Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Lynda.com
That's the real Lynda of Lynda.com on the left. She's never had a booth this big at Macworld before. But then, her training DVDs and online training have really taken off in the past year. I'm a subscriber to her online training and it's very extremely cool, covering a rich variety of software apps. I was smart enough to tell her I'm a friend of Robin's, and that scored me two tickets to the Lynda.com party on Thursday night, plus a special invitation for authors and potential authors Wednesday night.
Quark is here
Remember them? I'd heard they were still in business, and sure 'nuff, here they are. This photo erroneously makes it look like nobody cares, but there's still one minute and 30 seconds before the presentation is supposed to start.
The Adobe booth is packed for every presentation, no matter what app they demo.
The Adobe booth is packed for every presentation, no matter what app they demo.
The View
Robin and I arranged a rendezvous with friends (Joey Wilson and Linda Pedelty of Wilson Consulting, from Santa Fe) at The View, a bar on the 39th floor of the Marriott, just a block or so from the Expo. If you get there, enjoy the view (hmm, I wonder if that's where the name came from) while you do iPhone stuff. Around here, when the theme is "There's something in the air," we take it to heart and head up to The View.
The MacBook Air
Everyone wants to hold the MacBook Air to see for themselves just how light it is. Here's a photo of several thousand Mac geeks trying to get their hands on one.
Free stuff
Hardware and software companies gives away lots of free stuff at Macworld. Mostly big bags with their company names on them. I've noticed a direct co-relation between how popular a bag design is, and the gender/age demographic of the bag-givers. This particular bag seemed especially popular with men who didn't have their wives with them. The fireman couldn't take his eyes off those bags.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Getting to the Promised Land known as The Moscone Convention Center
Sitting in the Albuquerque "Sunport." Trying to connect to the Sunport Wi-Fi network. Full strength signal, but no connection. Hmmm. The Wi-Fi seems to be working because in the Finder. sidebar, under the "Shared" item, I see "Pamela's Powerbook." Tip #1: When you're using a public Wi-Fi spot, you might want to turn File Sharing off. And disable the Guest account (if you're running Leopard). Robin walks around the gate area, spotted a woman with a PowerBook. "Is your name Pamela?" she asked. Pamela seems surprised, and even fatalistic that her PowerBook is being shared with anyone on the public wireless network. Robin offers Tip #1, and Pamela, being smart like most Mac users, jumps into System Prefs and turns off File Sharing.
Now we're in the air and I'm listening to the soundtrack of Walk Hard: The Story of Dewey Cox. Tip #2: Get a pair of Bose Noise Canceling Headphones. The difference in ambient engine noise is not just nice, it's awesome. If you buy from the Bose web site you can set up payments (they're not cheap, but they're superior to the less expensive models).
Between the Oakland Airport and our hotel, we have an interesting conversation with our cab driver, a nice guy from Kabul, Afghanistan. He and most of his family left Afghanistan during the Russian invasion period (1980s). Mostly we talked about the movie, Charlie Wilson's War. Charlie seems to pretty popular with Afghani types, having boosted the CIA budget to covertly fight the Russians there from $1 million to $100 million. We hope to hook up with our cab driver next year at Macworld Kabul.
Before meeting Robin's sister for dinner at the Hayes Street Grill we hook up with friends from Santa Fe -- Joey, Linda, and Corey -- at The View Bar on the 39th floor of the Marriott Hotel. Joey Wilson and Linda Pedelty are long-time Mac mavens. Joey, Linda, and Corey are going to get in line for the keynote at about 4 am. If I can't sleep I'll go visit them in line (ha!).
Our hotel's Wi-Fi connection is not bad -- it's hideous. Totally unusable. Thankfully I brought my Verizon Wireless Broadband EVDO card with me. Tip #3: Pack a wireless broadband card when you stay at the Westin in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Verizon's EVDO service doesn't allow you to watch or do video. You can do it, but they might cancel your service if you do. It's always sumthin'.
Better stuff tomorrow after the Expo keynote.
jt
Now we're in the air and I'm listening to the soundtrack of Walk Hard: The Story of Dewey Cox. Tip #2: Get a pair of Bose Noise Canceling Headphones. The difference in ambient engine noise is not just nice, it's awesome. If you buy from the Bose web site you can set up payments (they're not cheap, but they're superior to the less expensive models).
Between the Oakland Airport and our hotel, we have an interesting conversation with our cab driver, a nice guy from Kabul, Afghanistan. He and most of his family left Afghanistan during the Russian invasion period (1980s). Mostly we talked about the movie, Charlie Wilson's War. Charlie seems to pretty popular with Afghani types, having boosted the CIA budget to covertly fight the Russians there from $1 million to $100 million. We hope to hook up with our cab driver next year at Macworld Kabul.
Before meeting Robin's sister for dinner at the Hayes Street Grill we hook up with friends from Santa Fe -- Joey, Linda, and Corey -- at The View Bar on the 39th floor of the Marriott Hotel. Joey Wilson and Linda Pedelty are long-time Mac mavens. Joey, Linda, and Corey are going to get in line for the keynote at about 4 am. If I can't sleep I'll go visit them in line (ha!).
Our hotel's Wi-Fi connection is not bad -- it's hideous. Totally unusable. Thankfully I brought my Verizon Wireless Broadband EVDO card with me. Tip #3: Pack a wireless broadband card when you stay at the Westin in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Verizon's EVDO service doesn't allow you to watch or do video. You can do it, but they might cancel your service if you do. It's always sumthin'.
Better stuff tomorrow after the Expo keynote.
jt
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The fun starts tomorrow
Tomorrow (Monday) Robin and I will spend most of the day traveling between Santa Fe and San Francisco, so this is probably the last entry until tomorrow night, after we've launched some analog-docking procedures with a few friends and family units (hugging, shaking hands, talking, eating, drinking). Digital-docking, on the other hand, is the kind of interaction we're having right now. It's not important, but I picked up this terminology from Kai Krause (we miss you Kai), and I've been waiting 10 years to use it somewhere. So there.
Since I'm not there yet, I can't post a fun Macworld photo. But I was able to grab a shot of the excitement and anticipation that's rampant around here.
Since I'm not there yet, I can't post a fun Macworld photo. But I was able to grab a shot of the excitement and anticipation that's rampant around here.
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