My how times have changed

I just ordered a new Macbook air for my office. I needed a computer that was portable so I could take it with me to give talks. One of the perks of going to Montreal last weekend was that I received an nice honorarium, and it will cover the cost of the new Macbook air. 

The new 11 inch Macbook air is an amazing piece of technology. It comes with 128GB of flash drive storage (new technology), 4GB of Ram and a processor that runs at 1.6 GHz. I know it doesn't compare in speed and storage with a Macbook pro or even my iMac, but it is micro thin and only weighs 2.3 lbs. 

Marveling at the technology, I was taken back to my first computer, the Atari 400.

I bought it in 1982 (Diana was a baby), it was an 8-bit machine and had 8 KB of RAM. No that is not a typo, RAM only came in KB. A KB is 1000 less than a MB, which is 1000 less than a GB. So my new Macbook air will have 4 million times more RAM than the Atari. It also will be a 64 bit machine vs 8 bit. The Atari 400 did not have any storage (ie disk drive). Everything was contained in RAM. You plugged in cartridges which contained your whole program/game. It plugged into the T.V. No LED screens back then.

Another classic from my past was the Atari 130xe. I purchased this in 1985 when we were living in Riverbend in the townhouse (now we had Diana and Angela). This computer had a whopping 128 KB of RAM. Still millions less than the Macbook air, but at least you could connect a 5 1/4" floppy drive for storage. I had purchased a word processing program and used it to write one of my research papers. But the computer's RAM could only hold about 4 pages of text, so I had to save different parts of the paper as "chapters." But the amazing technology of word processing was wonderful. No more typewriter for me. I even had a dot matrix printer!

Next up was the Zenith Eazy-PC

This baby had a 20 MB hard drive. No more switching floppy disks between your program disk and data disk. Just think that whole hard drive would probably hold about 20 digital pictures!

Afterwards came a series of IBM clones, each with increasing computing power. Then came the magic of the internet and later the digital world (vs analog), etc. I know in time my Macbook air will be obsolete, but for now I just want to say one thing....I love progress (and Steve Jobs).

Weekend in Montreal

As most of you know, I was invited by Shire pharmaceuticals to attend a speaker training program in Montreal this past weekend. Given that Dylan and Angie live close by, I jumped at the chance to see Montreal again, visit with them, and learn more about a new medication.  Furthermore, I was able to arrange the travel so it didn't interfere with my office.

So at 4 pm on Friday, I boarded the infamous "Central Mountain Air" flight to Calgary on my way to Montreal. The connection in Calgary was quick, there was a limo waiting for me at the Trudeau airport and I arrived at the "Nelligan Hotel" in "old" Montreal around midnight. The hotel was a charming, modern renovation in some very old (19th century) buildings. The walls were brick and you could see where they had to brick up doors and windows to make this modern hotel. It had an European elegance to it.

My meetings went from 8am to 1pm on Saturday and then I met up with Dylan and Angela.

First on the agenda was lunch at the famous Schwartz delicatessen.

Schwartz is a Hebrew delicatessen that has been serving world famous smoked meat since 1928. We ordered up a feast and dug in.

"Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" would be proud.

Afterwards we went to the east lookout on Mount Royal. Notice the Olympic Stadium in the background. It was a beautiful Spring Day ~ 13 degrees C.

Then we toured Concordia University where Angela did her Master's degree and then walked around some parts of old Montreal. 

When ended the day with a lovely dinner at the Verses Restaurant which is a French cuisine restaurant located in the Nelligan Hotel where I was staying. We had a table at the window and I enjoyed seeing the many Infiniti's drive by. I concluded that Montrealers have good taste in Vehicles!

I was up this morning at 5 am (Montreal time - 3 am real time) was escorted back to the airport in another "limo" and arrived in Lethbridge at 12:30 pm.

It's good to be home, but I did enjoy my 45 hour journey. Thanks Dylan and Angela for a great day.

Weekend in Banff

Lorri and I had a wonderful weekend in Banff. I was attending the annual Alberta Psychiatric Association Meeting and Lorri came along for company.

We were spoiled by the pharmaceutical companies. On Thursday evening we went with Dr. Edwards and the reps from Purdue to a restaurant in Canmore called "the TroUgh." It was a quaint establishment, probably owner/chef operated and they served a variety of dishes. The meals were served with an emphasis on "presentation" and we enjoyed ourselves and the food.

On Friday Nicole from Janssen treated us to the 'Saltlik" which is a steak house in downtown Banff on Bear Street (also located in Calgary). We had the opportunity to go with Dr. Chang and his family from Calgary as well as Dr. Farelly (Calgary) and Dr. Anthony Rostain (Philadelphia). Dr Rostain was one of the speakers at the conference (Cognitive Therapy in Adult ADHD) and he joined us for dinner. It was really interesting to talk with the other doctors and share experiences, especially Dr. Rostain. He told of being conscripted to fight a forest fire in 1971 near Golden, B.C., when he has hitch hiking across Canada. He said it was his first "international" pay check. The filet I had could have been cut with a butter knife!

Lorri and I tried cross country skiing on Friday, but it was too icy, so we decided to hike up the Spray River instead.

On Saturday it snowed heavily. It is beatiful to be in the mountains when it snows. We managed to catch the morning session of conference, but just missed rear-ending a little Echo (very icy) on the way there. I think the Lord helped cause he knew we were trying to be righteous and attend conference. Later on in the day we enjoyed walking around in the snow, observed lots of people crammed into the upper hot springs and decided we need to hike to the top of Sulphur mountain this summer and then take the Gondola back down.

In the evening, we enjoyed a Presidential Gala and entertainment by Dr. Richard Kogan. Dr Kogan is a psychiatrist and concert pianist. He favored us with a the life and music of Chopin. This is the third time we have seen Dr. Kogan play. Last year he did a presentation on Beethoven and 3 years ago it was the music of George Gershwin. I think Katie was with us for that presentation.