We had a fantastic turnout for the first meeting of the Canon Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group! 32 photographers from around the San Francisco Bay Area showed up to talk shop about Canon Digital SLR’s. Thanks to everyone who came, including: Peter C., Rick K., Robert B., Rick S., Con P., Mark K., Dennis H., Doug R., Doug C., Cuong n., Artie S., Ziv E., Phil W., Peter E., Danny E., Chuong H., Kwan L., John C., Stavros., Eugene H., John L., James W., Silva D., Marie H., Chung C., Mike D., Mark B., Jim R., Patrick T., David H., and Stefanie H. for showing up! If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know.

Everyone started filing into the Council Chambers room shortly after 7:30 pm. Jim Rose, the Canon Rep for the Bay Area, was on hand to demonstrate the new Canon EOS-1D, along with the new 16-35mm f/2.8L and the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lenses. Jim also passed around a magnesium 1D skeleton. I found it interesting that the memory card door was also made of magnesium; I didn’t think of it being part of the inner chassis of the camera. I’m not going to test it with my 1D, but I wonder if it would burst into flames if I stuck a bunsen burner to it (a little thermite to go with your 50mm f/1.4???).

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The Palm i705 Handheld was released today. It was an arduous climb to the summit, but the product is finally out the door. Of course, I froze to death along the way, but left enough of my climbing equipment available for the rest of the team to make it to the top. Congrats team!

On a side note, it must have been very, very cold last night, because there was snow atop Skyline! I took a picture in the early morning where you can easily see snow in the background! For a Southern Californian who doesn’t go to many snowy places, that was cool!

Palm held a party in celebration of the i705 launch today in the Crossover Cafe (Palm’s name for its cafeteria). I was able to make it into the festivities, though I won’t mention who let me into the building. I have to keep my sources confidential after all!

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Another year, another anniversary for the Stanford Newton User Group. Our numbers reached 10 this year, as Peter, Flash, Glen, Jacob, Rosie, Wayne, Rob, Lewis, Kevin, and I came to Printer’s Inc. to celebrate the device that refuses to die.

What is it about Newton technology which makes it so beloved by its users? Perhaps the Newton represents an example of a technology that remains fresh and cutting-edge, nearly 4 years since its cancellation by Apple. There still isn’t a handwriting recognition system out on the market (InkWell, where art thou?) which is as elegant or as good as the Newton’s Rosetta/Mondello HWR. Transcriber on PocketPC is getting there, but it’s still not as intuitive as the Newton’s HWR system. Graffiti? Uh, I don’t think so.

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I was supposed to go to Vienna’s first band show in San Francisco this evening, but decided not to go when I heard that Wen Ho Lee was going to be at Kepler’s in Menlo Park to help promote his new book, My Country Versus Me

Dr. Lee made headlines when he was wrongfully accused and jailed for being a spy for the Chinese government. In December, 1999, he was indicted on 39 counts of violating the Atomic Energy Act, 10 counts of “unlawfully obtaining defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. & 793(c)”, and 10 counts of “willfully retaining national defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. &793(e) (Source: wenholee.org). He was put in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for 9 months! 9 months!

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Last night in Berkeley, there was a party at Suzanne’s place for Kai. The party was originally going to be a going away party for him, as he was expected to leave the Bay Area for “gold and riches” along the Eastern shores of New York.

Fate had it that an opportunity arose in the Bay Area, which Kai eagerly took. The Bai Bai Kai party quickly became the Bai Bai Kai party! Former co-workers of his from Design Reactor/Rotten Tomatoes showed up, as well as a number from Berkeley Wushu (i.e. the same people). I remembered some of them from a couple of Sze Sister BBQ’s last year, but there were several that I was meeting in person for the first time.

Suzanne’s roommate, Trey, works for Planet Magazine. Check it out, it’s an interesting travel/music/photography publication. Trey has some amazing photographs that he took along his journeys to Southeast Asia, all taken with a Pentax camera with fixed prime lenses (shot on Fuji Velvia 50).

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Rae and I went to Felix’s New Year’s Celebration party in Fremont yesterday night. It seems like ages since I last saw Felix, not to mention Debby, who was also at the party. It’s certainly been a few years when the three of us were together cycling in what used to be our annual Tour du Jour.

Stanford’s class population isn’t as large as Berkeley, but it’s not nearly as low as a small college like Swarthmore. Still, with 1600 students per class, it’s difficult to know everybody in your year… unless you’re Garry Grundy! Felix and I were both class of 1997, but our paths never crossed until after we graduated at a C-Ya! get together at Zotts (also known as the Alpine Inn in Portola Valley).

Other than Debby, there were a number of other current and former Stanford students at Felix’s, including Suzie (Class of 1997), Loren, Aaron, Kathleen, Doug, Pin-Pin, and Rafael. Melissa and Rae rounded out the group.

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Thursday at MacWorld didn’t bring any additional surprises. As I said in my previous entry, MacWorld SF 2002 seemed smaller than the ones I’ve previously attended. Unless you signed up for the workshops and presentations, you could easily cover the entire show in one day.

Something that’s always fun at MacWorld is people watching. The Mac faithful is indeed an interesting cross-section of society. I wonder how many of them I’ve passed by in previous MacWorlds. Before I launched my personal web site, I could go pretty much anywhere without being recognized. Today, I had two people approach me out of the blue! Dennis H. called out my name as I was walking through the South Exhibit Hall; he’s a professional photographer who read some of my posts from Rob Galbraith’s site. Steve H. called me out from the Nikon booth where he was working. He also came to my site from Rob’s site; he got a kick out of my Ultimate Dislocation photojournal.

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It’s been a few years since I last went to a MacWorld. The past few years, I’ve been happy watching from the sidelines, reading coverage of the event through Apple’s web site or the numerous Macintosh news, information, and rumor sites on the Web.

Since I had to pick up Randy from the airport on Tuesday evening, I drove to and parked my car at the Millbrae CalTrain Station. I find that taking CalTrain is cheaper, less stressful, and more convenient than driving up all the way to San Francisco.

The Mac faithful was out in full force at MacWorld this year. There were a number of people with conspicuous white headphones (i.e. iPods) and an equal number carrying Titanium PowerBooks or white iBooks. I even saw a few Newtons in the crowd as well! As they say, “Newtons never die, they just keep getting new batteries!” Apple didn’t announce any new handheld computer at Monday’s keynote, but they did announce the iMac. The desk-lamp looking iMac was everywhere at Apple’s booth, and it was this hardware product that was the main focus of Apple’s enormous display.

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All over the world, people are speculating as to what Apple is going to announce on Monday’s Keynote at MacWorld San Francisco. The Apple Hype Machine has been at some impressive levels in the past, but what we’ve seen recently takes the cake. Check out some of the headlines from the Apple web site over the past week:

• Monday: “This one is big. Even by our standards.”
• Tuesday: “Count the days. Count the minutes. Count on being blown away”
• Wednesday: “Beyond the rumor sites. Way beyond.”
• Thursday: “It’s like a backstage pass to the future.”
• Friday: “To boldly go where no PC has gone before.”
• Saturday: “Full speed ahead. Lust Factor Ten.”
• Sunday: “Just one more sleepless night.”

There’s little doubt that Apple will rev the iMac with an LCD monitor. The product has seen little changes since its introduction in 1998. I remember being at the unveiling of the iMac at the Flint Center in San Jose. It made quite a stir then, but expectations were low at the time for Apple.

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The organizers of the annual Photo Fair state that the show is one of the largest on the West Coast with “hundreds of dealers.” With a description like that, you’d expect something along the lines of the upcoming MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, at the cavernous Moscone Center, right?

Uh, I don’t think so.

Held at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds, the 26th Annual Photo Fair was largely a disappointment for me. Compared to the camera show in Oakland that I went to last year, there were more dealers, but they still numbered less than two dozen by my count. I remarked back in March that the majority of the equipment was of little use to me.

Déjà vu.

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