Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

We're overnighting in Mojave (home of SpaceShip One and other Rutan goodness), and our motel has pictures of the Voyager engraved into pretty much every available wooden surface...

It's rather delightful to be sleeping with aviation history built into your bed.

There's also an autographed photo of the Voyager in the motel's office (though I suspect that'll be par for the course here in Spaceport USA).

Time to tick another place off on the list of geek pilgrimages...

I grew up loving Ansel Adams photography, so tried a few experimental black and white shots of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point.

The results came out rather well, I think. I'm going to look into getting a red filter to try and emulate Adams' sky effects.

Grand Canyon, Arizona
January 2007

A twisted pine reflects the golden light of a Grand Canyon sunset, at Hopi Point on the South Rim.

Grand Canyon, Arizona
January 2007

A weathered branch reaches out over the depths of a winter Grand Canyon, while a snowstorm heads up its vast depths.

Grand Canyon, Arizona
January 2007

CES is like every trade show you've ever been to, all rolled into one, and then pumped (and pimped up) by an order of magnitude.

We've been writing about it on our IT Pro blog (when we've not been in meetings, walking the endless halls, in more meetings, standing in queues, in yet more meetings, walking more halls, standing in more queues, sitting in buses in traffic jams, and driving round in circles looking for somewhere to park^*).

Here are a couple of pieces. First, from marypcb on the arrival of her ideal laptop (which is also pretty much my dream machine, too...):

Today has been such a long week; CES is the best and worst of every business trip turned up to eleven. But some of the new products will make our next business trip easier.

Ever since I got my hands on the first slew of tablet PCs I've been begging Toshiba to do a tablet version of the Portégé ultra-portable range; I've had the Portégé 2000 and now the R100 and they're excellent lightweight long-life notebooks (up to 9 hours with the also lightweight extended battery). The R400 is exactly what I've been wanting; a tablet version of the range that's only a smidge heavier and thicker, which makes it as thin as most slates. There's a UWB wireless dock that connects your ports and monitor; get the R400 close enough and it all just connects automatically. And an OLED strip down the side shows you email,calendar and other Vista Sideshow information without you having to turn the machine on.

Secondly, my take on some of my favourite technologies from the show:

Three conference centres and more exhibitors than you could believe possible, CES is the ultimate technology playground. Forget the shiny toys in San Francisco - CES is where it's really at. While it may be a Consumer Electronics Show, there's a lot on display that will help the IT professional.

Need a new monitor for the wall of your NOC?Sharp's 108" Aquos LCD display should more than suffice. It's a technology demonstrator at the moment, but will be sold as a professional quality display and high-end TV sometime towards the middle of the year. You're more likely to get one if you're setting up an advertising hoarding in the middle of London, but it's a sign of things to come as Sharp's new LCD fab comes online.

Enjoy!

^*Try Harrahs - it's not so popular, has plenty of self parking, and (bonus) has a monorail station.