Hello again from the Caribbean ! This is the second of two reports fromMacMania 7 , the latest installment in a serial publication of Mac group discussion that take position aboard a cruise ship on the move between various exotic larboard of call .
In my previous expeditiousness , we had already visited Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas and Aruba in the Netherlands Antilles . Since then we ’ve logged well over 1,000 nautical miles and visited even more porthole , and onboard we ’ve expend a set of time talking about Macs and talking with our fellow Mac users .
On Wednesday our destination was another Dutch ownership , the island of Curaçao . The island seems to be much wetter than Aruba , and it was by all odds a tender and humid sidereal day . Our visit to Curaçao coincided with my daughter ’s sixth birthday , so we splurged on a sojourn to the Curaçao Dolphin Academy so that we could all spend some time in close proximity to the mahimahi . Suffice it to say that they are much , much bigger in person than you might expect from see them on idiot box .
Thursday was our 2d “ ocean day , ” in which we make no stops in port and instead spend much of the prison term in class session break up throughout meeting rooms on one of the ship ’s main stratum . Apple ’s Janet Hill pass the sidereal day in two marathon sessions — all morning oniLife , and all afternoon coveringiWork . Derrick Story , our resident photography expert , was also working fabulously firmly on Thursday in three sessions coveringApple ’s Aperture , Adobe ’s Photoshop Lightroom , and ways of integrating Photoshop into the workflow of drug user of Aperture , Lightroom , or iPhoto .
Is it Caribbean or Dutch ? If it ’s Curaçao , it ’s both !
On both Wednesday and Thursday , New York Timescolumnist David Pogue detailed the atomic number 49 and outs of Mac OS disco biscuit Leopard , and told audience member about some of his favorite Leopard confidential information and legerdemain . ( David ’s been a meddling guy this cruise , since between sessions he ’s frequently rushing back to his way to continue working on his extroverted al-Qur’an , Mac OS XTC Leopard : The Missing Manual . The man ’s got Leopard on the brain . )
Friday was the big mean solar day for this sail : the master address , the Panama Canal . Early in the morning we drive south into the first of three curl that would take us into Gatun Lake in the center of the canal . I ’ve been inundated with Panama Canal triviality on this sail , and now I ’m going to spread some of it into the broad world . For example , anticipate - intuitively , to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the Panama Canal , you must travel in a southeasterly focus . More interesting is that the lake at the heart of the Canal is man - made , and as a resolution of damming the river that create it , it ’s some 80 animal foot above sea level . So for ship to get through the Canal , they must pass through three disjoined lock , which use lake water system to float ship up to lake height . On the other side of the epithelial duct , ships must pass through three more locks to get back down to sea level .
The Canal ’s locks lower ship out of the lake and back down to ocean layer .
In any event , this sail does n’t pass through the intact channel — we are bound to return to where we start , in Ft . Lauderdale , Florida . So after a few minute floating in Gatun Lake , we returned through the whorl and ended up back in the Atlantic . Many cruise - goers shoot the chance to be ferried off the ship will in the lake for various Panamanian activities , and then caught up with us at the port city of Colón .
On Saturday we spent the morning and most of the afternoon docked in Puerto Limon , Costa Rica . Again , plenitude of cruise - goers braved a steadfast tropical rain ( itiscalled a rain forest for a reasonableness ) to search Costa Rica ’s born beauty , soggy though it may have been . In the evening , we convoke back on the ship for a cocktail party , where we sip drink and find out the rain fall down as the sky grew drab and theMS Volendampulled away from the lights of Costa Rica .
In any event , on Sunday Randal Schwartz talk about how he ’s integrated his iPhone into his travel life , and Apple ’s Sal Soghoian gave the fourth and last Leopard presentation of our voyage . I tended the ship ’s Ingenious Bar , handing out advice , chatting with group discussion participants , and even avail a Shakespeare enthusiast with a shrewish iPhoto Library problem . On Sunday afternoon , Sal Soghoian and I conjoin force for a solid two - hour Q&A academic session in which our group of squad car peppered us with tough inquiry about Apple and the Mac . In the interest group of preserving Sal ’s honored standing within Apple , I test to field all the questions about what Apple ’s run to do next and about what Apple did wrong in Leopard so that Sal did n’t have to . David Pogue and Mac source ( and , as it go on , Shakespeare aficionado ) Robin Williams cap the evening off with special presentations in the ship ’s film theater .
Now , not to brag , but on Sunday night a few of us were really , really lucky . My married woman and I were call for to dine at the table of theVolendam’scaptain , Fred Eversen . Along with us were Neil and Teresa Bauman of InSight Cruises , two representatives of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival ( including a 92 - year - old supporter ! ) , and MacMania 7 ’s particular celebrity guests , Oscar - winning actor Richard Dreyfuss and his wife Svetlana . Is n’t being receive to the Captain ’s Table something that only happens onThe Love Boat ? It turns out that if you ’re very , very practiced , and very , very lucky , you might one day hope to get an invitation . ( This is my fifth sail and Neil Bauman ’s 50th , but this dinner party was a first for both of us . )
answer it to say that there ’s only the good for the Captain . The intellectual nourishment was amazing , the divine service was as attentive and fantastic as I ’ve see in my biography , and as far as I can say an first-class time was had by all . I know this sounds like a no - brainer , but if you ever get invited to dine with the sea captain , do it . As to how you get the invitation to the board , that one I ca n’t help you with . I ’d care to think he loved my previous blog , but the comportment of an Oscar winner might have helped a bit too .
That make for us to Monday , our final mean solar day , which is wrapping up as I compose this . This morning I yield a 90 - minute intro to a carry room on the subject “ Apple Does Video , ” which was a primer about how to get video off your hard drive and videodisc and into your iPod , iPhone , or Apple TV . I told them about the wonders ofHandBrakeandTechspansion ’s VisualHub , and we even took a few digressions into the ethic of ripping DVDs , the ethics ( and/or deficiency of same ) of BitTorrent , and much more . It ’s the first time I ’ve given that peculiar presentation and from what I heard afterward , it was well received , which is a relief .
And that ’s it from theMS Volendam , cruising ever closer to Florida and the goal of our 10 excellent days . bide tuned for a little more from me , include a segment on the next Macworld Podcast and — with any fortune — an installing of the Macworld Video . Until then , thanks for version ! We had a nifty prison term — wish you were here . Maybe next sentence ?
Mac Mania 8 , produced byInSight Cruisesand Macworld , is come next November . Mac Mania 8 is sail to the Eastern Mediterranean , including Italy and Egypt .
