A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to be awarded one of the highly prestigious Student Developer Scholarships from the Apple University Consortium, who are the nicest collection of dudes and ladies you ever did see. This scholarship, among other things, paid for my trip to one of the most interesting, exciting and excited-profanity-inducing events I’ve ever been to: Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference.

This conference is quite famous in that it’s focused at a very narrow audience - developers for Apple’s software platforms - but it’s looked forward to by a very large number of people, largely because of Apple’s tendency to announce new hardware and software at the keynote.

This keynote, which is the only part of the conference not covered by a non-disclosure agreement (so, sadly, I can’t talk to you about [REDACTED], nor how cool [REDACTED] is), was a truly amazing experience. 5000 of the world’s best developers packed into a simply massive room where the Reality Distortion Field was cranked up to full power.

After the keynote, the sessions provided an opportunity for drinking from the firehose. In amongst the learning, I ran into hundreds of fascinating developers, and worked out a huge pile of ideas to work on later.

After the conference, Secret Lab and I stayed in San Francisco for another couple of weeks, hanging around cafes, coding, and having meetings with all manner of excellent people. I did the usual tourist thing, visiting Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park, and spend a good amount of time enjoying the fact that Google Transit worked so well in the city.

The next phase of the trip involved flying to an undisclosed location to visit the Tiki Bar, where we all sat around drinking cocktails and working out more excellent ideas. Doctor Tiki and Tosca are fantastic people, and it was fantastic to get explore the set and literally see behind the scenes. The Ocean Door actually opens onto the garden. I felt a little betrayed.

We then flew back up to San Francisco for more coding and meeting, and then Josh, Andrew and I packed up and flew back to Tasmania to take care of our frankly amazing backlog.

I’d like to thank the AUC for this fantastic opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to next year!

Holy moly! The first press release announcing Day of the Tiki, the official Tiki Bar TV game, is out! Take a look! Tell a friend! Marvel at the screenshots! Plaster the wallpaper all over your screen!

Don’t forget to follow myself, Secret Lab, and Tiki Bar TV on Twitter!

Why, hello there, Internet! It has been a while, hasn’t it!

I’ve been working on several New and Exciting things! First, I’m almost done with my Bachelor of Computing Honours at UTas! Yay! Second, I got awarded the AUC’s Student Developer Scholarship, which is the biggest and most prestigious one they offer! Woo!

But that’s not all! Secret Lab has been busy working on a surprise for the internet! I’m incredibly pleased to join in the announcement that we’re developing the official game for Tiki Bar TV, the world’s funniest and most original podcast. Thrills! Spills! Chills! And other exciting things!

Go have a look at Tiki Bar TV if you haven’t already (philistine!), the official announcement, and our page dedicated to the game. There are pictures!

And don’t forget to follow Secret Lab, Tiki Bar TV and I on Twitter!

Until we meet again, inter-net-web!

Everyone! Do you use Twitter? You should! It’s the least annoying social networking site I’ve ever seen! It’s so not-annoying that I can actually stand using it more than twice an hour!

I’m @desplesda, and Secret Lab is also on there as @thesecretlab. Someone else may be lurking around, too..

“Wasting Time Efficiently Since 1993″

Linux.conf.au was awesome! Secret Lab is now gearing up for our February Sprint, where some really awesome things are going to come together. Paul Fenwick is awesome, as is Rasmus Lerdorf and Bdale Garbee. To all of the organisers, volunteers, speakers and delegates: thanks so much for an amazing week!

I’m off to Linux.conf.au, which this year is excellently positioned in my home town of Hobart!

These are the sessions I’m looking at going to. This is going to be fun! Hope to see you there!

I just got back from running a two-week course on REALbasic for the AUC with Paris! It was great! I’ll be uploading the course material and slides shortly. Thanks so much to the AUC for running it, and thanks to all who attended!

Somehow I forgot to mention this earlier, but I have received an Honours Scholarship from the Apple University Consortium! Woo!

Additionally, I’m going to be presenting at /dev/world/2008, the annual AUC developer’s conference, which is going to be absolutely fantastic.

Now I’m going to feel even more guilty about spending most of my time sitting in a chair, playing Deus Ex in my mind.

“Heads up, JC. Your brother Paul is on his way to meet you at the dock.”

Google recently unveiled Google Street View for Hobart, my home town. Also, I’m visible in it!

Want to learn REALbasic? Want a most-expenses-paid trip to Melbourne or Sydney? Come to the AUC’s first REALbasic Workshop! Paris and I will be conducting a three-day course covering developing with this rather excellent tool from the ground up. Send in your applications today! You’ll receive a copy of REALbasic, a copy of Beginning REALbasic: From Novice To Professional, accommodation and airfare rebates, and a whole lot of learnin’. Hope to see you there!