This was my fifth macworld (2000, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012) but my first one without Apple participation or a major opening session keynote. This was also the first macworld where I was going to be a presenter (see CUE@macworld2012) so I was really looking forward to this adventure. One interesting thing that I had noted in previous macworld conferences was that as advanced and futuristic as the presentations might be, I knew that I would have crappy slow wifi in my hotel room and on the conference floor. Imagine my surprise and delight to discover excellent wifi at both the hotel (Marriott Marquis) and at the conference venue. Now the only gripe is finding the presentations online after the conference. Ugh.
TT904: Adopt, Adapt or Abandon: the Lion Upgrade Guide by Andy Ihnatko, Columnist, The Chicago Sun-Times & Macworld (10:00am)
The session blurb in the schedule said: “Lion is one of the most significant updates to Mac OS since it hit the double-digits. But with new features comes new strife; some features don’t really work right and some are so new as to be almost, but not quite, completely baffling. We’ll go through each major Lion feature and declare it one to Adopt (it’s great; learn to use it), one to Adapt (it’s OK, but there’s a trick or two that makes it more useful) or Abandon (…all hope, ye who try to do document syncing via iCloud).”
Here are my rambling notes:
OS X Lion: Adopt
- Easy choice
- Prey (preyproject.com)
ITunes & iCloud: Abandon
- Google music …. The Amazon MP3 Store/Google Music/iTunes Match Triple-Play Combo
Photostream: Abandon
- Not enough user control
- Conventional Syncing
- Flickr
Documents in the Cloud: Abandon
- for now, anyway
- What a friend we have in dropbox
- Start Thinking “Cross-Platform”
- VNC and Onlive Desktop (photo of iPad running Windows 7 & MS Office)
Version Control: Adopt
- (As if you had a choice..!)
- The feature is well-implemented and Mostly Harmless
- Not very good for formal “Versioning,” however.
Full screen mode: Adopt
- It Helps Your Brain
- Hopefully it’ll create a renaissance of app design
File Vault2: Adopt
LaunchPad: Abandon
- Spotlight
TT911: Main Stage: A Conversation with Susan Orlean, Author and Geek (11:00am)
Catalog blurb: Join us for an on-stage interview with Susan Orlean, a New Yorker magazine staff writer and author of “The Orchid Thief” (turned into the move, “Adaptation”), who has inexorably turned from from technophobe to technophile, and will talk about the process and her tools, including how the iPad helped her work on her latest book about Hollywood’s dog star, Rin Tin Tin. Susan owns a plethora of Macs and iOS devices, and uses them daily for research, communication, and writing. Susan has also mastered being a long-form non-fiction writer in the era of Twitter, amassing nearly 200,000 followers, while writing a blog at the New Yorker’s Web site. Susan will be interviewed by Glenn Fleishman, one of the writers of the Economist’s Babbage blog and a Macworld magazine senior contributor.
My only notes are that she went through a list of recommended apps and she said that Evernote isn’t doable on the iPhone without FastEver – quickly create text note, fastever snap ($1.99)
TT921: Main Stage: The Making of South Park – Inside South Park’s Animation (1:00pm)
Speakers: Interview by: Andy Ihnatko, Columnist, The Chicago Sun Times & Macworld: David Lenna, Chief Technology Officer, South Park, Ryan Quincy, Animation Producer, South Park, Eric Stough, Animation Director & Producer, South Park
Blurb: This session will provide insight into how the iconic animated series South Park relies on Macs to produce each episode in under a week. Get an inside view into the show’s production and technology pipeline that allows the show to turn an idea into a full 22 minutes episode each week.
I didn’t really bother with notes because the session was so entertaining. Take aways is that they’ve greatly advanced Flash-technology so that they can quickly replicate the appearance of a paper-cut-out animation style in a production schedule that would never allow for them to turn around stories in less then from one episode to the next. Amazing.
TT936: FEATURED ARTIST PRESENTATION: Digital Painting with Bert Monroy (2:00pm)
Blurb: Bert demonstrates how he uses Photoshop and Illustrator tools – and shares the techniques he develops – to create his photo-realistic paintings. Especially noted for his hyper-realistic Photoshop illustrations, Bert’s masterpiece is Times Square. Every element was meticulously created from scratch — not from photographs — using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The 6.5-gigabyte image was built pixel by pixel, using more than 750,000 Photoshop layers. In this learning odyssey you’ll explore: – Understanding Layer Masks and Layer Styles – Channel and alpha channel techniques – Creating and using brushes – Creating patterns – Using advanced blending techniques – and much more!
My notes: Creating art using photoshop without a photograph. Uses a Wacom Cintiq so he’s working directly on the image and not working with either a bar of soap or drawing on a surface and visually working off of a separate display. Nice “toy.” How does he do this:
- Starts in illustrator
- photograph
- sketch
After Hours:
- TWiT meet-up at Intercontinental Hotel
- TUAW party at Jillian’s
- Evolve (band) at Mezzanine
It was the kind of evening where complete strangers with only this geek/tech culture in common, strike up a conversation and then go from one venue to the next until it’s almost the next day. Good times. Photos and videos to follow… maybe.
Sources:
All images by Joe Bustillos
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