Archives for January, 2005
In Remembrance of Carl Hayward
There was a Hawaiian style paddle-out in memory of well known surfer & shaper Carl Hayward at the “South Side” of the HB pier today. Carl passed away last week at the age of 48 while surfing the same spot where the memorial was held. It was a perfect day for it, with over 200 participants in the water, and nearly three times as many lining the railing of the pier. I’ve put a photo gallery of the event online [since taken offline], but the pictures just don’t do it justice. You simply had to be there to get the full emotional experience of it. I’m humbled to have been able to play a small part in it.
Personally, I never got to meet Carl, but I’m lucky enough to know a few people who were close to him. His influence in the local surfing community is evident by the huge turnout today. Our condolences go out to his surviving family.
Once you’ve finished looking at the gallery photos, why not drop over to the memorial site [since taken offline too] as well? It reflects a man who touched the lives of many, and will be missed by even more. Special thanks go out to Carl’s sister Susan for letting me know about the site.
Poppin’ Into NAMM
The NAMM show was this past week here in SoCal at the Anaheim Convention Center. I was lucky enough to be invited by Daniel East of MAMUGs to drop in an say "hi," since he was in the neighborhood and could snag me a pass for the afternoon. He’s recommended Yasu to so many groups, how could I say no? I just had to shake his hand and say thanks.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been around "the business." Once upon a time I worked for Guitar Center Corporate and traveled across the country to retail stores for the purpose of performing inventories. That was a grueling job, but it’s where I first touched a Mac. We’d schlep SE’s along with us to help reconcile the archaic, card based inventory system the company had using Excel. Those are fond memories — playing "Radical Castle" in the off hours (I never did finish it) — but it was always a pain to try and find somewhere to stash the SE on a full plane. That’s one thing Apple didn’t take into account with the early designs — travel.
Anyway, once I finally tracked Daniel down, we chatted for a bit, then wandered the floor a little together before I let him get back to work. It was good to finally put a face to all of the emails. From there, I browsed the show on my own. It was interesting, but being out of the scene for so long, I felt lost. One thing that struck me — it was funny to see the "OTHLH’s" (over-the-hill-long-hairs) mingling so closely with the "SBSSR’s" (slick-business-suited-sales-reps) at the same venue.
I’m so middle-aged now…
The Shuffle is What’ll Do It for Apple
It’s been a week, and the world has had a chance to digest the latest offerings from Apple. Now that the buzz has died down a bit, and the “reality distorion field” has worn off, here are my thoughts on the results.
TextWrangler is Now Free
TextWrangler is now free: MacDevCenter: TextWrangler, a terrific text editor is now free for the taking. I suggest you take it.
Here’s a little bit of news that I came across this morning. It seemed a little obscure, so I thought I’d make light of it here. I couldn’t agree more. I live in BBEdit, and can’t imagine working without it. Version 7 is wonderful, but sometimes I don’t need all the features. TextWrangler has just the feature set I do need for day to day stuff, plus it’s more “up to date.” Snag it here.
The Keynote…
Since I couldn’t be there, I got my news from the update feed on MacMerc (be sure to PayPal them a buck or two if you did too). Looks like Steve & company cooked up some cool stuff after all, and it would seem the leaks were pretty much spot on the money. I would’ve bet cash that the Mac mini wasn’t going to happen. I’m glad I didn’t make the post I was planning… Anyway, here are the highlights.
- Final Cut Express HD - $299
- iLife ‘05 - $79 / Free on new Macs
- iWork (Formerly AppleWorks) - $79
- Mac mini - $499 / $599
- iPod Shuffle - $99 / $150
Not as exciting as years past, but still pretty sweet. I know for sure I’m picking up an iPod Shuffle as soon as I can. And maybe (just maybe) I can talk the wife into the Mac mini. That old G3 Blue & White the family uses is getting pretty worn now…