Little bug in the neighborhood.
BFF
A new beta for Mimi Uploader is about to come out. The main update is an improvement to the alt text editing workflow. Now, as you add text to each image in a batch, there’s some auto scrolling to make it convenient. Check it out in this video (also embedded below).
TIL, the frustrating way, that a Mac with FileVault can’t be logged into remotely unless it is attached to a display.
📷 WWDC at Apple Park
Last week I went to Cupertino for Apple’s Special Event at Apple Park.
The Main Event
The announcements at the event and the hot takes around it have gone around the internet, and the world, perhaps a dozen times by now. This is not a post about that, but about my personal experience.
I arrived about an hour before the keynote. After going through the security check, I made my way to Caffé Macs where the event was set up. There was food and beverages. I picked up some coffee, some overnight oats with blueberry compote, and a savory pastry. Once I was done with that I found spot amongst some Apple engineers just in time for the keynote to start.
After the keynote was lunchtime. I walked round for a bit looking at all the food options before settling on the grilled chicken with salad. I took this over to the inner meadow where there were a number of tables set up.
I sat down randomly and started to eat and chat with others. Turned out I was sitting right next to an industrial designer on the Vision Pro, so the conversation was mostly about that.
Then it was time for the Platforms State of the Union. At first I went to the outside area by the main stage and sat on the fabric lounge chairs, but that was bothering my back so I came back inside to sit on a sturdier chair.
As I watched the video, I also noticed the space, how it was full of sunlight, large indoor trees, and expansive and seamlessly transitioning from inside to outside. And every bit of it was curved. This was certainly a unique space.
Once that video was done, it was time for other social events. I had previously signed up for walking tours of the inner meadow and of the ring building, but that system seemed to have not worked too well for Apple as they were now just organizing all that on a first come first served basis. I got in line for the inner meadow tour.
The tour lasted about thirty minutes. Our first stop was by some fruit trees where a docent talked about all the fruit they grow and how it is all set up.
The second stop was by a shallow pond. In the center of the pond was a round plate that goes up and down. This creates a gentle wave that is imperceptible unless one is looking closely, but makes a definite wave crashing sound as it reached the edge of the pond. that was pretty cool.
The third and final stop was by the rainbow arches where a different docent talked about how it came to be as originally a temporary sculpture that was later made permanent. Then we made our way back on the same path.
Right after that I got in line for the building tour. This was very popular and there was a lot of management going on to get people into small batches and move them along as tour guides returned from their previous tour and started a new one. At this point it definitely felt like I was in line for a theme park ride.
The ring tour took us upstairs to the third level from one side of Caffé Macs. Then to the inner side of the building, across the terrace overlooking the main event area and back down.
At one point a docent talked about the structure of the building. Some interesting facts:
- Outer circumference is one mile. Inner circumference is 0.75 mile.
- There’s a four feet quake zone all around the outside, so the whole building is capable of moving significantly in case of an earthquake.
- The two massive doors are the largest ever of their kind. And apparently super quiet when opening/closing.
- A lot of the dirt from digging up the foundation is piled up and forms the landscaping.
- The land is 80% greenery and 20% building. Previously it was the opposite.
- The roof hosts the largest solar installation on a building.
- The building temperature is maintained at a comfortable level by passive mechanisms most of the time.
From there we walked over to an area by the campus transit center. There we descended to a lower level where a gallery space had been set up showing photos and videos from behind the scenes of a project called Mirage. There were even some samples of the cast glass made for the project.
Next up was the Apple Design Awards event. While it is definitely a crowning achievement for the winners, it is always fun and inspiring to see all the apps that make it to the finals, and this year was no exception. There was a lot of excitement and joy in the design awards.
Following the awards ceremony, was the final event of the day. It was billed as “Special Evening Activity” in the days leading up to WWDC, but it was announced earlier that it would be a visit to the Steve Jobs Theater for something related to the Vision Pro hardware. It was unclear if people would get a chance to try it out so there was suddenly a surge of people towards that direction because of course no one wanted to miss that opportunity if it presented itself. The crowd was met by a line of Apple employees that stopped the flow, while whatever final preparations were made so that we could be led there in small batches. Apparently inside the cafe were preparations for beverages and dinner, but I’m not sure if anyone made it to that.
Thankfully I was near the front of the crowd, so my wait was only about thirty minutes. I walked over to the theater, which was hidden from view until the very last bend in the path.
Inside the building was a display of all the new mac hardware but also a line to go downstairs. I made my way down there and into a hands-off area where a number of Vision Pro were on display to see, but not to handle.
A few minutes later as I emerged from the theater building, I saw this lovely sunset view of the grass and the main building.
From there I made my way out as that was it for the day.
The Evening Before the Main Event
The main event was on Monday, but an early check-in gathering was organized for the evening before at Apple’s old headquarters at Infinite Loop. I arrived there at about 6pm. There were hundreds of Apple retail employees at various stations for facilitating check-ins and to greet people as they arrived and left. On check-in I received a badge and also a tote bag filled with goodies.
The gathering was in a courtyard-like large open area surrounded by campus buildings. There were beverages, and seating. I got a beverage and mulled about the crowd. I met a couple of people I knew from online, and a few other people that I’d not met before. I was there for less than an hour and left shortly before the event ended, to make my way to Miniboss Arcade in downtown San Jose for the RevenueCat party.
The Morning After the Main Event
On Tuesday morning I went to an event at the Apple Developer Center, across the street from Apple Park. We were led into their Big Sur theater that seats two hundred people. There we got a live presentation about the space and how it is relevant to developers. That was followed by second presentation about developing for visionOS using RealityKit, ARKit, Reality Composer Pro, and the new simulator. It looks like Apple has put a lot of thought into making this new platform approachable by developers who currently build apps for all their existing platforms, but perhaps have no experience with developing for headsets using 3D frameworks.
After the presentation we were led to a space that had beverages and food for socializing and meeting people from relevant teams at Apple. This developer center event was unexpected and I was pleasantly surprised at the thought that went into it. It was a nice culmination of my time in person at WWDC.
My heartiest gratitude to the people of Apple for their hospitality ❤️
Saturday morning vibes at the dining table.
Sunset over Apple Park, as seen from the Steve Jobs Theater. 5th June, 2023.
My heartiest gratitude to the people of Apple for their hospitality ❤️
Less than 24 hours left for my flight to California. A day in SF, then on to Apple Park in Cupertino. Starting to feel the excitement!
How to Change a Quick Fix Into a Large Project 😬
Our house has five steps to get down to the backyard. A few weeks ago, a board on the top step cracked on the edge. I added some blue tape to make it more visible until I got around to fixing it.
Soon thereafter I started working on a plan to fix it. The simplest thing would be to replace the board but many other boards are also not in good shape, so a fresh set would be best, especially since I may be getting some painting work done and a fresh coat on this could be added to that. Once I decided to go with that I felt like I had to address the fact that the treads are held up by two stringers, and there really ought to be three. This was starting to feel like yak shaving but I hadn’t taken on a project like this in a while and it was appealing to spend the time to do it right.
So my plan was to remove the treads, measure out a new stringer to go in the middle, cut it out of a 2x12, attach it and then put a whole bunch of fresh boards, probably also adding risers. After talking to friends and looking at some videos it seemed like reasonable idea.
Yesterday I got to it. First I removed the treads. I noticed that the bottom of one stringer had a crack and was about to come apart. I drove a couple of screws to reattach it. This was the first new issue I noticed. I also noticed that each stringer was resting differently, the concrete seems to go around one, but under the other. That was the second new issue.
After removing the treads I measured out the stringers and this is what those measurements were like. As you can see, there is not much consistency between the two, including the fact that the first step from the ground was not only wildly higher than the others, it is also well over the building code. These were the third and fourth new issues.
Nevertheless I figured out measurements and marked it on the board but that didn’t look right. I did it again. Something was still off. I looked at the stringers closely and noticed a fifth new issue.
For whatever reason the builder had removed extra material from each corner of each stringer so the angles weren’t square. That was the last straw. At that point I decided that there were too many issues with leaving the existing structure intact and that the more reasonable thing would be to just rebuild the steps from scratch.
I put the treads back while moving the cracked board to the bottom tread so it was out of the way where it would cause any harm. I also cleaned it up a bit and applied wood glue for good measure. All of this is a temporary measure until these can be rebuilt either by me, or by someone I hire. Will report back after that!
A New App, Maybe
Some time ago I wrote about a simple app I made to export routes for workouts so that I can embed them in blog posts, or Google Maps.
Well, I kept making improvements to it to the point that now it looks like an interface to my workouts that I prefer over the standard one from Apple (like supporting light and dark modes 🙄).
What do you think? Would you be interested in using it? Should I start a beta so you can share how you really feel?
P.S. Many of the map tiles are blurred because one of the features of the app is to enable blurring them out if they contain any user-defined private locations, e.g. for sharing such a video, or a screenshot.
This time around I was unexpectedly busy around Micro.camp so I missed out on pretty much the entire camp, except for tuning in for a brief moment on Friday. Hoping to catch up on all the videos this week.
Sights from a walk in the neighborhood.
📷 Hike at Lacamas Park
A couple of weeks ago we went hiking at Lacamas Park in the city of Camas, about 20 minutes drive from Portland. This was our first time there and it was a lovely hike in a park that is well maintained and has lots of crisscrossing trails.
A few times I got the feeling of being farther from the city than we actually were, like when the trail drops down to the base of a waterfall.
We even spotted some trilliums!
You can get right next to the water, so this one might be worth revisiting on those hot summer days.
Activity Stats and Map
Distance: 3.38 miles
Elevation Gain: 450 ft
Time (including breaks): 1h 56m
It’s the colorful season.
Jenni’s tiny air plant has a super tiny flower. Fountain pen nib for scale.
Our poofs have arrived.
In the last week I used ChatGPT to replace three text manipulation scripts I used on and off. And yes, I spent hours writing/maintaining those over the years.
I also used it to aid in creating a new shell script.
It was disgusting/wonderful how straightforward all that was.