My US Travel Diary

Here is my travel diary from my trip to the US in June for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Cheers!!!

Brisbane Airport International Terminal

0911 AEST Friday June 20



After getting up at the usual time (around 6) I checked all my gear and put it in the car. Went to the airport, etc.


Enjoyed a nice cup off airport coffee and marvelled at the Brisbane International Terminal. Reminds me of an indoor aquatics center without the pool or smell of chlorine. I went to check my bag in and got the "Did you pack this bag yourself, are you carrying anything for anyone?"



"Well, Miss, I do have this torch that I've beeen carrying, burning with passion for some--oh, right! Well apart from this packet of white powder that Columbian-looking guy asked me to hold for him."



Anyway, I have an exit row seat, because I rang up and asked if I could get one. This hopefully means that I won't have to worry about cramped legs, although reading the prohibited items in cabin, I was rather disturbed to find that I couldn't take any golf clubs on board. How else am I supposed to combat deep vein thrombosis? And I can't take any swords on board, which kind of leaves the peasants in the lurch if I can't mete out some Samurai justice on the evil Shogun if he decides to pillage or rape the poor villagers.



Wandered around looking for a powerpoint to plug into once I got through customs and security. Deduced that perhaps display cabinets and the television things they have dotted around the terminal might contain some kind of outlet for cleaners. Success!! See, I did charge up my iBook last night, but I want to save that battery for later. You know, when I'm on the plane and stuff. Found a comfy chair, sat down and jacked in. Tried to connect to Optus Wireless. Found out that I have to register separately from my normal optus account. I figure I should be able to log in normally via my normal OptusNet login, but unfortunately this proves not to be the case. Capitalists!



A guy has just asked me if I know of any other power points. American says he saw me wandering around and figured what I was doing. Well, gee! What a genius machine! Anyhoo, I told him where I saw some others and he wandered off.



Don't really have too much to say right now. That's been about it so far, so I hope you enjoy this little journal of mine.



Auckland Airport International Terminal

1706 NZST Friday June 20



Just a quick note while we stop in New Zealand. Auckland looks so cool from the air. Pretty crap from the ground. I've got some photos and that's all she wrote.



The guy I mentioned in my last entry (looking for powerpoint) is actually sitting right next to me. His name is Joel and he has just spent a month in Cairns on a research thingy doing marine biology. He's from Florida and he's on his way home. Very rainy and bleak here. Not too much to say apart from the nice view past the endless miles of tarmac, which consists of green rolling hills and water. I mean, the water isn't rolling of course, but you know what I mean. I hope.



I watched "Phone Booth" on the plane. That was entertaining. At least it took my mind off the kiwi's sitting next to me who were nursing a toddler and a looks-to-be-pretty-damned-newborn.



Before we could get back into the gate lounge we had to get searched by the security. I had to take my shoes off and have them inspected as well as my bag and stuff. The NZ security guy spoke very "eccented keewee ind usked me if my
shoes weir reel docs", because of the size and everything.



It's all good though. I'm intending to sleep on the plane as much as I can and see the other movie that looks interesting which is "Shanghai Knights".



I will write you next time I get a chance, which will probably be in the USA.



QANTAS Flight QF25 BNE-LAX via AUK

0749 PDT Friday June 20



Well I'm still in the air. Out flight didn't end up leaving Auckland on time. It was about an hour or so late. Couldn't sleep, although I tried. Didn't even manage to doze but I was kept entertained by the various channels on this inflight entertainment system. Individual screens, fancy remotes/really expensive credit card satellite phones to navigate. As Joel (the American guy I mentioned in my last two posts) said, it's kind of a let down that they're not touchscreen, but as I pointed out, this IS economy class.



One really cool thing is the "flightpath". It's basically a slide show of information updated in realtime that is mostly useless (at 0756 PDT doing 942km/hour @ 10 082 meters and it's -46 degrees outside) but nonetheless entertaining. Obviously the altitude is screwing with my brain!



I have some bits of paper to fill out so that they'll let me into the country and once we land, it's a mad dash to the INS to get my passport done, then I have to collect my suitcase, check it for my American Airlines flight to San Francisco from Los Angeles and get to the gate and board!



I wonder if I can get the airport people to play that Tchaikovsky music from "Home Alone" over the PA as I hurtle down the concourse...



Los Angeles Airport

1256 PDT Friday June 20



Customs. Bleah. Didn't take long to get through. Only about 45 minutes and they didn't check my bags. Go figure. Of course, after I waited for 30 minutes in another line in order to get to the domestic terminal for my connection to San Francisco I had a great security cheeckpoint experience.



I had to pull my laptop out to be scanned seperately, which is fine. Then I had to get my films and camera out to be searched seperately, because of they'll be nuked by the US x-ray machines. Then I had to take my shoes off. My eight hole Doc Martins which I wore so that they wouldn't be an extra 5kg of weight in my bag.



Finally I get through, locate my gate (which would have to be all the way at the end of the damn terminal and just as I get there the unspeakable happens.



The flight is moved up to another gate at the first end of the terminal I was at!!!!! So of course I run (hearing in my head the magical Home Alone Airport Concourse Music. Or Sabre Dance by Shostakovich and when I get there - the flight is delayed.



Starbucks : Ramada Plaza Hotel

1641 PDT Friday June 20



I've been awake now for 23 hours and 43 minutes.



I was very close to making the decision to start some genocide after the connection from LAX to SFO and the main reason was some whiny little yank brat who visually reminds you of that bastard "I'm gonna show you how to eat a oreo" kid and constantly whinged for his mum to "look it".



Apart from the hideous grammar, which should be beaten out of American kids with a stick at knifepoint on a South Central bus stop late at night during the LA riots, he kept it up for the duration of the 45 minutes we were in the ear. The rest of the time he was screaming that he wanted to go to the other side of the plane (when the plane was banking, mind you) because he couldn't see anything but the wing



So royally ticked off was I when I went through the checkpoint and finally left that damn airport complex/system/labyrinth/prototype for Diakatana map (yes, Daikatana sucks, and therein is my simile). I got my back and headed up to get a bus to the hotel, got on the Super Shuttle (as recommended by good old Uncle Peter) and was driven through the back streets of SFO by Daryl, who kind of reminded me of Bill Cosby. Not because he was black, but because of the way he spoke. Anyway the whole backstreets thing was because of some traffic jam which was blocking up all four lanes inbound and two lanes outbound (with rubberneckers). Cool though. I got to see the San Francisco Welfare Office and Watchhouse. Nice. Urban. Wesss-aiii-yeeeed!!!



Respec' to ma bro's!!!



Which leads me to be sitting here in the Starbucks in the bottom of the Ramada Plaza having an iced latte thingy writing this. I've rung our room (Paul and Brett checked in this morning) and they aren't answering. I did meet some nice Canadian guys who are also here for WWDC. Allan and this other guy who's name I have completely forgotten!!! Damn. I think it was Dale, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm going off to look for them again, so I can have a damn shower and a damn shave and change my damn shirt and pants!!!!



Moscone Center : Spruce, Level 2
2156 PDT Sunday June 22



Well I'm here at the conclusion of WWDC Student Sunday, wearing my WWDC 2003 t-shirt. We got some fly bags yesterday, signed and agreement about coding and checked our e-mail for the first time in two days.



Unfortunately there's really no SMTP server available to send out e-mails so I haven't been able to do that. Anyway, what have I been doing since I arrived?



After meeting the other guys about an hour after I arrived at the hotel, I got to the room, had a shower and got to relax for a little bit. Then we went across the road to the Burger King. Let me pass judgment : Burger King in America is crappier than Hungry Jacks in Australia and I hate Hungry Jacks soooo bad. I made the mistake of agreeing to supersize for 50 cents. I got a 1 litre drink in a bastardised hybrid cup that was about the width of a 2 litre coke bottle which for the last 20cms was the width of a normal large coke from MacDonalds. Presumably so that you can put in a cup holder.



Anyway, we went back to the hotel room and watched some TV and then went to bed.



The next day, we went to the center and registered and got our schwag. Nice. You'll have to wait and see. Then we logged on and checked e-mails. We met up with a few other AUC guys and made arrangements to head up to the Crowne Plaza to meet the other AUC guys for a field trip to Emeryville. We went there to visit the Apple Store, which was an experience. Very nice looking decor and knowledgable staff, unlike some of the people I've dealt with in Australia.



Next we headed off to Berkeley to visit the University of California. After that we looked around the street markets and restaraunts. Then we stopped and had some pizza at "Fat Slice Pizza". Delightful, very cheap and huge. 18" of cheese, ham, pepperoni, onion, zucchini, spinach for about $5 each.



Today we coded. Very interesting and I now know more than I did know. We've just come back from looking for food with another AUC student attendee, Allen from Toronto. We couldn't find anything decent so we've come back and ordered pizza again. Very healthy, but with the amount of walking we're doing, I'm not that worried.



You hear me Mum??? I'm walking!!! It's about 6 blocks to the convention center, so we're getting to see a lot of San Francisco. One thing we've all noticed here is the complete lack of division between poverty and not poverty. We see a lot of people sleeping on the street and begging for change. Very different.



Anyway, we are heading off early tomorrow to see the keynote. Starts at 10am, we are heading off to be there at 7am.



Moscone Center : Student Lounge, Level 1

1243 PDT Tuesday June 24



I'm sitting here surrounded by opened iBooks and Powerbooks, with a few eMacs thrown in for good measure. It's day two of WWDC and let me tell you, the first day was unbelievably cool.



We got to the center around 7.25am and there were already a good 4-500 people waiting on level 2. The Keynote was to take place in the "Presidio" - the main auditorium space for the week - which was on level three. We had breakfast and
waited.



Breakfast here is something else. I think that I could get more nutrition by
rolling a stick of butter in sugar, then eating it while washing it down with
a cup of melted solidfry. Krispy Kreme Donuts (normal donuts covered in a thick
layer of sugar), breakfast pastries covered in icing, muffins (as in cake, not English) plus juices and lots of coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.



We tried to check our e-mail on the airport network, but we couldn't get an IP address - there were too many people trying to connect!! That seems to be the
major inconvenience at the conference - we were expecting wireless internet,
but it's actually more reliable and faster to get an ethernet connection at a
booth or table.



They let us upstairs and the throng was on! We managed to get good seats in the
middle of the front section so We could watch Steve live without having to look
at screens. It was truly amazingly cool. Check the Apple website for the details of the new products.



In particular when Steve announced the new features for Panther (Pixlet, Expose & New Finder) there were cheers all round, and when he announced the iSight the other Australian delegates and I were all trying work out the exchange rate and how much money we had in the bank. Then when he announced that all the developers were getting one for free, the screams were deafening.



It was like on Oprah when she's had a product detailed and she says that "You're all going home with one!"



After that, we had lunch and went to the OS X State of The Union where they detailed all the new features within Panther. Then I checked out the Student Lounge, played some games on the games machines (Unreal Tournament on an Apple Studio Display with a frame rate so fast I felt motion sick), then went to the Final Cut Pro 4 session.



After that we went over to a bar called Jillian's for the Apple Student Developers Function, which consisted of food, a really bad game of pool and some giveaways. Unfortunately I didn't win OS X Server and a 12" Powerbook, but a man can dream, can't he?



Anyway, then we went to the AUC function at a microbrewery called Thirsty Bear. We had food, beer, t-shirts and the opportunity to speak to some expats who were working at Apple. I was talking to a QuickTime guy and got some info about my research area and stuff. Very cool.



We were so knackered after that, we went back to the hotel.



Brett and I set up a wireless rendezvous network in our hotel room to try iSight to and from each other's end of the room and these other WWDC students who were in the same room number on the floor above logged onto the network. We were talking to them on the iSight and I went for a walk to the vending machine carrying my iBook with the iSight clipped to the top, vended a drink and headed back to the room.



Technology rocks!!!



Apple Computer Worldwide Headquarters, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino

1243 PDT Thursday June 24



Lobby. Infinite Loop. Woah.



Anyway, thought I'd take this opportunity to write some more stuff. Tuesday night was the most excellent Apple Design Awards. The winners I can recall were Hydra, an application that lets multiple users work on the same document simultaneously via Rendezvous. Another winner was Salling Clicker which allows you to use any Bluetooth enabled phone to control your computer, so when you walk into the room, your screensaver unlocks and it checks your e-mail and when you walk out it locks your machine and mutes your iTunes. Very schmick.



Wednesday night was very, very cool. After "Stump The Experts" (the annual WWDC quiz pitting Apple's finest against the developers in Apple trivia) we had a special presentatio of "Finding Nemo" along with a little intro by the technical head of Pixar. That was very cool.



Then today, we picked up our Apple Student Developer shirts. These had a part of a newspaper ad on the back, with the main part being for a Web designer for a "high profile online store. Must know the meaning of the words Top Secret. Apply to jobs@apple.com" - a reference to the accidental posting of the new G5 specs on the Apple website days before their release at the WWDC keynote. Interestingly enough, there is actually an ad for the position Apple Store web manager on the Apple site at the moment.



Co-incidence?



JAL Sakura Lounge, Los Angeles International

1925 PDT Saturday June 28



Ahh well, I only had a few sessions on Friday. After getting back from the Apple thing (at which I got some keen G5 posters), we slept the sleep of the sleeping. I went to a session in the morning, then met up for lunch with the head of my department who happened to be in town.



After that, we looked around the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art or SFMoMA. they have a great photography collection which includes a series this guy did by turning a row of front loading washing machines at a laundromat into a series of cameras operated by trip wires. He then had a horse run through the laundromat triggering the cameras and finally developed and fixed the pictures in the washing machines!



They also have a great number of Daguerrotypes dating back to the 1850s - little pocket portraits including miners and cowboys. While the others continued off to look at some other galleries, I went to do some souveneir shopping. I picked up some things from the Museum shop for friends, then i walked up to Union Square to check out the Borders.



It is really large. Ridiculously huge. 5 stories but they didn't have the DVDs I was looking for. I walked back down to the Virgin Megastore which is equally huge. I found the two discs I was looking for (both DVDs unavailable in Australia - cheaper than ordering from Amazon.com though, what with postage). After that I headed back to the Moscone Center for the Developers Connection feedback sessions.



Then I met up with some other AUC students and headed back to the hotel. A group of AUC people were meeting at a Hunan-style Chinese restaraunt near Chinatown called "Brandy Ho's". We had a great dinner with lots of photos and then headed back to the Ramada for a little student party. We stopped at a convenience store and picked up two dozen cans of Miller Genuine Draft (MGD). We got back to the hotel and found the party. The ice machine was in large use filling the bathtub with cooling-ness-ism-itis for the beer. Apparently we got the worst possible beer we could have, so some other guys headed off in search of some decent stuff.



Apparently MGD has the highest formaldehyde content of any beer, and considering that formaldehyde is one of the things your liver produces after drinking alcohol, I suggested that it was just "express beer" that was already pre-converted.



This beer tasted less like a beer and more like a beer-flavoured soft drink, but the others returned and had, by some miracle stroke of luck, found some Coopers Ale! This led to a large amount of education on behalf of the Australians as we attempted to instill in a few hours a lifetime of Australian idiom, including the many uses and inflections of the pronoun "Mate", what exactly "Goon" is and the various dodgy drink concoctions we have in Australia.



I went to bed about 2am and got up and packed. I took another quick trip to the Virgin Megastore to pick up a shirt for my sisters boyfriend and to buy one more DVD. We got back to the room and took the BART to the airport and got on our plane. There were about 10 AUC peoples on the same flight to LAX. We got here, checked in and headed off to the Qantas lounge (some of the AUC guys are members and here I sit as a guest, enjoying some nice quiet lounge, free Sapporo and Kirin beer and a powerpoint in which to plug my iBook.



My Studio, Brisbane, Australia

1241 AEST Thursday July 3



Well, I'm back home. After getting into Sydney Internation Airport at 6.10AM on Monday, June 30 I went through customs in record time (20 minutes from leaving the plane to being at the Domestic Connections desk) and had a nice surprise. The QANTAS guy offered to put me onto an earlier flight so I wouldn't have to hang around Sydney airport for 3 and a half hours.



Well that was a no-brainer, so I pretty much got straight on a plane and headed home.



This was my first overseas jaunt, so it's been an experience and a half. Despite the fact that Australia and America are so similar, there are a lot of differences. I believe that there was only one occasion in which I encountered someone in a service position who wasn't African-American or Hispanic. Along side that culture shock was the difficulty with which some Americans seemed to have with comprehending my Australian English. I would consider myself quite eloquent sofar as my diction is concerned, however on some occasions I found that the only way I could be understood was to put on an American accent. I felt so bad -- as though I was paying them out -- but it was the only way I could be understood.



On the plus side, I got to meet a good number of people and have made some friends that I talk to regularly on iChat now and hope to visit some time again in the future. I learnt a lot about QuickTime (my primary reason for going) and of course, I got to meet a bunch of Apple people who work on the software and features I use and schmooze for a job.. err I mean to discuss with them the future of the products.



Yeah, that's it! Seriously, it was a great opportunity to complain about the mind-bogglingly stupid aspects of some software and to suggest ideas for things we desperately want/need in others.



I've returned with some great ideas for new projects and implementations of QuickTime and am looking forward to utilising the skills I learned at WWDC in the coming years.