As I write this , theMacMania VIcruise is located off the coast of theQueen Charlotte Islandsheading toward Juneau , which we ’ll have reached long after this dispatch is post . According to this large map I ’m looking at just outside theMS Oosterdam ’s net café , the outside temperature and the ocean temperature are basically monovular ( 48 ° F ) , and the wind is name as a “ hard breeze . ”
Now , in suit you ’re not familiar with nautical language , there ’s a strong story of misstate the truth—“Honest , I swear , that fish I catch was at least three foot farseeing ! ” In this case , a “ strong zephyr ” in nautical slang is not what you might be thinking of ( pleasant kite flight weather , for example ) .
Strong breeze is actually an official name from theBeaufort Wind Scale , which goes from Force 0 ( Calm , under 1 knot of wind speed ) up to Force 12 ( Hurricane , over 64 knots of lead speed ) . unassailable zephyr is the terminal figure for a Force 6 lead , which is blow at between 22 and 27 knots — that ’s 25 to 31 miles per hour . sum in 25 mph of forward boat speed , and the effective malarkey on deck is right around 50 mph ( depend on the angle of the confidential information , of form ) . And that , by way of a long - wind account , is why there are very few people walking about on the deck outside this windowpane : put together 48 ° F temperatures and 50 miles per hour of wind , and it ’s really , really cold-blooded out there !
The Geek Cruise sitting started Sunday sunup , with Joe Schorr , Apple’sApertureproduct manager , kicking things off with his 3.5 - hour Introduction to Aperture course . I was going to model in and endeavor to learn some clobber , but when I go out how full the room was , I resolve it was good to leave the space for other meeter . To check that every attendee would be able to participate in the Aperture courses on this cruise , Neil Bauman ( Insight Cruises ’ president ) and Joe Schorr did something middling cool : Every attendee received their very own fully - licensed written matter of Aperture at Saturday ’s kick - off function . This is a merchandise that sell for $ 200 , and every Geek Cruiser is go home with their very own written matter . I ’m not sure who originated the approximation or what it took to make it happen , but it ’s a majuscule one .
There are now 50 - plus hoi polloi , including my step - Father-God , sitting down and learning about a program that they otherwise credibly would n’t have bothered with . From Apple ’s linear perspective , this is a good thing , because at least some of those folk will plausibly choose to buy the next version when it ’s released . And from a Geek Cruiser ’s position , it ’s a great thing , because you ’re receiving a $ 200 program for free .
My sessions started Sunday night , with an even give-and-take on Tiger versus Leopard . A few month ago , when I was putting together this academic session , it was go to be very interesting . I was planning on showing Tiger and Leopard side by side , demonstrating key changes in both the system itself and its bundled applications . With Leopard arriving a month or two before our sail date , I figured the timing would be perfect . Then , as you all know , Apple delay Leopard until October . Uh oh — no side - by - side compare involving Leopard on this sail !
Instead , I focused my lecture on the publicly - have a go at it features of Leopard , along with some unfounded speculation on what I hope the infamous “ wanting feature ” ( which Steve Jobs allude to during last yr ’s WWDC Leopard demo ) just might be . ( New Finder , anyone ? ) .
