Similarly, Silicon Valley doesn’t actually need a physical manifestation. Just the concept is enough. And yet, here I am, going to an organic coffee bar hearing a live acoustic band with lots of long-haired laid back californians … who are wearing eBay t-shirts and texting on their Blackberry. Or checking email on their macbook. Or playing with their new iPhone. The biggest peril I face every morning is getting on the right employee shuttle bus. A mistake might accidentally result in me ending up not at Google, but at Yahoo!, or eBay, or Microsoft, or LinkedIn, or… you get the idea. Inicidentally, these companies are also things that don’t need to exist. I mean, we all use Google, or eBay, or LinkedIn, but the thought of them having massive office buildings, all near each other, with busloads of brilliant college graduates commuting every day to work there … well, why can’t I just stick to my nice fantasy that eBay is “just a website”?

Speaking of iPhones, there’s yet another thing that really doesn’t need a physical manifestation. The concept is so powerful that even had Apple never brought a single iPhone to market, people would be queueing to buy them. We all somehow *know* this thing is cool. (Just like we *know* that Apple’s marketing guys deserve an award. Or a long and painful death, depending on which angle you’re coming from. Regardless, they’re all geniuses, whoever they are.) And yet it exists, as if to insult you by saying “I don’t trust you to believe all our marketing, why don’t you just *try me* and see?”. And just because it is so very cool, and does in fact turn out to exist, I now own one.

I am the proud owner of a new 1Gb PC-4200 SODIMM. Currently my Powerbook contains 256Mb of RAM soldered onto the motherboard (wonderful design decision Apple, thankyou!), and a 256Mb PC-2700 SODIMM that I installed when I bought it.

I have now learnt (by bitter experience) that a PC-4200 SODIMM is not the same shape as a PC-2700 SODIMM. Oh, yes, they have the same, ahem, “form factor”, but the little slot in the PCB that aligns the pins with the motherboard is in a different place. Out by a good 3mm, I’d say. Not sure how “form factor” is defined, but it obviously doesn’t mean “specific enough to be able to buy RAM according to it”. I have since found an Apple document (down the ladder to the basement, with a torch, behind a sign saying “Beware of the leopard”) that says that 12″ Powerbook G4 (the 1.33GHz processor type, but without Gigabit ethernet – man, how many models are there??) takes PC-2700 RAM. I guess this implies, although doesn’t explicitly state, that PC-4200 RAM is not OK.

You may let your imagination run wild when imagining my frustration. I guess I shall just put this SODIMM back on eBay, and start bidding for another one…

Read more about it at the wiki: ockle.org/wiki/index.php?ThePitAndThePendulum

Crumpler second. I have decided it is time to replace the blue backpack/messenger bag crossbreed that has served me faithfully for the past five years, carrying my stuff around with me almost every day. Since I had enjoyed the messenger bag half of the crossbreed rather more than the backpack half, I thought a Crumpler might be a good investment — also because a Crumpler is probably likely to last the next five years under similar wear and tear. (I hope.) Because I want to be able to carry my laptop around, I went for a “Considerable Embarrassment”. (Who comes up with these names?) Because I want to ride with the bag, I went to the Custom Crumpler store in Fitzroy to get a “Third Leg” attached. Because I’m me, I went to the Custom Crumpler store in Fitzroy to get the bag, not in the pale blue or pale green that they usually come in, but in a design of my own, erm, designing. (Prose. Yeah. Go me.)

Photos follow. Of course.

Nothing much happening… except going to Europe for four weeks For more on that, go read the blog of a much more dedicated blogger… http://www.drkellam.com. Meanwhile, let’s move to Martin’s Thought of the Day:

Why do electronic gadgets (a.k.a. toys) never come with charged batteries? What’s this “Before use, charge for 5 hours” or “charge overnight before use” crap? I’m sorry, when I’ve just forked out a fortune for a new toy, I want to play with it straight away, see what it can do… and charging it isn’t top of the list of things I want to try out! *grimble grumble*.

On the other hand, I now own an iPod which is nothing to be sneezed at. Even if I have to wait for it to charge up before I can use it. Grrrr.

(I shouldn’t really complain. I should go and do the ironing that’s still left over from tour that I’m putting off. I really should.)

However, the model train now has an automatic level crossing. This is new news. This is also very cool: as the train approaches, the boom gates lower. When the train has passed, the boom gates raise again.

Model train also has a manual override switch for boom gates. Flick the switch, the boom gates stay down. Release the switch, the boom gates go up… unless there’s a train coming, in which case they stay down until the train has passed. Again, very cool

Model train now also has one set of electronic points. Flick the switch, track A. Flick the switch, track B. Flick the switch… you get the idea. No more ungainly leaning over the set to change tracks… almost. I am still short a bit of cabling to connect everything up.

How is it all done? By the magic of MindStorms. Woohoo. (oh, and eBay…)