Just about two years ago, I posted about the release of Mac OS X Leopard. What have I been up to since then? Making it even better! Today, Mac OS X 10.6, “Snow Leopard” is available to the public for the amazing price of $29!

Since Microsoft had to go back and fix glaring problems with Windows Vista and re-brand and re-market it to make it fit for sale to real people, Apple had the amazing opportunity to go back and re-architect key parts of Mac OS X to make them work even better and to set the stage for future innovation. Of course, it wouldn’t be Apple if we didn’t put a lot of effort into refinements and enhancements. What does this mean for you the customer? Everything just feels faster and smoother, and the already stable system is even more rock-solid.

The reviews are in:

• Walt Mossberg (WSJ): Apple Changes Leopard’s Spots
• David Pogue (NYT): Apple’s Sleek Upgrade

All of this, and it’s delivered to customers a month earlier than promised. Hey Microsoft: Surprise!

Working on the project management team for Mac OS X over the past year and a half to get Snow Leopard out the door was challenging and exhilarating, and I am proud of what we were able to achieve. But, as the song goes, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Long time no post. Why? I’ve been busy as heck!

Work at Apple continues to occupy most my time as we continue working on the best version yet of Mac OS X, “Snow Leopard.” My program management job has exposed me to a variety of new responsibilities, priorities, and skill sets over the year that I’ve been doing it. Back when I was an engineer, my work was very measurable: if I had no bugs in my queue and I was happy with whatever tools work I was doing, I could go home and not think about work. In addition, the amount of collaboration and communication involved was minimal. Those simple days are gone, because the product can always be more on time, more featureful, higher quality, and the production of it involves hundreds of people, ranging from engineering to legal to marketing and so on. It was a challenging adjustment, but a very rewarding one that has made me a better person.

Melissa and I have now been married for 9 months, and they happen to have been the best months ever in the history of months. Once again, there are definitely a seismic shift in goals and priorities that comes with marriage, but at the end of the day they prove to be extremely rewarding changes. We’re currently living in San Mateo, but now that we have had a bit of time to explore the Bay Area, we’ll probably move down south, perhaps to Santa Cruz to be near the ocean and mountains.

California is truly a beautiful state with great weather and amazing scenery. If I drive west, I come up against bluffs where the ocean crashes against what looks like the end of the world. If I drive east, I see mountains and lakes, and wonders of the world like Yosemite.

Taken together, these things have helped me realize that there are better things to do than futz around on the internet all day, so my post frequency will probably remain a bit lower, though hopefully I’ll put up more pictures (most of these are on our family website, so go look over there or email me to find out the address).

Until next time!

After four years doing mostly low-level technical work on Mac OS X as an individual contributor, I’m now an engineering project manager working in the Mac OS X Program Office. I’ve replaced hours of being hunched over in front of my screen figuring out bugs with hours being hunched over in front of my screen sending emails. Ah, and the meetings, let’s not forget about the meetings. All jokes aside, I am enjoying the challenge of working at a high level, collaborating with dozens of managers and hundreds of engineers throughout the company on a multitude of projects. Looking back at my past experience and my interests, I suppose that management was inevitable. Fear not, I’ll still work on the occasional bug to stay sharp

Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” is available on store shelves tomorrow, and tech journalists are already gushing about it in their reviews.

• Walt Mossberg (WSJ): Leopard Faster, Easier than Vista
• David Pogue (NYT): Apple Offers New Goodies in Leopard System
• Edward C. Baig (USA Today): Leopard, Apple’s new Mac operating system, hits all the right spots

Something that touched me was to have the work that my team is responsible in part for called out in Walt Mossberg’s review:

“In fact, every piece of software and hardware I tried on two Leopard-equipped Macs — a loaned laptop from Apple and my own upgraded iMac — worked fine, exhibiting none of the compatibility problems that continue to plague Vista. My old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, for which Vista lacks the proper software, worked instantly in Leopard, even over the network. And, unlike with Vista, it was able to print on both sides of the page. I popped my old Verizon cellphone modem card into the test Leopard laptop and it worked, too, with no software installation or tweaking.”

I can’t be prouder of my colleagues and all of their hard work and dedication to excellence.

So Mac OS X Leopard is nearing release, which means that I too am nearing release from the shackles of crunch time. For a bit of perspective, the last day that I took off from work was April 20th, which I took off to fly up to visit Nick in Boston. Since then, I’ve worked generally no fewer than six days per week for generally 10-12 hours per day.

So I need a break.

So I am taking one.

On 9 December, I’m flying to Tokyo to travel around southeast Asia for four weeks. My plan is still coming together, but the countries that I am expecting to visit are Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and possibly Laos and/or the Phillippines. I suspect I’ll do Japan last, as I’d like to partake in the New Year’s celebrations in Tokyo before flying back to San Francisco on 4 January.

In the two months leading up to my trip, I’ll be planning a rough itinerary and securing the necessary visas and innoculations. Generally speaking, though, I’m expecting to more or less bum around, going from place to place following my interests on my own schedule. I dislike “destination tourism,” in which people write down a list of things they plan to see in between meals at places that serve American food before leaving a country in which they never spoke to someone outside of a consumer context. Rather, I like to wander around and take in the people and their culture, customs, and cuisine. My style will be faciliated by the fact that I’ll be traveling alone for most if not all of the trip.

Thailand is probably the place I’m most excited to visit, as I’ve heard nothing but good stories about the beautiful environment and friendly people. There are myriad possibilities there, ranging from partying with the European and Oceanic visitors to scuba diving to trekking in the wilderness. I suppose I’ll need to pick up a camera.

More details to come…