Wow, das ist mal was anderes:
Macworld 2007
Hello again and greetings from MacWorld 2007 in San Francisco!
To be exact, from the Microsoft Blogger Lounge. That sounds strange, but it's true ;) And while the upcoming (?) Microsoft Office 2008 ranks pretty high on my (ever-growing) list of things I could not care less about, the whole blogger lounge thing is a pretty nice move. But then again, it seems kind of lame that they just offer wired Internet: That's about as lame (or 1992, or web 1.0, you name it) as it gets. Here are some pics:
Macworld is an interesting type of expo. Almost every single booth offers something you can attach to your iPod, or software you can run on your Mac, or more or less useful things you probably never really need, but people buy anyway. <!--more--> By the way: While Steve Jobs deliberately ignored the whole "software" topic in his keynote on Monday, he leaves this job to his employees, presenting key features of Mac OS X 10.5 on one of the two gigantic screens that form the center of the whole expo floor. On the other one, by the way, some nameless Apple person also played with an iPhone, with lots of curious Mac users listening.
However the actual star of this year, in my opinion is the Apple TV which -- and I am not sure why -- gets quite a bit less attention from the visitors than the iPhone (even though the latter is hidden behind glass). But judging from what I see on the neat HDTV screens they are showing off...
... the Apple TV could really be an enhancement for my living room. Also, it doesn't seem to be as ridiculously overpriced as the iPhone.
Feel free to browse through my other Macworld pictures as well.
Rückflug gebucht
So, vorgestern habe ich also meinen Rückflug nach Deutschland gebucht. Ich muss ja schließlich auch mal fertigstudieren ;)
Heute erst gestorbenâ¦
... morgen schon auf YouTube.
Die letzte Schlagzeile des Jahres
Na, wer wohl? Genau, Saddam. Diese Fotos habe ich in Santa Cruz gemacht:
Happy New Year!
Happy new year to every one of my readers out there -- have a good one!
For those who were wondering if there changed anything more than a digit (oh, how often will I write 2006 instead of -07 in the next few weeks!), here's a little rundown on what changed law-wise, in Germany and the U.S., my two countries of residence :)
In Germany, for example, starting today, young parents can get government money to replace the income reduction the get due to taking care of their baby. Some newspapers today published stories about mothers who tried to make the birth as slow as possible last night, so the child was born after midnight -- had it been born at 23:59 on New Year's Eve, they wouldn't qualify for the new government benefits...
Another thing that makes it almost sad going back home this year is the increased sales tax: Since today, Germans have to pay 19% on almost all their sales, instead of 16% before.
Another interesting one is that from now on, buying cigarettes at German cigarette vending machines is only possible with debit cards that carry the age information of the holder, so underage smokers can't easily buy cigarettes anymore.
In the U.S., some things changed as well: Apparently here in California it is now legal for beer vendors to give free samples in restaurants and bars -- which before only wine and liquor vendors were allowed to do. (-- did the former restriction make any sense? At all? I don't think so. In Germany this would, by the way, have been unconstitutional, quite likely.)
Also in the U.S. landlords now have to disclose if the place you are about to rent was ever used as a meth lab before. Not for you to start a new one ;) -- but apparently the cleanup is pretty costly because of the chemicals. Apparently that's nothing you want to move into...
Do you know anything else that has changed (in these two countries or whatever one else...) and is noteworthy? Feel free to leave a comment!
Frohsneus!
Frohes neues Jahr wünsche ich allen Lesern!
Nicht lachen. Danke.
Zum vierten mal heute durch den Sicherheitscheck zu gehen, ist immer noch kein Grund zu lachen. In meinem eigenen Interesse (sorry, leicht verwackelt):
Gute Nachrichten
"Gute Nachrichten", sagt die Dame an der Sprechanlage, "Ihr Flugzeug ist zwar nicht reparierbar, aber wir holen Ihnen ein Neues."
Essensmarken
Ein Gutes hat die Verzögerung mit dem Flugzeug dann schon: Die Essensmarken (3 x 6 US-Dollar) die man bekommt.