Latest Posts in Mac Mania

The case for cruising

There’s more to a MacMania cruise than scuba diving —there’s also a full curriculum of classes to show cruisers how to get more out of their Macs. Rob Griffiths brought his Mac OS X Hints to the high seas the other morning; after that, Rob and I spent an afternoon showing attendees some of our favorite cool and affordable utilities. We also participated in a Q&A session with the other speakers. Finally, we challenged Leo Laporte and Janet Hill to a shootout of our favorite Gems. (We’ll post some of the details of our sessions at Macworld.com when we get back to dry land.)

As this is my first MacMania cruise—and the first cruise I’ve been on since I was a kid—I spent much of the first couple days getting a feel for what a Geek Cruise really is. Some quick observations:

A Mac conference on a cruise actually works. If you’ve never taken a cruise before, there’s a lot of down time. You spend a day in an interesting place, then you’re at sea for as long as two days as you sail to the next destination. Sure, these huge ships are amazing in terms of the onboard facilities, which include shops, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and courts, and more, but unless you’re a big fan of bingo or gambling (or, to be fair, relaxation), you’ve got time to kill. Spending a few hours learning how to get more out of your Mac—from people known for their Mac prowess—is a pretty cool way to spend some of that time (not to mention perhaps one of the few that you can use to convince your employer to pay your way). Even I’ve enjoyed listening to Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Ted Landau, Rob, and the other speakers.

“Geek cruises” is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the attendees on this MacMania cruise are normal Mac users—teachers, students, professionals, retirees, you name it. They’re no more or less “geeky” than I suspect the average Mac user to be. Some have been using Macs from the beginning, while others are recent switchers; some are experienced, others novices. About the only constant is that they’re all fans of the Mac. (That’s not to say there aren’t some people who go above and beyond the call of duty; for example, one of the attendees is a collector whose stable of Macs numbers 124—one of nearly every model Apple has released, most of them in working order.)

Internet access at sea is slow and expensive. As Rob mentioned in a previous post, we pay by the minute for Internet access, and that rate is steep. But beyond that, the access we get is roughly equivalent to fast dial-up. There’s a big dish on top of the boat that tracks the appropriate satellite, and that signal serves the entire ship of 1,500 or so passengers, as well as all of the ship'’s own networking needs. To make Internet access even more of a challenge, weather and surf conditions prevented the ship from being able to track the appropriate satellite(s) a couple times over the first two days, leaving us without any Internet service at all. (I know… boo hoo hoo . But some of us are working here!)

Food is very big on cruise ships. If you’re a fan of food, you’re in luck; no matter the time of day, you can find food, and lots of it. If one eating area is closing, you can be sure another is opening, and all of this food—much of which is quite good—is included as part of your cruise. Of course, if you're dieting, this isn't the best environment to be in.

Web “surfing” is very different when you pay by the minute.. As someone who tracks more than 100 Web sites each day (via NetNewsWire ) for my job, not having a live, unlimited Internet connection has been eye-opening. It’s amazing how reliant I’ve become on broadband. What I’ve found myself doing during the trip is connecting to the Internet, letting NetNewsWire refresh all its feeds, and then disconnecting. I then go through the 400 to 600 articles in NetNewsWire and use the app’s Flag command to mark those articles I actually want to browse on the Web. Some of those I visit the next time I’m connected; others I’ll save until I get back home. The upside here is that over the past few days I’ve become much more aware of which feeds are really important and which are frivolous.

It’s been a load of fun so far. The weather has been great, the attendees have been a pleasure to meet and spend time with, and the boat is beautiful. From Belize, we head on to Guatemala—we’ll be sure to keep you posted on our adventures on the shore and in the classroom.

Cruising the Keys

With MacMania 5 having set sail from Tampa, I thought I’d touch on a couple leftover items from Departure Day before diving into our first full day aboard the Veendam …

One of the things we did before we left port was to run a ship-wide emergency evacuation drill—clearly the least fun of our ship-board events but certainly very important. At 4:15 p.m., when we heard the ship’s bell ring seven times, we donned our life jackets and then proceeded down to the sixth level of the ship (which has an exterior walkaround deck) to find our lifeguard station. As can be seen in Dan Frakes’ photo, it was crowded out on the walkway, but everyone remained orderly. After reaching your assigned station, you had to respond to a roll call of cabin numbers. When everyone was confirmed present from all cabins, the drill was over and we returned the life jackets to their storage spot in the cabin—hopefully never again to be seen this week!

As an aside, lifeboat technology has come quite a long way since the days of wooden rowboats in the 1920s. Today’s lifeboats are fully sealed, contain powerful engines, food and water for 150 people per lifeboat, and emergency GPS-based position transmitters. The design of the lifeboats certainly gave me a positive feeling that if we did have to use them for some reason, we would have a good chance of being located by anyone searching. But enough of the emergency drill review… on to the fun stuff!

After some free time, we proceeded to the bow (front) of the sip, for the Geek Cruises get together at 7:15 p.m. This party gave the speakers a chance to mingle with the attendees—and for Geek Cruises’ Neil Bauman to explain some of the finer details of the week ahead. It was nice getting to say hello to the attendees in a very informal manner, prior to the start of classes. We all received hats and name badges, making it easier to identify each other amongst the ship’s population.

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MacMania: Sailing into Belize

Yesterday was an at sea day on MacMania V, and that means classes! Both Dan Frakes and I had busy days, with sessions during the morning and evening, followed by the first formal dinner of the journey. I presented a session on my favorite Mac OS X Hints in the morning, and then Dan and I worked through about 45 interesting and useful applications and utilities during our afternoon session. That was followed up by another session of the Ingenious Bar, and then a fun talk where four of us (Janet Hill of Apple, Leo Laporte, Dan and myself) presented some of our own favorite applications. Throughout the whole day, I was impressed with the attendees’ interest in the topics being discussed. Good questions were asked, and we had some good conversations on a number of Mac-related topics.

After the full day of sessions, it was time for the first formal dinner of the cruise. Working out of a home office, putting on a suit and tie isn’t something I’ve done very much of lately, so it was kind of fun for a change of pace. I’m pretty sure it won’t carry over to my home work habits, however!

After 30 hours of sailing, we arrived early this morning in Belize City, Belize, for our second day of shore excursions. Well, not quite “in.” As you can see from the photo below, we didn’t actually get all that close to Belize City proper—I’d guess that we’re anchored a couple miles offshore (that’s Belize City visible in the distance):

And that photo is about as close to Belize City as my wife I got all day. We signed up for a day of scuba diving with the Belize Dive Connection, which entailed an early departure from the ship. The dive boat picked us up around 8:00 a.m. at the ship, and took us on a 20 minute ride over to the dive shop to be outfitted with gear. From there, it was about a 45-minute ride out to the dive sites located at Terneffe Atoll. The weather wasn’t the greatest, either—cloudy and overcast when we awoke, and there were numerous small rain showers throughout the area. Needless to say, the ride out to the dive site was not the smoothest thing I’ve ever experienced.

But once we arrived, we had a great time. The dive master and boat crew were experienced and professional, and the two dive sites were incredible. I took along our old Canon PowerShot S30 and its underwater case, and snapped a whole bunch of pictures during the dives. As a sample of what we saw, I put together this small photo gallery of some of the underwater beauty. As you can see, despite the rough surface conditions, visibility below was excellent. (Note: I’m a complete amateur hack when it comes to photography in general, and underwater photography in particular. I used nothing more than the camera and its built-in flash, so you’ll see that some of the images have a definite blue tint—if something is at the edge of the flash’s range, it comes out blueish.) After two great dives, we reversed course and endured another pounding ride back to the MS Veendam . But the beauty of the dives were well worth the pounding of the boat rides there and back.

Tomorrow we have a relatively quiet day, with a visit to Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala during the day, and then an evening session on Mac Horror Stories, which should be a lot of fun. Dan Frakes, Andy Ihnatko, Ted Landau and I will be sharing stories about when our Macs have gone off the deep end, and what we did to try to salvage the situation.

Photo gallery: Diving in Belize

Photo Gallery - Mac Mania 5 Gallery 2 - Fish!

Leaving Tampa

Greetings from onboard the MS Veendam , somewhere off the Florida coast. As I type this, it’s just after 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 29, and I’m sitting in a comfortable leather recliner, staring out at the sea going by. We’re headed for Key West, with arrival set for about five hours from now. I’m also, somewhat amazingly, using a satellite internet connection to download my mail and upload this blog and photos. Speeds are… well… not really in the cable modem category, but they’re certainly acceptable for some basic e-mail, Web, and (small) file transfer needs. (Note that the network connection is not included in the cost of the cruise, and you’ll pay somewhere between 40 cents and 75 cents per minute for your connection. As with everything on the ship, though, it’s all billed through your room.)

As a complete newcomer to both cruises in general and Geek Cruises in particular, I thought it might be interesting to share a few embarkation day observations. My wife and I arrived in Tampa on Thursday night, and then took a vacation day on Friday to go ride the roller coasters at Busch Gardens (highly recommended for coaster fans: SheiKra, as seen below).

On Friday night, we attended the Geek Cruises pre-departure kick-off party at the Hilton. It was a great way to meet some of the attendees, as well as saying hello to some of the other speakers on the cruise. The next morning, departure for the cruise started around 11:00 a.m., as we waited for the shuttle ride to the boat.

While waiting for the shuttle, we met a couple who had just disembarked from the Veendam , after a 34 day cruise—they let from Vancouver, British Columbia, sailed down the entire west coast of the United States and Mexico, crossed the Panama Canal, continued down to the area of the Amazon River in Brazil, and then back up to Tampa through the Caribbean. Wow. Makes our little seven-day excursion in the Caribbean seem positively pedestrian by comparison.

After a 20 minute ride over to the docks, the boarding process began in earnest. A porter collected our “checked” baggage, and we then entered a gargantuan room filled with tons of people. After working our way through some additional paperwork, a few switchbacks in a line, and yet more paperwork, we were done—we had our boarding passes, room key, and dining cards in hand. Joining yet another line, we made our way onboard right around 12:30 p.m.—just in time for lunch on the Lido deck:

I’ve heard the Veendam described as a “small” ship. I guess everything is indeed relative, as it felt positively gargantuan during our initial explorations. As but one example, the outside walkway around deck six is a quarter-mile in length—walk it four times, and you’ve gone a mile. Also walking from the bow (front) to the stern (back) of the ship provides a good amount of exercise as well. And that’s a good thing, because so far, it seems if you’re not walking or attending a function of some sort, you’re eating! There’s food everywhere, and the items we’ve sampled so far have all been quite tasty.

I’ll close this first day blog with a picture snapped off the deck as we left Tampa last night…

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a couple of MacMania sessions to prepare for, and I’m sure there are some breakfast items to be consumed…

Photo gallery: MacMania 5 sets sail

MacMania 5 left Tampa en route to the Western Caribbean. Dan Frakes sent his first round of photos from the MS Veendam .

Photo Gallery - Mac Mania 5 Gallery 1

Cruising for some hints

Thanks to Macworld , I’ve been involved in several events over the last year or so that have been new experiences for me. I participated in two MacBraniac Challenges at Macworld Expo, for instance, and just recently attended my first-ever Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. This fall, another new experience will be added to the list when I participate in my first-ever Geek Cruise, as a speaker on MacMania 5. Not only is it my first-ever Geek Cruise, but it’ll be my first time on a cruise ship (not counting a few longish ferry rides in my youth).

I’m quite excited about the upcoming cruise. And no, not just because it’s going to some really cool destinations, such as Belize and Cozumel. But also because I get the chance to talk with and present to a number of fellow Mac- and OS X-heads, all of whom share my interest in the platform. And though I get to do this annually in my Best of Mac OS X Hints sessions at Macworld Expo, the cruise should offer a much greater chance for interaction with everyone—at Macworld, I’m usually standing on a podium, speaking to a room of several hundred. On the ship, I’ll be talking to smaller groups in a classroom setup. I’m really looking forward to being able to see and speak to everyone in my sessions.

Sessions. Ah yes, exactly what will I be talking about? I’m slated to give four talks during the trip:

Top 20 all-time Mac OS X Hints: My 20 personal-favorite tips and tricks, picked from (as of today) the 9,203 that we’ve accumulated on macosxhints.com over the last five years. To be perfectly honest, I have way more than 20 favorite tips, which is a good thing, as it means that most of what I’ll be presenting isn’t a rehash of things I’ve presented at Expo (though I do have some all-time favorites that have been shown before). I’ll also be using any extra time after the presentation to (hopefully) answer any OS X questions people may have.

Amazingly Cool Utilities: I’ll be demoing a selection (20 or so) of my favorite third-party utilities and applications—mainly programs that aren’t mainstream, but can help you be more productive, or that add nifty features to your system. I’m planning on showing a fair bit of hands-on time with each program, so you can get a sense for exactly how it works, instead of just reading about it on a slide.

Getting started with iWork: Inspired by my Inside iWork ‘06 training video, I’ll be demonstrating how to use both Pages and Keynote, the two programs in Apple’s iWork ‘06 suite. I’ll explain how the inspectors work, how to use styles in Pages, how to work with animation (builds) in Keynote, how to work with charts and graphs, and much more.

A Non-Geek’s Introduction to Open Source Applications: This will be an interesting session, I think. I’m definitely not a Unix wizard, by any stretch of the imagination. Five years ago, I knew basically nothing about it. However, while building and running macosxhints.com, I’ve come to learn a fair bit about the “dark underside” of OS X. The purpose of this session is to introduce those who might be interested yet somewhat leery of Unix to the wonderful world of applications that are out there. I’ll cover some basic Unix commands for use with Terminal, and then I’ll discuss how to install and use some open-source web-based applications, such as Geeklog, which powers macosxhints.com.

The tone will be decidedly non-technical, as I don’t have the background to give a technical presentation on this subject. Instead, I’ll try to describe in plain language each step of the process, from start to finish. (Those who would like a more formal and knowledgeable exploration of the Unix side of OS X should sign up for Randal Schwartz’s session, A UNIX Guide to OS X—he’s forgotten more about Unix than I could ever hope to learn!)

Hopefully I’ll be able to make all four sessions informative and entertaining for everyone. I’m really looking forward to my first MacMania cruise, especially the opportunity to get to know some of the Macworld/macosxhints readers in a more personal environment. The fact that we’ll be doing this on a boat headed to some amazing destinations is just icing on the cake!

If you're thinking of coming on the cruise, or have any suggestions about what I should talk about during my sessions, let me know in the comments thread attached to this message.

Podcast: On board MacMania 4.5

Since the first MacMania cruise set sail in May 2002, we’ve been telling you it’s a great way to see the world while also learning from Mac experts on how to get more out of your Mac. To give you a sample of what happens when Mac lovers hit the high seas, Janet Hill, an education development executive with Apple and a presenter on the most recent MacMania cruise in the Western Mediterranean, put together a podcast featuring comments from passengers on board the ms Noordam .

In addition to the passengers, you’ll hear from cruise organizer Neil Bauman, captain and CEO of Geek Cruises as well as presenters Bill Durrence and Jack Davis, who both talk about photography. The AAC version of the podcast contains the photos both Bill and Jack refer to in their remarks.

Download the MacMania podcast

•  AAC version (2.9MB, 12 minutes) •  MP3 version (5.4MB, 12 minutes)

Show Notes

Visit the Geek Cruises Web site for information on upcoming MacMania outings, including MacMania 5, which sails the Caribbean from October 28 to November 4, 2006, MacMania 6, which heads to Alaska in 2007, and MacMania 7, a late 2007 voyage to the Panama Canal.

We published some of Chris Breen’s own vacation photos from the cruise.

If you’re interested in more podcasts, be sure to stop by Macworld’s podcasting page, where you can subscribe to the Macworld Podcast.

Photo gallery: Cruising the Mediterranean

Click on thumbnail to open the full image and caption.

[ Photos by Christopher Breen .]

Photo Gallery - MacMania 4.5

Cruising slowly home

Editor’s Note: MacMania 4.5 is history, and Christopher Breen wraps up his European-based blogging with one final entry.

Rome —“But I have a confirmed ticket.”

And Paulo-of-the-white-Eurotrash-glasses who you’ve waited for in line for more than an hour sighs for the dozenth time and repeats, so slowly that even a stupid American can understand, “You have a confirmed ticket but not assigned seat. Flight is oversold. You have no seat.”

“But what does confirmed mean if it doesn’t allow me on the plane?”

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