It doesn’t take long after meeting me or Alex to realize that we’re pretty big followers of the wide world of Macintosh. (A glance down this page will probably establish the same thing.)

For all you would-be anthropologists who’d like to know a little more about the strange rituals of our little tribe, here’s a little glimpse at one of the holy festivals on the Mac addict’s calendar: WWDC.

Standing for the Worldwide Developers Conference, the WWDC runs from June 23 to June 27 this year. Apple programmers and übergeeks will make the pilgrimmage to San Francisco for four days of seminars, workshops and (deep, shuddering breath) a keynote address by Steve Jobs.

These keynote addresses — dubbed “Stevenotes” by those in the know — are the focus of concerted speculation beginning weeks in advance, building to a crescendo of ecstatic fervour in the hours before the actual announcement.

WWDC hasn’t been the venue of choice for really major announcements in the past. Instead, Jobs has tended to use it for more technical announcements, like previews of upgrades to the operating system or to other underlying technologies, like QuickTime or Rendezvous. Exciting to the digiscenti, maybe; but anyone looking for something as momentous as, say, a new line of candy-colored iMacs should wait for the January or July Macworld exhibitions. (And every once in a while, September’s Macworld Paris.) That’s where Steve drops his bombshells.

Except that not long ago, Apple pulled out of the July Macworld. A days-long public snarkfest between Apple and show producer IDG ended with the event being scaled way, way down, renamed “CREATE” and then re-renamed “Macworld CreativePro.” While the two have kissed and made up (Apple’s even going to be there), there’s now a big gaping hole in Apple’s summer media schedule.

So in the runup to WWDC 2003, every Mac rumour web site is quivering like a high-C tuning fork. And no wonder. Signs and portents of Big Things Afoot have been plummeting from the sky.

Apple announced early on that attendees would be getting their first look at OS X 10.3 (codename: Panther), the latest version of their ultra-modern operating system. Normally, that would have triggered an orgy of black-market screenshots and in fact that has happened. But in recent weeks, Panther has had to roll over for a much bigger cat: a new desktop Mac. There had been whispers for months that the next generation of processors might be announced — the legendary G5.

A moment to put this into perspective. Mac afficianados have been waiting for the G5 the same way the Raelians have been waiting for the UFOs to come back. The same way New Democrats have been waiting for a breakthrough in Quebec. The same way Estragon and Vladimir are still waiting for…

…No, wait, this is more like it. Imagine tomorrow’s your birthday. Imagine you’re ten years old. And imagine that tonight is going to be four years long. That’s what it’s been like if you’re a Mac fan. Four years since September 1999 and the introduction of the PowerMac G4.

The whispers built into murmurs and then into outright statements (which isn’t saying much with some of the rumours sites — the ones, for example, that confidently announce the next Stevenote will unveil anti-gravity penny loafers — but is unheard of on the more conservative sites).

And then late last week, Apple ejected the cat from the bag, with the apparently accidental posting of detailed specs of the new G5 desktops. Jaws dropped. Pools of saliva gathered. A low moaning was heard throughout the land.

And that’s not the end of it.

Reports are rife of a new Apple-branded device about to take its place alongside the iPod music player: a miniature video camera designed to integrate with the company’s iChat software.

So if you’ve been wondering why your friend the Mac enthusiast has been so distracted this week, why she-or-he (admittedly, it can be hard to tell with many of us) spends so much time rocking rythmically and chanting, “Steve will come and then you’ll be sorry,” well, now you know.

And if you are that Mac enthusiast, then you should drop by macosxhints, a terrific little web community coming up with new and dazzling ways to make your Mac perform.

It’s a given among web cognoscenti that 99.95% of Flash-based web sites are using the Macromedia technology for all the wrong reasons. From intro splash pages as endless as they are useless… to sites that make a user wade through thigh-deep animated sludge to get to the simplest information… Flash is getting a bad, bad name. (It’s the phenomenon spoofed perfectly by the kind folks at Skipintro.)

So what a relief to be steered the other day to the web site of one Marie Arena, the Socialist minister of training in Belgium’s Walloon province.

What works about this site? First, and very important, you don’t have to use Flash to use the site; there’s a link to an HTML version – a relief if you’re using an older browser or a slow connection.

Second, they keep the bandwidth nice and low. No waiting for ages while a “l…o…a…d…i…n…g” graphic stares back at you.

And third, the Flash does something. It isn’t just meaningless animation; you can actually play with it, and it plays back. It breaks through the stodgy stereotype of a European government bureaucracy. You can get the information you want without waiting for animations to finish, but if you’re in a leisurely mood, it’s a lot of fun to watch. And that’s in keeping with the site’s apparent mission of engaging younger visitors.

One last thing – kudos to Ms. Arena for giving her staff such a prominent role on the site. It’s nice to see a politician who breaks the taboo against admitting that you have a staff, let alone rely on them.