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Andy Ihnatko was speaking to the Southern New Jersey Mac Users Group at Gloucester County College this evening (for free!) and Mike Noble and I went.  We were a spot early and a women who later turned out to be a bobblehead doll was Andy’s escort and she kept giggling and brushing her hand against him in the “oh stop, that’s TOO funny” hand motion.  Mike and I stood out from the crowd for a few reasons, first we were both under 45, second neither of us had Apple desktops or laptops, and finally we were more interested in seeing Andy than seeing Andy’s presentation and he (Andy) delivered.

Notes taken during presentation:

  • Had some weird hand motions
  • Didn’t change opening slide for 10 minutes
  • There was a guy behind us pumping a textbook in statistical methods up and down.  The book looked pristine and he was wearing a “Mac 8” t-shirt that looked to be from the Crimean War era.
  • He bumped the presentation adapter about 15 minutes in and the device locked up like a bank vault.   It took about 10 minutes for the device to restart.
  • Andy says “cara-bye-ner” not “cara-bee-ner”.
  • Used the phrase “and the moment that really put the bleach in their Campbell’s soup”.
  • “Apple defines success in the same way you and I define success: doing what you do well.”
  • Audience questions were squarely divided into two categories “TELL ME I’M SMART/GOOD ENOUGH!” and “WHY WON’T APPLE DO WHAT I WANT THEM TO DO!” with the winner being a woman who talked at Andy for 10 minutes on why Apple wouldn’t let her do a hardware unlock to change international carriers to which he replied “get the international plan”.

Despite my starting disinterest for the topic I really want an iPad now, although I don’t anticipate breaking my rule of “don’t buy anything first generation from a company that’s usually around to produce a second generation”.  One of the over-riding ideas Andy presented was that hardware was secondary to finding creative ways to allow users to interact with software, that in the absence of intuitive UI the rest is immaterial.  The premise is well reasoned and I’d only add the caveat of “if something wants to catch on in the broadest possible market”.

Pictures:

20100929-4307-Andyihnatko

This toupee wouldn't have been more obvious if it had a chin strap.

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Andy almost falling asleep as Brazil lady talks at him.

The design on the t-shirt Mike decided to wear

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We had presentations today in BA 4196, goody.  The teacher spent the session staring at us unhappily and I spent the session looking quizzically at poorly wrought PowerPoint presentations.  At then end, the group answered a question really poorly and the teach popped.   While I hate it while it happens I love it after the fact when a teacher blows up.  In particular I like two speeches:

1) My generation is superior to you generation
2) You’re undervaluing this useless and valueless material

There’s also the “Your ethnicity is inferior to mine” speech but that can only be implied and generally comes from grizzled Soviet bloc mathematicians.  This professor wins the award for being the first instructor to give both in one semester!  He beats out my stat professor who did both but over two semesters.  He even walked out angrily two minutes before the regular end time of the class.

Later, I got my test back in Act Sci 3505 and there was a rare instance where I bit my tongue.  I had been out the previous week and after reviewing the test angrily told a classmate that the 2 points I received off for failing to explain an answer properly robbing me of a 90.  He said he’d lost 30 points for similar things and was unsuccessful arguing it.  His grade was a 50 while the class averages was 48.  Whew…

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Two groups presented case studies today in BA 4196.  For once, the humor was not from marketing majors fumbling to come up with financial justifications or accounting majors trying to explain how a solution could be sold but the instructor.  Over the semester, the number of students using laptops has continuously increased and today the teacher jumped on the bandwagon.  He spent the entire 45 minute period dicking around with his laptop, and not that dicking that’s just fudging with it while taking notes, this was hard-core screen adjustment, battery removal, USB mouse attaching and all.  He picked up nothing, and at the end of the period when he opened the floor no one said anything.  I was curious to see how he dealt with him having no information so when he looked towards me with the “you’re the fat one, you always have an opinion” glance I stared at the carpet weaving on the wall.

He began visibly sweating and eventually simply dismissed the class claiming he’d have to “look over” his notes.  I can’t wait for grades to be posted.

Update: They got a B-, I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but if I think my next presentation will go poorly, I think I’ll start using a laser pointer to try to distract him.