Guitar Shred Show - Mr.Fastfinger

The power of flash animation is exploited at the Guitar Shred Show website. Fun and hilarious! Check it out.

Windows Vista taking shape

Not very often that you see Windows posts from me but here's one. This is a screen from the latest build of Windows Vista which seems to be shaping up rather nicely - the screen shown here appears to be their answer to Exposé. There's more at Paul Thurrott's Windows Vista Center. I like the UI shown in these screens, about time that M$ caught up with Apple and even Linux. Definitely the right direction for Windows.

A star birthday (no, that's not Shahrukh's birthday!) ...

I'm off to the temple here in Livermore for a visit. It's my 'star' birthday if you know that means. The americans have no clue of course, but I've started noticing that even my indian friends are kind of vague about the whole thing. Has the whole star/local calendar birthday concept fallen out of vogue? We still celebrate festivals based on the tamil calendar - festivals like Deepavali, Tamil New Year, Pongal etc. My cousin stayed over at my parents' last night and my mother tells me she had to explain to him what a 'star' birthday is! I found myself in the same position with my indian friends at work. I don't think App's family pays much heed to the tamil birthday either, so is it just my family?

Tamil birthdays were never as 'special' as the so called 'real' birthdays. Kids have always celebrated their birthdays based on the English (what I call it anyway) calendar. However, my family has always celebrated the tamil calendar birthday too, to a lesser extent for sure - no new clothes or birthday cake or sweets for everyone but I get wished and we pray / go to the temple. Most times, my mother would make some small sweet to appease my sweet tooth too! The day is called the star birthday because it falls on the day when your star (the star that was observed on the day you were born) is observed in the current month. It occurs more or less around the same period as the English birthday, differing by days or weeks. In my case this year, it falls 18 days after Dec 1st which is the furthest I remember it being. I'll stop my pointless rambling here but I just felt like writing a bit to say that I think a star birthday adds another special day to one's year and I would definitely want my kids to have the same affinity I have for this 'insignificant' day :)

Holidays are around the corner

There's just about a week of work to go before my 10 day break and the holiday season is in full swing. It's the time of the year to eat, drink and make merry, which translates to the time of the year when we have more parties than the rest of the year combined. Last night I accompanied Darrell to Wente's holiday party which was a lot of fun. The party was actually at Murrieta's Well which is part of Wente but makes fewer and more pricey wines. The location and facility was wonderful, you can find more pictures here. I loved their Zarzuela and would definitely like to taste there sometime.
Last week we had my company's holiday party in San Ramon which was a quiet affair and my ex-CEO's party at his house at the Blackhawk Club in Danville which was quite an indulgence. You can imagine that it is quite hard to try and lose weight in times like these, I would be content to cap it where it is right now till I tide over the season.
App is enjoying some exclusive oranges in Florida, thanks to her work. She will be spending this weekend with her sister's family which will be great because she's been dying to see her niece (Rachna) again!
For my part, I am off to Costco this evening to pick some food for (guess) tomorrow's holiday party at work. Of course, sunday is the party at Stephen and Rachael's!! Ah, the hard life :)

National Public Toilet Map

Hahaha! Check out Australia's National Public Toilet Map. It's the first time I have seen anything like it. You can use the website not just to find toilets, but they actually have a newsletter where you can be alerted of new toilets and you can use their trip planner which will identify public toilets along your route.

Unless you plan in advance, I can't think of the website being terribly useful if you need to go in a hurry! ;)

Nice view of Kirkwood

view of village
Originally uploaded by Windwil.

I found this pic of Kirkwood on Flickr. Just to give you guys an idea of what it's like. The village is down there near the center. This appears to be taken from one of the high runs. :)

Wood family vineyards

Wood family vineyard
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Here's a picture I took this past weekend when we were in Livermore for "Holidays in the Vineyards". This is at Wood Family Vineyards, one of the most picturesque little wineries in Livermore. There are a couple more pics at Flickr.

Damn brownies

I love chocolate. In fact, I love most things made from Cocoa. Especially the sweet stuff. Chocolate is good, Cadbury's chocolate is better. Dairy Milk chocolate is good, Dairy Milk with fruits and nuts is better. So much better that I couldn't resist a few blocks of it yesterday at lunch. Ever try dark chocolate? The taste grows on you. Try the Belgian dark chocolate from Trader Joe's? Umm, so good. We had some with port last night. It was fine port too, from Cedar Mountain in Livermore. Nice complex flavours, subtle sweetness. Kind of like the dark chocolate that Darrell opened last night. That stuff was great too. Did I mention I love chocolate?

Do you like brownies? How about soft double chocolate brownies? They taste great, I've got a box of them sitting beside me at work. I thought I'd share them with my colleagues at work, they must be on a diet or something because they say the brownies taste great but no one seems to be eating them. These brownies look like they want to be eaten! I swear they're begging me to eat them. I'm wearing headphones just so I can't hear them.

I'm trying to resist temptation. Maybe I should think about the fact that I could lose about 6 kgs. I should focus on how hard those 6 kgs feel everytime I fall down when snowboarding. Yeah, it's 3 days since I've been snowboarding and the body is finally limping back to normal. The others tell me it only gets worse. If 28 feels like this, the body is going to complain a lot more when I'm older. Being leaner might help with boarding; it would also help me use the section of my wardrobe with clothes that I don't fit into anymore!!

Those damn brownies!! Someone eat them up already!!

Gotta focus.. on work.. anything but chocolate.. drink water to fill up stomach.. don't look to the left.. must resist.. no brownies...

And I'm baaack!!

Yes, the site is back up after a brief hiatus. I mailed the two of you that actually read here about it so I know you're back!! ;)
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes today, it was nice to hear from everyone!
Congrats to Arjun who finally quit his job that he'd beeen wanting to leave for a bit. Of course, congrats to App too who has finally quit her job. These 2 are testament to the fact that working from home is not for everyone!
It's raining hard here so we are mostly at home. That also means it is snowing in Lake Tahoe so I'm looking forward to hitting the slopes soon. Not much else by way of updates right now, till later...

Healdsburg

1933 Jameson
Originally uploaded by EricDrew.

We didn't take our camera but this is similar to the view we had of the vineyards in Dry Creek Valley, Healdsburg. The colours were much richer in person though.

Blogging in the dark

I figured that blogger would still let me post to my blog since it uses FTP. So here I am writing this when I know no one can read, so that you'll have fodder when Jillako.com is back in time for my birthday!! Sorry Sudhish, can't host your audio file for the obvious reason!

We had a really lazy Thanksgiving weekend, we didn't get out of bed till mid-morning for anything. Not for $100 5 Mega pixel cameras, not for $4 DVDs, not for beautiful winter sunrises, not for more oh-so-zinful wine! ;) You can say we are well rested!

What we did do was play Monopoly (the same as the game 'Trade' in India), Lord Of The Rings shtyle with Ranjit and Archana. It was fun even though I didn't win. Ranjit rode his newbie luck all the way.

On Saturday we made the long trip to Healdsburg, 2 hours north of where we are. It is in Sonoma County and a hotspot for Zinfandel growers. We took neighbour Darrell along for the ride, he is also a Zin lover. We only got to visit 3 wineries in famed Dry Creek Valley but it was absolutely worth it. The place was beautiful with the vineyards showing off fantastic fall colours. There were grapes planted everywhere you turned, just beautiful. We visited Yoakim Bridge, Bella and Preston.

All the wineries we visited were small, had a handful of wines that were almost exclusively red, dominated by Zinfandel and Syrah. We liked Bella the best because of the wonderful location, tasting in a cave, and wonderful wines. Another bonus, tasting was free. The other 2 charged. Preston had a great location too, with nice grounds that had picnic tables, a little organic garden and fresh baked bread made right there (sold out by the time we got there though). However the wine we felt was mediocre, especially compared to the others' stellar ones.

It was a busy day for the wineries and we felt it would be better to visit at a quieter time and we plan to do so, the single road that we traversed had 30+ wineries so there is plenty to check out. We forgot to take our camera along so I will try to find some on flickr.

Sure, you've read about pirates robbing ships...

but have you heard of it happen this recently? I find that pretty scary!

Update: There's more!

Nothing much to add by way of updates, I'm having a quiet weekend. Setting a few things right about the house, been wanting to do it and finally got enough energy to. I'm tired out now though.

Maybe I'll ride my new bike tomorrow. Oh yeah, didn't let y'all know about that - I got a new Trek 7200, a basic bike to commute to work. It's my birthday present (about 20 days early) from App. :)

Got rid of another mouse last night, they keep coming from somewhere. The count is up to 7 now, if I remember right!

______________________________________________________

My current wine is a bottle of Abrazo Del Toro 2004 Garnacha-Tempranillo from Spain, cheap at $3.99 but so bad that I wouldn't buy it at half that price. The previous wine (App was around for this) was Rosenblum's Jingalu Shiraz, an unusual and awesome wine. Rosenblum is based in Alameda (about 30 mins from here) but the Shiraz was made in South Australia. It has a good looking label with an Australian painting and good structure and flavour, worth buying again!

The cheap Blockbuster card saves the day.

So I got us locked out of the home this morning while trying to drop App at the airport. I was at the car with the luggage before I realized I had no car key on me. Waitaminit, that means no house key also!! "App, DON'T CLOSE THE DOOR!", I ran back yelling. Too late, the door was closed and there stood App, confused. Obviously, she didn't have her key on her. This is normal, so I am not surprised.

We're still in our wi-fi range so she logs on to the net, finds a locksmith, makes an emergency call. It will be 20-45 minutes, they say. She gives up hope on making her flight, logs on to Southwest and changes her booking to the next flight (Btw, I think this ability is awesome; It's why SouthWest keeps its passengers). In the meanwhile I try to find a way into the house. I go around the back, climb on our neighbour's wall, try to jump onto our patio. However, I give up halfway, not wanting to add additional medical expenses to the already expected locksmith expenses.

App mentions the hairpin method; I tell her that it only works on bathroom type locks. I try to slide a business card to locate where the lock meets the door and find the spot. The paper card is not strong enough for the lock to give but an old credit card might help. I start rifling though App's purse, to find a small carload of plastic cards. I zeroed in on the Blockbuster membership card I didn't even know that we had. It was laminated, strong yet flexible. Perfect for my needs. I slide it in deftly and in 5 seconds, the door is open! Appa! What a relief.

Thanks to Blockbuster and thanks to the Hardy Boys (remember them?) for showing it can be done. :)

We called and canceled the locksmith.

Bye Bye 2001 Honda Civic EX 4 Door Automatic, Silver Color Sedan

Thanks for (nearly) 5 wonderful years, you were the best! We hope you had fun too, best of luck on the road ahead.
We love you, thanks for the memories!

Happy Halloween 2005!

Happy Halloween 2005!
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Happy Diwali to folks in India! While we waited for Diwali here in Dublin, App and I carved our pumpkins! There were no kids going around trick or treating however, the sad part about living in a condominium.

My evil long-lost twin!

Nah, just more PhotoBooth fun! This is the 'dent' effect. And yes, I did get FrontRow running on my 1st Gen iMac G5. There are some folks putting together Salling Clicker scripts too, should be real fun! Front Row has a cool interface, I can see this being pretty useful. There are lots of ppl including Paul Thurrott comparing it to Windows XP Media Center. I don't think they're quite the same thing. Although FrontRow could easily grow to compete with Media Center. As always, Steve Jobs will decide!

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Tonight's wine - The Sequiot Tempranillo from Spain - very smooth, goes with anything but not a whole of lot of flavour; still, it's pretty inexpensive so I might buy it again!

Thermal me!

Had a moment to fool around with the new Apple PhotoBooth application this morning. Yes, it is only bundled with new iMacs; No, I didn't go out and buy one; I just discovered BitTorrent. I just started using BitComet last night to download some pre-formatted videos for my PSP. Upon a whim, I searched and found PhotoBooth and FrontRow (surprise!). Installing FrontRow required more time than I had this morning but here's Thermal Me!

Photo Booth or PhotoBooth?

These names that folks at Apple come up with! In the case of Photo Booth (the fun app included with the new iMac G5), they conveniently forgot about Stunt Software's PhotoBooth which has been around a while, long enough in fact, to be listed on Apple's own dowloads page!!?!

The W900 Walkman Phone

If I get pepped up about a new gizmo on the bloc and it's not made by Apple, chances are it is made by Sony (remember the PSP?). A Sony that has it's act together can really make life tough for Apple. Case in point, the just announced W900 phone. A bit bulky but man look at those specs - 2.2-inch QVGA 262k TFT display, FM radio, 2 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, records and plays video at 30fps, and MP3, AAC audio playback, dedicated music controls, 3.5mm jack, and 470MB built-in memory with a memory stick duo slot!!! It's a beauty.



And if you, like me, are sitting there thinking the phone looks attractive then Sony comes along with some of their consumer electronics expertise and introduces a couple of interesting accessories to the mix. First off, the awesome speaker system that doubles as a phone charger. When you get home, where better to set your phone than on a charging base connected to a high performance speaker with a remote control. It would make a perfect bedroom sound system (our bedroom currently has none - hope you're noting this App). Here's a pic



Then there is the FM transmitter, pretty useful for folks like us who have a car stereo with no input and no hope of upgrading it easily either.




Somehow I don't see this phone available for free after rebate anytime but I'll still look forward to the release. Now if I could use iTunes with Sony Walkmans... :)

How Apple Does It

From Time,

"But Jobs doesn’t care just about winning. He’s willing to lose. He has done it often enough. He’s just not willing to be lame, and that may, increasingly, be the winning approach."


An excellent observation from the full article, worth a read if you have a few minutes. And Apple has another special event scheduled tomorrow..

Stay tuned.

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Current wine - A bottle of 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon from Wente Vineyards, excellent flavours that open up when decanted, awesome value!

Note: I'm gonna add footnotes about wine / music / tv that I liked when I posted!

One more thing..

If you haven't, watch this first - Stream from y'day

Gotta admire Steve Jobs. He maintained perfect composure as he delivered a double whammy yesterday at Apple's special event. To me it confirms that Apple has an eye on dominating digital media in the home the way I would like them to. Sure, they're moving far more slowly than I would like them to but they're working within the limitations of being a big corporation working with other big corporations. As it is, it is stunning how far we have come over the last couple of years. Lets look at Apple's acts from yesterday.

Act 1: The iMac - surely the biggest surprise of them all. With hardware upgrades, an improved enclosure (hopefully one that avoids heating issues), a built in iSight and Front Row w/ Apple Remote, this is an amazing desktop for the home! In fact, its more than a desktop. If I could connect coaxial and watch TV on the iMac, I'd throw out the TV in our bedroom and replace it with this! It would be a 20" HD capable TV with a built-in DVD player and media player functionality, a huge hard drive to store your digital library. Third parties could write software that brings DVR functionality, the possibilities would be enormous. And Apple is inches away from this..
The iMac G5 can be wall mounted now - mount it on an arm attached to the wall. Position it as a TV when you need to, use it as a computer when you need to. Get the wireless mouse / keyboard and you're all set. The iMac has built in wireless / bluetooth, DVD burning (dual layer) and what not. Please put that TV tuner in, Apple. I beg you..


Act 2: The iPod - not unexpected but a smart move nonetheless. Apple is testing the video waters with this iPod that can play video. First impressions of the screen have been surprisingly good. I'm not going to complain if my music player can play videos. But will customers buy videos in droves? I suspect not. Audio appears to be a much better value than video at the moment. However, the TV shows are killer! If Apple lands more shows, and I suspect they will, this will be great. Imagine getting on a long domestic flight with no entertainment. I could take the effort to buy some UMDs for my PSP or I could spend the time to rip them from my DVDs onto my Memory Stick Duo or I could launch iTunes and pick up a half dozen TV shows for less than the cost of one UMD. The answer is obvious and I think this will catch on.
Hardware-wise, the iPod keeps abreast in the style department, and the black color is very desirable. However, black glossy finishes tend to appear more scratched than white ones, like the nano this will need a sleeve.

Act 3: iTunes. Not much of a surprise here, the aforementioned hardware changes usually mean a change in iTunes. However a jump to version 6 was a bit of a surprise. iTunes keeps evolving.

Joining in the speculation

Apple sold 1 million iPod Nanos in the 17 days since launch! Record profits, big stock tumble, and yet another special event tomorrow continue to keep Apple in the limelight. Even by Apple standards, the media frenzy around tomorrow's event has been huge. Rarely (or is it never) have company events hogged as much of the limelight without revealing what the event is all about.

Think Secret joins the bandwagon today by predicting a video capable iPod, even after conflicting reports earlier. The BBC link appears to be real. I think we are going to have a new iPod that is video capable. No movies, but video podcasts, music videos etc. If the hardware in the iPod nano were capable of playing back video, I would even expect a software upgrade to enable the functionality, once iTunes supports movie transfers.

I would not rule out a wireless media player (similar to the Airport Express but bigger and with support for video playback) either. It is known that Apple has been working on such a device. However, 802.11g has limitations that would leave HD out of the picture so Airport would need to be upgraded first. Maybe not tomorrow...

The Engadget Reader Meetup

So Arjun, App and I wound up at the Engadget reader event in San Fran last wednesday. It turned out to be a lot of fun along with a lot of gadgets and giveaways. Anyway, they just posted up some pics from the event and we're all over it.. lol, I meant you can spot us in some of them photos that are towards the bottom of the post!! Hooray, its almost like being in the newspaper.

Read The Engadget Reader Meetup: The Aftermath

Hiking Berry Creek Falls

Apparently, the Love Parade rocked SF this year. We missed out, unfortunately. One can't have everything though.. We had a pretty good weekend at Little Basin, a park near Big Basin State Park. One of the perks of working for Agilent (my new employer), our cabin stay was free of charge :)

On Saturday, we hiked 11 miles to Berry Creek Falls and back. There is a great description of the hike and the area in general (including photos) at this site. The majestic redwoods kept us company through the long walk!

The Jammers

The Jammers
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

These wonderful vehicles from the 1930's are still in use today in Glacier National Park and used on guided tours. The top can be removed making them a lot of fun to ride in. We didn't get to go though.

Kayaking Lake McDonald

Kayaking Lake McDonald
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Trying to, anyway. It was a little windy and the water was rough for our inflatable. Still, it was the first time we took it on the water so it was fun!
This is in Glacier National Park.

Picture update

Sorry but I am running late on updating you all with the pictures from our summer road trip. Arjun, however, has uploaded a number of great pictures. Check his flickr or his blog.

I promise I will get down to picking my favourites, eventually!

The Fusion

How many blades are enough for your razor? Gillette is stepping up in its battle for shaving dominance with the launch of the Fusion, a 5-bladed razor. When will this madness end? Shick is partly to blame because they launched the 4-bladed razor last year, forcing Gillette to retaliate. However, the consumer must act or rather resist, if this mad race is to end! Please stick with your Mach3 or SensorExcel or whatever your current razor is, as long as you are happy and don't buy this new monstrosity just because of the extra blade(s)!! If you give in, the day when we have a 10 blade-razor might not be far off.

Prismatic spring

This is from Yellowstone National Park. Even the vapor coming off the top of the Prismatic spring was colorful! :)

iTunes phone is here but iPod Nano steals the spotlight

How can you resist this? I'm lining up to get this!!
More information here - http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

The iTunes phone is at http://www.apple.com/itunes/mobile/

Also, iTunes 5 is here.

Phew!

We're back!

Yes, we're back home! We had a hard time getting out of Oregon yesterday but we did make it home in time for work this morning.. just barely!!
I haven't had time to write another update to pick up where I left off last but will do that as soon as I can. In the meanwhile, we are off to watch the A's beat the Mariners tonight so, GO A's!!
P.S: Expect Apple news tomorrow!! Check out www.thinksecret.com

Hoodoo land!

Could not resist posting this image even though we are running late for Yellowstone!! :) This is the view we had last night from Bryce point in Bryce Canyon N.P. - this is called the amphitheater!! :)

National Parks Tour - Update 1

Guten Tag meine freunden :) I am logging in from Salt Lake City, Utah on our rest stop in the middle of our summer vacation tour. This will probably be the only update before the end of our road trip; time is of essence so I shall keep this update as brief as possible.

After a long drive to Las Vegas, we reached there after midnight and met up with App who had flown from Chicago. We crossed into Nevada around the same time as Arjun completed 25 years of his existence. We wished him a happy birthday and celebrated by eating a hearty buffet at the Paris hotel.

The next day we drove to Zion national park and decided to spend the night there. After camping there, we hiked a little through "the narrows" and stopped at weeping rock before continuing on our journey to the north rim of the grand canyon. It was much cooler there than at Zion. We were pleasantly surpised by the excellent weather and green cover everywhere. We set up camp again.

The next day we walked down the North Kaibab trail to Supai Tunnel, a short hike that gave us a taste of how tough canyon hikes can be. It was hot on the trail. After lunch we did the scenic drive and experienced some awesome views of the grand canyon. We watched sunset at Cape Royal.

The next day we set out to Bryce Canyon where the hoodoos captivated all of us. It was meant to be a short drive through the park but we ended up spending more time and even walking down to some of the hoodoos on the Navajo Loop trail. It was a lot of fun even though we were kind of tired from our long day. We arrived here at Salt Lake late in the night.

We are now off to Yellowstone, more details and pictures here later. Hope all is well with everyone, have a good week!!

Google Talk is here

Hello Google Talk! Google is one of our favorite technology firms and they've launched a chat application today. I haven't used it yet but I am sure it will be great by the time it is out of beta. Gmail is slowly taking over my email and I'm sure Google Talk will become staple as well. Cheers Google! I will check your service out when I am back.

P.S. : You need a Gmail account to use Google Talk, I can send you an invite if you don't already have one. :)

Here's a picture from the Coldplay concert last friday. This is the view from our seats. One of our better tickets :)

Quiet over next 2 weeks

Alright, we're almost off. There's a ton of things that are yet to be done but come what may we are off tomorrow afternoon! After much planning, purchasing, packing and compromising, today is Pack Day! We stuff what we can into the Subaru and take off on our road trip of the national parks.
Quick update on what happened over the last one week - Arjun got here, we took off to the Coldplay concert with Ranjit and Archana, it was worth the wait. Watched another Athletics game, this time with Arjun. Enjoyed the A's wine festival too.
It will probably be quiet over the next 2 weeks while I cope with internet withdrawal symptoms but we should be back with a bang and plenty of pics after that.

$50 iBook sale was a riot!

Quite literally.
Read the Gizmodo report and the Engadget Report.
Update: Here's more from Gizmodo.

Happy Birthday to Ranjit! We had a blast at last night's party. 7 SBOA-ns from XI-B 1992 got together for the occassion. No small feat :)

Keeping with tradition, we have Ranju a healthy dose of birthday bumps!

Preparations underway for rollercoaster ride

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
-- Epicurus (341 - 270 BC), Greek philosopher, author

And so it is. Many items remain on the "desired" list but many others have been purchased. So we will soon add to our arsenal a new GPS, camera, sleeping bag, lantern, flashlights, power inverter, clothes, etc. In all, quite a bundle of moolah has been spent already getting ready for our whale of a trip. And it is mammoth! More than 3200 miles roundtrip. 6 national parks, lots to see, lots to drive, lots of time to share. I will try to put together a map of our route to share here. In words, I would describe it as a circle. Starting out from Dublin, we are driving south east to Las Vegas, east to the Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, north to Bryce Canyon before hitting the great Salt Lake, then we drive north through the Tetons to Yellowstone national park and then north west to Glacier national park. On our way back, we stop in Portland for a night before being back in Dublin. It is 12 nights in all.
We have spent most of our free time over the last couple of weeks planning the route out, making reservations and prioritizing what needed to be purchased. I think we are finally nearly set. There shall be lots of photos of course, so keep watching this space.
Arjun will be here in little over a week :)

In other news..

I am about 70% recovered from my wisdom teeth extraction last friday. Friday was the worst day and I was able to recover enough by Saturday to go to the driving range and also the A's game in Oakland. Sunday we helped Ranjit and Archana move to Fremont. Mom and Dad went to the A's game on Sunday too and got me the Jason Kendall bobble head, my first! The A's won both games of course, they are on fire. Watch out for them in the playoffs! I should not forget to mention that we were at the Livermore temple on Saturday where our new Subaru Outback was "blessed" and now we can use our Subaru full-time!
I was going to take some pictures and post online but Joe Spitz has already taken care of that so be sure to check Joe's Outback pictures. We have the Atlantic Blue 2.5i with gray cloth interior. :)

The Mighty Mouse is here

After 20 years of the Mac, Apple has brought out a mouse capable of a right click, among other niceties. Seems to be a pretty decent upgrade to the regular apple mouse at $49.

Update: I missed out on posting this last week but Apple has updated the Mac Mini and the iBook line. If you're among those that I have been asking to hold off on those purchases over the last month, go ahead. The $599 Mini is now excellent value with 512MB RAM, 80GB Hard drive, Bluetooth and Airport Extreme built-in.

New driver in the family

Congrats to Arjun on passing his tough Aussie driving exam. He is now properly licensed (as compared to licensed in India) and can look forward to driving on his own :) In excellent time too, now that his vacation trip here is just around the corner.

A 1000 used iBook G3s for $50 each!

This amazing sale is being conducted by Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia. Apparently they just recently switched from Apples to Dells for their students. I wish they'd sell online :)

Subaru!

Yes, that odd looking two-toned car that you see on the road and wonder about, that’s Subaru. And we now own one! We had been looking to replace App’s aging Honda Civic with a newer vehicle. Our requirements were – all wheel drive, a roof rack and more cargo space. We found it all in an Atlantic Blue Subaru Outback. After spending the whole day browsing the test driving Subaru’s line of cars we picked the Outback because of its ground clearance. Sure to be useful when have to drive through those unpaved National Forest roads. Heated seats and AWD should serve us well on those winter trips to the Sierras. We haven’t been much but I definitely plan to snowboard more this year. Anyway, Subaru it is! Sure you’ll be seeing and hearing more in this space.

Dark Chocolate May Sweeten the Way to Health

Good news for lovers of dark chocolate, read this article. A tasty way to get antioxidants in your diet, yum!

Back from Lassen

Reflection Lake - Lassen
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

We're back and we're tired but we had lots of fun. Here's my favourite pic from this weekend, this was last evening near our campsite at Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic N.P. More pictures are in Flickr, more to follow from Janu & Ranju's camera!

Off to Lassen Volcanic National Park!

Another week, another "off to ..." message sure to be followed by a "here are pics from ..." message! :) Apologies for being predictable but I am looking forward to Lassen. We planned this trip earlier in the year and its finally time; Janu and Ranju will be there as well, it will also be good to get away from the scorching heat in the Tri-Valley this week! Have a good weekend, all.

Chicago pictures are on flickr!

Taking a picture of ourselves
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Here's one of us shooting ourselves at Millennium park! Click to see others.
In other news, Arjun will be visiting this August; he got his visa, hurray! Planning is in full swing, should be fun times.
We are off camping in Lassen Volcanic National Park this weekend, been wanting to go for a while. Hopefully it will be cooler by the weekend, today was HOT.

Back from a quick visit to Chicago. It was our anniversary weekend (thanks to everyone that wished us!) and App had to work except for the weekend. Got a few good pics, will post to flickr soon. For now, this was the view from our room at the Holiday Inn. Sears tower just dwarves all the other skyscrapers!

Off to Chicago!

Well folks, the week's gone by pretty busy actually and I find myself a
day away from the weekend. I am taking half a day off and flying to
Chicago for the weekend to spend my wedding anniversary (yay, 2 years
already!) with App who is there on work. We don't have any plans apart
from a dinner yet so if you think of anything good, let us know. If
nothing else, I shall get to watch a movie on my PSP on the flight and
play some more Lumines! Sayonara till next week.

We are busy entertaining Rachna here while she is visiting us this weekend!

MAVROMATIC - a technoblog

MAVROMATIC - a technoblog: "mavromatic is dedicated to bring you the latest DIY projects, home automation solutions, home theater products, and anything else you think is flat out cool."



I'm going to bring attention to some of the blogs that I read regularly in the belief that some of you out there might share my interests. If you're a DIY (Do It Yourself) kind of person, Danny Mavromatis has a really neat blog; he seems to have the time and energy to work on many cool projects. Check it out.

No dose of X-Rays small enough to not be a cancer risk!

Many years ago - in 1995 to be exact, I was ridiculed by a group of my friends because I refused to have an X-Ray taken when it was not absolutely necessary. The doc "just wanted to be safe" and I resisted. This earned me the nick-name of "gene mutation" because I was of the view that radiation caused gene mutation leading to cancer. Well, to those that mocked me, I hope you read this.
Also, Teflon is the news for all the wrong reasons - read this report from earlier and this one. We are slowly moving away from non-stick utensils, maybe we need to make haste.

Apple all over the news

If you read your news, you already know that Apple is everywhere this week. The marketing geniuses at Apple know just how to play the media machine to their advantage. A simple update to their iPod line coupled with iTunes 4.9 including Podcasts gets more attention than Google Earth! What we have seen thus far may just be small tidbits relative to what is expected the 7^th of July. Apple has sent invitations to an event / announcement on Thursday next, ostensibly to launch the new iTunes/iPod phone whatever-it-ends-up-being called. iPhone anyone? Moto ROKR? Your guess is as good as mine. 5 years in the future, it is hard to imagine users carrying separate mini iPods and cell phones; just like 5 MP camera-phones are making carrying your digital camera unnecessary, so will the music playing cell phones of the future. Next week promises to be interesting!  

Live 8 is next week!

From http://www.live8list.com/en/,

"Bob Geldof has today unveiled plans for LIVE 8. Unlike Live Aid, 20 years ago he doesn't want people's money - he wants their voice.

Saturday July 2nd will be the day the world demands justice. Thousands will gather in Edinburgh to spearhead the call to make poverty history in a passionate, peaceful protest. Later the same day, millions will echo that call as they take part in LIVE 8 - concerts in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia, brought together in one TV broadcast around the world.

The LIVE 8 event will be free and will see some of the world's greatest acts take to the stage, including U2, Robbie Williams, Scissor Sisters, alongside legends Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney."

Get all the details at http://www.live8live.com/
Make your voice heard at http://www.live8list.com/en/

Everyone can watch the concerts live at AOL Music. Bookmark this URL http://music.channel.aol.com/live_8_concert/home

In the US, XM Radio will be broadcasting the concert live on satellite radio. http://www.xmradio.com/live8/index.jsp

This is one of the biggest musical events of our lifetimes. Take part and enjoy!

Why does the moon look so big now?

If you've noticed and were wondering - From the BBC News website, Why does the moon look so big now?

Update: This is from the SF Chronicle



A full moon rises over the San Francisco skyline on Tuesday, the first day of summer, as seen from Fort Baker in Sausalito. Because it was the day of the summer solstice, when the sun makes its highest arc in the sky and the moon its lowest, the full moon was hanging lower in the sky than at any point since June 1987.
Chronicle photo by Frederic Larson

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

So I gave in to the wife and saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Its the price one has to pay to be able to happily see Batman Begins in IMAX ;)
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are in the pages of almost every tabloid that exists anywhere these days so I shouldn't have been surprised to hear App go "Brad and Angelina are so hot". I'd seen the preview (a.k.a trailer) before so I knew what to expect - wife and husband who are secretly ace hitwoman and hitman respectively. The movie was mostly as expected but surprised me at times. Far removed from anything close to reality, it was funny in parts and takes a witty look at the problems of real-life couples. The Smithes have issues just like any other couple. In fact, the movie starts with their visit to a relationship counselor.
I don't want to give too much away so I'll just say this - Brad and Angelina fit into their roles perfect. Their acting skills are never really tested, just how good they can look while shooting guns and throwing knives left, right and center. Don't try to keep a body count in this movie, nobody cares. The movie sticks to the plot, doesn't stray too much and the funny bits are there. So what leads me to classify this as a DVD movie? It is a timepass movie that doesn't come out strongly as an action, relationship or comedy movie - just a curious mix of all the above.

Coldplay's new album debuts at No. 1

CNN.com - Coldplay's new album debuts at No. 1 - Jun 15, 2005

Good for them. We also helped Coldplay along to No.1 by buying the album this week. I like X&Y so far, it is not much of a departure from their sound on "A rush of blood..". However, it also progresses a little and unlike U2's album, there is also some variation between the song styles. All said, a good release and we are looking forward to the tour. Did I mention that we have tickets? :)

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Copied here from the original text at Stanford's website:

 

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle. My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.

 

Here's a panoramic picture from last weekend's trip to Big Sur.

Gotta love those 4 day working weeks!

Can you believe it is Thursday already? :)

We’ve had back to back 4 day working weeks thanks to Memorial day and our trip to Big Sur. Photos from those trips have been dominating the blog for the last couple of weeks but that probably reflects our life over the last couple of weeks. We are finally getting back to normal and things should be quiet this weekend.

I haven’t been spending my usual time keeping up with technology which is why tech posts are infrequent. I’m sure everyone has noticed that Apple is in the news, thanks to their switch to Intel processors. Being the proud new owner of an iMac G5, I hope the PowerPC machines keep their value like they always have but it’s probably a case of wishful thinking. Nevertheless, a decline in PowerPC Mac prices would probably be a good excuse to pick a new Mac up for my brother or parents or in-laws :)

I have been spending a lot of time with photos and I think the new Picasa is awesome – in some ways even better than iPhoto ’05. Flickr is great too. I am strongly considering upgrading to a pro account and archiving all our photos at Flickr. It would be worth it for the ability to share all the pictures and to have a backup – hard drives can be so unreliable!

Have you noticed the new Flickr Zeitgeist on the right panel? I think it’s pretty neat.

In other major news, we are going to watch Coldplay live!! Yay! The concert is Aug 19^th in Mountain View. Their new album is out already and we are already listening to it on Napster. Unfortunately, Napster has started being strict about not allowing multiple logins into the same account so App and I cannot use Napster at the same time through the day :( This will probably be our last month with Napster. Time to try Yahoo Music Unlimited. Even if they don’t allow multiple logins, hey its only $5 a month!

I’ll stop rambling for now. It’s time to get back to work. I’m posting this through email for the first time, hope this works! Ciao!

McWay Falls

McWay Falls
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

We're back from our visit to Big Sur, about 3 hours south of the bay area. We drove down Highway 1, one of the most scenic in all of California. Here's a picture of McWay falls in Julia Pfeiffer State Park - an absolute beauty. More pics are in Flickr.

Here's a panoramic pic from the last weekend. This is part of the view from Moro Rock in Sequoia N.P.

Apricots Pears Peaches!

Apricots Pears Peaches!
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

What else is there to say? Was able to take this picture thanks to App, who was absolutely thrilled at the sight of an orange grove (turned out to be apricots pears peaches!) :)

Picture of us at Moro Rock in Sequoia N.P.

A spectacular view that we were lucky enough to see on this last weekend's visit to Kings Canyon National Park!

Birthdays!

Another wonderful weekend. The sun is out in the bay area and just in time. We are celebrating the birthdays of App and my mother this weekend. Should be in San Francisco to watch the KFOG Kaboom tonight. Will try to post pictures later.

The week was more hectic than expected and unfortunately I wasn't able to spend much time with App on Thursday. I have promised to make it up to her another day. However, we did watch the new Star Wars movie on the first day, which was fun.

Golden gate park this past sunday morning

En route to watching bay to breakers runners
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

I snapped this while strolling through Golden Gate Park in SF, en route to watching Bay To Breakers 2005.

Crookedest Street

Mom and Dad visit the "crookedest street in the world", San Francisco's Lombard St.

TIME.com Gadget of the Week: Apple Mac OS X Tiger

Title says it all - TIME.com Gadget of the Week: Apple Mac OS X Tiger

Reversing the brain drain

Continuing the series of links to BBC articles, here's an interesting one about indians going back home in droves after gaining experience overseas - India's IT prodigals return home

I think this is a good thing; App and I have thought much about this.

World's first Hindu theme park

The BBC reports that Shiv Sagar, the grandson of Ramanand Sagar (yes, *that* Ramanand Sagar of 'Ramayan' fame) is going to build the World's first Hindu theme park called Ganga Dham on the banks of the Ganges.

I have to admit it is a really neat idea. Whether it catches on with today's kids and turns commercially viable, remains to be seen.

Airbus v Boeing: The next battle

BBC NEWS | Business | Airbus v Boeing: The next battle: An interesting write up about the current battle between the US and the EU for control of the aircraft market.

Air travel in India is booming right now. The BBC also reported big aeroplane purchases by Air India and Indian Airlines.

iPod Mini Photo!

Could be just me, but this conceptual image of an iPod Mini Photo just rocks! I dig the brushed metal finish - just like my current MD player!

Update: Here's another pic!

Via Ubergizmo

Parents on the way here

So the time is finally here, my parents are visiting me. It is a special event because this is the first time they have visited me since I starting working away from home - in 1999. I moved far and away, worked different companies in different cities and got married. I visited home in between of course, but those were predominantly short visits except for the time I worked in Madras before I moved to the US from the UK. Things never worked out for them to be able to visit me until tomorrow, that's when they arrive here in the bay area. They will be with us for a little over 5 months and I am looking forward to making the most of that time. They are retired now, without the pressure to provide for their children but unfortunately their children are far away. Our family has always been close knit and I miss them and feel with them their / our loneliness. We are fortunate to be able to host them. I look forward to it :)

So I love the iMac G4

The iMac G4 is the best of all the iMacs! I've always loved it and always will. Jonathan Ive cemented his position as the modern age God of industrial design with this masterpiece. I could go on writing about his genius but the page I have linked to will show you his most popular creations - each one inspires more than 'wow!'. The iMac G5 is wonderful and is probably the mac I would buy if I was in the market; however, its design is far simpler than the G4.

The screen rises gracefully like a flower. The circular base neatly houses all the components connected to the screen with what can only be described as a perfect arm. The arm is strong but can be adjusted with a single finger, you have to use this computer to appreciate its beauty. I'll bet that this arm added a significant amount to the cost of the computer and its absence no doubt makes the iMac G5 cheaper to produce than the iMac G4. However, the screen on the G4 is as flexible as a screen can be. It is perfect. The iMac G4 is as perfect as a computer is ever going to be in the near future. (To my knowledge) No PC manufacturers even attempted to reproduce this work of art. We know that perfection is hard to improve upon but in this case it was not even reproduced!
There are no screws or wires visible. The iMac G5 is not as radical a departure from the traditional form of a computer as the G4, it also makes a few sacrifices to achieve its all-in-one form, wires wind down from the back and are very visible. The G4 has no such issues, the wires are at ground level and can flow down the back away from sight. I feel lucky to be using this machine at work over the last week, hopefully I'll be able to use it longer. If not, I'm sure that I will pick up a used G4 for a good price on craigslist in a couple of years! Long live the iMac, long live Ive! :)

Lazy weekend

Well, its turning out to be a slow weekend after a pretty busy week. Apart from work, went to Cupertino (the mothership) and visited the Apple Company Store, the employee store that is also open to visitors. Ended up buying an Apple mug and pen. Met old friend Prasanth and went to dinner at Saravana Bhavan. Prasanth hasn't changed much at all, it was good to catch up with him. He did ask the dreaded question - "do you still have those tapes?". The tapes in question are mini dv tapes that Prasanth had given to me to convert to disc. Nothing wrong there, except this happened when I was living in the UK, a little over 3 years go.. and the disc I was supposed to make was a VCD. Of course, thanks to new technology I can now make a DVD.. let me see if I can finally have them ready before he leaves in a couple of weeks. That reminds me, I have to mail those pictures Raghu has been asking for .. :)

Apple a day keeps the music at play

With impending hardware updates from Apple, time to turn the focus back to the Mac!! The BBC says Apple a day keeps the music at play.
Mac OS X.4 Tiger is to be launched next friday April 29th with much fanfare. I think I will stop by our local Apple Store to witness the launch party at 6 p.m. Even my parents will be around to witness the event!!
Tiger has lots of new features and seems to be a worthwhile upgrade, check Apple's Tiger page for all the juicy details. It is $129 to buy, only $69 if you're a student or teacher. However, if you also don't have iLife 05 ($79) then the Mac Mini now presents itself as an absolute value purchase. Available for $499 or lesser, it comes with both Tiger and iLife '05. For the extra $290 over the value of the software, you can pick up a whole new Apple machine. I am reluctant to replace my beloved Apple Cube but even with 768MB RAM, it does show signs of its age when using iLife especially iMovie. There is still plenty of potential for the Cube though - it could serve as a music server or even as a HDTV recorder connected to my cable box (using Virtual DVHS).
I have a little time to think about the options, the mac rumor sites are reporting that the Mac Mini is about to receive a boost in the standard RAM from 256MB to 512MB (that makes a lot of difference with OS X, believe me). So wait I shall..
Ah, the tough choices for a value-conscious mac addict!! :)

Stop the death of Redwood forests

Take a moment to sign this petition and voice your opinion against logging in the Sierra Nevada. Thanks!

Chandramukhi!

Iniya Tamizh Puthaandu Vazhthugal to all!
Today is the Tamil new year - yes we have a separate calendar where we're from!
To celebrate, we went to see the first show of Chandramukhi - the new release from the one and only Superstar!! It was the first time seeing Thalaivar's movie in the cinema for App and she enjoyed it thoroughly. Unlike the damp squib that was Baba, Chandramukhi will appeal to the masses we think. You should definitely check it out - it puts the special effects in the Matrix to shame!
Anyway, a decent plot (apparently a remake of a hit Mallu movie) keeps your engrossed and entertained throughout the movie!!
No other plans for the new year right now, I have to be going to the Airport to send Ranjit off for his marriage.

Edit: Here's more from The Hindu.

Edit 2: I haven't checked out Kamal's offering yet but apparently it is hilarious!

Tiger comes roaring

I'm back again!! Apologies for the silence from my end but glad to see that App has been filling in.
There are updates galore but first, the news of day - Tiger has been announced. Read at Apple.com
This means that it is definitely time to pick up a Mac mini which is now a real bargain - it comes with Tiger and iLife 05 - worth about $200 in itself!
When checking out Tiger make sure you read the iChat AV compatibility chart here. Looks like you'll need a pretty beefy machine to start a 4-way video chat. Hmm.. time for an iMac? ;)

Getting better...

I'm much better. My wonderful husband took me out on Saturday to Foster City. It was great to see that city again, its lake, we re-lived those good nice moments in our life. Arvind has introduced me to Napster now. Loving it, heard all my old hindi music. So goooooooood. We have started walking up the hill, life getting back to normal, that's a good sign.

So I'm slowly getting out of my depression. Thanks everyone for your comforting words. Too much stress at work. I can't wait to start working in a real office!:)

-App (so naddeem doesn't think it was posted by arvind ;))

BTW, in all the confusion I forgot to mention that I took a complete physical checkup and results came on Friday. I'm perfectly heathly and fine. Thyroid levels are normal.

life sucks!!

what a day! I'm still dealing with so many different issues both personally and professionally. I'm so fed up, frustrated about everything. Its not easy working from home. Someday, I will start going to office, that would be a welcome break.
Sometimes I wonder what's the point of living this life like this? Lonely and boring. Yeah you keep yourself occupied with something (gym, work, vacation) but life is so empty and dull here in US. Some people love it, some hate it. I love it for the independence it gave me and for the knowledge I've gained. But I'm in the hate phase where I feel depressed that I don't have a lot of friends around. No one to turn to when you feel so bad and depressed. Atleast in India, you would have someone to talk to, be it friend or family. I'm tired of computers, phone, tv, electronic gadgets and the life in itself!! The world news is depressing too, some kid shooting 10 kids and killing himself. What kind of world do we live in?

The only thing thats going good is my gym. I'm happy that I'm atleast working out regularly. Spring is here, so hopefully I will go out of this depression soon. I wish I can take a break from everything and go away for a week to some unknown land. may be I will!!

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Here's a picture from our visit to Badger pass a few weeks ago. I was just checking out Flickr which has been in the news of late. Turns out to be a fairly spiffy service, lets me blog pics too (that's where this is from). Expect more from Flickr!

Update (yes, there is life without the PSP too)

In other news, my parents have been approved for a visitor's visa to the United States (which is a big deal these days) so they will be able to visit us next month, yay!
I received my Alpine CD head unit back from repair yesterday and was able to install it in my car myself (thanks to Brian for imparting the knowledge and the subsidized hardware). It sounds great, best of all I can now plug in any audio source into the AUX input (bye bye tape adapter!).
It has been raining the whole week, which means it has been snowing in the Sierras and there is the opportunity for one more trip to the mountains for a tumble in the snow a.k.a learning to snowboard.
The house is finally taking shape, the garage is almost clear and we might actually have it ready by the time the folks arrive!! More updates later with some PSP snaps!! :)

PSP Mania

Engadget has live coverage of the PSP launch party at SonyStyle Manhattan tonight. I'm hoping to drop by our local Electronics Boutique at lunch tomorrow to pick up mine. I haven't had as much anticipation in recent memory. Much as I love Apple and their product launches, there's something to be said for the much hyped PSP launch - the excitement has been building up for so long that its thick enough to cut. The PSP is everywhere in the media this week and all the reviews are raving. You're lucky if you're able to buy one at launch because the first million have apparently already sold out. So hurray for the PSP and hopefully no dead pixels tomorrow!

More PlayStation news - Gizmodo has this PSP megapost and could this be the PS3? It looks too bulky and on my high-res monitor it looks to be photoshop-ed.

Sony PSP review by PC Magazine

Less than a week to go now. Here's a Sony PSP review to whet your appetite! :)

Thunderbird in the news

Forbes has a take on Thunderbird, FireFox's sibling email client. They love the RSS features too, much like me. I am looking forward to using Sunbird (Mozilla's calendar app) when it comes of age, and a suite that ties all these 3 apps together.

A Body's Burden

It is important that the mainstream media gives more attention to an important issue like how chemicals used in daily life affect our body. I'm happy to see this series of articles in a local paper here (The Argus). I still haven't read all the articles but I intend to, take a look at A Body's Burden.
Update: I read the article, its very eye-opening and highly recommended. I hope our lifestyle here will change to some level.

The PSP

I've been meaning to blog about the upcoming PSP (PlayStation Portable) but Sony did me a favour and launched their official site, so go to PlayStation.com - PSP and check out the sweet specs on this device. I expect to have mine on the 24th!! :)

We're going to Vegas!

Its like springtime is here already, the flowers are blooming and the weather is getting really *warm*! And yes, we are off to Las Vegas tomorrow. Its a little less exciting when you consider that we are actually driving there and back! However, it should be fun, we have our neighbour Darrell for company and my car should be coming back with a tricked out sound system. Well, as tricked out as I can get it for the time being anyway! More updates after we're back.. with pics, hopefully.

Wooooooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooo! We're going to see U2 live!

Well, Ranjit and I are anyway. Thanks to some effort from Ranju and a stroke of amazing luck, we have 2 tix!! Oh and also, thanks to an Irishman by the name of Collin who had the heart to sell his tickets at face value. These tickets are selling for outrageous prices on ebay and craigslist. April 9th has been added to the list of dates to look forward to; along with March 10 (iTunes phone), March 12 (new audio in car), March 24 (PSP, Parents' visa) and so on :)

Here's a picture from our snowfight last saturday. I thought we were taking a break and tried taking a picture, App took the opportunity to get back at me!!

A practical electric scooter?

Is it just me or is this scooter really awesome? It should come in at around $8000 but if the running costs are really as low as expected, it should be worth it. Electricity does work out to be much cheaper than gasoline right now but if everyone started using electricity for their autos, I'm sure prices will see a surge. I mean, its not like electricity is harnessed from lightning strikes or something..

App enjoys her first experience of snowfall at Pittsburgh last weekend.

Pittsburgh

We got back late monday from our 3 day visit to Pittsburgh, PA (not to be confused to Pittsburg, CA which is 30 miles from here!). We really had fun! It was great to meet close friends after a really long time and get to know their spouses. Pittsburgh itself had lots to show - the city was very different from any other city that I've visited in North America. It was more like Manchester in England. The weather gods smiled a little upon us and we didn't encounter any really bad weather - although we did encounter a little snow which was fun. We enjoyed ice skating in downtown Pittsburgh. App did pretty well considering she's basically a first-timer. I am also a learner - I fell twice - once pulling Murugan down with me :)
On our second day, Sukumar & Deepa left after lunch. Raghu & Vandana left after skating, we went to a sports bar to play darts with some of Murugan's friends. We realized that we'd made a mistake going to a bar as soon as we stepped into the place - unlike California, Pittsburgh allows patrons to smoke indoors. Not being used to inhaling second hand smoke, we had to leave after just a few games. However, his friends were friendly and the game was very addictive - we need to find some electronic dart games around here.
We had the most fantastic breakfast on our last day (I forget the name of the place) and skipped down to Pitt's own Apple store. Took Murugan on a tour of my beloved mac machines and basically sold him on the platform - look out for a new mac user on the block soon!!
We had a quick tour of the city's best spots before leaving - the best part was catching up with Murugan, glad to see that he's doing well and happy!
We definitely want to visit Pittsburgh when its warmer, and it would definitely help if SouthWest airlines starts service to PIT. Apparently, talks are on.

Finally promotion.

I'm officially promoted to Director of Technology. I'm very excited about it.
Looking forward to learning more management skills!:)

MD is finally catching up

Sony has finally relented and allowed native MP3 playback in their latest MiniDisc players. I'm really looking forward to this. See more details at this Dutch site. The top of the line model sports a gorgeous OLED screen.
I'm a big proponent of MiniDisc and have a little library of MDs already built up. I love recording my own music (live concerts, XM radio etc) and also being able to lend/borrow music from friends - both of which the iPod does not allow. I bought a 40GB iPod last year and its up for sale right now. I also love the quality of sound on the MD and the long battery life. MD had a 10 year head start on the iPod and would've been the format of choice if Sony hadn't crippled the technology so much. I hope it doesn't die out!

Update: Apparently, the original information has been taken offline. Here are some links from minidisc.org
MZ-RH10
MZ-RH910
MZ-RH710

Mac Mini - cheaper than x86 in the long run?

This article from Tom's Hardware takes a look at the Mac Mini and makes a great point - the Mac Mini consumes about 1/7th the power required by an x86 (Intel / AMD) machine to perform similar tasks. That's a lot of power and its gotta count for something!