the iPod charger...

I always wanted to have an iPod charger for my Nano so that I don't need the computer for charging it. I had the idea of using my Nokia cell phone charger which has an output of 5.7 V and 800 mA. I finally bought a plug for the cell phone charger and soldered it to an old PS/2 to USB converter. This should allow me to use the iPod's cable together with the adapter to use the charger. Plugging it in (yes, it was a bit scary if it would blow or not!) everything looked fine. The display switched to "charging" and after a while it even said "charged", showing the full battery symbol. I was very happy until I unplugged the iPod and the battery symbol went back to half charged. So What? I plugged in an ampere meter and it showed a charging current of 5 mA! Some websites suggest pulling pin 2 and 3 of the USB plug to ground. I did that and it changed the iPod's behaviour somewhat - it doesn't show "charging" right away but only after a few seconds. The current remained at the same low level.
The mystery remains unsolved why the iPod shows that it would be charging but doesn't do it...

Jazz

We went to a small concert in The Cellar. What we didn't know is that we had to purchase food and drinks for $15 a person. Of course we had a nice dinner at home before we went there and we were kind of stuffed. We had a hard time "wasting" all that money! If only we would drink alcohol...
Anyways, the music was great - Brad Turner Trio. Brad Turner is a local piano and trumpet player. I've seen him before giving a short guest appearance during a concert by John Scofield. They played very nice standards and some own compositions.

in Whistler

I had to borrow my sunglasses to !

is a very nice girl, she lets me go skiing every weekend and when I come home she has cooked some awesome indian food (a little spicy though). But she also wanted to see what it is like to be up there on the mountain. So I took her along - poor girl had to stand up at 6 in the morning! I think she was quite amazed by the fantasic view and the amounts of snow. Unfortunately she forgot to take sunglasses along and I had to borrow her mine for a while so that she could see everything without having to pinch her eyes - it was a very bright and sunny day. She took some work with her and finished it sitting behind a big window in the mountain restaurant. The nicest view you could possibly have at your desk...

on top of the world

Coming home

The headline says everything - I am coming home for a little while in August. I will be there between July 28 and August 24. I am looking forward to meeting many friends (I hope they want to meet me!) and having a good time there.

Another best Whistler day

The winter is not yet over... Another week with an overall of 90 cm snowfall (with an overall of 1086 cm this season!) ending on a sunny Saturday - what could be better? I went up there with Bryan and he almost didn't want to go. It was one of the greatest days and we had a lot of fresh tracks. We hiked up to Flute peak twice and during the first time I had to make the footsteps in deep fresh snow for the following people. That was tough work - but well worth it! At the second time we dropped off a cornice into deep powder.

"Almost" the first lines - but this guy at the very left did a better job...

It was not very high compared to what other people do, maybe two meters, maybe less or more - it's a bit difficult to say. I was scared and Bryan almost arrived at the base of the bowl (300 m down) before I gave'er. It was actually very easy to touch down in bottomless powder :-).

Whisky Jacks - very amusing and hungry birds!

Standing in a tree well. The snow here is supposed to be 5 m deep.

Spring in Vancouver!

Yes, it is very warm here from time to time. Of course, it is raining in between the sunny days! Unfortunately it is also raining on the mountains :(. I am pretty busy these days with finishing up my course work so I wouldn't go skiing anyways! I hope the weather is a bit nicer over the easter weekend.

blooming trees everywhere...