Day two of the conference and things are settling down into a nice routine. The confusion felt yesterday with Apple’s switch to Intel seems to have mostly been forgotten and the focus of the event, Tiger and developing for it, are being pushed to the forefront.
I arrived this morning at the Moscone Center just before 9:00 AM this morning in time for a decent breakfast and plenty of coffee. The first session I attended was Cutting-Edge Interface Design for Mac OS X, a session that gives tips and tricks on how to design for the Mac OS, what to look out for, and of course, presented some examples. A lot of things that I just knew were right were explained and I left the session feeling confident on Apple’s emphasis on UI. Of interest, Mike Matas of Delicious Library, as well as Geoff Pealman of REAL Software, spoke to use on their design and re-design (respectively) of their software. Very interesting session all together.
After a snack and more coffee, I headed to my second and last session of the day, this time on Core Image. I followed along well enough in the beginning, finally understanding how filters work on top of images, and was able to fully appreciate their early source code. As soon as they began to talk about image units, I knew they were far beyond my simplistic approach to images and I left to find an ethernet point (as they are the only way to get online at the conference reliably).
Soon after, it was time for Lunch and Mathieu and I met up with one of my roommates from last WWDC, Padraic, and we had lunch. Chicken faijtas and tortilla chips were served, and as is with almost all mass produced, conference food, it was decent but not good. As soon as lunch was done, it was time for me to head out in to San Francisco and start sightseeing.
Alcatraz from a Distance
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.
Waking up at 7:30 this morning, jet lagged and still groggy, I got ready to head to the Moscone West, a ten-minute walk from our downtown hotel, to check-in and receive our free swag from Apple. Like last year, they provided us with laptop backpacks, our badges, and a conference schedule. However, in addition, much to my enjoyment, they also provided us with mini-nalgene’s of just the right size. After checking in, Mathieu (who I am rooming with) and I headed over to the Argent hotel to begin the student Sunday program.
Apple provided us with a very decent continental breakfast and it didn’t take long to meet up with other students in the program, as well as, those who I roomed with last year. The morning went by mostly quickly, although the introduction to Cocoa presentation was the same as the one from last year. Realizing this, Mathieu and I decided that instead of sitting through the afternoon sessions, we’d have lunch (on Apple’s expense) and then head out to do some sightseeing on this sunny Sunday.
Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park
Today was my first time flying out of Syracuse, NY and it was quite a different experience from flying out from a major city like New York. Things just ran smoothly, in an “old-country” like way - although that’s not at all to say things were much different from a major airport or any worse. It was just, the airport was smaller and everything was a bit less formal. Getting there was accomplished by a lift by a friend and the journey was about an hour away from Hamilton.
View from the Hyatt Regency
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.
| Archives » | |
| Friends » | |
| Browsing » |
Copyright © 2000 - 2007, Aram Kudurshian. All rights reserved.
Syndicated Feeds: Journal Entries, Journal Comments, and Noteworthy Links.