Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, on constant duty to protect the skies from the threat of volcanic ash?
Well, they do. And those guys are working pretty long hours today to keep up with a volcanic eruption in Iceland which is causing havoc with European flights. Here is a good map to give you an idea of what is in store for Europe this weekend.
The French VAAC also issued an advisory, and we’ll see how far this plume goes over the next few days.
Interesting warning: Volcanic ash (by itself) is not poisonous, but inhaling it may cause problems for people whose respiratory system is already compromised by disorders such asasthma or emphysema. The abrasive texture can cause irritation and scratching of the surface of the eyes. People who wear contact lenses should wear glasses during an ashfall, to prevent eye damage.
This comes on the heels of Harry Potter’s new love interest, the girl next door in his life, who also happens to be Ginger. I think there is some repressed sexual thing percolating in the anti-redhead sentiments in the UK.
September Issue.
So I did some Googling and found this song, Ladytron-Everything you Touch, during the opening credits, which is kind of interesting, but didn’t quite sound perfect and was a tad dark. Luckily I kept listening and found the song in question. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Around the Bend.
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Just read my first comic book in years via iPad Marvel Comic app. Anyone who says this is just a big iPhone doesn't get it… #
@SelfishMom I thought all Southern Weddings has the groom dressed like some Confederate Colonel and the women w/ lace umbrellas 🙂 in reply to SelfishMom#
iPad tip: When you sync for the first time, it default syncs all photos, movies, videos and apps, not just the ones you might want. #
(scroll down for updates)
10:00 am — I was number 8 in the store and about number 1 to come out. I then spent about 5 minutes taunting others in line who didn’t have an iPad just yet and then drove home at a relatively reasonable rate of speed to plug in the new new shiny thing.
Apple Store Annapolis had an “all hands on deck” day. There were literally 50+ employees that came streaming out the door at 9:00 clapping, high-fiving, and singing the Steve Jobs chants (joking about that last bit).
First impressions of the iPad? It feels a bit smaller than I thought. I was expecting something about the size of a magazine but it’s more like the size of a hardcover book. It’s not as heavy as I had thought, but might be a little tricky for my boys to play with as they are not that big.
The iPad comes with a power adapter (like the iPhone’s little two-prong thingy) that connects to a USB cable. There are NO headphones included, so you’ll have to make due with some of the others you might have lying around.
It does work with my existing iPhone USB cable, which means I don’t have to unpack the other one from the iPad box nor go under my desk and set up something new, which is nice. However, while in the sync mode I noticed it said “Not Charging” so I’m not sure if that is because of the sync process or whether it is a cable thing. (update: the iPad cable does charge, so maybe it is a cable thing). iPad comes fully charged btw. Will check that out after the sync. I purchased the official iPad case (it looks pretty slim) and the stand (not the keyboard stand, but the regular stand). I’m planning to use the Bluetooth keyboard with this so I don’t need to be ‘docked’ into the thing physically. I thought about passing on the stand (I may return it) as the case folds over and can hold up the machine, but only in the horizontal mode, not vertically. Not sure how that will work when typing / working.
When I plugged the iPad into the computer, iTunes booted up. There were a few screens of setup and then it gave me a rather odd option: “An iPad has been previously synced with this computer.” Well, no, it hasn’t. But apparently it saw my iPhone backups and was debating whether to rebuild from the old iPhone backups or whether or not to set up a “New iPad”. As new iPad was defaulted, I went with that rather than the option “Restore from the backup of” my iPhone.
10:15 — The next screen was the start of the sync process. Which is taking a few minutes so far. I’m moving probably 32gb of data (apps and pics and videos) over to the iPad so I’m kind of in the middle of that adventure. Note: it seems to be syncing all the applications on my iTunes, not necessarily the ones I sync to my iPhone (I have a limited subset that I put on the phone).
10:25 — As it is the first sync, it ended up taking about 10 minutes for just the Applications (I have about 150 apps I think). Now it is starting about 900 songs and podcasts. Maybe time to get some donuts.
10:28 — The next step is “Optimizing photos” for the iPad. As I have 36000 photos, I have a really bad feeling about this. It’s at 218 of 36,038. This could be a bit time consuming.
10:29 — 380 of 36,038.
10:30–I click the stop button as I’m not waiting for this many pictures.
NOTE: By default, it seems the iPad is set to sync “All photos, albums, events and faces”. Unselect that to save some time.
10:32 — Resync’ing, this time with only 1,624 photos syncing.
10:37 — 1294 of 1624.
10:38–1,624 of 1,624 photos optimized. Now waiting for them to sync.
Now updating podcasts, files, etc.
10:40–114 of 931 audio / video podcasts. I listen to too many podcasts.
10:47 — 200 of 931. This could be another hour. Back to the magic stop button.
10:48. Have deselected sync’ing all movies and podcasts. Will get to that later. Taking way too long.
10:50 Now syncing songs. Going much faster just song. 70 of 660.
10:52–319 of 660. Sigh. Delayed gratification is supposed to be more enjoyable. We’ll see about that.
10:55. Finished all the music. Not it is doing the photos (drastically reduced numbers of photos).
10:59. The sync is done. Time to disconnect and start playing!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:09. Ok, it synced everything but the personal stuff like email, etc. Back to itunes…]]>
