ModBook:
Aftermarket Mac Tablet

I've...
- Moved all the way across North America, from Seattle to Toronto, by car, and discovered there are no vegetables but french fries in some mid-U.S. states.
- Been eating Chinese food about 5 out of 7 days a week (and yes, mmm, that's a good thing!)
- Become a fan of Ron Paul like the rest of the internet... though still being completely confused by some of his positions (eliminate the IRS??)

And... (drumroll please!)
- Switched from PC to Mac (to be exact, a MacBook Pro)

Which brings me to the title of this post. I've really started to like my Mac. I'm not religious about it, I just think it's a nice computer to use, powerful and reliable, and does pretty much anything I want to do with a laptop (except run one of those oh-so-useful Russian-made flirting chat bots, which only run on Windows!!!)

The recent MacWorld 2008 had me listening closely. Back 6 months ago when I was shopping for my first laptop, I really liked the idea of a tablet PC. I love the idea of taking notes, like I would on paper, and having them saved indefinitely, easily accessible, in one place. You know, sometimes, how ideas just flow better when you're using a pencil and paper? But then you have to copy those ideas back to a computer later? Boom! Do it all at once! What could be better?

So, my dream of having a usable tablet PC, combined with the buzz about one being developed by Apple, made me wonder whether I'd be ditching the MacBook soon for something a bit cooler...

MacBook Air:
No Tablet, Still Badass

Alas, it was close but no cigar. The MacBook Air is surely a radical new product from Apple. A so-called "sub-notebook", thin and light. I'm sure new-time buyers will be happy with this laptop, but it won't have me switching from my MBP anytime soon. Especially with alternatives in the market like the Asus EEE: smaller, lighter, and (here's the kicker) 1/6th the price, AND runs Linux by default! And the ModBook, an aftermarket MacBook modified into a tablet.

Asus Eee:
Smaller, 1/6 the Price

Despite not having a tablet this time around, the MacBook Air sets Apple up to hit a home run with a tablet the next time around. I'm sure the product development is in rapid motion. Maybe they had planned it for January but missed the mark? Well, for such a world-changing product, you might as well be patient and get it right on the first shot. Good things take time.

Today there is a BlackBerry to suit everyone's needs. I've recently had a chance to check out my friends' shiny new BlackBerrys- specifically, the BlackBerry 8820 and BlackBerry "Curve" 8300- and wow, am I impressed. Email? That's just the start- these things do everything but make you a sandwich (though I've never really tried issuing the speech command "make me a sandwich", so I can't tell, but I'm sure RIM is working on this one.)

BlackBerry 8820:
GPS, but no Camera!

For now, you'll have to decide which capability you want: Camera or GPS? Looks like the 8300 is positioned as the ultimate consumer wireless device, for people in constant touch with friends and family, always looking for a photo-op. The GPS-equipped 8820, on the other hand, seems positioned well for the world traveler or on-the-move business person who on occasion needs to get from point A to point B at all costs, and taking pictures along the way is just a nice bonus.

So what to choose? 8820 or 8300? Well, I'd skip the Apple iPhone- for now RIM still has the coolest wireless offerings around, with an actual keyboard for those who need to type at warp-speed. As for Camera or GPS? In my case, I'd go with the Curve 8300 with the built-in camera. I can ask for directions when I can't find point B, but those picture-perfect moments are one-time opportunities I just don't want to miss.

Copywriting Yoga poses? I don't know, seems a little sketch to me. Yoga in America straddles the border between fitness and spirituality, and we all know fitness programs have been legally protected before (Richard Simmons, Billy Blanks, etc.)

The question is, can you copyright spirituality? Brings to mind Scientology and Dianetics. In this day and age it will become a bigger question: does commercializing spirituality really work for the benefit of society, or are the risks (mainly, the *slight* conflict of interest) too great?

My favourite quote: "'I thought the whole thing was preposterous, to think you could tag an individual with a coin and think they wouldn't give it away or spend it', said H. Keith Melton, a leading intelligence historian."

The Globe and Mail has a great video of the incredible spy coins.

What the story didn't mention was the raid of a London, ON, Tim Horton's, where Canadian intelligence had lost track of one of the coins planted on a target American contractor. Said one officer, "This is nuts, the guy traded our high-tech nanotech spy coin for a small coffee- that thing is worth 20000 large double-doubles and 5 million timbits. Unbelievable!"

Now, imagine you can shave off another $X from the elimination of pre-installed Microsoft Windows. A man from Sheffield, UK did just that, and got back £55.23 (over U.S. $100) from Dell based on the fact that he did not plan to use the pre-installed copy of Windows.

You can imagine, at a large scale, the huge gain for business if $100 can be saved on each desktop or notebook purchased. It's this lower price, ultimately, that will drive demand for Dell PCs with Linux pre-installed, and which makes this such a great move for Dell. In the end, businesses using Linux PCs will all benefit from that extra $100 they can put towards R&D, compensation, or a "yay, we're saving lots of money by using Linux" party.

Here's a YouTube clip of Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth talking about Ubuntu and Dell:

We will be running a booth and looking for top-notch engineers to come join the Amazon team. Whether it's people who are passionate about designing the software that runs Amazon's futuristic warehouses, building a complex software infrastructure that scales to millions of customers, or creating user interfaces that make online shopping easy and fun, Amazon has some of the best opportunities out there.

While I'm here I'll also try to have a bit of fun and see what's going on in Denver! I'm writing from the Adam's Mark hotel. It's my first time in this city, and so far, I have one main reaction: IT'S FREAKING COLD! Today it's -19 degrees C, or 0 degress F. Sure different from Seattle!

Jan 12, Friday

Denver is a really interesting city so far. I spent the good part of today walking up and down 16th Street, the main shopping area. There's lots of stores and restaurants, and a lot of people dressed in heavy winter gear, especially jackets with the big furry hoods, and women usually wearing big matching snow boots. It feels like a ski resort in the middle of a city! Very cool.

Later in the day I met up with my buddy Karney, another Amazon guy. We had some coffee to catch up then headed out for some dinner. Since it was so incredibly cold outside, we ended up going to the first place we could find. That place happened to be Victory, a steakhouse in downtown Denver. The food was great and we even ended the dinner with some good scotch. Our waiter had a seriously fake fancy accent, but that was just extra entertainment. :)

Afterwards we went to check out this bar Rio Grande and had some margaritas. It closed at 11 p.m., because, according to some locals we asked, "that's how it's always been." Well, it was time to get back to the hotel anyway. While trying to catch a cab in the cold, a bunch of random locals jumped into my cab with me... friendly people, and they ended up inviting me out to check out some more bars with them. Had to pass since I had such a big day coming up, but I was impressed by their friendliness. To top it all off, they refused to let me pay part of the cab fare. What cool Denverites, huh?

Jan 13, Saturday

The conference today was a huge success... it was inspiring seeing so many students out there getting their careers started off to a good start, and I was thrilled to tell them about Amazon and about working in the tech industry. Virtually every (it seemed) big U.S. company had a presence there, so this was also a first for me: it was an awesome time going around the booths talking to people from so many different fields. I talked to exhibitors about everything ranging from breakfast cereals (General Mills), to RFID chips (Texas Instruments), to fighter jets (Northrop Grumman). I have to say, all really interesting stuff.

After the conference I had to take a nap. The day took it's toll.

Pretty soon after, I woke up, and the entire Amazon crew met up for a dinner. I had the daunting task of choosing a restaurant that everyone would like, and ended up choosing the Italian restaurant Venice. This was a bit of a roller coaster experience. We ended up waiting 1 hour for our table (with a reservation), then another hour for our food. The situation was really bad, but the waitress was doing an amazing job making up for it. She ended up saving the night. In the end, (what I believe to be) either the owner or the chef came out to serve us our food himself, which was a nice touch. Ultimately though, the night was saved by the food. I had the Ossobucco and it was awesome. We had a great wine to go with it, and ended the meal with some espresso. Somebody ordered an Americano, and they brought the espresso with hot water on the side. Oops! It was a funny mistake, but overall the experience was great. A restaurant doesn't have to be perfect to leave you with good memories- in the end it's all about the food.

A bunch of us went out afterward and ended up at a place called Crocs. Lots of tequila (including Tezon Silver and Don Julio 1942) and lots of bar fights, luckily with none of us involved in the latter. :) I guess the cold weather brings out some hostility in people, but overall a fun place and a good night.

Jan 14, Sunday

During my last day in Denver I met up with Karney again and had lunch at the Denver Hard Rock Cafe. Then we spent the remainder of our time at the Denver Art Museum. Apparently we were lucky because they had just finished the new, massive, modern, 2nd building a few months earlier. I was super impressed by the museum, maybe because I hadn't expected Denver to be an artistic place. But I was wrong- the art was all really amazing. it was mostly very modern (the Radar exhibit), but they also had a Japanese Zen Buddhist collection from Kimiko and John Powers.

Bye Denver, I had a great time, and I would definitely come back someday... Maybe when the weather is nicer. :)

I chose to watch this French movie "La Moustache."

It was a hilarious movie (but not a comedy). Basically, a guy cuts off his moustache and goes insane after asking his girlfriend what she thinks of his new "clean look", to which she responds that he never had a moustache in the first place. Who comes up with a plot like that? Seriously?

It's the kind of movie that just blows up in extremeness. I like those movies. :) It leads you wishing, wishing, wishing, that everything will be explained in the end. But of course, as artsy film makers are likely to do, they never tie up all the loose ends, and you are left figuring it out for yourself.

If I had to take a guess, none of the middle part movie is real. The main character, Marc, is just imagining what *might* happen if the people in his life really did insist he never had a moustache. But he never actually shaves his moustache until he's in China at the end.

Fun stuff... and recommended!

Here's a Seattle PI picture from yesterday showing a man knocked down flat on his face, right in the middle of the street:

"An unidentified woman, a good Samaritan, moves in to offer a helping hand to a man who was knocked down in the middle of a crosswalk by strong winds in downtown Seattle Wednesday. (December 14, 2006)"

I just love that picture. :) And here's the radar picture right now:

Be careful if you live under the transmission towers in Queen Anne, or if you happen to be a crane operator.

The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended. Nothing should find acceptance just because it is new, radical, and fashionable. 'Orthodoxy' is not an evil if the doctrine on which the 'orthodox' stand is sound. Who is anti-labor, those who want to lower labor to the Russian level, or those who want for labor the capitalistic standard of the United States? Who is 'nationalist,' those who want to bring their nation under the heel of the Nazis, or those who want to preserve its independence?

It's something I wish people would do more: please don't throw ideas into big huge buckets! People like to categorize things, to simplify the way they view the world. Left and Right are great directions to look if you're crossing a street, but don't make them the be-all end-all of where you or others stand in your beliefs.