SteinKlinkerZ

Tonight was a "make-up" night for the SteinKlinkers. Last Wednesday we were supposed to have been at the Issaquah Brewhouse for our monthly meeting, but the weather quite literally threw a monkey wrench into those plans (gigantic back-up on I-90 and only fools were out driving).

Hence, the crowd for tonight was smaller, but Tom, Dale, Steve, and Eric still made it all the way out to this Eastern outpost. Food was good, the waitress was cute, and the beer was eclectic. I tried the Smokehouse Ale, which Steve described as having smoked salmon w/o the salmon. Personally I liked it, and it did remind me not a little about Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier out of Germany, but with more of a blonder color and a bit more of disguised "smoke". Judging from the faces of my fellow "Klinkers", their beers were of good "character" as well.
All in all, a good evening where everything from hashing to skiing was debated.

OK, it has happened again - iZe!

A couple of sample pictures from this past weekend, all taken with a Sony Ericsson W810i. Pretty amazing quality for a little candybar phone with a dirty lens!

The Pacific NorthWest, contradictory to is name and reputation, is neither cold or especially rainy. But, this past week has actually been cold here. Pretty constantly below freezing which is really rare. Add on top of that a little bit of precipitation and there's a recipie for disaster.

Being from a Nordic country, we are used to snow and slush/ice, but not to drivers trying to move forward, even when the road ahead is clogged with cars stuck, quite literally, not being able to move anywhere. That "need to get there at any price" is more of the problem than the ice. and, there's not much we can do about the ice than to wait. to wait for it to melt, or for "counter measures" (studded tires, road salt, chains).

Last week the snow (or hail) started on Wednesday. Conditions in Kirkland were more like mayhem during the rush hour and into the late evening. We were out walking the dogs when it started snowing/hailing just around 4 PM. About an hour later we came upon Market Street (major north-south arterial) and chaos was the only would that would describe the situation. A neighbor of ours and myself ended up staying for about an hour and helping to push cars out of the way (some were left in the middle of the road), and a couple o days later, I could still see 6 of them still "parked" on the road. After that "heavy lifting" we went up to the local bar and sat inside with a brew (ESB) watching cars sliding down the hill. Live entertainment at its best!

Most of the area was shut down over the next days. We even got a little bit of ice on both the sea as well as Lake Washington - unheard of - but oh so beautiful! The mass of sliding cars was no problem, compared to the cancelled meeting for Steinklinkers. Our monthly brewery discovery/sampling group. Oh well, we would not have been able to get there in any case. Issaquah was just out of reach. Catch-up race is on for tomorrow.

Saturday afternoon dropped a tiny amount of snow. Perfect for making the already ice covered streets nicely "lubricated". It did not take long before a car went down in the drink (swamp/wetland) next to our house. Streets were again impassable for Sunday. It was all pretty fun!

But that does not in any way, shape, or form, match what did take place in Portland, OR, this morning. Take a look at this little clip. I've watched this clip so many times and I cannot do anything else than laugh! Yes, it is sort of said but on the other hand, the drivers could probably not do anything than laugh either. It was that slick. Enjoy!

Steve Zays; iPhone

Most people were sceptical to whether there would actually be a solid business case for an iPhone from Apple. But, those can probably take some time off. Steve Jobs today announced the "iPhone", or whatever it'll be called, at Macworld in SFO.

Personally, I never doubted the sound business case for an iPhone, Apple has the design capabilities to make it a stunning success, but I was not really sure if Apple would dare to go forward. Since it'll be an expensive piece of hardware (at least if seen as "just a phone"), people wanting it will have to pay up. And that is a good thing. Maybe this will be the beginning to an end of the endless "promotion" of phones from the carriers, when they as a result not only locks you in to a contract, but also locks the device, SIM lock, thereby in all practicality preventing you from using "your" phone elsewhere (=on another network).

GSM is such a powerful technology, and the ability to have a telephone for a specific usage situation; one for the weekday at the office (Smartphone), one for the night on the town (slim device), another one when hiking over the weekend (rugged device), by simply pulling out the SIM card and plugging it into a another device/phone has essentially gotten killed in the North American marketplace.

People seem to be happy in getting a phone for free, while they should very well know that there are no "free" phones. You pay for that little sucker via your monthly bill, and the sad thing there is currently no reward for you NOT taking that "free" phone.

I'd rather see a scenario where you actually pay the real price for your phone, but then it is also yours. You can take it to the next carrier (pending your other contractual oblogations of course), you can take it overseas, or you can donate it to your grandmother, or to a mother in Bangladesh that is setting up a "village phone" service. The device is yours and not locked/controlled by a carrier.

This somewhat reminds of when visiting Hong Kong. On EVERY BLOCK there was an electronics store with several hundreds of mobile phones you can simply choose from. cNet's blog "CRAVE" has a good story/summary of how it could work even in he United States as well. Carriers, give the consumers the choice and let the market forces work in our favor!

Me - and Steve Jobs - have spoken (even though iPhone only will be available from Cingular/at&t and likely with a firm service commitment - and hence a "SIM lock"). I've also heard rumors about devilish "traps" if Apple/Cingular find one of these phones unlocked.

And, at the end of the day we also heard of how Cingular anew will spend a couple of hundred millions on rebranding themselves back to AT&T, this time w/o the "Wireless". I guess there was not enough money to fully go back to their old name. All too bad since I really got fond of the Cingular name and its orange "blob". Much more desirable and "hip" than the old (or a new) AT&T logo. But, according to Cingular, I have never been a full-worthy "Cingular" subscriber since we are still on an AT&T Wireless rate plan with no intention of changing as long as its price/features can not be matched (by Cingular, now at&t). So, instead of being the last AT&T subscriber, I might actually be the first one...

Polar Bear PlungeZ

Most New Year's Days, one is too "relaxed" (aka sleeping) to be able to drag ones feet out of bed early in the morning. Be it for taking a plunge in the cold (relatively) waters of Lake Washington, there is just another reason for staying in.

Well, not so this year. Long before Christmas, I had at least launched the idea of "plunging" into the lake this morning that is otherwise more spent chilling out, eating, reading. It was of course not in a quest of bravery, but rather to get some other with me. Not so. I only managed to get the wife (+dogs) to leave the comfort of home and come down to the beach in downtown Kirkland.

Compared to taking a plunge in icecold waters in a wintry Sweden, today's plunge was really not much to talk about. But it was fun to see that many peoiple down there, gathered around a warm bonfire, a bonfire that would also burn a couple of holes through my BRAND NEW Moonstone fleece shirt.

In any case, not much to add. Let the pictures do the talking: