nippy this morning!!” Inside the car I stare at a can of Mountain Dew left
overnight in the cup holder – ready to explode. It expanded every possible mm,
bulging 10mm at the top & 15mm at the bottom. Wow! It must really be cold.
I fire up the engine, look at the overhead display and it’s a whopping
-24C (-12F)
!!
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This
morning it’s “milder” with only -11C (13F) -
Right! ;)
- But, get this: Thursday & Friday we are looking at
daytime high
temperatures of -20C (-4F)! Yes, daytime high. Somebody left the door
open at the North Pole. Better keep warm!
delayed, overpriced mini iPod.
Steve Jobs promised an exciting anniversary
year, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Everybody had high hopes for
desktop updates, some new peripherals, a few price adjustments and something
really new … but Apple didn’t
deliver, which, for the start of the year of 20th anniversary of the Mac doesn’t
feel right.
The keynote begins with the famous 1984 commercial
which has a cute detail: the female athlete runs listening to an iPod
:)
Apart from Apple’s iLife package which now is updated as iLife 2004 with some much
requested features and the mid level video editing upgrade to Final Cut Express 2,
there wasn’t anything exciting for most. For businesses there are finally G5 XServe systems available. MS
Office 2004 for Mac was presented briefly. New features in iLife were
highlighted (and there’s quite a few in iMovie & iDVD) with a lot of time
for the 5th and new application in the suite: Garage Band, a sound
mixing application. Not really important to most, IMHO.
I didn’t
believe the rumors, but there it was: iPod mini. A bit smaller than
a common cellphone, available in 5 colors and holding 4 GB of storage. Neat.
Euh, sticker shock: $250! You could hear a pin drop. Fact is that for $50 extra
you have 4 times the storage capacity with regular iPod. General agreement: yes
it’s cute and miniaturization costs, but it is simply overpriced compared to the
regular iPod $$/GB to become a hit.
This time there was no “and
there’s one more thing”. The keynote ended quietly with a recap of the
highlights.
memorable year for all of us :)
So, yes, we’re back :) We had a safe
trip, which of course was way too short. You can only do so many things in a few
days. Air travel was OK, considering how things are nowadays. Unfortunately TSA
ruined the zipper on one of C’s favorite bags (yes, it was unlocked!). It was a
top brand limited series so we’ll have to wait and see what response we get from
TSA.
We had a nice time with C’s mom & aunt and some friends.
It sure felt hot in Florida. After knee deep snow the previous weekend it was
like full summer for us in a matter of 4 days. We enjoyed the 2 extra hours of
daylight, green plants & trees, and had to keep the airco on in the car to
feel comfortable :) What a difference a few hours makes.
Speaking
of difference. It’s a whopping -7F / -22C here this morning. Add quite a bit of
wind and even I’ll say it’s cold outside. LOL. No snow or precipitation, so
driving is safe out here.
We planned to join the gym and were really
committed … only to find they raised the bit elevated price by another 50%.
Ouch, Sticker Shock! The only affordable way is to join for a year, but we
can’t commit to that. I’ve been to another gym in the mean time but am not
really enthusiastic. Maybe there’s a third one that matches our taste &
wallet.