Archive for the 'Keynote Bingo' Category

A novel way to reduce the size of a grayscale PNG file

Sunday, April 8th, 2007

Today, I scanned in one of my old drawings: a study of five-pointed stars that I made when I was trying to figure out how to draw a proper star (this was at the time of me working on Keynote Bingo MWSF2007 Edition, and a derivative of the same star is used in TuneTagger).

The odd thing is, after I corrected the image using Preview’s Black Point and Aperture controls (no relation to the photo-management program), the image weighed about two-fifths as much:

du -b Five-pointed\ star\ study* %~/Pictures(0)
1403443 Five-pointed star study-adjusted levels.png
3346498 Five-pointed star study.png

(These sizes are after pngout, but even if I re-correct the original image and save it elsewhere, it comes out 1790244 bytes long.)

Go figure.

All known Keynote Bingoes for MWSF 2007

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Now, 4% more bingo!

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

I’ve just posted version 1.0.1 of Keynote Bingo MWSF 2007 Edition. This adds nine strings, and at Patrick Gibson‘s suggestion, removes one (“Intel Core 2 Duo”, which has already happened).

The added strings, all by me, are:

  • Name of Apple phone: iChat mobile
  • Apple phone is CDMA
  • Apple phone is GSM
  • Apple is now a mobile-phone service provider
  • Apple announces agreement with Cingular
  • Apple announces agreement with Verizon
  • Apple announces agreement with Sprint
  • Apple announces agreement with T-Mobile
  • Lucida Grande replaced by Myriad in Leopard

This brings the count to 186, from 178.

You know MWSF2007 has started when…

Friday, January 5th, 2007

It’s finally here: The MWSF 2007 Edition of Keynote Bingo is out. Just in time for the start of the Expo!

It’s very small — the whole disk image is about 57 K, using UDIF+bzip2 format. As you may guess from that, the disk image requires Tiger; there won’t be a Panther version this time, because the app requires Tiger too (for PDFKit and NSError presenting). Instructions are included on the disk image, in the README file.

I would encourage you to download your copy now, or at least very soon. When I released the WWDC 2006 version, the vast majority of the downloads came within the half hour or so before the keynote started. At the time, I was on GeoCities, so that drove me straight into the hourly bandwidth limit. I don’t have that problem anymore, being on TextDrive now; even so, you should get your copy now to help the server and its pipe not be swamped come the keynote.

Here’s hoping you get a bingo!

The list of strings

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Here’s what I have for MWSF 2007 Keynote Bingo. This is the entire list, including old strings from the WWDC 2006 edition (except for the ones that I pruned).

If you’re still kicking around a string idea, or you think of one while flipping through this list, consider this the eleventh hour. This is the last call for new strings. ☺


These strings are from the original WWDC 2006 card by John Siracusa:

  • Universal Adobe or MS Office demo
  • “Boom”
  • Virtualization in Leopard
  • New video iPod
  • New iPod Nano
  • Mac Pro model <= $1,499
  • “Otomatic”
  • “New” Finder in Leopard
  • New case for Mac Pro
  • Movie rental service
  • iPhone
  • Mac Pro model >= $3,499
  • New MacBook Pro
  • “One more thing…”
  • New desktop Mac (not Mac Pro)
  • New kernel in Leopard
  • Resolution Independent UI in Leopard
  • iPods with cameras
  • Quartz 2D Extreme enabled in Leopard
  • New file system in Leopard

New strings for WWDC 2006!

  • At least one white product
  • At least one black product
  • At least one brushed-metal product
  • At least one product in multiple colors
  • HD/HDTV mentioned (HD-DVD doesn’t count)
  • Blu-Ray
  • Bluetooth 2
  • HD-DVD
  • New displays
  • New display size
  • Any display size discontinued
  • Mac mini accessory
  • Intel Core 2 Duo
  • ATI dropped
  • ATI not going away
  • Xserve with Intel
  • 500 GB drive
  • 750 GB drive
  • New iPod model
  • Apple Bluetooth headphones (no mic)
  • Apple Bluetooth headset
  • iPod with Bluetooth headphone support
  • iPod flea/pico
  • Touch-screen iPod
  • Finger-hover- operated iPod
  • Tablet iPod
  • Tablet MacBook (Pro or otherwise)
  • iPod accessory
  • Tie-in between Quartz and any GPU maker
  • Mac engraving
  • New incarnation of AirPort
  • Nike+iPod mentioned
  • USB telepathy adapter
  • FireWire dropped from all Macs
  • Safari 3.0
  • RSS/Atom /podcasting added to any app
  • Updated iLife (not just iTunes)
  • HyperCard 3.0
  • Growl included in Leopard
  • Growl cloned in Leopard
  • Safari RSS replaced with Vienna
  • Safari RSS replaced with Feed
  • Safari RSS replaced with NetNewsWire
  • Safari RSS replaced with NewsFire
  • Safari RSS replaced with NewsMac
  • BitTorrent in Leopard (in any form)
  • BitTorrent in Safari
  • BitTorrent in iTunes
  • BitTorrent in iPhoto
  • BitTorrent in Pages
  • BitTorrent in Keynote
  • BitTorrent in Software Update
  • BitTorrent in Chess
  • New Sudoku application
  • New Sudoku widget
  • BitTorrent tracker in OS X Server
  • New Pro app
  • One or more updated Pro apps
  • Grapher 2.0
  • Writable FTP in Leopard
  • FTP client
  • New iApp
  • OpenOffice Document support in Pages
  • OpenOffice Document support in TextEdit
  • Updated iWork
  • New app in iWork
  • Spreadsheet
  • Crash during demo
  • iTunes DRM changing
  • iTunes DRM going away
  • iTunes Store music sales
  • One or more new APIs in Leopard
  • ZFS in Leopard
  • ZFS in Leopard explicitly denied
  • ReiserFS in Leopard
  • Writable NTFS in Leopard
  • Any of ext[234]fs in Leopard
  • BeFS in Leopard
  • New UI theme
  • New QuickTime codec
  • Mouse gestures
  • Hand gestures (via iSight, like EyeToy)
  • Focus- follows- mouse
  • New API added to Quartz
  • Copy of Windows to be included with every OS X disk
  • Copy of Windows to be included with every Mac
  • New anti-virus app introduced due to Windows
  • New .Mac features
  • .Mac price dropped
  • .Mac price raised
  • Backup 4.0 (.Mac)
  • .Mac SDK 2.0 released
  • Music is played during an app demo
  • Musical guest
  • Video conference
  • Apple Store data presented
  • Third party application talked about
  • Phil Schiller on stage
  • Roz Ho on stage
  • Paul Otellini on stage
  • Wil Shipley on stage
  • Chris Forsythe on stage
  • Apple employee number 8 (Chris Espinosa)
  • Steve with beard
  • Steve without beard
  • Steve with no belt
  • Shot of audience
  • Audience member yells “BINGO!”
  • Audience member whispers “BINGO!”
  • Audience member ejected from auditorium
  • Audience member ejected for yelling “BINGO!”
  • Audience member not ejected for yelling “BINGO!” (special dispensation from Jobs)

New strings for MWSF 2007!

  • Apple’s cell-phone: “iPod phone”
  • Apple’s cell-phone: “iMobile” (Kevin Ballard, referencing iPhone Insider)
  • Apple’s cell-phone bundled with new Macs
  • Illuminous (new UI instead of Aqua)
  • Keynote ends without “One more thing”
  • Parallels bought by Apple, bundled with Leopard (Kevin Ballard)
  • iPod phone socks (Kevin Ballard)
  • Spreadsheet in iWork 2007 (Kevin Ballard)
  • Spreadsheet’s name is Numbers (Kevin Ballard)
  • Name of iTV announced
  • Release date for iTV (Kevin Ballard)
  • .Mac discontinued
  • Beatles on iTunes Store
  • Paul McCartney on stage
  • Representative of Apple Records on stage
  • Bertrand Serlet on stage
  • “Top Secret” Leopard features revealed
  • iTunes Store TV show sales
  • iTunes Store movie sales
  • iTunes 8
  • GPS in the iPod (Andy Kim — he was joking, but I like the idea. Also, I will accept a GPS add-on (see the Belkin voice recorder for an example).)
  • New “adult” section in iTunes Movie Store (Luc Pellissier)
  • New iLife app
  • One or more updated iLife apps (including iTunes)
  • LED backlight on notebooks (DigiTimes.com: Apple and HP to launch LED-based notebooks)
  • Bruce Chizen (Adobe CEO) on stage (Jesper)
  • Steve to Bruce Chizen (Adobe CEO): “What took you so long?” (Jesper)
  • Steve in Nike+ shoes (Jesper)
  • Steve in New Balance shoes (Jesper)
  • Steve in shiny business shirt (Jesper)
  • Nike+ for more iPods (Jesper)
  • Nike+ for iPod phone (Jesper)
  • “The back of our computers looks better than the front of our competitors’ computers.” (Jesper and Andy Kim)
  • Potshot at Vista (Jesper)
  • Announcement of one or more movie studio deals for iTunes (Andy Kim)
  • No announcement of movie studio deals for iTunes (Andy Kim)
  • Adobe CS3 release date announced (Andy Kim)
  • 802.11n compatible Airport or Macs (Andy Kim)
  • New displays with built-in iSight (Andy Kim)
  • iPod games mentioned
  • One or more new iPod games
  • HD content on iTunes (Dan Benjamin: Regarding Macworld 2007)
  • New, smaller laptop (Dan Benjamin: Regarding Macworld 2007)
  • Beatles special-edition iPod (Dan Benjamin: Regarding Macworld 2007)

UPDATE 2006-01-07: See also “Now, 4% more bingo!”, in which I announce version 1.0.1. Version 1.0.1 adds a net total of 8 strings.

Keynote Bingo MWSF 2007 Edition page is up

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

The keynote looms ever closer, and so does the bingo! I’ve now posted the MWSF 2007 Edition page, complete with the sneak preview. (You can tell that seed numbers are now printed — this one is marked “Card #0”.)

It’s still not too late to think of things to put into those cells. You can propose new strings either by commenting on my “Call for strings” post or by emailing me (my address is on my front page).

Keynote Bingo sneak preview

Friday, December 29th, 2006

Here’s a sneak preview of the MWSF 2007 Keynote Bingo card, which I’m still working on.

The bingo card with none of the strings shown yet. New font: Bitstream Vera Sans, in place of Optima.

Changes:

  • The new font for headings, instructions, and the “Made in the USA” tag is Bitstream Vera Sans, replacing Optima from the previous Bingo.
  • I replaced the word “FREE” in the center with a star on an 80%-white background.

  • You’ll be able to enter any seed value of your choice. This is so that John Siracusa can distribute cards 1–n (for a value of n of his choosing), if he wants to. It’ll also make it easier for winners, if any, to tell others what cards they won on.
  • There’ll be an app that will let you enter the seed value, so that you can reproduce somebody else’s previously-generated card. You’ll also use this app to generate a card randomly (using the current time as the seed). In either case, the seed value is printed on the card.
  • You’ll no longer be required to have the disk image mounted when you open the card in Preview. The app will take care of being in the right directory when it converts the EPS files to a PDF.
  • If I have time, I may do a Windows version: EPS only, no app. Obviously, this means that Windows users wouldn’t be able to use a seed value of their choosing; it would be hard-coded to use the current time. Consider it a downside of not being on a Mac. (Or, feel free to write your own app using the same EPS files. It’ll be the same BSD license.)

I’m open to suggestions for new and different header graphics, and my call for strings still stands — I’ll be doing the strings last, so you still have time to think of predictions (serious or humorous) and either post them in comments on the call-for-strings post or email them to me directly.

Keynote Bingo: Call for strings!

Sunday, December 24th, 2006

I’m working on the new Keynote Bingo for MWSF 2007. It’ll be a little different this time, with an actual app that lets you enter a specific seed number for the PRNG.

Other than the “iPod phone” and the “Illuminous” UI replacement for Aqua, what do you think may be announced in the MWSF 2007 keynote? Some degree of fancy/humor is welcome, but I do want to keep it mostly grounded in order that, maybe, we should hear a “Bingo!” on the live stream. ☺

(I do request that if anybody yells “Bingo!”, that it should be the last “Bingo!” for that keynote. Once is amusing; twice is pushing it; any more than that is simply disruptive. Let Mr. Jobs give his keynote address in peace.)

Feel free to post your suggestions in the comments, or if you’d rather suggest something anonymously, by email. I will list your name in the credits in the Keynote Bingo app unless you tell me otherwise.

My WWDC 2006 Keynote Bingo cards

Monday, August 7th, 2006

My four bingo cards, marked up.

Red circles are things that happened during the keynote. Green question marks might have happened, but I won’t know until a video is available. (UPDATE 17:25: I just noticed that the Mac Pro has a Xeon, not a Core 2 Duo, just like the Xserve. So I will be unmarking Core 2 Duo later. UPDATE 19:09: Done.)

Be sure to post your own card. I’d also like it if you bookmarked it on del.icio.us and tagged it “keynotebingo” and “keynotebingowwdc2006”.

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It’s 3:30…

Monday, August 7th, 2006

And my WWDC Keynote Bingo page has received 161 hits in those three and a half hours.

This following 275 hits yesterday, 88 hits Saturday, and 224 hits Friday. Plus the 182 hits on -07-29, the 155 hits on -07-30, and the 69 hits on -07-31, and the 65 hits between then and Friday.

I predict quite a bingo game at the WWDC. ☺

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WWDC Bingo 2006

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

John Siracusa recently came up with a great idea: WWDC keynote bingo. But I find the prospect of having just one card rather limiting.

The_Tick jokingly suggested on freenode #macsb that I create a randomized version (note: this was before Simone created his):

22:41:18: <The_Tick> Mac-arena: quickly
22:41:21: <The_Tick> we need an app
22:41:25: <Mac-arena> The_Tick: Who?
22:41:27: <The_Tick> random bingo card generator
22:41:31: <Mac-arena> Hehe.
22:41:32: <The_Tick> all wwdc participants
22:41:40: <The_Tick> so it generates a random square
22:41:51: <The_Tick> from a bunch of blocks
22:41:55:              Mac-arena imagines doing that in PostScript
22:42:04: <Mac-arena> Hooray for images that change every time you open them! :D
22:42:05: <The_Tick> then it spools them all to be printed
22:42:09: <The_Tick> and then you print them
22:42:14: <The_Tick> and hand them out to everyone at wwdc
22:42:19: <The_Tick> bam!
22:42:27: <Mac-arena> I remember that there are a few handwriting fonts written in PostScript, so that every letter varies
22:43:48: <The_Tick> http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits.ars/2006/7/23/4730
22:43:52: <The_Tick> something like that
22:43:58: <The_Tick> but.. more random
22:43:58: <Mac-arena> Yeah, saw it on simx's blog.
22:44:04: <Mac-arena> Also saw that it was dugg.
22:44:25: <Mac-arena> The_Tick: I accept your challenge.
22:44:34:              Mac-arena incarnates a svn repo in his PostScript folder
22:46:12: <The_Tick> if you make it so
22:46:23: <The_Tick> then I believe we can have ourselves a little bit of bingo humor at wwdc
22:46:37: <The_Tick> well, I won't be there
22:46:47: <Mac-arena> Me either.
22:47:23: <The_Tick> but it'd be funny to hear someone yell bingo on the streaming video
22:47:24: <The_Tick> lol

I took him up on it anyway (like I said). And here’s the result: WWDC Bingo 2006!

This version comes in the form of three (actually four, but that one is hidden and simply draws the header graphic) EPS files. Every time you open one, one or more boards are randomly generated for you automatically. The first is 1-up (full-page), the second is 2-up, and the third is 4-up.

In addition to the randomization, there are 119 more strings in this version than the original. Print out multiple cards and increase your odds!

Oh, and if you really do play it in the keynote, I want to hear you yell “BINGO!” on the webcast. Make it good and loud.

Or, if you’re a presenter, I have a tchotchke idea for you: branded bingo markers. I’m envisioning one with the Panic logo on the barrel. :D

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