Today and tomorrow marks the arrival of several friends who are coming down to visit my brother and I here in California. As far as I know none of them have ever been to this state before, so this ought to be fun times.
Right now the plan is to hit up San Francisco on Saturday, followed by the beach on Sunday. That reminds me: I was going to go buy a wetsuit for the beach. Since I live here now, I may as well have one and that will help in making sure everyone has some degree of warmth when they go into the ocean.
My folks have rented a big van for the beach trip--many thanks to them. Yet another reminder that I would do well to get a vehicle!
Alright. Off to my 8:30 meeting. Can't wait for tonight!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Mountain Biking: What a Rush!
So last Thursday, I took a coworker up on his offer to take my brother and I mountain biking. Having just bought a new bike the previous weekend, I thought I was prepared. Nope!
As we drove out to Fremont Older where we were to bike that evening, I started to realize that I had no idea what to expect. Was I going to die from being out of shape and trying to bike up a mountain, or maybe from falling off a cliff? As it turns out, there was no dying involved. It was quite obvious by the end, though, that I could use a little more exercise.
The trails we rode on at Fremont Older were for the most part multiple use trails. This meant that in addition to the occasional hiker we were often dodging evidence of passing equestrians (although we only saw one). The trails themselves were primarily dirt going on sand in some parts--it really saps your energy!
So after maybe 40 minutes of riding uphill, we reached what was more or less the top of the trails. Next came the fun part: going back down again! We did a good 15 minutes of solid downhill. It was so worth it. You appreciated downhill so much more when you're hot and sweaty. No pain no gain right?
After the downhill section, right near the end I had to take a break...but ultimately I made it! We got back to the cars and broke out some cold beer before hitting the road and heading home. I spent the next hour or so soaking in the hot tub here, which did wonders for my somewhat beaten up knees and legs. I barely even felt it the next day (the legs at least. Back is a different story but hey, that's the norm). I'm hoping to go again sometime, although I don't want to get in the way of the guys we went with. The trail was a beginner trail and I just made it--I don't want to impose my out of shape self on these guys because they commonly do much longer, harsher rides (think 4-6 hour rides over the mountains). Yikes!
Anyhow, it was good fun. Highly recommended, especially if you can find someone who knows trails in the area.
As we drove out to Fremont Older where we were to bike that evening, I started to realize that I had no idea what to expect. Was I going to die from being out of shape and trying to bike up a mountain, or maybe from falling off a cliff? As it turns out, there was no dying involved. It was quite obvious by the end, though, that I could use a little more exercise.
The trails we rode on at Fremont Older were for the most part multiple use trails. This meant that in addition to the occasional hiker we were often dodging evidence of passing equestrians (although we only saw one). The trails themselves were primarily dirt going on sand in some parts--it really saps your energy!
So after maybe 40 minutes of riding uphill, we reached what was more or less the top of the trails. Next came the fun part: going back down again! We did a good 15 minutes of solid downhill. It was so worth it. You appreciated downhill so much more when you're hot and sweaty. No pain no gain right?
After the downhill section, right near the end I had to take a break...but ultimately I made it! We got back to the cars and broke out some cold beer before hitting the road and heading home. I spent the next hour or so soaking in the hot tub here, which did wonders for my somewhat beaten up knees and legs. I barely even felt it the next day (the legs at least. Back is a different story but hey, that's the norm). I'm hoping to go again sometime, although I don't want to get in the way of the guys we went with. The trail was a beginner trail and I just made it--I don't want to impose my out of shape self on these guys because they commonly do much longer, harsher rides (think 4-6 hour rides over the mountains). Yikes!
Anyhow, it was good fun. Highly recommended, especially if you can find someone who knows trails in the area.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
HP: I Love/Hate You
Toys! The best part of working full time and being responsible for no one but yourself. Having gained an interest in hybrid home theatre/computer setups over the past year, it only made sense to get a nice screen to accompany my 5.1 setup.
I had been waiting for ages to buy a Dell 2407WFP. When it finally arrived, it was plagued with problems--blurry text, colour banding and faulty component inputs. That just wouldn't do, so it was off to research alternatives. The BenQ FP2401W was the next screen to catch my eye. Twenty-four inch, with HDCP and an HDMI port built right in? 1080p out of the box? Yes! But it, too, was too good to be true. The hard to find release date kept getting pushed back further and further until it landed sometime in September. I'd been waiting months, and was tired of it. Back to the old drawing board...
At this point I looked at a few other 24" alternatives. Unfortunately they were plagued with a variety of problems, a major one being what's commonly referred to as "input lag". Input lag is a side effect of the PVA panel technology used in pretty much every 24" LCD on the market right now. There is a delay between the changing video signal coming into the screen and when the screen itself actually updates. It is rather small...but not small enough. After test driving a few screens at the local Fry's, I realized I was not one of the lucky ones who can not notice the lag.
So 24" screens wouldn't do. I took a step back and looked instead at 23" models, which used
a different technology (IPS) that did not suffer input lag problems. There were several options, but what it boiled down to was that I could choose the HP 2335 that did not support HDCP and yet had a full array of inputs (component/svideo/composite) or I could get a
Viewsonic that DID support HDCP but had no inputs other then DVI/VGA. In the interest of playing the occasional round of SSB:M, and after reading some reviews that put the screen in a very positive light, I bought the HP.
It was huge! Plus the widescreen aspect made watching stuff so much better. All was good.
Then it happened. What all LCD purchasers dread. I began to see some dead pixels.
Actually dead pixels I can deal with. STUCK pixels are the problem, specifically one nasty green one that's close enough to the centre of the screen to be really annoying. Not wanting to call newegg (ahh, that's a rant for another day) I decided to call HP directly. Considering that it was 11:30pm, I was pleasantly surprised to have the phone answered by a real person. I was less then thrilled when it became apparent that English was most definately not the guy's native tongue. After several minutes of frustration, he thankfully transferred me to someone else.
The next guy was much better; easier to understand and very helpful. After talking to him for a few minutes, I had a replacement monitor on the way via 2-day air. I also realized that despite the outsourced tech support, HP's policies are really really solid. For high end screens that have lots of pixels, many manufacturers INCREASE the number of dead pixels a screen needs to be declared defective. From a manufacturing point of view, that makes sense: bigger screen = more pixels = greater chance of defect. But as a consumer, that policy really sucks! It only takes one annoying pixel to ruin an otherwise great screen.
HP takes the high road. For their higher end large LCDs, they instead REDUCE the number of dead pixels required to declare a screen defective. The magic number is 5, which my screen exceeded.
So I was thrilled. Getting a replacement had been so easy, and they were footing the bill for return shipping as well.
Unfortunately, there's always bad to go with the good. The screen I received was less than stellar. More bad pixels then the first, plus it had this wierd purple hue around the outside. No good.
So I got to repeat the entire process. The next screen comes tomorrow, and I shipped back the replacement screen today. Fingers crossed that whatever they sent me this time is better, because good customer service or not, my patience is wearing a little thin.
I had been waiting for ages to buy a Dell 2407WFP. When it finally arrived, it was plagued with problems--blurry text, colour banding and faulty component inputs. That just wouldn't do, so it was off to research alternatives. The BenQ FP2401W was the next screen to catch my eye. Twenty-four inch, with HDCP and an HDMI port built right in? 1080p out of the box? Yes! But it, too, was too good to be true. The hard to find release date kept getting pushed back further and further until it landed sometime in September. I'd been waiting months, and was tired of it. Back to the old drawing board...
At this point I looked at a few other 24" alternatives. Unfortunately they were plagued with a variety of problems, a major one being what's commonly referred to as "input lag". Input lag is a side effect of the PVA panel technology used in pretty much every 24" LCD on the market right now. There is a delay between the changing video signal coming into the screen and when the screen itself actually updates. It is rather small...but not small enough. After test driving a few screens at the local Fry's, I realized I was not one of the lucky ones who can not notice the lag.
So 24" screens wouldn't do. I took a step back and looked instead at 23" models, which used
a different technology (IPS) that did not suffer input lag problems. There were several options, but what it boiled down to was that I could choose the HP 2335 that did not support HDCP and yet had a full array of inputs (component/svideo/composite) or I could get a
Viewsonic that DID support HDCP but had no inputs other then DVI/VGA. In the interest of playing the occasional round of SSB:M, and after reading some reviews that put the screen in a very positive light, I bought the HP.
It was huge! Plus the widescreen aspect made watching stuff so much better. All was good.
Then it happened. What all LCD purchasers dread. I began to see some dead pixels.
Actually dead pixels I can deal with. STUCK pixels are the problem, specifically one nasty green one that's close enough to the centre of the screen to be really annoying. Not wanting to call newegg (ahh, that's a rant for another day) I decided to call HP directly. Considering that it was 11:30pm, I was pleasantly surprised to have the phone answered by a real person. I was less then thrilled when it became apparent that English was most definately not the guy's native tongue. After several minutes of frustration, he thankfully transferred me to someone else.
The next guy was much better; easier to understand and very helpful. After talking to him for a few minutes, I had a replacement monitor on the way via 2-day air. I also realized that despite the outsourced tech support, HP's policies are really really solid. For high end screens that have lots of pixels, many manufacturers INCREASE the number of dead pixels a screen needs to be declared defective. From a manufacturing point of view, that makes sense: bigger screen = more pixels = greater chance of defect. But as a consumer, that policy really sucks! It only takes one annoying pixel to ruin an otherwise great screen.
HP takes the high road. For their higher end large LCDs, they instead REDUCE the number of dead pixels required to declare a screen defective. The magic number is 5, which my screen exceeded.
So I was thrilled. Getting a replacement had been so easy, and they were footing the bill for return shipping as well.
Unfortunately, there's always bad to go with the good. The screen I received was less than stellar. More bad pixels then the first, plus it had this wierd purple hue around the outside. No good.
So I got to repeat the entire process. The next screen comes tomorrow, and I shipped back the replacement screen today. Fingers crossed that whatever they sent me this time is better, because good customer service or not, my patience is wearing a little thin.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Automatic Updates: Necessary but oh so Obnoxious
Every other day a new flaw in Microsoft Windows seems to threaten the world. Microsoft's response came primarily in the form of service pack 2 for Window's XP, which, among many security enhancements, reemphasized the automatic update feature of windows and (I believe) turned it on by default.
The idea was that while Microsoft had regularly released patches and updates to combat the flaws and exploits that threatened its users in the wild, most people were not getting them. I mean, how often do you think your mom would go to the windows update website to download the latest set of patches? Yeah.
So anyhow, Microsoft changed things around to force the patches down our throats. Now for the most part, I'm not against this. I have a T-shirt that says "No, I will not fix your computer" for a reason--most of the maintenance work I end up doing for friends and family could have been prevented if their computers had been kept "up to date". But there's a problem.
Some (most?) of the updates released by Microsoft require the computer to be rebooted as part of the install process. Microsoft's solution? Keep popping up a nag message every 5-10 minutes asking if the user would like to reboot now or later. And if they don't respond...just reboot! Well Microsoft: screw your auto-reboot. The nag screen is bad enough if you're in the middle of a movie or show or presentation at work, but the worst part is when I get up for 10 minutes to get a coffee and come back to see my computer sitting at the windows logon screen. Where did my unsaved work go? It didn't fall victim to a virus, or an exploit. No, it fell victim to a feature.
So despite the benefits, I'm turning automatic updates off (or at least automatic installation). It's a fool me once, shame on you type of situation...and this isn't the first time I've been fooled.
The idea was that while Microsoft had regularly released patches and updates to combat the flaws and exploits that threatened its users in the wild, most people were not getting them. I mean, how often do you think your mom would go to the windows update website to download the latest set of patches? Yeah.
So anyhow, Microsoft changed things around to force the patches down our throats. Now for the most part, I'm not against this. I have a T-shirt that says "No, I will not fix your computer" for a reason--most of the maintenance work I end up doing for friends and family could have been prevented if their computers had been kept "up to date". But there's a problem.
Some (most?) of the updates released by Microsoft require the computer to be rebooted as part of the install process. Microsoft's solution? Keep popping up a nag message every 5-10 minutes asking if the user would like to reboot now or later. And if they don't respond...just reboot! Well Microsoft: screw your auto-reboot. The nag screen is bad enough if you're in the middle of a movie or show or presentation at work, but the worst part is when I get up for 10 minutes to get a coffee and come back to see my computer sitting at the windows logon screen. Where did my unsaved work go? It didn't fall victim to a virus, or an exploit. No, it fell victim to a feature.
So despite the benefits, I'm turning automatic updates off (or at least automatic installation). It's a fool me once, shame on you type of situation...and this isn't the first time I've been fooled.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Dude! It's just a game!
As much as I hate to admit it to the world at large, I play video games. Lots of video games. In fact since I moved down to Sunnyvale at the end of May they've occupied a significant portion of my time outside of work. I blame living in suburbia, and not having a car to escape to somewhere more interesting. Meeting new people is not as easy as it was when I was in school...but I digress.
One of the commonalities among online gaming is the trash talking. Everyone trash talks in competition (online or not) but the anonymity provided by the internet means that things can get rough really fast. Playing Warcraft guarantees many remarks about "your mom" each session. Yay!
These same people tend to get terribly angry when they begin to lose. The trash talk quickly switches from comments about my mom's size to "omg hax!" until either the loud mouth ceases losing or leaves, ruining the game for the remaining players.
I'd like to think that the majority of those that do that are 14 year olds that don't know any better, but I suspect otherwise. Still it makes me question my motives for playing--couldn't I find something better to do than sit in my apartment playing games with 14 year olds on the internet? The answer is yes! I can sit in my apartment playing games with 14 year olds while drinking a beer and eating a T-bone (3 minutes on one side, 2 on the other)!
But seriously, I need to get out more. On Thursday I'm going to spearhead the effort by going trail biking with a guy from work. Should be fun!
One of the commonalities among online gaming is the trash talking. Everyone trash talks in competition (online or not) but the anonymity provided by the internet means that things can get rough really fast. Playing Warcraft guarantees many remarks about "your mom" each session. Yay!
These same people tend to get terribly angry when they begin to lose. The trash talk quickly switches from comments about my mom's size to "omg hax!" until either the loud mouth ceases losing or leaves, ruining the game for the remaining players.
I'd like to think that the majority of those that do that are 14 year olds that don't know any better, but I suspect otherwise. Still it makes me question my motives for playing--couldn't I find something better to do than sit in my apartment playing games with 14 year olds on the internet? The answer is yes! I can sit in my apartment playing games with 14 year olds while drinking a beer and eating a T-bone (3 minutes on one side, 2 on the other)!
But seriously, I need to get out more. On Thursday I'm going to spearhead the effort by going trail biking with a guy from work. Should be fun!
Yawn
Hi!
Welcome to my Blog. Tuesday mornings sure are slow, what better way to liven things up than to start a boring Blog?
I figure that this has the potential to be interesting, and perhaps be a fresh way to keep in touch with friends and family (and stalkers?) that reside (hopefully?) far away.
So sit back, relax and prepare to have a good yawn at my expense!
--R
Welcome to my Blog. Tuesday mornings sure are slow, what better way to liven things up than to start a boring Blog?
I figure that this has the potential to be interesting, and perhaps be a fresh way to keep in touch with friends and family (and stalkers?) that reside (hopefully?) far away.
So sit back, relax and prepare to have a good yawn at my expense!
--R
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