Whistler in the Summer

We got back on Sunday from a few days at Whistler, where we spent some days of vacation with my brother and his family. While we all never felt very rushed, we managed to get quite a few activities in while we were there, including a gondola and chairlift trip up to the top of Whistler mountain, a ZipTrek tour in the forest above and around the Fitzsimmons river, a hike to Lost Lake, a couple of movies (”Get Smart” at the local cinema, “Jumper” on DVD) and several lunches and dinners out. My niece Renata also got in a couple of sessions on the bungee trampoline, which helped her to bounce a couple of stories (at least) into the air. While I can’t document all of it in pictures and video, here are some high points (sic):

Pam wasn’t quite prepared for how cold it would get, but fortunately, there were some blankets available at the chairlift, about 2/3 of the way up.):

I also thought I’d include a few ZipTrek videos. This gave me a chance to try out Flickr’s video features. I’m not including one that I can’t seem to flip horizontally (my Sister-In-Law held her camera sideways and no matter what I do, including changing the file and saving it to a new movie, the uploaded file seems to revert to that orientation).

Here’s Pam sliding on the wire across the Fitzsimmons River:

Now, from the point of view of a participant. Need I add that this is a blast?

In addition to the rides up in the trees (about 5 times over the river and back), you get a bit of an ecology lecture about the area and some tips on what you can do to be more ‘green’. I really like ZipTrek, who seem to practice what they preach, in terms of an ecologically-aware business. Aside from the vans that they use to transport people to and from their sites (and I heard that once there are electric ones or perhaps hybrids that will serve in this capacity, they’ll switch to those), they are pretty gentle on the environment. They even have a small water-driven generator via the river that provides most of the electrical power for the A-Frame where they house their offices, train employees, and end some of the tours. Our tour leaders were college students majoring in Eco-tourism and Geology, and they made sure that none of us were ever in danger or uncomfortable, despite what looks like an ‘extreme’ sport.

In addition to some good meals together (Monks up there is very nice and beautiful to look at; Pam’s Halibut dusted with porcini mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes was superb), Pam and I also had an excellent celebratory dinner of our third Anniversary of coming to Canada on July 5th at Il Caminetto , one of the restaurants of Umberto Menghi (his Il Giardino and Umberto’s are both downtown). He’s one of the three celebrity chefs in the White Spot commercials, (the other two are Rob Feenie and John Bishop) always talking about ‘the sauce’. We ate a light dinner; Pam chose a subtly flavoured Roast Cornish Game Hen atop chickpeas and mixed vegetables, and I had a simple but perfectly done homemade Fettuccine with cream sauce, peas and prosciutto along with some excellent wine: A good BC Pinot Gris made by the Pentage Winery from Skaha Bench in the Okanagan, as well as an intense Italian Muscat for dessert . I’ve become a big fan of dessert wines, and sometimes prefer them over a cake or tart.

So for trying of celebrity chef restaurants in the area, we are now 2 out of 3. I guess a visit to a Cactus Club would now count for Rob Feenie, since he has become the ‘food concept architect’ of that chain. That’s what the articles say, at any rate.

A nice time was had by all (I think), and we feel pretty lucky to have this beautiful resort area so near to us (for those who don’t live in Vancouver, depending on traffic and construction on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, it’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the city). My brother summed up Whistler by and large better than I could: “It’s a bit like Disneyland for adults.”

A Final Reckoning on WWDC ‘08

Now that I’ve had some time to think about last week (besides the event I reported on in the previous posting), I thought it would be good to offer some lasting impressions. While I’m not a computer programmer, I understand most of the concepts behind the discipline. That said, much of Apple’s Developer Conference was geared toward programmers for whom code is second nature. Many of the sessions I attended dealt with code, whether or not the description of the session said so or not (I was particularly disappointed when a session which was described as ‘Building User Interfaces for the iPhone with Interface Builder’ was really more about when you should load some of those User Interface elements into memory, and how to achieve this in your code.)

I was able to understand nearly all of what was said in the main User Interface session for the iPhone, which was, in a way, more about the scope and scale that one should expect for applications written for it. Not surprisingly, the key concept that so many developers miss now and will miss in the coming months and years is that it makes no sense to bring all of what a desktop application does to the iPhone. Try to do that, and you’ll end up with a product that is hard to use, not all that useful, and full of features that simply don’t fit in such a small footprint (in memory or screen). I don’t think I’m violating any NDAs here when I relate this, because its so patently obvious. Nevertheless, I’m sure there is already some corporation out there that is faithfully trying to cram 20-30 screens of functionality into this hand-held device, because they have the misconception that a computer is a computer, no matter how small.

The overarching principle that Apple made sure was mentioned in nearly every session, was that programmers should use the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern for building their software (I won’t go into much detail about it, but it’s essentially a way of organizing what your software program does, so that you separate the logic and data from user interface, making it is easier to modify either the look of the program or the underlying business rules without one affecting the other. For more information about where MVC comes from and who uses it besides Apple [Java Swing, JSF, Microsoft Foundation Classes - who call it "Document/View architecture", DRUPAL, Joomla, the list goes on and on.], check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller).

The other thing that Apple made sure was the case in every session: Everyone had to be very well prepared and extremely polished. Unlike some conferences and conventions that I’ve attended, the level of quality control for this one was extraordinary: Nearly every single presenter was an Apple employee, and I learned from one of them just prior to their session that each presenter had several weeks of rehearsals, sometimes twice a week in the months leading up to WWDC. Since nearly every presenter had a lot of information to share, the result was a breakneck pace for all sessions. Forget about trying to duplicate their demos of developer tools, much of this was worked out to the last second without any pauses, with snippets of key programming code at the ready to paste in at key moments, like one of Julia Child’s finished dishes sitting in the oven, ready for the final minutes of the show on The French Chef. Nothing was left to chance; No demo ever failed to work. At the end of each session, the entire team who worked on that piece of software or area went to the stage, and answered questions from attendees, who were directed to 4 microphones at very places in each room. Each and every session, both presentation and all questions and answers, were recorded and should be available as pocasts on the Apple Developer web site for attendees to review (and you can bet they’ll need to).

Besides the sessions themselves, it was an exhausting experience from the sheer number of attendees (as I’ve mentioned before, over 5,000 of them). That meant waiting in line for everything, be it food, getting into sessions (when it paid to be lined up about 30 minutes before the start), tables, desks or chairs through Moscone West, or even the escalators between levels. It was about 95% male, and the standard attire was jeans and black t-shirt. Just about every attendee had a laptop (99% Macbook Pro), and an iPhone. What does a wireless network serving that many wireless customers look like? Check this geek porn out (as usual, click each to see a larger image):

For all but the largest presentation rooms, there were power strips duct-taped to the chair legs at regular intervals, and there were several ‘lounge’ like spaces with beanbag chairs, tables, desks, iMacs (if you didn’t have yours with you), and Industrial-Strength Wireless Network repeaters, set up at the perimeters of the interior of the building like force-field generators you see in Sci-Fi movies.

While I did meet up with a few people I knew (or knew of, by reputation or from getting in touch with them prior to the event), for the most part I was among strangers. I did my best so socialize, but it goes without saying that Software Developers, for the most part, are not exactly ‘people’ persons. Many of them would probably much rather code than chat, or if they do chat, it’s through a keyboard.

The second to last evening featured a huge party at the nearby Yerba Buena Gardens, one of my favourite places in San Francisco. It’s a large open park bounded by the Yerba Buena Arts Center, the Moscone Convention Center, and the Metreon, Sony’s attempt at a sort of Entertainment Mall which is starting to show its age. The food consisted of several stations serving everything from Sushi to Foccacia-Pizza to Chinese Stewed Short-Ribs and Stir-Fried Noodles. The entertainment was The Barenaked Ladies, which must have cost Apple some significant amount of money. Given their success lately, I guess they could afford it. It was nice to see some recognition that they were Canadian, and they made some nerdy jokes about those of us to the north with iPhones being criminals. They started with their arguably their biggest hit, One Week, which even I recognized. I’ll bet they are sick of playing it, but the crowd was appreciative.

In the end, I’m not sure if I’ll attend WWDC next year. While I did get some valuable information, I’d say that about 50% of what I got was in the ‘nice to know’ category, and it’s a pretty expensive (and draining) event for that sort of knowledge. Still, I don’t regret having been to this one, and I’m hoping that what I learned and who I met will translate to some work at some point in the future. You can never tell.

A Memorable Journey

I’ll do a wrap-up post on my time at WWDC, but I felt that I had to write about this first. On the way back to Vancouver from San Francisco, I had scheduled a shuttle, but at the last minute, canceled and decided to use BART again. It was one of those decisions that I’ll no doubt look back on and think, it’s a good thing, because otherwise I wouldn’t have had the experience that I had. Friday the 13th has always been lucky for me, and this June 13th was no exception.

After boarding the train at Civic Center, after 2 or 3 stops, 2 men in suits got on the train. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Navy blue suit, blue eyes and gray hair, a US Flag lapel… it was Howard Dean. Yes that Howard Dean, the former Governor of Vermont, front-runner candidate for President in 2004 (whose campaign I worked on) and currently, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. ‘I’m never going to have another chance like this,’ I said to myself. In a moment or two, I got up the nerve and introduced myself to him, telling him that I had worked on his campaign (He immediately said ‘Thank you’ for that) and that I was a great admirer of his. He was on his way to some meetings at hotels at the airport, and to avoid the traffic, had decided to take BART. I told him where we had moved (and why). He had many questions about Vancouver; he hadn’t visited the city for 40 years. He did mention, that he loved Canada, and often went to a family house in Nova Scotia, near Bras d’Or Lake (since Vermont is so close to the Canadian border). Pam and I had gone to that area for our honeymoon. He talked about how cosmopolitan a reputation that Vancouver has, and that he could absolutely understand our move here. He asked if we were going to get Canadian citizenship, and that obviously, being a techie, I would have had no problem getting landed immigrant status. We chatted about a number of subjects: the Primary, What President Barack Obama will do to help put the country back on the right track (and whether we’d return after that), even a bit about our land in Vermont (”You should hang on to that”, Dean said. “When we get out of this Real Estate slump, that’s going to be worth some serious money.”). We reminisced a bit about when I had last seen him on the campaign, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when he spoke by the river, with boats with his banners floating back and forth behind him. When I commented on the flag pin on his lapel, he said that it was “to show the Republicans that they don’t own the flag”. He laughed when I suggested that perhaps the Democrats could have a slightly different (and maybe a more elegant) design for it.

To prove that this is not what it sounds like, a ‘tall tale’, I got his assistant to take a picture of the two of us, seated on the BART seat:

We parted as he went off to his meeting, and I headed to my check-in for the flight home, feeling as if I were in the air already. At the gate, I immediately called family all over North America to tell them of my good fortune and began this post.

My lasting impression of Dean is pretty much how I imagined him one-on-one. He seemed interested and charming, intelligent, a good listener and a smart businessman. He was very gracious, and seemed genuinely interested and engaged. In short, I was not disappointed.

I suspect that the average person has a shot at meeting and talking to, perhaps 1 or 2 famous people in their lifetime. You hope that those celebrities are people that you’d also like to meet and perhaps even someone who you admire. I’ve actually had more than my share of meetings with famous people in my life so far. I’ve met and even had some conversations with several composers, including Olivier Messiaen, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thompson, Ned Rorem, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich and Leonard Bernstein, playwright Edward Albee, the writers Isaac Asimov and William Gibson, and some brief moments where I shared a transit ride with Michael Dukakis and William Weld (It’s odd how I always meet the politicians when riding on mass transit) I’ve even met some luminaries in software and business, including John Sculley (the first CEO of Apple Computer while Steve Jobs was in exile) and Bill Atkinson, one of the more interesting figures in the history of computers (he invented 2 early pieces of software for the Mac, which became the first of 2 categories of software, MacPaint, which begot bitmap editors and HyperCard, which it may be argued, was a precursor to the World-wide Web and has been said to be the inspiration behind the concept of the Wiki). As Nearly-Canadians (and as I’ve noted in previous posts in this blog), Pam and I even shared a picnic table with actress Nancy Robertson (who plays Wanda on “Corner Gas”) and briefly met Roch Carrier, the author of The Hockey Sweater, a classic story, animated film and keystone of Canadian identity.

Nevertheless, it was great to finally be able to tell Howard Dean how much I had looked up to him. On June 13, 2008, without any warning, I got a chance to talk to one of my personal heroes, and I’m thrilled.

Greetings from WWDC

I finally have a free moment where I’m not in a conference session, am awake, and have Internet. (More about that in a bit).

The flight down was uneventful. Needless to say, getting to the airport 2 hours ahead of time proved just enough to get me to the gate about 15 minutes before boarding started. Yes, check-in, baggage, customs, security and traversing the terminal ate up and hour and 45 minutes. Such are the joys of air travel in the 21st century…

Announcements noticed upon arriving at San Francisco Airport: “Military Personnel are invited to the Welcome Suite on level…(etc.)” “The current Terror Threat Level is Orange. Please report any Suspicious Looking Behavior to Airport Employees.” Yes, I’m back in the US of A.

As for getting Internet when not at the conference, when I booked the hotel, the description online was Britton Hotel, Internet in all rooms, a decent rate, and 4 blocks from the Moscone Convention Center. It turns out that was only half true. Yes, the rate is OK, and they are roughly 4 blocks (5 if you count the turn from 7th onto Howard Street). However, the Britton Hotel is mostly a pile of rubble, and rising from the ashes (with construction crews starting their work around 8AM each day) is The Good Hotel (yes, that’s the name), and Internet has been nearly non-existent. The pizza parlor that was supposed to be on the ground floor (another amenity I was looking for) is MIA. Fortunately, last night it finally kicked in around 11:00 PM.

That said, its now day 2 of the conference, and I’m trying to take in as much as I can, but it is the proverbial ‘drinking from a fire-hose’ syndrome. Steve Jobs’ Keynote (and announcement of the iPhone 3G and its arrival a month from tomorrow in Canada) was great fun, and today’s early session on developing web pages for Safari on the iPhone had so much information crammed into it that I could barely keep up.

There’s more, but I know after a point, there’s only so much you can take in. However, the wildest thing about this conference is the fact that there appear to be more laptops than humans, and the hardest thing to do is manage battery life. Fortunately, I’m starting to learn where the outlets and power strips are.

More to come.

Counting Down

In just six days, I’ll be heading down to San Francisco to attend Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (also known as WWDC). After all of these years, I’ve never been to one of these. I’ve been to more MacWorld Expos then I can count, and even attended 2 or 3 years of MacHack, the annual code-all-night-and-show-off-your-clever-kludge-in-the-morning event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’ve had programmer friends suggest I go to this, but it always seemed to come at a time where I was either on vacation or just returning from/just getting ready to go on vacation. Now, with San Francisco being a lot closer, and my luck this time (or bad luck, depending on how you look at it) of not working, I can finally see what all the fuss is about.

Boy, this year there is a lot of fuss. WWDC is entirely sold out. According to Steve Jobs’ keynote from 2007, there were over 5,000 attendees that year, 159 sessions, 94 hands-on labs and 1,200 Apple engineers on site. Jobs will be doing the keynote again this year, and the schedule for sessions already says there are well over 150 this year, in 3 tracks, iPhone, Mac, and IT. I plan on going to mostly the iPhone and Mac sessions, and there are a couple of key sessions on Wednesday morning regarding User Interfaces on the iPhone that I’m really looking forward to.

Tips from a Past Attendee

I noticed an entry online from someone who had attended last year, and they recommended, among other things:

Be Prepared
Bring a water bottle. The Odwalla juices on offer are *really* sweet and run out quickly, and there’s no way you are going to stay hydrated from drinking that and coffee/tea all day. There are plenty of water refill stations all over the Moscone.

Bring a jacket/jumper. Unless you come from Norway or Siberia, you’ll probably find the weather in San Francisco really chilly when the wind gets going. Dress in layers. Even if you don’t plan on getting out much, the labs and lunch areas are *really* cold at times too.

Bring extra cash for food…Unless you’re on a tight budget like me, bring extra cash for getting food outside of the Moscone if you want to keep your spirits up throughout the week. All food at the Moscone is cold, including breakfast. Lunch is served in plastic boxes.

Get to San Francisco early.(He includes some info about jet lag - not a problem for me, thank goodness).

If you plan on sightseeing around San Francisco, do it before WWDC instead of after. If you’re a developer, WWDC will give you a huge buzz and you won’t be able to resist quickly flying home after the conference is over to start working on the new stuff you’ve learned.

Have a blog or website? Put a picture of yourself or your team online.
There are loads of people who would love to talk to you about your product, your blog or your site during WWDC. The first step in making sure that people can even find you during the conference is to make sure they know what you look like in the first place.

(This one surprised me): Don’t waste time planning your schedule far in advance.
The session and lab time-schedules change during the conference. You may also change your mind about attending certain sessions during the week itself, so don’t waste too much time planning your schedule too far in advance. Just plan a rough guide during the plane and you should be set.

Partition your laptop hard drive before you leave.
If Apple is going to give out a new developer seed during the conference, you won’t be able to resist installing it on your laptop. I’ve personally heard of two fellow attendees who, in the excitement of it all, installed the developer seed onto their existing Mac OS X installation without first backing up. Ouch. (Good thing this isn’t an issue for me).

Live close to the Moscone.
Attending technical sessions and labs all day is tiring work. Commuting for a long time after each day at WWDC will quickly sap your energy. Do yourself a favour, and don’t bum off your friend’s apartment on the other side of the city to save a few bucks. Get yourself a room somewhere close to the Moscone and get a lot more energy throughout the conference. (Check. I’ll be staying only about 4 blocks from Moscone this time.)

Business cards.
Whenever you receive a business card, write a description about the person on the back of the card as soon as possible.

You’ll thank me later when you’re on the plane, sorting through the huge stack of business cards you’ve received, and you’re trying to recall whether “Johnny Foobar” was the guy you met during lunch with an awesome new idea for your app, or the guy that you’re supposed to send a review license to. (I learned this one a long time ago)

Make use of the labs.
Your mileage may vary with the labs, but personally, i’ve got a huge amount of value out of the labs. Broken code got fixed, new features got implemented *on the spot* and magic developer dust was given out. It’s been awesome. (Again, probably more useful for a coder)

Talk to everyone around you.
The food at the Moscone may be tragic, but the lunchtime conversations are awesome when you manage to find the right group. If you’re an indie, you know how hard it can be to get a good technical discussion with anyone in real life, so you really owe it to yourself to find a good lunch group. The amount of energy and buzz you get out of it can carry you for a long way throughout the week.

Don’t limit yourself to lunch either. There’s great conversation to be found just standing in line. Just try not to do that at the long queues for the male restroom. (duly noted)

So there you have it. Thanks, Joe.