Ahoy, mateys. MacMania Departure day is drawing nearer and the course itinerary is nearing completion. And, according to Captain Neil Bauman, there’ll be four, sometimes five, tracks of study running concurrently.
MacMania is the upcoming seven-day ocean cruise, with ports of call in Alaska, that combines pleasure with 20 hours of conference courses. There’ll be conference tracks for both developers and end users.
Graphic arts, Web work, office productivity, and OS X are on deck. In addition, Mac enthusiasts will get the scoop on Mac secrets and the development underground, according to Bauman (who’s also CEO of Geek Cruises, the company behind MacMania). Mac pundits, panelists, and gurus will share the inside stories that shape Mac’s unique community, he added.
Some of the end user track courses are “A Unix Guide to OS X,” “Macintosh Studio Secrets,” “Digital Video Postproduction and Special Effects,” “Microsoft Office X Inside and Out,” “Building Web Sites with Dreamweaver 4 and Fireworks 4,” “Eudora, Entourage, Mailsmith Shootout,” “Getting Comfortable with Mac OS X,” and “iMovie 2: the Missing Crash Course. Developer track courses will include “AppleScript Crash Course,” “Using Project Builder and Interface Builder,” “Cocoa in Action,” “Porting to Mac OS X,” and “Java Development for Mac OS X.”
Actor/director/writer John de Lancie will be along for the voyage. And Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will be in attendance.
Speakers will include Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus, columnist and book author; Jesse Feiler, author of over 20 books; Andy Gore, former editor-in-chief of “Macworld” magazine; David Pogue, author and columnist; David Biedny, author and one of the founding editors of MacUser magazine; Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITs, one of the oldest and largest Internet-based newsletters; Glenn Fleishman, the “Practical Mac” columnist for the Seattle Times; Rick LePage, editor-in-chief of Macworld magazine; Deke McClelland, electronic publishing expert; Tom Negrino, book author and contributing editor to Macworld; Randal Schwartz, two-decade industry software veteran; Dori Smith, author and magazine writer; Jason Snell, editor of Macworld; Sal Soghoian, AppleScript guru; and Daniel Steinberg, director of Java Offerings for Dim Sum Thinking.
The seven-day ocean cruise will also enter new territory, exploring how Mac OS X enhances day-to-day Mac use. Taking advantage of Alaska’s exquisite scenery, a two-day digital photography workshop (one of 25 courses offered) will provide session participants with equipment, set them loose in ports of call, and refine the digital memories in a lab session, Captain and Geek Cruises CEO Neil Bauman said.
The MacMania cruise — which is co-sponsored by Mac Publishing — will depart May 27 from Vancouver for Alaska’s Inside Passage. Room for MacMania is limited to approximately 400. Cruising prices are: inside cabins: US$1,050-$1,100 (depending on category) and outside cabins: $1,350-$1,550 (ditto). The conference price is $600 for the End Users Track and $1,250 for the OS X Developers Track. Port taxes would be additional and are $184 per person.
MacManiacs will sail on Holland America’s Volendam, one of the newest members of Holland America’s “next generation” of cruise ships. The Volendam combines classic and state-of-the-art features including an alternative restaurant, mini-suites with verandahs, an Internet cafe, and Club Hal, a camp and children’s play center. For more info go to the Geek Cruises Web site.