It’s Jean here in Sydney, Australia, in advance of joining up with this year’s MacMania cruise. It’s going to be a great conference, with chief TWiT Leo Laporte, Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline, Allison Sheridan of Nosillacast, Sal Soghoian, the Apple Product Manager of AppleScript and Automator fame, among others.
This will be my third MacMania cruise. The first two were very rewarding experiences, both professionally (I learned a lot and got to meet lots of nice Smile fans) and personally (I’ve made many good friends–when you are trapped together on a boat, it helps to be friendly!). This cruise departs from Sydney on November 7, and will visit several ports in Australia and New Caledonia. The conference sessions take place while the ship is at sea; on this cruise we have 7 days at sea, so we will be learning a lot.
The highlight is a solar eclipse on November 14. Along with the Mac group, there is another conference, Cosmic Trails, sponsored by Sky and Telescope. I’ll also be attending some of their sessions. I look forward to meeting some astronomy geeks and learning more about the Sun, the stars and the universe.
The local Sydney Mac geeks from MacTalk have organized a meet-up for November 6 at Harts Pub at 7 pm. I’d love to meet any Sydneysider Smile fans, so if you are in the area, please come out and have a schooner with the MacMania gang and meet some of your favorite podcasters.
