Sharp 45" TVs don't exist (any more). Damn.
I don't want to deal with burn-in and being nice about watching habits with Plasmas.
I want a direct view LCD, which means I have to drop to 42" to get what I want, which is quite a bit down from the 50" I have.
Goddamnit.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Finally Getting a New TV
Well, the extended warranty company finally came through and is paying us off for our old Hitachi 50V500. They are giving us the market-refurb price, $1349.99, which is not too bad. What's even better is that they said that they don't care what I do with the TV, their suggestion is that I sell it to a local repair place for parts. I'm thinking craigslist, I would hope that I can get at least $750 for it, if not $1000.
Of course I need that now, because I just ordered a Sharp LC-45GD4U flat-screen LCD.
It's a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay, but I'm sick of dealing with bulbs and light engines. This is a direct-view LCD (1920x1080) with a Cold-Cathode Flourescent bulb (60,000-hour half-life). Capable of 1080p, blah blah blah. The only thing that I have read bad about them is the bad contrast ratio, but from what I've seen of the one my buddy has, it is way way better than my Hitachi.
Well, 3-day select shipping. We'll see if it gets here for the weekend.
Of course I need that now, because I just ordered a Sharp LC-45GD4U flat-screen LCD.
It's a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay, but I'm sick of dealing with bulbs and light engines. This is a direct-view LCD (1920x1080) with a Cold-Cathode Flourescent bulb (60,000-hour half-life). Capable of 1080p, blah blah blah. The only thing that I have read bad about them is the bad contrast ratio, but from what I've seen of the one my buddy has, it is way way better than my Hitachi.
Well, 3-day select shipping. We'll see if it gets here for the weekend.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Sitting in Schiphol Airport
This is the first chance in three days that I've had to sit down at my computer. Two hours to boarding, and then a 10 hour flight, I can't wait for my own bed.
Probably did not get much sleep last night because driving for a half-hour at 190kph (~118mph) gave me the jitters...
Probably did not get much sleep last night because driving for a half-hour at 190kph (~118mph) gave me the jitters...
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Last full day in Nederland
I was up for a couple of hours again last night. I watched an episode and a half of LOST, and chatted with Max for a few minutes online. Speaking of chatting with Max, I looked up what GPRS rates are and they are $0.015/kb. So far I have used 466kb in Europe, so I’ve spent $7 on internet for my phone, 7 minutes of phone calls at $0.99 a minute, and 14,99€ for 180 minutes of WiFi from McDonalds (of which I have 34 minutes left as I type up this entry offline). Connectivity is damn expensive here.
Ate breakfast downstairs again, then we were off to DAF. I spent the morning working with Erik (my evil twin) doing code stuff. It’s amazing how many of the problems we are finding with the systems independently and finding different ways to solve them. We both promised to try to communicate more so we can get better collaborative efforts on some of the problems that we both find.
The afternoon sessions sucked. The management got into quite a bit of political posturing that I just don’t care much for. I wrote up my report of the morning, just to make sure I had everything clear to myself, and then I wrote up the majority of the Sunday and Monday blogs. As I expected, we got done with meetings at 5:00pm, but did not leave the office as we talked to everyone that passed by (me included, all of the instrument integration guys are great over here, very friendly).
Back here in the hotel for a bit of downtime and to get a bit of juice back into my starving laptop battery. Marty and I are going out to dinner; I need to find a way to get to the Greek place.
Not any more pictures to contribute. I’m kind of disappointed how everything is under some sort of construction.
We just got back from this Greek place down in the Centrum. I was pretty disappointed; matters were not helped much by our Greek waiter that probably could not speak Dutch, much less English. The food was pretty good, but I did not get really the selection that I wanted, as the waiter was not much in leading us in what to order, other than miming putting food in his mouth. It took 2 minutes to communicate that my colleague wanted white wine.
I just picked up my train ticket for tomorrow back to Schiphol. I had to borrow another 20€ from Marty because they only take EuroCards, no amex or visa. (I’m in the hole now 40€; I suppose I should call STCU and try to get my PIN so I can get cash).
And I did not have the balls to use the outdoor urinals… I just could not bring myself to do it. They are an awesome idea though: Imagine a device the size of a porta-potty, except “inside out”; it’s a T with four urinals. They have these on a handful of street corners around the towns here. Definitely something that would never fly in the USA.
Ate breakfast downstairs again, then we were off to DAF. I spent the morning working with Erik (my evil twin) doing code stuff. It’s amazing how many of the problems we are finding with the systems independently and finding different ways to solve them. We both promised to try to communicate more so we can get better collaborative efforts on some of the problems that we both find.
The afternoon sessions sucked. The management got into quite a bit of political posturing that I just don’t care much for. I wrote up my report of the morning, just to make sure I had everything clear to myself, and then I wrote up the majority of the Sunday and Monday blogs. As I expected, we got done with meetings at 5:00pm, but did not leave the office as we talked to everyone that passed by (me included, all of the instrument integration guys are great over here, very friendly).
Back here in the hotel for a bit of downtime and to get a bit of juice back into my starving laptop battery. Marty and I are going out to dinner; I need to find a way to get to the Greek place.
Not any more pictures to contribute. I’m kind of disappointed how everything is under some sort of construction.
We just got back from this Greek place down in the Centrum. I was pretty disappointed; matters were not helped much by our Greek waiter that probably could not speak Dutch, much less English. The food was pretty good, but I did not get really the selection that I wanted, as the waiter was not much in leading us in what to order, other than miming putting food in his mouth. It took 2 minutes to communicate that my colleague wanted white wine.
I just picked up my train ticket for tomorrow back to Schiphol. I had to borrow another 20€ from Marty because they only take EuroCards, no amex or visa. (I’m in the hole now 40€; I suppose I should call STCU and try to get my PIN so I can get cash).
And I did not have the balls to use the outdoor urinals… I just could not bring myself to do it. They are an awesome idea though: Imagine a device the size of a porta-potty, except “inside out”; it’s a T with four urinals. They have these on a handful of street corners around the towns here. Definitely something that would never fly in the USA.
Monday, March 20, 2006
First day for Work
Up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel. I had eggs and sausage and a demi baguette (the baguettes here are so damn good it’s sick). We grabbed a Taxi to DAF and got in to the meetings.
This first day was just a big stack of brutal meetings. The only “fun” part of the day was when I got my Krokettes for lunch in the cafeteria. No Fritz on Mondays, I think Wednesday is Fritz day.
The afternoon meetings got pretty brutal. We were all hitting jet-lag and were asleep on our feet (or rather in our chairs). We got done with meetings at 5:00pm but we spent the next hour talking to all of our rarely seen colleagues here at DAF.
We got back to the hotel by 6:15pm and had planned to meet at 6:30pm for Italian. We pretty much opened up the restaurant; there was only one person there before we got there.
This is a good point to mention how wait service in Europe is awesome; of course from the American point of view it is the worst service in the world: We got our drinks right away, and were pretty much left alone for 15-20 minutes. By the time people were ready for another round, they asked about an appetizer, one of the guys just asked for an Antipasta sampler plate. After a while, one of the other guys (in probably an “American” view) said “what do ya bet we never get that appetizer?" Before it was even out of his mouth they brought out these two HUGE trays with Lox, French butter, gorgonzola cheese, carpachio, pickled onions, parma ham, fresh melon, and several other cheeses and meats. It was plenty to feed six alone.
They gave us plenty of time to work on the appetizer. That’s a GOOD thing about the European wait service. No matter how long it takes you to eat one course, they won’t bring the next until you make it clear that you are done with the current one.
So, after a few minutes they bring out our entrees, which were actually not that great, honestly. But that could have been just that I was comparing it to the antipasta.
When we were done they brought out the check (only by our request, they would never bring the check unless it was requested), and they brought out a complementary Sambuca. I asked to see the check because I was curious when the antipasta cost, I was blown away when I saw that it only cost 29,00€… amazing. Three hours later and only 172€ for six was not bad at all.
Marty and I stopped and played a couple of games of pool on the way back at a pub called The Tipsy Duck. We played a few games of pool there last time we were over here. It’s a great little pub (bad selection of beer… all they have in this place is Bavaria, which is a decent lager, but just doesn’t compare to good American micros that I’m used to coughStonecough ).
This first day was just a big stack of brutal meetings. The only “fun” part of the day was when I got my Krokettes for lunch in the cafeteria. No Fritz on Mondays, I think Wednesday is Fritz day.
The afternoon meetings got pretty brutal. We were all hitting jet-lag and were asleep on our feet (or rather in our chairs). We got done with meetings at 5:00pm but we spent the next hour talking to all of our rarely seen colleagues here at DAF.
We got back to the hotel by 6:15pm and had planned to meet at 6:30pm for Italian. We pretty much opened up the restaurant; there was only one person there before we got there.
This is a good point to mention how wait service in Europe is awesome; of course from the American point of view it is the worst service in the world: We got our drinks right away, and were pretty much left alone for 15-20 minutes. By the time people were ready for another round, they asked about an appetizer, one of the guys just asked for an Antipasta sampler plate. After a while, one of the other guys (in probably an “American” view) said “what do ya bet we never get that appetizer?" Before it was even out of his mouth they brought out these two HUGE trays with Lox, French butter, gorgonzola cheese, carpachio, pickled onions, parma ham, fresh melon, and several other cheeses and meats. It was plenty to feed six alone.
They gave us plenty of time to work on the appetizer. That’s a GOOD thing about the European wait service. No matter how long it takes you to eat one course, they won’t bring the next until you make it clear that you are done with the current one.
So, after a few minutes they bring out our entrees, which were actually not that great, honestly. But that could have been just that I was comparing it to the antipasta.
When we were done they brought out the check (only by our request, they would never bring the check unless it was requested), and they brought out a complementary Sambuca. I asked to see the check because I was curious when the antipasta cost, I was blown away when I saw that it only cost 29,00€… amazing. Three hours later and only 172€ for six was not bad at all.
Marty and I stopped and played a couple of games of pool on the way back at a pub called The Tipsy Duck. We played a few games of pool there last time we were over here. It’s a great little pub (bad selection of beer… all they have in this place is Bavaria, which is a decent lager, but just doesn’t compare to good American micros that I’m used to coughStonecough ).
Thumbnails are up...
http://www.ressafamily.com/Amsterdam06
I don't want to waste expenive WiFi time, so here's just the thumbnails...
Strike that, updated with full photos.
I don't want to waste expenive WiFi time, so here's just the thumbnails...
Strike that, updated with full photos.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Morning in Amsterdam, Trip To Eindhoven
We landed in Amsterdam in the fog. It’s always interesting coming into final approach, dipping into the clouds, and being on the ground a few seconds later. I think the feeling of “Where the hell did that runway come from!” was shared by the pilot because the landing was quite rough.
As usual, customs getting into The Netherlands is thirty seconds to get your passport stamped, five minutes to get your bags (baggage claim at Schiphol is awesome), and walking though the “nothing to declare” gate into the main lobby.
My boss’s back, and his boss looking perky at baggage claim:
We grabbed train tickets to Eindhoven via Amsterdam Central, and jumped on the next train to the Centrum.
It might be worth noting that I had been wearing shorts and a light jacket up to this point. Amsterdam was -5°C. I was smart enough though and packed my jeans and sweatshirt in an outside pocket of my luggage. I pulled those out and went to head to the WC to change. The closest WC was closed, and the next closest was 150m away (quite a walk), and when I got there it was 0,50€ for the opportunity to use the facilities. Shit, I forgot that they charge for public restrooms here. I ended up walking back down to the lockers (where we were stashing our bags) and changing right in the middle of the hall. Not sure why I did not do that in the first place.
For the next few hours we walked around Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Central Station down at the end of the Damrak, the very center of Amsterdam:
I need to look up what this building is (it is at the other end of Damrak from the train station), but this is a stitch of 8 bad pictures, the original picture is 27”x18” at 300dpi:
Red Light. This was only moderately amusing at 10am on a Sunday morning. There were a handful of the porn shops open, but all but three of the windows were empty. The three we saw, well, you could tell that they needed to work the extra hours… woof.
The cool thing about these old cities are all of the sculptures and statues. I’m not sure what this one was, but it had some cool dogs and critters on it:
There was a bookstore that had a book dated 1620 that was 92 engravings of anatomy and human phisyology. The book was opened to a page of stillborn babies, very odd, but amazing detail:
By Noonish local time, we were all cold to the bone and getting tired. We headed back to the central station. We collected our bags and were on a train by 1pm.
We got down to Utrect (30mins south of Amsterdam) and there was an announcement (in dutch), we asked the nice cute dutch girls near us what the announcement was, and they told us that we had to get off in Utrect and take a bus down to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. So again I got to haul my over-weight luggage around between means of transportation. We got back on the train at Den Bosch and it was another 30mins down to Eindhoven. By 3:30pm we were in the lobby of the Crown Hotel across the street from the train station. Well, they did not have our reservation. What. Oh, you are probably at the Crown INN Hotel, about a block away. So, another block of hauling our crap around, we are finally checked into our hotel.
Nap Time. Just an hour. Then a bath, gotta work this cold out of the bones.
We got together for “drinkey-poos at half-six” (gotta love those English phrases), had a beer on the square, then headed to Gaucho’s for a steak. Gaucho’s is an Argentinean steak house that is “the” place to go when you go to Eindhoven. I had a pretty good steak and a side of fries (with mayonase!). We then walked a bit around the Centrum, and then went back to bed.
The entrance to our hotel was just to the left of the McDonalds, and my room is up and behind. I’m picking up my WiFi from the McTMobile.
As usual, customs getting into The Netherlands is thirty seconds to get your passport stamped, five minutes to get your bags (baggage claim at Schiphol is awesome), and walking though the “nothing to declare” gate into the main lobby.
My boss’s back, and his boss looking perky at baggage claim:
We grabbed train tickets to Eindhoven via Amsterdam Central, and jumped on the next train to the Centrum.
It might be worth noting that I had been wearing shorts and a light jacket up to this point. Amsterdam was -5°C. I was smart enough though and packed my jeans and sweatshirt in an outside pocket of my luggage. I pulled those out and went to head to the WC to change. The closest WC was closed, and the next closest was 150m away (quite a walk), and when I got there it was 0,50€ for the opportunity to use the facilities. Shit, I forgot that they charge for public restrooms here. I ended up walking back down to the lockers (where we were stashing our bags) and changing right in the middle of the hall. Not sure why I did not do that in the first place.
For the next few hours we walked around Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Central Station down at the end of the Damrak, the very center of Amsterdam:
I need to look up what this building is (it is at the other end of Damrak from the train station), but this is a stitch of 8 bad pictures, the original picture is 27”x18” at 300dpi:
Red Light. This was only moderately amusing at 10am on a Sunday morning. There were a handful of the porn shops open, but all but three of the windows were empty. The three we saw, well, you could tell that they needed to work the extra hours… woof.
The cool thing about these old cities are all of the sculptures and statues. I’m not sure what this one was, but it had some cool dogs and critters on it:
There was a bookstore that had a book dated 1620 that was 92 engravings of anatomy and human phisyology. The book was opened to a page of stillborn babies, very odd, but amazing detail:
By Noonish local time, we were all cold to the bone and getting tired. We headed back to the central station. We collected our bags and were on a train by 1pm.
We got down to Utrect (30mins south of Amsterdam) and there was an announcement (in dutch), we asked the nice cute dutch girls near us what the announcement was, and they told us that we had to get off in Utrect and take a bus down to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. So again I got to haul my over-weight luggage around between means of transportation. We got back on the train at Den Bosch and it was another 30mins down to Eindhoven. By 3:30pm we were in the lobby of the Crown Hotel across the street from the train station. Well, they did not have our reservation. What. Oh, you are probably at the Crown INN Hotel, about a block away. So, another block of hauling our crap around, we are finally checked into our hotel.
Nap Time. Just an hour. Then a bath, gotta work this cold out of the bones.
We got together for “drinkey-poos at half-six” (gotta love those English phrases), had a beer on the square, then headed to Gaucho’s for a steak. Gaucho’s is an Argentinean steak house that is “the” place to go when you go to Eindhoven. I had a pretty good steak and a side of fries (with mayonase!). We then walked a bit around the Centrum, and then went back to bed.
The entrance to our hotel was just to the left of the McDonalds, and my room is up and behind. I’m picking up my WiFi from the McTMobile.
Flight to Amsterdam
(Sorry about the tense of this post, it was half written at the time, half a couple days later)
Here I am, on a nice new Airbus A330-200:
This plane is such a dream compared to the DC10 nightmare that has been making this run for the last 30 years.
There’s something amusing about watching the opening segment of LOST on an airplane. It reminds me of how on Airplane! they were watching FAA crash test footage as the in-flight movie.
Also, these wonderful in-seat entertainment systems are wonderful little loonix boxes. And when I say wonderful, I mean the I know that they run linux because they crash a whole lot.
I just realized that the main screens at the front of the bulkhead are locked up too.
I just hope these Tylenol PMs kick in soon…
No such luck. I got about an hour of sleep (missing the last half of the first episode of LOST in the process). It was dark when I woke up, but about 7 hours into the flight the sun started coming up:
Hour and a half to go:
Here I am, on a nice new Airbus A330-200:
This plane is such a dream compared to the DC10 nightmare that has been making this run for the last 30 years.
There’s something amusing about watching the opening segment of LOST on an airplane. It reminds me of how on Airplane! they were watching FAA crash test footage as the in-flight movie.
Also, these wonderful in-seat entertainment systems are wonderful little loonix boxes. And when I say wonderful, I mean the I know that they run linux because they crash a whole lot.
I just realized that the main screens at the front of the bulkhead are locked up too.
I just hope these Tylenol PMs kick in soon…
No such luck. I got about an hour of sleep (missing the last half of the first episode of LOST in the process). It was dark when I woke up, but about 7 hours into the flight the sun started coming up:
Hour and a half to go:
Friday, March 17, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
For all you Internet Stalkers...
Saturday March 18, 2006
Sunday March 19, 2006
Wednesday March 22, 2006
Wednesday March 22, 2006
Friday March 24, 2006
Saturday March 25, 2006
Northwest Airlines Flight Number: 34
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Seattle/Tacoma, WA 01:15PM March 18, 2006
Arrive: Amsterdam, Netherlands 08:05AM March 19, 2006
Total Flight Time: 9 Hours 50 Minutes Non-Stop
Equipment: 332
Sunday March 19, 2006
CROWN INN
MARKT 35
EINDHOVEN NL 5611
Phone Number: 31-40-245-4545
Check In: Mar 19, 2006
Check Out: Mar 22, 2006
Wednesday March 22, 2006
KLM Royal Dutch Flight Number: 1873
Class Of Service:Business Class C
Depart: Amsterdam, Netherlands 02:05PM March 22, 2006
Arrive: Stuttgart, Germany 03:20PM March 22, 2006
Total Flight Time: 1 Hour 15 Minutes Non-Stop
Equipment: F70
Wednesday March 22, 2006
MERCURE VILLINGEN SCHWENNING4
RIETSTRASSE 27 31
VILLINGEN SCHWENNING EN 78050
Phone Number: 49-7721-2970
Check In: Mar 22, 2006
Check Out: Mar 24, 2006
Friday March 24, 2006
MOEVENPICK HOTEL STUTTGART AIR
FLUGHAFENRANDSTRASSE 7
STUTTGART DE 70629
Phone Number: 49-711-79070
Check In: Mar 24, 2006
Check Out: Mar 25, 2006
Saturday March 25, 2006
Northwest Airlines Flight Number: 8442
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Stuttgart, Germany 06:20AM March 25, 2006
Arrive: Amsterdam, Netherlands 08:00AM March 25, 2006
Total Flight Time: 1 Hour 40 Minutes Non-Stop
Equipment: Boeing 737
Northwest Airlines Flight Number: 33
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Amsterdam, Netherlands 12:40PM March 25, 2006
Arrive: Seattle/Tacoma, WA 02:05PM March 25, 2006
Total Flight Time: 10 Hours 25 Minutes Non-Stop
Equipment: 332
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
46% to Blame on Catholic School
| You Are 54% Evil |
 You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination. |
Saturday, March 11, 2006
New Glass
I went out and bought a Nikon AF 50mm 1.8D today. I knew I needed something a bit lighter to haul around in my carry-on than the crappy 22-80mm that I've had since my Pronea.
When I went into Cameras West, I asked for the 50mm, and they asked if I wanted the f1.8 or the f1.4. I had not realized that there was an f1.4, and she said "there's a significant price difference". She loaded up the prices, and it was $119 or $319. I said "Can I have a D70 for a few minutes?"
She loaded up a D70 with the f1.8, and I shot a few shots. I was immediately impressed with the f-stop. I was able to shoot in the store with no flash and get some great depth. Then I loaded up the f1.4, it looked significantly more "professional", and had a ton of glass up front. But, with just a handful of shots in the store, I could not tell RIGHT away that it was worth $200 more. Granted there was the point that I could speed up the shutter one or two more steps, but that's all I saw.
I agonized for just a few moments and went with the f1.8. With the extended warranty, it came in at just over $200, so that will be fine for what I use it for.
A note on the Ritz Expanded Service Policy. I feel that it's worth my peace of mind for a few reasons, but the #1 reason is that it covers 100% of normal damages to the equipment. If my 3-year-old drops my camera in the bathtub, a quick trip to the store gets me a whole new set-up.
So far I've shot a few shots around the house, and it's really a fun lens. 50mm is about the focal length of the human eye, so it's really easy to "frame" a shot: if you can see it, point your camera at it and you can pretty much get the shot. I've mostly been firing shots in Apature Priorty mode with the f-stop at f1.8. The light in the house is a bit low for much faster than 1/20s, but throw on the SB-600 and you can get some really nice fills.
Maybe if I have any light this weekend I'll try to post some shots. If not, I hope I can get a shitload of good ones in Amsterdam and Villingen.
Friday, March 10, 2006
DAF XF105
I climbed around one of these beasts a bit today. Holy hell they are cool. The SuperSpace Cab is enormous, even though they are not nearly as deep as the North American sleeper styles. I can stand in the middle of the cab between the seats and reach up and barely touch the roof of the cab.
The XF105 cab is quite a bit more refined than the XF95 (which I've spent a ton of time in the last two days... watch for an update on that, I can't say anthing more about that at the moment). Those european trucks are just damn cool.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Mini Political Quiz
LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.
Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Remaining Alice In Chains to Tour?
Shamelessly Stolen from SA:
Alice in Chains members regroup for tour
A goon in the SA thread linked to Them Bones and Man in the Box sung by "MJK"/Maynard of Damage Plan (fuck if I know who that is, shows you how much I've paid attention to the scene in 10 years). I've listened to them a few times, and honestly, he does not seem to have as much engergy as Layne did, you can tell that the crowd is putting more effort into the songs than he is, so this could not be the greatest thing.
Listening to those tracks (which are of a live show) brought back some insane memories of much hearing loss, severly briused torsos, and jumping off of Layne Staley's monitor right into a security grunt.
Good times, good times.
Alice in Chains members regroup for tour
Alice in Chains members regroup for tour
Monday, 27 February , 2006, 11:21
New York: The surviving members of grunge rock band Alice In Chains are hitting the road this summer for the first time since frontman Layne Staley's death from a drug overdose in 2002.
With Staley, Alice In Chains' last tour was in 1996. Since then, guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney have taken the stage together only once, at a February 2005 tsunami benefit show in Seattle.
According to Cantrell's official Web site (http://www.jerrycantrell.com), the lone reunion show confirmed at present is the Nova Rock Festival in Austria on June 28, alongside such heavy-hitters as Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age and Massive Attack.
The trio will warm up for its summer dates with a March 10 performance in Atlantic City, NJ, as part of a VH1 "Decades Rock" episode devoted to Heart. For that show, Staley's shoes will be filled by Comes With The Fall singer William DuVall, who also doubles as a member of Cantrell's touring band.
It is understood that while DuVall is in consideration to sing on the summer dates, a final decision has not yet been made.
A goon in the SA thread linked to Them Bones and Man in the Box sung by "MJK"/Maynard of Damage Plan (fuck if I know who that is, shows you how much I've paid attention to the scene in 10 years). I've listened to them a few times, and honestly, he does not seem to have as much engergy as Layne did, you can tell that the crowd is putting more effort into the songs than he is, so this could not be the greatest thing.
Listening to those tracks (which are of a live show) brought back some insane memories of much hearing loss, severly briused torsos, and jumping off of Layne Staley's monitor right into a security grunt.
Good times, good times.
Blogs are the new Geocities
I read in a slashdot post about how blogs are becoming the new geocities... tiny microcosms of absolutely worthless shit that no one wants to see, nothing but masturabatory prose about what someones dog did today and shit like that.
Well, here's my contribution to this shithole of the blogsphere...
Blogger can publish RSS/Atom feeds for this account, just use this link:
Well, here's my contribution to this shithole of the blogsphere...
Blogger can publish RSS/Atom feeds for this account, just use this link:
Saturday, March 04, 2006
The shit people wear... (get off of my lawn!)
So, when you think "Hey, let's go to the zoo. We can relax, look at some animals, maybe have some popcorn..." is the next thought "Yeah, hold on, I'll go put on my top-hat, my 3/4-length goth jacket, my frilly skirt, and my striped stockings!"
...and then you change your mind, nahh, it looks sunny out. Thermometer only says 55deg, but HEY, it LOOKS warm:
More pics from the zoo when I get to sorting them...
...and then you change your mind, nahh, it looks sunny out. Thermometer only says 55deg, but HEY, it LOOKS warm:
More pics from the zoo when I get to sorting them...
Friday, March 03, 2006
Typical Release Friday
Today was a non-stop slam at work.
I got in at 7am and jumped on the emails from SVA answering my question about one of the J1939 functions that is beating me up. I spent the next hour trying to make my code work using their suggestions, but no good, it just won't work. But, buy this time it is 7pm on friday in Villingen, so no way I am getting more help on it.
Most of this time I had another co-worker who got the latest codebase for the XF/CF Cab controller who wanted help getting that opened up so that we could look into some of the stuff that they are doing.
After doing a build of my code I was fighting for time on our test buck so that I could do a quick run-through, but another co-worker was building up some truck parameter sets for the guys up at the tech center. As I was working on that, I remembered that I had a Software Readiness Review scheduled for after lunch... shit.
I spent the next hour co-ordinating bench test results from us, pete, and the tech center. I managed to break long enough to eat a UFO and stretch my legs.
I got back just in time for the review meeting, which I am in charge of now (my boss is kicking lots of responsibility down to me). I presented the test results to my boss and his boss and their equivelents at PB and PTC. After going over the results and talking over the high risk items, we decided to allow the software on the PTC House Trucks (if you live in western Washington you've probably seen these at some point).
After a good meeting, I was back to my desk to finish up the next rev of software. I spent two hours cleaning up the code, rebuilding it, setting up the default parameters, and packaging it up, and checking it into the revision control system. Then it was another half hour writing up the release email, cleaning up the change list, and sending that sucker out.
"Marty, I pulled the trigger! I'm out!"
"Good job this week, have a good weekend!"
Time to loosen the tie and relax...
(Oh, and not to mention the care taken in editing this post just right so that no NDAs get violated...)
I got in at 7am and jumped on the emails from SVA answering my question about one of the J1939 functions that is beating me up. I spent the next hour trying to make my code work using their suggestions, but no good, it just won't work. But, buy this time it is 7pm on friday in Villingen, so no way I am getting more help on it.
Most of this time I had another co-worker who got the latest codebase for the XF/CF Cab controller who wanted help getting that opened up so that we could look into some of the stuff that they are doing.
After doing a build of my code I was fighting for time on our test buck so that I could do a quick run-through, but another co-worker was building up some truck parameter sets for the guys up at the tech center. As I was working on that, I remembered that I had a Software Readiness Review scheduled for after lunch... shit.
I spent the next hour co-ordinating bench test results from us, pete, and the tech center. I managed to break long enough to eat a UFO and stretch my legs.
I got back just in time for the review meeting, which I am in charge of now (my boss is kicking lots of responsibility down to me). I presented the test results to my boss and his boss and their equivelents at PB and PTC. After going over the results and talking over the high risk items, we decided to allow the software on the PTC House Trucks (if you live in western Washington you've probably seen these at some point).
After a good meeting, I was back to my desk to finish up the next rev of software. I spent two hours cleaning up the code, rebuilding it, setting up the default parameters, and packaging it up, and checking it into the revision control system. Then it was another half hour writing up the release email, cleaning up the change list, and sending that sucker out.
"Marty, I pulled the trigger! I'm out!"
"Good job this week, have a good weekend!"
Time to loosen the tie and relax...
(Oh, and not to mention the care taken in editing this post just right so that no NDAs get violated...)
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