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!

Faster pace of life!

Well, life is just zipping by right now. Between work and getting organized at our new residence and doing the usual social things, everything seems to be moving so fast. Belated Valentine's day wishes to everyone that we didn't get around to wishing (which is just everyone we know). We had a decent day - ended up eating at our usual joint - Mimi's cafe in Dublin.
Today, App's friend Carol was in town and we had an Ethiopian dinner with her in Berkeley. It was lovely to spend time with her - App talks about her so much (she usually stays with Carol on her visits to Nevada) that I practically knew her without spending much time with her.
This weekend we are off to Pittsburgh to spend 3 days with friends - will be good to meet Murugan, Raghu after a long while. Not much else happening at this end, of course lots of technology news that I've been reading every day but I won't bore you with right now. Its been raining a lot and hopefully we'll have better weather in Pittsburgh. Till the next post, ciao!

Google maps

Well this just came out last week and if you haven't had a chance to use it yet, you should!! Google maps is an improvement on all the map sites out there. I've been using it about a week and I love it!!
http://maps.google.com

p.s: Maps and directions only available for the US right now!

Howdy

Hey everyone, hows it going? (Just a general statement, I know the 2 people who actually read this blog and I know how they are doing!) Its been a while since we posted but boy tons has happened since then. We moved - to a 2 bedroom unit in the same complex and its great! We have tons more space than we used to have and we're trying to keep it that way. Best part of all - I get my own computer workstation so I can actually get online whenever I want and do stuff whenever. Ah! It actually feels like when I used to be single ;)

Bharath Ram got in touch this week, you probably saw his comment in the previous post. He's a great ol' buddy from school who has turned out to be a fab writer as well - check his blog (Lightning.. on my links) for some of his writing.

Its funny how different people from a very similar background turn out - just look at the 3 of us - Sudhish, Bharath and I - the blogs give you a feel for each person.

I am the most gadget crazy of the bunch for sure and the newest is going to be the Playstation Portable!! I have also sold my PS2 to raise funds for this baby - and I have put $20 down at the local store to preorder as well so I should have it pretty soon after its release in March. I'm looking forward to it and you shall certainly see and read a lot more about it here!