Yoot @ ADHOC?

I could send out a bunch of emails on this topic, or I could ask it once on this blog and probably get a better response, so here goes: in past years, the ADHOC conference (aka MacHack) has had something referred to as either "yoot sessions" or "yoot programming" (see this for reference). Does anyone know if there's going to be something similar this year? Or to be more precise, does it make sense for Sean, a 17-year-old (okay, not now, but he will be by then) non-programmer to attend?

SF Geek Dinner Tuesday

I got a very nice invitation to a SF geek dinner on June 14^th. Given that I just got back home tonight, I probably won't make it, but if you're around, check it out.

Mike, thanks for the invite, and please let me know if you do another one!

WWDC closing thoughts

I know we're not supposed to talk about things that happen at WWDC, but I figure that it's okay for me to quote myself.

As would probably surprise no one that knows me or reads this blog regularly, I appear to have become somewhat infamous at this conference (or at least complete strangers are coming up to me and saying variations on, "Oh, you're the one who...") for giving the Dashboard guys some flack. Guilty as charged.

But I should follow up on some things, as I've been asked numerous times since them: Yes, (as posted below), my widget did get posted on Apple.com. No, it wasn't a big deal; it was just that I wanted to document the process for the book, and it was hard to document when it wasn't happening. No, I don't know why it took so long.

Additionally, yes, I promised John and Andy copies of our JavaScript book. They both got them just a couple of hours later. I've since heard from other Apple employees that they're also trying to learn a little JavaScript in order to write widgets, and found (as have so many others) that The Definitive Guide is a good reference but a lousy tutorial — but that's the only book that anyone at Apple seems to know about.

So, here's an offer for any and all Apple employees (up to a certain number, which I haven't yet established because I'm not home to count how many we've got): Want a copy of JavaScript for the WWW: Visual QuickStart Guide, 5^th edition? Send me an email (to dori (at) dori.com) from your apple.com email address, containing your name, title, and mailing address at Apple. I'll let you know if I'm sold out. If not, you paypal me $4 to cover shipping, and you'll get your very own autographed copy.

If enough people want books, it may be simpler for me to just drive down and hand-deliver them, so I won't ask for the paypal transaction to happen until I know how many copies are involved. Don't worry about us running out of copies any time soon, please; the last I checked, we had nearly two full cases — ask away.

Tell your co-workers.

Informed speculation - I like it!

There's been a lot of semi-hysterical ranting in the Mac blogosphere regarding the PowerPC to Intel transition, along with a fair amount of moderately stupid speculation as to what Intel processors Apple will actually use. To some of these Mac fanboys, if it's Intel, it must be a Pentium, so it must have the same characteristics as the current generation of those processors. D'oh! The first Intel-based Mac will be using what Intel will have available in a year, not what they have today. And others, because they have emotional issues with Apple going with Intel, want to know why Apple didn't choose AMD instead. That last part is simple: yes, AMD currently has the fastest 64-bit x86 desktop processor. But they have nowhere near the breadth and depth of Intel's line of processors and chipsets. Apple needs better-performing parts for all its computers, not just PowerMacs and Xserves. Intel can supply that, and if you look closely at what they are offering, they can supply it in a fashion customized for Apple's needs.

Intel has a dizzying number of processors (each with their own code names) available and coming out over the next few years. I don't know much about Intel architectures and their processor roadmap, so I'm happy the Ars Technica guys do. You'll find Hannibal's informed speculation about which Intel processors Apple is likely to be using here. He also dispenses with the AMD issue. Well worth reading.

Texas is a barbaric hellhole, Part 2 in a continuing series

Just in case you think I was being a bit intemperate yesterday, it's even worse than you thought:

Chicago Tribune: Old South racism lives in Texas town:

They picked up Billy Ray Johnson outside a convenience store in this East Texas bayou town, a place where Confederate flags fly in some front yards and a mural of barefoot slaves picking cotton greets patrons inside the local post office. On a cool September night in 2003, they drove the 42-year-old mentally retarded black man to a cow pasture where a crowd of white youths was having a party. They got Johnson drunk, they made him dance, they jeered at him with racial epithets.

Then, according to court testimony, one of Johnson's assailants punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. They tossed his unconscious body into the back of a pickup and dumped him by the side of a dirt road, on top of a mound of stinging fire ants...

...The four young white men convicted of various charges in the incident are confined in the county jail, but not for long. A judge last month sentenced three of the four to terms of 30 days in jail, and the fourth to 60 days. Even that, however, was more than the jurors who heard two of the cases thought appropriate: They acquitted the defendants of the most serious charges and recommended no jail time at all.

The FBI and local law-enforcement officials investigated the case, and all came to the conclusion that what happened to Johnson was a crime based on his mental incapacity, not his race. Thus no state or federal hate crimes or civil rights charges were lodged.

So in Texas, you can basically get away with beating up a retarded black man, as long as you're a bunch of white men. Because as long as you beat him up because he's retarded, it's no problemo, cowboy. If you read the story, you'll also get to see the town's former mayor refer to the victim as "the black boy," and see one of the thugs' mother explain how the victim, who suffered a brain hemorrhage and permanent physical disability, "...is better off today than he's ever been in his life."

In 1861, Texas seceded from the United States and joined the Confederacy in order to preserve slavery. President Grant readmitted the state to the Union in 1870. That, in my opinion, was his greatest mistake.

It's that Serenity widget again

My Serenity Countdown Widget finally showed up on Apple's Dashboard Widgets download site. It's pretty darn cool seeing my name on an Apple page, I have to admit. If you want it, you can grab it there, or you can just go straight to my iDisk Public Folder and download it directly.

Texas is a barbaric hellhole

Kevin Drum has the story. If I had to point to a single state as the main source of all that is bad about America, Texas wins it hands down. There's just no contest. Political, corrupt thugs like the Bushes and DeLay; fascist politicos like Cornyn, who condone harming judges; demands for school textbooks that forces other states to swallow Texas' idiocy; the promulgation (and subsequent failure) of religious and ideologically-driven "education;" a festering laboratory for insane reactionary laws; it just goes on and on.

Now, I'm willing to concede that there are good people in Texas. I know some of them. Hell, I'm related to some of them. But where the hell are they, and more people like them? Why haven't they stopped this insanity?

Apologies in advance

If you come up to me at WWDC and I don't talk to you, don't take it personally. One day of talking and shouting over music and crowds, and I've already lost my voice.

Reply hazy, ask again later

I'm not at WWDC; Dori's down there and I'm holding down the fort with the kid and the cat. But I've been following things as closely as I can, of course. And I now know just enough about the Mac to Intel transition to realize that I know hardly anything. And that's the place where most of us are. I was talking about it with our son Sean, and I said, "You know, I don't really care what chip's in the box, as long as I can do the things with that box that I want. And to do what I want, I need a Macintosh."

I buy a new desktop Mac every two or three years. I got a Dual 2.5 GHz G5 tower last September. I think it's a pretty rockin' machine. If I keep it for the usual amount of time, I'll be ready for something faster and cooler in late 2006 or mid-2007. And hey, that will be just in time for an Intel-based machine running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Other folks have already been writing about the difficulties involved in this transition, and they may well be right. I want to see how Apple is going to avoid the "Osborne effect." I want to see how many developers, especially small developers, decide to pull up stakes and join the ranks of Windows developers. But I can't help but think that Apple's been doing awfully well at executing and delivering great products, and it's clear that they're not stupid down in Cupertino. Tiger is the best Mac OS I've ever used. The iPods are great. I still love this G4 PowerBook I'm using to write this. I'm certainly willing to give Steve and his crew the benefit of the doubt.

Update 6/9: Looks like I wrote a bit sloppily above, which led to a misunderstanding with some readers. I should have said "I want to see if Apple experiences an "Osborne effect," and what they do about it if it appears."

Reactions to today's announcement

Reactions to today's Apple announcement run the gamut from Apple is dead to So What? Big Deal. But as always, our favorite is Crazy Apple Rumors Site: Apple Switches to Intel:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

OH MY GOD! AAAAAAAAAAA!!! NOOOOOOO!!! WHAT WILL BECOME OF US?!!? WHAT WILL BECOME OF US ALL!!!

WE ARE DOOMED!!! ALL OF US DOOMED!!!

THERE IS NO GOD! THERE IS NO GOD!

AHHH-WAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

The Santa Rosa Apple Store ROCKS!

Computers are sentient, to a certain degree. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They know when you've planned ahead, and they know when you're down to the last minute and a goof will throw your schedule for a loop.

But that's another story; this one's about how the guys at the Santa Rosa Apple Store not just saved my ass, but provided service the likes of which I'd never imagined.

Part 1 — Saturday

As mentioned previously, the battery on my PowerBook (1.25 GHz AlBook) was getting somewhat old in the tooth and wasn't able to hold a charge as long as I liked. Tom, rightly, pointed out that the chances were good that I'd be buying a new laptop in the next few months, and that buying a new battery was, therefore, a waste of money. So, I figured I'd follow Apple's directions and calibrate my battery.

Somewhere during the last step, my battery charged to 75% and no further. I pulled the power cord, and the battery life went to zero. Tom and I tried a few other things (including resetting the Power Manager), but eventually it became clear that the battery wouldn't take a charge, and the laptop wouldn't boot even when plugged in.

At that point, I was supposed to be leaving town in less than 24 hours, not to mention that my destination was a conference where having a laptop is vitally important. I convinced myself that the problem was with the battery, and a new battery would make everything okay (yes, I was deluding myself, I know that now, but it kept me from killing someone during the night).

Part 2 — Sunday morning

Thankfully, we now have a local Apple store. Well, local for smalltown life; only about 20 miles away. And it's just a mini-store, with a single counter shared by both the Genius and the cashier. I called them as soon as they opened, and they said that yes, they had my battery in stock, and to bring it right in.

I drove down with laptop in hand and signed up to be seen by a Genius. The one I talked to, Randy, didn't think that it was a battery issue, and ran it through a few tests to show me that something a lot worse had to be the case and it was going to have to go into Apple for repair. I told him that I was leaving for WWDC that afternoon, and was there anything at all he could do so that I could have a laptop during the show? We worked out a deal so that I could have a loaner 12" iBook while my PowerBook was being repaired, and while I wasn't happy that my machine had died, or that I was losing a week's worth of work (I take a backup every Sunday, so of course it died on a Saturday), I had no complaints at all about the level of service I'd received.

Side note: I'd been there about an hour while Randy was working through all the possibilities just in case there was some way to bring my poor machine back to life, and the other Genius, Matt, saw my name on the wait list. He said, "Dori Smith? THE Dori Smith?" I agreed that yes, that was probably me, and he raved about how much he loved our JavaScript book. He then went into the back to tell Randy that he was working on the laptop of a D-List Mac celebrity. That answered the question I had of whether I'd been getting the high quality of service and attention that I'd seen because Randy thought that I was a somebody — it turned out that he'd never heard of me before.

So I took home the iBook, and Tom agreed to transfer over all my data while I finished packing and prepping for WWDC.

Part 3 — Sunday evening

The Apple Store closes at 6 pm on Sundays. At about 5:10 pm, they called me and asked if I could get in before they closed. If I could, and if I wanted it, they'd give me a brand new 1.67 GHz PowerBook. I said, "Huh?" And then I said, "Yes, thank you," just in case they came to their senses. I grabbed the iBook from Tom, who'd just finished transferring my old data onto it (thereby wasting several hours of his time — sorry, honey!!), threw everything into my car, and zoooooomed down to Santa Rosa.

I walked in at 5:57 pm and asked them what the deal was? They said that Apple had made it clear to the stores that they were there to make people happy, and that they'd talked about me after I'd left, and it was clear that I wasn't happy that I wouldn't have my PowerBook with me at WWDC. And because of that, their manager (Buddha) agreed that I should have a brand-new PowerBook. Oh, and would I like them to transfer the data from my old machine to my new machine, so I wouldn't lose any data?

End result: I have a brand new PowerBook. It cost me $0. Basically, they gave me $1300 or so worth of machine because they wanted me to be a happy customer. It's not like I was going to switch to some other OS because my Mac had crashed, or that I wasn't content with the iBook loaner, or that I'd bitched and moaned (really!).

This machine's about 1/3 faster than my old machine, it has considerably better video, and 1/3 more RAM. Oh, and did I mention that the battery appears to be lasting near to forever? That problem appears to be decisively solved. Now, the only problem is restraining myself from checking out the sudden drop motion sensor.

A version of this, will, btw, be emailed to everyone at Apple raving about the wonderfulness of the guys at the store and how happy (thrilled? ecstatic?) I am about the service I received. Those guys ROCK. And I love my new PowerBook.

WWDC 2005 SteveNote

I just got out of the WWDC 2005 SteveNote. First thought: holy shit.