Megabytes

It is coming from Shanghai!
Born in China, this little laptop has already traveled to Alaska and Indiana. Very soon, it will arrive in Oregon.

It left Shanghai on the 23rd in the evening.

Arrived in Anchorage, USA around noon, two days later.

Passed through Indianapolis very early this morning.

Expected at my door tomorrow!

Thanks to worldmaps.com for these splendid maps.

On Sunday, I’ll be marching in a parade, playing two different songs. Because it is more fun to march when you don’t have to stare at music, I memorized both pieces. Here’s how I went about it.
First, I played the songs on my instrument over and over so they became familiar to my ear. Then, I listened to recordings of both pieces to hear how my part fit in with the rest of the band. Finally, the actual memorizing. Thanks to my friend Jules for this tip: Memorize backwards!
Start with the last measure. Play it while reading the music. Play it without reading the music. When you have successfully played that measure, add a measure and repeat the process.
I modified her suggestion slightly by taking the last phrase, then the last two phrases, then the last three phrases. This way I was learning the piece in sections and always reinforcing what I already learned by playing through to the end with each new addition of measures.
If you’re in downtown Portland on Sunday, June 17, look for the parade. I’ll be marching with the Rose City Gay Freedom Band in the Portland Gay Pride March. Pictured above is me in our uniform of two years ago. This year we have a new look!

Did anyone else notice Apple’s website redesign this week? It must have just been updated today with the opening of the WWDC07 in San Francisco. Steve Jobs gave the keynote this morning, which you can watch and listen to at the Apple website.
Well, the new redesign keeps the horizontal navigation at the top of the window. But the two-tiered navigation is gone and the buttons themselves are the brushed-metal look of the Apple apps. It looks great on a black page - which is the home page’s current state.

The navigation links are different as well. Before there was  - Store - iPhone - iPod + iTunes - .Mac - QuickTime - Support - Mac OS X. And each of those buttons displayed a second tier of navigation into the Apple site. Now the links are  - Store - Mac - iPod + iTunes - iPhone - Downloads - Support - Search. This revised navigation emphasizes the renaming of Apple Computer to Apple Inc earlier this year; and supports the restructuring that became necessary when they changed their name.
Now, you can see the separation of ‘computers’ as just one section of Apple Inc. - access info on the computers hardware and software under ‘Mac’. The other product lines have their own tab - iPod, iPhone.
Apple’s big news on the home page today: Leopard, coming in October. And speaking of design - the Leopard CD has a CD-filling ‘X’ with a face-on spiral galaxy in the background, emphasizing Leopard’s new feature called Spaces.

On Tuesday, June 5, Apple announced speed and memory improvements to the MacBook Pro lineup. What perfect timing for me! I’ve been setting aside funds with which to purchase a new laptop and recently reached my goal of two grand.
If I had purchased a week ago, I’d be kicking myself. The 15″ MacBook Pro now comes with a processor speed of 2.2 GHz and frontside bus speed of 800 Mhz, up from 667.
I would have added another gig of RAM if I purchased last week. Now I don’t have to as all the Pro machines come with 2 GB installed and are expandable up to 4GB. I’m glad Apple recognized that more RAM supports the increased processor speed.
The 802.11n wireless is now standard on all Pro models. Finally, more powerful graphics processing can be had with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card.
If these improvements aren’t as important to you, be watching for price cuts on the old models still in stock at various Mac stores.