Re: KansasFest 2008 Report - Friday

[Kirk Mitchell <kirkmitchell@gmail.com>]

The saga continues!

Didn't get to sleep until 3:00 AM this morning, but still up at 8:00
AM to shower and eat.

After breakfast, Margaret Anderson did a session on an "Intro to
Hypercard".  HC remains a very interesting programming tool, and with
emulators running at equivalent speeds of up to 100 MHz, it's not a
bit slow.  Very interesting session.

Geoff Weiss's session was on the ZFS file system.  While not quite
ready for Macs, it looks like an extremely powerful means of storage.

Tony Diaz presented some of the hardware now available on
16sector.com, and gave us several stories behind some of his products.

Next was lunch, then Steve Weyhrich continued with a session on
digitizing audio, from vinyl to tapes.

Tony Diaz and Ryan Suenaga showed how to tether a cell phone to their
computers to get Internet connections darned near anywhere.  At least
as long as you don't drive across large stretches of rural Kansas, I
guess.  B-)

Eric Shepherd lead us through the programming of a simple web browser
for the iPhone, using the XCode programming enviroment.  While it
wasn't easy, it was certainly easier than I would have thought.

We then went to our Dinner Banquet where we had some great food, and
Ken Gagne served yet again as a great MC, keeping us in stitches.
Prizes were given for our dippy tie contest, with Ken winning in a
close field.  Many other prizes were won by raffle tickets, the prizes
being collected by Howard Katz, who wasn't able to attend.  Thanks,
Howard!

After dinner, many of us went to the new Apple Store in Leawood, KS.
I left some money there, getting an iTouch.  The Apple Store gave
every KFester a Tshirt commemorating the new store opening.  Thanks,
Apple!

On our way back, we stopped by Krispy Kreme, where Ryan Suenaga
purchased donuts for the cause, and some milk at a Walgreens... Ken
stopped by Blockbuster to rent "Independence Day" which we later
watched with the addition of the RiffTrax commentary for the movie...
I am a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, so this was a special
treat for me!  B-)  It was a hoot!

Now, I'm back in my room typing this up, and playing on my iTouch.
Good times!

(to be continued)