The Invasion Begins

Today, the cicadas of Brood XIX started re-emerging in Nashville.  This is the brood that last emerged in 1998.

Extracting video with subtitles from an MKV file

Although Handbrake can convert MKV files and burn the subtitles into the video stream, it does not handle fancy SSA subtitles very well.  The only program that I've found that seems to render SSA subtitles very well is mplayer.  I used mplayer and x264 to convert by running the following:

mplayer -ass -nosound inputmovie.mkv -vo yuv4mpeg:file=>(x264 --demuxer y4m --qp 15 --bitrate 2500 --profile main --level 5.1 --preset slow  -o outputmovie.mp4 -)

 This also works:

mplayer -ass -nosound inputmovie.mkv -vo yuv4mpeg:file=>(x264 --demuxer y4m --crf 15 --profile main --level 5.1 --preset slow  -o outputmovie.mp4 -)

I used the Main H.264 profile with a high level instead of using the High H.264 profile since the High profile resulted in the video starting with a gray screen and other artifacts when viewing via Quicktime.

Firefox 4: Restoring Previous Session

Firefox 4 will automatically reload the tabs and windows from when you last quit if the "When Firefox starts" option is set to "Show my windows and tabs from last time".  Unfortunately, this means that it will always show your last session instead of a blank browser window.

In prior versions, it would only show the windows and tabs from last time if you quit and told it to save.  With Firefox 4, the previous session's state can be restored via History->Restore Previous Session.  Alternatively, the browser.showQuitWarning setting can be set to true in about:config to restore the Firefox 3.x behavior.

Open Frame Chrome Extension

With Google Chrome 10, the context menu to open a frame in a new tab was removed.  Luckily, there is an extension called "Open Frame" that adds it back.

The Great Nashville Flood of 2010

Luckily, my house didn't really take much damage during last weekend's big storm and flood.

I did discover a leak in my first floor bedroom, though.  There was some dampness on the ceiling and a little bubbling/blistering of paint along the top of one of the interior walls.  I poked a hole with a needle to let it drain.. It is kind of strange since I didn't see any leaks in the room upstairs.  Right now, I'm trying to find a roofer.  I think I'm going to replace the roof since it is a bit old (installed in 1996).

After hearing that one of my neighbor's crawl space had flooded, I decided to check mine out Tuesday morning.  At first I thought everything was fine since I only saw a few puddles on the vapor barrier (i.e. plastic sheets over the dirt).  But when I tried to crawl in so I could look further inside, I discovered about 2 inches of water beneath the vapor barrier.  Luckily, by Wednesday afternoon, all the water had been reabsorbed into the ground.

Here is a link to some pictures of the flooding:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/flooding_in_tennessee.html

And here is a video:

New Job

After almost 14 years, Friday was my last day on the Wizorder (aka Horizon Clinicals) team.

Tomorrow, I officially join the StarPanel team.

Strange DD-WRT problem

While I was trying to see why the time in my router running DD-WRT was out of sync (a couple of minutes ahead), the WAN connection lost its DHCP lease.  The cable modem appeared to be alright from the status LEDs, but the router would not get an ip address even after releasing or renewing the lease.  I tried powering on and off both the router and cable modem and was able to briefly get a private ip to at least see the cable modem, but then even that lease was somehow lost.

Next, I tried restoring the router's configuration to "factory" defaults.  It still wasn't able to get a lease.  Finally, I tried reloading from a backup of the firmware settings, and then the router was finally able to get a DHCP lease.

I'm not sure, but it is quite possible that the problem was actually on the Comcast side and not with the router.  Until this incident, the router's uptime was over 30 days.

Also, I discovered a workaround for fixing the time drift.  On the Administration->Management page, I added this to cron:

0 1 0 0 0 /usr/sbin/ntpclient -c 1 -s -h 0.us.pool.ntp.org 

The Ballad of G.I. Joe

What do the members of G.I. Joe and Cobra do for fun?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkPEHM38_DA

From Funny or Die.

New cable modem and router

For a really long time, I was renting a Scientific-Atlanta Webstar DPX-100 cable modem from Comcast. The last couple of weeks, my cable connection has been flakey As it turns out, this cable modem was EOLed on 10/29/2008.  So, I decided to purchase a Motorola SURFboard eXtreme SB6120. 

I also decided to get a new router (Linksys 320N) since I was pretty sure that the new cable modem might saturate my old D-Link 704.  Since I read that the Linksys firmware was buggy, I carefully flashed it with DD-WRT, a 3rd party Linux based alternative firmware

Here are some speed tests:

Webstar DPX-100 with D-Link 704:
5 Mbps down/0.99 Mbps up/48 ms ping

Motorola 6120 with D-Link 704:
5 Mbps down/4 Mbps up/51 ms ping

Motorola 6120 with Linksys 320N with DD-WRT
19 Mbps down/4 Mbps up/52 ms ping

Moving to an off-campus building at work

On Friday, my entire group at work, with one exception, will be moving to a building off-campus.

Caught

I wasn't careful on my walk.
I was seen and had to talk.
Sunglasses, a hat, and a trench coat, I did not wear
Because I thought very little risk was there.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
And now possibly discovered is my base.

Birthday

I actually had an enjoyable birthday this year. I thought I was going to Best Buy and found myself at Margot Cafe in East Nashville. Sneaky!

Day 3 Post-op

Vision from my left eye (which has a subconjunctival hemorrhage) seems sharper than my right eye. My eye lashes have a lot of crud from the Pred Forte.

The Pharaoh

I had my first encounter with the Pharaoh. He asked whether I had heard the good news. I said no. He said that the White House was plagiarizing his articles. And that he was running for president and that his running mate is going to be Jerry Rice.

Leaving Greece

Today I left Greece. George and Kristen took me to the airport in the morning. Unfortunately the flight was delayed about 1.5 hours. While I was waiting in the airport, I bought a Greek Easter bread to bring back.

Since I was going to have a 5 hour layover at JFK, I was originally planning on going into NYC. But, because of the delay, I didn't have time. I arrived in Nashville at around 9:30pm, where Osman picked me up and gave me a ride home.

Second to last day in Greece

I didn't do too much today. In the morning, we went to a grocery store to buy some food to bring back. I bought some halva, kinder eggs, and Nescafe (to make frappe).


At the Costco-like place we went to, some guy tried to get George to buy some stolen watches. He ended up giving him some loose change to get him to go away.

For lunch, we had octopus, octopus pasta, feta cheese, and salad.

Dinner was at a restaurant whose owner was a friend of George's father. We had salad, greens, calamari, lobster pasta, fruit, and some other desserts.


Afterwards, we went to a bar in town with some of George's friends.

Mykonos

Leonidas drove us to Rafina where we got on a Flying Cat at 7:15am to take us to Mykonos, a popular island in the Cyclades. We had to run to the boat because we were afraid that we were going to miss it.

We arrived at Mykonos at 10am, and called a taxi to take us into Hora, the main town on Mykonos. After walking around town a bit, we decided to rent a car so that we could visit some of the beaches.

Since it was the offseason, all the beaches (including the well known Super Paradise Beach) were pretty much empty.


After driving around the island to a bunch of empty beaches, we returned to Hora at around 3pm. There were had a lunch that consisted of Mykonian sausages and a seafood platter which had small fish, bigger fish chunks, fried calamari, grilled octopus, and shelled shrimp and crawfish.

We left Mykonos at 6:30 and arrived back in Rafina at around 9pm, were George's father was waiting to take us back home for dinner.

Second day on Hydra

For breakfast, I snacked on some chocolate-hazelnut filled croissants. After checking out of the hotel, we went to a cafe next to the hotel where I had a frappe and Kristen went to get a gyro.

While we were relaxing, I went to buy some revolutionary flags of Hydra that were used as a war flag during the Greek War of Independence. On it is the quote "I tan i epi tas" which means "with it or on it". This is an ancient Spartan motto which means that you should either come back with your shield victorious, or dead on it.

Since we had some free time to kill after buying tickets to a Flying Dolphin back to Athens, we visited the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra and then took a water taxi to a different part of the island for lunch. Lunch consisted of Greek salad, cold octopus, grilled calamari, zucchini balls, and fish.

At 3:25pm, we left Hydra to go back to Athens. For dinner at George's parent's house, we had goat with potatoes, Greek salad, feta cheese and some other type of cheese, and vegetables, plus dessert.

Hydra

I checked out of my hotel at 8:30am and took my luggage with me on the metro. Leonidas picked me up at the station and took me to his parent's house.

After dropping off my luggage, George, Kristen, Leonidas, and I took the metro to Piraeus where we met Leonidas's girlfriend, Chrysoula, and took a Flying Dolphin hydrofoil to the Saronic Gulf Island of Hydra.


After checking in to the Hotel Argo, everyone but me go into bathing suits and headed to a cement "beach". The water was cold, but George and Leonidas went swimming. We also went to a cafe where I had a frappe, and Kristen and George had hamburgers since she was hungry. After relaxing for a while, we wandered around Hydra town.

Dinner was at around 9pm. I had pork with manouri cheese, grilled tomato, and french fries. After dinner, we went to a bar that was initially playing reggae music.

Walking around Athens

In the morning, I walked to the New Acropolis Museum near my hotel to see the opening. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. The first floor was open, but there were no visible exhibits outside of the excavations that were visible beneath the glass floor.

Afterwards, I walked around Plaka and Monastiraki to do a little shopping.

At 1:30pm, I took to Metro to go to George's parent's house for lunch. We had soup and 2 large fish. I also tried some ouzo. It was quite tasty and had a licorice flavor.

Later, we left for Syntagma Square. There, I went to see the changing of the guard outside of Parliament while Kristen and George went shopping.


After meeting in Plaka, we went to Lykavittos Hill to see the excellent nighttime view of the city from there.

Day trip to Delphi

In the morning, I took the Metro to the station nearest George's parent's house. He picked me up, and then we went home to pickup Kristen.

At around 10am, we left for Delphi and arrived at around 12:30.


We left Delphi at around 2:30pm and drove to Moni Osios Loukas (Monastery of Holy Luke). We had a really difficult time trying to find it. The church contained a body inside of a glass coffin. It's fingers were visible beneath its robes.

We left the monastery at around 4:30pm, and arrived in Chalkida at around 5:50pm. Between the mainland and the island of Evia, the tidal current is very noticeable. After walking along the waterfront, we had some ice cream and tiramisu at a cafe.

Dinner was at George's parent's house. It consisted of salad, cheese, feta cheese pastry, and orzo with leftover lamb.

Day 3 in Greece

I met Kristen and George outside of the Akropoli Metro station. From there, we walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch.

Then, we walked to the Panathenaic Stadium and on to the National Art Gallery. After we left the gallery, we took the metro to Omonia station and walked to the National Archaeological Museum.

At around 3pm, we took the metro to Doukissis Plakentias station and walked to George's car. George then drove us to the Cape of Sounion where we visited the Temple of Poseidon.



For dinner, we ate at a restaurant with an excellent view of the temple. We had about 1kg of fish, a Greek salad, some cold little fish appetizer, fried cheese, french fries, and a grilled octopus tentacle.

Ancient Athens

Sometime after 10am, I headed out from the hotel and walked to Filopappou Hill. I climbed the hill to the Monument of Filoppapos where there is an excellent view of the Acropolis.


At around 1pm, I entered the Acropolis. Kristen and George were late due a Metro strike, so they had to take a bus into the city. Eventually, I met them at the front of the Parthenon at around 3pm.

Together, we went to the Ancient Agora and made a quick stop at Keramikos Cemetary.

Then, we met up with George's brother, Leonidas, and Leonidas's girlfriend, Chrysoula, and went to see Hadrian's Library, the Roman Agora, and the Tower of the Winds.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that served souvlaki on pitas (aka gyros).

After dinner, I headed back to the hotel. Since the internet wasn't working in the hotel, I left around 10pm and took the Metro to Syntagma Square since the square has free wifi. I left to go back to the hotel at around 11:20pm.

Arrived in Athens, Greece

Yesterday, I got a ride to the airport from Ioana, and then flew to Athens, Greece, via JFK.

My plane arrived in Athens today 1 hour early. After getting my luggage and exchanging some money, I bought a Cosmote SIM card for 5 Euros with an additional 10 Euros of airtime.

George and Kristen picked me up at the airport, and we went to George's parent's house for some teas, sweet bread, and cookies. Since it was still to early for me to check in at my hotel, we went to the grocery store to do some shopping.

A little after noon, we left for the center of the city so that I could check into the Airotel Parthenon. After I checked in, we headed back to the house.

George's father, Dimitrios, and brother, Leonidas, had already started roasting a full lamb on a spit. We took turns turning the lamb.















Since it would take many hours for it to be done, we had lunch which consisted of stuffed vegetables (tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini) with rice and feta cheese. We also had some snails.

About 20 of George's friends showed up for dinner after 8pm. Besides the roast lamb, we also had pork, sausages, and spinach in phyllo. George also had a birthday cake.

Afterwards, one of George's friends took me back to the hotel.

Airport Extreme and Wireless Security Problems

I had some issues setting up the Airport Extreme 802.11n Base Station I recently bought. Even though I don't have any 802.11n devices, I wanted it to run in that mode in case I get anything in the future. Since I have some wireless devices that only support WEP, I'm using WEP (Transitional Security Network) for wireless security. I'm not sure if this is due to something odd in Apple's implementation, but my Powerbook G4 is only able to connect to this when using WPA even though one of my wireless devices can connect to it just fine using 128bit WEP.

One of my other devices can't connect to it using either WEP or WPA, so I'm still using my old Graphite Airport Base Station to support that.

Enabling PHP on Leopard

I don't really like editing the main httpd.conf file if I don't have to. So the cleanest way to enable php is to create something like /etc/apache2/other/enable_php.conf with the following content:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Then, restart the web server.

VectorMagic

This is an online tool to convert bitmaps to vector images. It is kind of slow, but the results are fantastic. I wish there was a standalone version of the program.

Random Leopard Notes and Observations

• I did an upgrade install.
• When the machine boots up after the install is finished, there is a delay before going to the login screen.
• After the install, go to the the Installer DVD, and then Optional Installs->Xcode Tools->XcodeTools.mpkg to install the Developer tools.
• I had to delete some Help Viewer cache and preference files, otherwise it would crash when doing a two word search. This only happened with my primary user account on Hyperion (my MacPro).
• Spotlight has to re-index the harddrive. This takes a while (you'll notice the high disk I/O). On my laptop it took a couple of hours.
• The stuff in my KeyChain was missing. Fix is to just double click on Library/Keychains/login.keychain. Apple may a fixed this with an update.
• Sherlock is gone. No big deal since most of the functionality is in the Dashboard.
• I don't like the Grid setting for Stacks. Fan seems better (although it shows less). I have it set to sort by Date Added so I can quickly go to my last downloaded item.
• The indicators in the dock for running applications seems to be less noticeable due to the reflections. It's probably not a problem if the dock is running on the left or right since it doesn't have reflections in those places.
• iCal now shows the current date in the dock even when it's not running.
• CoverFlow view in finder is neat in certain situations (like browsing images or documents).
• Screen Sharing is nice (vnc://hostname). It's a little flakey via iChat (seems to spontaneously disconnect). I'd recommend only allowing certain users to have access to Screen Sharing (via the Sharing systems preference).
• Spaces seems to work pretty well. Can't set different backgrounds for each virtual desktop, though.
• Macs on the network have icons that represent their actual machine assuming they're running 10.5 (i.e. a MacPro looks like a MacPro, G4 looks like a G4, and a PowerBook looks like a PowerBook). Windows machines are represented with a computer monitor that has a blue screen.
• You can no longer scrub audio/video files directly in the finder (although you can still play them). But, you can hit the space bar or Command-Y (Apple-Y) to see the file in QuickLook. Quick Look is a floating window panel, so if you select something else, it'll replace whatever is currently in the window.
• Dictionary can now search Wikipedia (in multiple languages). There is also a Japanese<->English Dictionary.
• Drive icons on the desktop stay put between reboots.
• Going to the printer options in the Epson drivers for my ancient Epson Stylus Photo 780 printer causes the application to crash. These are really old drivers from Epson that only work on PPC Macs. The ink status utility works fine, though. There are GimpPrint and Gutenprint drivers that come with the OS, though. I'm not sure how well they work.
• Repairing disk permissions takes a really long time (compared to 10.4).
• Time Machine is actually a pretty nice way to do incremental backups. It takes a long time to do the initial backup. You can tell it what drives/folders to ignore. It uses hardlinks to preserve space (unchanged files are hardlinked instead of copied).
• Firefox and Camino need new themes to fit the new window colors (a darker shade of gray).
• Applications which use the OS's built in spell checker can also take advantage of the built in grammar checker.
• I haven't really looked at the Developer tools, but it appears that there is a lot of sample code for writing Cocoa apps in Python and Ruby. Interface Builder is different, so older tutorials may not be very helpful.
• The Mosaic screen saver is really neat. Only thing I don't like is that it creates the mosaic with photos from your entire iPhoto library (instead of just a selection).
• There is a new voice called Alex which sounds more realistic.
• In Safari, you can make a Web clip and use it as a widget in the Dashboard. This only really works if the thing you are clipping has a fixed size.
• There are different themes for terminal windows.
• Some software updates install after you click the restart button (during machine shutdown phase). Also, some system caches are rebuilt during shutdown (which sometimes causes the shutdown to take awhile). I think in prior versions, these caches were built at startup.
• There is now an optional Guest user account. It gets wiped when the guest user logs out.
• There is a silly iTunes Visualizer in Developer/Examples/Quartz\ Composer/Compositions/Music\ Visualizers. Copy "Club Lisa.gtz" to your $HOME/Library/Compositions directory (you'll probably have to create the directory). You can actually edit the visualizer in Quartz Composer and make the Allessandro and Peter dance around by tying the Audio Peak Output to their X and Y translations.
• Sandbox rules (in /usr/share/sandbox) are written in Scheme.

At Ars Technica, there is a really good article about what is new:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/1

Giving people something better

Here is an interesting article in the New York Times about Apple gaining PC market share and future OS upgrades.

One of the more interesting parts of this article is the bit about how the Apple development team was worried that the multitouch user interface on the iPhone wouldn't work out. If they would have just listened to users, Apple probably would have developed some fairly ordinary smart phone using a stylus as an the input method. Instead they took a risk and tried to do something different.

I think this is a good quote that describes their development philosophy:

"Giving people what they want is fundamentally and disastrously wrong. The people don't know what they want...[Give] them something better." - Samuel Rothapfel

Russian Pirozhki

Russian Pirozhki
Originally uploaded by jgrande

Here are some Russian Pirozhkis that I made using a recipe that was given to us on the cruise. They are stuffed with apricots and raisins.

Leaving Russia

This morning, we had to wake up at around 2am. The buses departed to the airport at about 3am to catch the 5:50am flight to Munich.

At around 3pm, I arrived in Nashville, via Munich and Chicago. Unfortunately, my suitcase did not make it out of Chicago. So, I stayed at the airport until about 5:30pm when the next United flight was going to arrive. Luckily, my suitcase was on this flight.

Catherine's Palace at Pushkin

Today was our last full day in Russia, and we went to Catherine's Palace at Pushkin. It was built for Tsarina Elizabeth and she named it in honor of her mother, Catherine I.

The palace was badly damaged during World War II, but about 20 of the state rooms are now opened. For a fee, pictures are allowed inside in all the rooms except for the Amber Room. This room is completely covered in amber. The Nazis looted the original amber panels but they were either lost or destroyed while in transit. The panels in the current Amber Room are reproductions.

Peterhof

We traveled a little outside of St. Petersburg to Peter the Great's Summer Palace, Peterhof. It is also known as Petrodvorets. It is considered the Russian Versailles.

The main highlight of the palace is the Grand Cascade. This is a collection of fountains that was partially designed by Peter the Great, himself. Also on the grounds of the palace are trick fountains that will surprise those who get too close. We didn't actually go into the main palace building. Instead we went into the Catherine Wing of the Palace. We had to wear booties over our shoes since it was wet outside and they didn't want the floors to get dirty.

In the afternoon, we took a courtesy bus into the city. The traffic was really bad. We walked along some of the canals and crossed the Bankovsky Most which is one of St. Petersburg's most photographed bridges.

Dinner had a Georgian theme. It included "Harcho", which is a medium spicy Georgian soup and Lula-kebab, which is a kebab made from minced lamb meat.

The Hermitage

On the way to the Hermitage Museum, we stopped by the Russian cruiser Aurora. A shot from it's gun signaled the Bolsheviks to storm the Winter Palace at 9:40pm on October 25, 1917.

After leaving the Aurora, we headed to the Hermitage Museum and stood in line. The Hermitage consists of a couple of buildings including the Winter Palace, the Large Hermitage, and the Little Hermitage. Building began in 1754 on the Winter Palace for Tsarina Elizabeth. Much of the interiors were remodeled by Catherine the Great and her successors.

The Hermitage has a collection of over 3 million items. Amongst the many artists who have works contained within the museum are Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, and Rembrandt.

After the tour of the Hermitage, we had a little time to do some shopping in the museum store. There was also an internet cafe on the premises. It cost 20 rubles (80 cents) for 20 minutes of time.

After dinner, we went to the Menshikoff Concert Hall to see a folk show performance called the "Soul of Russia". Champagne and red caviar was served for free during the intermission.

Arrived in St. Petersburg

Today we arrived in St. Petersburg.

The SIM card I bought in Moscow wasn't working since the ship left the Moscow area to go to Uglich. I was hoping that maybe it was a coverage problem out of the big cities, but it was not working in St. Petersburg as well. So, I think the plan the SIM card is on must be set up to only work in the Moscow area. At least I was able to make a few calls and send some text messages so it wasn't a total waste.

Our first stop in the city tour was a quick stop at the Smolnyy Convent. Next, we stopped by the Rostral Columns to take in the view of the SS Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace. On the way to the fortress to see the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, we did a little souvenir shopping at a store next to the Cabin of Peter the Great.

After leaving SS Peter and Paul, we made another quick stop at St. Isaac's Cathedral. This is the 4th largest cathedral in the world behind St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London, and the cathedral in Florence.

Our last stop on the city tour was the Church on Spilled Blood. It is also known as the Resurrection Church of Our Saviour. It was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated on March 1, 1881. It bears a strong resemblance to St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

In the afternoon, we took a courtesy bus back into the city from the ship to the Square of Arts. From there, we took a short walk to Nevskiy Prospekt, St. Petersburg's main shopping street. Here we saw the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan which as inspired by St. Peter's in Rome. We also visited Gostiny Dvor which is a very large shopping area.

Somewhere along Nevskiy Prospekt, my father got his small camera stolen by a pickpocket. He's not sure when it happened.

After dinner on board the ship, we headed back into the city center again to see a ballet performance at the Hermitage Theater. The ballet we saw was "Giselle".

Mandrogi and last day cruising

We arrived at Mandrogi in the morning. This is a popular local winter vacation spot with quite a few resident artists crafting various souvenirs. For lunch we had a traditional Shashlik picnic. Shashlik is a Russian form of shish kebab.

Before dinner, we had the Captain's Farewell Reception since this was our last day of cruising. For dessert at the Captain's Farewell Dinner, we had "Baked Alaska" cake.

In the evening, there was a talent show put on by the passengers as well as some of the crew. It included singing, Russian music, a hilarious "ballet" performance, and some funny skits.

Kizhi

Today was a very relaxing day.

In the morning, we exited the final ship lock in the Volga-Baltic Canal and entered Lake Onega. While cruising the lake, we were given a tour of the ship's bridge. In the afternoon, we had a Russian Tea Party.

At about 5pm, we arrived at Kizhi Island. Here, we had a walking tour and saw the Church of the Transfiguration, the Bell Tower, and the Church of the Intercession. The Church of the Transfiguration was build without using a single nail in 1714. We also saw the small Church of Lazar of Murom (also known as the Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus). It was actually constructed elsewhere in the 14th century and moved here and may be one of the oldest wooden buildings in Russia.

At around 7pm we departed Kizhi. Quite a few passengers were late re-boarding.

We had a Russian themed dinner which included Pelmeni, which is a Russian dumpling soup, and Russian ragout.

Goritsy

In the morning, there was a talk on Russian Vodka by one of the ship's bartendars, Eugene.

After lunch, we arrived in Goritsy and took a bus to Kirillov to visit the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. This monastery is currently a museum and has a nice collection of Orthodox icons.

After getting back on the ship, we had a blini cooking lesson by Chef Pavel. Blinis are Russian pancakes. Following the demonstration, there was a blini and vodka tasting. The blinis were served with red caviar. We were also able to sample 3 types of vodka: clear, pepper, and cranberry. The clear and pepper vodka has 40% alchohol, while the cranberry is has only 20%. I had 4 shots.

Following a, um, short nap, there was a special dinner. The dinning staff had transformed into pirates.

Yaroslavl

Today we visited the city of Yaroslavl. Our first stop was a Puppet Theater. After that, we visited the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. After a short stop at an outdoor market, we walked over to the Church of Elijah the Prophet.

We left Yaroslavl shortly before lunch.

In the afternoon, we painted Matryoshka dolls.

Before dinner, we exited the Volga River through a ship lock and entered the Rybinsk Reservoir.

We had a Ukrainian themed dinner that included Ukrainian borscht for soup and Vareniki which are Ukrainian dumplings. After dinner, the was a Russian Dance class and a performance of "Russian Soul" by Igor, the Neva bar musician.

Uglich

We didn't arrive in Uglich until the afternoon. So in the morning, we had a short Russian Language Lesson by Lidia, and a presentation on Russian Handicrafts by Anna, the Arts and Craft Consultant who ran the ship's gift shop.

After lunch, we arrived in Uglich where we visited the Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood and the Transfiguration Cathedral. We also had some time to do some shopping at the stalls near the pier.

For dinner, we divided up into smaller groups since we were going to have home-hosted dinners. The group that I was in went with a lady to her apartment. Her niece helped out serving the meal, but her husband was hiding at their dacha (country cottage). We were served Uglich "moonshine" made from sugar and yeast. It had a nice caramel-like flavor with a very strong kick.

Last day in Moscow

Today was our last day in Moscow. In the morning, we visited the Tretyakov Art Gallery to see their collection of Russian paintings and icons.

After lunch the ship set sail to Uglich along the Moscow Canal on the way to the Volga River.

In the evening, there was the Captain's Welcome Reception and the Captain's Welcome Dinner, and after that a short folk concert by the on board musicians.

The musicians were also photographers/videographers, and were selling photos and a video of the trip.

Moscow Metro and Arbat Street

Today, we took a tour of the Moscow Metro. The subway stations in Moscow are very decorative and ornate. We got on the subway at Ploshchad Revolyutsii and headed 3 stops to the Kievskaya Subway Station. From there, we went back one stop to Smolenskaya.

Smolenskaya is near Arbat Street which is where we did a little shopping. Amongst other things, here I was able to purchase a SIM card for 500 rubles so that I could send SMS messages back to the U.S.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped by a grocery store where we bought soda and chocolate. There was black caviar behind a locked refrigerated case.

After lunch, we took a courtesy bus back into the city center to look around some more.

The Kremlin and a Ballet Performance

In the morning we went to the Kremlin. The first thing we visited at the Kremlin was the State Armory to see it's collection of armor, clothes, carriages, icons, silverware, and Faberge eggs. Also on the grounds of the Kremlin, is the Cathedral of the Archangel, the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Cathedral of the Annunciation, and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. We also saw the Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon.

After a late lunch on the ship, we headed back into the city to see a ballet performance by the Imperial Russian Ballet at the New Opera Theater at the Moscow Hermitage Gardens. We saw exceprts of Shaharazade, Walpurgis Night, and Bolero.

First day in Moscow

My suitcase arrived in the morning.

After breakfast, we got on the Blue Group bus (the people on the ship were divided into one of 6 color coded groups), where we met our Program Manager for the group, Lidia Usikova. We then departed for a city tour of Moscow.

Our first stop was the Red Square. Here we saw (but did not enter) St. Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the State History Museum, and Resurrection Gate. We also saw and went inside the Kazan Cathedral and GUM. GUM was once a government department store, but now it's a shopping mall.

While at GUM, I tried looking for a store that would sell a SIM card. The one cell phone store that I found would only sell a SIM card if you could show your passport. Unfortunately, the ship was holding on to mine.

From the Red Square, we headed to Novodevichiy Convent. A ticket to take still photos cost 80 rubles ($1 equals about 25 rubles).

We had lunch on pleasure boats on the Moskva River. The cruise along the river provided excellent views of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and Gorky Park.

After lunch, we headed to Sparrow Hill (formerly Lenin Hills) which had a good view of the city. Then, we headed back to the ship.

Dinner was on the ship. The presentation of the food was excellent.

After dinner, we went to see a performance at the Nikulin Circus (Old Moscow Circus).

Arrived in Moscow

This afternoon, I arrived in Moscow via Chicago and Frankfurt. Unfortunately, my suitcase did not make it.

At Sheremetyevo 2 Airport, we met some program managers from Vantage who escorted us to the bus that would take us to the M/S Nikolay Chernyshevsky which was docked at the Northern River Terminal.

One Click Away

Here is a blog posting refuting the hypothesis that minimizing the number of clicks is necessary for good GUI design. I agree. If an application has a lot of functions, and everything is a click away, users may have information overload. It may take them longer to figure out where or what to click to accomplish an action. A menu tree is not necessarily always a bad idea.

MySQL Proxy

I need to investigate MySQL Proxy. It might be useful for some future projects at work.

Only Design What You Can Implement

There is an interesting posting on the MySQL Performance Blog about only implementing features that will meat performance goals.

Feed sort order

I saw a post that explained how get Blogger's feed sorted by publish date. In summary, look at the blog's page source to find the content generated by this tag in the template:

<b:data='blog' name='all-head-content'>

The block of content should look something like this:

<meta content='text/html; charset=UTF-8' http-equiv='Content-Type'/>
<meta content='true' name='MSSmartTagsPreventParsing'/>
<meta content='blogger' name='generator'/>
.
.
.
<link href='http://www2.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=xxxxx' rel='EditURI' title='RSD' type='application/rsd+xml'/>

Comment out the all-head-content tag and replace it with the block of content from the HTML source. Then, add ?orderby=published to the href of the Atom feed, and &orderby=published to the href of the rss feed.

New Blogger

Switched to the new Blogger. The feed appears to be ordered in update order instead of original posting order. I suppose this make sense, but it'd be nice to be able to reorder the posts so that it stays chronological.

Suitcase arrived

This morning, a courier that works for American Airlines finally delivered my suitcase.

Leaving China

Today, we flew out on Dragon Air from Chengdu to Hong Kong and then got on a half empty Cathay Pacific flight to Los Angeles. There, I said bye to my parents who were flying back down to San Diego. I flew on to Dallas and then to Nashville. Since I still wasn't felling very good, I didn't eat much on the flights.

Unfortunately, my suitcase didn't make it to Nashville. According to American Airlines, it was still in Dallas.

A day in a Chinese hospital

On September 21st, we were supposed to fly back to the U.S. Unfortunately, at around 3am, I felt sick and was in the bathroom until around 5:30am when I called my parents room telling them I felt really sick. We decided I probably needed to see a doctor, so the night manager at the hotel took us to a nearby Chinese hospital. After seeing the doctor and getting a blood test and stool test done, the doctor recommended some medicine and that I put on an IV drip to get rehydrated. I didn't leave the hospital until after 8pm.

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to squat in a squat toilet on this trip, but unfortunately, that's all this hospital had and in my condition, I had no alternative but to use them.

Last official day of the tour

In the morning, we visited the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center. Our timing was good because the pandas were quite active and eating. We also go to see baby pandas and lesser pandas (aka red pandas, aka firefoxes).

Afterwards, we stopped by a silk brocade factory and then had lunch. At this point, we went with Al and Terri to the airport to drop them off for their flight to Thailand (which just had a coup). My parents and I then headed back to the hotel and then walked around to find mooncakes to buy.

For dinner, our guide took us to another xiao chi (little eats) restaurant. We got there via pedicab.

Chengdu

In the morning, we drove about hour to Gongkar Airport to fly to Chengdu.

At Chengdu, we met our guide, Ray, checked into our hotel, the Yinhe Dynasty Hotel, and then went to the Sanxingdui Museum. This museum has many exhibits about the archaeological discoveries that were made in the area.

At 7pm, we went to see a Sichuan Opera performance. This performance included traditional opera, rod puppets, hand shadows, fire spitting, and face changing.

Afterwards, Terri and Al went shopping, while the guide, my parents, and I went to eat at a xiao chi (little eats) restaurant.

Last full day in Lhasa

Today, we were supposed to visit the Ganden Monastery, but some reconstruction was going on so our guide moved some things around and in the morning, we visited a tradition Tibetan hospital where a doctor told us a bit about Tibetan medicine.

For lunch, we ate at the Tibetan Lhasa Kitchen where I had steamed yak momo.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Sera Monastery. One of the main interesting things about this monastery is that the monks debate in a courtyard that can be seen by the public every day at 3pm (except for Sundays).

More of Lhasa

Our first stop in the morning was Drepung Monastery. It was once one of the largest monasteries in the world.

Next we visited Norbilingka, which was the Dalai Lamas summer palaces.

For lunch, we again went to the Naga Restaurant where I had a Yak and potatoes fricassee.

Afterwards, we walked around Barkhor Street to do some shopping.

For dinner, we yet again went to the Naga Restaurant. I had Yak bourguignon.

Lhasa

Our first stop in the morning was Barkhor Square in order to visit the Jokhang Temple. This temple is the spiritual heart of Tibet and contains many small subchapels.

Next we visited the Potala Palace. Everyone but my father made it up to the main buildings. Pictures are not permitted inside. Afterwards we visited a carpet factory where my parents bought a large wall carpet of the Potala Palace.

For lunch, we ate at the Tibetan Lhasa Kitchen where I had fried flat dumplings with yak meat. The rest of the day was spent resting.

For dinner, we ate at the Naga Restaurant where I had a yak burger and apple crepe. This restaurant is actually known for it's French food.

Samye Monastery

After an awful breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and took a very bumpy road to Samye Monastery, which was Tibet's very first Buddhist monastery. To take pictures inside, you had to pay 150 yuan (about $18) for stills or 1500 yuan (about $180) for video. Needless to say, I did neither.

We ate lunch at the monastery. I had yak and potatoes with rice and Tibetan black tea with salt.

We took the same bumpy road to leave the Samye Monastery in order to get on the main highway. At around 5:45, we arrived in Lhasa and checked into the Lhasa Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn).

Tibet: Tsetang

We left our hotel in Zhongdian at around 7:30am and flew to Lhasa. Here, we met our Tibetan guide, Yarphel.

On the way to Tsetang, we encountered a speed trap and our driver got a ticket. A little after noon, we arrived a Tsetang and checked into the Snow Pigeon Hotel. It definitely wasn't as nice as some of previous hotels (water smelled funny, closet doors where broken, etc). For lunch, we could order our own dishes. Some of our dishes included fried yak momos and fried apple momos. Momos are Tibetan dumplings similar to potstickers.

After lunch, we visited Yumbulagang Palace, one of the first buildings in Tibet. Everyone in the tour group payed to ride guided horses up the steep path up to the building except for the guide and I. The main problem with the walk up for me was dodging horse droppings.

Our final stop for the day was Trandruk Monastery which is supposed to be one of Tibet's oldest Buddhist monasteries.

For dinner, one of the dishes we had was steam yak momos.

Zhongdian (aka Shangri-La)

In the morning, we left our hotel, the Paradise Hotel, in order to visit Bita Lake. A lot of wild animals used to be visible near the lake, but due to too many loud Chinese tourists, they aren't really seen much any more.

After lunch, we headed to the Ganden Songzanlin Monastery, which is the largest Tibetan monastery in southwest China. On the way back into the city, we stopped by a Tibetan household and then visited a market.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

From Lijiang, we drove about an hour to visit Shi Gu, or Stone Drum, which stands at the first bend of the Yangtze River. Here, the river is actually known as Jinsha.

On our way to Tiger Leaping Gorge, we got a flat tire. Since the lug nuts were stuck, our driver had to run to a nearby village to get some help to change it.

At about 1:45pm, we arrived at Tiger Leaping Gorge and met our new guide, Pasang, and then had lunch. Afterwards, we headed to a part of the gorge to see Tiger Leaping Stone. Because everyone else on the tour either didn't want to walk up and down the 300 steps or pay to have someone with a sedan chair take them up and down, Pasang and I were the only ones to make the trip down to see the Stone up close. According to legend, this is where a tiger crossed the gorge to escape from hunters.

We next drove about 2 hours to Zhongdian, which is now officially known in China as Shangri-La. The largest minority in the area is Tibetan. For dinner, we got to try some yak meat, barley wine, and some yak butter tea.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Lijiang

We drove about an hour from Lijiang to a chair lift station at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that would take us up to Yak Meadow at an elevation of 3700 feet. The station sold oxygen canisters for those who might need it. Unfortunately, the weather was very misty, so we couldn't see much.

On our drive town from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, we stopped by a glacier river to see some yaks, and then continued on to Yuhu village to see the residence of Joseph Rock, an Austrian botanist who did a lot to protect Naxi culture. The streets on this town was covered with horse patties, so you had to be very careful about where you stepped!

Next, we stopped by Yufeng Monastery to see it's Camellia Tree of 10000 Blossoms and then to Baisha village to see it's frescoes and do a little shopping.

Before it got dark, we walked around Lijiang's Old Town and then had dinner.

Dali and Lijiang

In the morning, we visited Dali's most famous landmarks, the Three Pagodas, or San Ta. After that, we headed the Old Town area.

At around 11am, we drove about 3 hours to Lijiang. There we met our new guide, Jackie, and had lunch.

In the pouring rain, we visited Black Dragon Pool. If the weather is good, the area provides excellent views of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Unfortunately, it wasn't. We also went to the nearby Dongba Cultural Museum to learn a little about the religious culture of the Naxi minority people.

After dinner at the Naxi Family Cafe, we headed to Lijiang's Old Town in order to see an excellent Naxi Ancient Dance and Music Performance at the Dongba Palace.

Dali

Today we flew to Dali. At the airport we met our guide while in Dali, Zhao, and our driver that would be with us from Dali to Zhongdian, Mr. Su.

It took about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to our hotel, the Regent Hotel. After we checked in, we headed to the Dali Old Town in order to go to a bank since some of need to exchange some traveler's checks.

From Dali, we drove to the Bai minority villages of Xizhou and Zhoucheng.

At Xizhou, we went to see a Bai dance show. At the show, we we served tea. The first cup was bitter, representing life's hardships. The second cup was sweet, representing life's joy. The third cup was pungent with an aftertaste. The Bai word for "pungent" sounds similar to their word for "affectionate", and this last cup of tea represents friendship.

At Zhoucheng, we had lunch and visited a tie-die shop. From there, we drove back to Dali and got on a boat to cruise Erhai Lake and visit Jinsuo Island.

The Stone Forest

Today, we drove about 2 hours (not including stops) to the Stone Forest.

On the way, we nearly had a head on collision with a truck which had spun out of control on the slippery road. Luckily, our driver saw the truck coming and went in reverse. As as a result, we only got slightly clipped in the corner.

Shortly after our accident, we stopped by the small Sani minority village of Qixing, which means Seven Star village. From there, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the Stone Forest and then visited the Stone Forest afterwards and then headed back to Kunming.

While in Kunming, I bought some Pu Ehr tea cakes. This time of tea is tightly compressed into bricks or cakes and get better with age. They make interesting decorations.

Arrived in Kunming

We met our guide, Liu, at the airport and immediately went to our hotel, the Kai Wah Plaza International Hotel, to check in. After resting for a little bit, we met the other two people on our tour, Al and Terri, and then went to lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the Western Hills. There, we took a chair lift up to Dragon Gate Grotto. After walking down through the grotto, we drove to Hauting Temple nearby. From there, we heading back into the city and stopped by a flower market before returning to the hotel.

Leaving for China and Tibet

Today, I flew to Los Angeles, waited for about 4 hours, and then joined my parents aboard a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, we took a Dragon Air flight to Kunming in the Yunnan province of southwestern China.

The food aboard the Cathay Pacific flight was fairly normal. Braised beef and vegetables was the main part of the dinner, and an omelet for breakfast. The Dragon Air flight had dim sum for breakfast (har gow, siu mai, and turnip cake).

TRAMP

I just discovered TRAMP ("Transparent Remote (file) Access, Multiple Protocol"), an extension for GNU Emacs which allows you to open and save remote files very easily. For example, to open a remote file, you'd do your normal C-x C-f and then prefix the remote filename with "/hostname:" or "/userid@hostname:". It will then prompt you for your password and retrieve the file behind the scenes via ssh. Saving is handled in a similar transparent fashion (your password is cached temporarily).

TRAMP comes installed with Aquamacs, a pretty nice version of Emacs for MacOS X (except for the fact that you have to uncheck "Display Buffers in Separate Frames" once in order to get it to act more like normal Emacs). GNU Emacs on Redhat 9 comes with ange-ftp, which is similar to TRAMP, but only supports transfers via ftp.

Quality DVD Burning

Since the original DVD burner on my PowerMac G4 MDD is pretty old, it can't burn any of the new DVD-R media at anything except 1x speed. So, I've been using an external Sony USB2 DVD burner to burn my videos.

Unfortunately, with the external burner, I would often get verification errors when burning at 4x or above, so I usually kept the burn speed at 2x. Lately, though, I've found that even if the DVD verifies alright and plays alright on my computers, they occasionally glitch on standalone players (the symptom is usually a couple frames of choppy video).

Since I had a feeling that part of my problem was using an external DVD burner, I bought an internal Pioneer DVR-111D drive to replace the older Pioneer in my G4. I was too paranoid to try burning at about 4x, but the 4x burn that I did do worked great.

I also recently found a good tool called Nero CD-DVD Speed to check the quality of DVDs. Unfortunately, this is a Windows program and only works on some drives. The program's Disc Quality check will check for PI (Parity Inner) and PO (Parity Outer) errors and generate a Quality Score. Getting any PO errors is a really bad sign. What I would consider being a really good burn would have a PI error Max (per 8 blocks) of less than 50 and a PI error average of less than 10. For a possibly slightly below average disc that should be playable on most reasonably good players the PI Max should be less than 180 and the average less than 80. These scores are dependent on the burner (as well as how it's connected to the computer) and the quality of the media.

After scanning some of my older burns, it appears that my Maxell discs give the best results which mirrors the information contained in the DVD Media Quality guide contained here.

Kintaro Walks Japan

"Kintaro Walks Japan" is probably one of the best travel videos I've ever seen (the music video is also excellent and highly amusing). It certainly gives me something to strive for when it comes to making my own videos, although I know that I'll probably never come close to creating something this good. Although the film and music video can be seen on Google Video, I highly recommend purchasing the DVD to get your very own personalized and autographed "Kintaro Kard".

The author of this documentary also has some more amusing movies on his website. He can currently be seen on the Amazing Race 9.

Cho-tanoshii!!

Smart Car Crash

I saw a lot of Smart cars in Italy. This is a video of one in a test crash. They're so small that you can practically park normally on the street instead of having to parallel park. Unfortunately, they are not available in the United States right now.

Pixar and Disney

Once the deal gets finalized and my Pixar stock becomes Disney stock, I'll probably sell.

Pixar's stock price has almost doubled since I bought it about 2 years ago so it's probably time to cash out since I don't see much growth potential with Disney even with Pixar people being in power.

Excellent Enlargements

I decided to get some 11x14 enlargements of some pictures I took in Japan. After doing some checking around, I ended up ordering them from Mpix. Their metallic paper is really nice.

Departure from Italy

Today, we got on a shuttle to the airport at around 10am for our flight to Detroit at 1:20pm.

BTW, Italian passport control is lazy. When you come into the country, instead of finding the first empty page to stamp your passport, they just pick one at random. And when you leave, instead of stamping the exit stamp right next to the entry stamp, they also pick a page at random. So now, you have a wasted page on your passport. This is really annoying since some countries (China, for example) want two consecutive blank pages.

At Detroit, U.S. immigration was stupid. The lines were long and when we finally got near the front, they closed are line (for U.S. citizens) and had us go to the back of the line on one of the visitor lines. My flight from Detroit to Nashville was delayed a bit since they had to wait until the plane had 3 flight attendants and only 2 were there.

Last full day in Rome

Today, most of the people on our tour left to go back home. But, my parents and I decided to stay an extra day.

Because the hotel was far from the city center, we had to take a hotel provided bus into the city. On the bus, we bumped into another couple on our tour and my seatmate, who was the only other traveler who was alone (or odd, in my case) besides me.

The bus dropped us off at Piazza Cavour. From there, we walked across the Tiber River and went to Piazza Navona and then on to the Trevi Fountain where we threw in some coins since this was our official last day. Next, we headed to Trajan's Market, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum. The Colosseum was open, so we paid 10 Euros and went inside.

From the Colosseum, we walked to San Giovanni in Laterano (Basilica of St. John Lateran), which is Rome's official cathedral and was the papal residence until the 14th century. From here, we took a taxi to Castel Sant'Angelo and walked back to Piazza Cavour to take the bus back to the hotel.

Montecassino and back to Rome

We left Naples in the morning and headed to the Abbey of Montecassino. This abbey was destroyed in WWII, but rebuilt. It was founded by St. Benedict in 528 and is the mother church of the Benedictine Order.

On our way back to Rome, we made our last stop at an Autogrill.

We checked into our hotel, the Jolly Midas, upon our arrival into Rome. The rooms are badly in need of renovation. After resting a bit, we went on our final optional excursion, the Farewell Dinner.

The trip on the bus was fairly amusing. At the beginning of the tour, Igor told us that we should rotate seats each day so that no one gets stuck in a bad seat. But instead of a deterministic rotation, it was all quite random. One lady always seemed to be in the first couple of rows and was very annoying. As a result, on this final bus trip, some people got on the bus a little early and claimed the front rows (I got a seat on the very front row) so she had to go to the back of the bus. When Igor got on the bus, he seemed a little confused before realizing what we did.

Before going to the restaurant, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. According to legend, if you throw one coin into the Trevi Fountain on your last day in Rome, you will ensure a return to Rome. If you throw two, you'll fall in love. And if you throw three, according to Igor, you'll have a successful divorce.

Dinner consisted of an antipasto of cheese and tomatoes, a big ravioli, fettucini with white sauce, chicken with tomato sauce, and a raspberry gelato.

Some people had a bit too much to drink during dinner. On the way back, one lady borrowed the microphone and started emulating Igor.

Capri and Sorrento

We were supposed to take a boat from Naples to Capri, but the water was to rough. So instead, we took the motorcoach to Sorrento in order to get on a boat there. Because it was a Sunday, the main streets in Sorrento were closed for pedestrians. Luckily our driver, Giuseppe, lives in Sorrento, so he was able to get us to the docks in a very scenic, but round-about drive.

At Capri, the water was too choppy to go inside the Blue Grotto, so instead we visited the Villa San Michele. A little after 2pm, we got on the boat and headed back to Sorrento where we did some shopping and had an optional excursion dinner (an antipasto of ham of fresh mozzarella and other vegetables, 2 types of pasta, 3 types of pizza, and a lemon cake). Sorrento is famous for it's limoncello, a liqueur made from lemons. It is very strong, but I liked it so I bought a bottle. I also had two shots at dinner (it was an after dinner drink, and my mother didn't want hers).

After dinner, we drove back to Naples.

Pompeii and Naples

From Assisi, we drove to Pompeii. We ate lunch at a restaurant that Igor recommended whose service was absolutely horrible. It was 10 Euros for a pizza, drink, and gelato. On the way out of Pompeii, I noticed a place that had the same for 6, and whose service had to have been better.

At Pompeii, we spend about 2 hours on a tour of the ruins. We saw the Temple of Apollo, the Forum, casts of bodies, a bathhouse, a bakery, a brothel, and a market.

According to our itinerary, we were supposed to stay in Sorrento. But because all the hotels were evidently full, we instead stayed in Naples at the Jolly Hotel Naples. Because of this change, we got a free dinner at the hotel (originally, the dinner was supposed to be an optional excursion). It consisted of some pasta, beef and roasted vegetables, and baba. Baba is a apricot rum sponge cake. The liquid in the sponge cake isn't apparent while it's sitting on your plate, but once it's in your mouth it is readily apparent.

Ravenna and Assisi

On the way to Assisi, we stopped by Ravenna. The Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe was closed for restoration, so we had plenty of free time to wander around. I stopped by Dante's tomb and had Zuppa Ingelese gelato which is supposed to be a local specialty. It sort of tasted like eggnogg with cake.

Because of the narrow streets, our tour bus couldn't drive all the way to our hotel in Assisi, so we had to park in a lot and walk up the hill to our hotel, the San Francesco, which was located right next to the Basilica of St. Francis. My room at the hotel was extremely small.

After checking in to the hotel, we were free to visit the Basilica of St. Francis. It is divided into 3 parts: the crypt, the lower basilica, and the upper basilica. The lower basilica is more subdued in keeping with St. Francis's life, while the upper basilica is brighter to celebrate his sainthood. Pictures were not allowed inside.

Dinner consisted of spaghetti, turkey with fennel, and gelato.

After dinner, we went on an evening walk and saw the outside of the Santa Maria over Minerva (a church built inside a Temple of Minerva) and the Basilica of St. Claire. We also did a little shopping (I bought a small painted wood figure of John Paul II). For priests, Assisi must be like a candy store because there are a lot of neat shops selling chalices and other priestly paraphernalia.

BTW, Chinotto soda is nasty.

Venice

We took the motorcoach into Venice and then got on a boat to St. Mark's Square. Unfortunately, the boat didn't go on the Grand Canal, so we couldn't see what it was like during the daytime. At St. Mark's Square, we visited the Doge's Palace and the Basilica (no pictures allowed inside of either place). Afterwards, we went to the Vecchia Murano Glass Shop to see a glass blowing demonstration and do some shopping.

A little after noon, we met at the Bell Tower to go on the optional lunch excursion to Burano. Burano is a fishing village in the lagoon. Lunch consisted of shrimp cooked in olive oil, seafood pasta, St. Peter's fish, and a dessert and cookies.

We got back into Venice a little bit before 5pm and had some free time. So, we walked over to the Rialto Bridge and did a little shopping.

Dinner at the hotel was pasta and lasagna, veal, and tiramisu.

Lugano, Verona, and Venice

In the morning, we crossed the border and made a brief stop in Lugano, Switzerland. I bought a Swiss Army Knife (which is actually cheaper on Amazon), and my mother bought a Rolex (which was cheaper there than in the United States).

From Lugano, we crossed back into Italy and went to Verona where we were free to wander around. We saw the Roman Arena, the Tombs of the Scaligeri, and Juliet's House (Casa di Giulietta). Since Romeo and Juliet was a work of fiction, the house really wasn't Juliet's. While in Verona, I had a really good melon (cantaloupe) gelato at the gelati place which Igor recommended.

We left Verona at 4pm and continued on to Venice. When we arrived at Mestre (mainland from Venice), we checked into the Park Hotel Ai Pini before going on our optional dinner excursion, "Venetian Night Out".

We took the motorcoach into Venice and then a water taxi down the Grand Canal (since it was dark, the buildings were illuminated) and on to St. Mark's Square. From there, we walked to our dinner at the Restaurant All'Angelo. We had a prawn cocktail, a puree of dried cod over polenta, taglioli pasta and lasagna, veal, and tiramisu.

Lake Maggiore

In the morning, we took a boat to Isola Bella which is an island on Lake Maggiore containing a palace and terraced garden.

The afternoon was free time, so I took the ropeway up to Alpino and Mottarone. At the Motarrone stop, I had to hike up a very steep hill to reach the peak of Mount Mottarone. The view was excellent from the top.

Dinner consisted of an antipasto buffet, bowtie pasta with pesto, veal, and a creamed caramel dessert (reminded me of flan).

Milan and Stresa

Today, we traveled from Florence to the town of Stresa on the shore of Lake Maggiore. On the way we drove by Genoa, had lunch at an Autogrill, and stopped at Milan.

In Milan, we visited the Gothic cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

At Stresa, we checked into the Grand Hotel Bristol. Dinner consisted of penne pasta with tomato sauce, trout with fennel and hashbrowns, and tiramisu.

Florence

In the morning, we headed to Galleria dell'Accademia (Academy of the Fine Arts) to see Michelangelo's statue of David. Pictures were not permitted inside.

Afterwards, we walked over to see the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Campanile (Giotto's Bell Tower). Next, we visited Piazza della Signoria (where there is a replica of David) and then on to Santa Croce where we stopped by a leather factory and had lunch on our own at the Finisterrae Ristorante Mediterraneo (we shared two pizzas: one with ham, mozzarella, and tomato sauce and another with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes). After lunch, we headed to Vivoli's Gelato, which is supposed to have the best gelato in Florence. During the rest of our free time, we went to Ponte Vecchio to see the shops on the bridge.

At 6pm, we left to go on an optional Tuscan Dinner excursion. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped by the Piazzale Michelangelo which has a very scenic view of the city. The restaurant is located a little outside of Florence in the Tuscan countryside. Dinner was good (antipasto buffet, goulash and cheese ravioli, prime rib, and berry tort). What was really good was this blue drink that supposedly consisted of spumanti, blue curacao, and peach schnapps.

Pisa and Florence

After a 6:15 wakeup call, we departed the hotel at 7:30 and headed to Pisa and Florence. On the way, we stopped at an Autogrill for lunch. Autogrills are found throughout Italy (we stopped at them multiple times for lunch or restroom breaks) and consist of a cafeteria style restaurant, sandwich/expresso counter, and grocery/wine store. When ordering from the counter, you pay for your sandwich first (and had better be able to pronounce it properly), then take the receipt and pass it over the counter to get your sandwich (which they'll heat, if you want).

At around 1:20pm, we arrived in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, Duomo, and Baptistry at the Field of Miracles (Campo dei Miracoli). At 3:30, we left and continued on to Florence where we checked in to the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo.

First full day in Rome

After a 5:45am wakeup call, the tour group departed the hotel at 7am to head to the Vatican Museums. We left this early so that our group would be near the front of the line before it opened. After we arrived outside the museum's entrance and got in line, our local guide in Rome, Francesco, gave us radio receivers with an earpiece called Whispers so that we could hear what he said. These Whisper devices were used throughout the tour and were much better than the alternative (the guide yelling).

Although you can take pictures in the rest of the Vatican Museums, you can't in the Sistine Chapel. Supposedly, this is because the Japanese company that did the restoration of the frescoes currently have sole rights to the images. Despite the prohibition, I stealthily took some pictures with my SLR anyways (aimed from the belt level). I noticed someone else in the tour group had his camcorder in a bag with it opened and pointed upward.

From the museum, we entered St. Peter's Basilica and then had some free time to look around St. Peter's Square. We then boarded the motorcoach and headed to the Roman Forum to see the ruins. Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside the Colosseum because of electrical problems.

In the late afternoon, we skipped the optional "Roman Highlights" excursion and dinner, and instead took a taxi to the Spanish Steps. After we arrived, it started raining very heavily. From the Spanish Steps, we walked down Via Condotti and then headed to the Pantheon (which looks like a Roman temple on the outside, but is now a church in the inside). Next, we walked to Piazza Navona and had dinner at Tre Scalini. This restaurant is known for it's tartufo (chocolate coated chocolate ice cream, cherries, and whipped cream). I had pasta (lasagna and tortellini), veal, and the tartufo.

Arrived in Italy

Note: These posts about Italy were made after I came back to the United States.

My Northwest flight arrived in Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport (Fiumicino) at around 10:30am. The food wasn't as good as Japan Airlines, but each seat did have video on demand (whereas on JAL, there each movie was on a separate channel and continually replayed). There was also a networked trivia game, but only a handful of people played.

At around 1pm, we left the airport to go to the Starhotel Michelangelo which is located a couple blocks from the Vatican. There, we met our tour director, Igor Spinelli, and checked into our rooms. Since we had a little free time before having to meet back at 5pm, my father and I walked over to St. Peter's Square to look around.

After the meeting at 5pm where we met the rest of the group (46 people total on the tour) and Igor went over some things, we took a bus into the city for our welcome dinner. Just about all the dinners on the tour had four courses. Normally this consisted of a antipasto (cheese, cold cuts such as prosciutto ham, etc), a pasta dish (occasionally containing different types), a meat dish (which was often veal or pork and sometimes fish), and a dessert. Tonight, dinner consisted of an antipasto of cold cuts (ham, salami, etc.), tomato bean pasta soup, some sort of cheesy pasta, thin cuts of pork and pan fried potatoes, and peach and strawberry gelato.

A continental buffer breakfast was included for free each day, but all lunches were on our own.

Italy

I'm leaving for Italy this afternoon to go on Globus's 14 day Italian Mosaic Tour with my parents. We're both taking the same flight to Rome from Detroit (they've got a longer lay over as their flight from San Diego arrives earlier). It's actually 13 days if you don't include the day you leave the U.S., but we're staying an extra day in Rome. We'll be going to Rome, Florence, Lake Maggiore (Stressa), Venice, Assisi, and Sorrento/Capri (hotel is in Naples, unfortunately, so we probably won't see much of Sorrento).

Undeleting on ext3fs

Someone accidentally deleted a bunch of files on their Linux box at work. None of our machines (machines which the group that I'm in deal with) are backed up in any official manner, although some are either replicated or rsynced. This machine was not. The filesystem was formatted ext3fs, which meant that I couldn't use Midnight Commander's undelete function. Normally, at this point I would say there's nothing I can do and all your work for the past 2 months has been lost forever. But, since I was feeling nice, the files were plain text, and all had the same header, I decided to see what I could do.

I ended up grepping /dev/hdb1 for a string which was near the top of each file. After that I used dd to read 20k from the byte offset which grep returned and dumped this to a file. From these dumps, the user will have to tease out the actual file contents from portions of other files in the dump as well as figure out which files actually contain the newest version of the content.

Final Cut Pro 5 audio bug

Last night I noticed that the audio that I had exported out of Final Cut Pro wasn't matching the levels from within the application. After spending a good deal of time dinking around (deleting audio level keyframes, re-nesting sequences into the main clip, etc), I decided to check Apple's FCP discussion groups. Evidently, this bug has been around for a while. I guess I got lucky and never stumbled upon it.

The solution is to force an audio mixdown of the sequences that are being nested.

Last Day in San Francisco

Yesterday (6/22), after the CPOE conference finished up at around noon, someone from Vanderbilt, someone from McKesson, and I went to Yank Sing for dim sum. It was quite expensive. I don't remember how many dishes we had, but the total bill was $75. There were a lot of dishes that I hadn't seen before including a dim sum version of Peking Duck.

After lunch, I went to Alamo Square to see the Victorian houses around there, Golden Gate Park to see the Japanese Tea Garden, and then to the Golden Gate Bridge.

For dinner, I had a duck dish, a corn bread side dish, and crepes with cajeta and vanilla ice cream for dessert at the Colibri Mexican Bistro.

This morning I took the BART to Oakland and had an uneventful flight back to Nashville.

Day One at the CPOE Conference

The talks at the conference so far have been moderately interesting. For me, the most interesting was a short talk during lunch about Human Factors Engineering by the product manager for Soarian (Siemen's CPOE system). From what I saw of Soarian it looked pretty interesting. It's web based, but I'm not sure if it works in anything but Internet Explorer. It also seemed a bit slower. I think this may be due to the complexity of it's web based UI. They should have tried just keep things simple.

After the conference had adjourned for the day, I went with two other people from Vanderbilt to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Restaurant.

SBC Park

My seat at SBC Park was in the View Level on the third base side such that I could see right down the first base foul line. Overall, the stadium was nice, although I like Petco Park better since I like the fact that the concourses are larger and less cramped. The Giants beat the Diamondbacks 8 to 3, so the Padres gain another game in the standings.

First Full Day in San Francisco

I took a bus the the Palace of Fine Arts this morning. This is where Sean Connery's character meets his daughter in the movie "The Rock". From there I walked toward the beach next to the bay to see if I could get a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, it was foggy. After that, I took the bus to Ghirardelli Square and took some pictures of Alcatraz. I then walked through Fisherman's Wharf and then down to the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. By this time, the fog cleared up a bit, so I got some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge (although by this time, I was much farther away than I was earlier). From Telegraph Hill, I walked through China Town, had lunch (Dim Sum), and then continued on to SBC Park to buy a ticket for tonight's Giants game versus the Diamondbacks.

In San Francisco

I arrived in Oakland International Airport this afternoon and took the AirBART shuttle to the Oakland Coliseum station in order to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train to the Powell Street Station. The train was definitely not as user friendly as the trains in Japan. For example, there are no screens in the cars to tell you what the next stop will be and the announcements are said too quickly with poor enunciation. Maybe it was because I got use to them, but the announcements on the trains and busses in Japan were much easier to understand.

The hotel I'm staying at is the Grand Hyatt San Francisco which is next to Union Square. It's a couple of blocks from the Powell Street BART station whose Stockton Street exit is right next to the Apple Store. It's also a couple of blocks from Chinatown.

After checking into the hotel, I walked about 1.25 miles to Nihonmachi (also known as Japantown). I found a Japanese sweets store which sold the exact same box of sweets which I brought back from Japan. It was a bit more expensive here ($14 vs 1000 yen). I ended up buying one box of green tea flavored assorted sweets (Ocha no Tsudoi) and another box of a single type of green tea flavored sweet (Maccha Komichi) which looked interesting since the outer shell is transparent. I also bought a DVD (Battle Royale 2). Since it was around dinner time, I decided to eat at one of the restaurants in the main mall. Just like in Japan, most of the restaurants had wax models in the windows. Upon entering you are greeted with the standard Japanese greeting (Irasshaimase!). Unlike in Japan, the waitresses obviously speak English as well. I ended up ordering some shabu-shabu since I did not get a chance to eat that in Japan.

On the way back to the hotel, I made a detour and walked around the financial district and a small bit of Chinatown.

BTW, internet in the room is $9.95 for 24 hours. Hopefully Vanderbilt will reimburse me for it.

CPOE conference in San Francisco

I'm going to be attending a conference ("Decision Support for CPOE") in San Francisco on June 21 and 22. I'll be arriving in Oakland on 6/19/2005 and flying out on 6/23/2005. From the program it sounds like the target audience is actually higher level hospital administrators, but the person I used to report to at Vanderbilt is one of the speakers and encouraged some of us to go.

Unfortunately, the Napa and Sonoma Wine Country Tour got cancelled due to lack of interest.

Apple on Intel

From what I saw on the streaming keynote address, it appears that the Jobs and the presenters where very careful not mention what sort of Intel chip is going to be used. Apple would be very stupid not to be going with 64bit chip from the get go. Their Universal Binary Programming Guidelines currently only speaks about IA-32.

Looking at the guidelines, it appears that even if an application is properly written and is just a recompile away from becoming a universal binary, there are some very subtle issues which might not be readily apparent until some heavy testing is done. For example, on the PowerPC, when a float is cast into an int, but the value is too large to be represented, the int gets assigned INTMAX, while on an x86, it gets assigned INTMIN. Also, an integer divide by zero is fatal on the x86, while on the PowerPC, zero is returned.

Hopefully, Rosetta (the dynamic PowerPC to Intel translator) will work well since I'm sure it's going to be a long time before a lot of applications are rebuilt as universal binaries. I almost think that come 2007, it might still be smarter to buy a G5 rather than an Apple Intel box due to software availability.

I'll probably buy a G5 within the next year or two, but I'm definitely not going to make any big software purchases (especially multimedia type apps) in the near future unless absolutely necessary since I'm not going to want to upgrade again once the software gets recompiled as universal binaries.

Apple Store at the Mall at Green Hills

The Apple Store at the Mall at Green Hills had it's Grand Opening today. The line to get in was very long. The first 1000 people got free T-shirts. The packaging was typical Apple (meaning nicely designed). The T-shirts were neatly rolled into a plain white box with a glossy silver colored interior and sealed with a silver Apple sticker.

Falling ceiling tiles at work

I'm not sure what happened, but a ceiling tile collapsed in the tunnel between the building where I work and another. Lots of gravel and dust spewed out.