The Joy of Tech

As noted earlier, I went to an Apple store in Wisconsin. The genius (what Apple calls the tech support folks at their retail stores) at the bar was most helpful. One of my cousins, who was with, knew one of the other geniuses. With both of us with majors in computer science we got to chatting.

He talked about how he went to WWDC once on a scholarship. He recommended that I try to apply for it next summer. It would be a fun and educational experience to attend the WWDC. Major announcements, such as the move to Pentiums, are made at the conference and developers get to talk to the very developers to make the Mac hardware and software. It would also allow a budding programmer like me to talk to potential employers (I would hope though that I will have landed a job by then).

He also talked a bit about a book I had seen at the bookstore in the mall a bit earlier, Paul Graham's Hackers & Painters. After I was done at the Apple store I went back to the bookstore and checked it out. I noticed that the book was published by O'Reilly, a respected name in the world of computer books. When I turned to the table of contents I noticed that the first essay was one I had read on the Web a couple years back.

I have already read a number of the essays that the book contains. Many I agree with. Some I don't. Some I don't know what to think about. Either way it's been a good book to read with many insights. It's not just a book for computer geeks either. My dad has read a bit from the first chapter and has enjoyed it as well. It's an easy read, you might want to give it a look yourself.

In other news it seems that hell has frozen again this summer and the devil has taken up skiing and hockey. The first time was when Apple announced it was switching to Pentiums. Now Apple has announced a new mouse with not only two buttons, but a new take on the scroll wheel in the form of a scroll ball and a sort of third button that is activated when you squeeze the mouse as well. I doubt, though, that this new mouse will become the mouse included with new Macs by default. Expect it to be an addition or upgrade. (Update: Review of the new mouse.)