Some bloggers that deem themselves successful think that the bad ones are doing a disservice by existing. I don't believe this, but I am obviously biased. First of all, my Google searches are not filled up with irrelevant personal anecdotes. so I do not see how anyone suffers because people like me make their hatred of whole wheat lean pockets public. Secondly, these blogs serve a similar purpose as a journal does to the writer. I say similar because as I recently realized there is a different between a public blog and a private journal.
I'm rather straightforward in this blog, but not because I hide under the blanket of anonymity. A quick Google search of my handle will turn up my real name and my email address. Because of this, there are certain things I won't say for various reasons. These are not of the secrets I will take to my grave variety. They are more along the lines of things I'd rather not let certain people know. Many of them I have no problem with letting most of my friends and total strangers know. It would just be for the best if certain other people didn't know.
An example of information I previously wanted to keep secret from certain parties is I quite my job as a customer service representative for an ISP to work for a company that printed t-shirts as a programmer. Except for the first couple of months at the new job I worked weekends at the old job. Now I probably would not be fired for having a second job, but its generally not something looked upon in a positive light. This is especially true when you are a salaried employee. At this point in time I no longer work for either party so I don't mind sharing this fact.
At the time I did note in my myspace blog that I was moonlighting, and my new coworkers found me and my blog with my little secret. In the end nothing came of it, but it was stupid on my part.
So your potential audience affects what you say. While in general I may write the same sort of things in this blog as I would in a journal, some things are said differently because others might see them. The same could be said for a journal I intend no one but myself to see as opposed to one I would allow others to see.
In my case that means certain things are not said, Also, I make an attempt to make events sound more interesting since I potentially have an audience. In that regard I find this blog a better tool for improving my writing than a journal. The hope that random people will find me interesting enough to read me regularly makes me want to say something interesting.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Observations on airport security.
My company has an office in Florida. I am flying back from my second trip there. Both times I've smuggled contraband on the plane. By contraband I mean items that I can't technically take on a plane, but would not make effective weapons.
The first time I traveled there I brought a larger than 10 oz container of body wash in my carry on. As JFK they just didn't notice it. It was confiscated on the way back at FLL. The second time I brought network cable crimping equipment on. I was told by the TSA employees at JFK it was ok. In line for scanning on the way back a read a sign that specifically forbid tools such as screwdrivers and hammers. I think a crimper, punch down tool and wire stripper fall into that category. Somehow I make it through screening.
This is what I don't like about the war on terror. I don't know enough about security to be able to make statements about the usefulness of flight regulations. However, I think that not enforcing them is probably a bad idea.
These sorts of incidents eventually lead me to think how I would behave if another passenger on a plane I am taking announces he is hijacking the plane, I plan on making it very clear they will have to kill me before they bring down the plane. Of course being unmarried and childless I have the luxory of being able to make principled stands like that. At least in my own mind I do.
The first time I traveled there I brought a larger than 10 oz container of body wash in my carry on. As JFK they just didn't notice it. It was confiscated on the way back at FLL. The second time I brought network cable crimping equipment on. I was told by the TSA employees at JFK it was ok. In line for scanning on the way back a read a sign that specifically forbid tools such as screwdrivers and hammers. I think a crimper, punch down tool and wire stripper fall into that category. Somehow I make it through screening.
This is what I don't like about the war on terror. I don't know enough about security to be able to make statements about the usefulness of flight regulations. However, I think that not enforcing them is probably a bad idea.
These sorts of incidents eventually lead me to think how I would behave if another passenger on a plane I am taking announces he is hijacking the plane, I plan on making it very clear they will have to kill me before they bring down the plane. Of course being unmarried and childless I have the luxory of being able to make principled stands like that. At least in my own mind I do.
Cars, Trains, and Airplanes
The past 72 hours have been quite interesting for me. Below is the run down.
I left work at 17:00. I was given two tickets to the New York Performance of Blue Man Group. They are not affected by the stage hand strike. I think the stage hands are actually actors as they participate in the show and take their bows at the end. Curtain time is 20:00. My plan was to drive from work to Jamacia Station, then take the LIRR and the A train to my destination. My girlfriends plan was to take the bus to the PATH Train to the A train.
This part of the plan executed fine, except for a minor reroute on my girlfriends part. We grabbed sandwiches for dinner. The show was excellent. Afterwards we took a taxi to the world trade center. She takes the PATH train to the Godless land across the Hudson that no New York enjoys going to unless he happens to be one of New Yorks Strongest driving a garbage truck. I take the A train back to Queens. As I am walking from the subway station to my house I remember that my car is in Jamacia.
This meant that I would have to wake up an hour earlier, walk to JFK airport, take the Air Train. Pay $5 dollars to get off at Jamacia, and walk to my car. Normally this would be a minor inconvenience. However, I happened to have to catch the 6:55 Jet Blue flight to FLL in the morning. This cut 5 hours of sleep down to 4. I could not leave my car there because it would be ticked and possibly towed in the morning, and my laptop, which I would need in Florida, was there.
I wake up, stuff a change of cloths into my jacket pockets and begin my pilgrimage to my car. I arrive at my car. Soon after starting my car I discover that there is so much dew I will have to clean off the windows by hand. This is a task that has always annoyed me greatly. I take a short drive back to my house and walk back to JFK.
Upon arriving at security, I began top remember the multitude of rules the TSA enforces at these check points. Mainly I keep alot of junk in my book bag and pockets, and much of it is electronic. I average about 4 trays at the scanners. I forgot toiletries, so I don't have to worry about the liquid rules.
However, I dis have one thing to worry about, a set of network cable tools. These are strange looking and have sharp edges. Luckily the TSA employee knows what they are and after a consult with her red shirted supervisor I am allowed to bring these weapons of mass communication upon the plane.
The flight departs on time and is uneventful. No one claps when we land. This pleases me. Unless an engine catches fire I feel clapping is unwarranted. If you are a nervous flyer I suggest you OD on caffine and take a 16 hour nonstop flight. Repeat until flight does not bother you. If you fear terrorists, consider flying a stupid, but brave symbolic act.
I am offered a Dodge Charger upsell by Avis for only $10 more a day. The clerk did no know the engine in it, and I didnt check. I believe it was the V-6. There is no tiptronic like shifting. Wikipedia claims that on a Dodge the closest technology would be called AutoStick. The interior is very spartan. It was an interesting change from my Corolla. The squareness of the front allowed me to park easier. That being said, I'll take my 5 speed corolla any day over an automatic Dodge Charger.
The business aspect of Floridia was fairly straightforward. I took a walk down Hillsboro Blvd looking for a place to eat and eventually settled on a Mexican restaurant. I walked back to my hotel, watched some TV and went to sleep.
They next day was more of the same and the trip back to the airport. The TSA employee was very insistent that I only use the trays for my laptop and shoes and keep the rest of my bag intact. Small trays were provided for pocket contents. They much have newer scanners there, and to my surprise, my bag doesn't require manual inspection.
I get to my flight gate and discover the flight is delayed. It was scheduled to depart FLL at 18:10. A little after 7 we were allowed on the plane. Its now 20:00 and I am sitting in seat 20C, typing this from the Tarmac, As I finished the last sentence, at 20:03 an announcement was made that planes destined for JFK are now allowed to take off.
---------- HIBERNATE LAPTOP ----------
---------- UNHIBERNATE LAPTOP ----------
20:35 and I'm in the air. I'm anticipating my Dunkin Donuts coffee black no sugar and blue potato chips.
I end up home a little before 01:00.
The past 72 hours have been quite interesting for me. Below is the run down.
I left work at 17:00. I was given two tickets to the New York Performance of Blue Man Group. They are not affected by the stage hand strike. I think the stage hands are actually actors as they participate in the show and take their bows at the end. Curtain time is 20:00. My plan was to drive from work to Jamacia Station, then take the LIRR and the A train to my destination. My girlfriends plan was to take the bus to the PATH Train to the A train.
This part of the plan executed fine, except for a minor reroute on my girlfriends part. We grabbed sandwiches for dinner. The show was excellent. Afterwards we took a taxi to the world trade center. She takes the PATH train to the Godless land across the Hudson that no New York enjoys going to unless he happens to be one of New Yorks Strongest driving a garbage truck. I take the A train back to Queens. As I am walking from the subway station to my house I remember that my car is in Jamacia.
This meant that I would have to wake up an hour earlier, walk to JFK airport, take the Air Train. Pay $5 dollars to get off at Jamacia, and walk to my car. Normally this would be a minor inconvenience. However, I happened to have to catch the 6:55 Jet Blue flight to FLL in the morning. This cut 5 hours of sleep down to 4. I could not leave my car there because it would be ticked and possibly towed in the morning, and my laptop, which I would need in Florida, was there.
I wake up, stuff a change of cloths into my jacket pockets and begin my pilgrimage to my car. I arrive at my car. Soon after starting my car I discover that there is so much dew I will have to clean off the windows by hand. This is a task that has always annoyed me greatly. I take a short drive back to my house and walk back to JFK.
Upon arriving at security, I began top remember the multitude of rules the TSA enforces at these check points. Mainly I keep alot of junk in my book bag and pockets, and much of it is electronic. I average about 4 trays at the scanners. I forgot toiletries, so I don't have to worry about the liquid rules.
However, I dis have one thing to worry about, a set of network cable tools. These are strange looking and have sharp edges. Luckily the TSA employee knows what they are and after a consult with her red shirted supervisor I am allowed to bring these weapons of mass communication upon the plane.
The flight departs on time and is uneventful. No one claps when we land. This pleases me. Unless an engine catches fire I feel clapping is unwarranted. If you are a nervous flyer I suggest you OD on caffine and take a 16 hour nonstop flight. Repeat until flight does not bother you. If you fear terrorists, consider flying a stupid, but brave symbolic act.
I am offered a Dodge Charger upsell by Avis for only $10 more a day. The clerk did no know the engine in it, and I didnt check. I believe it was the V-6. There is no tiptronic like shifting. Wikipedia claims that on a Dodge the closest technology would be called AutoStick. The interior is very spartan. It was an interesting change from my Corolla. The squareness of the front allowed me to park easier. That being said, I'll take my 5 speed corolla any day over an automatic Dodge Charger.
The business aspect of Floridia was fairly straightforward. I took a walk down Hillsboro Blvd looking for a place to eat and eventually settled on a Mexican restaurant. I walked back to my hotel, watched some TV and went to sleep.
They next day was more of the same and the trip back to the airport. The TSA employee was very insistent that I only use the trays for my laptop and shoes and keep the rest of my bag intact. Small trays were provided for pocket contents. They much have newer scanners there, and to my surprise, my bag doesn't require manual inspection.
I get to my flight gate and discover the flight is delayed. It was scheduled to depart FLL at 18:10. A little after 7 we were allowed on the plane. Its now 20:00 and I am sitting in seat 20C, typing this from the Tarmac, As I finished the last sentence, at 20:03 an announcement was made that planes destined for JFK are now allowed to take off.
---------- HIBERNATE LAPTOP ----------
---------- UNHIBERNATE LAPTOP ----------
20:35 and I'm in the air. I'm anticipating my Dunkin Donuts coffee black no sugar and blue potato chips.
I end up home a little before 01:00.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Christman List Fun
My mother requested a Christmas list from myself and my girlfriend. I post the email thread here for the amusement of the general public.
The lists
Girlfriend:
A house plant
Me:
Pony
German Shepard
underwear
world peace
world domination
The response
Thank you for your Christmas List. However, there is shortage on
ponies, German shepherds decided to travel back to their homeland.
underwear that's a good possibility as long as its USA made, but what is
the size. world peace sounds heavenly but out of my control and world
domination--you're asking for too much.
Love,
Mom
The lists
Girlfriend:
A house plant
Me:
Pony
German Shepard
underwear
world peace
world domination
The response
Thank you for your Christmas List. However, there is shortage on
ponies, German shepherds decided to travel back to their homeland.
underwear that's a good possibility as long as its USA made, but what is
the size. world peace sounds heavenly but out of my control and world
domination--you're asking for too much.
Love,
Mom
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Confusing Marketing
Ok sometime I see something and just want to say what the heck. Palm's marketing copy for their Centro is one of those things.
The Centro's product page says the following:
The Centro's product page says the following:
Life starts after five o'clock. That's why there's the Palm® Centro™ smartphone. Palm Centro gives you voice, text, IM, email and web, all in a phone that's a lot smaller than you think. It even has a touchscreen and a full keyboard, so you can say L8R to those tricky keys on your cell phone. Carry names and numbers, shoot photos and video, and meet up with friends. Centro. Let's go.What were they thinking? If you have a smart phone, you generally use it because you are a workaholic. You don't use it for you outside the office life. Even if it is a toy you use to communicate with your friends, you're probably using it to check your rss feeds or myspace messages when you should be talking to the girl sitting next to you, since its 5 o'clock and that means its happy hour.
Monday, October 29, 2007
A tale of bad documentation - Part 2
In part 1 I discussed a real life story of bad documentation wasting peoples time. In part 2 I provide an update and some notes on the more human side of this all.
After some correspondence on the mailing lists, I submitted a documentation patch. There might an iteration or two of changes to that, but I expect it to make it into the final product (the website) in short order.
All in all its been a mostly positive experience as far as interacting with people. The people on the list were pretty helpful and quite responsive. However, the tools were a bit obtuse. I'm hoping to be able to help fix that fir future releases.
After some correspondence on the mailing lists, I submitted a documentation patch. There might an iteration or two of changes to that, but I expect it to make it into the final product (the website) in short order.
All in all its been a mostly positive experience as far as interacting with people. The people on the list were pretty helpful and quite responsive. However, the tools were a bit obtuse. I'm hoping to be able to help fix that fir future releases.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Observations on Parking Tickets
I get many parking tickets. This comes from growing up in an area where you could park on the street 24/7, but in my adult life having to drive to areas with things like alternate side of the street parking.
First a definition of alternate side of the street parking. Basically in New York City, neighboring Jersey City, and I'm sure many other urban areas, certain areas where you can park on the street have signs where once or twice a week you cannot park on that side of the street for a certain time period. The times are arranged so that if you cannot part your car on one side of the street today, you cannot park your car on the other side tomorrow. Hence the name alternate side of the street parking.
The reason for this is to designate a time period that the street cleaning trucks can clean the street. The penalty for failing to move your car is of course a parking ticket. Also, if they actually clean the streets that day, you get a sticker on your windshield letting you know that the streets are dirty because of you. In addition to all of this are of course areas you just cannot park during weekday daytime hours because the extra lane is needing for moving cars or the area is designated no standing except for commercial vehicles. Violating those signs means getting towed.
I've received several parking tickets, and gotten towed once. I've never gotten a sticker on my windshield, but did once watch a street cleaning truck drive around my car and quickly moved it before someone came to apply the sticker and write the ticket. I've even gotten towed once. These I can all attest to personal irresponsibility However, there is one ticket I attribute to personnel responsibility.
I was hanging out at a bar that was then called Central Ales in Valley Stream. The location of the building is shown below.
View Larger Map
While I was there, a couple of friends I don't see often showed up. They said they would give me a ride home and my friend the manager said he would give me a ride to my car in the AM. So I did a few shots of Jagar and hung out for a few hours before being dropped off at my residence.
The next day I saw a pink slip on my windshield. It said my crime was parking between the hours of 03:30 and 05:30. The merits of such a law on quality of life is questionable to me. Then again I find the concept of wanting to forbid parking on the street for the sake of forbiding it quite elitist. Generally it means people can park on the street to visit homes and residences, but need to secure a private parking spot if they reside there. Of course, the way the law is written, the main culprits are those that frequent bars in the area, and the law has the unintended consequence of encouraging drunk driving. Now in addition to having to go back and get my car the next day, and pay for a cab, I have to pay a ticket if I decide that I had too much to drink and want to do the right thing.
I never paid the ticket, but that is another story. I should have fought the ticket, because I feel so strongly about the law being wrong in this instance that I should have made my feelings public record.
First a definition of alternate side of the street parking. Basically in New York City, neighboring Jersey City, and I'm sure many other urban areas, certain areas where you can park on the street have signs where once or twice a week you cannot park on that side of the street for a certain time period. The times are arranged so that if you cannot part your car on one side of the street today, you cannot park your car on the other side tomorrow. Hence the name alternate side of the street parking.
The reason for this is to designate a time period that the street cleaning trucks can clean the street. The penalty for failing to move your car is of course a parking ticket. Also, if they actually clean the streets that day, you get a sticker on your windshield letting you know that the streets are dirty because of you. In addition to all of this are of course areas you just cannot park during weekday daytime hours because the extra lane is needing for moving cars or the area is designated no standing except for commercial vehicles. Violating those signs means getting towed.
I've received several parking tickets, and gotten towed once. I've never gotten a sticker on my windshield, but did once watch a street cleaning truck drive around my car and quickly moved it before someone came to apply the sticker and write the ticket. I've even gotten towed once. These I can all attest to personal irresponsibility However, there is one ticket I attribute to personnel responsibility.
I was hanging out at a bar that was then called Central Ales in Valley Stream. The location of the building is shown below.
View Larger Map
While I was there, a couple of friends I don't see often showed up. They said they would give me a ride home and my friend the manager said he would give me a ride to my car in the AM. So I did a few shots of Jagar and hung out for a few hours before being dropped off at my residence.
The next day I saw a pink slip on my windshield. It said my crime was parking between the hours of 03:30 and 05:30. The merits of such a law on quality of life is questionable to me. Then again I find the concept of wanting to forbid parking on the street for the sake of forbiding it quite elitist. Generally it means people can park on the street to visit homes and residences, but need to secure a private parking spot if they reside there. Of course, the way the law is written, the main culprits are those that frequent bars in the area, and the law has the unintended consequence of encouraging drunk driving. Now in addition to having to go back and get my car the next day, and pay for a cab, I have to pay a ticket if I decide that I had too much to drink and want to do the right thing.
I never paid the ticket, but that is another story. I should have fought the ticket, because I feel so strongly about the law being wrong in this instance that I should have made my feelings public record.
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