This weekend, Rae and I had the pleasure to attend the Symbolic Systems Program 25th Anniversary event in the Huang Engineering Center at Stanford. I owe a great deal of my success to the program and the lifelong friends I’ve made in classes such as Philosophy 160A. When I arrived at Stanford, my plan was to become a Chemistry major, but Chem 32¹ threw those plans out the window after just one quarter. In Winter quarter my freshman year, I was taking CS 106A and was introduced to the Symbolic Systems through my TA. He too was a SymSys major who had just returned from a quarter abroad in Paris, France. As a junior in high school, I had lived in France for three weeks, and I always wanted to do a study abroad program while at Stanford. He planted the seed in my impressionable frosh mind that if I were to be a SymSys major, I could go to France too (look at that logic working there!). He also had long hair. It’s clear looking back that Symbolic Systems and I were a perfect match!

Notable graduates of the program who spoke on Saturday included Marissa Mayer (Google), Scott Forstall (Apple), Matt Flannery (Kiva), James Rucker (MoveOn), Srinija Srinivasan (Yahoo), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), and Mike Krieger (Instagram). Lest people think that all SymSys grads go into the tech industry, we had several academics speak, including Nadeem Hussain (Stanford), Tania Lombrozo (UC Berkeley), and Erica Robles-Anderson (NYU). It was great to meet with my former SymSys and Philosophy 160A classmates too; this year is our 15-year reunion, and I’m really looking forward to October!

The weekend was a good opportunity for Rae to better understand where I came from. A common question that I always get asked is, “What is Symbolic Systems?” At our Autumn Gem screenings, I usually say something to the effect of, “I studied Symbolic Systems, a major similar to Computer Science.” The real answer is much more complicated and nuanced, so the next time you see me, ask me, “What is Symbolic Systems?”

Here are a few photos from the anniversary event this weekend.

¹ No offense to Chem 32, but after taking the class, I realized that being a Chem researcher just wasn’t in the cards for me longterm.

Steve Jobs in front of a slide of himself and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak before revealing the iPad in 2010.

Growing Up With Apple

I’ve long had a love affair with Apple and its products. My parents purchased an Apple II computer for the family back in the late 70′s or early 80′s. The computer was a ticket to faraway worlds, and I spent countless hours playing games such as Ultima, The Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, and Pirates. I learned how to type on the Apple II, and my earliest memory of programming was from watching my brother tinker with Midway Campaign, changing the game’s enemies from the Japanese to the Soviets.

My earliest photo with an Apple product. Look how happy I am next to the Apple II computer!

In high school, I got my first Mac, an SE/30, and in college, I had a PowerBook 180. It was at Stanford where I began programming in earnest, with most of my coding exploits centered on the Newton, Apple’s first attempt at handheld computing.

The computer, as Jobs put it, was truly the bicycle for my mind¹.

The Newton Protest and Letting Go

The day after his Macworld Boston keynote in 1997, I spotted Jobs leaving Homma’s Brown Rice Sushi restaurant in Palo Alto. Being naturally surprised and tongue-tied, I could only blurt out something to the effect of, “Nice speech yesterday,” to which Jobs enthusiastically replied, “Thank you!” Shortly thereafter I wrote Jobs an email titled “Homma’s Brown Rice Sushi – 9/7/97.” I figured with my clever title, he would remember me and read the email. I asked him about his plans for the Newton, seeing that Apple had recently cancelled the spin-off of Newton, Inc. and rolled the team back into the Apple mothership. To my surprise, Steve wrote a lengthy email back:

Adam,

The Emate has a bright future – and it is for this reason that I am pulling it back into Apple -which has the resouces to market and sell it much more broadly. You can imagine that a small spin-off company would not have such a large sales force or marketing budget. With the appropriate investments in sales and marketing, we hope that the Emate can become a great success.

We are a little more confused about the MessagePad. Since it costs more ($1K or more vs $700-799 for the Emate) and has no keyboard, its market seems more limited than the Emate. However, sales of the current MessagePad are brisk, so who knows… What do you think?

Don’t worry – we are pulling this group back into Apple so that we can invest even more sales and marketing resources into these products, rather than dumping the products into a small spin-off which lacks such resources.

Best,
Steve

Of course, in February, 1998, Apple cancelled Newton. Shortly afterwards, I organized the Newton protest at Apple headquarters in April, 1998. While Steve didn’t personally come down, he did send milk and cookies for the protesters!

I led the Newton Protest at Apple headquarters in 1998. Steve Jobs sent down milk and cookies for us!

If Steve Jobs called death life’s change agent, he was technology’s change agent. Jobs wasn’t afraid to put on the black turtleneck and put to bed many products that people once held dear: Apple II, OpenDoc, the floppy drive, Cube, PowerPC, Mac OS Classic, Final Cut Pro (pre-X version), iPod mini, and the Newton. In order to progress, old technologies had to die while others rose up to take their place.

While I was sure that the future of computing was in mobile, I was blinded by my attachment to a particular device and couldn’t let go. Today, of course, it’s easy to connect the dots. Jobs rightly chose to focus on Mac OS, which serves as the foundation for Apple’s current desktop and mobile products. The Newton product had reached its end-of-line, yet its spirit, its raison d’être, exists today in all of the smartphones and tablets we currently carry.

D Conference and Apple Events

Today, my work at AllThingsD has put me back in contact with Apple. The joint Steve Jobs and Bill Gates session at D5 in 2007 remains the highlight of my D memories.

The Steve Jobs and Bill Gates joint session at D5 remains one of my most cherished memories.

Memorable Apple press events that I’ve gone to and photographed include the introduction of the iMac in 1998, the iPad in 2010, and Jobs’ final on-stage appearance at WWDC 2011. Over the past 14 years, I’ve watched Jobs preside over these tremendous product launches. Unfortunately, I’ve also had a first-hand look at seeing his health worsen over this same time period.

Yet it’s so evidently clear that he lived the words he spoke at Stanford’s Commencement in 2005.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Jobs compels us to see our own reflections and ask ourselves the same question every day. Perhaps this is why Apple shifted over to glossy screens for all of its displays²? Are we clinging to the past or are we moving towards a future where we’re truly becoming who we want to become?

At the Let’s Talk iPhone event the day before he died, Apple’s Phil Schiller stood before a slide of Siri, Apple’s voice-powered intelligent assistant³ for the iPhone 4S. While Siri has it roots from SRI (née Stanford Research Institute), I’d like to think that Siri stands for “Steve is right inside.”

Steve Jobs the person may be gone, but his spirit lives on in the millions of devices and lives he’s touched. Thank you, SJ.

Steve Jobs speaking at the iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference in July, 2010.

¹ The Computer History Museum currently has an exhibit called Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Anyone who is interested in seeing the “bicycles of the mind” must check it out.

² I’ve long held an affinity for the matte displays, but it’s time to make the switch with my next monitor or laptop purchase.

³ The Newton had a feature called the Intelligent Assistant. Writing “lunch with Jane tomorrow,” and tapping the Assist button would create a new Dates calendar entry at noon the next day with the first Jane from the Names application.

Catching up on great reviews of MsgFiler on Macworld and Betalogue. Dan Frakes gave MsgFiler a 4.5 mice rating!

MsgFiler is the fastest way to move, copy, and label messages in Mail. It also offers useful features for navigating and managing mailboxes.

Betalogue’s review of MsgFiler covered the MsgFiler’s transition from an Apple Mail Plugin to a Mac App Store application. While there were some initial bumps and bruises with the launch, the current 3.0.2 release is pretty stable on Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

There do remain some problems with MsgFiler and the current Developer Preview 3 of Mac OS X Lion (namely filing via AppleScript and not using the MsgFiler Engine). I have filed several bug reports with Apple, and I’m hoping that these will fixed in a future Developer Preview. I for one hope that Apple does not release Lion at WWDC next month, since that would leave me and other app developers scrambling to rewrite our apps with inefficient workarounds. With the App Store review process taking anywhere from one to two weeks, there’s not much time between now and WWDC next month. I’ll be there for the third consecutive year, so I’ll be sure to talk to Apple’s Mail developers at the conference.

MessageFont, my second Apple Mail productivity tool on the Mac App Store has been released. MessageFont lets you set Apple Mail’s default composition font for rich text outgoing messages.

Background: The message font setting in Mail preferences affects local display only. This formatting is lost when messages are viewed in different email applications. For instance, in Outlook, your mail is displayed in Times New Roman. Apple Mail uses Helvetica. The inability to set the default font for outgoing mail messages is a source of constant frustration for many.

If Outlook for Mac, Thunderbird and other email applications can set the default composition font, why can’t Apple Mail do the same?

Solution: MessageFont makes it very easy for all of your new messages, replies and forwards to have the font you specify. If this feature is something you’ve been clamoring for Apple Mail to have, check out MessageFont. It’s available today for $4.99.

Here’s some screenshots of how your email will look like before and after using the app:

That processed ended for the most part today after I read the tweets and articles about GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons shooting an elephant in Africa. Since its racy Super Bowl ads, GoDaddy has never shied away from the public spotlight, and I’m not sure which way the pendulum will swing as a result of this incident. While Eric tweeted that people are abandoning GoDaddy in droves, it remains to be seen if people aren’t just raising a stink about leaving. Domain transfers involves time, money, and multiple steps to complete. For people who have dozens of domains like myself, even the plight of the now dead elephant might not be enough to overcome this inertia.

For me, however, the elephant story forced me to say, “Enough!” This afternoon while in Hawaii, I transferred 14 out of my 16 domains over from GoDaddy to Hover, a domain registrar owned by TUCOWS, a long-time player in the Internet scene. I found a 10% off coupon for Hover, and the company itself is offering domain transfers for only $10. Hover has a good tutorial which walks one over the multi-step process to go from GoDaddy over to its service.

As for the other two domains, I have to wait until a 60-day grace period is over before I can transfer one of them. I’m just going to let lapse the other when it comes time to renew. So with that said, goodbye GoDaddy and hello to Hover!

MsgFiler 3.0.1 is now available on the Mac App Store. This version brings compatibility with Spell Catcher along with lower memory usage and performance improvements with loading and creating new mailboxes. Users are recommended to upgrade to the latest version of MsgFiler on the Mac App Store.

Those of you who routinely file to remote mailboxes will also be interested in downloading and installing the MsgFiler Engine Mail Plugin. The Engine is an Apple Mail plugin that speeds up filing with MsgFiler 3. If you’re a fan of the original Mail plugin, you’ll want to install and use the Engine.

March 5, 2011: Submitted 3.0.1 to the Mac App Store for review and approval. Release features a number of performance and bug fixes.

Update February 27, 2011: The wait is over. MsgFiler is now available on the Mac App Store!

While I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, I’m happy to announce the upcoming release of MsgFiler 3.0, available exclusively on the Mac App Store. I submitted the app for approval last week, and it’s currently awaiting review.

Astute readers might stop and ask, “Wait a minute, aren’t Mail plugins not allowed on the Mac App Store?” You’re right that they aren’t, but MsgFiler is no longer a Mail plugin! In a way, MsgFiler has come full circle. The original release was a separate application built using AppleScript Studio. MsgFiler 2.0 was rewritten as a Mail plugin. Now with MsgFiler 3.0, it’s back to being a separate application that communicates with Mail via AppleScript. Longtime users should not worry; there’s still tight integration between MsgFiler 3.0 and Mail.

I’m excited about the new features in MsgFiler 3.0, many of which were direct requests from users over the years:

• Favorite mailboxes
• Recent mailboxes
• Ability to create new mailboxes from within MsgFiler
• Configurable default action
• Exclude mailboxes
• Match on mailbox names only
• Restrict search to selected accounts
• Full keyboard access

Check out the MsgFiler 3.0 product video. I’m sure it will get you pumped up and ready to buy it when it becomes available!

There will be a special introductory price of $4.99 for MsgFiler the first week it’s on the Mac App Store. That’s right, you’ll be able to get MsgFiler at 50% off for one week only!

I’m really excited about this new release, and how it’s going to help Mac users save time decluttering their inboxes!

Here’s what’s changed over the past two years.

• SSD
• Separate Data Partition
• Time Machine
• Dropbox
• Hard Drive Consolidation

240GB SSD

I purchased an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD to function as my boot drive in my desktop and laptop computers. I’ve long known about the benefits of SSD, but was waiting for the exorbitant prices to come down before making the plunge. The prices are still high, but I figured the extra productivity I’d get would help offset things (famous last words of mine).

I must say that both computers feel much faster now. Applications open in an instant, and I’m seeing less of the spinning beach ball when the computer is waiting for data from the disk. Solid-state drives are the future of computing, and you’ll undoubtedly see more and more computers with SSD drives as standard options in 2011.

Separate Data Partition

Since my SSD boot drive is only 240GB in size, I’ve converted my former boot drive into a 1TB Data partition. I moved most of my files from my user directory over to the 1TB, though things like my Library and Mail directories remain on the boot drive. The SSD makes opening and searching for mail really fast, speed which would have been reduced had I moved everything over to the hard drive.

Time Machine

The SSD and an additional 1TB drive are mounted in my Mac Pro’s second optical bay using OWC’s Multi-Mount bracket and cable set. This sixth drive functions as a Time Machine target. I’m currently backing up my Boot and Data partitions to this drive. It would be great to back up my Photos and two Video drives, but they simply take up too much space.

Dropbox

When Dropbox first came out, I found it to be too slow for my tastes. I’ve since changed my mind and have become a happy user of the cloud-based file storage utility. I signed up for the 50GB plan and am currently using 12% of my quota. People who join Dropbox through this link will give me an additional 500MB of storage.

I store all my regularly-accessed files on Dropbox, meaning I have the same files across all my working computers. Change a file in one place, and it’s updated on the other machine.

Hard Drive Consolidation

I’ve also been consolidating those archived files which I don’t need to access frequently. I recently sold my first-generation USB 2.0 Drobo. The data on the storage robot was moved over to two 750GB drives, one of which I store offsite.

I still use the Wiebetech RTX-400 port-multiplied eSATA enclosure to hold the drives that backup my Boot, Data, Video and Photo partitions. Since my Photos and Video projects are not being protected in real-time, I regularly back them up using the Wiebetech anytime I make substantial changes.

Not all my computers have eSATA ports, so I bought a NewerTech Voyager Q hard drive docking station so I can quickly access hard drives on all my computers. The Voyager Q has FireWire, USB and eSATA ports and can accommodate 3.5″ and 2.5″ hard drives.

Finally, the Infrant ReadyNAS stores various archived files, which are also backed up to external, off-site hard drives. I used to use the Infrant as a Time Machine target, but I grew tired of the noise it produced.

Laptops and the Future

For our laptops, I have two external hard drives onto which I make regular SuperDuper backups. Though I don’t use Time Machine anymore for them, I do make a habit of storing my critical data in my Dropbox.

For even faster performance, I’ll thinking about turning my separate hard drives in my Mac Pro into one big RAID-0 partition. Before I do that, however, I’m going to need to have a comprehensive real-time backup strategy to compensate for the increased likelihood of drive failure.

Growing up, I played soccer as a kid. I think every boy dreams of being a forward who kicks the game-winning goal. For some reason, my coaches placed me as the goalie for our team. I was not and still am not a very big person, and suffice it to say, I did not do well in my new position. Later, my playing interests switched to baseball, cross-country, tai-chi, ultimate frisbee and cycling. While I didn’t mind watching the World Cup, I never was interested in playing the game soccer.

During my Fellowship year at Stanford, I took an art class with Nicole, who was a goalie for the Stanford soccer team. After graduation, she had gone off to play professionally and on the national team, as well as being an assistant coach to the Stanford team. In fact on Saturday, the national team just won 1-0 against Italy, meaning Team USA gets to go to the Women’s World Cup next year in Germany!

Seeing that Friday was the last game of the season to be played at Stanford, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch. We bought the tickets online, went early to Stanford to visit the Art Museum and the Rodin Sculpture Garden, and waiting in line for 45 minutes before getting some great seats at midfield. Unlike the Men’s Football or Basketball, tickets to other collegiate sporting events are very affordable. We saw many parents with their children and seniors at the event. There were some students, but certainly not as many as you would see at a basketball or football game. The Tree was nowhere to be found either.

Part of me is sad about this. When I was a student, I rarely attended any sporting events. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t do this. Was it because there were other events to go to? Homework to do or papers to write? General laziness and apathy? I kick myself today thinking of all the excitement and drama that I missed in my undergraduate days. I guess there’s nothing like making up for lost time, eh?

As for the actual game, it was tense for the first 30 minutes. Stanford played on the Florida State side of the field for the majority of the game, narrowly missing two goals with shots deflecting off the posts in the first few minutes. When we got our first goal in the 31st minute, the crowd jumped up excitedly to cheer the goal, but also let out a sigh of relief. Our team is ranked number one in the nation, but there’s always that possibility for an upset. With the second, third, fourth, and fifth goals of the game in the second period, I started to think we should save these goals for the semifinals and (hopefully) the finals.

After a long period away from home — with our travels to Australia, Canada and Texas, it’s good to be back home. That said, it’s also good to keep the new experiences coming; it’s easy to get back into the same old routine at home. Going to the game fulfilled one of the promises that I made to Nicole many years ago to attend a soccer game; it also got us out the house to see something new and be with my fellow Stanford compatriots (even Rae, a Cal grad cheered for Stanford). Keep pressing and keep it up! Go Cardinal!