Programmable mood lighting. These lights are really cool. 2x2 squares of customizable lighting. They can even be connected together to form a wall of light. I wonder how long before someone develops Tetris for play on a set of wall mounted Mood Lights.
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Have a gander. New york pics are in.
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405,000. The number of words my New York photos are worth. I would have them up, but I don't have sufficient disk space on our server. I suppose 405 photos and the corresponding thumbnail and HTML files, all of which total nearly 60 MB, is a bit beyond normal use. I'll figure something out.
Thanks to Mike for the use of his digital camera. I should probably revise my calcuations (see archive) regarding the cost effectiveness of shooting digitally, though. I didn't consider changing batteries at least once a day in my cost estimates. One particular day I burned through five pairs of AA batteries. I did shoot over 150 photos that day, but the frequency with which I was forced to swap cells made me reconsider digital cameras. Perhaps its just this particular model, but I have a feeling most digital cameras will rip through batteries like wind through fishnet stockings.
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Steven Brill. The Interview (1998).
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The color of radio. Crayola may own the names of the colors it's invented, and Pantone may own the standard numbers by which digital designers refer to colors, but only the FCC can give you an exclusive license to a color itself.
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New York, New York. I don't have regular access to the internet, so here's a batch of updates about my first few days in the city.
1710h 03.17.03
Wheels up in 80 minutes. Made it through FAI security with little incident. I always forget that my belt buckle sets off the metal detector so I got held up in security. Other than being pulled aside for further scrutiny, I was not inconvenienced.
When I got to the airport, I was getting my reservation information from my bag and noticed that my laptop was on. It had been on for almost an hour, and had used over a third of the battery. I'm sure that during my five-hour layover at ANC, i'll be able to recharge though.
mmmm. pop-pop. The ultimate time-killer... maybe I should think about registering so I can play more than two rounds in a row.
2227h 03.17.03
Wheels up in approx 120 minutes. Again, I was pulled aside going through ANC security. Fortunately, the line was short and all TSA personnel have been polite and professional. I'm taking advantage of the time to charge my battery on the Airport's dime. Thanks, Ted.
I volunteered to handle the accounting for our trip. We need to keep track of how much per diem we have and we also need to save receipts so we can file an expense report upon return. It won't be too difficult to keep track of, as long as everyone remembers to save their receipts.
I figured out that if we are up 16 hours of the day, I need to take a photo about every five minutes to maximize the use of the digital camera. Each day I can empty the memory stick to my computer and shoot another 200 photos. We'll see how it goes.
Since we have five hours between flights in ANC, we went to a hotel for dinner. The courtesy van picked us up from the port. The driver was doing 60 mph down the street while slouched in his chair -- and not holding on to the wheel. We made it OK and the way back was equally efficient.
In SLC our layover is only three hours, which isn't enough time to leave the airport, since passing through security takes time, especially with me getting searched every time.
0730h 03.18.03
Wheels up in 180 minutes. The ANC-SLC flight passed with ease. I don't even remember most of it, except for the flight announcer, who could really do with a speech coach. She kept putting emphasis on all the wrong syllables. It wouldn't have been so bad, but she also never stopped talking. At least that's what it seemed like.
Anyway, we knew we were getting tired because we found almost every item in the skymall catalog very humorous. As soon as they let us turn on our CD players, I was out. I didn't last 45 seconds into Amon Tobin's latest release before falling asleep.
1905h 03.18.03
3 hours since touchdown at JFK. Caught a cab to Manhattan. It was an intense ride. Traffic in FAI is nothing like this. Our suite is incredible. It's bigger than my apartment at home. There's a pizza place right outside, too.
Naturally, I forgot a few things, but we're going out for dinner soon so I'll pick them up then. I also have some reading to do tonight before we go meet people tomorrow.
In somewhat related news, i'm really unimpressed with MSNBC. We've been watching it here in the hotel and the hosts and topics are trite and sensational. I don't see it letting up soon, with just over 24 hours before Saddam's "deadline."
2225h 03.18.03
Just spent some time in the City. Ate some amazing Japanese food, walked briefly through Grand Central Station. Saw Rockefeller Plaza and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Tomorrow we're meeting with an editor at the Wall Street Journal and visiting the New York Times. We plan on seeing some sights the rest of the day. On Thursday, the Student Media Convention starts, so that will keep us pretty busy, although we'll still have our evenings free.
0846h 03.19.03
First morning in NYC. Our suite has a full kitchen and even includes dishes and pots and pans. Apparently, this was an apartment building, but now the rooms are rented as suites. A 2-bedroom apartment this size would go for about $2,000 a month in this location.
We're getting ready to meet Sharon Begley of the Wall Street Journal. This afternoon we're getting an informal tour of the New York Times.
0015 03.20.03
Wow... Incredible day. Went to the Wall Street Journal and talked to the Science Columnist. Saw Ground Zero, the New York Stock Exchange, the Merrill Lynch Bull and Times Square. Then we went to the New York Times and got a tour... It was amazing. We met Andy Rosenthall, one of the top 5 editors of the newspaper. We also spent quite a bit of time at the photo desk talking to Ruby Washington, who had spent the morning at the U.N. Security Council meeting. Ate dinner at a place called Afghan Kebab, which was very good, and then saw Les Miserables, also very good.
Tomorrow we start the convention and on Friday we're going to check out ABC studios... Very busy day, and there are no signs of slowing down.
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T Minus 7h and counting. Getting on a plane in 7 hours. Going to New York. Very excited.
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The coolest. This guy is the coolest stud at MIT.
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Departure. Today marks the departure of cable in our household. Our free month is up. No more Comedy Central, which is really the only one of 40-something channels we watched.
Today also marks the first Tuesday of the year that I've gotten home before 10 p.m. Not really noteworthy, but since this season of broomball is over, I get home at a somewhat reasonable hour. We had our tournament game last night and lost. We've never won a post-season game, so that's no big deal. We also lost our soccer game. We only had one girl show up. The rules are that there has to be two girls and two guys on the field (or court, since it's indoors) plus a goalie, who is considered genderless. The point is we had to play 4-on-5 which didn't help. We lost 8-0.
On a ligher note, in less than a week, I'll be in the Big Apple.
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The City. In just over a week, I'll be in New York City. I'll be staying near the location of the latest nightclub incident.
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First (and last) win of the season. The Spooks chalked up their first "W" of the season on Tuesday. We won 2-0 in the last regular-season game. The playoffs take place next week.
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Performance Evaluation. I just got done with my performance evaluation. Apparently, I've done a good job. Nothing came up that surprised me, and now I have some clues regarding what I can do better. Yay.
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Sunday. Sunday was great. I did nothing. I didn't leave the house. I didn't even get dressed. I spent the entire day in my pajamas with a PS2 controller in my hand. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I did take a break for Simpsons, and my roommate and I swapped turns at the helm. I got into Metal Gear Solid 2 with a vengeance.
The only bad part of the day was when the power blinked out. It wasn't off long enough to reset any of the clocks, only negating a couple hours worth of progess in the game. I just sat numbly before crying myself to sleep.
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