10.5.2 imminent

Cupertino has just blessed us with upgrades to all elements of the iWork '08 suite of applications, quoting compatibility issues with Mac OS X that need addressing. As I haven't noticed any compatibility issues with 10.5.1, that can only mean one thing, I guess ...

In other Mac related news, I can report a successful conclusion of an experiment. The other day I read about a guy who had his white USB keyboard washed in his dishwasher, and it came out squeaky clean and working. Since my bluetooth keyboard is a real mess and I don't need it anymore anyway (upgraded to the new flat iMac kb, remember?), I thought, heck, why not give it a try. So to the dishwasher it went, in the eco programme and without detergent (that's important, I think). Now it's really seriously clean, and after waiting for two weeks to complete the drying, it works perfectly. So, it's ready for auctioning!

A Swiss iPhone

Please sign this petition, asking Apple and Swiss mobile phone companies Orange, Sunrise and Swisscom for a release date of the iPhone in the Swiss market! 

Sounds like fun!

"Our business model is one of very high risk: We dig a very big hole in the ground, spend three billion dollars to build a factory in it, which takes three years, to produce technology we haven't invented yet, to run products we haven't designed yet, for markets which don't exist.

"We do that two or three times a year."

Intel CEO Otellini

Essential watching

This is essential watching for every Anglophone who stares blankly at continental Europeans quipping about the same procedure as last year. The video is a 1963 Swiss-German co-production that is traditionally aired on virtually every TV station on the last day of the year.

Wallpaper* Basel

A while back, I got the Wallpaper City Guide Basel, among others. The fact alone that this guide exists had me surprised, as Basel is not exactly a hotspot of urban culture, with the occasional exception confirming the rule, of course. So, insofar as a city guide is a review of a city, this is a meta-review.

First, let's drop some names from the Urban Life section (this is the useful part): Stucki Bruderholz, Le Lertzbach (just across the burn, btw),  NT/Areal, Acqua, Fumare Non Fumare, Chez Donati, Grenzwert, Campari Bar, Coumou (already closed), Das Schiff, Bar Rouge, Johann, Nuovo Bar, Eo ipso, Noohn. I'll admit straight away that about a third of the names I have yet to try, so coming from a native, that is already a compliment. The other places are definitely top rated in town.

The Wallpaper City Guide is quite a useful small (very!) companion catering to the urban chic city traveller who doesn't care much for the jetsam that traditional guides provide. In that, it is also handy for the native who might discover a new gem or two in the place she calls home.

Good stuff!

If you ever happen to need a simple, efficient tool to produce maps, here it is!

Sometime along the way to Mac OS X, I lost touch with SETI@home, the experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Meanwhile, you can even use your spare CPU cycles in the screen saver to help calculate climate change models. How cool is that?!

Gayageum

One of the lasting effects of last year's trip to South Korea is the CD with traditional Korean music by Hwang, Byungki which I bought at Seoul airport. Hwang is considered a key authority and performer on the gayageum. The album I got entirely at random is called Darha Nopigom, and it turns out to be one of the best buys in a long time. Unfortunately, it is not available on Amazon or anywhere else I looked. The only similar album I found is this.

As expected, the music is quite foreign to our ears - yet it is very melodic with a vibrant rhythmic structure. I can listen to it time and again, and I still hear new,  intricate details - the hallmark of quality, I guess. As an added bonus, it always reminds me of the concert I attended at Korea House.

Oh, and speaking of last year: Happy New Year to my dear reader(s)!!

Sir Peter's taste for swan

Speaking of Scotland: I came across a reference to Udal law and feudal tenure in Scotland in an article in the University of Edinburgh Journal. This led me to this rather amusing article about Sir Peter's alleged felony to partake of the remains of a deceased swan (Monty Python, anyone?). I guess I'll never know whether Sir Peter actually did time in the Tower, but it certainly was enlightening to read about it. 

Exit Music

So then, this is it, allegedly - the last in the Inspector Rebus series. I am presently struggling with myself whether or not I should reveal any spoilers, since it doesn't really matter anymore. But then again, it does, so I won't. Suffice it to say that I am sad to see him go as he kept my relationship to Edinburgh alive - not that I'd had any to its underworld, mind you. I wonder whether Rankin will do a Reichenbach twist some time, or whether we will treated to a different angle maybe? But until then, let's give Rebus some space.

Playing around

Who the heck needs Photoshop when they can have Gimp (the free GNU Image Manipulation Program)? 

Granted, it takes a bit of getting used to when you use X11 for the first time, especially since it needed a bit of tweaking to run under Leopard, but everything seems to run just fine now.