Ben’s posthaven

So I've been in San Fran for 3 days now... and I'm having a great time.

WWDC has been excellent, the big news (Apple & Intel) was interesting, but makes sense, in my view. If you're questioning my logic, consider these facts: the iMac G5 is underclocked in the guise of power management, the PowerMac G5 is water cooled and has come up 35% in speed in 24 months, and the PowerBook G5 is non-existant and may never be seen. Clearly there is a power issue, and Intel, while I don't like them a bit (Pentium 4 designed for marketing, anyone?), is a reasonable supplier for reasonably powerful low power chips. I've no doubt that, with the power problem not so serious, Apple's designers will be free to come up with something even better than what we're seeing now (which is Apple's best yet, IMO).

Anyway, back to the matter at hand... I've been in California a few days, and the Public transpo has been hell! Learning curve I guess, but I've missed like 3 trains! Once, I barely missed a train. Rather than wait an hour, I caught a cab to a stop farther down. 20 minutes later, I was at a farther stop. A full hour after then, the train "moseys" into the station. What the hell! Anyway, so many exclamation points can't be good for me.

On the other hand. Something good did come out of the Caltrain. I met a girl named Stefanie. She's a teacher from Arizona who, of course has the summer off and was vacationing in San Francisco. After she was nearly hit by a train, I was complaining to her about how long it took to get from San Jose to San Fran (90 minutes!) when she offered me a place to stay in San Fran. I'm not one to turn down such an offer, and she had an air to her that I liked, so I accepted. Very interesting girl, lives on Haight street. I'm only sorry I only will have a week to know her.

I'm not big on introductions, so I won't bother saying anything about myself. Best to watch and learn anyway, I would think. In that spirit, a bit about what I'll be up to for the next week.

I'm leaving tomorrow for San Francisco, California, where I'll be attending Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference 2005. For six of seven days there, I'll be coding, learning and meeting new engineers, not just any engineers, mind you, but the kind who understand and appreciate the beauty that is Apple. While there, I'll be staying with a good friend of mine, Robert, who happens to be interning for Apple this summer. A job I would have liked to have myself mind you, but I do well enough anyway. There's time for that story later.

I rarely ever do anything big like this with fewer than three reasons for actually doing it, and I can count about five as of now, there's 2 listed above, another is that I've recieved a student scholarship to the conference so that it will be free, another is that I will be able to borrow Robert's PowerBook while there (the very machine which got me interested in the company). I also have heard plenty of great things about San Francisco, which, as far as I know, is Austin (TX), and then some. That is saying plenty. Oh but there's more. With the big Apple conferences such as this one, there is usually a keynote speech delivered by none other than Mr. Steve Jobs himself. At these things, there are wonderful new things showed off and new products released. The iPod itself was released at one of these things, years ago, not to mention the music store. This will be my first opportunity, ever to witness one of these events live and in person. This comes after years of following these event live via internet, and once via live satellite feed on the U.T. campus.

But wait, there's still more. In San Francisco, there happens to be a place called the "Exploratorium," which I've been advised to visit. I was told to do so by a U.T. professor, Dr. John Pearce, who works in medical instrumentation I understand. I was speaking with him about an idea I had, a project I continue to work on, hoping to gets some input, what ever suggestions might come my way. One of his was to visit this place, as he says there's an excellent explanation of the function of the human vocal folds and all of that stuff, which, you'll learn, is important to my project. He even told me to track down an old issue of "Nova" on the Exploratorium, if I could. Well, now I don't need to.

So there you go, but aside from all that, of course, I expect to have a good time, so I'll be hitting up whatever bars and clubs I find that suit me.

All in one week! How am I ever going to sleep? Well that's another story...