Leo and I went to the closing day of the California Academy of Sciences at Howard Street. The academy, which relocated temporarily to Howard St about 3 years ago, is now preparing to relocate again to its new home (which was also the site of its old home) in Golden Gate Park. The new academy building is considered a revolution in green design, including a living roof full of flowers, plants, and trees. It opens in September 2008.
Anyway, the closing date for the academy was fun. We got to see the penguins in their last public feeding (they're funny looking). We got to play with eels and snakes and see a huge tank where they grow coral reefs. We saw some dry ice presentations (anytime you can play with dry ice, you know its a good day). And I had a staring contest with a giant turtle (see picture below).
The New York Times has listed San Francisco as one of 53 places to visit in 2008. Why? To see the new academy building. Yes, its that cool.
I'm off to Italy in the morning to talk at EWSN and then Switzerland and Austria to get some skiing in with Jan.
MacBook Air -- I was in love with it when it was announced. but a number of things dissuaded me from immediately purchasing one (i was tempted!)
- no cell-modem support. need this for traveling to work everyday.
- battery is not replaceable. this sucks for airplane trips.
- hard drive is 4200 rpms. this means it is slow, which kills performance.
- no ethernet port. useful!
- usb dongles. do i really need 15 things hanging off my macbook?
Apple also announced the MacBook Air case -- the world's thinnest laptop case. I have to say that this blog post is the funniest thing I've seen about the MacBook Air.
Time Capsule -- Can I bury it and have it backup my Mac wirelessly? Then dig it up 30 years later and realize that I wasted a lot of money 30 years ago. Steve reinvented iSCSI. All we wanted to do was use an iSCSI device to back up our MacBooks. But no, you had to brand some lame item. Oh, and Steve-o, AirPort Express has USB ports for hard drives -- why can't I use those? This is exactly why I hate Apple.
iPhone -- Yay, I can finally determine my location (within 2 miles) using Google Maps. (note sarcasm) Where is my file browser? Where is my ability to store the Caltrain schedule and view it without an internet connection? Who cares about multiple SMS and rearranging my icons? Grr!
The best part of the iPhone update is a feature not documented on any blog. Somehow they missed it. Apple changed from using the POP interface of Gmail to instead using the IMAP interface. The IMAP interface means your iPhone is always in direct sync with your Gmail account, which is tremendously useful.
iTunes movie rentals and Apple TV v2 -- This feature has so many flaws it isn't even funny. Only 24 hours to watch the movie (but 3 months to start watching, weird). HD versions are only available for Apple TV, not when downloading with iTunes to your PC. Oh, and did I mention that Netflix is letting you download movies for free and watch them whenever you want? Oh, and Netflix has 6,000 items now; iTunes will have 1,000 items by the end of February. Apple, just give up, seriously. This is a silly feature that I'll never use.
I thought MacWorld would top CES, but it seems like both have let me down this year.
This year's CES was less than eventful. Yes, we get it, every company in the world is making HDTVs. And while everyone is looking forward to MacWorld instead (yes, my iPhone needs a serious software update -- like when can I store the Caltrain schedule PDF on my phone without having to be online every time I want to know when the next train is). Luckily, the folks at Think Computers (who? never heard of 'em) have decided to redeem CES with an extra special article. They posted a slew of pictures of the booth babes of CES. Vegas + Electronics + Booth Babes. What more would you expect?
Oh, and my vote is for Creative...
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=articles&id=67
Between Christmas and New Years, I traveled to Aspen to get some great skiing in and see Third Eye Blind (3eb). You know, the "Jumper", "How's it Going to Be", "Semicharmed Life" rock band from the 90s and popular when I was a freshman in college. I saw them earlier in 2007 at the Fillmore for their 10 year anniversary. It brought me back to those Freshman dorm room days, first in Dickson with Johnny Hoffa, and then later in Sheldon with Stevie B and company. I got psyched up about 3eb after both the Fillmore show as well as Eric calling and emailing me from all the east coast shows. So the decision to travel to Aspen, ski, and see 3eb was pretty much a no brainer. I had tried to convince the 'rents to spend Christmas in Tahoe, but that failed miserably, so I needed another ski trip.
I didn't know much about Aspen before going there. Like, for example, that every flight is delayed our canceled and getting in/out of Aspen is beyond crazy. The flight on the way in was delayed, almost diverted to Grand Junction, and had some sort of mechanical problem. It was one of only a handful of flights to land, with the other 20 or so flights diverted or canceled. Sometimes you do get lucky. As we're descending, the mountain out the window is staying the same distance away from the plane. Basically we're following the slope of the mountain down to the town of Aspen. Finally got to Aspen with a few hours to spare before the first of two sold out nights at Belly Up Aspen with 3eb, a nice small club that holds about 450 people.
The first night was fairly long with about a 2 hour set consisting of all the goodies, including Motorcycle Drive By, 1000 Julys, God of Wine, and all of the regulars (Jumper, Semicharmed Life, How's it Going To Be, Losing a Whole Year, etc). Great set. The second night, Steven Jenkins claimed to be sick and said he needed the audience's help. The set was only 80 minutes long, and has less of the rarities from the first night. Some pics taken with my iPhone are below.
After the show, I went over to 39 Degrees at the Sky Hotel. It is known as being an apres ski place, but it seems to turn into a "hit or miss" ultralounge late at night. We apparently were there on one of the "hit" nights, with tons of beautiful Aspen-ites (who, of course, are not really from Aspen but from somewhere else like Chicago or Long Island). After people watching for a while, we noticed 3eb come in the door, Jenkins, Tony, the whole crew. They sat a few couches away from us, and a flock of girls immediately jumped all over there. Let's just say that Jenkins didn't look too sick with his drinks and his girls around him ;)
Anyway, back to the good stuff -- the skiing. The conditions were great and there were a ton of areas at Snowmass that we could track out even though the last snow was a day or two earlier. The temperatures were below cold; one morning it was -11 degrees outside. That's Farenheit. I thought about that for a second -- 43 degrees ABOVE freezing (75 degrees for those that can't do math) is warm and comfy. 43 degrees BELOW freezing is just bone-chilling cold. Think about instantaneous frost bite. After skiing, we had a beer out at one of the outdoor apres places, and I do think that my beer got colder once it was brought outside.
Then, of course, came the time to leave again from the illustrious Aspen airport. The snow was falling sideways and the visibility was about 5 feet in front of you. Flights eventually canceled and have to stay in Aspen for the night. Put on a flight the next day, and sat next to a nice lady from Minneapolis who relayed all the stars that she saw during her trip -- William H Macy, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria (apparently all the desperate housewives were there), and a ton of others that I don't remember. I realized that even if I saw most of these people, I wouldn't recognize them with the ton of clothes that will be covering them to keep them warm. Although I suppose William H Macy is fairly recognizable. But the problem with all of these people in town is that it was impossible to get a reservation to any restaurant. Everything was booked.
Overall a great trip, the skiing at Aspen was surpurb, and I'd definitely go back. Although next time I'd go during a different time, when it is less expensive and family crazy with the Christmas/New Year's holiday. I'm looking forward to watching the Winter X-Games, which are held every year in Aspen. Although don't think of visiting Aspen during the X-Games, supposedly they are more booked up than during Christmas.
Below is the last pic from Aspen, finally boarding the plane out of there. You can see the nice big snowy mountains in the background.
