Try not to travel with a stuffed up nose. After landing in Minnesota for my layover, I couldn’t hear anything with my left ear because of the pressure change from the flight. It is the most annoying thing in the world, and I had trouble ordering pizza for dinner (*sigh*) because I couldn’t really hear what the person at the counter was saying. This actually happened to me the last time I flew, and lasted overnight into the next work day… so I would tilt my head to try and hear what people were saying. Thankfully, this time it didn’t last too long and got cleared when I blew my nose a few times in a row. Moral of this story: having congested sinuses while you travel makes it really easy for you to get plugged ears.

Also noteworthy: Apple is moving to Intel x86 chips (aka Pentium linage) for it’s CPU. What does this mean and will we be able to run Apple software on a generic PC? Not much really, unless you’re a developer; and no, most certainly not. Apple is simply switching chip makers because IBM couldn’t deliver fast enough PPC chips (for example, there’s no PowerBook G5), so they simply went with a vendor that can deliver the goods. They have an excellent history with major transitions (like OS 9 -> OS X), so I wouldn’t be too concerned about that. Moving to x86 chips also does not mean you would be able to run OS X on a regular plain vanilla x86 PC. The CPU is but one small component and Apple likes to sells the entire all-inclusive package (think iMac, Mac Mini). There’s most certainly no way you would be able to run anything-Apple (like OS X) on anything not-Apple (like a Dell PC). And don’t feel sorry for IBM… they’re probably glad they don’t have to worry about Apple anymore, since they’re now swamped with work making chips for all three next generation game consoles.