If you have a conversation with someone face-to-face, you're meeting with them, but if you have a conversation over the phone, you're speaking with them. This is understandable because speaking is a subset of meeting, and there are forms of interaction in a meeting, such as body language, visual presentation, etc., that don't occur in a telephone conversation.

So what about the area in between? If you 'meet' someone online, the word meet usually signifies the initiation of contact, rather than a specific instance. If you start talking with someone in a chat room or instant messaging service, you've 'met' them, but if you made first contact through email or telephone only, you've simply 'spoken with' them.

What about videophones? What about the person with whom you've spoken dozens of times on the phone and electronically, but 'finally meet in person'? What does it actually mean to meet someone, and how can you meet someone for the first time if you've already spoken with them so many times?

Just something I'm thinking, and thus blogging, about this morning...

When Mac OS X is ready for a beta release, Jobs stands up in front of thousands (and millions on the net) proselytizing about the 'next big thing,' posters go up, people gawk, yearn and ask their friends if they know anyone who has it yet. T-shirts are sold, stickers are passed out, and shrinkwrapped boxes are ready to be bought, and pundits bet on how much Apple will spend in Akamai fees and satellite time to put on the major media event to announce the rollout of the first 'complete' version.

When Linux 2.4 goes out the door (a release that has almost as many people waiting just as eagerly) Linus Torvalds sends out a short, self-depreciating email titled "And oh, btw..".

A lot of digital ink has been splashed on what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve for next Tuesday's Macworld keynote address. Only one thing's certain: It's not in your best interests to but a mac in the next seven days.

My own guesses for what's next at Apple?

• DVD-RAM standard on all G4 Towers and Cubes - Though I don't know whether Mercury will come with a DVD-RAM or DVD-ROM. It's also been speculated (and if they're standard I'd have to agree) that these DVD-RAM drives will be able to write to CD-R and CD-RW media as well.
• Powerbook G4 - It's been a long time in coming, but Apple will absolutely show and sell the new Powerbook G4 (Mercury) in an enclosure that has the same footprint as the PBG3, but be about 25% thinner and lighter. The conventional wisdom currently says that the DVD drive will be slot-loading and fixed in place. There won't be a removable media bay in the PBG4 (unles you count the PC-card slot). Also expect that the power key may be the new 'inductive' type found on the cube, and relocated away from the keyboard, possibly on the top right corner above the LCD display. Also possible, but hardly assured, is on-demand indiglo-like illumination embedded within the keyboard. Some have also speculated that the audio-in jack will be missing from the PBG4 but I highly doubt it, though it might not exist in the cubebook. Judging by Apple's PB price cuts this week, the PBG4 will certainly be selling on January 9th.
• Cubebook - This, of course, is the big mystery. In New York last August, Apple left a big fat hole in the product grid when they introduced the Cube. They actually showed the hole in the 3x2 grid instead of closing it up by showing three squares in the desktop line and two stretched rectangles in the notebook line. The audience was supposed to leave in wonder of the Cube, and with a touch of anticipation for the next event, when that hole would be filled. Now, with MWSF a week away, only one thing is for certain: Whether or not the 'cubebook' (so named for its position on the chart, and less likely for a strong visual resemblance to the cube's stylings) gets unveiled as Jobs's 'just one more thing' you can be assured that there has been a lot of pressure put on the engineers to make it so. With Apple's current inventory situation, it's highly unlikely that they'll preview the cubebook until it's ready to go, lest it cannibalize PBG4 sales, so if it's not ready to sell, we won't get so much as an inkling. In fact, I'd wager that they remove the spot on the grid just to make sure people aren't holding their breath until it's July release. What would a cubebook be like? It'll definitely be a subnotebook to compete with the Vaio, Libretto, etc. Expect aesthetic design ideas to come more from the PDA realm than the Notebook arena. This means more brushed metal, less grey and black plastic. It will definitely be geared toward the professional, not the student, so no iBook matte white, and probably no garish colors unless they're in the form of a swappable trim. Following the Cube's styling they may go for a pearlescent white with a gloss finish, as long as it can stand up to wear without scratches, or add too much width to the unit. If they go this way, expect a dark graphite 'SE' version as well. Slot DVD, Digital everything except for audio-out jack and speakers. If dreams are to be believed, look to a form factor not unlike the VAIO Picturebook, though a little wider, a little deeper, and a little thinner. The full-sized keyboard will be the defining width dimension, and a DVD will be the defining depth dimension. As always, the limits of technology and fabriaction costs will define the thickness of the unit, though expect 0.8 inches if it doesn't have a DVD, and 1.2" if it does. A new-for-Apple pointing device will also be introduced (possibly a trackpoint). The display will be wide-format, and the base price will almost certainly be $1999. Low energy G3 processor, 20 gig hard drive, USB, Firewire, Video out, Airport, PC-card slot, possibly two slots at the expense of on-board ethernet. Will it come out next week? If not, then they may push it to July. Apple doesn't release products at WWDC and though this product woiuld be a hit in Japan, it could be a real saver in the US and a Tokyo Expo release could seriously impact its US accpetance, where it would be seen as just another small-keyed Japanese subnotebook (ala the 2300 and the Comet) and negatively impact public perception here. Here's hoping...
• Mac OS X - Definitely be shown. I'm sure there will be application demos as well as demos of new or modified features since the Public Beta release. There will probably be a new release available to all those who purchased PB1, or to anyone who wants for the $30 fee, but the final deal won't be out until February or March.
• iBooks - Expect no changes with the iBook. No new colors. There's a possibility that they may introduce a rev with the slot-loading DVD, but it'll be an incremental update, and not a focal point of the address.
• Bluetooth - A no show for Apple this Expo. Third parties will have tons of products from keyboards to PCMCIA cards to headsets to game controllers, but Apple's not going to say a word on this until July, when they'll start putting the chips in the machines and making bluetooth peripherals to compliment their wireless strategy.

Well, that's it for Kevin's precognitions. If you're in to Apple stuff, be sure to checkout the webcast of the keynote speech if you're not lucky enough to watch in person.

Forget Tellme's voice driven directions, Yahoo's turn-by-turn directions, or those stupid big maps that don't give you any data on the small turns. Today I stumbled on MapBlast's beta information layout for directions and I really like it.

In addition to giving text step-by-step directions, it makes a diagram that is not to scale labelling all the relevant roads, showing their orientational relationships, and labelling their names and the distances to go on each. In my opinion, this single graphic is more useful than every other bit of information you can get from any source. It looks like something straight from the mind of Tufte.

In the example below, I'm trying to get from Concord, CA to Seattle, WA, an 800 mile journey. This is the chart MapBlast's new interface provides (click to enlarge):

To try for yourself, go to MapBlast, get your directions the usual way, then click on the big button labeled "Try our new directions".

It's really nice to see one of the myriad of navigation sites actually doing some intelligent legwork to improve the final product.

This is exactly the kind of attitude I'm talking about when I mention the frivolity of new years resolutions. From CNN no less...

(this relates to the Tom Hanks entry from the day before...)

Several people have suggested that I may be confused and that it actually comes from Dan Ackroyd in Ghostbusters, instead of Tom Hanks in another film. Also, the volleyball in Cast Away was Wilson (and originally put 'winston' in my head) and the dog in You've Got Mail is Brinkley.

I'll take a look at Ghostbusters today or tomorrow and see if it actually refers to Winston Zedamore, the fourth ghostbuster.

Help! This has been driving me and a few of my friends batty for days now: There's a Tom Hanks movie where he yells "Winston!" but we can't figure out what it is. We can all hear him say it in our heads, but we don't know who or what Winston is. We knocked out a few possibilities, but I won't tell you want, because I don't want to taint your own memories as mine already have been.

It's possible that it's not Tom Hanks at all, but it does seem to be his voice.

Anyone? If you've got a clue, let us know!!! Thanks!

When I was in 7th grade, Josh told me a joke. It went like this:

Josh: Think of a number between one and a thousand.

Me: ... Okay.

Josh: What was your number?

Me: 381.

Josh: Wrong.

That was the whole joke (this was 7th grade, remember?) During lunch, I set forth with my new-found weapon, and found a girl I liked. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Think of a number between one and a thousand.

Girl: ... Okaaay.

Me: What's your number? (being the honest type, I actually did think of my own number. Number 568.)

Girl: 568.

Me: Oh wow! You got it right! (flustered) That's not how it's supposed to go.

Girl: That's a pretty stupid game.

Ahh, youth. Anyhow, thanks to Mic who's blog had the link that reminded me of this story.

Happy New Year!

That's what they say, everywhere you go. Rejoice, for the new year is nigh, full of promise; promise for a better tomorrow, promise for the future.

What about the year we've just experienced? Is it the fate of the coming year that in twelve short months we'll cast it aside, ditch it at the party and avoid eye contact, all the while trying to hit on 2002?

The year 2000 meant a lot to me. Maybe not exceptionally more than any other year, but a lot of stuff happened, some good, some bad, but most to be cherished for what it meant. Not to go into 'christmas letter' mode, but rejoining Berkeley last January to finish my degree, finally realizing my longtime plans to document my life as I go, and bring as many of my online ideas to light as possible, keeping old friends, finding new ones, seeing some join in marriage, it all means a lot.

Christmas and Thansgiving tend to celebrate the family, and New Years celebrates that which is to come, but when do we take the time to not only reflect on the past year, but to embrace and cherish it? When the new year comes, we don't throw out the old, we fold the experiences into ourselves, as we do every day. When we learn a new skill, we process it into long term memory as we sleep, consolidating the experiences of the day into a permanent format, but when do we do the same for the year in review?

"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and a dozen other parables exist to remind us that we'd best learn from our successes and our failures, to make a successful future, yet the New Years spirit is one of predestination. "What will the new year bring?" "Will the new year be good to me?" These all turn away from the idea that we make our own year, and to make the best year we can, we should look to the past year for insights.

New Years resolutions are a start, but usually a misguided one. Resolutions are made to be broken, and we go around on the first asking what people's resolutions are, and on the fifteenth we ask which ones our friends have kept (usually few or none of them). What's the alternative? Don't look at your biggest problems and apply easy-to-make, hard-to-keep promises to yourself. Look at what's given you the greatest joy over the last year, and what you can do to perpetuate it. If you have problems you'd like to improve in the coming year, chances are they're the same problems you had last year. Did you make a resolution to fix it last year? If it didn't work, why should it be different this time around?

Basically what I'm saying is that, at least to me, most New Years tend to be the same. They're full of promise, a little self flagellation for thing I'd like to fix, breakfast with friends, then off filled with promise and good cheer, but little actual difference. This year I'm looking at what worked: The refound dedication to the principles of learning which brought me a 3.9 gpa in the spring, where years of working for grades did far worse. The premise that the journey is its own reward, and writing daily in a weblog makes me a happier person, even if nobody were to read it. That trying silly things rarely results in disappointment and can lead to so much more (AOLiza). I'm also looking to the things that didn't work: Promises I make for what I'll do tomorrow never get done because tomorrow's always a day away (Cameo). Looking forward to something so much, and being afraid of beling let down can make me hesitant to try, worsening my situation (grad school apps), and personal fears of change can lead me to cling too tightly to existing frineds so that I daren't venture out to make new ones, unless it's through a different channel (like survivorblog).

These are all things I've ostensibly learned in the last year, but didn't actually process until I actually went through the process of examining the last year. As I think about it more, I'm sure I'll find more things, and I'll incorporate what I learn from them into my own coming year.

Well, I've gone on for long enough. I hope I've provoked even one other person into thought, and sparked someone to think of the new year not simply as a great gift, but a blank canvas on which to improve on the finished work we're just now setting aside. We're all drivers, not passengers, and we'll have a much better chance of finding ourselves at a better place this time next year if we plan our destination, instead of just hopping on the bus.

Thanks, Happy New Year, and I'll get off my soapbox now. See you next year!!

I helped my mom shop for an inkjet printer for printing photos from her new digital camera. (That is, we both surfed the web while on the phone with 400 miles between us.)

Last week I put some effort into making christmas cards for the first time, and I did a lot of experimenting with paper to get what I wanted. In so doing I found out just how many options there are when printing on a color inkjet. I didn't have time to try them out, but you can bet I will in the coming year. My Epson Photo EX can print 12" wide by 44" long, and I just know I could come up with some interesting wall hangings, printing on an inkjet canvas roll.