2005 June archive at ilapko.com – The personal website of Illya Lapko

Archive for June, 2005Page 2 of 3

Apple WWDC 2005 Keynote

So I just finished watching Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote (about an hour long) and I can tell you, if you like Macs or you are wondering about the future of the Mac platform running on Intel, you gotta watch this clip.

It started out with Steve Jobs talking about the iPod and iTunes and how they have been doing extremely well the past 9 months. He then talked about podcasting and how it is being called “the hottest thing going in radio” and how it’s no longer just amateurs making podcasts but big radio and news companies also. Jobs then talks about Tiger and how great it has been in its 6 weeks after release.

He then starts talking about transitions, talks about Motorola processors to IBM PowerPC processors being the first Apple transition, then Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X being the second transition. And then, he says, the third transition, PowerPC to Intel. The crowd reacts with a mix of applause and understanding that the rumor is true. He starts explaining how this is a great thing, bla bla (I am not about to write all the things he said, just watch it yourself). He also talks quite a bit on a new technology called Universal Binary, where old PowerPC apps will be able to run on the new Intel Macs. Some guest speakers come out like the co-founder of the company that makes Mathmetica, the most complicated Mac app, a person from Microsoft talking about software that they make for the Mac platform, a person from Adobe (CEO I think), and of course Intel’s CEO.

What’s funny to know is that the whole time the presentation was going, all the features of Mac OS X Tiger that Jobs was showing were all running on an Intel Pentium 4 3.6GHz processor. He lets the audience know this near the end of the keynote. I couldn’t help noticing how blazingly fast all the applications were loading on the Mac compared to what I see at school on the eMac, except for Photoshop, but hey that’s Photoshop, it’s a big and cool app.

Well anyway, this is getting as long as the actual keynote, so if you want to watch it yourself just click on the link at the top of this post. Note that you will need Quicktime to watch this and I recommend you to get Quicktime 7. If you are a Windows user (like me), you can download the Quicktime 7 for Windows Preview because it will stream the video right in.

From this Keynote, I have learned that 1) I will definitely be getting a Mac soon, and 2) I will probably be getting an Intel Mac when it is released in 2006. Apple, in my view will be the leading computer company in the world for a while. And come on, Longhorn will be released almost 2 years from now, I’m not waiting for another mediocre operating system when I can get a Mac and actually have fun using a computer that works and looks great. This is to you, Apple.

Exams are Finished!

Well, almost. Today was the last day of my exams, my computer exam. Tomorrow though I have to take this stupid ‘English Diagnostics’ test as does everyone else in grade 9 and 10. I personally think it is a big waste of time since we already have an official English exam, the IOWA test and the PSAT and SAT. There’s english diagnostics for you. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow like it has this whole week, then I’ll probably go play soccer with other guys from my school at Kowloon Tsai Park (near my school).

Anyway, the computers exam was quite simple. I believe to have gotten everything correct except a question on the three different types of DBMS (Database Management Systems). I know the names but I forgot how to distinguish them from each other. Besides that, everything seemed great.

I am still messing around with theming and this website will continue to look strange for a while but don’t worry, I’ll get it fixed.

In Preparation For K2

My site’s layout is gonna be all screwy for a while because I will be installing K2, an almost released theme for WordPress. So if my site’s layout looks different every few hours, don’t worry I’m just messing around.

Exams: Day 4

Today was the Science exam, my second to last exam in Grade 9. It was in the morning so I came to school, finished it, hung around with my friends at school for an hour or so, went to Festival Walk for about 30 minutes and then took the train back home. I just finished eating lunch (BBQ Pork Bun and Vanilla Coke). The Science exam was, in my perspective, quite easy. I always say that but I never get a 100%. I just found out that I didn’t do that well on my Algebra 2 exam. Not that I did badly or anything, but that, according to Ms. Salma, I could have done much better if not for my careless mistakes, which I always make on my math exams and it seems like something I can’t fix, even after checking. The only way to really fix this would be to redo every single question on my exam and be absolutely sure I am doing them correctly, and well, I can’t do that. The things I got wrong were probably some logarithmic equations. Forgot one important formula.

Anyway, Science exam was quite easy. There was one question where the question was badly worded and everyone who took the exam were lost. I probably got it wrong because the way the question was worded, it was impossible to know what units to use for the question. Other than that, one question that had to do with writing the chemical equation for the nuclear reaction in a star was nowhere to be found in my brain and I remember quite well that Mr. Benton (Science teacher) said it is not something you really have to know, more of a bonus point. I definitely got that wrong. Besides that, the exam was quite easy and all the material was studied by me.

Tomorrow, I have my last exam, Computers. That will probably be the hardest exam. This whole year was spent studying IT ethics and a whole bunch of hard stuff that people learn to be IT technicians and stuff. My dad would be able to do this really well, I mean it’s his job. I studied and still study for the Computers exam and hope to do well and bring up my not-so-high average.

And then after tomorrow, no more exams and it’s report card time. Actually, on Wednesday we have this retarded English exam which lets the teachers know how many AIS students are not good at English and how I am way above average for English in this school. I am definitely getting an Honor Role (oh, the days when I was getting Principal Honor Roles) this year and my average should be higher than last semester. Then after that, or before the report cards, the whole High School is going to be doing a beach cleanup in Hong Kong. The funny thing is that we have to pay. Not for the cleaning, but for the transportation to get to the beach. Man, the school is so cheap they won’t even pay for it. Search for “American International School” on my blog and you will find out just how much money my school has and then you can draw your own conclusions on how cheap my school is. This is not the first time we have to do something like this too. Then we have an activity day and I will be watching a movie, they better let us watch a good movie, my HKD60 shall not be wasted!

Oh yeah, after school ends, on the last day of June, I have to go to the high school graduation ceremony and be an usher. No, not the guy who has his shirt off in every music video, but a person a who welcomes parents and friends of the graduates into the hall, where the ceremony is to be held and I have to act really nice and helpful. Nothing hard, just a waste of time. I better be getting some community service hours here. And then, it’s summer! I’ll just be playing soccer and stuff over the summer. I won’t have much to write about here during that time so maybe I’ll be on the Google Search Blog (website).

Exams: Day 3

Yesterday was the third day of exams for me and I had my Algebra 2 exam. This was the exam I studied the most for and hopefully I did well on it. I understood everything but I wasn’t sure about these few logarithmic questions on it. They were log equations and I think I forgot to cross multiply, so I should get 1 out of 2 marks for each of those.

I actually went to school in the morning even though my exam was in the afternoon. Not because I didn’t know any better but because it was so boring at home and there would be nothing to do but study, which I already did.

Today, I have no exams which means: no school. I am home alone right now and I’ve been studying for my Science exam on Monday. I only have that science exam and my computers exam and then I am finished with my final exams and on to summer vacation. I should be getting an Honor Role this semester. My grades have improved this semester, except for computers. You can read my previous article called “School Report” to find out why.

I updated my site’s theme and changed it to “Relaxation”. I already tweaked it a little bit to fit my taste but I like it quite a bit. I’ve noticed that Kottke has also made some adjustments to his website layout. Looks nice.