Solipsism Gradient

Life’s full of surprises. Yesterday I was surfing the net in preparation for my upcoming trip to Paris for the Apple Expo. Booking the extra legs to and from São Paulo was no problem. I’ll leave next Thursday (Sept. 11), stay in Amsterdam for two days, then on Sunday (Sept. 14) it’s off to Paris. Steve Job’s keynote is on Sept. 16, then we’ll have time to see the first two days of the exhibition and conferences, and we fly back on Sept. 18.

It took some searching but I even found a relatively inexpensive hotel not terribly far away from the Expo. At first I had no such luck for Amsterdam, though… everything was either full or demanded a minimum stay of 3, 4 or even 5 days! Site after site reported back that there were practically no rooms available in Amsterdam from Sept. 12 to 14. And there were some obscure references to “during IBC”.

Hm. Sounded familiar, somehow…

Of course, IBC is the International Broadcasting Convention, and it turns out that Apple is an exhibitor there too. So I immediately took steps to register for that, too. And again I lucked into one of the last available hotels; somewhat out in the suburbs but next to a train station, and a little more expensive than planned but still bearable. So we’ll get two conferences for the price of one…

I can’t understand how one could travel in the dark ages before the Internet…

John Walkenbach writes the J-Walk Blog, which is one of my all-time favorite weblogs. Today was a typical day for John, linking to Pencil Ads, Guitars for Girls, Baby Names, Advances in Wine Cork Technology, The WD-40 FAQ, and Satan’s Laundromat, to cite just a few. I could go on and on…

Today’s favorite is “Who’s on first” by Lincoln Spector:

Ultimate SuperDuper Computer Store. Can I help you?

Thanks. I’m setting up a home office in the den, and I’m thinking of buying a computer.

Mac?

No, the name is Bud.

Your computer?

I don’t own a computer. I want to buy one.

Mac?

I told you, my name is Bud.

What about Windows?

Why? Does it get stuffy?

Do you want a computer with Windows?

I don’t know. What do I see when I look out the windows?

Wallpaper.

… {two pages of this snipped}

Hello? Hello? Customers! Why do they always hang up on me? Oh, well. Ultimate SuperDuper Computer Store. Can I help you?

Posted by Ronaldo:
Well, I read Dune again every three years or so. The books are so well written, that every time it feels like I’m reading them again for the first time, finding new meanings in the text. I think the epic is so multifaceted that you can always look at it in a different way each time. I just wish Herbert had completed the seventh book though.

I’m so busy, I absolutely had to post this one .

codepoetry pointed me at 0xDECAFBAD who writes (“courtesy of purl”, whatever that means)

I must not attend meetings. Meetings are the mind killer. Meetings are the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my meeting. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the wasted time has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

If this is absolute gibberish to you, you haven’t read Frank Herbert’s Dune, or any of its sequels. I wish I could read it again for the first time…

Looks like I’ll be attending the Apple Expo in Paris in two weeks, much to my surprise. The nice folks at Macmania magazine are sponsoring part of the trip. I’m going with my “Press” hat, so expect to see some updates from the press room during the expo.

Time to brush up on my French… I had 3 years of French in school and actually did quite well, but then English moved in and occupied (it seems) more or less the same neurons. I still can read and pronounce it, and understand about 50% of French movies .

It’s been at least 5 or 6 years since my last non-developer Mac-related conference/expo. I must admit I grew disillusioned with the marketeering aspects of the old MacWorld expos. Let’s see if the French do it any better. The published list of exhibitors isn’t all that inspiring, but hopefully Steve Jobs will announce something interesting at the keynote.

Regarding the keynote, informed guessers say we’ll see a new 15″ PowerBook (aluminum), a speed boost for the 12″ and 17″ models, and some music-related stuff: music store for Europe and/or Windows, and possibly some iPod news.

More later…

I wrote this link down some days ago and can’t find where I saw it, sorry. But there’s some funny stuff here… I particularly like the third one from the top, “Beware of the <chomp>”.

The English translation of the first installment of my Interesting Times column is up. I’m starting out with some stories about the early Brazilian computer industry.

The column itself (in Portuguese) is for the new edition of MacMagazine, the premier Brazilian Macintosh news site. New installments will appear somewhat irregularly, but I’ll try to write at least a couple every month. You can subscribe to RSS feeds in English or Portuguese. Suggestions or questions are always welcome; post them here or, if you prefer, at this MacMagazine Forum topic.

Tonight I’m writing the first installment of a column for MacMagazine, the premier Brazilian Macintosh news site. English translations will be posted here in this topic, with a small delay.