Archive for January 2005

Thu, 20 January 2005

The 3rd annual International JR Aero Tow will be held June 2-5.  As Peter Goldsmith said at the last Nats that featured a weekend of scale aero tow cross country, he was also going to include a cross country task at his event.  I have to tell you, cross country with scale aero tow sailplanes is about some of the most fun I have ever had in the sport.  By all means, if you have an interest in R/C soaring you should check this one out.

I have put the flyer online for your downloading convenience. 

Click Here (Adobe Acrobat is needed to view this)

Sat, 15 January 2005

This was one heck of a week for new products.  Chevrolet officially announced the C6 Z06, yes we have seen the pictures floating around the net, but the embargo is over now and the pictures turned out to be real.  Here is a gallery of the new Z06 pictures.  Could this be my next car?  I guess it depends on the price which has not been announced yet.  I like my '02 Z06 quite a bit, I hope Chevy can hold on to a similar price performance ratio.

Apple was at it as well, announcing a variety of new hardware and software products.  Some of their products were also prereleased on the net, and the rumors of a headless Mac turned out to be true.  The new products that caught my eye were iLife '05 because I use that software often, the new flash based iPod shuffle, and the new Mac mini.

I have a first generation 20gb iPod, that I use all the time.  I have a mount for it in my Z06, but I could see buying an iPod shuffle, loading it up and leaving it in the car.  I will buy iLife, I use that software all the time and I want the upgrade.  The Mac mini is cute, I want a reason to buy one (and may find one) but I already have a pretty good G4 based iMac.  My next Mac should be dual G5 based, ready for all the 64 bit goodness of Tiger, the new Mac OS. 

As many of you know, I use a Mac side by side with my Windows computer, developing software applications.   Any of my friends looking to try out a Mac, the mini looks to be a great deal.  This looks like it's going to be a great way to try that out for yourself, it's better than you think.

Sat, 08 January 2005

I've been reading Adam Curry and Dave Winer's blogs for years now, so it's safe to say I watched these guys hatch and develop the podcasting idea.  I listened to Adams first podcasts from the castle, good idea and I liked how he was blending technologies, but it didn't hook me as a user.  I understand that some people like talk radio, I guess it's very seldom that I have something that I do that I can listen to talk radio, for instance a long daily commute. 

On the other hand, I do like to listen to music when I am at the computer developing virtual microscopy software, or working in the shop.  My iPod or iMac running iTunes faithfully serve that purpose. 

Well, I think I found a podcast that works for me, not that I was looking for one... I stumbled across it.  I'm using the new beta version of NetNewsWire that has the built in support for downloading RSS enclosures, such as a podcast and hands it off to iTunes.  And I read about Coverville on another blog, (I wish I could remember where), so I decided to test NetNewsWire with it and it works, better than expected.

Coverville, I like this podcast (radio show), check it out.  

(You don't need an iPod to listen to a podcast, just something that will play a .MP3 audio file such as your computer)

Sat, 01 January 2005

Happy New Year!