Suunto Elementum Terra
I do not wear a watch, for my iPhone gives me all the information I would get from one, and I do not need the status symbol or fashion statement. Nevertheless, I have a keen appreciation for fine horlogerie, and I like timekeeping pieces that push the information envelope beyond the one of a typical smartphone. A perfect example comes from Finland, with the recently released Suunto Elementum Terra, which includes altimeter, barometer, and compass (the later being available on the iPhone 3GS).
Adopting Twitter
Over the past couple of weeks, I have started to use Twitter to push some updates on Intalio, my traveling, and some elements of my personal life. My Twitter feed is available at @ghalimi, and syndicates feeds for both IT|Redux (professional blog) and ghalimi.name (personal blog). Moving forward, I will use ghalimi.name for any article longer than 140 characters.
Duravit Inipi Sauna
I love sauna, but finding the proper place to put one in one’s dwelling can be a challenge. Duravit solved this problem with the Inipi sauna, which can be installed in any room and combines sauna and shower into a single unit. I will definitely include one of these into our next housing project.
Zoho Artforms No. 1
I just came across the Zoho Artforms No. 1, a wonderful piece of craftmanship. It is made of bronze and stainless steel, measures 17 inches, weights 16 lbs, and has a total of 798 parts, of which 101 are found in each hand. Amazing!
La Machine à Ecrire le Temps
Here is a fantastic piece of machinery (movie).
Totally useless, utterly beautiful.
Concord C1 Tourbillon Gravity
A watch is essentially useless. In today’s modern world, everyone is carrying a cellphone, which does everything a watch can do, and more. Therefore, a watch can be considered the ultimate luxury, and a luxury watch the most luxurious possession one could own. I’m not really into luxury, but the pointlessness of luxury watches sometimes captures my imagination. Recently, I came across the Concord C1 Tourbillon Gravity, and I must say that the visible vertical tourbillon mechanism is quite nice.
New Blog Design
This blog is almost three years old now, and a new design was long overdue. After much considerations, I opted for something very clean, turning the sidebar into a footer, and using colors only for pictures, which were added for the first time a couple of weeks ago while May, Neige and I were in Oʻahu. The new design is based on the DePo Clean Theme and is gracing a brand new instance of WordPress 2.5 migrated from Yahoo! to 1&1, thanks to Pascal’s help. Home, sweet home!
iPhone
Returning home after a long trip abroad is always nice, but today was even better, for a brand spanking new iPhone was waiting for me. Our good friend Dave was kind enough to pick one up on his way back from work, so I would not have to wait in line at the store on my way back from Japan. I quickly activated it, and spent a fair amount of time marveling at the amazingly sleek form factor and snappy user interface. I already knew the device would be great, but what Apple just delivered certainly beats any expectations I could have had. Congratulations to Dave and his team — you’ve definitely set a new standard! And looking back at how fast the iPod evolved in just five years, I simply cannot wait to see what iPhone 2.0 will be like.
Zip Nuvo
Today was our last day in Tokyo, and we took advantage of some free time for a tour of Asakusa and a hunt for the newest gadgests in Akihabara. We spent a fair amount of time at Yodobashi Akiba, quite possibly the biggest eletronics store in Japan, then wandered in the busy streets of Electric City looking for robots. Our search remained largely unsuccessful, until my friend Reynald took us in a hidden store full of the latest humanoid robots produced by companies such as Hitec Robotics or Kondo. My favorite was the nuvo produced by Zip and designed by Ken Okuyama. Its design reminded me of the robots living on Laputa, the castle in the sky featured in Tenkuu no Shiro Rapyuta, my favorite movie from Hayao Myazaki. We ended the day with an all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu dinner. Many thanks to Reynald for his local guidance.
500GB of Flash
Today, I received 500 1GB flash drives pre-loaded with the ThinkFree Office 2.0 suite of applications, as part of a marketing program I am running for IT|Redux. Carrying 500GB of flash memory around feels a little bit strange. I am supposed to give the drives away to bloggers willing to review the ThinkFree suite, so if you have a blog, drop me a line, and I’ll send you one.
Trek Madone SL 5.9
I have been looking for a bike for a month now, and I finally pulled the trigger: I bought a 2006 Trek Madone SL 5.9, which was on sale at Chain Reaction Bicycles in Redwood City, CA. I added the Shimano PD-7800 SPD-SL Road Racing Pedals, the mandatory Shimano SC-6502 Flight Deck, a couple of Bontrager Race X Lite Carbon cages, and a Terry Falcon Y saddle (without screened falcon). Before I take it for a first ride, I will also add the Garmin GSC 10 speed/cadence sensor to match my Garmin Forerunner 305. Sweet…
Computers and Go
Until recently, computers have been relatively weak Go players. With Chess, things were a little bit easier for computers, and IBM’s Deep Blue eventually beat the World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, back in May 1997. But with Go, things were a lot more tricky, and brute force algorithms were no match to professional players. Recently though, some significant progress has been made, and according to this CNET article, Levente Kocsis of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences computing lab Sztaki has developed a software that is “not far from reaching the level of a professional Go player.” It will be interesting to see when the world’s best Go player ends up being a computer. I am willing to bet that it will happen within the next ten years.
Garmin Forerunner 305
Following yesterday’s successful use of the Garmin Forerunner 205 to log a flight, I have opted to go for it instead of the Suunto X9i, which does not seem to work so well according to reviews I could find online. In fact, I have decided to go for the Garmin Forerunner 305, which also provides a wireless heart rate monitor, and can connect to the Garmin GSC 10 speed/cadence sensor. This should be handy when I start biking outdoor.
EveryTrail
Today, I flew to Half Moon Bay (KHAF) for lunch with my friend Joost. We logged our flight with the Garmin Forerunner 205 wrist GPS, and uploaded track and pictures onto EveryTrail. This map shows that we took off in San Carlos (KSQL), flew through San Francisco International Airport’s Class B airspace, got asked to do two left 360 turns to avoid heavy jets taking off on runway 28 Left or 28 Right, flew over the city, made a right 360 over Alcatraz, flew over Sausalito, then went back through SFO’s airspace, because the coastline had only marginal VFR conditions. We then cut directly across the hills, landed in Half Moon Bay for lunch, then flew back to San Carlos. The system is so good that it even shows that my first attempt at landing back in San Carlos was not that great, and that we did a go around. The second attempt was a lot better, and we logged a total of 1.4 hours of VFR flying.
Gastrovac
Last year, I read a fascinating article published by TIME Magazine on the Gastrovac, a new vacuum cooking device. According to the manufacturer, by creating an artificial low pressure, oxygen-free atmosphere, the Gastrovac considerably reduces cooking and frying temperatures, maintaining the texture, colour and nutrients of the food. Moreover, the Gastrovac creates some kind of sponge effect: when the atmospheric pressure is restored, the food absorbs the liquid around it, allowing infinite combinations of foods and flavours. Now, I am dreaming about the kind of dishes I could prepare with such an apparatus, especially when using extracts of white truffles. Time to save some money…
Rice Cooker
We recently received our rice cooker, the Zojirushi NH-VBC18. This wonderful appliance uses induction heating for quicker, more evenly distributed heat for cooking any variety of rice perfectly, all the time. With it, all we have to do is rince the rice, add some water to the indicated level, close the cover, select the type of rice (white, brown, mixed) and the type of cooking (regular, sushi, etc.), and hit the ‘Cook’ button. It could hardly be any simpler. Even better, the appliance can also increase the amount of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) naturally found in brown rice. Eating at home has never been so fun. Next step: learning how to cut raw fish for preparing sashimis.
Who Killed the Electric Car
Tonight, May and I watched Who Killed the Electric Car (IMDB), a documentary that investigates the birth and death of the electric car, with a special focus on the EV1 originally developed by GM. I was actually surprised to learn that at the beginning of the twentieth century, a majority of the cars produced in the United States were actually electric cars, and the internal combustion engine really took over only in the 20’s. The movie is a good reminder that great ideas can be killed by collective stupidity. Hopefully, the idea for a pure electric car (not a hybrid) will come back again, and eventually succeed in the marketplace. In the meantime, I wish I could test drive the Tesla Roadster…
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