Sci-Fi Hi-Fi

Ever wonder what would have happened if the remaining members of beloved post-punk outfit Joy Division had responded to the tragic death of singer Ian Curtis by becoming Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot’s backing band instead of forming an obscure disco act called New Order? I know this tantalizing “alternate history” scenario has kept me awake many a night, and now, thanks to a link via my distinguished colleague Ammon Skidmore (who really needs a weblog of his own), I no longer have to wonder!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dsico’s brilliant “Love Will Freak Us!”

(Update: When I originally wrote this, I was afraid that my attempt at Tony Wilson-esque dry humor might be misinterpreted, and it looks like I was probably right. Just for the record, I absolutely love New Order—probably more than Joy Division. I guess one thing I should have kept in mind is that people might not realize you’re joking if you call a hugely popular UK band “an obscure disco act” in a country where they are, in fact, somewhat obscure!)

Another topic I’ve been meaning to write about—partly because I think it ties into a lot of interesting business issues and partly because, like all webloggers, I feel the irrational need to apologize for the fact that I don’t post every day—is the problem of being a weblogger at Apple. The problem can be stated briefly like this: what happens when the culture that produced the “I’m blogging this” shirt meets the man who used to be known for keeping a “Loose Lips Sink Ships” poster on his office wall?

On the face of it, this issue seems easy to resolve: just don’t say anything confidential on your weblog and you’ll be fine! But the problem isn’t that simple because sometimes it’s hard to draw the line between what needs to be kept secret and what doesn’t. What if I was to remark, for example, that I’d been pulling a lot of late nights at work, or that I was going to be delaying a planned vacation, or that I was being trained in a new programming language? Those things aren’t secrets in themselves, but they might hint at things like product delays, release dates, or strategic directions.

Additionally, the “grassroots” nature of weblogging creates significant problems for companies who need to manage communication with their customers, and Apple is no exception. For example, I had considered doing a post this evening about the newly released 10.2.8 update—a project that has occupied a lot of my time in the last month—but ultimately thought better of it. As much as I would like to formally make note of the first milestone in my time at Apple, there are two things I worry about:

1. The possible misperception that I am making an official announcement for the company.
2. The possible deluge of feedback that would result. David Hyatt’s “Surfin’ Safari” experience is instructive here, as is a recent post by Louis Gerbarg (he’s one of those really smart Apple people I’ve been talking about).

This is not to say, of course, that a company like Apple couldn’t gather useful information through the blogosphere (Eric Blair’s post about the 10.2.8 installer this evening is a good example). I’ve always liked the Cluetrain Manifesto, and thought that its ideal of breaking down the corporate “firewall” and enabling direct communication between business and customer was admirable. Now that I work for Apple, however, I see two problems with it:

1. In the “innovation” business, proprietary information is incredibly valuable, which means some level of secrecy is always going to be necessary. If you doubt that, just think about how quickly Buy.com came up with a cheap knock-off of the iTunes Music Store, and then imagine that they had been tipped off six months earlier.
2. The software development process—particularly the development of something like an operating system—is incredibly complex and calls for careful tracking of bugs and changes. The comments page on a weblog just isn’t going to cut it.

For these reasons, I’m going to have to agree with Louis and the majority of other Apple webloggers, at least for the time being, that the best policy is to think of my job at Apple a lot like Fight Club—and not talk about it.

Speaking of life at Apple, I’ve been meaning to post some reflections on my first month in Cupertino. Fortunately, I’m still here—although I did have a brief moment of terror on the morning of my one month anniversary (Thursday, 9/18) when, upon entering 1 Infinite Loop, I discovered that my badge no longer worked. All I could do was stand there fiddling nervously with the thing while the ubiquitous, eternally suspicious, white-shirted security guys looked on grimly. After what seemed like an eternity, I was told to go to the badge office, where the nice lady, thankfully, furnished me with a working version.

Aside from that, everything has gone swimmingly. My coworkers are a cool bunch of cats who have been very good about making me feel like a part of the team very quickly. I do have to say, though, that I’ve come to feel like a bit of an elder statesman among them. One of these youngsters actually expressed muted shock the other day after discovering I’d reached the advanced age of 25 (actually, 26 next Saturday—hint, hint!).

Which brings me to an interesting observation: if I had to sum up my experience at Apple thus far (at least in a way that wouldn’t run afoul of the dreaded NDA), I would have to say that it feels for all the world like I’m back in college. It’s all there: a “campus,” a cafeteria everyone patronizes constantly until they get desperately sick of it (and, really, even after that), a sort of “quad” where volleyball is played, people who burn the midnight oil and sleep late (one day some guy even crashed on a couch outside my office!), and, of course, parties.

Not that it’s been all fun and games, mind you. Apple employees are nothing if not hard workers, and I’ve been very impressed at the level of commitment shown by everyone from top to bottom to making sure that OS X is the best it can be. The culture is highly oriented toward quality, and, though it’s trite to say so, I think it really shows in Apple’s products.

I would say that my favorite benefit of the job so far has been the opportunity to learn, which is inestimable. The chance to be a part of the development of a whole operating system is rare indeed, and the opportunity to assimilate knowledge from the sheer number of brilliant people Apple employs is even rarer. My group is a great place to learn a lot about a lot of things, and I often feel like an intellectual tourist, just trying to take it all in.

In short, I’m absolutely thrilled to be at Apple, and I’m very much looking forward to what’s ahead. Many thanks to my team and my boss for giving me a chance!

Reaction to the big keynote in Paris this morning seems to be somewhat varied, but I for one was very interested to see the new wireless keyboard. Not so much because of the Bluetooth integration (although that’s nice), but rather because it brings back pleasant memories of the Apple industrial design of yore. To be more specific, it strikes me that the new design, with its practically non-existent bezel, bears more than a passing resemblance to the “Cassie” keyboard conceived by frogdesign for Apple in 1982.

As the AppleFritter page above points out, the design of this prototype was eventually incorporated into a shipping unit (the Apple IIgs keyboard), but it was given a small bezel since the completely “frameless” version seemed too insubstantial to consumers. It looks like Apple’s new take on this classic design strikes a clever compromise: the keyboard has a thin bezel, but it is made of clear plastic.

I personally think it would be fun if Apple took this retro idea and ran with it. There is a a rich vein of nostalgia to be mined from people like me: techies who spent elementary school hacking Logo code and playing Robot Odyssey (greatest educational game ever, by the way) on the venerable Apple II. And the Mac’s 20th birthday is right around the corner…

How do you know when your shareware app is truly popular? You could use number of registrations, positive VersionTracker feedback, mentions in the press, or any number of other metrics to ascertain just how esteemed your labor of love has become. Today, however, I discovered a whole new criterion for popularity: has someone actually seen fit to release a cracked version of your program?

I am both flattered and pissed to say that, in the case of PodWorks, someone has. Through an odd coincidence, a coworker alerted me today that there is a copy of PodWorks 2.1.2 floating around that has gone through “binary surgery” at the hands of some guy calling himself Pablo.

If I was less busy and more greedy, I’d probably have to start looking into code obfuscation techniques. For now, however, I’m going to adopt the attitude that anyone who will go to such lengths to avoid paying $8 is in the minority.

Besides, the irony is almost too good: enabler of intellectual property theft has his own intellectual property stolen. Truly, there is no honor among thieves!

From the “Tales of Great Software Engineering” department comes an article in last week’s New Yorker, entitled “What Galileo Saw.” In it, Michael Benson descibes the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s struggle to salvage the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft after a hardware failure (namely, the refusal of its high-gain antenna to open on command) rendered it unable to transmit data at a rate greater than 10k a second. Their solution, which was of great interest to me in light of my current gig, involved a major software update—from 400 million miles away!

Unfortunately, this solution was not an easy one, since it involved getting advanced data-compression algorithms to run on some pretty outdated microprocessors (specifically, the same kind that used to power Pong):

Instead of attempting to change the spacecraft’s hardware, the Deep Space Network rescue squad began thinking about how it could improve Galileo’s information-processing capabilities. There was one possibility: Galileo’s fundamental software could be rewritten. To accomplish this feat, the onboard computer had to be powerful enough to handle the more advanced algorithms employed in the updated code. “The computer system on Galileo was ancient,” Deutsch said. “So we looked into what kind of microprocessors were on board, and how much memory there was. And there was good news and bad news.”

NASA doesn’t get a lot of respect these days. People tend only to pay attention to the space program when there is a disaster, and then only long enough to castigate the agency for its ineptitude. Everyone knows about the Columbia accident, but few people stop to consider the stunning discoveries made by Galileo (the presence of liquid water on Europa for starters)—or the unsung but brilliant team of coders who made it possible. JPL, I salute you!

With the Jesus & Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey” in the trailer, incidental music by Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream) on the soundtrack, Bill Murray (who I loved in Rushmore) and Scarlett Johansson (who I loved in Ghost World) in the cast, and Sofia Coppola (who directed one of my favorite movies of all time, The Virgin Suicides) at the helm, Lost In Translation is rapidly becoming my most anticipated new film since 28 Days Later.

My only fear when I see such a “dream team” (at least by my standards) involved with a movie is that it will turn out to be an exercise in style over substance—filmmaking for filmmaking’s sake, if you will—and the synopsis of Lost In Translation (American actor and younger woman embark on a free-form, life-affirming romp through Tokyo) doesn’t exactly allay my concerns. Still, I’m a sucker for movies and music that convey a strong sense of place, and from what I’m seeing, I’d be willing to bet Coppola’s movie can get by on that (and Ms. Coppola’s excellent taste) alone.

Two of my friends from Denver came to visit over Labor Day weekend, and we decided to take advantage of the long weekend to explore the Northern California coast. I’m glad to report that the trip, which took us far south as Big Sur and as far north as Point Reyes (thanks Chuqui!), was a very successful one in that it allowed me to finally experience some of that “natural beauty” that Californians keep talking about.

I was particularly taken with Point Reyes. I tend to like my landscapes dramatic, and Point Reyes—with its dense fogs, strong winds (133 MPH is the record), high cliffs, precipitously perched lighthouse, and sordid history of shipwrecks and insanity—is right up my alley. Probably one of the first places I’ve seen in the area that I would sincerely classify as “must see.”

As is my habit, I managed to snap a few photos for the old weblog…

A Highway 1 seascape.

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