Greetings from Yosemite, California!

Leaving Québec, welcome California! Leaving damp grey weather, welcoming, enjoying, treasuring... sunny California weather. It is H-O-T! Around 100F even in supposdely cool San Francisco, and 85F here in cool Yosemite Park, at an atltitude of 4000'.

Leaving San Francisco and its clogged freeways, it's California route 120 all the way to Yosemite Park.

Route 120 is a fascinating road.

Past the glow of San Francisco and its urbanity, the scenery flirts with the desert.

Of all times, men have been fascinated by wind, and how to harness it.

A common sighting on route 120, are those modern windmills.

It is a hot debate in Québec, while in California, they're doing it.

Ugly? Who defines beauty? The Eiffel Tower was once deemed by many Parisians as the most ugliest pile of steel.

To me, it is an eerie sight. Neither ugly nor beautiful just... mhhh... well, with the desert and the blazing heat, just eerie. It is *also* audibly eerie. Wind turbines are a tad noisy. The sound they make is difficult to describe.

On the way to Glacier Point, at some 8000' of altitude. Notice the tall trees...

Oh, my digicam is working all right, it is S-N-O-W on the ground. Snow at an ambient air temperature of 80F.

Got a problem? Not me. :)

After driving through the desert, now those tall trees. Going through snow during a California heatwave makes sense, right? Right. ;)

Life isn't a string of contradictions?

The view at 8000', at Glacier Point.

Doesn't it inspire... respect, serenity, peacefulness? Away the craziness and ugliness of the urban city? Before your eyes, the wonders of nature, in her full beauty.

Time to dream... of a better world, isn't it?

One would wish to stay for a little while. However, hiking in altitude, every little step reminds me... that I'm a sea-level creature.

While hiking, this little guy zoomed by just before me.

Hey my friend, be careful!

As if he understands what I'm telling him. Oh silly me. :)

He's now basking under the sun, I think he got it right. It's good for reptiles, it's good for humans too. :)

A trip to Yosemite isn't complete without a photo of its famous waterfall.

Not appearing clearly on the photo was a rainbow at the bottom of the fall.

If you're planning a trip to Yosemite, they'll tell you the best time to see the waterfall is now, in May. In the summer time, the waterfall dries up.

You know what? It's been a few days that I'm in California... I'm not eager to return to Québec. Naw... :)

(I hope that I've made you jealous. :) )

Cheers from Yosemite National Park, California!

-E

Artificial deafness...

If you are reading my other blog on FC, you know that I'm about to travel. A tour of the west coast, as far south as San Francisco, and then the slow ride all the way to Vancouver. From the coast to the desert. An Eskimo in the desert definitively strikes my imagination. ;)

Suffice to say that I had it rough for the past couple of months, and taking a break from Montréal is definitively welcome.

On this blog, I'd rather like to focus on the geeky aspect of travels...

In case one wonders, San Francisco is 6 hours of flight from Montréal. Just as far away as... London, England. Add 30 minutes and you're in Paris. :)

And I wonder whether it was from excessive travel by plane (I completely max out last year), tinnitius (aka "ringing ears") has become an unwelcome guest, and the more I flew, the more it lingered.

Last summer in Seattle, I spotted this pair of headsets at an electronic store. "Quiet Zone" from Koss. It can act like a regular headset, plugged to your iPod/MP3 gizmo or like here with the adapter, plugged to the plane's PA system. But you wouldn't shell US $100 + a pop for these headsets. Besides, I'd say the sound quality is just average.

In fact, the best way to enjoy these headsets is when they are *NOT* connected to any sound device. Not bad eh?

Enter the wonderful world of active noise cancellation. In other words, artificial deafness. :)

Sound travels in the air as a sinewave. Like any sinewave, if you apply to that sinewave another sinewave that is 180-degree out of phase, both sinewaves cancel each other. The result? Silence.

Short of implanting an on/off switch onto my ears, this is the next best thing, at least in theory. (oh sweet dreams! I could be deaf to politicians and not just figuratively when they do speeches during an election. Neato, n'est-ce pas? :) )

In reality, these headsets cut down the noise considerably, but they fall short of the promised artificial deafness.

Also with the Koss, supposedly for my own safety (?), the headset will allow the human voice to go through. This is partially true. It filters the higher pitch voice of women, while male voices tend to get through in a bit muffled state.

Nonetheless, they cut down noise enough to make a long flight trip enjoyable. Enough to finally enjoy that in-flight movie, news bulletins or whatever is coming out of your iPod-like gizmo without having to boost the volume to the max, if you want to hear anything.

I lend my "deaf ears" to a few colleagues who had to travel by plane, and they all love it. The drawbacks, because there are always some, the thing is bulky (because it has to cover each ear completely) and somewhat heavy to wear. The battery doesn't last long. Just a few flights. All in all, a small price to pay to avoid tinnitius and major headaches.

These headsets also work very well on buses and trains.

On a philosophical side, isn't an irony that there are lots of research done and money spent in hearing aids and cochlear implants to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people to hear... and on the other hand, there's also a lot of big bucks invested to help hearing people... to become deaf.

All in all, my idea of an on/off switch implanted onto my ears isn't all that far out. :)

Cheers,

-E

My feet are dry, and it's a good thing. :)

Things have been quite hectic (what's new?!?) and I'm awfully behind my mail. I'm wondering how you guys manage to spend hours answering your mails. I can't !!!

Anyway, just to report that... my feet are dry. My house too. :)

As friends know, I live next to the Rivière-des-Prairies, the river that seperates Montréal from Laval.

You've probably heard of the big floods affecting Eastern Canada.

This week has been New Brunswick's turn, but last week, it was our turn... and we got out of this mess fairly lucky.

Sometimes a drought is a good thing. :)

I'm pleased to report there were just *minor* floodings in Montréal, and on my street, we all stayed dry.

Sure, it's a fantasy to have an indoor pool, to live like the rich and famous, but you don't want *that* kind of pool...

Cheers,

-E

PS: If I can find some times to update this blog. OLPC links to add (thanks Clevergirl!), a few links to fellow FC bloggers, etc...

PPS: I can't believe that in about a week, I'll be in Saint-François. What? Ah ok.. That's French for... San Francisco. California, here I come! Hehehe...

Gotta see the Golden Gate one of these days. ;)

The iPhone is coming to Canada...

youpi. You see my enthusiasm. :)

I was surprised when I've heard the announcement( CBC: Rogers says iPhone coming to Canada this year).

I haven't forgotten that Fido once carried the Sidekick (called Hiptop), which is the ancestor of the iPhone, and the very first thing that Rogers did when they bought Fido... they squashed the Sidekick and at the same time, they torpedo their low-cost unlimited internet access.

Rogers is carrying the competing Blackberry, and many many users have been complaining for years how Rogers was charging insane amount of money for the use of the Blackberry on their network.

Of course, if you use your Blackberry as a phone... it costs no more than a regular phone. But who is crazy enough to buy a Blackberry and to use it strictly as a phone?

During my travels in the US and in France, I was given the opportunity to play with the iPhone. The geek in me was shouting: I want one! I want one! Hehehe...

As a traveler, I carry... a cellphone, an MP3 player, a laptop. That's a lot. I'm also carrying their chargers and cables. That takes a lot of space in my luggage and they add some weights . So to have all these devices into one... oh, what a dream!

And traveling half a spin of the world, and many flights later... I don't want to have so many gizmos tied on my belt... and I also realize how an iPod-like gizmo is paramount. Music, music, music! :)

About the iPhone, In January I had a chance to play extensively with the French version. I love the way to navigate, using finger gestures. It's intuitive and easy.

I also love its web browser! I think it would be doable to surf the 'Net without my laptop. The big big drawback is what makes the Sidekick so desirable: The keyboard. On an iPhone, the keyboard is "painted" on the screen. On a Sidekick, you flip the screen and bingo, you have a *real* keyboard. That makes the difference. The drawback of the Sidekick is its clunky interface and a somewhat small screen (when compared to the iPhone).

So, I should be thrilled about an "all-in-one" device, and a device that is small, powerful and lightweight. So, why I am less than enthusiastic about the iPhone coming to Canada?

I suspect some foul plays from Rogers. Especially since they bought Fido a few years ago, they act like a monopoly.

First, the dataplan. Will they give *unlimited* internet access at a *reasonable* cost, like iPhone users around the world currently enjoy? After what they did to Sidekick users in Canada and the price they charge for their Blackberry? I want to see that.

(Beside I'm curious. I want to see what they'll do with their Blackberry line, in this context).

Secondly, there should be the next generation of iPhone coming in a few months. These phones will be 3G, meaning a lot faster internet connection than the current EDGE technology.

So what kind of iPhone we will have in Canada? The older slower iPhone that no one will want, or the new one? It's funny, knowing Rogers mhhh.... I've a good hunch at the outcome.

Beside the data plan, it remains to be seen how they'll price the iPhone. Our dollar is on a par with the US dollar. It will be tough to justify a huge price difference, but knowing Rogers, nothing would surprise me. :)

A colleague of mine was mentioning recently that Ottawa is about to allocate new frequencies for cellphone services, and apparently the Canadian government isn't too allergic to the idea to allow other operators to invade the Canadian market. Wow. I wish it's going to be true. Time will tell.

So would it mean the end of the current near-monopoly... and for that reason, Rogers finally has locked that exclusive deal with Apple... before someone else? Mhhh... I'm skeptical, but I like the theory.

Seeing is believing, so I prefer to wait... and see and then I'll believe... and get excited. :)

Cheers,

-E