Blogging from WWDC

I’m at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (hereafter referred to as WWDC) this week, trying to soak up as much information as I can about Apple’s upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger.

Here’s the saga so far. I left early Sunday morning, and I do mean early. My darling and I awoke at 5AM, so that we could schlep on down the road to Reagan National Airport for my 7:55AM flight on America West. Highlights of my trek cross-country include:

– Getting off the plane in Las Vegas, to be promptly confronted by about fifty slot machines situated in the center of the boarding area. I called La to let her know I’d at least gotten this far in my journey without issue, and ran to my next flight.

– Waiting in San Francisco for my bags. Dear God. It was like malicious sloths ran the baggage claim on the America West baggage claim carousel. I had checked two bags and the first one showed up pretty quickly. Then the fun began, as bags showed up one at a time. Not like every few seconds, new bag. Nope. More like every five minutes, new bag. Then the carousel stopped. And restarted. Coughed out a few more bags (mine not among them) like a Siamese dealing with a hairball. Stopped again. Restarted again. Spewed out a few more bags. To make a forty-five minute long story short, I got my missing bag back, but I hope never to have a similar experience again.

– Finding out there was no set rate for going from the airport to downtown. Just when I had thought every city had implemented this (from my perspective) sane policy, San Francisco decided to be different.

– Finding out that half of downtown, including the part my hotel was located in, was hosting the Gay Pride parade. The Apple emails had mentioned a “special event” on Sunday. I wished they’d just said “huge honking parade may impede your journey to the hotel.” My cabbie was great though, he talked to the cops and got through some of the barriers to drop me at my hotel’s front door.

After checking into my hotel, about which I can’t say enough good things, I decided to head down to the Moscone Center West building to get registered. I knew I was close when I noticed twenty-something to forty-something men hanging around, working on their PowerBooks. Registration was a breeze, and after collecting my t-shirt, WWDC 2004 backpack and ID badge, I headed back to the hotel for some jet-laggy sleep. More on Monday and today later, as I have to run.

Moment of Zen
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Itchy Monk Compensated for Lousy Stay at Inn