School's out for summer. Another year over. Yesterday was the last day with the kids, and a whole bunch came by to hang out and get me to sign their yearbooks. It was great having a grade 12 homeroom; it really let me see a side of the high school experience I had missed last year.

Today was our year-end luncheon and good-bye party. We lost quite a few teachers, but most were new, so it wasn't as emotional as my last year, where most of the admin ended up bawling.

Just like last year, it still hasn't hit me that I won't be going back to work for 60 days. I'm looking forward to a relaxing summer, getting to know Calgary and spending some time writing.

I love my job.

I've had my MacBook for a couple of weeks now, and it is by far the best machine-- laptop or otherwise-- that I have ever used. And that's in over 10 years of geekily intimate involvement with computers.

The MacBook is an incredibly powerful combination of hardware and software, joined together with a skilled eye for design and aesthetic that you appreciate more for what's missing than what's there.

I will be making some videos to demonstrate the features of the MacBook in the coming days, but I'll outline some of the cooler things here, briefly.

Hardware:

• The remote control that comes with the MacBook has six buttons. Six. With which you can completely control your audio, video and photo collections. You can also use it to run presentations using Keynote (Apple's freakin' amazing presentation software). More and more developers are embracing the remote, and one program in particular, called Remote Buddy lets you control almost anything on your computer-- you can even use the remote as a mouse!
• The "MagSafe" power cable attaches to the computer magnetically, to detach easily under stress and prevent a passerby from yanking your laptop off a desk if they accidentally trip over the cord.
• The built-in iSight camera allows instant, painless video conferencing with other Mac users, and can be used to take wacky self-portraits or ad-hoc photos using the included PhotoBooth software.
• The trackpad allows for four-way scrolling by using two fingers instead of one-- this makes reading long web pages a breeze, and becomes so natural that now I'm doing it on other laptops-- and you can right-click by tapping with two fingers (the lack of a right-click button was a huge complaint of PC users).
• The form factor of this computer is perfect. The screen is big and bright enough to enjoy a DVD, but small enough that the computer feels much more portable than the 15" MacBook Pro.

Software:

• iLife is Apple's bundled entertainment software, including music and movie players, photo organization, as well as two non-trivial media creation programs, iMovie (for making... uh... movies) and GarageBand (for making songs). I haven't used the latter much yet, but I have already used iMovie to make a short documentary about the arrival of this machine; while it took me many hours to get this movie just right, I could now easily whip off future short films in minutes instead of hours. Getting a software suite like this for a PC would likely cost several hundred dollars, if you could even find one. If you want to listen to music, download and view photos, watch videos and maybe make one, you must by a Mac. I can't make this endorsement strong enough.
• The operating system, OS X Tiger, does take some time to get used to. The keyboard is different-- there's no delete key (the Delete key is actually a Backspace), and instead of each window having a menu bar, one menu bar at the top shows options for the selected window. If you close the window, you haven't actually quit the program; you have to click Command-Q to do that. It is a very small learning curve, but after time it becomes very intuitive, efficient, and with a bit of investigation, you can even set up the keyboard to use a spare key to delete for you. Installing software is slightly different than with Windows, but once you figure it out, you'll find that it's quicker and cleaner than anything you've loaded onto a Microsoft OS. The system is packed with great looking features, my favourite of which is the ability to zoom in on part of the screen, which will be very handy when I'm giving demontrations in class.
• One concern I've heard about Macs is that it's hard to... um... "acquire" software.
  
  Ed's Note: Yarrr! Polly wants a (software) cracker!
  The truth is, if you want to pirate Mac software, you can find it just as easily as PC software if you know where to look online. The big issue is that most of us "borrow" installation disks from friends, and few of our friends have Macs. I admit that I have "tested" software in the past, but there are very few programs that I thought were good enough to pay money for. Mac software is so good, you want to pay for it. I know this sounds crazy, but you have to experience it firsthand.
• PhotoBooth uses your iSight camera to take self-portraits, with a twist (literally). You can choose from 16 effects that alter your image in real time-- pinching your head, bulging you eyes, twisting your face, adding glow or simulating heat detection-- it's a lot of fun. I set my grade 10 class loose with it and they spent an entire period mugging for the camera and laughing their asses off. (It was the last day of classes, and they were done the course, so please don't call the school board to complain about wasting tax dollars).
  
  Ed's Note: Do it! Do it!
• Another favourite is the voice command feature, where you can tell your computer to do things, and it just does them. Say "open firefox" and it will launch the Firefox browser. Say "what time is it?" and it will tell you the time. Say "tell me a joke" and it will rhyme off a punny knock-knock-- and you have to interact with the whole "who's there" bit.

Design:

• The only way I can give this machine the proper credit is to say that it disappears as you use it. With other laptops, I found myself very aware of all the bits of the machine-- the trackpad, the key placement, cable attachments, etc-- but this machine seems like a natural thing, an evolution of machine until it became boiled down to its essence.
  
  Ed's Note: I think I'm gonna barf.

I will be back soon with more critical feedback-- the "cons" of this machine (and there are some), along with video for you to enjoy.

Everyone loves a good Do-It-Yourself (or "DIY") science project. Especially if they involve explosions.

One of my favourite web sites, BoingBoing.net, highlighted a video of how to make a dry ice bomb, as recorded by what appears to be a couple of university-aged North Americans. It's interesting, but as somebody who likes a recipe, and also appreciates the attached-ness of his fingers to his hands, I couldn't help but note the lack of specifics in the "bomb" making, and it was very difficult to see the exact amounts of water and ice used. This is apparently an important ratio.

Contrast this with the two pre-teens from the UK who, with the help of their father, go through several dry-ice experiments, complete with safety warnings and scientific explanations of what is going on.

The college boys look like illiterate yahoos, while the UK kids come off as David Attenborough prodigies. Awesome.

Stuff like this makes me wonder why we're still struggling with sucky gas mileage. Actually, that's not true: we all know it's a huge corporate and government conspiracy, but it's cute to think that we can change anything.

So back to the hippies. A team from UBC has made a single-person vehicle that gets-- seriously-- 3,145 mpg. That's miles. Per gallon.

(In metric, that's 0.074 litres per 100 kilometres. Insane.)

UBC has won for the last four years straight-- and the average winning mileage from 2004 to 2006 is 2,167 mpg-- but I haven't heard anything about this from the automotive industry.

Oh right... that conspiracy thing. Good ol' conspiracy.

It's been a while since I got my MacBook. I've been busy with the end of school and a few other projects, so I apologize for not updating this experience sooner. But here you go.

I had the MacBook delivered to school, and had a video camera ready to document the experience. A bunch of kids offered to act as cameraperson, but when I told them to settle it amongst themselves, rock-paper-scissors or whatever, all but one pulled out of the running. This is part of a continuing sense of not wanting to fight for anything that I've noticed here... but that's for another post.

Click here to watch the video.

All in all, I love this computer. There were a few annoying parts to the setup, including lengthy and insistent personal information pages. Otherwise it was a smooth and fun experience.

More about this machine in the days and weeks to come!

Ang sent me a link to a pretty jaw-dropping magician, Chriss Angel. You can watch some of his magic acts on YouTube to see what I mean.

Among his feats are walking on water, floating off a roof and across an alley, and ripping a girl in half.

I was skeptical, but I have a kid in my class who is a magic addict. He told me that Chriss was the reason he got into magic, and that while some of the acts probably benefit from being filmed (read: they are faked with actors and deceptive editing), he has a good reputation of performing most of his stunts anywhere, anytime, in front of a live audience.

Harry Potter just got pwned.

Tracking my package on Fedex was like being a child and watching Santa's progression to my house. Seriously, the last time I was this excited must have been a Christmas morning when I was very young. It's sad, really, but good to know I can still feel this giddy.

Unwrapping this piece of hardware was no disappointment. Apple design has made every experience, including opening the box and unwrapping the components, aesthetically pleasing.

I filmed the unpacking and the original setup with my grade 10 class, and I'll put the video online for you to see ASAP.

Meanwhile, my grade 11 and 12 hardcore Windows supporters were blown away by the interface and the features, and by the end of the day I'd estimate at least half of them are now planning to buy a Mac.

Victory is ours!

After yesterday's rigamarole, I finally received my DVI-to-VGA adapter. It is very cool looking, even for an adapter. And yes, I know how geeky and pathetic that sounds.
At last check (which I am doing online every 6 minutes), my MacBook took off from Memphis, TN at 3:39 AM and has yet to land anywhere. According to the folks at Apple, it should arrive tomorrow, sometime around noon. This sets me up for an entire day of potential disappointment. Alternatively, if the thing actually shows up, I am set for a sleepless stretch unmatched since I discovered Final Fantasy X for the PS2.
Oh sweet technological joy.

So I've been following my packages using Fedex's online tracking. Very nice system, which told me quite clearly that the package had arrived in town... had been put on a truck... which was unable to find the address... so it took the package back to the airport. Very nice.

I called the Fedex help line tonight to clarify things. I guess not including "c/o A Huge High School Right at the Address I Gave You" confused the driver, who was expecting a residence. OK, well can you just add the line about the high school in there?

No. Apple has a special contract with Fedex that does not allow Fedex to accept delivery address changes from anybody but Apple. So I have to call Apple, who will then call Fedex, who will then notice that there's a school, with people who order packages inside, at the address I gave them in the first place.

The Fedex support lady had an idea. "You could go down to the station and pick it up, if you want."

"Let me get this straight," I said.
"I can go to the airport," (where the station is), "show my ID, and get the package?"

"Yes," she said.

"But I can't tell you, the delivery people, where to deliver the package, where you will also check my ID?"

Silence.

"So as a package delivering company, you will do the ID checking part, but not the delivering part?"

More silence. The sound of frantic keyboard clicking.

"I mean," I said calmly, "doesn't that seem odd to you? That a customer would have to come to you to do the exact same thing that you would do if you went to them? Which is what you do? Delivering stuff? Doesn't that seem... I dunno... a bit crazy?"

"Can I put you through to the Canadian support team?" she said.

In the end, the Canadian person apologized, and reiterated that while she understood my disbelief, they had a unique agreement with Apple for changing the delivery addresses, probably to prevent fraud and theft. What I really learned here is that to Fedex, Apple was the customer, not me. I was just inconvenient. And sarcastic, to boot.

Adding insult to injury, when I called Apple support to change the address, I waded through three layers of automated menus, only to be told that they were closed, and I should call back during regular business hours. Surely Apple can come up with a phone system smart enough to know you're calling after hours, and tell you that on the first layer! Aargh.

And not a happy pirate arrgh, either.

My Apple gear has shipped! According to FedEx, the DVI-to-VGA adapter has already arrived in Calgary, so I may be receiving that tomorrow at school. The MacBook left Suzhou, China sometime yesterday, so no idea when it will arrive.

But considering it was supposed to ship in 7 days, and has now actually shipped in only three... maybe my subtle hinting paid off?