Steve speaks out

Walt Mossberg noted that their are millions and millions of iTunes software running on Windows which makes Apple, quite parodoxically, one of the biggest Windows developers. Steve Jobs commented that it's "like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell". Good one, that.

Wild Chimps

Visited the zoo (in Charlottenburg) today in the company of my children and my sister-in-law with her children. There was a thunderstorm brewing outside, it was raining cat's and dogs and giraffes and we were kinda trapped in the primate building. Lucklily we had an ice-cream dispenser and a pocket full of coins for survival. Inside it was feeding time, never saw so many monkeys eat apples (I was always thinking: do those grow in Africa or Asia alot, where were all the bananas?).

We were standing in front of the cage of the chimps when all of a sudden they all entered at the same time with a a sort of feeding-frenzy way. Couldn't hear them that well behind the glass, but it was quite a show of vitality and unbounding energy as the hopped, skipped and jumped across the various ladders, ropes and dangling stretchers that posed as their fake habitat.

At first we believed that this was all just play. Then we noticed how their all their activity was directed at a soul chimp who seemed to take the brunt the monkey's aggressions. At one point a mother chimp holding her child jumped onto the back of our poor victim. This reminded me of one of those moves that wrestler's make from the ropes to humiliate an oppenent that is already down. After a while the chimp just cowered in one corner and a warden came, firing some water a the aggressor-chimps to protect our victimized chimp.

Those Darn Old Books

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Originally uploaded by iMaculate.

Sorting out my old, unreadable and/or obsolete books is really a pain in the old bookworm's ass. I can't bring myself to just conveniently throw away the books that I haven't even touched for years. But what else shall I do with them? I've tried eBay, but for the few euros I get per book it just isn't worth the effort. I could go to a flea market, if I had the capacity to kill a Sunday. Tried Bookcrossing.com, but not a single book I set into the wild has produced any feedback.

iMac Update Slated For Late June

According to Think Secret (via Macrumors) an iMac Update is slated for late June. It remains vague as to whether the update will entail an entire redesign of the iMac, which has been in this form since the last day of August 2004. Starting with the G5 processor the iMac became the first computer that Apple ever built running an Intel chip. That was in January 2006. This was the model that I also got after being totally brainwashed by Steve in his Keynote where the Intel iMac was first introduced. So the basic design of the iMac has been unaltered now for almost 2 1/2 years.

What I would really like would be a bigger screen. The 20" has superior quality and for using the computer as a computer it has just the right size, I don't really need the of a 30" for multiple windows and apps (although Al Gore apparently needs three of them). But for watching movies (my sofa is about 3 meters from my desk and is used as a TV-ersatz) I wouldn't mind having a larger screen. The 24" would be great, but on prinicipal I never migrate to the same design, never have and probably never will. Unless the product cycle is ten years or so.

Wonder what JonathenI Ive has got up his sleeve. We'll see, hopefully soon.

Problems with my internet connection

This morning I was unable to get an internet connection. According to the log on my Fritz!Box router it finally got a connection at 12:14 after the router repeatedly failed to connect. The log spoke of a "PPPoE-error: time limit" ("PPoE-Fehler: Zeitüberschreitung"), whatever that means.

Geox shoes: are they really waterproof ?

Geox shoes are all over the place here in Germany. They claim that their shoes are breathable by means of a special microporous membrane which, "when placed in a perforated rubber sole, allows transpiration while keeping external humidity out". In other words: your feet don't get wet from the inside and your feet don't sweat.

About three months ago, on a slightly rainy day I noticed that both my feet were getting wet from the bottom and I was most sure that it was not from my sweat. I thought at the time that I perhaps stepped in a puddle and the water got in from the sides. But on another occasion my feet get wet again. This time I took out the inlays and noticed that they were wet and had a moldy look, as if this had been wet quite often before.

I wrote to the Geox Deutschland GmbH in Munich on April 18 regarding the matter, but they have not answered yet. Called at their Munich offices today, and the representative told me that I should just wait, she was sure that they will look into the matter.

Strange bedfellows: Windows Vista on my iMac

I finally caved in and bought a version of Windows Vista (Home Premium) for my iMac. I do have a slight reservoir of Windows programs that will probably never be ported to the mac, and I was getting sick and tired of my old Windows machine and monitor gathering dust in the corner.

Right now I am downloading the newest version of BootCamp (1.2) which will magically make my Windows computer and monitor redundant.