ImageMagick book
MythTV book
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Sun, 27 Jan 2008
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In Australia, alive
So, after a somewhat traumatic 30 hour journey from America, I am now in Australia happy and well. I'm surprised by how not-jetlagged I feel, which is nice as well. Qantas in Melbourne were actually much better than Qantas in LAX about the missing bag. They were friendly, sympathetic, efficient and gave me $100 AUD cash to buy new clothes. So, I'm here and I'm alive.
Tags for this post: travel( ) australia()
posted at: 08:01 | path: /travel/australia | permanent link to this entry
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Fri, 04 Jan 2008
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More nuclear bunkers
Its clear from my past posts that I am interested in cold war bunkers.
I just watched "Lost Worlds: US Nuclear Bunkers". That's re-ignited my interest in US nuclear bunkers (as well as cold war history in general). I like the idea of the Lorton Bunker (under a correctional facility 20 miles form Washington DC, and abandoned in only 2001), and I've talked about the Greenbrier bunker before.
It's a pity its four hours drive from Arlington, VA:
View Larger Map
The Greenbrier was secret for 30 years, and kept constantly stocked will all the supplies needed for three weeks of sealed living for 1,100 people. Finally it was leaked by one article in the Washington Post. After the article, the site had to be decommissioned.
Next, they talked about the Palm Beach Florida bunker built for JFK. Tours of that bunker are cheap too -- only $10 each. This bunker is only a decontamination shower, and a single room, but I guess you wouldn't complain if you'd just been nuked.
Finally, there is Cheyenne Mountainwhich used to offer tours, but apparently doesn't any more.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() virginia()
posted at: 14:29 | path: /travel/usa/virginia | permanent link to this entry
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Fri, 28 Dec 2007
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Mental note: don't become a US permanent resident just in case
To quote from this blog post (its a bit odd that its a PDF, but whatever):
... the new expatriate regime (Exit Tax
Provision) requires expatriates to recognise gain on their assets, and imposes a
new tax on gifts and bequests by expatriates to Americans, This new provision
(styled Section 877A) is an addition to (and not a replacement of) the current
expatriation tax rules of Section 877. Under the Exit Tax Provision, certain
individuals who renounce their U.S. citizenship or U.S. long-term residents
who relinquish their U.S. residence status (collectively covered expatriates)
must recognise gain, or otherwise be taxed, on all their assets on the date they
expatriate. In addition, gifts or bequests they make to U.S. citizens or residents
after expatriation will be subject to tax at onerous estate/gift tax rates.
In other words, if you're a US resident and you leave the US permanently, then they deem all of your world wide assets sold, and then tax you on the gain. This includes retirement funds, as well as savings. Congress is proposing this as a way of funding tax relief for serving members of the US military.
Its not law yet, but still something I should pay attention to.
Tags for this post: travel() usa()
posted at: 04:20 | path: /travel/usa | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 20 Nov 2007
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Boston
I must say that I like Boston. It feels a lot like Sydney, and I hope that Boston is the city that Sydney is in another 200 years. Boston has plenty of history (it seems that America happened here, and the rest of the continent came along for the ride), isn't too built up (not all sky scrapers), has great public transport, and friendly people. Its too cold though -- it snowed a little on my walk to the office this morning.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() massachusetts() boston()
posted at: 03:58 | path: /travel/usa/massachusetts/boston | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 19 Nov 2007
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Boston
I am forever glad to be away from Dallas, which seemed to have few redeeming features (although perhaps that's because I was staying in the worst hotel I have stayed in in the US). I'm now in Boston, where the Kimpton is very nice. It has a hilarious leopard skin print theme, but apart from that is very nice. The meat loaf for dinner last night was fantastic.
I have an idle day today, so the plan is to catch the metro to Boston Common, and then walk the freedom trail. I wonder if I'll be freer at the end. I should try to remember to take a tea bag as well, and ceremonially throw it in the harbour. Then I can honestly say that I've tea bagged for America.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() massachusetts() boston()
posted at: 00:41 | path: /travel/usa/massachusetts/boston | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 12 Nov 2007
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Arrived in Dallas
I arrived in Dallas yesterday. This part of the trip is to attend LISA 2007, spend some time on the Google booth, and present a poster about the initial research in my new-improved-previous-topic-abandoned PhD. I'm staying in the same hotel as the conference, the Grand Hyatt.
Staying at the Grand Hyatt has led me to make a conclusion -- people mistake expensive for up-scale. I look at the hotel, and its pretty lame: parking is $18 a day, internet is $10 a day, printing is $1 a page, and all the food options are expensive. I can only assume that either they're not interested in business travellers, or that they're hoping people will confuse being gouged for being upper class.
Oh, and the room is noisy and poorly laid out. I much preferred The Hampton Inn I stayed at in Atlanta to be honest. Now there was a hotel that understood business travellers.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() texas() dallas()
posted at: 01:46 | path: /travel/usa/texas/dallas | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 05 Nov 2007
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Random travel tip: DFW / Dallas Fort Worth
If you're flying through DFW and have a layover, then this random advice based on my experience yesterday might help. The airport is huge, but bits of it were built at different times. The D gates were much nicer (and had a better selection of food places) than the A gates. I assume that means that the E gates are even nicer. So -- don't go to your gate too early if its in an older terminal.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() texas() dfw()
posted at: 23:49 | path: /travel/usa/texas/dfw | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 22 Oct 2007
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Arrived at Disney World!
We';re here at Disney World (at the All stars movie resort if that matters). I don't really have any comments yet, apart from it talking way longer than we thought to drive from Boca Raton to Disney World. Florida seems to be composed mainly of strip malls, gated communities, freeways, and toll booths. More to report once I have something to say.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() florida()
posted at: 09:16 | path: /travel/usa/florida | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 21 Oct 2007
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A busy couple of days
Andrew had his school walkathon yesterday -- the five year old and I did 16 laps of the school oval before we gave up. The timing was unfortunate, given that we woke yup at 4am today and flew to Florida. Initial impressions: Miami traffic is congested, Navman GPSs don't work well in Florida, its insanely warm and humid here (even for winter), and I am tried. That is all.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() florida()
posted at: 12:35 | path: /travel/usa/florida | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 30 Sep 2007
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Noisy neighbours at Central Park in Mountain View
Its 5am my time, and I've been awake since 3am. Not from choice though -- its the downstairs neighbours waking us up yet again. They're shift workers you see, and must either sleep with construction hearing protection on, or be deaf. Either way, they seem to think its ok to stand outside our apartment at shout at each other at 2am, or slam doors at all hours, or listen to music so loud it vibrates stuff in our apartment basically all night.
We've asked them nicely to turn it down (we used to get on quite well with them at first). We've asked the complex to please do something. We even rung the complex security folk when its happening, and asked for some peace. Its really done nothing to help -- they perhaps turn the music down for 30 minutes until security leaves, and then turn it right back on again.
So, we've run out of ideas, apart from ending the lease early (which will cost an unknown amount of money), and moving somewhere else. We're so serious about doing that that I have started looking around Craigslist already.
Perhaps the floor between apartments is too thin, because the bathroom fans this neighbour leaves on for literally days at a time also vibrates things in the apartment, but either way I think Central Park has pretty much failed to provide us with a livable apartment. We don't want a lot, just some peace after 10pm like the complex rules say we should get.
Grumpy.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() california() mountainview()
posted at: 22:08 | path: /travel/usa/california/mountainview | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 10 Jun 2007
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How do you spot the Australian kids in an American playground?
They're the ones wearing hats.
Despite it being noon, the various American kids at the playground all lacked sun protection. In fact, they pretty much all lacked practical clothing, it was all way too dressy. Americans don't seem to have figured out skin cancer at all in fact, every weekend there are bikini clad young ladies sunning themselves around the pool, the schools don't require kids to wear sun protection, and it's pretty common to see outside workers not wearing any sun protection either. How odd.
Tags for this post: travel() usa()
posted at: 09:20 | path: /travel/usa | permanent link to this entry
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Thu, 10 May 2007
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On Virgin Atlantic premium economy
Welcome to Mikal's badly organised travel tips. On the trip to Dublin I
flew Virgin Atlantic premium economy. That's kind of like anyone else's
business class, given the classes on Virgin are economy, premium
economy, and upper class. It's much cheaper than anyone else's business
class fare to Heathrow though. I thought that premium economy was pretty
good... The seats are old and both of the ones I sat in were subtly
broken, but the seat spacing is excellent, the seat is wider than
normal, and reclines just that little extra.
The extra money was worth it given I got off the plane and walked
straight into a meeting in Dublin, and on the return flight I got a heap
of work done. Premium economy even offers power for laptops, although my
corporate-issue iGo doesn't work with the new Lenovo x60, and Virgin
didn't have a tip for the x60 in their collection. That's a pretty
common compliant with the newer Intel Core2 laptops though -- they draw
too much power for older universal power supplies. I got around the
power problem with two "eight hour" batteries for the x60. The quotes
are because I actually get more like four or five hours off these
batteries rather than the claimed eight hours.
(Oh, by the way, the x60 rocks. Small. Light. Insanely fast with it's
dual processors. I sent some time running a script which did a lot of
processing and IO though, and the machine got too hot to sit on my lap!)
I've now flown premium economy on the upper and lower deck of the 747,
and the upper deck is clearly better. On the top deck you get a deck
shared only with premium and upper class (Virgin's first class), a
reading station with newspapers and magazines, a slightly quieter ride,
and you don't have people walking past to economy making snob comments.
On the down side, you do end up with a much smaller overhead bin.
Basically no one's bag fitted in it. There is a big coat locker though,
so it's not like your bag is far away.
If you have a window seat, then you also get a small vertical locker
next to you, which is a nice place to put your laptop and ipod during
takeoff and landing.
On the lower deck you get all the economy people walking past, and in
fact they seem to wander into the premium section of the plane during
the flight. Often they would just stand there looking at me work, which
was a bit rude. You also share a bathroom with the rest of the economy
cabin, unlike upstairs. That leads to congestion. Worst of all, the
premium section is on either side of the forward galley. That means
constant staff movement next to you, light, and noise. Luckily for me I
was flying while trying to stay awake, I would have found this really
annoying otherwise.
You do get a big overhead bin though.
So, premium economy good, although the seats could do with some basic
maintenance. I'd pick it over standard economy any day.
Other random notes: Virgin staff are nice, there is video on demand in
all seats (which means of the airlines I have flown Qantas, New Zealand
and Virgin have this -- unlike United). In fact, Virgin was really good
all round.
Tags for this post: travel() airlines()
posted at: 05:14 | path: /travel/airlines | permanent link to this entry
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Dublin trip
I occasionally wonder to myself why I don't blog more these days, and I
think the answer is that I'm not convinced that other people would be
interested in what happens to me from day to day. For example, when
writing the books, all that is really involved is a massive amount of
time in front of a computer. The finished product is cool, but the
process of producing it is actually quite boring.
(Although I feel that I will one day write up my universal theory of
project management... The short summary is something like: "project
management is about removing obstacles to delivery of the project -- not
deadlines, hassling, gantt charts, or general futzing". Or something
like that.)
The Dublin trip is similar. I had a good time, although am very tired. I
flew Virgin Atlantic premium economy from San Francisco to Heathrow, and
then BMI to Dublin. Virgin is great, BMI suck even more than I could
have imagined. For example -- they advertise that they have the best
on time record of any LHR flying airline, but they were late every
time on my trip. Oh, and one of the planes had a power generation engine
which didn't work, so we had to deplane in the dark. Oh, and no food. So
much suck.
(Oh, and who knew that the EU had instituted US style 3 ounce / 100
millilitre zip lock bag policies? I didn't.)
BMI also seem to have a policy of hiring midgets as flight attendants.
They were all young women of about five foot tall. I guess that's
convenient in a short aircraft, but where does one find a large stock of
midgets to hire from?
The hotel in Dublin was fantastic. It's called the Berkeley Court, and
there is no point in saying much more about it because it's being torn
down to build office buildings and apartments. How crap. I can't imagine
owning one of the lovely Victorian terraces across the street either
during or after the construction of yet another identical looking office
building.
Dublin seems to be all about economic growth at the moment. There are
plenty of identical looking office buildings around -- some of them even
built on top of sites of historical artifacts like Viking settlements.
Apparently they didn't even stop to dig up the old things before
concreting over them.
I liked Dublin though.
It was also odd to see Sinn Fein posters all over the place. I find the
transition from the political wing of the IRA to being a main stream
political party to be quite strange. (That sentence used to be more
harsh, but I edited it down).
Another odd thing was to discover the stereotypes are true (to a certain
extent). There are plenty of drunk folk on the streets on weekends from
about lunch onwards.
I got lots of tourist stuff done in Dublin, but didn't see much of the
countryside. Perhaps next time. I did see the National Museum (bog
people!), the Chester Beattie National Library (ancient religious
texts!), Dublin Castle (Sinead O'Conner in concert preparations!),
Malahide Castle, the south wall, and other stuff I don't remember at the
moment.
So there you go. I figure no one finds these posts interesting, so I
will continue to write them solely when it amuses me.
Tags for this post: travel() ireland() dublin()
posted at: 00:08 | path: /travel/ireland/dublin | permanent link to this entry
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Wed, 02 May 2007
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Dublin!
I'm in Ireland at the moment for work -- I've been here a couple of days now (which might explain why I am online at 4am local time, I am having some trouble sleeping). Anyways, it's nice here. I wasn't really expecting to like it after how much I disliked London the last time I went there, but there you go.
Photos et cetera will go online just as soon as I manage to do something other than go to the office.
Tags for this post: travel() ireland() dublin()
posted at: 14:03 | path: /travel/ireland/dublin | permanent link to this entry
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Fri, 23 Mar 2007
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Dentist
I went to the dentist for the first time in the US last night. It was a pretty odd experience. 19 xrays (apparently that's standard here), a TV set on the wall where they showed me the tooth which needs a filling, and then showed me the filling after it was done, photos of my teeth with a digital camera so they can show me before and after in a few years. Heck, they rubbed lotion on my lips for me so that I wouldn't have to suffer at all by keeping my mouth open for more than 30 seconds.
The best bit? They came up with a written estimate before they did the filling, and made sure I was ok with the whole thing before they did any work.
I think I like the dentist here.
Tags for this post: travel() usa()
posted at: 05:00 | path: /travel/usa | permanent link to this entry
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Mon, 05 Mar 2007
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I am sometimes amazed by the childlike political discourse in the US
It amazes me that the best political argument Ann Coulter can come up with is that John Edwards is a faggot. While it is true that Ann specialises in a particularly vile form of hate politics, I guess she's sufficiently lame that she can't even think of good insults any more.
It's a bit like the Anna Nicole Smith burial thing... Isn't the best way to fix these problems just to turn off the media coverage of these morons?
Tags for this post: travel() usa() politics()
posted at: 03:59 | path: /travel/usa/politics | permanent link to this entry
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Sun, 25 Feb 2007
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Summing up Santa Monica
The office stocks vegan jelly beans. Say no more.
Tags for this post: travel() usa() california() santamonica()
posted at: 02:15 | path: /travel/usa/california/santamonica | permanent link to this entry
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Fri, 23 Feb 2007
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Santa Monica
I'm currently waiting as part of boarding group A for my South West flight to Santa Monica. I should be there by lunch. So, any last minute suggestions for things to do in Santa Monica apart from drink a lot?
Tags for this post: travel() usa() california() santamonica()
posted at: 03:18 | path: /travel/usa/california/santamonica | permanent link to this entry
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Wed, 14 Feb 2007
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More bomb shelters!
People who visit here (of which I assume there are none) will know that I occasionally rant about how cool bomb shelters are. Dad put me onto this excellent article about the Swiss:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6347519.stm
Under Swiss law, local governments are required to provide shelter spaces for everyone, and in the early 1970s Lucerne was short by several thousand. The new Sonnenberg motorway tunnel, just being built, seemed a neat solution: kit it out as a nuclear shelter as well and it could hold 20,000 people.
...
The monstrous Sonnenberg shelter though, is being gradually dismantled. But not because it has finally been deemed unnecessary: no, no, the real problem is those 350 tonne blast doors. When they were tested, they would not shut.
Yet another stop on my eventual bomb shelter tour of the world.
Tags for this post: travel() switzerland()
posted at: 14:49 | path: /travel/switzerland | permanent link to this entry
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Tue, 02 Jan 2007
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There is a reason Ikea is crowded on the weekends
It only just occurred to me the other day, but I now know why Ikea is so crowded on the weekends. Sure, the cheap furniture is attractive, but I think it's also go something to do with:
- Free child care
- Free nappies and baby change facilities!
- Bathrooms which are actually designed to be the right height for kids
- Cheap food
- Even cheaper food for kids
Basically it's just such a pleasure taking the kids there, and they have suck a good time, that I keep finding excuses to take them there. This time it was $6 worth of plastic buckets that I could just as easily got from Target down the road.
Now, if only someone would open a similarly kid friendly cinema. I'm sure such a thing would make a killing too.
Tags for this post: travel() usa()
posted at: 03:06 | path: /travel/usa | permanent link to this entry
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