Erik's Thoughts and Musings

Apple, DevOps, Technology, and Reviews

Terminator Salvation Review

I just got back from seeing Terminator Salvation with my buddy from work.

The night started with dinner at a French Restaurant called Cafe De Le Presse. It wasn't bad. I had a Salmon, Salad, Wine and a Chocolate Mousse.

Afterward it was still pretty early so we wandered over to the movie theater that is on the top floor of this shopping area. It was like a maze to get into. We got there about 10 minutes before the movie started.

The movie was a little strange. Again a movie (just like Star Trek) where parts of it feel like the earlier films, just there is some spark that is missing. The action was fantastic of course. Those building size and motorcycle Terminators were pretty dang cool.

I was amazed at how little Christian Bale was in the flick. He seemed to only be in about half the movie. Interesting though that they kept up the Terminator 3 timeline, even including the character Kate (even though she was recast).

Anyway, I guess I need to see it again on disc after I have digested the movie. It probably will be a film to own, but we will see.

San Francisco Tourist

I had two missions for the afternoon. Ride the cable car and eat at In-N-Out burger. The closest In-N-Out Burger is down at Fisherman's Wharf so it made sense to take the cable car so I could kill 2 birds with one stone.

I got my Muni pass ($11) for the day so I could take the cable car there and back without having to look for a ticket place on the way back to the hotel. I got on at the Powell Street and had to wait in line for about 30 minutes since there was a rather long one.

I got on the cable car and it quickly got cramped. I discovered something though. At the end of the line it doesn't fill up with people because I guess the tourists are trying to not crowd the cable car so early. So I had a plan on the way back to not get on at the end of the line.

The other thing I did this afternoon was played around with Tweetie. Chris, one of my former colleagues I met at the show, got me to try Tweetie. It really is a superior Twitter client. It has this functionality, where you can actually tag in your Tweets where you currently are located based on the iPhone's Core Location functionality. Since I don't have the iPhone 3G it wasn't extremely accurate, but it was really close.

I got down to Fisherman's Wharf and indulged in In-N-Out Burger. It was really yummy. I was in a burger coma after that and decided to do a little walking down to Pier 39.

It was a beautiful day. Last year it was very overcast in the bay, but today it was clear.

I was pretty bored otherwise so I decided to do the touristy thing and go take one of those Bay Adventure Cruises. A tour that took you out into the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge and then around Alcatraz. It was pretty fun. Below are some photos. I took them with the iPhone so don't be surprised that the composure is really bad. You can't zoom on the first or second gen iPhone!

After the cruise, I did a little shopping and then walked to the cable car. I walked past the end of the line to the first stop and sure enough I had no problems getting on the car. The cable car operator was pretty funny. His commentary was a little off color, but not that bad. Instead of saying "Coming up on Bush Street." He said, "Coming up on the street of the President who I am glad is out of office". One of the passengers also said "There's Lombard Street" and the operator said "Did you just say Rush Limbaugh? No. OK. That's good. Because names like that don't belong on this car." Pretty funny.

So I am back at the hotel. Unwinding before the trip home. I'll probably stay close to the hotel tonight and do some packing. The flight home tomorrow starts early afternoon. Hopefully SFO won't be too delayed.

Here are the photos from the cruise:

[simpleviewer id=san-francisco-june-2009 width=600 height=700]

WWDC Day 5 Completed

I went to two sessions today. One on AppleScript, the other on Text Processing. I was going to stick around for a security session in the afternoon, but wasn't looking forward to another one of the conference center lunches.

It was a great show. I am glad I got the opportunity to go. I learned a lot of stuff. It lit a fire under me to really spend more time learning Mac and iPhone programming. I got to meet up with past and present co-workers. I met some new folks.

WWDC Day 4 Completed

The sessions today were not as good as Wednesday, but I got a lot out of the Memory Management and View Controller stuff.

Tonight is the Conference Bash for the attendees. The Red Hot Chili Peppers Cake is playing. Free beer and wine. I am heading down there in a couple of minutes.

I am still loving being right here in the city. Feels good to just walk especially since it is not hot.

UPDATE 9:15p: I made it back from the Bash. It was Cake, not the Red Hot Chilli Peppers who played the show. The show wasn't bad. I remember about 3 of their songs. It got over about 8:50p.

Food wise there was Pizza, Cheese Dogs, Ice Cream, Sushi, and Pasta. It was a nerd buffet.

WWDC Day 3 Completed

It was a long day, but luckily I got into all of my sessions. I didn't dilly-dally around. I just got in line for a session as soon as possible.

The food is starting to wear me out at lunch time. Tomorrow I may have to find something outside of the convention center.

I did have a nice lunch experience with a co-worker that I used to work with at two companies. It was nice to catch up and shoot the breeze about past and present work.

I am not going into any details, but I went to two rather interesting sessions today. One on prototyping your app. Another on some of the ins-and-outs of the development tools that I have never explored.

Tonight we went to a great East German restaurant in town called Walzwerk which was suggested by our dev manager last night. I had a pork loin schnitzel, potatoes, and green beans. It felt like being at home or in Europe.

WWDC Day 2 Completed

Unfortunately there is not much I can really say because of the NDA. But the information I learned today is pretty awesome. You can tell Apple has a definite direction for all of their developer technologies.

I didn't get into 3 sessions today because it was sitting room only. All three were iPhone sessions. I am going to have to wait for the videos to be posted to ADC on iTunes.

Tonight is dinner with 3 managers from my company (who didn't come to the conference). Luckily my company's office is just down the California coast from San Francisco so they were able to drive up. It should be fun.

WWDC Pulsating App Store Wall

This is truly amazing.

You really get hypnotized just looking at it. I've gone back to look at it about 3 times in the last 2 days. Amazing show of the Quartz Composer technology.

WWDC Day 1 Completed

The first day is over. I am heading to bed soon.

A co-worker and I went over to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. Not stellar, but not bad. It is hard to find good Italian where we live in Florida so it wasn't anything new.

I was sorry to see that Steve Jobs didn't make it to WWDC just because I am pulling for him to get healthy and get back to the company.

Overall it was a really good day. The conference is just awesome in itself. On the way back to the hotel I bumped into a WWDC attendee from Europe in the elevator and we were chatting about random stuff like the free crap they give attendees and the keynote. The conference really seems to cultivate a lot of positive energy.

I installed Safari 4 on my laptop. The final version looks really good. They went back to moving tabs underneath the bar rather than in the title bar... And I was just getting used to that running the beta version.

Random Thoughts on the Keynote

It was a pretty interesting keynote, but there was a definite feeling of Steve Jobs missing. Phil, Bertrand, and Scott all did a good job, but it wasn't the same energy as last year.

I guess I am most interested in the software. I am still not sold on upgrading to the 3GS. The camera is pretty cool and the speed increases are seem worth it. I am just not 100% sure. My 8 Gb 1st Gen iPhone fits all my needs right now.

It is pretty exciting to see that Snow Leopard is only $29. I totally thought they would set a higher price point. That is great. It kind of sucks that you have to wait until September. I may try to add the Snow Leopard preview to my laptop tonight.

More thoughts maybe tonight when I have time to go back and review the liveblog.

I did have one annoying thing happen. Bertrand has an accent. The sh*thead in front of me kept on mocking his accent. What a jerk.

Lunch and Afternoon Sessions

I met up with two co-workers for lunch. It was good to see both of them in person. Haven't seen either since WWDC last year.

The afternoon sessions have started. Currently in the Core OS State of the Union session. A lot of discussion about how similar the Mac and iPhone platforms are. [REDACTED]

(2:43p)