Author: matt

Apple WWDC 2008 Keynote Reaction and Reflection

I have now had more than a day to digest all of the information that came out of Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. I have broken down my reaction into sections based on the different parts of the keynote speech.

iPhone 2.0 Software Update

The first part of the keynote was devoted to the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software update. This update was originally announced in March along with the software development kit. This part of the speech was probably the most boring part for me since most of the information was already discussed in March. They made the speech even more painful buy bringing up numerous developers to demo and talk about the applications they had written for the iPhone.  While I don’t mind a quick demo or two, the number of demos they had was a bit excessive.  By the fourth or fifth I was pretty tired of the whole exercise and wanted something different.

Mobile Me

After the iPhone app demos, Apple introduced Mobile Me. This is a service that allows you to keep your email, calendar, and contacts on a central server have all of that data pushed to all your computers and mobile devices (like your *ahem* iPhone). All of this data stays up to date on all of your computers and devices. If you update a calendar appointment on your computer, your iPhone is updated automatically.  This has been around for many years in the business world. Apple even bills Mobile Me as “Exchange for the rest of us”. Apple has also made a set of pretty cool AJAX web applications for email, calendar, and address book so you don’t even have to use a desktop client if you don’t want to or can’t. I really like the idea of having all of your data up to date on your devices.  It has been something I have wanted to do myself for a long time.  While this server is very appealing to me, the price is not.  It is $99 USD a year.  I much rather host a server on my own network and perform the same services that Mobile Me does for free. We will see if I can do that or not.

iPhone 3G

The final announcement that was made I am extremely excited about but kinda figured it was coming. On July 11 Apple will be releasing the second version of the iPhone, named iPhone 3G. The 3G refers to the HSDPA modem now included that will allow for much faster data and Internet access. The main reason I held out on buying the original iPhone (and got an iPod Touch) was due to the slow data transfer speeds via EDGE. So I am definitely going to be purchasing this new iPhone. The best part is Apple dropped the price to $199 USD for the 8GB model and $299 USD for the 16 GB model (I’m sold on the 16GB so I can hold all the cool new apps). One annoying rumor I’ve heard is that Apple won’t be selling the new iPhone on their web site as they have done in the past. That means I am going to have to camp out in front of my local AT&T store to get one.

Mac OS 10.6 “Snow Leopard”

While they didn’t really talk about it at the keynote, they did mention that the next version of Mac OS X, or 10.6, will be called “Snow Leopard” and the developers there were going to get some more information on it during the week. Apple did post a small page on their web site and it seems that they are really going to focus on stability and making 64 bit a requirement. Rumors are saying that this next release might be Intel Mac only which finally gives me an excuse to buy a new Mac.

There you have it; my reaction to the WWDC keynote. Looking forward to what Apple has up its sleeve for Macworld San Francisco in January.

Busy Weekend

Well it’s been an eventful past few days and haven’t had time to sit down and make a proper blog post. I’ll start off with last Thursday.  After a few weeks of searching I found an apartment in northern New Jersey.  Its a nice new place very close to a train station which will be perfect for me since I will have to commute to New York City.  I’m looking forward to moving in mid July but I have a lot of work to do before then.  Hopefully I will have some photos once I am done moving in.

Saturday my brother moved out of the house into his first apartment.  He is living much closer to home then I will be but then again, he works in Philladelphia.  He rented a U-Haul to move all of his stuff; an idea I am now thinking of since it was so easy.

In my brother’s move, he took the basement couch and television which left a very large space in the basement. I decided to move all of my computers out into that space as a temporary office so I could spread out in the remaining time I have in this house.  Its nice to have room to spread out.  I guess I shouldn’t get used to it as I am going to move into a small apartment. 🙂

So hopefully this week won’t be as busy as last but I severly doubt it.  There’s lots to do and not a lot of time to do it in.  Catch you on Twitter!

Tweet Tweet

I signed up for Twitter today. For those of you that don’t know, Twitter is a microblog. It allows you to post short messages (140 character max) about where you are or what you are doing. My plan is to eventually link my Twitter feed into my main blog so there is one place to check my quick twitter posts and my full length blog posts. For now, you can see the feed by going to my Twitter page. If you have twitter, feel free to follow me.

P.S. If anyone knows a good way to integrate a Twitter feed into a WordPress blog, let me know. 🙂

Film Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I went to see the new Indiana Jones film last night at the midnight showing at my local theaters.  I am a huge Indiana Jones fan so I couldn’t wait to see the first new film in nearly twenty years.  I was a bit nervous since I really wanted it to be a good film.  Twenty years is a long time to be away from Indiana Jones and I didn’t know if Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford could pull it off.  Well I am happy to report that my pessimism was not needed.  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a great film and a welcomed addition to the Indiana Jones saga.

I don’t want to give any spoilers but the one thing I will tell you is the style of the film that you should expect.  I read an article a few months ago on the Vanity Fair web site about the new film (one of the few reports or articles I did read about this film) and one of things the article talked about is the style of all of the Indiana Jones films.  In the 1930s one of the popular film genres was the action serial.  When Spielberg and Lucas went to make the original Indiana Jones films, they attempted to make them in the style of a 1930s action serial since that was the time period the films were set in.  With Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the film takes pace in the 1950s. Science fiction action films were popular in the 1950s and so Lucas and Spielberg decided to make the film in the 50s sci-fi style.  The style fits the films quite well and makes it quite enjoyable to watch.

If you are thinking that Harrison Ford is too old to be playing Indiana Jones then you are completely wrong.  He did a fantastic job and to me it felt like he never left the role.  The story made the appropriate adjustments to compensate for the twenty year gap.  Shia LaBeouf and Karen Allen did excellent jobs in there respective roles.

Since the film takes place after World War II, the Nazis are no longer the enemy but have been replaced by the Soviets.  While the Soviets are a worthy opponent to Indy, I think they could have been made a bit more villainous. Cate Blanchett played the primary soviet villain but I don’t think she is as memorable as some of the Nazi villains that Indy has faced in previous films.

So the bottom line is to definitely see this film as soon as you can.  You will not be disappointed.

Graduation and Why Ceremony Sucks

This past weekend I graduated from Marist College.  For me it was a two day affair as I was awarded a scholarship award at another ceremony as well as my degree during the general commencement ceremony.  I won’t bore everyone with the details but here is a general overview of the events.

Baccalaureate Ceremony

A few weeks back I was nominated for a scholarship award for my work as a student employee in my college’s networking department.  This past semester I wrote a web application to help manage the new network access control system as well as provide a way for students to register network devices like game consoles and Tivos.  I won the scholarship award and that meant I had to go to the Baccalaureate Ceremony on Friday.  It lasted exactly one hour which was great for me since I don’t like ceremonies, especially long ones.  The one interesting thing about the event was listening to everyone’s achievements.  There were some very driven and talented individuals that definitely deserved to be honored there that day.  One cool thing I got to do after the ceremony was take my picture with President Murray, the president of the college.  Even though he doesn’t know who I am and probably never will, its still kind of cool.

Commencement

Saturday was the general commencement.  The weather could not have been better.  The only problem was we were wearing all black!  I know that it is traditional for graduates to wear black robes but I think that is one tradition that needs to be thrown out. 🙂 Our commencement speaker was Vicki Mabrey, a journalist for ABC News.  I think she is on the show Nightline.  Mabrey’s speech was short and to the point, exactly what a commencement speech should be.  While I enjoyed the speech, I can’t help but feel that it was a little unremarkable.  I don’t think I will remember the speech for the rest of my life but it certainly has an important messages for the next couple of years.

After the ceremony, the typical photos were taken with friends and family.  The so called “reception” after the ceremony was pathetic.  Marist really dropped the ball on that one.  Marist, if you reading, make the reception a real one next time.  Get some real food.

Anyway, after the pitiful reception, I got to introduce my mom and dad to some of my professors that have been instructing me these past four years.  Putting a face to the many names I have said over the years was pretty important to them so I was happy to oblige.

Ceremony: Not a Fan

Just as a warning to any future girlfriends/wife that may be reading this, I do not like ceremony or tradition very much.  The only reason why I went to my graduation is because my parents wanted me to.  Since I owe my parents a lot it was the least I could do.  But as a general rule, I find ceremony a tremendous waste of time and money.  I don’t like weddings, award ceremonies, or any other event that is purely done because it’s tradition.  So if you are a future girlfriend and you want a large wedding, we might have a problem. 🙂

Ground Rules

Now that the blog is up and running and I have introduced myself, it is time to set up some ground rules. These rules are are to let everyone know how I am going to operate and what to expect. Don’t worry, these rules are easy to follow and entertaining to read. 😉

Rule 1: I suck at spelling and grammar!

Its a pretty self explanatory rule. I don’t have an English degree. I don’t want to be a writer. This blog is not meant to be a shining example of the English language. This is a stream of consciousness from my brain to the web. There are bound to be spelling mistakes and grammar mishaps. If I find them, I will do my best to correct them but it is not my top priority. So if you find a mistake, by all means let me know but I don’t want any critiques of my writing in the comments or via email.

Rule 2: This blog is not a democracy!

While I plan on being open to hear anyone’s opinion on subjects discussed on this blog I want to make is abundantly clear that this is not a democracy. I am the ruler of this site. Try to think of me as a benevolent dictator. You are free to express yourself until I deem that you have crossed the line. I am a pretty lenient and open minded person so you have to push me pretty far for me to take action. Think about that before posting your comment.

Rule 3: I am not a genius and I make mistakes!

This rule corresponds to the first rule a little bit. I will be posting technical content, such as code snippets, scripts, how-tos, etc and occasionally there will be times when the how-to is wrong or the script has a bug in it. I do not consider myself to be an expert in what I do but rather a perpetual learner. I love to learn new things and as I learn them, I want to pass my experience on to others that want to learn. That is the primary reason for this blog. If I do make a mistake, realize that I am only human and will do my best to fix the problem. If you do find a problem with a piece of code or a how-to please let me know so I can fix it and others can benefit from your find. And with anything I release the warranty is use at your own risk and I am not responsible for anything that happens.

There you have it! Those are the simple ground rules for my blog. Chances are I will never have to enforce these rules but its nice to write them down just in case. Stay tuned for more in the coming days and weeks!

Hello world!

Well, it finally happened. I have started a blog. For those of you that know me, you know that this has been a long time coming. I have been wanting to start a blog for a couple of years now but I have never gotten around to it. Why start the blog now? It’s simple: Major changes to my life are now underway and I figured now is best time to start the blog. A new chapter of my life is approaching and I can now catalog it as it happens.

For those of you who don’t know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Matthew Bertolini. My friends call me Matt, Bert, Berto, or Bertolini. I am a software developer, web designer, video game player, board game player, film lover, and huge geek. I am graduating college in a matter of days and will start my career in a couple of months.

This blog will be a place where I can share cool stories, personal thoughts, awesome tech projects, interesting films and music, and anything else I feel like sharing with the Internet. It is currently a work in progress as I am still working on a custom theme for the blog as well as adding some plugins for some cool functionality to help both me and you. Check back in the next few weeks to learn more about me, some blog ground rules and much, much more.