Tonight I moderated not one, but two online debates for State Rep. Two adjacent districts. Great candidates. Exhausting!

From the archives, for the micro.blog bug photo thing: In 2011 I was debugging, when this fly thought he’d contribute his expertise. 📷

Hoping for a “floating” photo from any micro.bloggers in the SpaceX splashdown area. This one courtesy of NASA TV, with a little edit of the flag of an idiot interfering with recovery.

Earlier today, up in the sky, a trio of balloons floating away from an unknown source. 📷

This morning I first read of, then watched, Millenium Actress. Beautiful film. Streaming on Kanopy, free via many local libraries. www.kanopy.com/product/m… 🎬🍿

Apparently Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner was the first song encoded into MP3, 25 years ago this month. www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech… 🎵

Does anyone within earshot have two paired HomePods in a room for music, and care to share opinions? I have one on the kitchen, which we love. Contemplating a pair for our “music room” (houses many musical instruments but currently lacks reproduction.)

Made deep dish pizza for lunch today. First time trying that; won’t be the last. Later we succumbed to children whining and went out for ice cream, for dinner. Should be easy to eat better tomorrow…

I’m sad my watch didn’t show fireworks this morning to celebrate this important state and local government holiday. Happy Fiscal New Year 2021!

A Twitter contest sponsored by Nami ML has prompted me to collect a small amount of my old Apple swag for a photo.

First, the full photo:

Details, with description beneath each photo:

The Apple Directors Chair was either a free item or something I won in a sales contest, when I worked at an Apple reseller from 1988-1992.

Seated on the chair is the full set of six DVD’s from WWDC 2002.

Closeup of the DVD set.

MacTech/Developer Depot T-shirt.  Swag from a Macworld Expo, probably Boston in the late 1980’s.

Boris t-shirt, swag from a Macworld Expo, maybe 1991.  Boris was an After Dark screensaver module.  The publisher, Berkeley Systems, was tossing them out from their booth.

Not in the master photo above, but related - a Flying Toasters tie.  Another After Dark module.  I don’t remember if this swag was a give-away from the same Macworld Expo as the Boris shirt or not.  It’s a good tie too.

Lucy & Dezi Think Different poster.  I have several others, but this is the only one I currently have framed and hung.  This is always on this wall, in our family room.

One of my favorite pieces of memorabilia, a Macintosh Plus hanging sign.  I got this when I worked at the Apple reseller mentioned above.  The strings on top are the same strings that it hung from the store’s ceiling.

To the left, my Reach for an Apple long-sleeve t-shirt.  Apple had a reseller sales contest in 1989 or 1990, called Reach for an Apple.  I was the store’s token Mac geek, so I was given all the customers interested in Macs and sold a ton.  The shirt was the entry prize.  I also won the top prize, a Macintosh Iici.  While that would have been great for the photo, it’s currently in my parents’ house where they have a smallish “computer museum” in the basement.

A 2002 iMac G4, to go with the 2002 DVD set.  It powers on, but has a dead hard drive.

Blinking question-mark icon, sign of an unbootable hard drive.  You can bet I’ll get this working, so I can play with the WWDC 2002 DVD set!

A MacAlly iKey (original Bondi Blue model), a popular third-party keyboard of the time.  Also, an Apple mouse from (I think) a PowerMac G4.

I also have an Apple "Apology Mouse” and box from the 2000 Macworld Expo/NYC but couldn’t find it quickly enough for the photo.

Ancient Apple cup, and Claris coffee mug.  I had to include Claris here.

My favorite Apple collectable, a working Authorized Dealer lamp.

Better photo of the Authorized Dealer lamp.

Apple “1984-2004” poster.  Apple added an iPod to the classic “1984” commercial in 2004.  I don’t think they ran it as an ad, but they did released it online.  They also printed this poster, which they gave away at the Macworld Expo/San Francisco that year.

I have lots of other old Apple stuff, but this is what I could gather quickly.  I’ll bet I have 50 t-shirts, plus swag from 12 WWDC’s and who the heck knows what else.

Thanks for reading!

WWDC attendees know the labs are the best (official) part of the conference. Apple is opaque 51 weeks per year, but the lucky few who attend get tremendous access to Apple engineers in the labs for just that week. I’ve been lucky enough to attend twelve WWDC’s in person. This being 2020, these were remote labs. I was very curious how the remote lab thing would go. This is my experience.

For the remote WWDC, a developer submits a request for a lab the day prior to the lab. The request includes a few questions about the specific topic of discussion. Overnight an email is sent out with either your assigned time, or if unsuccessful, a sad email that you didn’t make the cut.

I attempted three lab appointments for Wednesday. I requested sessions for PDFKit, CoreData, and WebKit. I won the lottery for PDFKit and CoreData, but didn’t get WebKit. They had another WebKit lab today (Thursday) which I did get. All the appointments I was assigned were 25 minutes, but apparently that can vary by lab and/or specific topic.

Based on my limited experience, the remote/appointment process led to a perfect engineer being assigned in all three cases. In one it was the panacea of the engineer who wrote the thing I was using. In the other two cases I was assigned engineers who were intimately familiar with the extreme narrow focus of my questions.

As lab sessions often go, they start down one path then wind and swivel a bit, as related questions come up once the core question is answered. In person, I often bounce around engineers before the person “who knows all about that” is brought in. It seems people truly read my lab requests and assigned the perfect people from the get-go. Good stuff.

Also as lab sessions often go, you learn something doesn’t work quite right. Apple knows, but hasn’t fixed it yet. But here’s a workaround. Or, there is no workaround yet - but now that they’ve connected a bug report with a real human being there’s a good chance you’ll hear more as work progresses.

Serious kudos to the three engineers I dealt with. And three cheers to the folks that figured out how to have successful WWDC remote labs. I didn’t think it would work, but it did.

But, I still miss the real thing. Here’s why.

First, there was no face-to-face contact. Remote labs are audio-only, plus you can share your screen. I never saw the engineers’ faces, nor their screens. Two gave me their first names; one said they weren’t supposed to do even that. Not having the eye contact is a loss for me (I know some developers prefer no eye contact - I get that). There’s a chance to develop a rapport, which leads to even better things. Maybe bumping into the same engineer later that week, even socially.

Second, the appointment structure is tough. Requests for the next day needed to be in by early the prior evening. No same-day appointments, meaning no followup unless the same lab repeated. It’s Friday 9pm ET now, which means I get no opportunity for a lab Friday, even as followup should a recommended solution not work as expected. Out of luck, other than the forums. One of the engineers confided they weren’t too busy with lab questions. If true broadly, they could have opened things up for same day lab registration.

Third, there’s no opportunity for an unplanned question. During WWDC week I’ll wander to the labs when a lab topic interests me, even if I don’t have a burning question. I’ll read, absorb, talk to other developers, and often come up with a question - which I can ask right then and there.

Fourth, the limited lab sessions aren’t appropriate for suggestions or debate. I don’t want to take another developer’s 25 minutes to ask if they’ve considered some API feature, or to comment why I think some decision wasn’t right. Chances are I’d be (appropriately) denied the appointment. But I’ll do that in person, especially if the lab isn’t crowded. I’ll usually learn something in the process, and I suspect I’ve had some minor impact in changes that came later through those informal conversations.

I was able to get my top three questions answered, so I shouldn’t complain. Remote labs work far better than no labs. I didn’t need to travel or buy a ticket. Awesome. But I miss the real thing, so I for one hope next year’s WWDC is “the real thing” again.

We’re having a new dishwasher installed today. On their way in I realized they’re the first visitors inside our house since early March.

Apple is doing a great job with the remote WWDC. For me, the in-person variety still works best. If they remain remote once the world returns to normal I’ll be tempted to travel somewhere, even a local hotel, so I can really focus.

Micro.blog WWDC2020 meetup, virtual edition - unofficial group photo. Thanks for organizing this @macgenie and @manton !

I went through the WWDC videos to be released today, 1PM my time. I only want to watch 22 of them. And test code on iOS 14. And prep for (hopeful) lab sessions later in the week. This could be a…challenging week.

Since moving to San Jose, my traditional WWDC breakfast is a breakfast burrito with orange sauce from La Victoria. I’ve replicated a home version and it’s not bad at all.

Attempting to make San Jose Orange Sauce, to simulate proper meals for WWDC week.

Random half-thought: Apple could waive the IAP requirement by charging a $100 fee per review. Provides an opt-out for popular apps where marketing justifies lack of IAP (less-popular apps might prefer lower development cost of IAP), and Apple gets compensated for review time.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) - 1972. Seven short films across the same genre. Very creative. Some good stuff, but overall I didn’t love it.

Play It Again, Sam - 1972. I don’t remember seeing this one before. Based on his play, which I also didn’t know. Wow, a truly good film. Great comedy, and characters & story you really like. His first of many films with Diane Keaton.

Bananas - 1971. A delightfully silly classic. Allen is Fielding Mellish, an bumbling New Yorker who bumbles into a Central American coup. Howard Cosell plays himself in two hilarious scenes. Some amusing political commentary.

Earlier today we attended a local Black Lives Matter rally. Very peaceful, very meaningful.

Take the Money and Run - 1969, Allen’s first written/directed film that feels like a Woody Allen film. Good stuff. He’s a dumb nerdy thief who gets the pretty girl. His parents are a riot. Classic Woody Allen all around.

Don’t Drink the Water - 1994. I tried to watch the 1969 version (written but not directed by Allen) but ended up with this (directed by Allen). I liked it. Good cast, funny, and sweet conclusion. The photographs that set up the story were never explained though.

What’s Up, Tiger Lily? - 1966, Allen’s directorial debut. A bizarre experimental film. Allen took a silly Japanese spy comedy and re-cut/re-dubbed it into a sillier spy comedy. I appreciate experimentation, but this one took me three sittings to get through it.