Crappy Christmas - update

Finally I have both hot water and hot air operational. The HVAC technician was very nice, professional and quick, and the repair (letting the air out of the heating coil) cost me only $80!
Now I can bask in warmth...
Have a nice (and warm) day!

The Crappiest Christmas - Ever

My water heater decided to leak this Christmas. To make long story short: replacement of the heater and neighboring pipes was only $1300. After the technician left, water was hot, but AC/Heater unit stopped heating action. It is late in the night so no point to call, but will post update tomorrow to let you guys know how much was it.
If you have something that can top this on the list of crappy Christmases -- feel free to post a comment...

The Hell Has Frozen

Considering that Las Vegas is called 'sin city' and after over 3 inches of snowfall on Wednesday, December 17th it is still white down here, we can officially state that the hell has frozen.
The position of janitor responsible for plowing the sidewalks is not known in this town, so this morning it was easier to skate than walk on some streets.
Here are some pictures from the snow day:

Long exposure, so the falling snow looks like white rain.

Flash exposure, so you can see the snowflakes.

Mesquite trees looked very sad, overburdened with snow caps.

Jay Leno Blowing Santa!

I could not believe my own eyes: few moments ago on Tonight show Jay Leno was blowing Santa!
That must be the end of the world!






(OK, it was blow-up Santa purchased at 99 Cent Store. But the place you are supposed to use for blowing it up was anatomically correct...)

Summit

This time I'm blogging from the First FPGA Summit in San Jose, California. It is definitely nice to be a part of something that can be a start of new tradition in Electronic Design Automation industry.
The morning was pretty good (after some minor glitches) and the rest of the day should be fine, too. I will scribble again if something spectacular happens.
Let's hope that it will get warmer outside, too.

Giving Thanks - Again

So it is yet another Thanksgiving. Not too many reasons to give thanks, though - unless you get into slightly sarcastic tone:

• I'm alive,
• My home is not in foreclosure,
• McCain was not elected president,
• Bush managed to keep the number of wars America waged to relatively low number 2.

Guys in India definitely have no reasons to celebrate: Muslim scum attacked again, this time in Mumbai. And please, don't tell me that by using term "Muslim scum" I'm hurting some innocent, decent people. Decent people have obligation to fight subhuman scoundrels that take over their religion. If their voice is not heard, they should leave the church/sect/faith. I did so, because I could not stand the obsession of Catholic church with my sex life and orders to vote for complete moral zeroes that happened to declare themselves as 'True Catholics'.
It is funny that according to many religions it doesn't really matter how much good you are doing; one wrong person you sleep with, one unapproved opinion and you are out.
It should be natural that the same principle should be applied to religions: since Christians, Muslim and Jews all approved killing people because they have different views, they should all burn in their respective hells.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Cold spell

I'm in Hauppauge, NY on Long Island at the moment, delivering Verilog training to SMSC. When I left Las Vegas valley on Monday morning, the weather there was still in the seventies, here it barely hovers above freezing during the day and drops below in the night. This morning, after considering wind chill factor, the 'real feel' temperature was 19°F. Well, at least it was sunny. I know I will enjoy coming back to the desert...

Why Selma Sierra is a wh0re

Republican administration is trying to do as much damage as it can before it goes away. Most recent example, as reported by AP:
"Late on Election Day, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a Dec. 19 auction of more than 50,000 acres of oil and gas parcels alongside or within view of Arches National Park and two other redrock national parks in Utah: Dinosaur and Canyonlands."
Who is personally behind it? Yet another republican whore, Selma Sierra, director of Utah branch of BLM (Bureau of Land Management), traditionally wasting national resources that belong and should benefit all Americans. Why preserve something for ordinary people, if it can be sold to oil industry?
AP article continues:
"...BLM state director Selma Sierra was defiant, saying she saw nothing wrong with drilling near national parks..."
Funny, maybe somebody should build drilling tower over her house's fence. I wonder what her reaction would be.
'An examination of the parcels, superimposing low-resolution government graphics onto Google Earth maps, shows that in one case drilling parcels bordering Arches National Park are just 1.3 miles from Delicate Arch.
"If you're standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you're looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That's how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is," said Franklin Seal, a spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR.'
Yep, nothing unusual in a mind of your average, greedy Republican.
'Sierra said she instructed her district and field managers to educate the park superintendents on why drilling is OK "adjacent to and near the park boundaries." '
Pathetic! Mindless Republican drone is trying to 'educate' somebody! Since when spreading BS is called 'education'?
President Obama, I know you are busy, but please remember to fire that bitch and make sure she will not do any more damage in any government agency...

Something changed tonight!

OK, I'm man enough to admit it: I, 44 years old male, had tears in my eyes at the end of Barak Obama's acceptance speech. I'm proud to be in America when it happened.
But not everything is rosy: apparently proposition 8 was approved in California.
It is sort of pathetic that three groups that habitually hate each other: right-wing catholics, mormons, and evangelicals joined effort in hating gay population. 'Christians' bathing in hate and promoting hate disguised as 'marriage protection' had their victory. They may start rejoicing the amount of grief they increased in the world. I hope they are proud that millions of dollars that could be spent on feeding the poor or healing sick children were wasted on that demonstration of bigotry.
So, dear catholic bishops, elders in Salt Lake City or evangelical businessmen selling religion in mega-churches: if God exists, you shall burn in hell - together with all those pious churchgoers who ceded God-given ability to think and followed orders instead.
I have learned the lesson: not a single charity associated with those sects will ever see my money again.
Have a good night...

A taste of real fall

Today I'm on a day-trip to San Jose, California. I'm guest presenter on the SystemVerilog Assertions seminar organized by our local distributor. I do enjoy this particular function, but I enjoy the weather even more: when I landed at SJC, the temperature was in the low sixties, it was hazy, and the air was deliciously moist (without exaggeration you typically encounter in Florida).
I also took the opportunity to use Light Rail (sophisticated name for fast train) to get from the airport to the seminar location in Sunnyvale - trams are yet another thing popular in Europe that I'm missing in the USA, especially in Vegas valley.
Alas, everything that is nice has to end eventually, so I'll be jumping on a flight back to Las Vegas this afternoon. Well, at least I will have a nice dring while on board of the plane...
I have also realized this morning while getting to the airport that it is only one week left till election! It means that I have to survive just one week of stupid election commercials and I'll be free...
Good luck to all of you!

Not a whiner at all...

If you followed some of my summer blog entries you could think I'm a whiner: constant complaints about hot weather. Here's the proof that it is not true - I love fall weather we currently have! This weekend temperatures were in the eighties (around 30 in Celsius), there was sun, but also some clouds, some wind and even some rain - I adore diversity...
I should also enjoy some time when I do not have to travel for work: maybe I will use this opportunity and go to San Diego for a weekend? I'm big fan of this city.
On technical front: Microsoft apparently released newer version of Vista Service Pack 1 that no longer objects something on my notebook. As the result I'm preparing for the update: as I write this message, file backup is running; system backup completed earlier. When they are done, I will probably no longer need them and update will be smooth, but I would never risk major system update without backup. Of course I'm going to keep today's backups as an archive - I already have brand new USB drive to backup system after update.
Sweet dreams to you all!

Arizona Summer in the Fall

I'm blogging from the cafe in Tempe, Arizona. Although it is officially fall now, temperatures are still in the hundreds here. Locals say it is their second summer this year. Fortunately, it is only a day trip, so I'll be back in lower nineties soon...
See you later!

Another anniversary

Yet another anniversary... Looking at it now, the world before September 11th 2001 seems so innocent. I guess the fact that we are in the middle of another election campaign makes everything look dimmer. BTW, all those election commercials are testing limits of my endurance: all the smearing, complete lack of substance, and that paranoia of 'leadership'. To the drones from McCain campaign I have one thing to say: after all your bragging who is and who is nor ready to lead I just want to shout one thing - FUCK THE LEADER!!!
That's all - maybe tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Updates to Updates

Wow! Two months without blogging! Blame it on the weather (those who really read this blog know that I hate this period of the year when temperatures hover over 100°F and sometimes even reach levels above 110°F) or some sudden reorganization at work that kept me extremely busy.
But, as I write this, the temperatures are back in the nineties and I manage to catch up with new work tasks. I'm one happy camper again!
No major new gadgets, if you ignore new stereo Bluetooth headset good for both music listening and cell phone conversations. Speaking about cell phones - The Instinct mentioned in the previous post still work great.
That should be enough for now - time to go out and enjoy the weather...

Updates

Samsung Instinct arrived Monday morning. I like it - it is pretty cute! So far it seems to work as expected. I set up 4 e-mail accounts to observe on this phone, prepared a couple of MP3 ring tones and uploaded them to the phone, tried out visual mail, camera, GPS... I will certainly write more as I play with it.

Another update: on Friday I came back from an overnight trip to Kansas City area; it was the first time my atomic watch Citizen Skyhawk-AT was there - synchronization was flawless. It was amazing if you consider that there was quite strong thunderstorm overnight...

Today I finally went to the movie theater and watched the latest "Indiana Jones" - this picture brings back good memories...

Summer time again

Summer sneaked in silently on Friday. Nobody noticed it here in the high desert because it was already summer-scorching hot here for the last two weeks. Those who read this blog may have noticed it, but let me repeat: I HATE HEAT! I like warm weather, but 105°F is an overkill...
On the lighter note: I have ordered Samsung Instinct (very nice looking touch screen phone). I wanted to buy it in store, but it was sold out in all local stores before I left work on Thursday the 19th. I will write more when I get the shipment...
Stay cool...

Sign of the times

This Sunday morning I have watched the first Meet The Press without Tim Russert. It was sad - Sunday mornings will never be the same again... I hate to switch to prophetic mode, but I cannot stop thinking about it: maybe God has taken him so he does not have to see how ugly the presidential campaign will get this year? We shall see.
And quick update: my Skyhawk-AT performed nicely during my two nights stay in Anaheim, CA last week. I like this watch more and more...

Riding two time waves...

I have mentioned previously (and posted pictures of) two radio controlled watches:

• Oceanus OCWM700TDA (look here)
• Citizen Skyhawk AT Titanium - JY0010-50E (look here - below this post)

I had Oceanus for last 9 months, and Skyhawk for one month. Lets start by listing the similarities:

• both are solar powered,
• both synchronize atomic reference clocks via radio waves,
  
• both are totally encased in titanium.

We can say that both meet my key requirements for ideal watch. But they have some differences:

• Oceanus looks better: it has sapphire crystal glass, is thinner, looks more 'classic'.
• Skyhawk has small liquid crystal displays, which makes many functions so much easier (time zone change, alarm setting, etc.)
• Oceanus can synchronize with one more atomic clock - the one in UK; Skyhawk works with US, German, and Japanese clocks.
  
• Stop watch on Oceanus is useless: the minutes are counted by the small hand that also shows days of week, some modes, and tides. The dial has markings for all those functions, but no minute marks; the result is that 2min 15sec readout is practically indistinguishable from 3min 15sec.
• Oceanus has unique feature of showing tides, but Skyhawk has second alarm and timer.
• Skyhawk has backlight for the LCDs!
• Skyhawk has slide rule (I admit it is techy/geeky feature, but can be very useful for quick conversions and calculations).

The major problem I have with Oceanus is obvious error in the programming of the internal electronics: second counter is cleared and timekeeping stops whenever you enter time setting mode and change anything - home time zone for instance. It means that you have to synchronize via radio after this kind of operation. Apparently Casio realized it, since there is special insert in the manual recommending world time mode for home time zone setting...
Another potential problem is that you cannot set year and month in time setting mode: you have to synchronize with atomic clock.
I have also learned the hard way with Oceanus that advanced functions do require digital display (LCD). With hands-only display the functions like alarm setting take ages to complete:

1. Switch to the alarm mode and wait for ages until hands move to current alarm position.
2. Adjust alarm time (takes time again, especially if the new time is far from the old).
3. Return to time keeping mode - again waiting for ages...

Those problems are even worse due to hour hand being tied to minute hand - they cannot move independently during those setting operation. Since we are here: one more stupid, un-ergonomic decision. While you switch to the world time mode, minute and hour hands first do the walking to the second time zone, and when they are done indicator hand moves to the zone/city marker.
The order should be reverse, so the user can initiate switching to different time zone before hands start their lengthy motion.
Skyhawk has its little problems, too. Minute hand obscures main LCD in positions between 16 and 24, making it virtually useless during that period. I heard that some watches can park hands in neutral position on request...
My conclusion is:

• for travel and work, I'm going to use Skyhawk,
• for more official situations (when the look counts) I'm going to use Oceanus.

Have a good time!

Radio Time

As promised, I'm writing more about the new machine that rests on my wrist: Citizen Skyhawk AT Titanium. Here's how it looks:
It is pretty big, but feels relatively light due to its titanium case and bracelet. If you look closer at the picture, you will notice that the writing on the dial proudly announces that it is Citizen, Eco-Drive, water resistant 200m, and titanium; what is missing is the name of the series and model!
The little dial at the bottom shows the current mode of operation - its hand is controlled by the crown after it is pulled out to the first click position. The three dials at the top show (from left to right) battery level or currently selected radio transmitter, universal time, 24 hour time.
Leftmost LCD shows time zone for which hands are showing current time, rightmost LCD shows different pieces of data in different modes (in the picture: time in second time zone). LCD is equipped with orange backlight, available in time modes after pressing top button.
The watch can synchronize with radio transmitters in Colorado, Germany and Japan. So far I could check the reception of Colorado signal in two areas: Las Vegas, NV and Dayton, OH; in both cases there were no problems. I will be visiting Los Angeles area in June, so there will be one more test point for Colorado reception; it would be nice to visit Florida to do some testing, since that state is located very far from the transmitter. Doing tests in Japan and Europe would be nice, but will probably have to wait for a while.
Continuation of the test in the next post...

The Heat Is Back! Boooo!

Quite unexpectedly, we are hitting 100°F temperatures here in Vegas valley in mid May. As you may know from my previous posts, I don't like it - I'm warmth-loving creature, but I hate heat!

I had a string of business trips recently, and I brought precious trophy from one of them: new bunch of photos taken in Washington, DC! (You can see short selection here.) During all previous trips I was taking pictures, but some important part was always in renovation (especially very lengthy one of Washington Monument); this time I got all my favorite places without scaffolding!

In other areas: I got myself new watch: Citizen Skyhawk AT Titanium. It is not as classy looking as my Oceanus, but its functionality is much better. (That's why I'm not an Apple person - while I appreciate nice looks, I cannot stand their functional shortcomings [and bombastic, lying commercials]. )

Now I have to take some pictures of new Skyhawk and post some review...

Stay cool, my friends!

Oh, boy!

It is my birthday (again!) and I decided that it is time to roll back and from now on all my birthdays will be 33rd - easy to remember and looks nice in print.
Those who noticed that I haven't blogged for a while should get some explanation: way too many not so nice things happened to me recently. Some are already resolved, others in the process of resolving. I do believe that my luck is turning better for me, so my blogging schedule will improve soon.
Take care, my friends...

Posting from Word

This is quick test post, checking how posting from Microsoft Word 2007 works (if it works at all).

Hope you can see this post…

K-Birthdays

You have no idea what K-Birthday is? It's the day of your life that has ordinal number divisible by 1000. So today it was my K-Birthday 16... Sounds nice, but it hides the truth that I'm walking the earth for 16000 days.
K-Birthday seems a little bit more important than regular birthday, because it happens almost 3 times less frequently. It also has that esoteric flavor: many people would never think about counting the days of their lives. Of course your computer is very helpful when you want to compute your K-Birthdays. If you don't have any program handy, try Time and Date website: it has several useful calculators . My next (17th) K-Birthday will be on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

Happy New Year!

Wow! I cannot believe 2007 is over and we have just started brand new 2008!
Let's hope it will be better than the previous; astrologers were warning that due to unfavorable Mars-Jupiter-Pluto configuration something bad has to happen around Christmas/New Year time -- Bhutto assassination should have used all the bad energy already...

Happy New Year to everyone!