A few weeks ago I sent the N97 prototypes back to the factory, and placed my order for a new one. Should be on it’s way in late June or early July.

I’m really looking forward to using it, especially for social networking with the facebook app and gravity for twitter. I also plan to use it for email, youtube, maps, taking photos and listening to my music collection. I’ve setup Nokia multimedia transfer for mac so that I can easily transfer my entire iTunes music library to the N97 via bluetooth.

Today’s race was exciting for 30 laps, then the rain came and by lap 32 the race was over. I’m pleased Brawn GP, BMW Sauber and Toyota were on the podium, and not just McLaren and Ferrari, but what a crazy way to finish. Jensen Button and Brawn GP have won both here and Australia but have yet to finish under racing conditions.

Tropical Malaysia routinely sees thunderstorms at this time of year, especially towards the end of the day. Yet the race organizers decided to start the race two hours later at 5pm instead of the regular 3pm start, so that European TV audiences could see the race at a better time and higher revenues could be demanded from advertisers.

Conditions would have had to be perfect to finish the race before sunset. With the onset of rain halfway through the race and the delay it caused, there was never a chance to finish. By the time the rain had reduced in intensity it was getting too dark to restart. Surely, Formula 1 management must have foreseen this situation. It did rain every day this week. The biggest losers were the TV audiences who didn’t get to see a full race.

What a different formula one race. The Australian grand prix debuted new cars, new tires and new racing. Instead of seeing McLaren and Ferrari dominating from start to finish, we see Braun, Red Bull, BMW and Toyota. A year ago nobody would have thought that Button and Barrichello would be one-two in any race. On the other hand, if it hadn’t been for the mistakes made by Vettel and Kubica we would have seen a different result. It was definitely exciting.

I am hoping we have a really interesting and competitive season with a new style of race.

As we approach the inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow, we all hope for great change. In the words of Martin Luther King:

“Great change only occurs when leaders inspire others to follow – when they stand up for justice and pass its torch along, person to person, to build a movement, first hundreds, then thousands and then finally millions strong.”

I couldn’t stop smiling at the end of this video.

Quoting Neil Gaiman quoting Neil Gaiman quoting Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

I’ve known Natalie Brown for a couple of years and have always been impressed with her magnificent voice. Recently she posted a video of her rendition of “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire). Here it is for your enjoyment.

It’s that time of year again when holiday cards come with those unpersonalized letters that explain everything a family has done for a year, interspersed with several photos and printed on a single page. If you’re thinking about a humorous alternative check out one of my favorites that was written for 2000. Barbara and I are working on a shorter version for SMS that I’ll share next week.

From a Nick of Time.

Dear Friend,
It is that time of year again to share with you our adventures in this journey we call life. 2000 has been another year of magic and wonder…

Lori almost 3, is quite a talker. She continues to amaze the professors at the University with her intuition in foreign languages. It was fun for her to serve as Official Translator for Warren Christopher at the Bosnian-Serbian Peace Talks. She intends to spend this Holiday transcribing War and Peace into Arabic and Cantonese.

Chris, now 5, is growing in leaps and bounds. When he got his first set of building blocks he seemed quite interested in large buildings. This year he designed his first skyscraper and ground was broken in Hong Kong for the new “Little Man” Towers. It is great to have a budding architect at home as he made a new addition to the house and a wonderful gazebo for our garden. Martha Stewart will be filming her next show here in April.

Betsy had a very busy year. In between her work as President of the American Cancer Society and Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs, she introduced a line of children’s novels and hand made active-wear. She remains occupied with the children and has introduced them to Yoga and power walking this year. We are particularly proud of Mom as a starting forward representing the United States in the World Cup.

Dave was immersed with his Graduate School studies, and managed to co-author a paper on Multidimensional Customer Attribute Analysis by Conjoint Survey and accept a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in Quantum Physics. Along the way Dave took three startups through their IPO. We are proud of his work serving on the Board of Directors of IBM, Coca-Cola, and Walt Disney. Dad was also active with the kids teaching Lauren Ballet and helping to lower Chris’ handicap to 5. We were able to squeeze a little traveling in this year. We started in Aspen, went to Belarus, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, the Falklands, Greenland, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela, and Zaire. Our trip sailing our new boat around the world was a great experience for the kids, we learned to communicate with Dolphins and discovered a new region of deep water volcanoes.

And Sergeant, our German shepherd, learned to speak. Latin. Other than that, it was a very quiet year. So from our household to yours, all the Blessings of the Season and may your New Year be prosperous. We found out yesterday that we won the $150 Million Powerball Lottery.

The Wannabes,
Betsy, Dave, Chris & Lori

Hindsight is 20-20. The record labels have never had great foresight, otherwise they may now been offering concerts, ticketing, merchandise, and many non-music ways to make money. This one beats it all. Seymour Stein as quoted in the Globe and Mail:

Stein says the rot set in the music industry 60 years ago. “We blew it,” he says on the phone from his office in New York. “The first major music labels were all phonograph manufacturers, but by the time the Beatles came along, most companies were no longer involved in the hardware.

“Had we remained in control of the hardware,” he adds. “We wouldn’t be hurting as much as we are now. And the iPod would be ours.”

A few weeks ago I decided to test out the new Automatic Home Sync feature of the Nokia N78, after all one of the businesses I’m responsible for at Nokia is “Connected Home”. So I setup the N78 home media to work with the connected home demo system we have in the San Francisco office, clicked on Home Sync on my mobile and left the N78 at my desk for about 10 mins. When I picked it up I had over 200 songs and fifty photos — all synced wirelessly.

When I left the office later that day, I used the N78 to take a few photos. Next day, as I walked into the office, the photos were automatically synced wirelessly to the PC used in our demo. Within 30 minutes one of my colleagues was looking at them on the DLNA enabled TV. This UPnP/DLNA stuff really works.

If you would like to see the two and a half minute tutorial video about Nokia’s home sync - click below.

I really like taking the express train from Helsinki to Tampare, where one of the teams I work with is situated. The train is quiet and gives me time to catch up on email, using my Nokia N95 8GB to connect my MacBook Air to the Internet. Normally, the trip takes 94 minutes. The scenery is even better now that the snow has gone.

One evening, earlier this month, the return journey took nearly 3 hours. There was a fire at one of the stations, right next to the tracks, and trains were stopped. Luckily the train I was on was one of the first to get through.