Cute cards...

I got these cute greeting cards for my birthday. One from Arjun and other from my neighbor Elena. So similiar.. I loved both the cards. Thank you both. Check out their cards...
Arjun's Card
Inside of the card.

Elena's Card
Inside of the card.

My wrist is getting better now. Arvind was happy to see me cooking and cleaning our house :) We had a very relaxed weekend.

I'm vacation deprived

Expedia's Vacation Deprivation Home Page has just made it official. For the 6th consecutive year, Americans are the most vacation deprived populace of all developed countries. Americans earn less vacation than other countries and don't use all of that vacation too, leaving 4 days of vacation per year unused on an average!!
Depressing!! I haven't had a long vacation in a while!!

Tim Leffel says "Dear vacation-deprived American–are you nuts?!"

Not just another Apple Store

Apple took the wraps off its newest flagship location (Fifth Ave, New York) yesterday. Here are the pics I liked best.

WOW! It's their grandest store yet, and it will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! When are we getting one of these on the west coast? :) Although, from all accounts, NY truly is the city that never sleeps, unlike here.

The Black MacBook

Apple has released the successor to the iBook (prefer that name to MacBook myself) -

"Now the Intel Core Duo is as affordable as it is powerful. With MacBook, you get the world’s fastest mobile architecture in a beautifully designed notebook that costs less than slower, clunkier models. That’s like getting a sports car for the price of a scooter. Of course, MacBook holds more than your average two-seater: up to 80GB hard drive, an optional DVD-burning SuperDrive, built-in Bluetooth, wireless-ready (802.11g) AirPort, and up to 2GB of RAM. And for the first time ever, choose bright white or sleek black."

Read all the details here.

I personally like the black but will probably buy the white. Being that it's a redesigned enclosure, there will likely be a few hardware kinks that will get ironed out over the first few months. By that time, I should sell my Mac Mini and buy the white MacBook!

UPDATE: Here's a list of what's new with the iBook and why I think it's a great buy at $1099

1. Dual Core Processor
2. Faster bus
3. Thinner case (quarter inch thinner)
4. Brighter screen (Widescreen too)
5. Optical Audio In & Out (Awesome!)
6. Built-in iSight
7. FrontRow w/ Remote
8. MagSafe power connector to protect against trips.

Overall - this takes the cake as the best value Mac!! Just replaced the 17" iMac Core Duo on my list :)

The Evolution of Dance

I found this fun!

YouTube - Evolution of Dance:



Thru One Digital Life

Bloc Party rox!

'Silent Alarm' is a great album, check it out if you haven't yet. Some songs are much better than the others, but overall the album is a good listen and definitely more so after a few listens rather than at the first. Give it a shot!

P.S: App is recovering fine :)

Whee! It's Wii

TIME.com has an interesting write up about Nintendo's Wii and the new controller. He comes out rather positive about the whole experience. I must say that it leaves me wanting to try it. I am usually overwhelmed by all the buttons and actions I have to memorize when playing a game and the Wii controller seems like a delightful replacement. Not to mention that I might finally be able to play games with and against my wife or parents. :)

This is the week of E3, btw. Expect more gaming news.

Beautiful spring days are here

Around now is some of the best time to be in Northern California, we have great sunny days that are not too hot and cool breezy evenings. Wonderful to stroll out in the sun at lunch and walk over the hills in the evenings.

And so it was on a cool spring day that we set out on our planned bike, taste, eat day on Saturday with Darrell and Shoshana, both of whom share a birthday 3 days after App. After driving to Camp Arroyo in Livermore where Shosh works, we had a great breakfest provided by her before setting off on our bikes.

We were riding along, happily anticipating our first winery stop, going down a slope when App's cap flew off her head. Her reflex reaction was to grab the brakes, which sent her flying with the bike. She hit the paved bike trail, head first followed by the bike which landed on her. I was a little further ahead and didn't see any of this, Darrell was behind App however and managed to stop before plowing into her.

He then handled the situation calmly and managed to put pressure on the cut above her left eyebrow, stopping the bleeding. There was blood all over App by now but she was keeping face bravely.
Darrell brought the car back and we hit home before I took App to the Kaiser ER in Walnut Creek, where they took their sweet time X-Raying her hand and stitching up her deep cut above her eyebrow. She is bruised all over with cuts and scrapes but it could have been a lot worse and we're thankful it was just a cut.

I hope she gets normal soon! It's been quite an experience for her as a person that has hardly taken any hard falls like this. I, on the other hand, can't even count the number of times I've had these falls :)

Anyway, the weather is still great and it should be good walking with App and getting her back to normal this week.

Stay tuned for more Apple news this week, the much anticipated MacBook (a.k.a the Intel iBook) is expected tomorrow. There's a new iPod Ad that is up now too.

New Mac Ads

At long last, Apple has launched an ad campaign for the Macintosh.

You can see all of them on Apple's site.

I think an ad campaign is good for the Mac but the ads could've been better. This series is too reminiscent of the Switch campaign.

People need to see the UI and beauty of the new Macs.

Stephen Colbert rocks!

I might not have known him a couple of days back but this man is a hero!
To stand up before the President of the USA and deliver this witty satirical performance takes talent and guts.

Read the full text from his appearance at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner -
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1820500.php

Had us in splits.

Later, he called it the best weekend of his life.

You can see the second half of his talk in low-res video.

Thanks to Stephen Maher for the original link!