December 18, 2006
Five things you didn't know about me
There's a massive game of tag going around the blogosphere. I've been tagged by Bill and Dave.
So here goes. Five things you didn't know about me:
- I all but gave up Computer Science in favor of law my junior year of college. I even convinced my friend Evan to do the same... except he actually did :)
- I've been to London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Zurich, but only set foot west of the Mississippi in May of this year.
- I scored higher on the language portion of the SAT than the math portion.
- I play piano.
- I've been skydiving... twice.
I tag Ryan, Jeff, Kurt, Vinnie, and Anton.
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Matters that are otherwise worthwhile, Technology and Software
Posted at 10:30 PM | Permanent link
December 14, 2006
The Cleveland Surf Scene - For Serious
From the New York Times:
Yes, You Can Surf in Cleveland, Before the Brown Water Freezes
Surfers learn to avoid ice chunks the size of bowling balls. Some wear goggles to surf through freezing rain, which can sting their eyes like needles. That is a bad idea, Mr. Labbe said, because the goggles freeze to their faces.
...
To reach the lake, surfers drag their boards across snowdrifts and beaches littered with used condoms and syringes, Mr. Ditzenberger said. The most popular surf spot is Edgewater State Park. It is nicknamed Sewer Pipe because, after heavy rains, a nearby water treatment plant regularly discharges untreated waste into Lake Erie.
Ahh, to be in Cleveland again. This takes me back :)
The old gang at Edgewater Park:
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November 13, 2006
Doubletake
Wow, Rumsfeld gets fired and Java gets opensourced.
Am I dreaming?
Hell must be chilly these days.
In
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Posted at 09:43 AM | Permanent link
November 06, 2006
Please vote
Remember 2004? Way back when we didn't think torture was up for debate? When we thought habeas corpus was a given?
We've been there before. We can get back there. Right? One step at a time.
Please vote tomorrow and look for irregularities as best you can.
Here are some convenient score cards:
In
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Posted at 10:46 PM | Permanent link
May 22, 2006
My trip to California
Yes, I'm alive :)
I've been meaning to write, but it's hard to find a spare moment. Images of ugly code and piano chords and Jazz and cats dance in my head.
This entry has been sitting in draft state for three weeks and is now belated, but what can ya do? I'm publishing it.
California was amazing.
Startup School
Startup School was great, as expected.
This time around with real founders such Joe Kraus (Excite/Jotspot), Mark Fletcher (Bloglines), Caterina Fake (Flickr), and Joshua Schachter (del.icio.us) speaking we got an excellent "view from the trenches". Lots of great tips.
I'll skip the details as they've been covered extensively elsewhere.
How did it compare to last fall? Favorably. In fact, I liked this year's conference better.
The speakers last fall were great, but the lineup included more finance, VC, journalist, economist, and inspirational types, giving the conference a somewhat "meta" feel. This time around there were more founders with more battle stories and I liked that.
A side effect of raving about a previous conference is that a large number of your friends find their way to the next one :) It was great to see Vinnie, Martin, Didier, Quinnie, Pratik, Rich, and Jason at the conference.
And as expected, I met many great people. That's what happens when you throw a bunch of young, smart, entrepreneurial types in a room together. Too many great conversations to mention, but if we talked, I really enjoyed it, so thank you!
Super Happy Dev House
After the conference I was really feeling the effects of jet-lag and wanted nothing more than to go home and collapse on the couch -- but that was not to be.
Vinnie mentioned he was going to a party later that night that he assured me I would really enjoy. The name of the party? Super Happy Dev House. Yeah... Super Happy Dev House.
So I had Jason drop me off at Vinnie's apartment in Palo Alto afterward and this gave me a chance to tour the famous Meetro World Headquarters (picture1, picture2).
That was fun :)
Afterwards Vinnie, Didier, Zak, and I headed out to the party.
So, the Super Happy Dev House. What is the Super Happy Dev House?
This is the Super Happy Dev House:
The Super Happy Dev House is a party just south of San Francisco hosted by David Weekly of PB Wiki fame. It's half hackfest, half party, and it's amazing. I've never seen anything like this. I had no idea that things like this existed.
About SuperHappyDevHouse (according to the SuperHappyDevHouse Wiki)
The party runs from 7pm in the evening until 7am the next day, and the idea is you bring your laptop and hack... or not. It's freeform. You can sit around and work on a project amongst other smart people doing the same, or you can walk around and get to know those smart people.
But whatever it is, it's cool. I met some amazing people including David Weekly, himself, Gabe Rivera of Memeorandum, some of the Technorati folks, and countless others.
Everyone is really smart. Everyone has an idea. And everyone wants to talk about it.
It's an incredible atmosphere, and it made me realize what's special about Silicon Valley... and why I need to move there... soon...
The Flat
We left the Super Happy Dev house 4am - ish and everyone was really tired. But the night wasn't over as it turns out.
During the drive home, at the last exit before we hit San Jose:
*scraping noise*
Vinnie: "What's that noise? I think we're dragging something."
Me: "Umm, no dude, I think your have a flat."
We blew a flat in the darkest stretch of Highway 280...
... and we had no flashlight ...
... so we had to use our cellphones as light ...
... Oh we have laptops! Laptops give off more light! ...
... Somebody take pictures of this, I need to blog about this! ...
I'm a nerd :)
Thanks to Zak, who had the most experience of the four of us with changing a tire.
"Old" Friends
After sleeping half the next day I called my "old" college friend Anders (college buddy presently working on PhD in Chemical Engineering at Stanford) to see if he and Vinay (other college buddy presently working on PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford) if they would like to meet for dinner. Why yes! So we met at a Mexican restaurant (with ridiculously cheap margaritas) just off campus.
Afterwards I got a tour of the Anders and Vinay pad. Foosball was played (apparently I'm past the prime of my foosball career, which is a bad thing), and much good conversation was had. It was great to catch up.
By the way for those who know him, Anders is still the same old Anders - he still doesn't sleep.
The next day Anders gave me a brief tour of Stanford, which is incredibly beautiful if you've never been.
Then he dropped me off at the Caltrain station where I took the train into San Francisco for the rest of the day.
San Francisco
This was my first time in San Francisco, and I spent most of the day doing unashamedly touristy things - Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Trollies, Golden Gate Bridge (which is *massive* in person).
There's not much to say, really, except I love this city and hope it won't be long before I return.
Summary
Tons of other Photos in my California Photoset.
In short, I'm going to have to move west to the Bay Area, I don't see any way around it. So that's that.
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Posted at 10:30 PM | Permanent link
March 29, 2006
I'm unplugging my TV
You heard me. No TV at all. Zip.
This means no Southpark, no Futurama, no Family Guy, no Daily Show, no Curb Your Enthusiasm, no Deadwood. Not even any movies on HBO.
As much as I love all of those shows (a lot), I've come to the realization that after I'm dead, no one is going to remember me for how many Larry David arguments I've sucked down nor how well I can recite the words to Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls (may his balls rest in pieces).
TV is evil. TV rots your brain. TV makes you stupid.
Actually - no. I take that back because I'm not sure it's really true. Some of the smartest people I know are those who most enjoy Southpark's toilet humor with great regularity.
The cardinal sin of TV is not that it makes you stupider... at least not directly. The cardinal sin of TV is that it munches up time... time that you could otherwise spend to cook a new dish or study a foreign language or make new friends or get smarter or get laid or fall in love. TV takes time away from the things that matter.
It's amazing how fast life passes you by. One minute you're saying goodbye to your parents and carrying stuff up to your dorm room on your first day of college... the next you're saying goodbye to your college friends as you depart for a new job and a new city... one day you have the misfortune to have to fly home and put one of your best friends in the ground... and before you know it you you've spent more time in a cubicle than you have in the classroom.
And I'm only 24... Just imagine what my dad is thinking right now when he still remembers holding me in a baseball glove that day I came home from the hospital for the first time in 19811. Or my mom... or my grandparents... yeesh.
How much of your life has been spent so far in front of a television? Was it worth it?
Frequently you'll hear people say things like "I'd really like to do X, but I just don't have the time", where X is taking piano lessons or starting a business or writing blogs or reading books on programming or drawing comics. And then they go home and sacrifice two and a half hours to the television every night.
Well, what the FUCK!?
I know. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone and it's complete bullshit. What we're really saying is that TV is more important to us than becoming a real badass and finding finding true love. When you stop and think about that, it's probably not true. At least I hope you think it's not true, because - damn...
So yeah. No TV.
In exchange, I'm allowing myself to read anything I want. Anything at all. Even trashy horror or romance novels or Penthouse personals should that strike my fancy... not that I, uh, would ever really do that last one... *ahem* At least with books, even trashy ones, you get to exercise your imagination (imagination is more important than knowledge, by the way) and maybe, just maybe, you can pick up a thing or two about the craft of writing in the process.
I intend to keep this up until my roommate Ashish comes home from Wilmington in a few weeks. This is what happens when I'm left to my own devices. After that things get a little harder without locking myself in my room for hours on end, but we'll see. I can be hardcore when I need to be.
Who's with me?
Inspiration:
Update:
Coincidentally, someone named Irene from New York City also blogged about this very same topic yesterday. I really like her post, so go read Why You Too Should Cancel Cable .
[1] I was born a few weeks premature and was a very tiny baby... the size of a large softball you might say.
In
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Posted at 12:05 AM | Permanent link
March 26, 2006
Theory: chocolate inspires one to write
Has anyone else noticed that you suddenly have massive amounts of crap to say, that you need to write down ... after you eat chocolate?
I don't have any conclusive evidence yet. I just know that the last two times I parked myself in 3 Cups reading a book, sipping tea, and eating a chocolate bar... this happened:
(the scribbles on this tray will appear in future blog entries)
Ok, so I guess I really need to remember to carry a notebook with me wherever I go, but there's a certain charm to writing around the stains on a tea tray.
I've bought five chocolate bars of varying cocoa percentages, and I intend to test this matter. Anyone else is more than welcome to participate in my study. Just... uh... eat chocolate and try to write... or something.
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Posted at 12:01 PM | Permanent link
March 21, 2006
Dinner with U.S. Congressman Brad Miller
So, how often does one get to have dinner and drinks with a United States Congressman?
Well, tonight Bill, Dave, and I got to do just that, as U.S. Representative Brad Miller joined us at tonight's Raleigh Bloggers meetup (completely out of the blue).
Apparently Rep. Miller is active on Daily Kos, as seen in this entry and others listed on his website.
Rep. Miller and his campaign manager were seeking to learn more about blogs, both from a perspective of getting the word out to his constituents and building a community of supporters, and also for monitoring what the blogosphere is saying about him and his opponent.
Of course, we were more than happy to inform him about RSS, feed aggregators, group blogging, blogging etiquette, and other North Carolina blogging communities such as Orange Politics and the Chapel Hill meetup group.
On matters unrelated to blogging, it was quite interesting to hear Brad's perspective on the inside workings of the congress, the current leadership of the Democratic party, and "form" letters that are sent to representatives.
We even got to peek at his United States of a America "corporate" charge card... and, no, he didn't use it to pay for his meal.
As for political issues, it would have been nice to have gotten a bit less of a blank stare when I tried to bring up the topic of intellectual property and patent reform... but sadly this wasn't altogether unexpected :(
In the end, I'm still all kinds of impressed that Rep Miller has the foresight to reach out to the blogosphere. He's more than welcome to join us at Cafe Cyclo again anytime.
Update:
Alternate perspectives on the evening from Dave and Bill.
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Posted at 11:29 PM | Permanent link
March 10, 2006
How to keep a tidy car
It seems that every time I meet someone new and give them a ride in my car, they are shocked and amazed at the cleanliness of the inside of my car, especially for a guy.
How do you do it!?, they ask.
I guess hitching a ride has become synonymous with pushing over a nest of loose papers, empty Aquifina bottles, cd cases, pom-poms, and McDonald's (not so fresh) apple pie boxes to make room for your ass.
I've decided to reveal my secrets for keeping a clean car:
- Don't bring crap into your car.
- If you do bring crap into your car, bring it out of your car.
This is the Zen.
I think that's it. If I think of any other tips, I'll post them here.
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February 22, 2006
Wordiness Considered Harmful
Good programmers know that code is not an asset. Code is a liability. Lines of code are something you spend in order to build a product.
Why?
Two reasons (mainly):
- The only code you can be absolutely, positively sure is bug free is no code.
- The more code you write, the more you or someone else has to (re)read to understand what your system is doing.
This is the Zen.
I was pondering this idea on my way home from work this evening when it hit me that there is actually a corollary in writing (English, that is).
Words are not assets. Sentences are something that you need to spend to get your point across.
Whenever I finish a new blog, the first thing I do is go back and delete all the nonessential crap: extra words, prepositional phrases - usually sentences and paragraphs too. A lot of the in order to's, that's, anyway's and so's get the axe.
Then I go back and read what I wrote again with an eye towards rewording sentences so they require fewer words. Then I go back and rewrite what I wrote with an eye towards rewording sentences so they require fewer words.
Why does this make your writing better?
In our code corollary, above, it has more to do with point two than point one. Words are things that your eyes have to travel over and your mind has to process in order to absorbe their meaning. Reading, itself, would really blow if it weren't for the ideas conveyed by those words on the page. The less you have to read to get at that meaning the better1, but then if extra words are necessary to convey the exact feeling you want then they're necessary and there's nothing to be done about it.
This is why someone like Jane Austen is such a pleasure to read while someone like Kant is so awful that we mostly just keep him around to make fun of his writing in essays like this2.
In most cases, however, the difference isn't so pronounced. It's more subtle and subconscious.
It's the difference between walking into a room that has just been dusted and one that hasn't. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred you can't peg the difference unless you're specifically looking for it. You just know that the tidy room feels better.
Concise writing just feels better.
In and of itself, it may not be the quality without a name (that magical quality that defines good writing). But if the quality without a name is there, it allows it to come through more clearly. So bring the axe, and keep it clean.
This, similarly, is the Zen.
[1] With notable exceptions mostly having to do with poetry and word play I think.
[2] Ok, I'm being facetious here. I don't actually know very much about Kant. I'm sure his philosophies are brilliant in their own way. I just wouldn't know because whenever I try to read his stuff it feels so much like trying to wade through maple syrup that I have to stop.
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Posted at 09:39 PM | Permanent link
February 19, 2006
A Tribute to Steve Yegge
I don't know who Steve Yegge is, but he rocks.
And here I thought I was the only one in the world with a day job programming Java, an unhealthy obsession with Emacs, and secret affairs with Lisp, Scheme, Ruby, blogging, and Google on the side.
Observe:
and similar drunken blog rants.
I don't care how much of an idiot Stevey says he is; he's right up there with Paul Graham, Philip Greenspun, and Mark Pilgrim in my book. Those who know me know that's the highest compliment I can possibly pay a person.
Reading these guys for the first time stretches your mind. It makes it hurt a little - in a good way. It allows you to catch glimpses of things that were right in front of your nose that you didn't know were there. I can't really describe it other than to say, from what I've read about the Zen and Buddhism, this has to be what the enlightenment is like... at least a little bit... at least the awakening part. Ok, maybe not, but still.
'Welcome to my life. I'm the cow in the Gary Larsen comic
1 -- the one who looks up, shocked, and says: "Hey, wait a minute! This is grass! We've been eating grass." The other cows stare blankly, munching the grass.'
-- Steve Yegge in
The Emacs Problem
Quotes like that get me all kinda teary-eyed.
After years of pondering the Lisp and Emacs and Java and closures and SQL and XML and RSS and Atom and REST and continuations and Javascript and Objective-C and Cocoa and Perl and Python and Ruby and the Gang of Four and blogging and blog meetups and Peopleware problem I think I've finally gotten to the point where I can read a guy like Stevey, understand exactly where he's coming from on many issues and feel completely comfortable saying something like:
"See all that crap that guy over there is ranting about? Yeah... what he said. Right on, brotha."
Whereas before I would have simply said "Aha!" or "Holy hell, he's right!".
Of course, I'm still saying those things - often, in fact - just not exclusively anymore, and it's a far cry from that kid who just graduated from college and was trying to convince himself that J2EE was the best thing since sliced bread, because it had to be, right? Because that's what they used at IBM, and IBM couldn't be wrong.
That's the feeling I get, and it's none too bad. Now if only I were only smarter... If I only knew how to write like these guys. If if if...
[1] For the love of god, if anyone actually has this comic or knows where I can find it, please let me know.
Disclaimer: Just so you know, in honor of Steve, I've had a few glasses of wine before writing this - which, if my previous entry is any indication, might become a theme with me for a while. So pardon the misspellings and horrible grammar.
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Posted at 12:09 AM | Permanent link
February 17, 2006
Why do so many people wear glasses?
I'd like to take a few moments to appreciate the eyeglasses.
After all, without eyeglasses I'd probably be lying dead in a gutter somewhere or at least living in filth on the street, begging for change, and witnessing people's internal oO(scam? scam!) thought bubbles first hand as they walk by.
Corrective lenses are what separate us from the (other) animals.
Seriously, have you ever thought about this? What did people do before glasses? I don't know about you, but without my glasses I wouldn't have been very good at hunting/gathering/making babies (not that I'd be terribly good at that last one, anyway, at the moment).
Why do so many people need glasses or contacts? Shouldn't this defect have been weeded out of our genes long ago? Or is it just that by the time glasses finally were invented, the sightless minority that were still around had developed such superior intellect to cope that they quickly supplanted their non-blind neanderthal compadres1?
Anyway, if you happen to be of the visually impaired (and yuppy) persuasion in the year 2006. One word:
Silhouettes2
There frames have brought great joy and happiness into my life.
If you wear glasses, I promise, you'll never go back.
If you're one of the lucky non-blind, 20/20 few then you may want to pretend that you are blind - just for a moment - just to see how it feels - just so you can experience these frames.
They're that good.
That is all.
[1] More likely: bad sightlessness is a condition that has become prevalent since we've had the invention of eyeglasses around as a crutch. But that's not nearly as much fun to think about. Of course, the fact that we now read books with tiny type (like this!) and stare at computer monitors for twelve hours a day can't be terribly healthy either.
[2] I'd link to their site, except it's one of those all flash sites that maximizes your browser and takes away your address bar. I refuse to be associated with such retardation. Do a google search if you like experiencing pain.
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Posted at 06:36 PM | Permanent link
February 14, 2006
How to sign over a check
From the "things you probably should know, and you feel retarded you don't know them, yet they don't really come up until you're 24 and someone has rammed your car and you need to deal with insurance companies and body shops and rental agencies" department.
You have a check that is made out to you... say from an insurance company. And you want to use it to pay someone who is not you... say a body shop.
If you're like me, you're thinking "Wow, I didn't even know you could do that. I'll have to remember to look that one up on the internet."
Lo and behold, the internet is before you. So how do we do this?
Normally, when you're cashing or depositing a check at the bank, you flip the check over, endorse it with your signature and then give it to the bank teller.
If, instead, you want to sign it over to someone else, you flip it over and endorse it this way:
Pay to the order of
(the person/place/thing to whom you are signing over the check)
(your signature)
and then give it to the person you want to pay. When they cash it they'll sign their name underneath all that crap.
Huzzah.
And that's how that works.
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November 26, 2005
Thanksgiving Photos
My family and I spent Thanksgiving at my uncle's restaurant, which he closed down for the day for our benefit.
More photos here.
If it seems like I do nothing but take photos nowadays, it's because I do nothing but take photos nowadays.
For Photography Nerds (and wannabe nerds)
If you're into digital photography, the Photokit Sharpener and Noise Ninja plugins for Adobe Photoshop completely rock out.
Noise Ninja in particular was especially helpful for this project. All the images above were taken using a slow lens (roughly f/4.0) under poor indoor lighting conditions.
In order to avoid using the flash and minimize the effects of camera shake, I had to push my ISO up to 1600. This increases the sensitivity of the camera sensor, allowing it to capture an image using less light, but the tradeoff is a noisier image.
Thanks to the engineers at Picture Code, we can do things like pump up the ISO and count on the algorithms in Noise Ninja to remove much of the noise during post processing.
In
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Posted at 12:58 AM | Permanent link
November 09, 2005
New York, New York Photos
For this trip, I bought an extra camera battery beforehand...and it payed off.
Here's a sampling of the Photos I took while in New York yesterday.
Many more in my New York, New York photoset...
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Posted at 12:42 AM | Permanent link
November 06, 2005
The time before...
Mark Pilgrim (from times gone by):
"I had a dream last night about new love. This was undoubtedly inspired by the lingering aftereffects of [Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind] rattling around in my head. Actually, no, it wasn’t about new love. I dreamt about the time before new love… when everything is just new. When a smile or a wave would keep you going all day, and laughter is like emotional crack."
Long been one of my favorite random quotes.
This really is quite a nice feeling. It's a shame that it so often goes wrong.
In
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Posted at 11:15 PM | Permanent link
October 18, 2005
Boston Photos and other Anecdotes
In a city of half a million people, you'd think I were lying if I told you that I ran into my friend Amy Chan at a random bar one night. But on Saturday after the conference this actually happened!
Completely unplanned!
Fate can be so sweet at times.
Here is a small subset of the photos I took while in Boston. More are available at my Flickr Boston photoset.
(Chowda!! It's sooo goood!)
Unfortunately the 100 most interesting sights that I saw occurred on Monday after the four year old lithium ion battery in my camera died prematurely. Thus - few pictures of Boston Common, the Boston Gardens, Fenway, MIT, and not one of the breathtaking view of the Boston skyline from the Mass Ave bridge.
Fate can similarly be cruel bitch at times... (!)
Ahh, but I so love Boston. Someday... someday...
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Posted at 10:39 PM | Permanent link
October 16, 2005
Startup School
For the first 24 hours of my being in the Boston, it rained...and rained...and rained. From the time I stepped off the plane until Startup School was over, the rain did not let up for an instant.
This made for some awfully soggy walks to and from the Harvard subway stop, but in this atmosphere, nothing can dampen my mood. This conference has been phenomenal. The speakers were fantastic. My voice is horse from meeting and talking with fellow startup schoolers over drinks late into the night - it's been a near religious experience.
I feel that I now have a lot of thinking, and soul searching to do.
"Why shouldn't you do significant things in this one life, however you define significant?"
-- R. Hamming (as quoted in Olin Shivers' talk)
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October 10, 2005
Interesting People I met at Converge South
Dave (amongst others) on ConvergeSouth.
Here are some cool people I met during the conference:
I know I'm forgetting a lot of people so if we had an interesting conversation and you're not here, I'd love it if you'd let me know!
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Posted at 09:32 PM | Permanent link
October 02, 2005
Eliza and Me
Me and my sis - 2004 (ish).
In
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October 01, 2005
Planning a trip to Boston
I've been accepted for the Startup School conference at Harvard University, Oct 15 2005. Glancing at the speakers list makes me want to scream like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert (the mere idea of being in the same room as Wozniak does that to me).
So, I'm planning a trip to Boston for that weekend. I've already talked to Amy and Renee. If anyone else from the northeast would like to grab some chowdah while I'm in town, let me know!
Jeff and Jason will be flying in to attend as well.
In
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Posted at 10:09 PM | Permanent link
September 29, 2005
A word on the Tilley Hat
Before we go any further, I wanted to say a few words about my Tilley Hat. Actually, I'll let the hat do the talking. From the inside flap:
Insured against loss, Guaranteed for life
(replaced free if it ever wears out)
It floats, ties on, repels rain, blocks UV rays, and won't shrink. It comes with eight 'brag tags' in the security pocket plus a four-page owner's manual.
Durable nylon; the best british brass hardware; hydrofoil headband for superb anti-sweat comfort; handcrafted with Canadian persnicktiness.
First notice that the Tilley people use words like "Canadian persnickitiness". Mmmm sexy.
Secondly, it's a hat with an instruction manual. These days most software doesn't even come with an instruction manual. That's how badass this hat is.
If you don't have one, let me know if you want one for your birthday.
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Posted at 11:11 PM | Permanent link
September 28, 2005
Siesta Key Photos
Vacation was fun! Only one trip to the emergency room! Judging by how excited Ashish gets at the mere mention of intestinal bleeding, I'm sure the medical students who read this blog would find that story fascinating, but I'm not going to go into it here (don't worry, it didn't involve me, and it didn't involve intestinal bleeding).
Anyway, shortly after arriving in Siesta Key, I noticed that my dad brought his Nikon D100 Digital SLR Camera. Score. So, I decided to take some time to learn real digital photography. By "real digital photography" I mean learning about aperture, shutter speed, ISO film speed, exposure bracketing, and RAW image manipulation - as opposed to my normal point-and-shoot adventures, wondering why my images come out grainy and bleary afterwards.
Having never taken a course in photography, this all sounds very daunting, which is why I avoided learning it for so many years. As it turns out, however, a half hour's worth of reading the camera manual, a few random websites, and a nice beach to walk while messing with camera settings can get you pretty far.
Here is the result:
Beach Goers
Surfers
Learning how to surf is still on my life-long todo list *sigh*.
Scenery
Normally the gulf is eerie glassy calm. This was true for the first few days of our stay, but midweek Hurricane Rita, passing 50 miles south of us, decided to stir up some nice waves.
Wildlife
Sunset
Night Photography
Ok, so capturing images at night is a lot harder than capturing them when the sun is shining. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but I personally like some of these shots.
Conclusion
Crap, I'm running out of the self-control necessary to prevent myself from dropping $$$$ on a my own digital SLR :(
More photos available in my Siesta Key Photoset!
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Posted at 10:16 PM | Permanent link
September 12, 2005
Women in Computing
Axiom:
The number of women in a given tech company is roughly equal to the number of guys named Steve.
This observation was pointed out to me by a female medical student, perhaps underscoring this point.
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August 31, 2005
Pandora
Yesterday Jeff introduced me to Pandora.
Give Pandora an artist you like and it automatically creates a radio station it thinks you'll enjoy, comprised of artists that have similar qualities to the one you specified. It's amazingly accurate, and many of the songs/artists in your station will be ones you haven't heard before, making it a great way to discover new music.
No commercials. First ten hours are free, and afterwards it's only $36/year.
Pretty slick. Check it out.
In
Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 12:32 AM | Permanent link
August 20, 2005
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I just finished the latest installment of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
In a word: wow! I didn't see that ending coming. I somewhat guessed the character who was going to die, but I didn't think it would happen like that!
If you've read the book, let's talk about it.
I'll be posting further thoughts in the comments to this entry. If you haven't yet read the book, I'd recommend you avoid them.
Technorati tags: Harry Potter
In
General, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 07:50 AM | Permanent link
July 26, 2005
Spraleigh
Forbes magazine recently ranked Raleigh Durham the #2 place in the nation to do business.
Unfortunately, a sidebar in the same section points out:
"Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C. land use group, recently ranked the Raleigh-Durham area third worst of 83 metro areas overall for urban sprawl, just behind Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. and Greensboro, N.C."
Ouch...
But, it's true. This town has way too many strip-malls, and getting anywhere requires way too much driving. Oh what I wouldn't give to be able to walk to (work | the grocery store | the bar). Just thinking about I-40 makes me want go to the bar right now.
In
Local, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 10:07 PM | Permanent link
April 23, 2005
Great Coffee Shops in Raleigh
Here are some of the great coffee shops I've discovered in Raleigh over the past year:
Each has free wireless internet, a cozy atmosphere, great music, and a cool clientele.
I don't inherently have anything again