I learned of his passing through the speed of Twitter. Although I knew it was coming, I was still in shock. The man who revived and strengthened a once-dying company, led a fledgling animation studio and changed the game in the creative, marketing and tech industries, was gone.

Even though I didn’t know him personally, he had indirectly touched my life in many ways. My first job out of college was working at his company, via an Apple Store. Through my training at Cupertino HQ and my employment, I understood up close how the company ticked… and I created many friends along the way.

Jobs’s products enrich my life. I own a MacBook Pro, which I use for work and play. After my iPhone was stolen, I realized how it had vastly changed the way I used a mobile phone. (Fortunately, I got it back.) He changed the way I listened to and consumed music – and as a music fanatic, this is a big deal. And he led Pixar, the film studio who’d produce modern classics like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and my personal favorite, Up.

As a senior at HPU, I chose Apple for my advertising case study. Through a multimedia presentation and a paper, I broke down the brilliance of the company’s marketing and creative.

Most important, he was responsible for the operating system and applications where I’d learned how to edit videos, create publications and ultimately tell stories digitally. To say that I wouldn’t be where I am today because of him would be giving him too much credit, but he played a significant role in providing the tools to get me here.

Last night, as I made my way to meet up with old Apple friends at Ala Moana, I thought of Justin, my late friend and job training companion in Cupertino. With my iPhone, I left him a Facebook message:

“Give Uncle Steve a hug for me, will ya?”

As I suspected, more of the latter came true. If anything, it was an excellent refresher lecture.

Hosted by Pacific New Media, the lecture featured Greg Rewis, an evangelist for Adobe, and his wife, Stephanie Sullivan Rewis, a liaison to Adobe for the Web Standards Project. Bios for both speakers are on Pacific New Media’s website.

That night, like most of the end of last week, was quite rainy, but I was also going to Mānoa, and I managed to leave my umbrella at home. The rain was literally pounding on my windshield as I waited in traffic and finally parked next to the architecture school, where the lecture took place. Now, I love the rain, but getting caught in it while buying a parking ticket at one of those machines, then having to walk back to your car to place the receipt on the dash, then managing to walk in the wrong direction and having to backtrack—all without an umbrella, mind you—was not fun. By the time I met up with Jon in front of the auditorium, I was soaked.

The lecture started 15 minutes late, as the speakers graciously waited for stragglers who got caught in what they called the “Hawaiian snowstorm.” The first half hour or so covered what they called “The History of the Web.” Most of us associate computers and modern technology with the web, but the Rewises started all the way back in 1439, when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, and continued hitting key dates until they reached the present day.

It was a breakdown of the History of the Democratization of Information—enabling the masses to share information. Tedious, but the lecturers claimed that understanding the past gave our current state some context. Familiar saying, but I’m not sure if it was necessary in this case. The people who attended came to learn about the present state and future of the web, not the past. Also, for someone like me who majored in advertising and had to take a mass media course in college, a lot of the historical information was review.

After the dull historical timeline—props to the Rewises for their excellent public speaking abilities and attempts to engage the audience—they finally went into the actual “state of the web.” The major topics they covered: HTML5 and CSS3; mobile web development; and web apps/cloud computing.

Some notes on HTML5 and CSS3:

• We have to remember that HTML5 is still in development, a work in progress. It hasn’t reached the WC3‘s recommendation stage yet and has a few years before it does.
• HTML5, like Web 2.0 before it, is often erroneously used as a marketing term. Remember when clients would say they wanted a website to “look Web 2.0″? What? Many seem to confuse elements on websites that look clean and flashy as HTML5, when often, they are built using XML and/or JavaScript (together called AJAX)—technologies that have been around for quite some time.
• Some even confuse HTML5 with CSS3. Making rounded corners and box shadows, for instance, is done through stylesheets using CSS3. HTML5 would be used to incorporate drag-and-drop, native video playback, and “Web Forms 2.0.”
• One of the biggest misunderstandings with HTML5 is that it is being made to kill plugins, specifically Flash, because of its native video handling. However, the speakers (ahem, from Adobe) claim that with Flash, you can enable full-screen content, apply content protection and bit-rate streaming, and integrate ad engines and analytics. The Rewises suggest HTML5 would be ideal for multimedia, simple 2-D games, ads that you don’t want blocked with Flash ad blockers, geolocation and web-storage APIs.

Mobile Web Development
Another major segment the Rewises covered was Internet access on mobile phones. They suggested web designers should build their sites “mobile first” because it would really make them prioritize a website’s content and optimize for fast loading speeds. They also presented some figures onscreen about the world’s mobile usage. We have to remember that few people can afford smartphones and most who can live in Western civilizations; only 2 percent of people worldwide own iPhones, for instance. Many, especially in developing countries, still access the web on standard mobile phones. In some countries, mobile is their only method of accessing the web, as they cannot afford or access computers or broadband Internet service. So when we say “mobile” development, we can’t just assume smartphones and iPhones/iPads/iPod Touches and leave millions of others in the dark.

“The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet.”
Some of you may recognize that statement from a recent story published in Wired. What it suggests is that interactive media is moving away from traditional browser development (like HTML) and increasingly toward web applications. Not just iPhone apps—Skype, Netflix, iTunes, World of Warcraft… they all access the web outside of the browser. Tools like Google Docs suggest a future of cloud computing—using apps online instead of those that require installation on a computer. Like Google Docs demonstrates, cloud computing allows for mobile access and collaboration on documents. There are, however, issues with security, since files are stored remotely.

All in all, it was a nice refresher course and summation of “things you need to know if you’re involved in web development.” We went back out into the calm after the storm, armed with information of what’s happened and what’s going on now, and left to witness and perhaps play a role in the web’s future.

South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX :: March 11-17
My travels this spring kicked off with South by Southwest. Work sent me this year for the opportunity to build on my knowledge and understanding of the web during SXSW Interactive, as well as the chance to meet so many like-minded geeks. For those of you who aren’t aware, SXSW is actually three events that take place over the course of ten days: Interactive covers web and video game development, Film includes the film festival and film-related panels, and Music incorporates the thousands of showcases and industry sessions. Because I had a platinum pass—thank you Mākaha Studios!—I had access to all three aspects of SXSW. I’ll focus on Interactive for this entry.

It’s no joke that Twitter was such a useful tool when I was there. Through Twitter and SXSW’s social website, my.SXSW, I met several other attendees from Hawai‘i, with whom I bounced off knowledge and feedback on sessions, and explored the tastes of Austin… particularly BBQ and Cuban food! I sampled the latter food option during a “Lost” fans/Hawai‘i meetup that local web evangelist and fellow SXSW attendee Ryan Ozawa set up.

The ExpressionEngine 2.0 panel was a highlight session for me, thank goodness, because I use EE at work and it was one I was looking forward to the most. It was everything an outstanding presentation should be: engaging, informative, and occasionally funny. And the slides did what they were supposed to: they were visual aids, not crutches for each presenter.

Let’s contrast this with some low points during SXSW Interactive. The presentation for HTML5 Accessibility lacked direction and professionalism — the PowerPoint slides were dense with text. The presenter sounded like she knew what she was talking about, but let’s face it, she was boring and for much of her presentation, refused to aim her mouth toward the mic in such a way that the entire huge ballroom could hear her. This was one of two events that I actually walked out on, the other event being the “keynote” (in a dry interview format) with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Not sure why I didn’t walk out on Twitter CEO Evan Williams’s keynote (also a dry interview format), but I might as well should have because I zoned out for most of it.

RIP Justin :: March 11
Of course, these supposed low points pale in comparison to the most significant low I experienced while I was in Austin—this one was personal. The night before the start of SXSW, I got a call that my good friend and colleague, Justin Cash, passed away. We trained together at Apple and talked a lot online about geeky stuff, work, and life. When he passed, he was getting ready to move out to crash at a friend’s apartment as he waited to hear about a potential job transfer to Honolulu. We were also in the middle of preparing our music blog, where you can now read the music review he wrote up shortly before he passed, as well as a bit more info on Justin.

I could not believe that it happened so suddenly and at such an inopportune moment. He was looking forward to making a life change and all of a sudden, it was taken away from him. I felt helpless; there was nothing I could do. I felt guilty for having so much to look forward to for that week and a half—or really, the next month or so—and that somehow I shouldn’t be allowed to have that. The guilt resurfaced when I flew to New York City a month after his death (more on that trip eventually) because I felt like I should have visited Justin while he was still alive. After quite a bit of thinking throughout my travels, I know Justin would not have wanted me to stop what I was doing on his behalf. He’d think I’d be silly for doing so.

Next entry: SXSW Film and Music

Preparing for anthropology was a cinch. I bought a used textbook from a student for only $10, and I borrowed the two other required books from the public library.

Preparing for the photography class… that’s a different story, especially when choosing a camera. After visiting stores and reading online reviews on digital SLR cameras, I narrowed my choices down to a Canon EOS Rebel XT and a Nikon D40. Both are great starter cameras, but I chose the Canon because:

a) I used one in high school
b) More lenses and easier to find them used
c) A bunch of people were selling them used on Craigslist

So yesterday, I bought one. A sweet deal: $475 for the camera and two lenses. One lens is 22-55 mm; the other is 70-200 mm. The camera alone is worth about $500 retail and lenses usually cost almost just as much, so a generous deal!

I just started a Flickr account to store the photos I’ve already taken and the photos I will take using my Canon Rebel.

I woke up insanely early for a Saturday and called AT&T to have my account transferred over from my dad’s name to mine. After the painless process, I activated my iPhone. So far, I’m loving it. Typing on it is not at all difficult for me — maybe it’s because I have a small to non-present learning curve? And Internet wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And my purse feels lighter since I’m carrying one item instead of two (phone and iPod).

We also went to Best Buy yesterday and bought my sister a 19″ Samsung LCD monitor. Her eye doctor recommended she use a bigger monitor because it turns out she’s nearsighted. (She’s still waiting for her Gucci glasses to come in from the Mainland. Oooh.) But it turns out she didn’t want a monitor crowding her small, already-crowded desk. So my mom and I went back to Best Buy today and returned it. Blah.

Tonight I’ll be hanging out with Angie and co. in Ewa Beach. Woot!