Golden Ears Bridge Opening Day

June 14th, 2009

Nicole and I decided to go join in the fun at the Golden Ears Brige opening celebration.  The bridge, which replaces the Albion Ferry, opens to traffic on Monday morning at midnight.

The first month will be free for everyone, and thereafter an electronic toll system will charge everyone for every use of the bridge.  The cheapest rates start around $3.00 per crossing and go up from there depending on whether you are registered, whether you have a transponder, and what type of vehicle you drive.

Today was the opening celebration.  The brige was only open to foot traffic and featured quite a few different bands and other activities, not to mention a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk on a new bridge.

We enjoyed our day.  The bridge is quite long, and there were thousands of people there, so it was a lot of walking.  We enjoyed lunch at White Spot afterwards, which had apparently not been expecting the rush so service was slow to say the least.

Afterwards I decided to wash our car and my bike in the sun. Nicole sweetly kept me company – reading her book and listening to mustic.  An enjoyable day!

Personal Updates

Apple Keynote June 8th, 2009 Coverage of the Worldwide Developers Conference

June 8th, 2009
12:04 pm Phil is thanking all of the teams at Apple for their hard work.
12:04 pm All of this is just the start of WWDC — tons of sessions and Apple employees on-hand.
12:03 pm Phil is reviewing everything announced today.
12:02 pm A robot camera thinks the iPhone is the same as before, but then the new features are briefly highlighted (mainly video capture).
12:02 pm Showing a new ad.
12:01 pm In the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, UK. A week later, 6 more countries. Many more to come this summer
12:01 pm The iPhone 3GS will be available on June 19th.
12:01 pm The iPhone 3G 8GB will be available for $99 today.
12:00 pm Apple wants the iPhone to be more affordable. The existing 8GB iPhone 3G will remain — for $99.
12:00 pm Those are AT&T prices for new and qualifying customers; may vary elsewhere. Comes in black and white, as before.
11:59 am $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB.
11:59 am Ships with iPhone OS 3.0 for $199.
11:58 am Most eco-friendly iPhone yet — arsenic-free glass, BRF-free, mercury-free LCD, etc.
11:58 am Improved battery life. Now up to 9 hours of internet surfing, 10 hours of video, 30 hours of audio, 12 hours of 2g talk-time, 5 hours of 3g talk-time.
11:57 am Instant remote wipe, encrypted iTunes backups.
11:57 am Something business have asked for — data encryption, which iPhone 3GS supports.
11:56 am Support for Nike+
11:56 am New accessibility options — VoiceOver for content and controls, zooming, color inversion, mono audio, etc.
11:55 am New compass app shows your orientation, integration with Maps — if you double click, the map will reorientate itself.
11:55 am Also — a digital compass.
11:55 am You can also ask “what’s playing now?” and it will tell you. Or say “play more songs like this” and a genius playlist will be built.
11:54 am With the iPhone 3GS, you hold down the home button for a second and a voice control interface is brought up. Simply say things like “Call Scott Forstall” — if there are more than one entries, it will ask which one you wanted (i.e. home, office, etc) — or “play The Killers”
11:53 am There is an API for video too, which allows developers to integrate video capture into their apps. Next — voice control.
11:52 am The videos live alongside photos in the same application. You can scrub a video and edit it too. You can share the video right from your iPhone 3GS to YouTube, MobileMe, MMS, and email.
11:51 am The camera application has a switch that lets you swap between still photo and video mode. 30FPS, VGA with audio, auto-focus, auto-white balance, auto-exposure.
11:50 am Developers can take advantage of the camera too. But the best thing is — it also captures video.
11:50 am Also features tap-to-focus. Tap on the part of the photo you want to focus, and it automatically does so. Automatically handles exposure and white balance. Better low-light sensitivity as well. Also, auto-macro — as close as 10cm away.
11:49 am Vastly more pictures on Flickr from iPhones than any other phone. Now featuers 3MP auto-focus camera.
11:48 am Also has amazing features — brand new camera.
11:48 am Supports OpenGL|ES 2.0 — great for games. Supports 7.2Mbps HSPDA.
11:47 am 2.1x faster to launch Messages, 2.4x to load SimCity, 3.6x faster to load an Excel attachment, 2.9x faster to load a large website.
11:47 am No front-facing video camera. The insides are entirely new, but the outside appears the same.
11:46 am He’s now ready to tell us about a new version of the iPhone — iPhone 3GS. S stands for speed.
11:46 am 50,000 apps on iPhone, 4,900 for Android, 1,088 for Nokia (total), Blackberry (1,030), Palm (18). He makes a joke about not being able to see the last company name (Palm).
11:45 am Reviewing how successful the iPhone has been — iPhone makes up of 65% of all mobile web usage.
11:44 am That is iPhone OS 3.0. Phil Schiller has retaken the stage.
11:43 am Urging developers to re-test their apps and set parental ratings.
11:43 am For all paid developers, the GM seed is available today.
11:42 am Scott Forstall back on stage. “Our job is to make developers successful.” iPhone OS 3.0 will be available for free to all iPhone users (3G and original). $9.99 for iTouch users. Available worldwide on June 17th.
11:41 am Can adjust guitar tuning without actually physically changing anything — nothing can be demoed however, as the hardware accessory isn’t communicating with the iPhone.
11:39 am More demo technical difficulties — trying to show how easy it is to switch between settings on an amp and guitar.
11:37 am Final demo — Line6 and Planet Waves. Together they are working on a solution to control your guitar and amp from your iPhone.
11:36 am Once at the lot to pickup your car, you can tap the horn icon and the actual car horn will honk so you can easily find it. The car can be unlocked this way too.
11:35 am The Zipcar app lets you immediately find and reserve a nearby Zipcar. With the iPhone OS 3.0 MapKit, the app embeds a user-friendly Google map.
11:33 am Zipcar is the leading car sharing services with over 300,000 members and cars all over the US and UK.
11:33 am Available in the App store this fall. Next up, Zipcar.
11:32 am The app charts the sensor data in real-time. The demo didn’t work though — nothing was sensed. Playing a pre-recorded demo.
11:31 am Using hardware accessory support in iPhone OS 3.0, users can hook up sensors to the app to perform experiments.
11:30 am Next, Pasco — formed 45 years ago, now focuses on teaching sciences to children.
11:29 am Also adding “Plus Network” — head-to-head play anytime, anywhere. The game is launching today for $5.99; 3.0 features available around when iPhone 3.0 OS is released.
11:28 am Demoing their new game, Star Defense. An amazing tower defense game, 3D with multi-touch support, expansions sold through in-app purchases.
11:26 am Next up, ngmoco:) — founded exclusively to bring games to the iPhone.
11:26 am Available this summer. Will be released with national and international maps.
11:26 am Thanks to the iPhone 3.0 accessory framework, it provides more accurate GPS, speakerphone, plays iPhone media on car stereo, and even charges it.
11:25 am Delivers all expected TomTom features in an iPhone interface. Includes text-to-speech to announce directions. They will sell an optional accessory that safely attaches an iPhone to a car.
11:23 am Next up — TomTom. Showing turn-by-turn directions app.
11:22 am Great for students — bringing a large number of textbooks to the store. Coming to the App Store soon.
11:22 am The book downloads directly through the app. Lets users copy a part of the book and email it without ever leaving the app.
11:21 am Uses in-app purchases to let customers buy books directly through the app. Made deals to bring 50 magazines, 70 newspapers, 1 million books. Showing in-app purchase.
11:20 am Next demo, ScrollMotion — creates digital books for the App Store.
11:18 am App supports custom Push notifications based on parameters you define. Shows a live monitor of the patient’s vitals from anywhere.
11:17 am Airstrip lets medical professionals monitor patient medical data. The medical community is flocking to the iPhone because of apps like this. Showing their next app, Critical Care.
11:16 am Mark Hickey from Gameloft is unveiling a new game, Asphalt 5, which he claims will be the best racing game on iPhone. Lets you play music from your library while you drive, advanced lighting and graphics — fully pushing the hardware, Peer to Peer multiplayer over Bluetooth, worldwide multiplayer over wifi in-game voicechat, content packs for sale (1 racktrack and 3 new cars for 99 cents). Next demo, Airstrip.
11:13 am Bringing up several developers to show what they’ve been able to accomplish with iPhone OS 3.0. First, Gameloft.
11:13 am Push notifications can include pop-up alerts, sounds, and App icon badges.
11:12 am Developers can embed Google Maps easily into their applications (including custom annotations, geocoding, etc). Turn-by-turn direction apps supported. Next, Push notifications.
11:11 am Accessories can work through the Dock connector or Bluetooth. Can use standard protocols or build custom protocols. Next, Maps.
11:10 am Those are only a few of the 100+ features of iPhone OS 3.0. It is a great developer release too — 100+ new APIs: in-app purchases (same business terms as app sales), Peer to Peer connectivity (easy multiplayer gaming — Bluetooth, not Wifi), opening up support for hardware accessories that can talk to the software.
11:08 am If your phone really is lost or stolen, you can send it a remote wipe command that will delete all of your data (mail, contacts, etc). If you do find the phone, it will be restored from a backup.
11:07 am Lets you send your phone a message — a special alert sound will play, regardless if your phone is on silent or not.
11:06 am Showing a 30 Rock clip of Liz losing her phone. Find My iPhone is available to MobileMe customers — it’s a service. You can login to MobileMe on any browser and see where your phone is on a Google Map.
11:05 am HTML5 support as well — Apple has been pushing the standard. Now, Languages — even more languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Korean, Thai) — users can easily switch between languages thanks to the software-based keyboard. All supported on both portrait and landscape keyboard layouts. Now talking about “Find My iPhone”
11:03 am Now, Safari on iPhone. JavaScript benchmark performed on current iPhone OS in 126 seconds. 3X on iPhone OS 3. Support for HTTP streaming audio and video — automatically determines best quality for your connection. Auto-fill support for usernames, passwords, and contact information (contact info comes from Address Book).
11:02 am Tethering is a seamless experience — once it’s on, you don’t have to run any additional software. Requires carrier support — 22 supported carriers when launched — AT&T was not included.
11:01 am iTunes U is now supported in the iTMS on iPhone as well. Parental controls — especially fine-grain over movies — even over apps from the App Store. Internet tethering — can use your phone’s internet connection on your computer (Mac or PC) using USB or Bluetooth.
10:59 am Enhancements to iTunes — rent and purchase movies right from your phone. Can also purchase TV shows, music, and audiobooks.
10:59 am Cut/copy/paste/undo (works across all apps), landscape mode in Mail/Notes/Messages, MMS support (send and receive photos/contacts/audio files/locations) in Messages app (29 carriers in 76 countries will support MMS at launch — AT&T not until later this summer), search (mail — even on server, calendars, media, notes), spotlight (search everything in one place — first page of the home screen).
10:56 am Now talking about iPhone OS 3.0. Major update — 100 new features.
10:55 am Switching between lots of customers quickly naming their favorite app. The video has ended.
10:53 am Developers (Airstrip, EA, Igloo Games, MLB.com, etc) talking about how the iPhone / App Store has changed their businesses and lives.
10:50 am Playing a video of developers telling their story.
10:49 am It has been an incredible year for the iPhone — 1,000,000 SDK downloads, 50,000 Apps on the App Store, 40M iPhones/iPod Touches sold, 1B+ apps downloaded.
10:47 am Now shifting to the iPhone — bringing up Scott Forstall.
10:47 am Family Pack available for $49. Will be released in September. A near-final developer preview available today.
10:46 am Snow Leopard will be available for all Intel Macs — past and present. How should it be priced? Leopard was $129 and they want all Leopard users to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard will be $29 for those users.
10:45 am Requires MS Exchange Server 2007 (the latest version).
10:45 am Calendar events support resource allocation — people’s schedules, room availability, etc. Demo has ended.
10:44 am Event invitations can be accepted/denied right through Mail. iCal and Address Book automatically have all appropriate data once Mail is setup. One or more contacts can be drag & dropped into iCal to automatically create a meeting.
10:43 am Now demoing Exchange support. Showing how simple it is to add an Exchange account. Auto-discovery of Exchange servers, all email/folders/to-do lists are automatically populated, Spotlight immediately searches all data. Quicklook lets you preview MS Office documents through Mail, even if Office isn’t installed.
10:41 am Next, Exchange. Many people have a Mac at home that they want to take to work, but Exchange support has been missing. Mail, iCal, and Address Book now all support Exchange.
10:40 am Next, OpenCL. Over 1 teraflop power in GPUs now. The current way to use this power is with OpenGL, but it’s limited to graphics and games. Apple wants to use this power for all sorts of things, and thus has built OpenCL (C stands for computing). Hardware abstraction, C-based language, automatic optimization, numerical accuracy (can be used for scientific calculations). Open standard that many companies are participating in.
10:37 am 64bit enables use of the large amounts of RAM computers now have, math calculations are 2X faster. Multi-core presents a challenge — how to make best use of them. Current methods don’t provide granular enough control over them. Grand Central Station, built into Snow Leopard, solves this problem.
10:35 am Computers now have GBs of RAM, multi-core/64-bit capable CPUs, GPUs with massive amounts of raw processing power. To take advantage of all of this, you need the right software.
10:34 am The demo has ended. Bertrand has retaken the stage. Now talking about the new powerful foundation technologies.
10:33 am Quicktime X lets you trim and share video using a visual timeline that makes it easy to select the part of the video you want. The edited clip can then be directly shared with YouTube, MobileMe, or iTunes.
10:33 am Full Spotlight search of browser history — full-text search, not just the URL/page title. Now demoing Quicktime X — re-built from the ground up to put content center stage. Elegant controls overlaid on the video until you mouse away — even the titlebar hides.
10:31 am Showing how fast Safari is — Google Maps and ESPN render immediately. Top Sites lets you preview your most visited websites all at once. Alerts you when one of those sites has been updated by placing a star over the preview. Cover-flow view of browser history.
10:30 am Can drag a file to an icon in the Dock, all of the app’s windows will appear, and can drop the file in the correct window. Now talking about Safari improvements — fastest browser on any platform.
10:30 am Now demoing Expose. Simply click and hold on a Dock icon and Expose shows all of the app’s windows. Windows are better organized in Expose now. Can work within a window without closing Expose and bringing all windows back.
10:28 am Stacks handle lots of content better — scrolling, drilling into folders. Finder lets you magnify thumbnails on the fly, similar to iPhoto. Can step through multi-page documents and play videos right through Finder.
10:27 am Craig Federighi, VP of Mac OS Engineering is on stage for the demo. He is going to cover three areas — starting with Dock and the finder.
10:27 am Quicktime player has a brand new interface — the content is the focus, not the application. Now demoing Snow Leopard.
10:26 am Safari is 7.8X faster at JavaScript than IE8 (Chrome is only 5X faster). Passes Acid3 test; IE8 only gets 21%. Safari 4 is included with Snow Leopard — with some added features. Crash resistance (sandboxes plugins), 50% faster JS thanks to 64-bit, new and faster Quicktime (hardware accelerated, new streaming method that works with any webserver).
10:23 am Mail is up to 2.3X faster. Safari 4 features Top Sites — been in beta for a couple of months — final version is released today on all platforms (Leopard, Tiger, Windows).
10:23 am Preview is now up to 2X faster, better text selection in PDF (using a “little bit of AI”). Better Chinese text input, just like on the iPhone — uses the trackpad to draw characters.
10:21 am Built Expose into the Dock. Click and hold on an app icon, and all of its open windows appear in typical Expose style. 45% faster installation of the OS. Recover over 6GB of disk space after upgrading from Leopard.
10:21 am Refined over 90% of core OS pieces in Snow Leopard. Rewrote Finder in Cocoa, which results in lots of extra features.
10:19 am Apple has come from a different place — they love Leopard and wanted to build upon it. They set a challenge for themselves to build a better Leopard — lots of refinement, powerful new technologies, and Exchange support.
10:18 am Microsoft is trying to get out of the hole they’re in with Windows 7. However, they have the same set of problems as before; registry, DLLs, defragmentation, etc. Windows 7 introduces even more complexity.
10:17 am OS X Leopard is the best selling software Apple has ever released. Users and press love it; best OS written for vast majority of consumers. Sharp contrast to Vista.
10:17 am Great hardware deserves great software. Bringing up Bertrand to talk about OS X.
10:16 am All of Apple’s laptops meet the EP Gold and Energy Star v5 standards. The world’s greenest line of laptops.
10:15 am Recently updated, the white plastic MacBook. Also upgrading the Air today. Prices changing to $1,499 to $1,799 — up to 2.13GHz CPU.
10:14 am The 13″ MacBook Pro is also available today.
10:14 am The 13″ MacBook is now called a MacBook Pro. Starts at $1,199. Cheaper than the MacBook it replaces. Ranges from $1,199 to $1,499 in standard configurations.
10:13 am At what point isn’t this just a MacBook Pro? It can even expand to the same levels of RAM and HD as the MacBook Pros. The backlit keyboard is now standard in it as well. Also, FireWire 800.
10:12 am Updating the 13″ MacBook today as well. Gets the new display, SD card slot and better battery life.
10:11 am The 17″ MacBook Pro has also been updated — 2.8GHz CPU, 500GB HD, retains ExpressCard Slot. All shipping today.
10:11 am Standard configurations range from $1,699 to $2,229.
10:10 am Starts at a lower price — $1,699.
10:09 am But there’s a lot more — fastest notebook they have ever made. Up to 3.06 Dual Core CPU. Up to 8GB of RAM. Up to 500GB 7200RPM HD. Or, 256GB SSD.
10:08 am The new 15″ has a brand new display; nicest in any of their laptops. 60% color gamut increase. Now has a SD card slot.
10:07 am Typical user will get 5 years of use before seeing diminished battery life. Most customers will never need to replace the battery. When it does need to be replaced, recycling options available at Apple stores.
10:07 am New battery, lasts up to 7 hours. More eco-friendly — gets up to 1,000 charges.
10:06 am Customers love the unibody design. Even though Apple has a lead with the design, they want to take it further. All new 15″ MacBook Pro.
10:05 am The majority of new Mac users pick a laptop over desktop. Reviewing unibody design.
10:05 am Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall will be assisting with the keynote. Beginning with the Mac.
10:04 am In this keynote, will discuss what Apple is working on for the Mac, OS X, and iPhone.
10:04 am 25M active OS X users in first 5 years, up until 2007. In the last two years, however, it has grown to 75M.
10:03 am Amazing week planned; 5,200 developers at WWDC, most anticipation yet.
10:02 am Phil Schiller has taken the stage.
10:02 am “PC” begging the audience for ideas, offering cash.
10:01 am The keynote has started. Showing a video of “PC” welcoming everyone to WWDC.
10:00 am The lights have dimmed.
9:57 am Asked to silence phones; the keynote will start in just a few minutes.
9:50 am Seated in the main hall; awaiting the start of the keynote.

Personal Updates

Hiking The Chief

June 1st, 2009

Yesterday we enjoyed a very difficult (my description) hike up The Cheif near Squamish….  Nicole and I, along with Michelle and Eryk, Natsu and Patrick, and a friend of thiers, left the  Shannon Falls parking lot around 11:45am.

The hike up was beautiful, and steep.  As we neared the second peak (our desintation) it got really difficult.  I have hiked this trail years ago (now more than 10 years ago I think) and remember it being difficult, but I didn’t remember just how difficult it really was.  At one point, as we were pulling ourselves up the side of a rock by an anchored chain, I had thoughts of perhaps not being able to make it up.  It became really difficult for me near the top as I was really hungry and was loosing energy quickly…  With the help of Nicole and our friends I made it up though, and after a nice long lunch I felt much better.

I took many photographs up at the top, including many of a cute little brave chipmunk.

We took an alternate route down.  It was longer, but much easier and lacked the steep chain and ladder sections. I was much happier using this trail, but my legs were not as fit as they should be.  It was difficult to go down, and by the time I got to the bottom my legs were in quite a bit of pain.

Despite all the discomfort it was worth it.  It was great to spend time with friends, and to connect a little more with Natsu and Patrick.  And the view is always so fantastic.

Here is a Panorama I made by putting together roughly 45 images.

The full size one can be downloaded here:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1183281/20090531-20090531-Chief%20Panorama.jpg

Time with Friends , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Walk with Christa

May 28th, 2009

Today was a wonderful day at work – a little more relaxed than usual. We had a great Dim-Sum lunch with a group from work.

After work I changed into cooler clothes, and good the False Creek Ferry to Granville Island, where I met my friend Christa for a lovely walk.  We had a wonderful chat, all the while walking all the way from Graville Island to the Science World ball, and back.

Then I met my wonderful wife for dinner… It was a wonderful day.

Time with Friends

Jai Came to Visit

May 24th, 2009

Had a lovely day being a tourist in Vancouver with Jai.  We went for a walk in English Bay, did some shopping in Pacific Centre, ate lunch at Milestones on the patio, took the False Creek Ferry to Granville Isalnd and relaxed, shopped, and ate dinner.  We finished off the day with a great Improv show at the New Review.  Great visit.

Personal Updates

Lunch on the Beach = Life is Hard!

May 22nd, 2009

Well today Michelle and I had lunch on the beach!  You know I take these things for granted far too easily.  I work in a place where I am close enough to walk to the beach for lunch..

Felt great to soak up some sun and get some sand in between my toes!!  Life is hard, especially when I have to drag myself down to the beach with a wonderful friend to boot..

Personal Updates

Decided on MacBook Pro

May 18th, 2009

Well I’ve decided after a conversation with our friend Tim, and some more thinking that I’m going to save up for the Macbook Pro.  The better screen is something that I will regret not getting, especially with all the photography we do.  It’s more expensive, but I’ll have to bite the bullet and get what makes more sense in the long run…

Geeky Stuff, Mac, Personal Updates

Serious Computer Problems

May 17th, 2009

Unfortunately I am having some serious computer issues as of late… I’ve been keeping them at bay over the last few months, but over the last 3 days things have been getting worse.  As I try and find the best way to remedy the situation, I may be without a computer for some time if this one gives up the ghost.

I continue to have email access and some access via my iPod Touch, but anything sophisticated may be beyond my reach for some time.  I should be able to update this blog, so hopefully I will be able to keep everyone posted.

Personal Updates

Dinner with Nicole

May 17th, 2009

Had a wonderful dinner with Nicole tonight at Milestones after a wonderful motorcycle ride with Eryk and Michelle…

Personal Updates

MacBook Confusion

May 15th, 2009

Yesterday I spend some more time in the Apple store looking and drooling on MacBooks.

I thought I had fully made up my mind about which MacBook to get, but I still find myself a little confused. The smaller MacBook is one pound lighter, $550 cheaper (based on how I would configure it with more Ram and a larger hard drive) and smaller. I like how small it is, and it I’d quite usable.

The 15 inch. MacBook pro has a better screen, and this is my hanging point. I can’t get past the better screen. It’s larger, but it’s also better. The contrast is better, and when watching a movie on it, the black parts of the screen are really black as opposed to dark grey. I think this will be important to me.

It also has better graphics, an even larger hard drive, FireWire, and an expansion port. It looks as though the speakers would be better as well, but I’m not sure about it.

It is heavier, it is larger. I would like to take it with me often, so that will be a bit of a minus.

I think I will still go with the 15″. But I don’t feel as certain it’s the right choice as I was before.

Anyone else have thoughts ok this?

Geeky Stuff, Mac