A $500 Mac?

Wow! Read on. Appleinsider.com has also reported a headless mac. I have to admit I never saw this coming.. its a bold move by Apple. For years they have shied away from the lower end of the market. A cheap G4 box running Mac OS X will be killer! Time to sell my G4 cube? Its on craigslist already!

how you doing?

Well, after several exhausting days and nights, Christmas is around the corner. I'm so excited. We've decorated our house with beautiful colorful lights, great smelling candles and the room for once looks clean :) . If we haven't told you already, we are moving to a bigger house in the same complex by Feb 1st.



Funny thing happened yesterday afternoon. We have this colorful Christmas star( just like in India) in our patio. Its really pretty (thanks mom &dad). Lot of birds thought it was a bird feed and they were trying to poke thro the holes in the star for food. These birds aren't as smart as our crows in India!:))



I hope you are all doing well. I promise to talk to you all more often after this crazy holiday season ends!! I can't wait to go to Chicago and see snowfall and drink hot cider. Gotta love the holiday season.



Happy Holidays.

Time to buy lots of almonds?

And to increase consumption of fish, it looks like. Read this article to figure what I'm babbling about. At least I have the wine n' chocolate part covered ;)

We're back!

Alright, we're back and life is pretty much back to normal already. Along the way, we learnt that flying on the sunday after Thanksgiving is best avoided. Thanks for all the b'day wishes, the day went fine. Kind of quiet thanks to the car issues, that's a whole new post.

Anyways, managed to sort out some of the better images from the vacation and post them online. Check them out right now. Let us know what you think, your favourite ones.

Alright, we're back from our 4 day road trip and its our last real day on vacation. Its a lovely day and a great time to be at the beach but we are taking it slow.. hence the blog post :)
Here's the view we had from the Manly ferry this morning

App at the beach near Trial Bay Gaol, South West Rocks. This beach was almost surreal with crystal clear water, almost white sand and very few people (there were actually more bird marks on the sand than foot prints)

White lillies bloom along the river in Bellingen. We were lucky, these flowers only appear in spring. This was the same place that we canoed to in the moonlight, the night before.

A sunny moment in the rainforest at Dorigo National Park. The weather was actually pretty crazy, alternating between light/heavy rain and sunshine.. the region isn't called New England for nothing.

Here's a picture from Day 2 - from the YHA in Bellingen. What you're seeing is a chicken that seems to grow fur! The locals called them silkies..

A little summary of our road trip - this pic is from day 1 at the Tyrell's winery in lower Hunter Valley.

Here's the christmas tree at QVB - the picture is blurred but you can see that the tree is *huge*.

Well it looks like the blog has turned into a photo blog of our visit to Sydney. So here I unleash more pics! This one is of App playing the piano at the QVB, she was quite the entertainer.

A chilly & windy day at Cronulla beach. Today was fare free day for CityRail Sydney; the furthest we wanted to go was to Cronulla. I would love to visit this beach on a brighter day, it was beautiful even today.

Another pic from earlier in the week - this is the walk from Bondi to Bronte.

No trip to Oz is complete without a Koala pic - here's ours!! :)

Halfway through our vacation here down under, we are loving it! Apologies for not posting before but we have been busy.. Over the last 3 days, we made a 2 day trip to the Blue mountains (west of Sydney) and the Jenolan caves. Yesterday we were walking about the city, went to the Queen Victoria Building and also walked about the Rocks and the Oxford St / Kings Cross area. Here's a picture of the 3 of us from a lookout along the blue mountains.

Today we visited Sydney's popular Bondi beach and found it very enjoyable. Apparently, it gets crazy crowded on weekends so we did the right thing by going today. We also managed a nice walk along the water towards Bronte. More pics from that later. For now, enjoy this view of Bondi.

I'll have to post a higher resolution panoramic pic later. Its 1:15 AM here right now, but here's another picture from tonight to keep you satisfied for now.

We had a wonderful first day in Sydney. Relaxed in the morning, then went to the city to enjoy the wonderful weather. Here's one of my first ever panoramic photos. It took a bit of effort but I'm happy with the result!!

Finally Sydney!!:)

We landed safely in Sydney yesterday night after a loooooooong flight. I had severe stomachache problems in the flight. So was lying down most of the time.



Here, arjun's place is nice. ppl are really friendly. Arvind and arjun spent most time bonding(meaning spent time on installing gadgets). This place reminds me of England sooo much. Its nostalgic. Arvind and arjun went up now to take shower (that was atleast 20 mins ago and they are still talking about music system). May be I will sleep for sometime, it will be atleast an hour before these guys get ready.



We are planning to take it light today and just go see the city and return back.

So today there was this posting on Slashdot about photo blogs and their increasing popularity and that reminded me that it is time to unleash another photograph from our collection onto the unsuspecting world! (that would be you)


This one is of App in front of the mission at Santa Barbara from a couple years ago.

Election night

Nothing much by the way of updates over the last weekend. It was a quiet halloween, played Laser tag and watched 'The Grudge'. Apparently, watching a scary movie for halloween is a very 'couple' thing to do so it was a little weird when 4 guys (us) walked into a cinema filled with pairs (the women literally clung on to their boyfriends).

Tonight is exciting because it is Election Night. Bush seems to have a majority right now but it should still be a close race, given the situation. California is still voting.. I, unfortunately, have never voted anywhere but I am supporting the democrats. Go Kerry / Edwards!

2 more days to go....

i'm stressed with all the things going on. Two more days to go. can't wait to see arvind =)

me in vegas!

Its been a long time since I posted anything in the blob. Working like crazy these days. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this job of mine. May be I will.. who knows!! Otherwise, I'm soooo bored here. Hotel to office to hotel. I wish I was there with Arvind. Hmmm... :( what to do. I'll be back in Dublin next week. Ranju &Janu called me yesterday, I was talking to them about Halloween and pumpkin carving. I miss them more than ever. Gotta make time for them, when I return to dublin.



Today, me and Carol are going for dinner and movie. Even she is bored here. Hopefully that should cheer me up. 6 more days to go.....

Congratulations to the Red Sox on a well deserved win in the World Series (for the first time since 1918!!). I watched with Stephen & Rachael. They were, as is to be expected, thrilled! Cute photo, ain't it? :)

Now that I finally have a single place to store all images from the last 2 years or so, I have plenty of images to share. Here's a funny one, from last year when I first went snowboarding. I got stuck in this well and couldn't get myself out. The snow was powder, so I didn't have much leverage. Angela was busy taking the picture before she helped me up. With the weather as it is now, I'm looking forward to snow this year (we didn't go last season).

Personal Satellite Radio (and XM at that!)

I love XM Radio! I might even pay for it. I've had XM for over a year now and have only just started listening to any regular shows. I like chart shows that play the kind of music I like. Between XM 82 BPM's 33 and third Dance charts and XM 29 U-Pop's Chart countdown, I find that I can keep up with most European hits that I would otherwise catch up with only through the "NOW! That's what I call Music" CDs (I love that series, that's material for another post all by itself). Also, Ethel (XM 47 I think) plays some pretty cool alternative tracks. Anyway (I'm easily distracted), that's not what I set out to post.

There is this cool new player on the block that lets you listen to XM satellite radio on the move, best of all it has inbuilt flash memory that you can record up to 5 hours of music on that you can listen to later. Pretty neat, I think. A bit pricey but if this is popular I'm hoping the prices will come down in a year or two.

Gizmodo has the scoop.

Good friends!

Well, I usually post a lot about technology (and Apple at that). Life is not all about technology though.

Today I feel like posting about people. I like interacting with people as much as I like interacting with tech. I have been blessed in life to have been surrounded by good people. Many friends that stay in contact, some that I am not in regular contact with but am sure would still feel close to when I meet. Its the kind of bond that was built in younger years that lives forever. The bond I share with people like Sudhish (before he developed his Suderman alias, he was actually normal once if you can believe me), Venky (Kaka, hardly has an online presence but am sure is enjoying his last single days), Harish (we speak irregularly but I'd have no qualms about calling him up in the middle of the work day and throwing curses unimaginable at him) and many others who shall be named another day :)

I don't think I have ever felt alone in this world. Well, there was a period but that was a really short period - I've met with friends in my hiking group and of course, wonderful neighbours in Torrey Pines that have become friends for life. So, to all the fantastic friends past and present, cheers! Here's to the good times we've had and will have. A special mention to Roshni (Happy B'Day, Li'l Girl!). Last but certainly not the least, I want to say to the greatest friend I've had, the one that I spend the most time with, who I see and touch every day and who is my companion for life - I miss you baby, come home soon, I love you :)

Windows *sigh*

I use Microsoft's Windows OS day in day out and have used it for more than 10 years now. Of course, anyone that I've talked to in the last year knows that I think Mac OS X.3 is the best OS on this planet. I've had a lot of people disagree with me but I just think that the Windows approach is just not 'there' yet. A little example from my experience setting up Windows today -

I was updating Windows through Windows update. I was connected to the internet through my Netgear wireless card. Windows update shows that there is an update available for the wireless card driver. I select it to be installed. It downloads it and start installing it. What happens next? It deactivates my network card, I'm guessing here that it was trying to install the new driver but of course, the update is running as an ActiveX control from the MS web page. Network disconnects, web page hosting ActiveX control loses connection and the browser displays a 'page not found' error and the driver install has disappeared leaving my network card in limbo. I reboot hoping the network card will connect.. nope. I reinstall driver - no go. I unistall driver, reboot, install driver, reboot, insert card, configure network and voila - 5 reboots and countless curses later I am back online.

Please try something similar on an Apple Computer because I just can't describe how worlds apart the experience is. Just no comparison. An avergage person is a zillion times better off with Apple. Now, if they'd just realize it and converted in droves.. :)

Opening windows

Its been a tight week, thanks to work mostly. Managed to do a few other things that needed to be done. I do not have my beloved iBook anymore and am typing this from a noisy old Dell Latitude. The iBook has been sold to raise funds for my iMac G5 which shall be purchased when Tiger is out :)

Now that I am back to Windows for personal use on a limited level, I am looking into some cool software for Windows that I haven't used before.

Thunderbird seems to be the best mail client for my purposes. Of course, it does not support HTTP so I will still be using Outlook for that.

I also installed Miranda which is a multi protocol IM client for Windows. On the mac, I am addicted to Adium X which achieves the same but is much more cooler.

If you haven't switched already, Firefox is the premier browser for Windows.

Laser tag!

Well, App's company keeps playing musical chairs with her schedule. She is back again today but will be gone for 2 weeks (yeah, right!) in 2 weeks time.

In other news, I played my first game(s) of laser tag today at lunch with some colleagues. It was a lot of fun. For the uninitiated, its a game where you get points "shooting" others with a laser gun. You have to wear this plastic vest with a sensor and you get a "gun" attached. Get loose in a maze with black light and fluoroscent paint and you can kind of picture it. At the end of the game, you get a scoresheet with results. I did well even if I wasn't as accurate as I'd have liked to be. A good way to bond with colleagues and also get your heart rate up! I think App would love it, gotta go with some buddies later.

Well, App is in Vegas and I'm home alone so its kinda boring but I'll live. Nothing interesting happening of late. Of course, the Yankees vs Boston series is on, watched that last night at Stephen & Rachael's, the 3rd presidential debate was today - it was not that exciting this time. Apple announced stellar 3rd Qtr results today. One interesting product that I came across recently is Solio - a solar charger for DC powered devices. Check it out. I dig it - it can charge my iPod, Minidisc and Cellphone!

Tivo & Netflix deal is for real

Read up on the exciting news. I can't wait (just like a lot of others) for this to come online. Tivo and Netflix shares are up today, in the long run I'm betting this will affect Blockbuster. I hope there won't be an extra charge for the service.

Big debate is today

Round one of Kerry Vs Bush is tonight, starting in about 100 mins. Hey, any reason to get home early will work for me!! But seriously, this is important.. Kerry is supposed to be good at this, lets see if he can convince the country to give him a chance.

Blair goes to hospital - I was there first :)

Tony Blair is in the news. This, of course, is the very same procedure I went through in the summer of 2000, just a little bit earlier in life than Blair ;)

A larger quake

Small earthquakes are a frequent enough occurrence here in California. Today, we had a larger one though - 5.9 richter. I felt it for a couple of seconds at work even though the center was more than a 100 miles away. More here.

Drunk driving leads to the loss of a young life.

I just read about the death of a girl called Stephanie Audwo in an auto accident in Madras. It appears she was chased by 4 boys driving a car drunk. Its a sad case of eve-teasing and drunk-driving, both of which need stiffer penalties in India. I haven't the time now for details or links but you can probably search Google for all the details.

I feel strongly about this issue and added a comment to Suderman's blog.

We're driving down to Las Vegas! Should be leaving in about 30 minutes. More Apple Stores opened up today including one near Ranjit's house but I didn't want to stress myself out (I do have a 10 hour ride ahead!). Watched 'Old School' last night, it was alright, funny. Nothing much else right now, catch up with y'all when I'm back!

Gotta love Trader Joe's - our friendly grocery shop. Anyway, had some sushi with Darrell for dinner. He brought over some Sake. My friend Ramanathan's trip to the bay area has been cut short by the axing of his project. Pretty sad but we had some good times together when he was here.. gotta get to bed and try to keep up the early mornings :)

Hey folks, things are ambling along.. been an active week thus far - went bowling with Ranjit, Rama and Mahesh last night. Did alright but felt could have done better. Spent time with Darrell watching Monday Night Football the previous day.
Finally got around to spending some time on the iFrame project today. I'm now booting off the CF card which is much faster and quieter compared to the hard drive. The hard drive has now been removed which makes the frame lighter. I tested some JPEG slideshows using Jade and it looks cool, just need to work on scripting it or finding a program that can be scripted.

Hey all, I just got this new program called MacJournal. It lets me maintain a journal on my iBook and post entries to blogger too. Nothing much in the way of updates, we had a relatively quiet weekend - spent friday night in San Francisco, got rid of my CD changer and had Karthik and KB over last night in our place. I really should be working on the iFrame...

The end of summer

Hello everyone! The end of summer is just around the corner. Its already starting to get a little chill in the mornings. We are off to Vegas this weekend to drop off the Civic, I will be flying back on Monday morning and App should be back 10 days later.

Good progress has been made with the iFrame project (pics soon) and I hope to have it finished by the time App is back.

There is a new Apple Store opening in Pleasanton this weekend, looking forward to checking out the iMac G5 there. It would be nice to get one of the T-shirts being given out to the first 1000 visitors!

Just getting started with my work day, have a good one!

iMac G5 is here!

Well, I'm reporting this a day late but the iMac G5 is here. I didn't like it a whole lot at first look but its kinda grown on me over the last day. I think Apple has done a great job. The best feature - it can be wall mounted like the Cinema Displays with a VESA mount kit!! Woohoo!! This will be the next mac that I buy for sure - probably after Tiger (Mac OS X.4) is out next year. At $1299, the new iMac is a steal, its got most of the features of the PowerMac G5 with a 17" widescreen flat panel included. Check out the iMac G5 Introduction Video which I thought was pretty slick! There is a good chance that appealing to iPod users will draw new Mac-converts.

Up late waiting for the new iMac

Well its almost 2 AM and Phil Schiller is stretching it out ..

To get you clued in, its opening keynote at Apple Expo in Paris and everyone expects Apple to launch the new iMac G5 that is long overdue. Apple has done a good job of keeping new intros at the Expo under wraps so its anyone's guess but it looks like we can expect "something" since all the Apple Stores around the world have gone offline for "updating" - something's cooking for sure. I can't believe I'm still awake and I have to be at work morning tomorrow. Oh well, bitten by the Mac bug again. Watch this space tomorrow for an update :)

Big basin

We went to big basin redwood park on Saturday and hiked for a bit. Then, grilled some veggies and ate it. It was really good. yumm.. Then we went to a campfire meet (arranged by park rangers). They described abt the forest fire geared towards kids ofcourse. It was fun, i enjoyed singing and seeing puppet show ;)

"Smokey the bear

Smokey the bear

smiling and growling

and sniffing in the air

:

"

you get the picture right? After laughing so much, we went back to the camp site. We were super smart, thought since it was a warm day we wont need any blanket. Guess what, we were so cold that we couldn't sleep comfortably the whole night. O well, lesson learnt! never ever underestimate the cold nights in Northern California.



Next day, we got up and went for a longer hike. This time, we hiked a popular trail which led up to sequoia falls. When we reached the falls, we were disappointed to see a small falls. I don't know if you can classify it as falls. Really small one. For more info, check the site

http://www.bigbasin.org/trailssequoia.html



We then went directly to saravanna bhavan. I ordered special meals and ate it like a hog. We were so happy so we decided to go to a mall, instead of coming home. So went to a big huge mall and walked for more than an hour and bought useless items (other than arvind's jeans).

Came home with a killing headache but that didn't stop me from watching MTV VMA show. It was great. My favorites usher and alicia keys won!!:)

sad news!

Arvind's granddad passed away on Sunday. We prayed for him yesterday. May his soul rest in peace.

Apple fans abuzz over new iMac

The world of Apple is excited as Apple Expo approaches. New products including the iMac G5 on the horizon. This article at ZDNet sums it up nicely.

Off to Big Basin!

Hey all, we finally decided to get off our butts and do something we've been wanting to do - and so we are headed to Big Basin Redwoods SP this weekend. Promises to be warm 'n nice. Get back with pictures on sunday!

Hiking again

Now that my swimming classes are over, we've started to hike again. I got my orthotics(foot inserts) which will keep my arch from collapsing. We went on a hike for an hour with the new orthotics. Its very hard to walk with it. My body is used to walking in a wrong posture so when i use orthotics, its hurts my feet. I'm trying to get used to it.



Then, we met kram (k.ramanathan), arvind's school friend. It was fun. we met him at saravanna bhavan. Food wasnt great yesterday since we went for dinner around 10pm (closing time) :(( o well, it was super fun.. Its arjun's bday day after tomorrow...Advanced birthday wishes, Arjun.

3 deer in Dublin

Nothing much happening of late. Except of course, the 3 deer. Yes. I saw 3 deer on "the hill" near our complex. It was very unexpected but cool. The whole place is fenced off so I wonder where they came from. They were able to leap pretty high so I guess they jumped over the fences.

Last night we were back on the hill again with Stephen, Rachael, Elaina, Jake and Darrell. Sunset was beautiful, wish we had taken our camera.

Parents are back in Madras.

Arjun is back to normal food as soon as the leftovers are done, which I am guessing is already.

And oh yeah, we got our visas to Oz. 1 year, multiple entry. Hurrah!

Met Ranjit's fiancee

Me and ag went for ranjit's bday and met his fiancee Archana. Very sweet, cute and friendly girl. Liked her. We had a very good time at the restaurant. We were laughing non stop so it was really fun. Hopefully we will get to meet her this weekend.



Otherwise, my swimming lessons will be over soon. I'm so eager to see olympics swimming now. To see how the pros really swim. I'm all excited.. Looks like I might go to vegas soon. Most of my company guys have already moved to vegas.

I'm still here!

In case you're wondering about the pause in the posts. The last couple of weeks have been.. well.. weird. I haven't been as active as I usually am. Life as usual for the most part. Well, Steve Jobs is recovering from cancer. Hopefully that won't put the iMac G5 off track. Oh yeah, I got an iPod! 40 gig, 4th Generation. Like it but need a skin before I can carry it everywhere.

The iFrame project is shaping up. Will take some pics for you to see how things are shaping up.

I had my annual review at work, it went well I thought.

Nothing much else, am still playing Starcraft. And a little bit of Warcraft. When App allows me access to the desk, of course! :)

Diving

Yesterday for the first time in my life, I dived into a 10 ft pool. The most scariest thing ever for me. It was fun though. I thought i need help coming up to surface, but that was the easy part. I'm comfortable with treading. This is great. Still scared of jumping from the springboard. Swimming is the only thing that keeps me going these days, otherwise work is hetic because of the new website release.

Our first anniversary [pic] 2

After we came back from the temple.
Anniversary Photo

Our first anniversary [pic]

Me and arvind at home!:)
Anniversary Photo

Ordering from Amazon

is apparently not always the most pleasant shopping experience. Of course, I would only realize this when I'm waiting on a replacement wireless router for the home network. Not only are they taking their time in shipping available items but my Warcraft 3 disc which was supposed to arrive today, hasn't! And why, do you ask? Because the tracking number that was given to me was not mine! So here I've been sitting tracking this package shipped to Pleasanton, CA only to realize that it was delivered today to someone else. I call UPS and they tell me it wasn't addressed to me. I call Amazon (*much* better than communicating by email) only to be told 'Oh! Then we will just ship it again to you'. No apologies or even an apologetic tone! They cannot even trace that tracking number to see if it was indeed another order or whatever. In any case, I ordered these 4 items last week and am yet to see even one of them. I don't even know if I will get anything by next week!

In contrast, I ordered some books, CD and a T-shirt from Overstock and the order arrived in pieces yesterday and today. This order was placed a whole 2 days after my Amazon order! Is Amazon.com slacking? I hope not!

New iPod around the corner

Well, after a year of resisting I think I will finally give in and purchase an iPod sometime after the new one comes out in August. The Net MD player just isn't cutting it and Hi-MD doesn't seem to be the right solution either. I don't use my MD as a recording device and the iPod definitely beats carrying ATRAC discs. Besides, I already have an iTunes library.

Gizmodo shows you how the ipod might look.

In other updates, the home network is still down. That is the only explanation I have for the lack of new posts from me. Of course, all the time at work is taken up by getting used to C# and .NET so it has been busy. Ranju should have gotten engaged today, congrats to him (I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know this site exists). Waiting for him before I check out Spiderman 2!

App is going to be away in Las Vegas for the next 2 days, FYI.

wonderful anniversary weekend!

Thanks for all your wishes. We had a wonderful anniversary !:) It was great. We went to temple, came home and then went to a nice restaurant. Ate lot of good food, very good wine , discussed all the issues we ever had. Felt good. Came home, called arjun , then arvind's mom & dad and then my dad. Got everyone's best wishes and blessings. Whole of saturday we spent so lazily :) just ate left overs from fridays and then went for swimming. Came home and saw "The missing". SOOOOOOO BORING. Mr.Ganesh made me see it. Just wanted to spend some time with him cuddling up so i didnt mind that.



Apporom, today I was so tired so i ended seeing more movies, the medallion and then "White Oleander". White oleander is such a sad but a moving story. I heard the most of the book on cd. Its so depressing that i decided to see it as a movie and return the cds back to the library. It most definitely made me think a lot about orphan children and their horrible life at foster home.

Arvind was very happy with me today, I let him play starcraft for 4 hours. can you believe it?

We grilled some vegiees today and ate it. Such a hot hot day. So we went for a long walk late in the night and came home.



O yeah, our router went kaput on friday due to electricity failure. :( so we are trying to find a soln for that. Other than that, what a wonderful weekend.

Fun evening at the pool...

Yesterday's class was great. I've learnt to tread now. Getting better with it. I'm so excited abt it. Then the instructor taught me to flip. Well, i couldnt do it properly. So i'm going to practice tonight at the pool.



Today i tried a recipe from woman's day. Great eggplant sandwich.. arvind & me loveeeed it. We got mom, dad and arjun's card for our anniversary. It was awesome. I loved that picture they sent us. I already framed it. =)

Thanks so much!:)



apporom, i got the big 19" LCD monitor at home. It's so huge.

We're back!

Hello folks, we are back from our last minute visit to Avalon, Santa Catalina Island. Things turned out mostly for the better and it was a great vacation. Photos are online, check them out.

We were back on sunday and I spent yesterday trying to clean up some of the clutter in the garage. In other news, we might have finally resolved the situation with the monitor at home. If all goes well, we should have a new 19" monitor soon. Nothing much else to post right now, later!

Finally catalina islands

well, arvind decided to go to catalina islands. So we packed late tonight and leaving early morning. We have not booked anything yet!:) hopefully we will get accomodations there soon.



I went to see a dermatologist today. I wanted to see a lady doctor to see if she would give me different medication for my acne problem. She gave the anti-biotics again. :( o well, she seems nice, i dont mind trying something to reduce acne. i wish there was a natural cure for this acne.



then, i went to swimming class (its tue & thursdays from 7- 7:45). I saw a guy, just like arvind trying to learn swimming. I learnt breast stroke today. Its tough, it needs lot of strength in arms and legs to move. Arvind & me then sat down to decide on which LCD monitor to buy. Then packed.. busy evening i should say. this will be our mini anniversary celebration. Australia trip will be big one!:-) Oh yeah, i tried brown rice today and loved the taste! It has much more flavor than regular jasmine rice. yummm...

swimming season begins...

I went for swimming class yesterday. It was fun, since it was a begineer class, i was the best..heheh. i loved it. I tried treading in 7 1/2 feet water, was very scary. But I did anyways. I wasn't good, hopefully by the end of 3 weeks, i would know to tread. My free style is pretty good, thats what my good-looking (;-))instructor said!:) hehe. Fun to be back in learning mode. i might go to swimming today. we dropped anna at airport yesterday and saw Kurien. He is getting married on July 10th. It was good to catch up with him. Worked whole of last night and slept thro the morning. busy, busy, busy...

Tiger Server

Lest we forget, Apple has Mac OS X Server and Tiger Server is worth checking out too.

Keynote from Apple WWDC

You can watch the keynote presentation from yesterday here. Quicktime required. Be warned that it is long, over one hour in length although you can skip the boring parts.

The wait is over!

Steve Jobs just finished his keynote at the Apple WWDC. The Apple site is already buzzing with all the new stuff. Notable links -

Tiger preview - Tons of new features, keeps the heat on Longhorn.

New Apple Displays - Unfortunately, no price cuts. The 30" display is HUGE. It needs two DVI connections.

XCode 2.0

New iChat - Chat with multiple users



Guess an iMac G5 is still in the works :)

Apple mania

is building up, leading to monday's WWDC in San Francisco. Rumor sites are rife with rumors, here's some of the top ones -

1. New LCD displays (a new 30" widescreen is expected to be introduced at $2999, prices on 20" and 23" LCDs are to be dropped). The new displays are to drop ADC and embrace DVI.

2. A G5 iMac in a new enclosure - the rumors point to a new design with the logic board behind the LCD. Its hard to see how Apple can lift sales higher than the current iMac without a major price reduction.

3. There has to be at least one significant iPod - related announcement. There are no solid reports about this though.



Of course, Apple has been on a roll recently. After Airport Express, they have launched iTunes in Europe, new PowerMac G5s, Remote Desktop 2.0 and iPod connectivity for BMWs. Stock prices are hovering around highs and at least a couple of analysts have increased their target prices. Apple mania has set in. Watch this space next week :)



And oh yeah, the next version of OS X - OS X.4 (Tiger) will be previewed too.

Ipod your BMW

Read here if you haven't heard already. One more reason to buy a Mini.

Hiking Burma road

in Mount Diablo was fun. I was there with Stephen, Mike and a friend of his. Stephen took a jump and went para-gliding first. He was in the air a short while - we drove down and picked him up. We started on the Burma road loop, which was termed "short but astoundingly steep" (read here), trying Stephen's mountain board wherever we could. It was fun, with its share of falls - I fell once, Stephen fell once. Climbing down the steep start was dangerous and slippery. I fell a couple of times more.. we ended the evening with dinner at an English pub in Danville - fish and chips English style - yum! None of us had a camera, unfortunately.

Finally..photos!

I have been busy this evening!! Check out the new photos section of the website - link on the right. I've decided to host my images on my website so I can share full res images :)

World's most expensive cities

Here's an interesting listing of 144 cities ranked according to the cost of living. Its weird that major Canadian cities rank below some of the Indian cities!

Like Panther but using XP?

Well maybe you want to take a look at a PC to Mac Makeover. You'd be surprised how much your Windows desktop can look like Mac OS X.3! :)

Smallest dog

This Chihuahua is *small*!!

Apple intros AirPort Express

Score one more ace for Apple! Apple - AirPort Express is wonderfully simple and elegant; I can't wait to get mine!!

Last weekend

Last weekend(6/5 and 6/6) was fun.. We both had a good time. On friday, we tried to see "Harry Potter" but it was sold out. So we booked for saturday and came back. We both got early next morning, went for a car wash and then we were off to redwood park. I wasn't aware of this big hike, so i ate very little for breakfast :( so I was very tired when i hiked in redwood state park. It was very beautiful but the climb was tough for me.

here is the map(approx. 4.3 miles):

. Came home took a quick shower, ate something and ran to the movie. Movie was awesome. I loved everybit of it. There was lot of missing info, since i read the book, i filled in the gaps for ag. Then, we had a very lazy sunday morning, went to REI and got something for our kayak and went for a walk. Saw a bit of "EuroTrip" movie. It was funny, arvind was laughing his heart out...its funny to see arvind laugh like that. O yeah, lakers lost. Cant wait for game 2.

Catch you all soon!:)

A 3 day weekend is here

after a really long time. I don't remember the last 3 day weekend I had! I do remember our trips to Miami and Las Vegas though.. so it hasn't been a really long time since I've had time off from work but I could always use some more!! :)

Well the mother in law is visiting for Memorial day weekend, we're taking her to Alcatraz and our local temple but nothing else is decided, lets see.

The Wired 40

Check out The Wired 40 - masters of innovation, technology, and strategic vision - 40 companies driving the global economy. Interesting Read. Steve Jobs is CEO of 2 top 10 companies - Apple and Pixar!

Competition for Sony Type U?

Check out OQO's upcoming marvel portable computer. It compares well with Sony's Type U which is yet to be launched. I think I like OQO right now (not just because they are from the bay area but) because of the additional advantage of having a keypad/board. The future promises exciting development :)

Aspirin - the wonder drug!

Read this. Have you had your aspirin today? :)

Birthday week

Last week was mine and my mil's birthday week. =) Was very nice. I enjoyed it. On my birthday, Wednesday, May 19th, we went for a nice hike in Las Trampus.







Then we had some good chinese food and slept like baby.

I flew to SB on Thursday. My wonderful company 4YourSoul got a super jillako coconut cake for me ..really yummy. Mohammed was recording the whole thing, I was bit embrassed. Then, I flew back to SFO on Friday. Just relaxed. On saturday, we went and picked up my vehicle. It looks brand new. I was horrified and tensed driving it for the first time after the accident. It was very tough for me. I got over it soon though. Yesterday, we went for a small hike (look for the blue line in the map).



I got lot of gifts from Arvind. Umah.. thanks Arvind.

Getting the most out of lithium-based batteries

Read this excellent article about lithium-based batteries. I have to change the way I use my iBook battery!

Flying for the first time

Well, in a little more than 12 hours, my parents are going to be on their way to Sydney to visit Arjun, the other sibling! Although my father has flown many times before, its going to be my mother's first time. For her and others jittery of getting on the first flight, here are some helpful tips. As for myself, I've always liked travelling. I like flying better than taking a bus, car or train because flying gives me time to do things - read books, listen to music, sleep, watch movies. Normally, I tend to experience motion-sickness if I try doing those things while in motion but flights are calmer. A mind that's relaxed helps to make travelling that much stress-free. :)

Hike

We went for a nice hike today. Morgan Territory Regional Preserve. Was little tough for me. AG did very well. Check it out. The highlighted part on the left is our 2 hr hike(appr. 6 miles).

Burnt lot of calories.



After hiking, we went to a nice local diner and ate like pigs!:) mmmmm yummy!!

well, weekend is here

We swam a bit and went to the hot tub. Arvind had slight headache and we decided to take it light. We went to bed early. Woke up early and now generally browsing. Today is a dull day. Its not as sunny. We might go out for hiking and do something fun. AG is feeling better this morning.



Mom& Dad, I got your comments. heheh..cool. Thanks so much for your wishes. My sb trip is confirmed. Good thing is i'm not driving. I'm flying to sb on Thursday morning and coming back Friday. =) We'll talk to you tomorrow night.

TGIF

Woke up feeling great that today is Friday. =) My inlaws got Australian visas..yipee yehh

congratulations! Next week, wednesday they will be in australia. Very cool. I bet they have zillion things to do now.



Troy is releasing today. I would love to see it. I dont know what the plan is. But I'm sure happy abt this weekend. Next week, is my *BIRTHDAY WEEK* heheh.. I hoping to get lots of gifts =) I already got one from AG ;) cute md player. I have to start using it.

Longhorn screenshots

are here. That's the next version of Windows, in case you've been living under a rock for the last 2 years or so ;)

There are lot of features that first appearned in OS X. Their version of Expose looks cool in its own way.

XBox as the ultimate Media Center PC?

Modding The Xbox Into The Ultimate Multimedia Center - Xbox Multimedia Capabilities Untapped at Tom's Hardware takes a look at why there is no comparison to the modded-XBox. App, you listening? ;)

People Power

is what the Indian politicians in office have lost touch with, apparently. How else does one explain the Congress' surge into office when the BJP is in its finest period - the economy is surging, peace with Pak is on the horizon, the Indian cricket team is doing great and India is a world power to be reckoned with - militarily and economically. The BJP was so confident of victory that it called elections 6 months early! It appears that the common man was not too impressed; there's a lesson to be learned - development in India cannot start from the urban centres, but from the inside out. Hopefully, the Congress party will keep India on the road to development while addressing the concerns of the rural poor.

Going good.

Finally I have started exercising. 5 continuous days. Oh feels good. Must be a record (just kidding). Lets see whether I keep the momentum going. Very tiring day, I couldnt wait to get away from home. I might not go to santa Barbara this weekend, my car is still not ready :( both good and bad.

PSP looks cool!

Check out the latest on the PlayStation Portable. It looks awesome! Unfortunately, it won't be out in the US till next year.

I like!

I like the whole site better now. It looks so cool!:) jillkas! Yeah we had a great weekend and I can't wait for next weekend already!

Me and ag are going to checkout our Dublin swimming pool today. If it looks good we might join for a 8 class session next month.

Advertising works!

How else can you explain Van Helsing's box office topping performance this last weekend? I'd rate it mediocre at best. Ratings given by users at Yahoo or IMDB tell us its no great movie but the number of ratings are pretty high for a movie in its first week. It proves that good advertising is still pretty successful in taking people for a ride!

Singing the blues..

Small case of the monday morning blues. However, we had a wonderful weekend. As the weather has gotten warmer we have been more active, so it appears there's still hope of getting back to slimmer times :)

Blogger has had a major makeover and so it was time for me to update as well. Hope you like the new look!

Busy day for me. I spoke to my mom, she might come over here for Memorial Day weekend. I'm excited. Let see. My neck still hurts but not so bad. I can't turn my head properly on the left. I'm sure it all get better soon.

I like the way the website is shaping up. I do have tons more to do though. In the last few days, I have added the comments section so y'all out there can communicate back. I see the folks have already started using that feature :)

The other new addition is 'My Calendar' - see my links on the right. Through this webpage I can publish my schedule from my laptop. Its good for me to be able to check it over the web and also for you to see what I am upto.

I really should use my iCal a lot more!

Well, App is pretty much back to normal. She has her own account on Blogger now and should start blogging here soon. Nothing much has been happening apart from hanging out locally and having general fun. I'm very excited about the thought of my parents visiting my brother in Australia, yay! Good luck with the visa, et al.

App is doing okay after a car crash last night near San Jose. She got off relatively unhurt after her car spun across 3 lanes and hit the median on the 101-S at 5:30 PM which is peak hour. The doctor has advised 2 days of rest, which should be good for her.

A belated congratulations to App on her salary hike at 4YourSoul. Well-deserved! :)

Howdy folks, whoever is out there :) I know my parents are offline because their computer won't boot up. Arjun is working about 12 hours a day in an office with restricted internet access and App never gets around to reading my blog so there is really no point in me ranting about over here, is there? Oh well.. I will still be posting updates whenever I can. Its a ho-hum week thus far. I finally got my hands on some Dreamcast games of my own, the best one being Skies of Arcadia. Can't wait to play!

Had a weekend that was pretty similar to the last one. More time with friends, more Dreamcast. Throw in a BBQ on Saturday afternoon, a late night movie The Punisher, a little hike up the Hill with Stephen & Rachael and that pretty much completed my weekend. It was all fun.

Here's a link to the Punisher on IMDB if you want to know more about the movie. I thought it was timepass.

Taxes are finally done. It wasn't too bad. In the time that I was away, Arjun got a software job!! Woohoo! This is where my brother works. Congrats dude.

Also, we had a nice weekend gettogether with some old SBOA mates - Ranjit, Mahesh, Vijai and Shiva. Put the Dreamcast to some use, was fun!

I finally started preparing my tax return yesterday. The 15th being the last date, I really don't have that much time..

Will post updates when I am able to take a break :)

I have uploaded 2 new slideshows from our recent vacation. They are the Everglades and the Keys.

Well, the vacation was good but a number of things ruined my day today. First, I rear-ended a lady driving a Chevy van 5 mins after I left home to work. I was driving App's car, and was kinda used to tight brakes from driving in Florida. That's going to cost me atleast $500 and a rise in my insurance premium next year. Oh well..

Someone complained to the Housing Association about the loud sound from our TV/Music system. I don't know what that is all about!! We hardly ever see TV or hear music. I wish they had let me know before they had decided to complain.

Sad but we are at the end of our vacation.Waiting in line to get into our flight at FLL. Thanks to the airport for the free wi-fi internet :)

It has been a great 8 days in Florida. Got to know some new members of the family, had a very relaxed time and ate a lot of really good food. We have some good photos and I will create slideshows as soon as I can.

Well, we want to watch a movie on the flight and my battery seems to be a little low already so I'll sign off now. Cheers!

Yesterday we hung out at the Bahia Honda State Park which was a beautiful place, we might go there again today. Went down to Key West for dinner, quiet and nice.

Aloha, folks! We are writing in from Sugarloaf Key, 20 miles north of Key West in the Florida Keys. Have had a wonderful time so far, except for one dampener.. it has gotten really windy since y'day and that means low visibility in the water and no snorkeling :( Our snorkeling trip to a coral reef was cancelled today and the weather doesn't look like it will improve in the next few days. Something similar happened when we visited the Channel Islands too...oh well, we will just have to try our luck another day.

My internet here is pretty slow and iffy (I'm connected from my laptop through my cell phone - the wonders of technology!) so I will hold off on uploading our photos till later but here is a good link to a site that pretty much shows what we saw today.

Today we visited the Everglades national park and went on this short guided tour which was cool - we saw a lot of alligators at real close, a whole bunch of enchanting species of birds and turtles and fishes.. hope our videos and pics come out good. Tonight we are staying south of the Upper Keys and will be continuing to drive down to the Lower keys where we will stay for the next couple of days. Will keep you updated as long as my cell phone has coverage ;)

Hello everyone, I'm writing in from the Florida keys!! We are having a great vacation. It became very hard to get ready for the vacation in the final week because of a lot of work that had to be finished. However, that is all behind us as we are enjoying ourselves in sunny Florida. On sunday we visited Key Biscayne which was pretty fun but got really crowded in the afternoon. It was nowhere near as crowded as South Beach though....that place was crazy crowded. It is also spring break time.. that probably explains it.

Nothing interesting to post of late - I've been watching TV, playing games and occassionally studying for the exam which is scheduled for Tue morning. I think I will finish the MOC book by the weekend and that should help me pass. Fingers crossed!

It was 10:17AM when I got into office today. Been up late night for the last couple of days and sleep just caught up with me. I subconsciously switched off both my alarms and managed to sleep for 9 hours.. oh well!

Oscar night turned out to be very predictable. Lots of nice fashion was sported, I thought Zeta-Jones looked great.

I have had the most relaxed weekend in a long time! It would have been even more relaxing if I didn't have to study for exam 70-228. I am being forced to write this exam by Mar 10 because of an expiring exam voucher (which App was supposed to use). Its not too bad - I did want to write this exam. Wish me luck!

Seems like I'm constantly having to make excuses for why I haven't been blogging! Its been a busy few weeks at work with our product release just around the corner. Its exciting but also tedious. I am looking forward to the vacation we have planned for Florida next month.

App is going to India for a work visit so I'll be bachelor again for 10 days. Unfortunately, haven't had the time to plan all that I would've liked to do in this time. Still, hope to make the most of it ;)

Sign the USB webcam support for iChat AV Petition! I hope it makes an impact.

Happy Valentine's folks!! We are enjoying a quiet day with ourselves... its officially one year since I proposed to App :)

We will probably plan a good dinner to celebrate. May your lives be blessed with love always and especially today.

Well, App's in Santa Barbara leaving me ga-ga in tech land. Its a sunny monday morning and lots of work to be done this week. I just thought I would add a picture of the Apple Cube to show you all how beautiful it looks :)

Well, a hectic week has almost gone by. Lots of little updates.. mostly tech.

We are working our way up from the old world gaming systems. Started playing Mario with Mike's old Nintendo (the original) that accepts cartridges (he's got a ton of them). Along the way, picked up an old Playstation 1 system and now we just need some old games. Anyone? :) Bai?? ;)

We have two more cuties in our fish tank... ghost shrimps. Nice looking. I'm worried these fishes will eat the shrimps. I will upload the images soon. We are now proud owners of 3 neon tetras, 2 black phantom tetras and 2 ghost shrimp. Me liking my fishies and fish tank.

- From "App the Wife"

2 more additions to our tank - black phantom tetras...

Well its almost weekend again. Last weekend was good, there was a fun party at Mike's. This week is SuperBowl weekend. We'll probably watch at Ranjit's.

An interesting read if you have the time: Apple SVP Jon Rubinstein on the Reinvention of Hardware

And we have 3 new members in our house.. of another species. :)

3 neon tetras that we hope will be happy at home for many years. Here's a pic to show you what they look like...

App's sister had a baby girl tonight! :)

Congrats to the new baby and parents. They live near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We shall have to drop in shortly.

Boy, that was some quake!. I could see our fish tank shake from left to right.. maybe it shouldn't be placed on higher ground..

You can monitor the earthquakes around here at this site.

(Livermore is about 10 mins from here)

I have uploaded a little slideshow of pics from our trip to Munnar. Be warned: the file is about 14 MB. You can get it here - Quicktime movie.

Hey everyone, its been a quiet weekend. Last night we went to the Winecentives store down the street and watched our friend Darrell's Hula group perform at Amateur Night there. It was a lot of fun and we all got a chance at hula dancing. Will try to get pics later.

App the wife is off to Santa Barbara for a week. As expected, I have spending a lot more time on my computers (they are getting close to 10 in number now). Will hopefully put a lot of them to use, doing what they were meant to be doing. I am also trying to actively get rid of stuff I don't really use anymore, on eBay.

We have a new Mac in the family. Its a strawberry iMac DV that I hope to ship to my parents back in Madras. I am convinced it is the best choice for their purposes. :)

Happy Pongal!!

This time I have really been eating pongal too. Of both varieties thanks to App.

App's mother is now visiting her sister in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Her sister is due to have a baby girl anytime. App is excited about the whole thing. We will probably be visiting them a little while after the baby arrives.

Howdy! Hope all is well. Apologies for taking off right around the holidays. It wouldn't be fair to say there was nothing to update with, just that I didn't get around to it. :)

Another usual day at work today.. the effects of the weekend have already worn off.

Weather is getting mildly warmer, which is good.

Played mini-golf with the friends last night. Was fun.

Later!