I'm done. The rest of the day will be spent banging around the Bay with Todd, Cheryl, and the inimitable JellyBean, following by a few hours reading Pattern Recognition, and then I'm on my way home tomorrow morning.

Yesterday was the Apple Campus Bash. They carted us down to Cupertino (about an hour drive) in busses, fed us well, provided suitable quantities of beverages (adult and otherwise), and subjected us to a very loud and not entirely inspiring band. The Apple Campus Store operated at firecode capacity the entire time, with developers and othersuch (myself included) snapping up Apple logo merchandise. Fed, beered, sunned, merched, and deafened, we were returned to the streets of San Francisco.

I've been trying to keep in regular touch with Jenni via email and phone while away - I miss her and Nathan terribly. Being without a house partner for the week is, I think, starting to wear upon her - there's a certain edge of desperation starting to creep into my dear wife's voice. When I come home, I don't know what I'll be greeted for more: the return of her partner, the return of her bed-warmer, or the return of someone who can amuse, feed, and change our boy.

Probably all of the above. That's what it's all about, after all...

Posted by jim at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2003

Geekdom, Day Four

Spotty network connections have been one of the ongoing themes here are WWDC, but they finally seem to have gotten it right today - wired and wireless are working. Or, it could simply be the reduced number of attendee as the conference winds down. Either way, I'm online.

New pictures in the Gallery - four "art" shots from the Yerba Buena gardens, which are between my hotel and Moscone West, and a picture especially for Jenni. Ain't Target cute?

More WWDC commentary follows.

Good session this morning on transitioning existing OS9 and Windows systems (clients and servers) to OSX Panther. The most disappointing part of it was the mini-preso by a Pixar sysadmin, explaining how they transitioned - it involved a lot of custom scripting on their end (which were simply shown as black boxes - I'd prefer to see the underlying code), and a management that allowed them time and resources to plan well in advance of the transition. Still, Panther's (and Apple's) almost manic emphasis on OpenLDAP and MIT Kerberos (with continual assurances that, unlike MS, Apple isn't modifying Kerb) is very reassuring. Tony, I think we'll be able to do some of the metadirectory stuff you want to do (although Panther can't run an AD... yet).

One more session this afternoon about AppleScripting for SysAdmins, and then it's off to Cupertino for the Apple Campus Bash. Haven't been to the home of the Mothership before, but I still think I'll refrain from bringing my camera.

A couple sessions tomorrow, hang out with Todd and Family in the afternoon, then home-again-home-again Saturday morning. I miss my son, miss Jenni, miss my own bed. Miss my bed with Jenni in it. Don't miss my yard, which is likely horrendously overgrown by now, but that's why I'm taking a 4-day weekend for the 4th. Time to sharpen the machete...

Posted by jim at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2003

WWDC Pictures

There are a few (three) lo-res pictures from WWDC in the Gallery...

Posted by jim at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

Geekdom, Day Two

It's a much calmer morning than yesterday, when every WWDC attendee was waiting anxiously for Steve Jobs' Keynote address. Still, even with the reduced numbers, the Airport network doesn't work. sigh So I'm typing in TextEdit again, and will post when I get some connectivity...

Second night away from Jenni and Nathan and I'm still not sleeping that well. Usually I sleep fine away from home (just give me a bed), but not this time, not yet. It might have something to do with the remainder of the sinus cold I'm still getting over (slight congestion), but I really think it's just parenthood. Unconsciously, I'm still listening for Nathan in the night. Why else would I have awakened at 3:30pm - Nathan's wee-hours feeding time of choice - the past two nights? No question about it - I'm a daddy.

Although I do miss my wife and boy a lot, there's one benefit - the dull ache in my lower back and left shoulder has lessened. I'm still planning on finding a family practice doctor when I get back to Seattle to get a look at the shoulder, as it's the same ache that was diagnosed as a minor rotator cuff injury about 6 (six?!?!) years back. What fixed it back then? Why, some anti-inflammatories and a week or so of no lifting. Hrm...

This afternoon will be packed - back-to-back-to-back Mac OS X Server sessions, with the final one covering Authentication (a topic near and dear to us at work), which will segue nicely into tomorrow morning's Directory Services seminar.

Posted by jim at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2003

More Geekdom

I've found a little secret - a dozen or so tables near the back of the exhibit hall that have actual ethernet. Woot. So, without further ado, here's the long rambling post I wrote earlier this afternoon...

Well, after an initial bout of network connectivity while waiting for the Keynote, the WiFi network here at WWDC seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket - nobody appears to be getting online. Thus, I'm writing this in a text editor while waiting for the "Mac OS X State of the Union" session to begin.

So, about that Keynote. With two hours for Steve Jobs' patented Reality Distortion Field to wear off, what's still banging around in my head?

Panther is sweet. A lot of new features and usability tweaks. Unfortunately, only a few of them look to be the type of features that can be easily marketed in a bullet list. Like the Matrix, it's hard to be told about Mac usability - you have to experience it for yourself. Expose', for example, is a great method for window/application switching, one of the Neat Visual Things about Panther - and it's damn hard to explain in text. See what I mean?

There really needs to be an upgrade path for Joe User. $129 every year is far too aggressive (especially when you add in another $99/yr for .Mac), and the installed base will fall behind if you don't give them some sort of path. Give us a use for those Proof Of Purchase coupons, Apple!

iChat AV is damn cool. Looks like Apple did a fair amount of Human Interface research here - shown in how much Steve harped on camera placement for video conferencing. I already have friends who thing iChat is damn cool (if only it ran on their cobbled--together whitebox PCs). This is, as Steve said, Video Conferencing that just plain works. It is, after all, what Apple does right - makes things that just plain work. Can't wait until I actually have network connectivity and I can download the public beta and try it out with my new iSight.

iSight? Apple gave away their new iSight firewire videoconferencing camera to all attendees. That's about 3800 people receiving free cameras that will sell for $129 retail. And Apple's still getting a bargain - because these things are very cool, sexy toys that each one of these 3800 developers will go home and show off. Hardcore Apple geeks will always be the best marketing.

Safari is at 1.0. I need to stop by David Wyatt's weblog and give him some props. Hope the dev team gets to take a brief break before starting on 1.1. Now that the WebCore SDK is out, we'll start seeing a lot more clean HTML rendering in OSX apps - and a lot of apps that "require Safari 1.0".

The G5 Power Macs represent the biggest change since - if not a bigger change than - the migration from 68K to PowerPC processors. Everything - CPU, RAM, Video, Disk/IO, System Bus - has seen either revolutionary or evolutionary changes. Do I need one Right Now? No - I'll wait for the revised systems, and look at a tech upgrade for my G4/933 next summer or so. It'll be interesting to see what works and what breaks when the G5 systems ship in August. Steve really put the family jewels on the chopping block by stating that the G5 would be at 3GHz within 12 months - every pundit in the tech industry will be watching (and many of them hoping) to see if Apple makes it.

Posted by jim at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

Day One of Geekdom

Well, those of you in the Mac fold already know the news. Those of you that don't, well, let's put it this way - the new G5 systems from Apple are demonstrably faster than the fastest P4 or Dual-proc Xeon that money can buy. We've been waiting a long, long time for the next step past the G4, and Steve Jobs has delivered in spades.

Panther's looking really good, too - good enough that I may even consider partitioning my Powerbook and installing it when I get home. Makes me wish I'd brought my iPod with me after all, to use as a bootable drive. Heh. Apple ships a big predatory cat - Panther - this year. Microsoft is already falling back to 2004, and probably will slip to 2005, to ship their big... uhmm... cow - Longhorn.

And lots of smaller stuff, too. New iChat that supports videoconferencing, new firewire webcam (very spiff), Safari 1.0, Xcode (kick-ass development environment).

Having a great time, when all is said and done. Now if the damned WiFi would just work around here...

Posted by jim at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

In the Queue

(More WWDC posting). I'm sitting in the line to get into the auditorium for Steve Job's keynote address. The Keynote is at 10am. The doors open at 9am. I got here a bit after 8am, and the line was already a long, sinuous beast that snakes around the second floor of Moscone West. The keynote is on the currently-forbidden-to-mortals 3rd floor.

They're treating the developer community nicely. On registration, I received my t-shirt and a very swank (if large) carrying case that will replace my combination of slim laptop case and messenger bag for the duration of WWDC. Airport network is a bit slow and somewhat overloaded - but free net access versus $10/day from the hotel is verra nice. And free breakfast - tables loaded with fruit, yogurt, pastries, bagels, and even Krispy Kremes are scattered about the 2nd floor.

The natives seem to be getting restless. It's 9am - soon they'll start letting us upstairs, and we can sit in chairs and wait rather than sit on the floor and wait. Heh. Better get one more coffee refill...

Posted by jim at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2003

Plane Switch of Geekdom

So, here I am. Still in Seattle. Flight 592 was supposed to take off at 5:49pm, but the plane had a pressurization problem (leak in the door seal, apparently), so we've been switched to another plane.

One that doesn't take off until 8:20pm.

On the bright side, I have this wireless access that I'd paid for and is good until midnight (hopefully I'll be out of here by then), and I managed to snag a chair near an electrical outlet so I have power for the, well, Powerbook. No to mention, in moving to our re-assigned gate, I managed to escape the too-loud lady with the lapdog, and am now ensconced between a fellow WWDC attendee and a pre-teen sk8ter grrl.

Too bad they don't serve beer here at the gate.

Posted by jim at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)

Days of Geekdom

I'm sitting in an airport bar in Seattle with a nice big beer and about 2 hours to go before my flight to San Francisco takes off. This is what happens when traffic is clear from Ballard to SeaTac, and security is (strangely enough) on the ball. Of course, what really saved me was doing "Web Check-In" with Alaska Airlines. You have to have a boarding pass these days to even get into the queue for the security checkpoint, which means going to the ticket counter - which mean a line. Especially annoying if you've packed well and don't have to check anything. Web check-in got me a boarding pass online, so I went straight to security, breezed through that, and now I'm drinking beer. Life could be worse.

All that said, the geekdom is that I'm typing this - online - from an airport bar. $7 bought me all-you-can-eat WiFi access for the entire airport; a small price to pay for my net.addiction.

From here, I head to San Francisco, where I'll be until Saturday morning. The Apple WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) is Mon-Fri, you see, and I'm heading to CA to commune with my tribe.

This is my first WWDC, and promises to be a big one if the rumor mill is to believed. In any case, there is supposed to be 'net access at the hotel (the Argent) and WiFi all over the WWDC, so expect regular blogging (although the WWDC seminars are, for the most part, considered NDA).

It feels strange, leaving Jenni and Nathan behind - I haven't traveled since a visit back to Ohio back in Jan 2002, and the longest I've been away from home and family in the past year has been the length of a work day. And it's not always easy going to work in the mornings, with Nathan starting to get all happy, smiley, and anxious to play.

But here we go. The Days of Geekdom begin...

Posted by jim at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)