Two full daytime in , and we Mac Mania cruisers have packed a portion of excitement into those day , both on - ship and off .
Friday was the only “ sea day ” for the MS Westerdam , as we steamed from Copenhagen , Denmark , east to Tallinn , Estonia . And it was a full day of Mac Mania sessions . I terminate in to a crowded conference elbow room to see Chris Breen and David Pogue take turns at two keyboards : the type variety and the performing - music variety . Their GarageBand session pull about 25 conferencegoers , who pay off to see two expert writersandaccomplished player design several compositions using Apple ’s music - creation political program .
A small after in the sidereal day , I gave my first of four presentations during the sail , “ Tiger Primer , ” a guided tour of duty of the new feature in Tiger . I ’ll let in that , up against David and Chris , I was afraid my academic session would call on into “ Tiger : Jason ’s conversation with himself for an audience of none . ” But instead , I managed to get a full of life audience of about two XII cruisegoers , who were very cultured as I let the cat out of the bag on about Spotlight queries and Dashboard widgets and the like for an entire 60 minutes .
I ’m notoriously bad at judging the length of presentations : give me an hour and I ’ll fill with fear that I ’ve only got a half - time of day ’s worth of material , which of course leads me to return far too many slides and cause the paired problem . I ’ll admit I went extra time Friday , but I only put one person to sleep so far as I could tell , and she was kind enough to pick it on the jet slowdown .
A piece later in the evening I travel up to the Crow ’s Nest , on Deck 10 of the ship . ( Star Trek fans — and there are some of them on this ship , as there ’s also a Star Trek cruise going on at the same time — would delight in the fact that the Crow ’s Nest is in reality “ Ten Forward . ” Meanwhile , the other 800 people on the ship must be wondering what all these PowerBooks and Vulcan ears are about . ) In any event , every eve in the Crow ’s Nest , broadcast medium and podcasting personality Leo LaPorte and a random assortment of other presenters are on hand to man the “ Ingenious Bar , ” a freewheeling give-and-take of Mac - related issues , solving of Mac - related problem , and worldwide good times .
Over drinks and snacks , Leo and I discussed the Intel transition , mysterious Tiger printing bugs , the Mac mini , and several other matter with a little collection of Mac fans . It was a good time , and the variety of daily , low - key discussion it ’s hard to get at an event like Macworld Expo , where all the expert tend to be belt along from meet to meeting in a severely discombobulated fashion .
Saturday was our port stop in Tallinn , Estonia , and what a plosive consonant it was . Tallinn ’s Old City is a gorgeous ( and diminished , making it eminently walkable ) mediaeval urban center with metropolis walls , towers , pointy church steeple , and passing favorable people . It also helped that it was a beautiful , cheery 70 - stage Clarence Day . At the ferryboat dock , my family and I met Veljo Haamer , who ’s the editor ofwifi.ee , a Web situation and establishment that is circulate wireless Internet hotspot throughout Estonia , particularly in Tallinn .
Veljo led us through the city via back street ( learn out the slideshow ) , permit us deflect most of the crowded , touristed section of the metropolis while also steering us toward his favorite spots . We ascend to the hill at the top of the metropolis , where we were address to some spectacular views and numerous case of Veljo ’s work . Adjacent to the Estonian parliament building are two beautiful parks , both of which will be enabled with destitute wireless Internet access within a week .
After our walking , we ended up at Pegasus , a voguish café with — you guessed it — free Wi - Fi access . Although some of the cafés in townspeople do charge for Internet access ( it ’s a nominal fee , about 10 Estonian Kroons , or less than $ 1 , for 24 hours of exercise ) , most of them seem to think that having gratuitous Wi - Fi is like having detached newspapers useable for patrons : it save them well-chosen and keeps them in the café , spending more money .
subsequently , we meet up with one of Veljo ’s friends , Meelis Piller , who ’s the founder of the Estonian variant ofPC World . Meelis ’s grouping is extremely small — just a handful of people working out of his home — but they ’ve just put out their 2nd egress and are contend well with two other computer magazines in Estonia . This state is pocket-size — less than two million people — but Meelis read that there are a growing number of Mac users , and the cover ofPC Worldfeatures an Apple logotype and the phraseNüüd ka Maci kasutajatele , broadly speaking meaning , “ Now covering the Mac too ! ” And for sure enough , inside is an Apple section , featuring an article about the Intel transition(Apple läheb üle Inteli arhitektuurile ) , a feature history about Tiger(Apple’i Tiger operatsioonisüsteemi võidukäik ) , and even a news report by Macworld ’s Peter Cohen from E3(Power Mac’id jooksutavad Xbox 360 demosid ) , all translated into Estonian .
As we finish our recollective walking tour of the urban center , we passed a beautiful orthodox church and I noticed a sign that nock it asKultuurimälestis : National Monument . More striking , though , was the symbolic representation at its nerve centre : the same one you chance on your Mac ’s Command tonality , next to that Apple logotype . I ’ve see the story about how that symbol was derived from a Scandinavian signaling betoken a “ home of sake , ” but now I ’ve got test copy . I took out my PowerBook to display the symbolic representation to Veljo and Meelis ( who is , like hisPC Worldcounterpart in America , a PowerBook user ) . It was moderately singular .
With only a few hours to go before the Westerdam had to pull up stakes for our next full stop , St. Petersburg , we had to bid farewell to Veljo and Meelis . affectionate Dominicus , well-disposed people , gratis and fast wireless net entree … what an splendid sentence we had in Tallinn .
On to Russia , just in clock time for the Fourth of July .
