A week ago, we had an all-time record of 70 degrees. The last few days, the thermometer has been hovering around the freezing mark. The above photo was taken around 8 o'clock, Wednesday morning. Notice how green the lawn is. That's unusual, this time of the year. An hour later, a brief snow squall passed through, but there was no accumulation.

Monday-evening twilight was clear enough for me to see Comet McNaught. Through binoculars, it had a bright-red color and a very discernible tail. I tried photography, but failed to record anything, and don't know why. Here are some other pictures.

The Princeton Macintosh Users' Group met Tuesday evening at Princeton University. Rob Golding was the featured speaker, here facing us from the front, comfortably seated at the computer that was connected to the video projector.

The presentation began with an explanation of why Apple recently changed its microprocessors to Intel Duo Core. The reason was speed vs. heat, and the need to lower the temperature of its laptops. We were also given guidance concerning what is now compatible with the latest hardware. If you have Intel, then Rosetta (a translator) enables you to enjoy any OS X application, but "Classic" mode is no longer supported, so pre-OS X software is now past history.

However, just for fun, Rob has assembled a DVD with the necessary programs for emulating all earlier Macintosh operating systems, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart. We all enjoyed seeing familiar applications, such as Claris Works and Apple Paint, running under the current "Tiger" OS. That brought back fond memories of my very first Mac, 23 years ago.