June
12th June
Well, regular readers must have realised that something happened in June. Until today, actually the 5th of July, June had no blog entries at all. The reason is, I wasn't here.
A work contract took me to Cleveland Ohio. Before you ask, I was unable to find the Warsaw pub so I didn't catch up with Drew Carey the entire time. As I was leaving I realised that I had time to catch the Apple Developer conference (WWDC 2004) and I decided to stop in San Francisco for 5 days on the way home and see what Steve Jobs and the dudes at Apple have in store for me.
Now I realise that this is not about New Zealand but I'm hoping our regular readers will forgive the digression.
The job involved a couple of weeks in Cleveland. Cleveland was a surprise. I had never been before and while I was aware that it was a city dominated by heavy industry I had no idea that it was so heavily forested on its outskirts.The view of these forests from my hotel in Mayfield was spectacular. While work kept us pretty busy I did get the chance to visit the yacht club on Lake Eerie and we did a side trip to Dayton to see the Wright Patterson Air force Museum. The picture above is of me in a Phantom.
During the day I got to see, and even touch, a B2 stealth bomber and the legendary SR-71 Blackbird.
June 25th
At the end of the Cleveland trip I headed for San Francisco and the Apple conference. Some colleagues and I did a little exploring. We went to Santa Cruz for a beach party, and spent a day at Fisherman's wharf.
This picture, of course, shows Alcatraz, the notorious prison island. It has been the subject of movies such as "The Rock". The prison has been closed since 1963 and is a popular tourist site.
The beach party at Santa Cruze was a treat. Some aging rocker that I've never heard of (Greg Kihn?) performed many classics and even did a medley of his own song. It was pretty good except for some abysmal improv , "Train Kep a Comin", which must have kep a comin for a good 20 minutes.
The venue was the beach in front of an amusement park on the beach at San Cruz. I believe the boardwalk was used as a location in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys".
The rides ran during the intermissions and the area was packed with an enthusiastic crowd.
The next day we went to fisherman's wharf and I had to separate from my colleagues and book into my hotel for the Apple Conference. We spent much of our time on Pier 39, perusing the stores, watching the sea lions and eating. After that we wandered down the street, watching the many street performers and perusing many and varied t-shirts.
Later we drove around in circles trying to get to my hotel which seemed to be in a position where one-way streets led away from it in every direction.
After booking in to the little hotel, the Grant Plaza on Grant Avenue, I went down to the Moscone Centre to register.
It was my first visit to the Moscone Centre. It was huge. The Apple conferences I have previously attended took place in San Jose. The Apple conference, with some 3,500 delegates was to take place in the section pictured. Behind me in this picture are two more section housing the Java One conference at the time.
While the logistics of the conference may be a little more difficult in the Moscone I did appreciate the move to the much cooler San Francisco.
After registration I went in search of some dinner. The area around Union square has plenty of cheap sushi.
--Brook
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