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WWDC is imminent – Essential sessions

By on May 19, 2009 in Technology

In 3 weeks it’ll be day 2 of WWDC. Day 2 is the start of the topic specific sessions. The Monday is taken up with the Keynote in the morning and Several State of the Union sessions in the afternoon. The State of the Union sessions are on things like Mac OS X Server, Graphics & Media, etc.

The majority of the sessions I will be going to will be related to management of Macintosh computers and integration into ICT infrastructure based on Microsoft Windows. Listed below are the sessions from those published so far that I’ll be going to. There are usually additional sessions added after the Keynote, to cover any new features that are announced, and there are also some brilliant Brown Bag sessions at lunchtime with external guest speakers (like Pixar). There are also evening events such as the Apple Design Awards and the Thursday Night Party. The Bare Naked Ladies were the house band for the party last year. Here’s a good picture of 3 reprobates watching them from just above and behind the stage 🙂

Here are the ICT management sessions I plan to attend:

Mac OS X Server State of the Union
Mac OS X Server uniquely combines a wealth of powerful–yet easy to use and configure–services that elegantly simplify communication and collaboration in organizations of all sizes. Learn the latest on Mac OS X Server’s technologies for streamlined mobile access; enhancements to mail, calendar, contacts, and wiki services; advanced capabilities in Podcast Producer 2; and an update on Mac OS X Server’s performance and storage capabilities.

What’s New in Directory Services
Open Directory provides standards-based storage and organization of user and network resource information. Get the details on Open Directory enhancements in Snow Leopard Server including a new UI for binding, refinements to Active Directory integration, password synchronization, and performance improvements.

What’s New for Wiki Server 2
Wiki Server 2 in Snow Leopard Server allows any organization’s users to collaborate more easily and effectively. Learn about new features such as Quick Look previews of wiki attachments in the browser window; content searching across multiple wikis; and wiki and blog templates optimized for viewing on iPhone. Wiki Server 2 also introduces My Page, which gives each user one convenient web portal to view and create wikis and blogs, use web calendars, track wiki updates, and access webmail.

What’s New for Podcast Producer 2
Podcast Producer automates and streamlines the capture, encoding, and publishing of high-quality podcasts of your organization’s lectures, training, and other presentations. Snow Leopard Server introduces a host of new features including Dual Source Video capture, Podcast Composer, and Podcast Library. These features let you create picture-in-picture podcasts, provide an easy-to-use application for designing video-based Podcast Producer workflows, and define a new publishing model that uses Atom and RSS for providing long-term media file storage and organization.

Deploying Podcast Producer
Podcast Producer streamlines consistent creation, production, and distribution of rich media assets. Learn deployment best practices from experts with real-world installations. Discover how to use new features such as Podcast Library for seamless integration with iTunes U, adding content to in-house web portals, and publishing training materials.

Podcast Composer In-Depth
Podcast Composer provides a visual step-by-step approach to easily build powerful workflows for Podcast Producer. Get in-depth information from the experts as they show you how to get the most out of this new application. Find out best practices for integrating with Podcast Library and learn how you can incorporate your own content and customize workflows to meet the needs of your organization.

System Management with Apple Remote Desktop
Apple Remote Desktop is the best way to provide system management for the Macintosh computers on your network. Learn from the experts how to optimize Apple Remote Desktop for various networking topologies across NATs, LANs, and WANs. Discover how Task Server can help manage your mobile computers. Come for the latest tricks for easing your system management duties with the Send UNIX task.

System Image Creation and Deployment with Snow Leopard Server
System Image creation and deployment is the best way to ensure consistent configuration of Macs in your organization. Learn how to use the new features in System Image Utility 2 to create NetBoot, NetInstall, and NetRestore images to simplify the deployment of Mac OS X across your organization.

Managing Home Directories with Mac OS X Server
Mac OS X Server delivers flexible options for managing your organization’s user home directories including Network Home Directories, Mobile Home Directories, Portable Home Directories, and External Accounts. Learn which of these options is best suited for your environment, while getting field-tested best practices for home directory deployment and management. See how new features in Snow Leopard Server enhance your options for managed home directories.

Snow Leopard Server Setup: Under the Hood
Snow Leopard Server includes a powerful new Setup Assistant that streamlines the configuration of your server. Learn from the experts about the rich set of functionality that the new setup experience provides for several different network topologies. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how the Setup Assistant can automatically configure other network devices such as client computers, Airport Extreme, and Time Capsule to provide seamless network connectivity for local networks as well as the Internet.

Integrating iPhone into the Enterprise
iPhone has become a leading choice for mobile professionals. Find out about configuring and deploying iPhone in your organization, learn tools and techniques for configuration and deployment of native and web-based iPhone applications, and discover how server-side technologies integrate with iPhone, all from the IT professional’s perspective.

iPhone Configuration Creation and Deployment
iPhone configuration profiles make mass configuration of iPhones a snap. With configuration profiles, your organization can deploy account information, password policies, secure access settings, certificates and more, all within a single package. Get the latest details on the iPhone configuration profile file format, new additions to the managed services they support, Apple’s profile creation tools for Mac OS X and Windows, and new deployment options that make profile distribution even easier.

I also hope to be able to get to some of these Macintosh and iPhone development sessions:

iPhone User Interface Design Prototyping
Learn how to turn your personal vision into an elegant iPhone application design. Explore your ideas through rapid prototyping and experience the iterative design process that leads to a truly innovative user interface. With some cool tricks and a few lines of code, see how a working prototype provides insight far beyond a static mockup. Watch your design evolve from good to great.

iPhone Application Design Using Interface Builder
Interface Builder provides the easiest route to an elegant and well-designed iPhone application, letting you seamlessly implement many popular interface styles. Take your experience with Interface Builder to the next level and learn how to efficiently build and structure your iPhone interface. Find out how to create a multi-screen interface, work with view controllers, employ navigation controllers, and properly isolate data across master-detail interface pairs.

Effective iPhone App Architecture
Whether your iPhone app is in development or on the App Store, strong code architecture is an essential part of your daily process. Learn about good data modeling, communication between view controllers, and when to use delegates and notifications. Find out how to make important decisions about memory, speed, and a responsive UI. Developers of all skill levels can benefit from this thorough examination of iPhone SDK best practices.

State of the Art Cocoa: User Interface Design
Often, the difference between an amazing application and a merely adequate one lies in the level of polish applied to the user interface. Learn how to take a functional Interface Builder project and add the subtle details that make the user experience feel intuitive and look more attractive. Find out how to add custom drawing and controls to get the exact effect desired, and even how to add Core Animation to make your application shine.

What’s New in Core Data
Both Mac and iPhone developers now have the power of Core Data at their disposal. See what’s new in Core Data for both iPhone OS 3.0 and Snow Leopard. Learn the most efficient ways to employ Core Data in your next project while taking advantage of recommended design patterns. Walk through solutions to the most common problems facing experienced Core Data programmers.


New contact lenses

By on May 7, 2009 in Technology

Got new contact lenses today. Slightly different shape from the last ones, in the right eye. Left eye identical to the ones I’ve had for a few years. Had to get new ones as I lost the previous right one when drunk. lost it removing them. Went to put it in again a few days later and it wasn’t in the case. Maybe I ate it!

The new right one has a slightly different shape. The optician (a new one in the usual practice I’ve been using for decades) said she wasn’t convinced with the shape of the one I had. It did tend to rotate in my eye and sometime this had an impact on the vision. The new one doesn’t seem to rotate when I blink and sits more snugly on the cornea. I had the new ones n for about 6 hours today. They were very comfortable. What was less comfortable was the £228 price tag!!


Shaving: A technical solution?

By on May 6, 2009 in Science, Technology

I hate shaving. I’ve Twittered about it a few times. Beard hair, especially just under my jaw line and on my neck, grows very quickly and mostly dark. If I shave in the morning then by lunchtime there will be significant regrowth of the hair. A 12 o’clock shadow! Not only that the hair is like stiff wire and rubbing a finger over it is actually painful to the face skin. The shaving bumps and razor burn I get are quite painful as well. It’s not quite as bad as the Pseudofolliculitis barbae that some people get, but still a pain in the neck (pun intended!) I think that the hair composition changed a bit after I had surgery for testicular cancer. Maybe my hormone levels went a bit haywire for a bit. I don’t know. I wasn’t tested for testosterone levels at the time.

I’ve been a long advocate of the mantra there is a technical solution for everything. It’s a bit of a glib phrase I know. But it suits my view of the world. If you define it widely enough then the phrase can take in braces for teeth straightening, surgery, lots of things.

So, is there a technical solution for the shaving problem? Research shows that there is. Laser hair removal. In particular a technique that uses a laser with a certain wavelength of laser light that is meant to work really well on coarse, dark male beard hair. It’s known as the Lightsheer Diode Laser System. There are lots of sites on the Internet where people outline their successes (or not – mostly successes though) with beard removal using with the Lightsheer machine. Apparently it works due to the melanin pigment in dark hair follicles absorbing the energy in the laser light. This heats the follicle and destroys or impedes its ability to produce new hair. It seems it doesn’t work on light coloured hair or hair that has gone grey or white as there is not enough melanin to absorb the energy.The science behind it is interesting stuff. Not sure why I didn’t think of this before. I lost the hair on my chest and abdomen during my radiotherapy. That grew back after a while. With Lightsheer it takes several sessions spread out over about a year to provide a complete zapping.

Do I hate shaving and the associated razor irritation enough to try getting it lasered? I don’t know. My beard now grows with colours like a Persian carpet. Not all the hairs are as black as they were 20 years ago. The laser might not work on the light coloured hairs, and definitely won’t work on the white/grey hairs. But then again maybe removing the majority of the hair, which is dark and susceptible to the laser, would be enough. It’s also meant to be painful. Do I have the balls for it? I don’t like pain! There is also the societal aspect. Is it socially acceptable for blokes to get their beard hair permanently removed? I don’t see why not. What’s the difference between a few laser removal sessions and shaving everyday?

Anyway. I’ll have to have a think. It’s meant to be quite expensive as well.


UK rejects privacy group’s gripes about Google Street View

By on April 23, 2009 in Technology

Just bloody right too. Put the torches and pitchforks away folks.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has responded to complaints that Google’s Street View doesn’t do enough to protect citizens’ privacy by stating that removing Street View would be disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment.

More info at: UK rejects privacy group’s gripes about Google Street View – Ars Technica

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

By on April 22, 2009 in Technology

Not to shabby 🙂

CUPERTINO, California—April 22, 2009—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

From: Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

Been neglecting my geek muscle…

By on April 22, 2009 in Technology

I’ve been neglecting my geek muscles way too much lately. It’s time to get back in the game and immerse myself in the new stuff that is hitting the market. Basically do stuff for The Plan minus the Open University stuff which I’ve dropped.

From a infrastructure technology point of view I plan to dive in deep and dirty with:

On the development front I will be reading the small mountain of books I have on:

On a personal front I will be finally studying some mathematics and reading through the huge pile of unread books I have bought over the last year.

Books to read Books to read. Click for larger view

This weeks events in Belfast (DevDays and BarCampBelfast) will be a good springboard to get back in the geek game…

Email as a communication tool is broken

By on April 14, 2009 in Technology

Like most people I get a stupid amount of email in work. Most of it I don’t need (cc’ed to me) or it’s something that could have been addressed by someone coming to talk to me. In the past it was perceived that sending an email was better than going to talk to a person, as you wouldn’t be disturbing them. I think we’ve passed a tipping point. Email is now a burden. I’ve been as guilty in the opposite direction in the emails I’ve sent to people. I recently decided to make a change. This was another of these type of decisions.

I have decided to only send an email in work if I have to. If I need to communicate with someone then I will try to talk to them or use Yammer before emailing. The order of trying to get in touch with people will be:

  1. In Person
  2. via telephone
  3. Yammer
  4. Email

It’s early days with Yammer use in work but it’s looking good so far. Now if I can get people to stop sending me emails…

New stuff from Macworld Expo 2009

By on January 5, 2009 in Technology

This entry will be a place to find the new hardware and software that gets released this week to coincide with Macworld 2009 and CES 09. Check back over the next week or so as this page gets updated with stuff that catches my eye.

Productivity Applications

Apple iLife ’09 – Latest version of the best available consumer media suite.

Apple iWork ’09 – Update to Apple’s productivity suite. Nice additions to Keynote and Pages. Endnote and MathType integration with Pages is a nice addition. I’ll be using Endnote and Mathtype a lot for courses I’m doing. This might mean I don’t have to use Microsoft Word.

Microsoft announce that they will make it easier for Office for Macintosh 2008 to connect to and use SharePoint services.

Music Creation

Toontrack Drumtracker – Convert audio drum recordings into drum midi data.

Development Tools

Widget Press ModelBaker – Web development app to quickly build web apps, iPhone & iPod touch web apps and Android web apps.

FileMaker Pro 10 – latest iteration of the easy to use database application.

Odds and Sods

Xsilva Lightspeed – Mac based Point-of-sale system. Run your retail business on Mac!

Plastic Logic eReader – Upcoming ebook device. Loots very nice.

It’s like finding water after years in the desert

By on December 20, 2008 in Science, Technology

Barack Obama talked about science and introduced his science team in his weekly address. See video below. Could we be about to witness a new mini enlightenment after the regression of the Bush years. I think so. It is incumbent on all of us who value rationality, both in the USA and also the wider world, to step up to the plate and advance rational evidenced based thinking and policy.

I wonder how much complaining we’ll hear from the war on Christmas crowd for the Happy Holiday’s closing remark!