Rainer Brockerhoff

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

Forgot to check, but just now I did... my first post on this weblog is now just over one year old! :!:



It certainly was an eventful year for me and posting here more or less regularly has helped my English no end, generated favorable publicity for my products, and made me several new friends. Thanks to all of you who keep on reading...

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

While running madly about to get back to where I was before the last trip (perhaps I should even say the last three trips) I chanced upon Tim Bray's comments on software patents. This is certainly the best article on the subject to come along for years. Highly recommended.

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

I'm back.



Actually I've returned from Paris a few days ago, extremely tired and jet-lagged (not to speak of some virus I picked up at the Expo) and my wife promptly whisked me away for a weekend in the interior: the nice little town of Lavras Novas near Ouro Preto. No net access, lots of sleep and fresh air, excellent food, good music and nice people.



I'm still not up to speed, but getting there slowly. Together, we shot over 900 photos of Paris, though comparatively little of the Expo. I've done an initial check of the photos today and some may be publishable.



On our last night in Paris, I met Nick Taliesin Barrett and we had an extremely pleasant dinner at a créperie he recommended. I gave him some issues of Macmania magazine, and he posted some very flattering comments a few days later. Thanks, Nick...

[Rainer Brockerhoff (away)]

The past two days were quite exhausting, and today doesn't promise any letup... this tourism thing isn't as easy as it looks. Between our delegation of four we've took a little less than 800 pictures so far...



Steve Jobs' keynote was short as such things usually go. it's exhaustively covered on the news sites, so I won't repeat anything here.



I gave in to temptation and bought one of the new 40GB iPods. Preliminary tests are very positive; the only bug I've been able to find so far it that it seems impossible to have your home folder on the iPod, unless you boot from it. Let's see if that is fixed in Panther.



More later in the day, if possible... we 're leaving tomorrow morning. I'll try to write up some general comments on the Expo and Paris at home over the weekend.

[Rainer Brockerhoff (away)]

Live from Paris, rather to my own surprise.



I should have arrived today instead of Friday, but circumstances conspired to make us skip Amsterdam completely. Not only were there no hotels available within 100 Kms. of the city, but my companions neglected to mention our Amsterdam stopover to the lady at the KLM counter; as their luggage was going to go to Paris directly anyway, we decided to go with it.



Fortunately our hotel had rooms available and we took the opportunity to see Paris. I'd been here previously in 1995, but two of my companions were new to the city. So yesterday we had a day-long walk from the Île de la Cité to the Tour Eiffel. Today we spent some time in the Louvre and then I walked to the Place de la Republique, where I'm posting this.



Internet Cafés are not very common in Paris, although people tell me more are opening; we also saw some signs advertising WiFi hotspots, although it wasn't clear whether access was free or not.



I'm typing (or rather, hunting and pecking) this on a venerable Pentium II, running Windows 98, with a French AZERTY keyboard. Grrh. I had less trouble in Budapest and Prague; only the centermost keys are at the usuql plqce (oops, "usual place"). The ambience is rather unusual... the place seems to cater mostly to Asian youths intent on playing net games and/or downloading p0rn. Cables are strewn all over the place and there is no sign advertising its presence; I walked past it twice, in fact, until a helpful pedestrian set me straight.



Fortunately, on Tuesday the Apple Expo starts with the anxiously expected Stevenote (sorry, typing URLs is too exhausting with this keyboard) and I hope to able to use my Airport-equipped iBook inside the Press center. So expect more detailed updates in a couple of days. Au bientôt...

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

A long, involved, and rather funny post about all glitches that happened to me while packing for the trip was completely wiped out... by a glitch with my new Firewire backup drive.



Hmpfh. (Or should that be "hmphf"? Whatever).



Anyway, I'm off to the Airport. One of my fellow travelers is taking an iBook, so I should be able to post again soon. News at 11.

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

Excellent news! The marvelous J-Walk Blog is up again, due to popular demand. Thanks, John! Please don't feel obliged to keep up a daily schedule... one or two pages a week are OK with me, I was hard-pressed to keep up with you .

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

Ha! I need another vacation, ASAP! The Dolphin Stress Test says so.

(link via The Presurfer)

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

Only a few days after I linked (again) to the J-Walk Blog, John Walkenbach writes today that he's shutting it down:

[Rainer Brockerhoff]

Xeni Jardin over at the ever-cogent Boing Boing points us at the The English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator. Good for at least an hour of belly laughs. She even posts a sample of a Nigerian-to-AOL translation: