Skype for MAC with VIDEO

At last it is starting to appear. Here is the link to a pre-release version of Skype for MACs with video capability.

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/videopreview.html

It has taken Skype ages and probably cost them some MAC users. But if it works they will kick iCHAT off the planet because all we want (MAC users that is) is interconnectivity with everyone on video. Bear in mind that MACs have the best video. It is stunning that it has taken so long.

My Mac

An interesting thing has happened to my 12inch 1.5Ghz G4 PowerBook. Since coming back from Russia the battery life has collapsed to 1 hours (well 1.02 it says). It use to get close on 3.5 hours. This is an 18month old laptop.

I have had a disappointing run hardware wise on this Mac. I am onto my second hard-drive (the first dying at 13 months - just outside the 1 year warranty) and now the battery. If I had bought it in NZ I would probably claim it was not merchantable quality. However I saved myself $1k buying it in the US directly from Apple (NZ Mac prices are just ridiculous).

My recommendation is that when buying an Apple computer, you should buy the 3 year warranty upgrade. My next Mac will definitely have this option.

All this said, having no viruses and everything just working and the amazing useable speed of the machine makes it still a better proposition than a Windows machine.

Dave's photos

I have put all of Dave's photos up on PhotoBucket. It looks like I will be able to fit all the Siberia 06 trip pics up although it drops the quality down.

All under MY PHOTOS on the side menu.

For those of you looking for e-mail addresses, check in the profile sections of this blog (and Nathanael's which is linked).

PhotoBucket

So Flickr is not good enough. I have swapped over to PhotoBucket. Check out the link http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/symgardiner/ on the side bar.

400+ photos here.

Andrew's new musical instrument

In Arshan, Andrew started practicing a new musical instrument or two.

Flickr Site

I have experimented with Flickr which seems to be the best way of sharing pics. It is limited to 20Mb per month which is not enough but is the best free one I can find.

Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/symgardiner/ for Arshan photos. I will add more pics as each month goes by.

Siberia 06 Photos

We have returned safely from Siberia. Unfortunately a coupe of days back in NZ and I have been hit with a very bad stomach bug so have not had time (nor the energy) to work on my blog.

I will endevour to put some pics up soon although I can not find a way of uploading 1.3Gb of photos. For all my Russian friends, Sergey has a copy of all our pics on CD. Have a chat to him and he will be happy to give you the CDs.

I am going to experiment with a flickr site and see if I can drop the resolution down.

Some Pics from Camp

Two pics from camp in Arshan. It is too slow to put up pics with dial up on mass, so just two.

Painting the church

The church had suffered some smoke damage from an electrical fire. We painted it.