[Smalltalk]

Now Navigating With GPS

Tuesday I finally bought a GPS navigation system for my car. The main reason was that I needed to visit a company in Munich yesterday, and I did not want to drive right through Munich with just a MapPoint printout. After some market research, I chose to get a Garmin Nüvi 250W. During the drive to Munich, the device got it's first real test when I got stuck in a traffic jam and hit the "reroute" button, which then nicely guided me out of the mess. So far I'm quite happy with the device. It does what it's supposed to and does not get in the way. I also really like the widescreen display.

BTW, does anyone know what OS Garmin uses in these devices? They are using a few open source packages, including the eXpat XML parser and the Freetype font engine.

Lignano Vacation

I spent a great last week with my family in Lignano, Italy. Although having been there before many times, this time I made a few surprise discoveries. First is ristorante Da Salvatore, a new restaurant in Via Centrale (west to the shopping street), serving great Pasta, Pizza and sea food. The other one is the Tahiri Restaurant and Beach Club, at the end of the Lungomare, next to Marina Punta Faro. Looks quite exclusive from the outside, but the prices (at least for drinks) are okay. Plus the atmosphere is great. The best place to drink an Espresso or Latte Macchiato at the beach, with a nice view of the Marina and the boats going in an out.

New Apple Stuff

New iMac - Nice. Cool new keyboard. New iLive, new iWork (love that new animation feature in Keynote). Time for a software update. The coming trip to Chicago comes in handy. Gotta save a few bucks thanks to the current dollar exchange rate ;-)

And .Mac is taking Ajax to a new level. Crazy stuff. Flickr can play catch-up now.

A Thunderstorm

Filmed with my Cyber-shot, then exported a static image.

Back at Work

After two lighter weeks (less work, more fun; although I usually have lots of fun at work, too), I am back at full working speed. I finally have to get POCO 1.3.1 out the door, then work on a customer project for the rest of the month. I'll also throw in a few days at the beach in Italy with my family end of this month.

You know, working in a place where other people come to for their holidays has some drawbacks. Mostly having to with getting oneself motivated for work on a beautiful sommer day.