June 6th, 2005

Woke up bright and early and headed off to the Student Sunday session. It was at the Argent hotel this year, a change from past years when it was held in the Moscone centre.

Got there around 8am, and got into the breakfast. I had a croisant thing with strawberry jam, wasnt too bad. Also had a few glasses of orange juice.

Around 9am we were all ushered into one of the room where they welcomed us and told us about the day.

Previously we had chosen a ‘track’ that we wanted to attend. Track 1 was aimed at people who hadnt done much Cocoa programming at all, track 2 was for people who had done some and wanted more. I picked track 2 and went along to it.

It was presented by Aaron Hillegass from BigNerdRanch.com, the guy that wrote the cocoa programming books. It was actually a really good session. He presents really well and explains things great.

After the first part we broke for lunch. I was amazed at the food they had. Salads, meats, sauces, and desserts it was awesome and tasted really good. I grabbed a coke as well and it was ok even though it doesnt tatse wuite as good as Australia

After lunch we went baack into our groups and were given a programming task to complete. Thomas, Luke and I played around with it and did some experimenting. In the end our example didnt work, but thats cool we had some fun and i think we were more productive then other people who just followed the examples.

Next we were given a talk by a guy from Delicious Monster who told us about mac programming, working for ourselves and making lots of money. Was entertaining and enjoyable.

We left the final student day session and headed to the AUC gathering at the Thirsty Bear. I actually tried 2 of the beers, the first was crap but the second was ok. We got to chat with a few other students and also 2 aussie guys that work at Apple. Was pretty cool and i enjoyed myself.

When i got back i got a call from Melanie Aunty Doris She managed to track me down I was planning on getting a phone call later in the week and giving her a call but she beat me to it.

So thats about it for today. Im sitting at the moment in the hotel typing out stuff and chatting on MSN. Tomorrow whould be really good, i really enjoy the keynotes and this one should be just as good if not better then previous ones.

Woke up around 7am this morning, showered, washing some tv and stuff until Luke and Thomas woke up.

We headed out to grab some breakfast and ended up an Mel’s Inn, a place we came across while walking around. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, has browns and toast – it was really good.

From there we wandered around a bit more, visited a few shops and stuff. Tried to register for the conference but found out its not open till 5pm, so we can back to the hotel room.

Thinking about going someplace tonight to watch the Kostya Tzy – Mickey Hatton fight which is on tonight.

Got a bit of a headache today, i think from the lack of sleep and stuff. Luckily i bought some Nurofen so thats dulled most of it. Good thing is that chances are i wont get another headache for the rest of the week so thats good and as long as i dont have one on the flight home ill be happy

Looking forward to the student day tomorrow, should be fun.

Went to the conference centre at around 5pm to get our conference badges and stuff. While i was there i ran into a guy i met when i was here in 2003. Anyway, he invited us to go graab some food with him and the people he was with so taht was cool. We ended up going to a mexican place and had some food then came back to our hotel and had some drinks and talk in the foyer area. Was fun and the other people were really cool. I think they were all from Canada except for 1 guy from Michigan here in the US.

So yeah, after that the other guys went back to their hotel and we came back up to our rooms. Talked a bit about which sessions we will go to and before we knew it it was 10pm. Im not that tired so im sitting here with the tv on and typing this thing.

Tomorrow starts early at 8am, we have breakfast with the other students at the Argent hotel (where the student day activities are held). Should be fun.

We departed Rocky at 6:30am, after a little worry of Thomas showing up late The flight to Brisbane was fast. We hung at Brisbane for a few hours and had something to east while we waited. When all was good we checked in and went to the ‘departing’ area.

We all wwaited till we got into the ‘departing’ area before buying books only to find the book shop there was pretty damn aweful. So, no books for us. Thankfully the flight to New Zealand went pretty fast. They showed some movie i cant remember the name of, i remember watching a preview of it recently though.

We arrived in New Zealand and it was around 11 degree and raining I was surprised at how green it looked as we flew in – very nice.

Waited at New Zealand for our next flight, met up with some other aussies that are going to the conference as well. Also had some more food and bought ourselves some books.

It was kinda weird but cool that the New Zealand departure terminal accepts NZ dollars, AUS dollars and US dollars. You can pretty much pay with whatever you want, even parts of all the currencies.

So yeah, the next flight was the longest. Around 13hours from New Zealand to San Francisco. The flight was ok, the food was great – i was impressed. With the movies they showed / ipod / books / snoozing the flight seemed to go fairly quick.

Arrived in San Francisco around 12 midday. We took the BART light rail to the stop closest to our hotel and walked the rest of the way.

At the moment we are all sitting in our rooms using the free broadband and thinking about going to get some free food

Currently sitting in the Argent Hotel at the WWDC student day breakfast. They have allowed an hour for breakfast and its only been 30mins and already people are pulling out their laptops.

Im really buggered this morning, dont know why. I think the pillows on my bed are the problem, they are really soft and when you put your head on it they just sink out and you may as well not use anything. Ive tried using two but that doesnt help much either.

Anyhow… thought id post somthing, ive been keeping a daily log type thing which ill post at some stage.