WWDC 2007
Below are my non-NDA-breaking notes from my time here at WWDC 2007:
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Apple appears to understand geek herd mentality. For the Stevenote, they move the line forward about every 30 minutes, starting at the outside entrance and slowly going up to the third floor, so there's never enough time for everyone to get bored / annoyed / gang up on the staff.
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The place is packed with people Monday morning, a large percentage of whom don't stick around for the rest of the week. Odd.
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CoreAnimation! CoreAnimation! CoreAnimation!
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Entertaining moment in line for the Stevenote: As the line was being snaked around a part of the building during one of the moves, we were all walked past piles and piles of breakfast pastries & Odwalla juice. Think hit-and-run piranas on crack. The slower, weaker members of the herd were culled when they stopped for too long to pick something.
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Excessively frequently heard phrase #1: "This isn't in your WWDC seed"
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You know that music in the iPod commercials? They play all of those songs between sessions. Over. And over. And over.
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People can be bribed to hold a seat for you with Odwalla juice.
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CoreAnimation! CoreAnimation! CoreAnimation!
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All of the "good" parties are invite only. 5000+ people does not a sane door list make.
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Excessively frequently heard phrase #2: "File that on Radar (Apple's bug tracker)"
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To paraphrase: "Obey us on UI or we'll hurt you the next time we rev the OS. We mean it."
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Leopard seems a "1000 tweaks" release, in that while there's nothing huge and new, it looks like there's going to be a high level of consistency and uniformity in the OS/Apps/DevTools (like a "sync" point where every team is told to use the same things). Definitely feels to have high "it just works" value.
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Must remember to bring a spork next year for "Stump the Experts".
Don't ask.
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Yeah, that whole "Time Machine uses ZFS" thing? Totally bogus. Time Machine modifies HFS+ even more (oooo, directory-level hard links), and while ZFS might be able to be substituted at a low level, they definitely weren't placing their bets on it.
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The Apple retail store 3 blocks away must love WWDC.
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While at a bar, I asked the bartender if she would mind making a mixed drink (they were busy), she was fine with that, and I placed an order for my latest addiction, a gin and tonic with two shots of vodka (colloquially known as a "Kansas City Ice Water"). She looked at me as if though I had suddenly grown two heads (the second of which was speaking Martian), demanded to see my ID, and then reluctantly served me the drink. I think this is a first, that I have ever been carded not for my looks, but for my choice in drinks.
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Have I mentioned CoreAnimation?
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Excessively frequently heard phrase #3: "Apple cannot discuss future revisions and/or product development plans"
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The flyer at the Mini Apple Company store had the phrase "Come shop at the Mothership". I'm not kidding.
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Observation: There are actually people brave enough to bring PC laptops here. Some are even running Windows. But that's not as weird as the guy running around with a Lombard PowerBook ... no, I didn't glimpse what OS he was running.
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Apparently there's a surplus of 30" Cinema Displays running around Cupertino, because this place is lousy with them. And what are they using these paragons of screen real estate for? Digital signage to display what's going on in what room. Sigh.
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At the WWDC Bash on Thursday night, anyone from Missouri S&T would have felt right at home. Dear god, it was the Rolla Ratio all over again. Add in a loud no-name band, a whole bunch of guys awkwardly pseudo dancing around, and several dozen tables worth of food (which, admittedly, is of higher quality than S&T Catering), and it was like a bad flashback.
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And, finally, there's CoreAnimation.
