Happy Birthday to Apple Computer - It's the big three-oh!

Hard to imagine that was no personal computer industry 30 years ago, when Jobs and Woz set out with their Apple I (pictured as a cake here!). To celebrate the special day, I've rounded up some interesting reads.

Macworld takes a look back at the Genesis of Apple, an article that I found most interesting.

PCWorld (yup!) remembers some of Apple's most innovative products that failed.

The SF Chronicle talks about the man behind the Mac and then some about the fanatical customers. Want more? Check A Silicon Valley fairy tale.

PCMag (yup!) recollects 30 years of using Apple Machines.

Forbes chips in with 20 great moments in Apple history.

CNet has a lot of articles that are linked from Apple marks 3 decades.

Wired discusses Apple's finest flip-flops and 30 years of Apple products(monster gallery!) and Steve Jobs' best quotes ever. Also, the best of Wired on Apple.

If that's not enough for you, there's plenty more on Google News.

Spending time spending money - Pt. 1

From the Wikipedia page about "pack rat" -

"A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying, for example a piece of cactus, and "trade" it for the new item."

and

"The term pack rat is also used in English as slang to refer to a person who collects miscellaneous items and has trouble getting rid of them."

Alright, I'm a pack rat. I collect. A lot. Our current house was quite spacious when we moved in here just over a year ago and now its bursting at its seams with things. Some of these things do see the light of day and get used a few times a year but there are a lot of things that never get used, not in a year anyway and so those things have got to go! There are also things that I'd like to use and can't find because I there's too many items to comb through.

I'm on a quest to reduce the number of items I own but its going to be tough, it's against my very nature to throw away anything that my grandchildren might find useful!

On that note, let me get started about my newest acquisitions :)

I have been busy spending time selling a few items on ebay & craigslist to come up with the money to buy some new toys! Here's the first one -

The Sony MDR-7506 Headphones



These well reviewed headphones replaced an aging set I have used since I was in school (pre-1998!)
Anyway, I like them so far.

+ves -

Solid feel.
Foldable design makes it easy to carry. Bonus carry pouch.
Good sound esp. bass.
Closed ear cups (previous one was open) improves sound isolation. I can actually picture myself taking these on my next flight.

-ves -

Ear pads are not quite as comfy as my previous pair.


Apparently, these are popular in studios. My older headphones have now moved to work where they are providing amazing sound for yours truly while at work. Win, win! :)

Look out for other purchases in coming weeks!
Spending time money_

Welcome, new Macintosh users!

I've been a little busy over the weekend but I did manage to iChat with Arjun who was on his new 20" iMac Core Duo! Congrats bro and also to Sudhish who should be getting his new 12" Powerbook G4 this week.
It's great to have you guys on board.
Time to start looking for newer recruits ;)

Windows XP, now on Apple Macs!

Yes, the unthinkable is now possible. The contest has been won by 2 enterprising hackers who managed to get the Windows XP CD to install on an Intel-based Macintosh.

The question is - do you really want to do it? :)

Google Calendar coming

If you haven't already heard, Google Calendar is coming!!
TechCrunch has exclusive screenshots, check them out. I'm really looking forward to this application because I think I might actually use a calendar if it was decent enough and available over the web. Best of all, because of Google's popularity, I am sure that Google or someone smarter will come up with a way to integrate this with iCal!
Google has been on a roll lately (yeah, for about a year!) with a number of cool acquisitions. Check out Writely and SketchUp, both of which are really cool.

In other news, having a run-of-the-mill week. Nothing really special, really should get cracking on my taxes but its all so complex this year!

I'm listening to my old Guns 'N Roses MD right now - remember them? Oh the good ol' times, what an awesome band! Wish they were still making music. Oh wait, GNR is coming out with a new album - Chinese Democracy! But its only Axl, the rest of them are in Velvet Revolver, and they're all apparently still fighting!! Oh well, I'll just go back to the music that was!

End of weekend update

Kirkwood - Coming down Cornice
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Back from my day trip to Kirkwood today. The snow was good but the whole experience of driving 7 hours for about 5 hours of snowboarding left me tired. I want more 2 day trips!! Oh well..

App had the day to herself for relaxation. Saturday, we caught one of Cafe Intermezzo's hugemongous salads (we still have lots leftover in the fridge after we both dug into it for lunch y'day) before heading out to Rosemount at Alameda to pick up our shipment. Managed to taste some wonderful Zins too. :)

Darrell came over with "The Legend Of Zorro" which we watched with him. If you miss the yesteryear movies of MGR, check this out. It's got all the cliches. They could replace Banderas with Rajnikanth and the movie would be better for it. App suggested that they should make a tamil movie of it but I countered that Sony has made Zorro out of a tamil movie!!

The photo is from today - visibility was poor, it was snowing all day. The run is off a chair lift called Cornice Express.

Origami = UMPC

So the Origami project was a bit of a letdown. It was a teaser campaign for the new Microsoft-Intel UMPC platform a.k.a a small Tablet PC. You can read more about it at Microsoft or Engadget.
Doesn't quite live up to the hype but interesting nonetheless. It's a lot like the OQO (which is available with the Tablet PC OS now) except for the fact that the OQO includes a QWERTY keyboard which is missing with UMPC. The only new feature appears to be the useful Touch Pack interface.

I can see myself buying a device like this (especially if it ran OS X!) if it becomes cheap enough (first models are around $1000). I like the OQO but it's too expensive for my non-needs. I can't spend $2000 on what would essentially be a cool toy! :)

There are some close up pictures of two of the devices here.

Joy Of Tech was not too thrilled with the UMPC / Origami launch.

Tax time already!

It's that dreary time of the year again when everyone's attention is on filing the tax return. Every year, the tax laws in this country seem to get a little bit more complex than they are already. The tax prep industry (yes, its big here) must do some serious lobbying at the IRS to convolute the laws more and more. I've been using TurboTax to prepare my tax return since 1999 and I used to feel it was a breeze back then. Of course, I had no deductions, no stock plans, no interest income even. The form used to be called 1040EZ or the like. Of course, I moved to the full 1040 form a while back and since then every year's prep seems to be more of a time waster than the previous one. Next year, I might just have to go to a CPA (accountant).

This year we got our TurboTax for free (legally!) because the product is made by Intuit, App's new employer! On the topic, she's really liking her new job. I think the change is doing her wonders.

So, thanks to the efforts I'll be putting in over the next week of Tax prepping, you can expect a little lull in the frequency of posts here. You don't want me rambling about tax stuff anyway. In the meanwhile, the gadget connoisseurs can check out Engadget for their awesome CeBIT coverage.

I picked up a cheap used digital camera to take along while snowboarding, so hope to come back with some pictures for y'all on monday! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Get a life, Apple fans!

Another funny Joy Of Tech comic!

Russian River Weekend

App and I had a great weekend at the Russian River Wine Road Barrell Tasting Weekend. During this last weekend, more than a 100 wineries in the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley opened their doors to everyone who bought a $5 glass and poured their current and future wines. It was a fantastic event and I'm glad we visited. We had the chance to try some great wine.

Our favourites for the wine - Bella, Siduri, Korbel California Champagne
Our favourites for the atmosphere - Lambert Bridge (live music), Battaglini (friendly folks) and Bella (a great western theme extending into the caves w/ live music!)
Most crowded - Siduri, Lambert Bridge
Prettiest - Hop Kiln (pictured)

The whole area was very pretty even though it rained almost all of Sunday. We stayed in Guerneville overnight on Saturday. Our room was not far from the river and had no TV. Very relaxing. It's definitely a trip I'd be up for repeating again in the future. :)

A month's wine - Feb 2006

A month's wine - Feb 2006
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

Here's what we (mostly I) consumed last month. I'm liking this as a catalog of some of the good stuff we've had.
You can check out the Vertigo that I devoted a whole post to, a couple of weeks back.

The Last Aussie Muesli

The Last Aussie Muesli
Originally uploaded by Jillako.

So the time has come to open the last packet of muesli from the big shipment brought by Arjun last fall! Like fine wine, I savoured every helping of Oz's fine muesli but alas, even after spacing new packets apart by opening a few local American ones in between, it is now time to devour the last one!! Farewell, Australian Muesli.. till next time. :)

The Joy of Tech comic... Apple Special Event

LOL! So Apple's "fun products" were accurately predicted by AppleInsider and didn't excite most people. The iPod Hi-Fi is hardly "innovative"; the Mac Mini gets a nice performance bump but also gets integrated graphics and a $100 price bump; the iPod leather case is ho-hum. The Joy of Tech comic has a humorous take on the whole event. :)
The next Apple Event is expected April 1st!