Tag: USD

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Are You Proud of Your Workplace?

I like decorated workplaces. And I don’t mean a cube with a swimsuit calendar and “motivational” posters from http://www.motivational-posters-animal-posters-sunset-beach-photos.com/ (that’s a real address too). I don’t like Despair, Inc Demotivators TM, although I wish I came up with that idea myself. It’s a big business, as illustrated by this spooky picture of their warehouse:

What I do like, is when an office has some artifact or artifacts that everybody is extremely proud of. For instance in Boston office of defunct company iXL they had an Aibo dog (the expensive first version), which they’ve got for creating http://www.aibo.com. I worked in New York office of iXl.

A company that I worship, iDEO, has an office which has the ultimate office decoration. Some engineers went to the airplane scrap yard and brought back a huge WWII bomber wing, which they polished and hung above a meeting room.

Art. Lebedev Studio, a company, which I think will become Russia’s iDEO, and which I also worship, has the coolest collection of old technology

Fog Creek Software (yeah, I worship a lot of companies) strives to provide the best working enviroment possible. From their website: ” … That means the nicest work environment we can get. For now, that means an historic brownstone in an exciting Manhattan neighborhood full of cafés, bookstores, ethnic restaurants, movie theatres, and a rather disproportionate number of Persian rug shops. We have a real garden out back, a full kitchen, a pinball machine, and natural light… ” And that is even more amazing than an airplane wing.

Me? Well, I have a small collection of old vacuum tubes (or valves as Brits call them) in my cube. But I think a nice jet fighter’s helmet and a nice jet instrument panel from eBay’s fine selection would be much cooler.

Ok, I am off to install a 120 gig drive (a bargain at $130) in my Tivo. Wish me luck.

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Stroking the Genius

Right now am pretty much obsessed with books about rise and fall of tech companies.

These are the most memorable books I’ve read this past year:
“Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution”
“Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything”
“Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age”
“Show-Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows Nt and the Next Generation at Microsoft”
“The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: Inside Oracle Corporation: God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison”
“High Stakes, No Prisoners : A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars”
“The Soul of a New Machine”
“The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer”

Awesome, awesome stuff. I should find time to write some reviews.

I purchased all of these books used (except “Soul of a New Machine” which I just _had_ to have at the time). Some were cheap, others surprisingly expensive. For instance my copy of “Hackers” set me back $30 or $40 because it was out of print at the time. A new edition came out very soon thereafter. Interestingly enough the same thing happened with “Alan Turing: The Enigma“. “The Supermen” was the most expensive at $50. I am still hunting for acceptably priced “The Legend of Amdahl“.

I just finished reading “Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton“. It was very good.

Right now I am reading “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed“, which is orgasmically [spellchecker suggested “orgasmic ally” heh heh] good.

I really want to buy one of those highlighter scanners made by C-Pen so that I can keep notes for my livejournal as I read.

C-Pen’s slogan is “Stroke of Genius”. Beavis and Butthead would have a field day with them :)

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Expensive Book

So far, the most expensive book in my collection set me back $250.
Maybe some day I’ll be able to purchase things like this too. Drooool.

Capek, Karel. R U R ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS: KOLEKTIVNI DRAMA… [Praha]: Aventinum, 1920. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-96 [97] [98: blank] [99: colophon] [100: blank], original decorated lavender wrappers, printed in brown and black, all edges untrimmed. $12500

First edition. 2000 copies printed. Signed by Capek on recto of first leaf.

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Tivo Tivo Tivo!

TurboNet card arrived yesterday. It’s an amazing feat of engineering – a tiny little custom-made ethernet card that fits into Tivo’s ISA slot and is powered by the motherboard. Install took 3 minutes (good hearted Tivo engineers included drivers for it with the latest version of software) + 5 minutes to staple cat5 to the wall. Well, and half an hour contemplating Tivo’s insides.

What am I gaining from having an ethernet card in Tivo?

Well, for one, it will not be phoning home every day. 30 calls per month at 5 cents each is not a huge saving, but I will not have to unplug the phone cord during thunderstorms.

I already had a burned out modem once. The nasty thing about it breaking was that it kept phone line “of the hook” so that nobody could call me. I had to send my Tivo to a Texan who goes by the handle Electriclegs. He figured out how to fix Tivo modems by replacing a few parts and even made a repair kit available, but I was not brave enough to solder surface mount components myself. The repair cost me $50 + shipping, but the worst thing was being without Tivo for a couple of weeks. Brrrr.

Things left to do:
1) Install bigger hard drive (not simple because I have a double drive model)
2) Mount the ethernet jack flush in Tivo’s case (cold not do it this time because my nibbling tool broke during cutting a hole for exhaust fan on my computer)
3) Install TivoWeb, other neato hacks
4) Learn to solder surface mount components, install memory kit from Electriclegs

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Martha Stewart Eat Your Heart Out

I am a looser. I spent half a day today cleaning out “science experiments” from my fridge, washing the shelves and organizing its contents. In other words – “portrait of the hacker at home” (click the link, don’t be lazy) or Cowboy Bebop Session 11 (my favorite episode).

My fridge is pretty cool. It even looks like a mainframe or a supercomputer.

I am going to add blinkenlights some day.

Anyway, here is a tip for you. Supermarkets keep vegetables fresh longer by using this special lining material (pvc-coated filter). It allows better circulation of air or something. Supposedly it can prolong the life of fruit and vegetables by 50%. I bought mine from Amana for $8, but it can be had cheaper. The veggies do live longer it seems.

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Some quick nerdy news

Ethernet card for my TIVO is on it’s way. I wish it was available when my TIVO’s modem got killed by a surge from a lightning storm (I had to ship it to a guy who fixed it for $50). I’ll probably install TivoWeb because Yahoo! seems to be pretty slow in rolling out online TIVO programming that was promised.

Powershot G3 is available for preorder. I can’t believe they used the same moronic silver color for it. Again. Didn’t they get enough angry letters from photographers (so many that the actually made a black color version of G2).

By the way, it’s interesting to watch the progress of design of G1, G2 and G3. One thing that I noticed is that the grip handle gets progressively bigger and more comfortable.

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Falling off the honeywagon

This evening I was looking through Gemplers catalogue and learned an interesting agricultural slang term: a special tank used for spreading liquid manure is also known as the “honeywagon”. :)

Why was I reading Gemplers? Because I hate shoddily designed and constructed things. Face it: clothing, cooking utensils, furniture and everything else made for industrial or military use is tougher and better designed. Yuppies are very much into restaurant quality gas ranges and refrigerators. I like these things too, and I am not ashamed.

My father is very fond of saying “poor people can’t afford to buy cheap things”. Well, this is completely true. I’ve had three espresso machines. The first crappy steam powered gadget cost me about $50. I am still amazed at the fact that it did not make me hate espresso. The second was a pump driven machine from Starbucks costing $150. It was better, but espresso quality was very uneven. 1 shot out of 5 came out almost right. The next machine was a $600 Ellimatic. It served me well, but broke after 3 years of service. Because it’s not a commercial machine I am having a horrible time finding a place that will repair it. Meanwhile it sits in a cardboard box, which my cat is ripping to shreds. Well, guess what. The next machine I am going to buy is a 1 group La Marzocco Linea. It costs about $5K new, $1.5K used (I am going to buy a used one). The only thing that’s preventing me from buying it now is that it needs a 220 Volt outlet. It’s going to be the first thing that I am going to purchase when I move into a new apartment. (See my apartment hunting rants in nyc_real_estate).

So, back to Gemplers. I am going to need some foul weather gear for this season’s winter fishing. And they have it in abundance. Grunden’s stuff looks awesome. And if it’s good enough for commercial fishermen, its good enough for me.

I am also considering buying some IDF gear. Dubon parkas and this IDF sweater seem to be promising.

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YASR! – Yet Another Subway Rant.

Here I am again on a train with the conductor who spews wisdom out of the loudspeaker. Guess what – bulky packages and bikes are prohibited from all train cars except the last one. An it’s a law. Not only a state law, but also a federal law – he says.

Speaking of laws. You know that little tag attached to the mattress, that says “don’t remove under the penalty of law”? The one that gave so much material to untalented comedians? Well, it only applies to the salespeople and the manufacturer. The current tags even say “except by the consumer”.

Holy crap, there is a whole industry for making those tags, and they even have an official name – “law and care tags”!

Memorable Quote: “We keep abreast of the latest bedding laws to answer any questions our customers may have in regards to the various state or Canadian laws.
“

Heh, heh :)

MTA cops are much more serious than the mattress police though. And they some things they’ll ticket you for are not advertised. For instance, smoking on an open air platform will cost you a $50 ticket. I’ve read in a book that MTA repeatedly denied requests of consumer advocates to put up “no smoking” signs there. Why would they spend money and loose an important revenue stream? From the frequency with which I see people getting these tickets on Kings Highway, I think it’s more profitable than the metrocard sales.

I bet tema is going to get a ticket like that when he’ll visit New York.

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Japanese Grocery

I’ve found a really nice Japanese grocery on 43d street between 6th and Broadway. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but the selection is really good. They have raw fish for sashimi, a dozen different types of umeboshi, huge selection of teas, condiments and many other things any japanophile can appreciate. They even have Japanese cigarettes. I’ve purchased the tastiest green tea ever, Kikkoman “extra fancy” soy souse ($3 for a tiny little bottle), some umeboshi, bonito flakes, bonito soup base and a few other things.

Sam Bok Groceries
127 West 43 Street
New York, NY 10036
212 221-0845
10am – 9pm Mon-Sun

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Juice!

My electric bill last month was $148.95 . It says there that I’ve used up 797 KWH. That’s 26.6 KWH per day. That means that on the average I consume 1.1 KW. That’s 1100 W every hour, 24 hours a day. It’s like having 36 light bulbs on at the same time. All the time.

The only things that work full time are refrigerator (84 W on the average, lets say 200W while it’s hot), TIVO (40W), aquarium pump (30 W) . One AC was on during the night most of the time, another for a couple of hours in the evening.

I have a suspicion that:
a) my KWH meter is connected to something of my neighbor’s.
b) the old 220V AC is eating an enormous amount of electricity
c) all of the power supplies for cell phones, hubs, router, a/v components are leaching a shitload of juice

I really wish there was a portable KWH meter that I could hook up to any device and calculate the _actual_ energy consumption. But looks like there is no such thing.
Ok, this is pretty idiotic.

I really got to do something about this. Maybe I can get a better rate then 15 -16 c per KWH. Maybe I can find the mooching device that eats all my juice. I need to try and check the readings on my meter myself. Here is how. Neat.

Now, this is pretty idiotic. If not, more idiocy can be found on the other end of the spectrum.

Also, I don’t think I have good surge protection for my stuff, and the wiring quality is pretty dodgy. Which reminds me, my renter’s insurance ran out and I really need to renew it. Crap.

Well, at least this post helped me to get my thoughts in order.