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WWDC 2003: Day 4
by Jeff Szuhay
<jeff@szuhay.org>
Thursday, June 26, 2003
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Quick table of contents |
Please, tell it to stop
Another beautiful day in San Francisco. Ouch! It's just too much sun for me (Pittsburgh is the 2nd least sunny city in America, behind only Seattle). Blue sky, warm -- I just can't take much more of this.
When I get to the conference, I stop and chat with Mark Lilback before going into the sessions. Not every discussion at WWDC is purely technical; they do tend to range all over the map of possible ideas and topics. This time, Mark told me about the Free State movement www.freestate.org whose goal is to get enough members to move to a specific state so that they can control the local elections thereby having a much broader national influence. State selection is in its final stages. Oh, yeah, and these are a Libertarian leaning group dissatisfied with both the Democrats/liberal (or whatever they now call themselves) and the Republicans/so-called conservatives. Regardless where you stand in the political spectrum, this certainly a movement worth checking out.
Here's annother example of the kinds of non-technical conversations one might find here. I then went to the land-line ethernet tables to file my report. Somehow, we got into a discusion about how to treat loose, unfamiliar domesticated animals (shoot them) especially when they are in the class of vicious temperaments. When I get home, I'm going to ask my local police department what they would recommend in such circumstances.
Morning Sessions
By this time in the conference, I feel like I'm settling into a good daily routine. It is also by this time in the conference that most of the sessions deal with the less flashy aspects of the technologies or the more mundane features. Worthwhile, nonetheless; just not the stuff everyone is going to get wild about.
But one thing does happen repeatedly; a small new feature will be demonstrated which happens to generate wild applause. This usually surprises the demonstrators because I've heard each of them say, "geez, its the little things that you don't expect." In every case, these little things are subtle design enhancements or new UI features which eliminate a small, but persistent set of irritating behavioral workarounds. These can really get to you after a long day; but when they're gone -- amazing relief.
All this confirms to me that were definitely in the "fit and finish" phase(s) of Mac OS X. Apple has a long history of this from the original Finder to System 7, 8, and 9. Now, it appears certain that this is happening with OS X. Does this mean Panther is going to be a "no-brainer?" Well, it's not clear yet. The version the developer's have is not feature complete in terms of UI; but it is certainly shaping up to look that way.
Lunch
Part of my now regular routine is to file my reports before lunch. Again, more of the usual table-banter. At one point, someone mentioned something about Windows-to-Mac migration. I'm glad I heard about that even though I missed the session it was in; at least I know to look for it on the forthcoming DVD (and possibly ADC TV).
When I finally did eat, it was rather late and the cafe was pretty well cleared out. As I sat down most of the table got up to leave. But I did have a good conversation with Argyre Patras, IT Manager for Raven Biotechnologies. After discussing some stuff from my previous employer, I got a possible job lead with another biotech startup closer to my home. I'm not sure if I'll need it but its certainly good check that one out.
Afternoon Sessions
In one of the afternoon sessions, I caught up with George Warner, who has been extremely busy with the G5 and Multi-threading libraries. He says that he's been held hostage until the conference and can now go home and see his wife again (just kidding). But he did mention that if you haven't seen his replies to emails on the mailing lists, this is why.
I asked him some design questions on the use of threads versus processes and then we agreed to meet at the beer bash later tonight.
The Campus Beer Bash
Apart from the "Stevenote," I'd reckon that the dinner/beer bash at Apple's 1 Infinite Loop campus is a major high point of the conference. It's a big party with not just other WWDC attendees but with Apple employees as well. To take full advantage of this, you have to ready for anything and just go with the flow.
On the bus ride up, I talked with a computation biochemist student from Vancouver. Behind me, two guys talked intently about spelunking and rock climbing.
Once on the campus, I catch up with a bunch of people I've met as well as meet some more. I found a group of other Pennsylvanian's -- some from Penn State Univ, and Douglas Willen, Director of Academic Computing, from Swarthmore College, near Phladelphia. After some lively discussion I leave this group to find Mark Lilback, George Warner and bunch of DTS guys. At this point, I've been drinking beer but not yet eating because of long lines.
I leave this group to get food finally -- lots of yummy asparage, nice beef, and unbelievable cherries. Very nice. As I'm eating a group forms of Mark, Gerald, Greg, and Ted Thibodeaux, from OpenLink. Ted was wearing his insanely decorated top hat; when I asked him about it, he told me its history and it didn't seem so insane after all. I eventually left those guys talking about their database stuff to do my annual "walk around the perimeter."
At the perimeter of the campus, on the sidewalk, are groups of various Apple groups, each wearing a t-shirt of colors signifying their groups. Hardware was yellow, Java was orange, etc. Some of these groups I go to to just have some fun, others I specifically go to to thank them for their great work. Hey, you know these guys get a lot of bitching -- why not show a little bit of gratitude. They certainly deserve it; there are a lot of "kick ass" developments in Panther ("kick ass" is apparently the theme phrase for this WWDC).
By time I make my round, it's nearly 10:00pm and time to get back on the bus to SF. Naturally, the bus ride back is a bit rowdier than that coming down. I had a great time learning of the peccadillos of a company near La Rosa, Lousiana. What the IT Director was telling was just amazing -- the stupid stuff employees (and his boss) end up doing. I think he's gonna write a book...
Once off the bus, I get invited for a beer at a local pub. One of these guys is a student but the other is the technical manager for IBM's G5 Compiler Optimization team (or something like that). We discussed the issues of Apples SpecMarks and their choice of compiler; I don't really want to go into that here. Shortly thereafter, Bill Bumgartner (sic) joins us. Bill is the author of the Python Objective C bridge and has been recently hired by Apple to work on the EOF Objective C stuff (or some new variant of it). This was great news to me.
At that point, its time to leave. Friday promises some good sessions.
Have a question or comment? I appreciate your feedback
Published by Doug B. Landry and contributing staff. Trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., and others reserved. ©2003 Delta Design. Publishing headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Index version 1.1.2
