Mac.sis making macs and S60 handsets talk

Season's greetings from the dark depths of Finland to all Mac.sis readers! As we're winding down 2007 and bracing ourselves for 2008 I thought that a little bit of a retrospective would be in order, so here are a few thoughts on the past year and expectations for the next.

For me, this year has been pretty much the busiest in my life (with the possible exception of the military service), due to the Build A House project. We did not quite make it to our new house for Christmas, but almost. Most likely the Mac.sis HQ will move in January or February after we are done putting the last finishing touches to the inside of the house.

For the above reason, I have pretty much achieved zero tolerance towards Stuff That Won't Just Work. There's just no time to tinker around too much with technology due to the hectic schedule of my waking hours. For this reason, I have been extremely glad that the S60 & Mac integration (at least with my irreplaceable N95) has in a way come of age. Most stuff Just Works. The N95 has become an invaluable tool in managing the different aspects of my professional & private life as well as documenting the progress of the housing project through photos and video. The projects stay in shape through iGTD and N95 sync, I have ubiquitous email access through mobile Gmail and construction work goes smoothly with the phone loaded up with heavy metal through Nokia Multimedia Transfer. Recent investment in the wireless BH-501 Bluetooth headset has actually made me listen more music, which is a good way to unwind particularly when on the move all the time.

In 2008, I am looking forward to moving in the new house and being able to concentrate on geekery a bit more. The house is wired with CAT6 for gigabit ethernet, which will allow for rapid access to movies and media within the building. This will provide more incentive to get semiautomatic TV show syncing between Macs and portable devices and generally allow me to rethink the network (wired and wireless) infrastructure at home. I have an old iPod mini which is seeing zero use these days, so I might consider finding it a permanent place e.g. integrated to my car or providing music in the garage for those late evenings polishing my motorbike.

The priority will still be on Getting Stuff Done, however – my wife works full-time with our Macs, so all my tinkering will have to be executed with no disruptions to her work, which is sometimes a bit of a challenge with the latest and the greatest toys. Moreover, I will still have a few years' worth of work cut out for me around the house and garden, so 2008 will not be all fun and games.

On the handset front, I am looking forward to getting hold of an N82 sooner or later to possibly replace the N95 as my day-to-day portable electronic brain.

In April, Mac.sis will turn 1 year. Until then, I wish to thank all Mac.sis visitors for dropping by and keeping me company. And even bigger thanks for anyone who left a comment or question – after all, a monologue gets pretty monotonous after a while.

I will now turn my attention to friends and family for a day or two, and wish you a merry Christmas (if celebrated in your locale) and a happy new year 2008 (if this applies to the calendar in your locale)!