WWDC Day 2~3
Posted by Ray @ 1:53 pm[This post has been edited to remove all references to XCode, Development, Cocoa/Carbon, Core Data/Image/Audio, OpenAL, OpenGL, and other geeky stuff that you probably aren’t interested in - Ray]
As is required in this day and age, the convention center is wired. It’s 3 storeys tall, and has wireless access points for each level. Unfortunately, it’s dying under the user load. There’s some 3,800 attendees here, and even a fraction of that number simultaneously using a single wireless network severely bogs everybody down.
Lucky for us, the convention center also has communal hard-wire ethernet tables where you can connect to the internet at a blisteringly consistent 200+ KBps.
I was going to take a screenshot of a torrent downloading, but it finished before I could capture it. Heh.
It wasn’t until I fired up iTunes that I saw just how cool having gobs of people networked up could be. See, iTunes has this “share my music” thing going, and I can browse other people’s playlists and such. And unlike the crappy wireless network, the ethernet connections are fast enough that anyone can listen to anyone else’s music library.
So here I am, audiophile and music-lover (hell, isn’t everybody?), listening to gobs of songs by artists I’ve never even heard of, in genres I wouldn’t've considered listening to, in a place I’d never thought I’d be in.
The first floor of the convention center has an obligatory mini LAN gaming gig set up - there’s Star Wars: Battlefront, and some Generic WWII Multiplayer Game [tm] going. It’s pretty fun playing there, especially since everybody is so friendly here in San Francisco and the WWDC (the topic of Friendliness over here is deserving of a whole post of its own, a subject I’ll tackle as soon as I’m done being a raving Apple fanboy).
Behold, the most expensive LAN gaming set-up (per user) in the world:
Every one of those machines is a G5 PowerMac; every one of those monitors is a 23″ giant LCD… with the exception of the two LCDs in the middle. Those are 30” monstrosities.
If there isn’t space in the LAN gaming area, you can easily set up your own multiplayer network. A few clicks and you’ve got 5 people in a computer-to-computer network set up, with everyone playing Warcraft III. And yes, even though I bought the slowest-ass iBook G4, I can play it at very decent rate.
Only after the Warcraft match did it occur to me that I’d flown 17 hours and 1 hour of transit over the bloody Pacific Ocean, to a city I’d never been before, only to play some crappy video game.
Have I told you how well Apple feeds us? We get a full 3 meals per day, plus supper. Breakfast is typically a variety of bagels with fresh fruit; lunch an assortment of sandwiches or soft tacos (today we got fried chicken!); dinner a full-blown spaghetti or pizza affair.
And supper? Well, the other day I got fried noodles, popcorn, and a big selection of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Mmm… ice cream.
We’ve also got a free flow of fruit juices and coffee/tea round the clock, and water coolers everywhere, all of which makes for one satisfied attendee.
There are power points scattered throughout the convention, so that no one socket is ever overloaded. Occasionally, though, there’s a bit of congestion.
Just a teensy bit.
This convention is basically the largest collection of iBooks and PowerBooks I have ever seen. Almost everybody carries around a PowerBook, and I’m one of the few lame ducks with a pretty white iBook… but everyone does carry an Apple product.
Everybody, it seems, except for this daring old chap:
It’s barely legible, but that says “Dell”. It’s a wonder he hasn’t gotten mugged yet =).
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yo roe, didn’t know you were ray from this site! anyway, Danny and I couldn’t add you on msn. Apparently, we both remembered the wrong email :p
See you around in WWDC.
Btw, I really enjoyed this site :D
Comment by Justina — Thursday, June 9 2005 @ 3:12 pm
hey ray, how come u get invited to WWDC? wat is it anyway? an apple fair? *jealous* lol
Comment by Ki Ghin — Friday, June 10 2005 @ 10:15 pm
It’s a developer’s conference (bunch of programmers). I had to apply to get here - it wasn’t an invitation =).
Though I wish it was.
Comment by Ray — Sunday, June 12 2005 @ 4:23 am