December 28th, 1999

[3:00 PM] It's A MacHack Christmas Tale by Staff The people at MacHack sent us a great story about a Christmas wish fulfilled. Of course, the story promotes MacHack itself, but that's a good thing too. MacHack is an annual gathering of Mac developers. According to MacHack" Dearborn, MI-While other teenagers were looking forward to getting the latest album or fanciest new sweater, what high-school junior Josh Shaffer wanted most for Christmas was MacHack. "I first heard about MacHack a few years ago from a friend of mine who works at Apple," said Josh. Josh has been programming Macs for years and got his start at age six on a Macintosh Plus. His love affair with Macintosh programming began building Hypercard stacks. He has continued to code actively and currently distributes Personal Journal, a database/diary program that is available at http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/switch/324/. "My main reason for attending is to meet other Mac programmers," Josh continued. When asked about his plans for college, "I'd like to go somewhere with a strong Mac community." Josh, of course, got his Christmas wish, thanks to his parents, and will be attending MacHack 2000 in June along with 49 other lucky student attendees who will learn, code and hang out with the biggest names in Macintosh programming. Student developers attend MacHack for only $50, but attendance is limited to the first 50 registrants. For this fee, students receive an all-access registration for conference events, a special meal package and other student only goodies. For attendees, discounted registration is available for early action. Full attendees can register for $425 online, a savings of $100 of the regular registration rate. Total attendance is limited to 400. Student attendance is limited to 50. MacHack takes place in Dearborn, Michigan from June 22-24, 2000. You can find more information on the event and registration at the event's web site. The Mac Observer Spin: Congrats to Josh! If there are more young people like Josh out there who love programming for the Mac, it bodes well for the Mac community. We wish Josh and the other attendees of MacHack the best of luck! MacHack