MacFest

Sat, 16 Sept 2006
Skilz Digital Arts Experience Centre, Bangsar Shopping Centre
8:00 - 10:00pm

Report : David Wang
Photos : Azizi Khalid, Azul Adnan

Last Saturday, Malaysia's Mac faithful once again gathered for myMUG's bi-monthly Macfest. Ok, maybe it was only the Klang Valley faithful, but it was a night of cool Mac fun with something for everyone - from the geeky to the creative.

The evening's programme started off with Captain Zul demonstrating Ubuntu which he installed on his iBook. What's Ubuntu? In case you've not heard of it, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution which is funded by South African gazillionaire Mark Shuttleworth who hopes to promote free software to all corners of the planet.

Ubuntu looks very promising, as Capt. Zul will attest. It handles lots of media files and codecs and has great built in free software. Programmer types will really love it too because of its Linux underpinings and as Zul said, "it really gives you access to the power of the machine."

Despite its promise, Ubuntu looks still very much a geek OS. It isn't fully compatible with every device yet - Zul had trouble control-clicking and he was unable to give us a full demo of Ubuntu because it didn't recognise the projector. Still, all of the Ubuntu install CDs he brought along were snapped up by eager myMUGer-Ubuntu-hacker wannabes.

Next was Zalee's presentation on the opening montage sequence that his company, Kino-i, produced for the popular teen TV series "Impian Illyana". That cool little 30 second montage was created with a little bit of Photoshop and apps that come standard on every Mac - iMovie and Quartz Composer.

While Zalee is mainly in the creative business, his presentation showed that he was quite the hacker at heart. With a little will and a little experimenting, you can create a custom iMovie theme too. OS X and the iLife application suite makes creating media so simple, anyone can create broadcast quality video!

Then Jinny showed us how she created her really cool light paintings. Her setup looked more complicated than Ubuntu, but essentially they are pretty simple steps:

1. Set your camera exposure to something long, like 5 seconds. Point the camera at a dark object and turn off the lights.
2. Press the camera trigger and draw something quickly with a light before the shutter closes.
3. Repeat, act silly and have fun!

Shah ended the evening's presentations with his demonstration of CodeWeavers' CrossOver Mac program. CrossOver is a re-implementation of the Win32 API which allows Windows programs to think that they're running in Windows, when they're actually running on your Mac!

He then demonstrated Internet Explorer running on his Mac Book -- web developers will be happy because they don't need a Windows box to test their sites for IE. Then he showed us a more interesting demo -- playing Half Life on his Mac Book. It was really impressive because the 3D game ran at full speed. CrossOver Mac looks like a great option for Mac users because unlike other virtualisation solutions, it is less resource intensive and you don't actually need to install Windows on your Mac.

Shah also demonstrated something unplanned in the middle of his CrossOver presentation. His Mac Book unceremoniously shut down half way because of the dreaded Random Shutdown Syndrome (RSS). If your Mac Book suffers the same problem, go replace your heatsink... otherwise potong stim la...

The presentations ended but the night was not over yet. Shah showed off his Twentieth Anniversary Mac (TAM) which he is auctioning off. The TAM is a serious computing marvel. Featuring a revolutionary slim design with LCD screen, the TAM also included a set of custom Bose speakers. Looking at the TAM, I couldn't help but be impressed with Apple's constant innovation. Even almost a decade ago in 1997, the TAM demonstrates that Apple was light years ahead of other PC makers at the time. Shah is selling off this collector's item to raise funds for charity. Check out details in the forum.

Speaking about being ahead of others, my friend William who had just returned from Japan showed off a surprise -- the new aluminum iPod nanos! William actually bought four from the Ginza Apple store the day Steve Jobs announced them. He's planning to sell them off so do look out in the myMUG forums or contact me if you're interested. You could be one of the first ones in Malaysia to get your hands on them. Zalee was so quick -- he promptly bought one that night!

And so concluded the night's Macfest. Thanks Zul, Zalee, Jinny and Shah for the presentations. It was really fun and we're looking out to the next Macfest in November. Stay tuned for details!