From Windows of the World to Colors

So the surviving staff of the WTC’s Windows of the World is starting up their co-op restuarant called Colors. I had been to the Windows of the World twice but Leah has never been. I booked a table there for our anniversary on September 28, 2001 but the event on September 11 meant Leah never had the chance to enjoy the night view of the city with fantastic live music.

When Colors is opened, I think our first visit will indeed be a ‘pity’ visit but if the food is good then there is no reason not to return.

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Zhao Ziyang dies at 85

So the last of the old guard (for my generation) of the Communist Party leader and a reform leader, Zhao Ziyang, has died at age of 85.

His tearful appeal to the Tiananmen Square demonstrators was our hope that the communist party was serious about reform and push China into the modern world. We can only imagine the China that may be if he were not ousted and became the party and country’s leader.

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Skype Me

I’ve heard a few good things about Skype recently so I downloaded a copy for my PowerBook. Very nicely designed UI but with a lack of willing and capable participant on the other end of the connection I haven’t been able to test out the actual speaking part yet.

The last time I tried VoIP was when I was working in Portland and Leah and I talked over the net using iChat. Pretty good quality but with a slight time delay. Perhaps Skype will be better, especially with its cross-platform nature (i.e. more potential users)?

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Quick MacWorld SF roundup

Mac mini is nice. Definitely a Cube version 2 from Apple. As someone in MacRumors forum said, “It’s not a Cube, it’s a Sandwich!” And a colleague of mine, who was never a Mac fan, ordered one yesterday as soon as it was up on Apple’s Store. I am tempted to get the mini for my mom who is still using my old PC from college (a Pentium II 166MHz running Windows 98!). She mainly uses it for email, surfing the web, fax, and QuickBook so the mini is perfect for her.

Finally an iPod that is affordable for even those cheapskate Windows users 😀 Lack of a screen may put some ignorant, narrow minded people (who think their ways of using an iPod is the only way every one in this planet will use it, i.e. you need screen to pick the songs/album/playlist to listen to) off though.

iLife ’05 is what really interest me. Particularly iPhoto 5 with its new support for RAW format means I no longer need to use Photoshop CS’s browser to manage my RAW files. How iPhoto 5 stacks up against Capture One Pro, which has a very strong file management feature, is another matter. But since I don’t use any of the other applications apart from iTunes, which is still free, the $79 price tag is a bit high for me.

iWork is definitely a step in the right direction for Apple and their customers. The lack of a spreadsheet program means I still can’t get rid of Microsoft Office from my PowerBook yet.

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MacWorld frenzy

In typical pre-MacWorld fashion, the rumors crowd has gone wild over the Flash-based iPod (without screen apparently). This guy on the MacRumors forum hit the nail on the head though. Very true and very funny…

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