Sep 95 Viewpoint
- Jan 95 Viewpoint
- Feb 95 Viewpoint
- Mar 95 Viewpoint
- Apr 95 Viewpoint
- May 95 Viewpoint
- Jun 95 Viewpoint
- Jul 95 Viewpoint
- Aug 95 Viewpoint
- Oct 95 Viewpoint
- Nov 95 Viewpoint
- Dec 95 Viewpoint
Volume Number: 11
Issue Number: 9
Column Tag: Viewpoint
Viewpoint fl
By Scott T Boyd, Editor-at-Large
tenth anniversary of MacHack had much to offer for about 300 Macintosh hackers from
all over the map.
Some people go for the sessions. Some people go for the caffeine. Some people go
for the amazing things that happen when they deprive their body of sleep for 72 hours.
Nobody goes for the food! And this year nobody went for the luxurious accommodations
of the Southfield, Michigan, Ramada (who needs air conditioning, anyway?).
Nevertheless, this event ranks among the few unmissable events of the year for
those who just can’t get enough of Mac programming. Why? The people, of course.
Nowhere else can you find such a favorable ratio of hackers to marketeers. It’s one of
the few places where marketing, Windows, and other holy cows come under constant
and brutal attack, much to the delight of the crowd.
Marriott and yours truly) attracts a wildly-diverse set of entries, and accounts for
the bleary-eyed, caffeine-pumped, sleep-deprived crew of entrants who show their
wares to a rabid, merciless crowd of their peers. The show starts at midnight, and
follows two days of crazed hacking.
I’m often asked how one goes about winning. Strangely, I get a disapproving look
(or small amounts of cash) when I suggest bribing the judges. I’ve never won (I’d just
get accused of cheating, anyway), so instead I’ll offer a few tips on how to have a great
time at MacHack.
I wandered around the machine room at 2AM, seeing if I could interest anyone in a
Web-hack idea I’d been mulling over. I didn’t know whether I’d find someone to work
with on this hack, or on another hack, but 2AM is a good time to find the right kind of
person. Many people were already working on their hacks, but I met a guy I’d never
met before, Grant Neufeld. Strangely, though, I’d been to his web site
hosting my portion of the hack, and he liked my idea.
We started working right away. He prepared the CGI shell, and I hacked out some
code to play with QuickTime’s compression manager and the (unpublished) Layer
Manager. We changed designs about a thousand times, and finally got something mostly
working. At that point, we decided that public relations was the next most important
thing to address, so we put together a killer About box, picked a cool name
(Whatson?), and Grant made the icon.
Instead of getting our demo rehearsed, we decided to add another feature (the real
killer feature), and found ourselves up against the deadline that I myself had imposed.
What to do? Ha! I changed the rules, and moved the start of the Hack Show to 12:30!
(Everyone accused me of it anyway, and it makes a better story if I just give in and say
so, in spite of the fact that the Hack Show equipment really wasn’t ready, honest!)
How did it turn out? We didn’t win (something about running out of the room in
the middle of demonstrating the hack at the Hack Show, but that’s a whole ’nuther
story). In retrospect, if we’d really wanted to win, we probably should have gone
ahead and made t-shirts. That would have made all the difference, no doubt.
Nevertheless, we had a blast. In the process of madly throwing together the bits and
pieces of this hack, we met and got help from roughly a dozen people, we faked up a fun
photo with Photoshop, and we dabbled in several areas of the Macintosh toolbox we
hadn’t played with before, all the while relishing the camaraderie, chaos, and caffeine.
Convinced? Want to enjoy the conference, at least vicariously? The list of
winners and some of the hacks are at
out Whatson?
From the “Where’s the Beef?” Department
Microsoft’s reputation for out-marketing Macintosh prevails in the consumer arena.
Microsoft holds the title in the developer arenaas well. For example, Microsoft
continued their full frontal assault at MacHack, both with their Windows95
preconference, and with ample support and cosponsoring of the machine room and
Internet connection. On the other hand, Apple, once famous for insanely-great
developer relations, has recently fared poorly in Macintosh developers’ hearts and
minds, losing ground as Microsoft presses on with aggressive developer relations
efforts. This year’s strong sponsorship of MacHack stands as a clear and welcome
exception.
What’s a Macintosh zealot to do? Well, never fear. Hope springs eternal. In
what might be Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s challenge, Apple recently brought Guy
Kawasaki back on board as an Apple Fellow. His mission? To “represent developer
issues and perspectives to Apple”, among other things.
In that vein, he has started up a mailing list designed for the Macintosh faithful.
He wants list participants to help him understand what developers need and want.
If you can handle a healthy dose of e-mail, join the list by sending a message to
the subject line) containing subscribe YourRealName. Once you’re on the list, you
can send mail to the same address. You can also send mail directly to Guy at
MacWay@aol.com>
Food For Thought
“Can one Guy get ahead of [Microsoft’s] James Plamondon? He’s pretty far out there!”
- Name withheld
“You know you’re really having fun when you find yourself falling asleep at
‘breakfast.’”
- Brad Kollmyer, bradk@vitalsoft.com
“It wasn’t broken air conditioning at the MacHack Windows preconference - it was the
Mac programmers burning in Hell”
- Anonymous