My new Intel Mac is here...

Finally after having waited for months, I ordered my new Intel Mac last week. While I hate the fact that they don't carry them in the 12 inch models any more, everything else has things going for it.

1. Power and Performance (2.2 GHz and 2 GB RAM) - a powerful graphics processor and dedicated memory makes the entire computing experience better than ever.
   
2. Glossy widescreen LCD display - I watched a movie on it the other day and the resolution was far better than my plasma TV I say.
   
3. Built-in iSight Camera - No more fiddling with external, wired web cams which are cumbersome to get mounted and positioned. Now a sleek, built-in high quality iSight camera that is so neatly integrated. No need to worry about installing and configuring, only dressing up.
   
4. Built-in wireless and Bluetooth - Syncing your Macbook Pros with your bluetooth enabled phones and transfering images and data can be enormously handy. I use the feature to take quick photos on my iPhone and transferring easily to my iPhoto albums.
   
5. Multiple OSs - I just installed a version of Parallels and Windows XP on the virtual machine. So now I am able to run Mac OSX and WinXP seamlessly in an integrated environment. How cool is that

For now that's enough to get me going!

connecting in an open source world...

This is the age of social networking and practically everyone you know is on some list making his/her network grow. While some of these tools form the A-list of people's primary networking medium, others are slowing coming up with niches that you didn't imagine existed. I have recently been drawn into Facebook by a handful of friends. I didn't think I belonged there but soon other friends found me, contacted me and before long I realized we had formed a small clique there. When I first read about Facebook I discounted it as some teenage-geeky tool that most youngsters might feel drawn to. I couldn't be more off. I am seeing more and more business professionals signing up on it, and like a colleague casually mentioned, it might soon become the tool of choice for shunning people with finesse and forming small cliques.

While these mediums do exist, I have to say that I have never felt myself being connected to so many colleagues and friends, purely through working in open source community. Just the other day, I heard from a friend I went to school with 11 years back, with who saw a post from OSAF in one of the open source forums and contacted me and here we were chatting, back like the old times. And I hear similar tales from others around me who have hooked up with friends through the community.

So while the social networking tools are doing their job, lets not discount the fact that networking just comes easy being part of an open source community.

I have a crush...

I have a crush. A crush on something that is an indispensable part of my life. I didn't quite think at this age I could ever fall for something but here I am totally bowled over. Viral surprised me the other day bringing home this little thing, nicely coated and wrapped. As I removed the layers and saw the little black thing sitting on my lap, I jumped! It was the new iPhone. I really didn't think a tiny piece gadget would have me all over. I have to admit I am enamored by it. It's been a bit of adjustment getting used to owning a phone that has no keypad, no knobs and yet super-slim. It's cool, extremely functional and loaded with features. Music, video, photos, email, calendar, maps, weather and what not...it has it all.

Here's one of the many pictures taken on my iPhone. It's special because it is the first one. Riya sleeping on the cot cuddled up in her blanket.