Tralfaz

Blog

  • Driving idiots

    I am fortunate to live 7.2 miles from the office. A straight shot down a main artery, I can make it into the office in 12 minutes, as long as I time it properly around the kid dropoff at the two major elementary schools on the way. The lights are timed, and if it keep it to 1 – 2 mph below the posted speed limit, I can often stop only once.

    Seems pretty ideal, living in a place where 10 months of the year I can drive top down on my S2000, and really enjoy it.

    However, being that I live in a state with some of the worst drivers imaginable, Arizona (where your driver’s license doesn’t need to be renewed until you turn 65), I get to see some really dumb crap done around me during the drive in.

    First, those who turn left to enter the drop off area at the school. They LOVE to run red lights and block the intersection. I dare say that your kids are safer walking to school (like I did until I could afford a car in High School) than you trying to not wait one more light change.

    Next up are the idiots who feel the need to cut across three lanes of traffic, to pas one more car, and only to be 2 cars closer at the next red light.

    Then there are those cars that apparently don’t have blinkers. They just move into your lane, without warning. Fortunately, my years of motorcycling has taught me to assume I was invisible, and to always have an escape path in the event of an incursion.

    Lastly, those who are too busy texting to drive, or to even go at a red light.  They are easy to spot, and unfortunately, it seems to be an exponential increase in practice.

    Still, a 7.2 mile drive into the office is pretty awesome.

  • Little known facts about me, part I

    Way back (1992 ish) I worked as a chemical technician. Part of my responsibilities was to move large amounts of chemicals in boxes (4 gallons per box), and drums (55 gallon drums).  Needless to say, I probably was in the best physical condition of my life during that 9 months or so.

    But there was an upside. Since I worked off shift, I would need to drive the forklift to get my job done. So I went through the training (possibly the only person in history with a physics degree to be certified to drive a forklift), got certified, and moved a lot of product with that forklift.

    I will admit, it was fun.  One thing that if you are a normal person seems confusing, but for a physicist, it seemed logical was the fact that a forklift is least stable when it is not carrying anything. They tip over quite easily, and can be very hazardous to the operator and the folks nearby. However, as you approach the maximum load limit, the dynamics change, and it become the most stable it can be.

    That meant when I was carrying a pallet of Freon dissolved in methanol (about 750# per 55 gallon drum), the machine was at its best performance.

    Silly facts.

  • Do all document management systems suck?

    Having worked for a company that was uber proud of their content management system, and wondered why that productivity sapping POS was popular at all, and now at a company that has a huge Sharepoint infrastructure, I am coming to the conclusion that all content management systems blow.

    I understand the need in highly regulated industries to use such things. Government, financial services, medical are all where these systems are essential. Lots of rules about access, retention, and positive destruction of records are where content management (or document management solutions) thrive.

    I also understand in large enterprises the need to have central repositories and version control of documents and artifacts for programs and projects. Having a huge server pool letting users to create and store their own hierarchy and taxonomy just leads to chaos, and lost documents (and huge surprises when you are doing eDicsovery for a legal action).

    But, for the love of god, they are painful to work with.

  • Arizona Quirks

    No secret is the fact that I moved from Tucson to Chandler last summer. So far, the experience has been great. Roads are better maintained, there are streetlights, and most of the neighborhoods are well planned, and laid out with plenty of green space. My wife and I compare it to “Sunnyvale” where no dangerous critters are allowed.  Cool so far.

    However, there is a problem. It appears that people think it is OK to ride their bikes on the sidewalks. Apart from young children (say, less than 8 years old), all people should be riding in the street and obeying the rules of the road. But that appears to be missing in Arizona. Today, at lunch, I was walking (for exercise) and was almost creamed by a cyclist riding very fast on the sidewalk. I have been out with my dogs, walking on the sidewalk, and again, almost taken clean out. On a busy road (Gilbert Road).

    Da fuq is up with that?

    Later: Do they not teach kids here how to use hand signals?

  • Travel Woes, part (who knows)

    Korean delicacy, a largely vegetarian rice dish.
    Korean delicacy, a largely vegetarian rice dish.

    I have been fortunate in my travels. I have close to 2 million miles of travel, and have spent time in a lot of countries, and have had relatively few incidents of food-borne illness.  I have eaten street food in Taiwan, had unrecognizable parts of the chicken in China, eaten what probably was a pet in Korea, all without incident.

    However, it hasn’t been a perfect record.

    Japan – One of the places in the world with impeccable cleanliness, and cultural proclivity to freshness and clean. However, one day, eating sushi, I had some Uni (sea urchin roe) that tasted off. Boy was it ever. The 6 hour Shinkansen ride the next day was a wasted 1st class ticket. I spent most of the time in the restroom, and had to leave the meeting I attended a couple times to visit their facilities. Not pretty.

    Singapore – Arguably the second safest place I have ever been (besides Japan), nonetheless, we ate at a street vendor. I missed my training sessions (that I was delivering) the next day. Ugh.

    China – I had been in country for two weeks, and had eaten everything without incident. Then, while waiting to catch a flight, we grabbed some chow in the Beijing airport. I had bibimbap, the Korean dish with an egg on it. I was violently ill the entire flight home (12 hours, upstairs in a 747, a wasted business class upgrade).

    Scotland – Not food related, but when my luggage didn’t arrive, and the meetings we were to present at were canceled, it was a completely wasted trip. That night, we drank scotch. Lots of scotch. I was still very drunk when I got to the airport the next day. I had been in country less than 24 hours, I had no luggage, and I reeked like a brewery. Oh yeah, I got the 3rd degree from the customs agent. Truth be told, I needed to vomit one more time. When we touched down in Dulles, I finally got my hangover, and it was a doosy. To this day, scotch is one liquor that I try to avoid.

    France/Netherlands – We had a down day in Paris, so a few of us took in the sights. We probably walked 10 miles, in July. Hot for them, but not bad for us desert dwellers. The problem is that we didn’t hydrate enough. Having been in country for a week, I had already shed my “3 liters” that I carry because I live in the desert. I became ultra dehydrated, and that lead to a urinary tract infection. Three days later, as I got on the plane to come home, I was miserable. I called my wife, and had her pick me up (as I could barely stand up). Turns out that it had gone critical, I had a 104.5 fever, and I was in bad shape. Alas, some antibiotics, and I got better. No longer do I make fun of UTI’s when my female friends grumble about them. Truly miserable.

    And that is it. Not bad I guess

  • The Playdates. Astro meets Jack, Paul, and Noble, the neighborhood greyhounds

    Following up on my earlier post about how I got into greyhounds, here is a video of the gang playing and bebopping around our courtyard.  Lots of fun was had by all.

  • Greyhounds

    Oliver, looking regal
    Oliver, looking regal

    I have always been a dog person. Some people are cat people (up to the “crazy cat lady”), some are dog people, and some people shouldn’t do pets at all.

    Currently, I have Greyhounds. Two brindle boys, who are 3 years apart, and are half brothers. Garrett is the elder statesman, quiet, reserved, and eh loves to sleep. Tate, the junior hellion, is the high energy, outgoing, engaging ambassador of the breed.

    I first met greyhounds back in 1998 or so, when I moved into a condo in south San Jose. A neighbor had a pair of retired racing greyhounds, and my dog at the time, a 185# english mastiff, loved to play with them.

    After we moved to Tucson, and Astro passed, we looked into a rescue greyhound.  Our first, Oliver, was a skittish ‘fraidey cat. He was spooked by EVERYTHING, including bicycles, cars, walkers, other dogs. This was definitely a challenge, but he really became a well adjusted greyhound. (It helped that his brother, a half mastiff, half hungarian greyhound was a good tutor).

    When we lost Shamus (the half mastiff/half greyhound) in 2008, he was 13 years old. the void was quickly filled with Garrett who was just awesome. Not afraid of anything, low prey drive, and easy going, he was a joy, and a good companion to Oliver.

    We lost Oliver in 2010 to osteosarcoma (bone cancer). He was brave and a fighter to the end, but the location of the sarcoma (right shoulder) was pretty much a non-treatable malady. Fortunately, Oliver’s departure made room for Tate.

    For a couple years now, we have been volunteering for the local Greyhound rescue organization. I work closely with the communications group and I built/maintain their website (http://sagreyhoundadoption.org). It is a worthy way to spend my spare time, helping place these wonderful hounds into loving forever homes.

  • Has social media destroyed public discourse?

    I came of age at a fortuitous time. In high school, the Apple ][ computers arrived and were in a lab that you could take a course. I learned a lot about microcomputers there, and soon saved my paper route money to buy my own (not an Apple, way too expensive, I went the Atari route – better games). I learned a lot about that system, I learned to program in basic, and rudimentary assembly language, I learned a lot of the concepts about computing that serve me well today.

    Public Discourse appears to be dying in the social media age
    Public Discourse appears to be dying in the social media age

    After a couple of years, I got immersed into the BBS community. With the simple addition of a modem, a piece of hardware that connected you via telephone to other computers, you could share files, and trade stories. I enjoyed participating so much that I soon took the plunge and began running a BBS of my own. I made a lot of friends, “chatted” with people from across the country, and even a few international ones.

    Part of the charm of the BBS culture were the message forums. These often led to animated discussions back and forth between users (and myself of course). I graduated from that to USENET, UUCP, and the various discussion venues. For a long time I hung out at rec.motorcycles.dirt where off road motorcyclists hung out, and planned excursions.

    From there came the special interest forums. Truly a child of the internet age, there is a plethora of topics and communities that have evolved. From auto detailing, to dedicated forums for specific video games, to Japanese Anime collectors, there are sure to be something that strikes your fancy.

    Then came Twitter. Suddenly conversations were limited to 140 characters (the size of an SMS text message). Instead of commenting on a blog post that you agree with, or dispute, it is now the norm to just “tweet” it, and leave the discussion in the Twitter universe, hopelessly buried in the noise. Blog posts that 3 or 4 years ago would have elicited a dozen or more responses, now have no activity.

    I believe that this is a shame. The value of the intercourse of ideas, a foundation of intellectual pursuit, has been reduced to the re-tweet.

    I for one make a point of commenting often when I come across a topic that piques my curiosity. But it appears that the ephemeral vehicle that is the 140 character tweet is destroying the practice of public discourse.

  • Fucking skimming scammers

    A week and a half ago, my Wife bought gas at a Quick Trip in Tucson. Apparently, some shitball skimmer had jacked the pump she used, and lifted her credit card information.

    We came back from a short holiday in San Diego, checked out bank account, and found some sleazeball had used Western Union to wire $969 our of our checking account.

    Fuck. Call the bank, put a hold on the charge (it went through), call western union, who professes ignorance, call the police and complain.

    Apparently, this is the common MO. They lift the card info, they use western union, who lets people wire money with just a credit card number and expiration date. They send a value around $1000, and pocket the transfer.

    So, we have barely $100 until payday (9 days away), unless we hit our savings.

    God damn it.

  • Posterous Shutting down

    Well, I have been an on and off user of posterous for a few years.  Probably less than 100 posts, some insightful, some silly.  I guess they will fit here.

    Tee hee