This is going to be a short blog post since I’m using a public terminal in between the Apple Design Awards and Stump the Experts - the evening activities. I’m using a public terminal because I finally decided to go over the Apple store at 4:00 PM, sign up for a genius bar time (7:00 PM), and send my PowerBook in for repair. It’s got white dots on the screen that really suck - it’s not a big deal normally but when working in Word or other applications that are predominately white, you can see three or so spots where the pixels have either died or … ? Whatever the case, it’s being sent in to Apple (the genius took one look at it, said it sucked, and then had me backup my files). Let’s hope that it gets repaired properly!
This morning was more of the same. Woke up, walked to the Moscone Center, had breakfast, and then it was start of the sessions. I went to Using Bindings to Help Sync your Data and UI and then to the Advanced Document-Based Application Techniques. Both were good sessions but half way through, I realized I didn’t really follow anymore. These are things that I definitely need to read more on. Lunch came, I ate the food, and then went into the Union Square area to do a bit of shopping. Then it was time for more sessions and they were really good. Went to .Mac integration, Sync Services, and then Core Data. Core Data rules. It really is an amazing technology and so much is provided for us. It’s built upon SQLite (XML and Binary too) and it’s fast. It’s also really easy to use. They showed a very good, clear example, and it used zero (yes, zero) lines of code. That’s the beauty of Xcode, Interface Builder, and Bindings.
It’s time to go now- the final activity is starting. Tomorrow will be more sessions, followed by a trip to Apple’s campus in Cupertino for the Campus Bash … music and food and drinks. I’ll post more when I get a chance…
7:30 AM
Monday. The official ‘Day 1′ of the WWDC Conference. Mathieu and I are excited. In a couple of hours, Steve Jobs will take center stage in the Presidio conference room, in front of 3800 developers eagerly awaiting a comment on the rumors that have been flying around in the past few days. Will Apple move over to Intel? Or is this just a hoax? What new machines will be released? Is the iPod 2 GB rumor true?
9:15 AM
We’ve been sitting/standing in line for the past hour and a half. The wait is getting long. The New York Times and SF Gate provided by the Hyatt have been read and discarded and with the WiFi down, there’s very little to do. I’ve talked with a couple of attendees from Syracuse University and listened to a REAL Software developer discuss the benefits of REALbasic with others, but I’m bored. Developers are just like everyone else, cutting in front of one another and in general, the organization so far has been fairly poor. At least there’s plenty of coffee available and to make things better, it’s even called Aram’s Blend.
Well, the day I’ve been waiting for has finally come. In a little while, I’ll be heading off to Syracuse airport to fly, via Atlanta, to San Francisco to spend six full days in the wonderful city attending my second World Wide Developer’s Conference hosted by Apple. This year’s conference looks to be very interesting and I’ve mostly figured out the sessions I’d like to attend. In addition to the standard presentations, hands-on sessions, and evening events (from the Campus Bash to Trivia), I’ll also be doing a bit more sightseeing. I’ve got tickets to head to Alcatraz on Tuesday and I hope to spend some of Sunday walking in the Golden Gate park, taking photos.
So, while I’ll probably have wireless internet all day (and perhaps even in the evenings), if you e-mail me, please be patient. I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I possible can but I’ll also be involved in a lot of events. However, if you’re interested in following along, I’ll be posting entries throughout my stay about interesting topics, San Francisco, and most probably, photography.
With one day to go before Tiger is released, the WWDC student scholarship winners (myself included!) received official word from Apple that we were winners. What this means is that we get a free pass (e-Ticket) to attend the developers conference between June 6th and June 10th, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Granted, this hardly costs Apple any money but is a wonderful, good-will gesture to budding developers and students that is greatly appreciated! Some highlights from last year were the keynote (of course!), Apple Remote Desktop 2 given to us for free, the trip to Apple’s campus in Cupertino (and the live concert of Jimmy Eat World), and not to forget, the special Sunday event just for students…
This will be my second year in attendance after having attended last year’s conference. The overall topics will be Tiger-centric and instead of learning about the new technologies and how we *might* be able to work with them, given that the operating system was still in development last year, we’ll have concrete instructions. I’m greatly looking forward to attending the conference and being that I now know what it’s all about, will be able to appreciate it more by being selective in which tracks I pursue. In addition, I’m dying to take some photos of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge with my Rebel XT!
Travel plans are currently in limbo; I’ve used my Delta frequent flier miles to fly out to San Francisco on June 4th, catching the red-eye back to Syracuse on a late June 10th flight. This is actually *perfect* as I don’t have to pay for an extra, unneeded night at whatever hotel I’ll be staying at. I’ve contacted the Student-Dev mailing list in search for a roommate whose willing to stay only six nights (as opposed to the normal week) and am currently in communication with a pleasant French student from Paris. My ultimate goal is to keep lodging costs under $300 for the stay, while not sacrificing quality too much!
Five days after the Apple WWDC ‘05 student scholarship winners were to be announced, I found the following asset today in my Apple Developer Connection account. It looks like I might be going to San Francisco this summer for a week after all!
WWDC 2005 Student E-Ticket Asset
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