The Finger

A strange event unfolded in front of me on my way to work. I was waiting at the corner to cross the street when suddenly a cab screeched to a halt right in front of me. From this cab emerged a diminutive middle aged Jewish woman with a scowl on her face. As she was furiously stepping out of her cab, an extremely large city bus pulled up right behind the car. This lady then proceeded to walk over to the front of this city bus and started yelling at the top of her lungs.

She yelled, "Fuck you, you fucking prick! You stupid ass fucker! You want to fuck with me! Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you!"

She then flipped the bus driver the bird.

Then she yelled, "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck you!!!!!"

She then flipped off the bus driver a second time and then started pounding the front grill of the bus. The lady also threw in a kick to the bumper.

I was watching this unfold and was very amused at this scenario. Here was this tiny lady taking on a multi-ton two cab city bus and she was not afraid of getting run over. I was also curious as to why this lady was so pissed off. I would think that if there were some driving issues, the cab driver and not the passenger would be going at it with the bus driver. Why was she so angry that she felt it necessary to pull a Tiananmen Square on this bus? As I was contemplating the answers to these questions, the lady decided to make my morning even more interesting by moving to the side of the bus.

When she moved to the side of the bus, she started to pound on the bus door. Then began an interesting routine. She would first yell, "Fuck you fucker!!!" and then pound on the door some more and then give the bus one swift kick. Then she would repeat. This went on and on for what seemed like 10 minutes until she finally decided to leave the scene after make a scene. As she was walking away, she gave the bus driver one more middle finger and disappeared into the crowd.

I really wanted to see the bus driver's reaction but the bus door was tinted just enough with city grime and dirt that I couldn't get a clear view. Nevertheless, I sure hope the bus driver found this as amusing as I did.

Dogs!

There are many dogs around my area of residence. Many is an understatement. In fact, there are millions of dogs near my area. I may not see all of these at the same time but I see their shit smeared across the pavement every single day.

When I do see a dog in person, I am amazed how well groomed these dogs are (except during rainy season). The dogs look like they've just returned from the Eukanuba Dog Show (I was going to say WKC but that competition is overrated. It's all about the Euks! WOOT!). Their coats are shiny, the dogs seem happy, and they are amazingly well trained. Yesterday, I saw some dude just drop the leash and go into the Sushi restaurant to pick up a to-go meal. The dog knew exactly what to do when the owner released him from the grips of bondage. The dog walked slowly over to the door, sat down, and waited patiently for his owner to return. Amazing. Our family dog (the one you see on the right) would have started wandering off, trying to smell everything and everyone in sight. Eventually, I imagine our dog would be lost. (At least our dog is not like my friend's dog, the devil dog who cannot get an A+ at the groomer. Right Mike?)


Most dogs also wear dog clothes. I think I saw one the other day wearing Burberry. Looking at what the owners are wearing as well, I imagine the dogs eat better meal than me.

Other than the shit issue, I really can't complain about seeing all of these dogs everyday. I believe most of these dogs are AKC purebreeds. I just can't see yupsters purchasing a random mutt. They are amazing dogs though and when I see them pass me by during my daily walk to work, I feel the city is a little less gloomy.

2nd Ave Subway

The 2nd ave subway is supposed to be completed by 2015. I doubt that. They are currently at 91st street and moving down. The lexington line is ridiculously overcrowded during rush hour. It's so bad sometimes that it's Tokyo rush hour bad. They need to speed this shit up.

Have you seen Ocean's 13? They dug their exit strategy in a few days and they pulled off their revenge job without a problem. Why can't the construction people just hire George Clooney to save the day?

* Sent via BlackBerry *

Waldo has been found!

He's Here!

Bittersweet

Contrary to what Willy Wonka said regarding the consequences of getting everything you wanted, I don't think anyone can truly be satisfied with anything.

I am headed west once again and I'm very happy about that. I decided awhile back that location was more important to me than everything else because I was becoming miserable with my surroundings. I cared less about the quality of the appointment than where I would end up for the next 5 years. 5 years ago, I thought 5 years was a short time. Now, 5 years seems like an eternity. I spent the last week contemplating what my life would be like if I didn't get an appointment out west. Thinking about that made me sadder because even though the quality of the programs out here are far superior to any of the ones out west, I would still feel isolated and alone being away from my friends and family.

Now that the drama and suspense is over, I find myself hoping that I have made the right decision.

A few of my classmates ranked their preferences according to prestige and their list included appointments on both coasts. One classmate really wanted to go back to California and talked about how great it would be to come home. However, he said although location was important, program quality is much more important for the future.

At noon, he found out that he will be working on the east coast for at least the next 3 years.

He called his parents and family in California about the "good news" but his parents were not happy. They had hoped he would come home. After talking with them, my classmate looked a bit sad. He told me that the day was bittersweet because although he was happy about the quality of education he would be getting, he would be thinking about going home the entire time.

Another classmate ranked his specialty of choice above his preferences for location. Basically, he ranked all of the appointments of the really competitive specialty first and then ranked his second choice specialties lower down the list. He said he was willing to go anywhere to get his specialty.

Well, he got his specialty of choice but he'll be in Jersey for the next 4 years. He also said it was bittersweet because he thought he would get both his specialty of choice AND be located in California.

Finally, one of my friends is headed to UCSD. If I were in his shoes, I would be happy. The sad thing is that it was his 4th choice and he really wanted to be in Washington. Well, what can you do?

So, it was a win some lose some situation for a lot of people. I'm glad that this week is over. It was really a stressful week.

Woo.

The French Press

No, I'm not talking about Le Monde.

This is the Bodum french press.

Because I'm living in another person's apartment, I didn't want to use their coffee maker. (Actually, I wouldn't want to use it because it's nasty and dirty.) The french press has actually worked pretty well so far. In fact, the coffee tastes much much better than my coffee maker in my other apartment.

* Sent via BlackBerry *

GTA: Chinatown Wars

This is a fun game. It reminds me of the good ol' days when I used to play GTA2. This game, however, is much more sophisticated. For example, I was walking through the city when I came across a porno actor. He wanted me to drive him to the porno audition. While I'm trying to drive there, he was getting ready by having sex with tons of women in the back seat. I'm trying to concentrate on my driving but the limo is rocking back and forth with sounds of women moaning. It was tough. Fortunately, I was able to get the guy to his audition but unfortunately, he decided not to go because he was now flaccid.

Classy.

Week of Pain

Let us hope that this week will be a good week.

UPDATE: Step 1 is complete... Now, on to Thursday...

Amazon strikes back! Battle of Kindlepid.py

Amazon figured out that people are starting to take apart/hack the Kindle so that we can increase the functionality. Amazon doesn't like that because that would mean we could read books from other sources. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Amazon went on the offensive.

I believe this is great news. Amazon pulling the DMCA card and the subsequent press coverage are great. Forum users from various sites have already expressed their outrage. They do not like what Amazon is doing. How dare they protect their IP? hehe.

It's only a matter of time before the "people" fight back. Soon, more and more hacks will be available and the Kindle will get better and better...for me. Just to spite Amazon, hackers that didn't care before are joining the ranks to take apart the Kindle. Huzzay!

Public Transportation: Part 1 - A Bummer of an Experience

Tonight, I decided to take the bus home. I felt that I should do my part in helping the environment. Also, I wanted to save a little money and avoid paying the cab fare.

In retrospect, I should have taken the fucking cab.


It was 9pm and it was freezing cold. As I got out of the train station, I thought, maybe I should save this experiment for another time. However, I really wanted to know how to get home using the bus rather than paying the ridiculous cab fees so I figured, what the hell.

First, it was a pain in the ass figuring out what bus I was supposed to take. The bus station had 12 stops to choose from, all going to different destinations. The problem, of course, was that they all eventually went by the neighborhood that I was trying to go to. But depending on the bus, I could be home in 20 minutes or 2.5 hours.

After asking 7 people, I eventually found the bus stop. I had to ask 7 different people because each person sent me to the wrong place. When I went to one bus stop, the person told me I was in the wrong line and that I should go to another one. When I got there, they told me to go elsewhere, and so on and so on.

When I got to the appropriate stop, I looked at the bus schedule and found that the bus was on a 1 hour schedule; that is, the bus comes to the stop in one hour intervals. The reason for this was because after 9pm, there were very few buses operating the route.

I looked at the watch and it was 9:15. The next bus would arrive at 9:30. I thought to myself, "that's not too bad, I think I'll be a good Christian and wait this out without cursing out everyone". I texted my friend and told him of my little experiment and waited.

At 9:16, the wind started to pick up. It was freezing. The temperature dropped to 26 degrees (acoording to weather.com) and with wind chill, it was 16. Still, I figured I would wait it out.

9:30 had come and gone and now it was 9:40. There were no buses. I started to get pissed off and I was contemplating the cab option again. Just then, 3 buses simultaneously came into the bus terminal.

The bus I had to take was the 40. The three buses that came into the terminal were 60, 20, and "Main St. via Camberden". I didn't know what the fuck the third bus was but all three pulled up to my bus stop. I was very confused. None of the buses had the magic number 40 written on it. All three buses stopped and all three buses opened the doors. I decided I would ask the bus driver on the number 20 bus what the fuck was going on. I waited until the passengers boarded and I asked the driver, "is this the bus going to my destination?"

The bus driver smiled and said, "No, the bus you want is the one in front of me...leaving the station."

I thought, WHAT THE FUCK?!? I told him, "But that was the number 60. I thought I was supposed to look for the 40."

He replied, "That was the 40. He changed the sign right now."

Sure enough, when I looked up, the bus had changed the sign while I was walking up to the driver to ask my question. My number 40 drove away into the night.

I was really bummed and freezing. So, I hailed a cab and went home.


To be continued with concluding thoughts (Public Transportation: Part 2 - Smelly Conclusion)

Gotham Pizza

It was alright. Nothing special.

* Sent via BlackBerry *

My Kindle 2 Review

I didn't tell anyone but I preordered the Kindle on the first day is was made available and received the device on Februrary 25th. All of those posts before about the kindle was my way of coping with buyer's remorse...or rather preorder remorse. I had to convince myself that my purchase of the device was justified. I have been using it every day since launch.

Here is my review.

Form Factor


There is an issue here. The keyboard layout is wrong. I don't care what anyone says because I'm right and you're fucking wrong. The Z needs to be under the S and all the other letters need to be moved to the right accordingly. The last row is fucked up. They displaced the bottom row to the left by one letter and made the whole thing annoying. WTF is wrong with you Amazon? Go take a look at Smartphone keyboards and get a clue.

Also, the home key on the right side should be another PREV PAGE button. Amazon claims that this thing can be read with both hands and yet the PREV PAGE button is only available on the left hand side. Lame. They should have symmetrical NEXT PAGE/PREV PAGE buttons on both sides and add a separate HOME button. I'm annoyed. FIX IT!

Other than that, I don't mind everything else. The 4 way navigation toggle that all of these fuckers are whining about is fine. It's not the best but I don't see a huge problem here. If your fingers are too fat for it, maybe you should either lose some weight or just kill yourself for having fat fingers. The problem lies with refresh and "processor" speed. It's just too damn slow. E-ink's refresh isn't great and moving the cursor can be a chore because there is a half of a second delay after every cursor movement. You can imagine how frustrating it can be when you're trying to move the cursor from near the top to near the bottom of the page. Because of this, highlighting a bunch of stuff on a page can be difficult at times.

I really like the way the NEXT/PREV buttons push inward. I think this is much better than what they had for Kindle 1.

Reading E-Books

It's like reading a book on Etch-a-sketch. Remember that toy? This is not necessarily bad though. The words are clear (for the most part) and I have no problems reading on the device for hours on end. However, if you look closer, you can sometimes find some "pixel" abnormalities. Someone mentioned that reading on the Kindle is like reading a dirty newspaper. I would describe it as a brand new newspaper printed on recycled paper.

So everyone is probably wondering, are E-Books the way to go? That's a tough question.

For novels with very few pictures, Kindle performs very well.

Example of something you can read

However, if you're reading a text book, it's definitely a hit or miss. I purchased this device so I don't have to carry huge text books while I'm on the road. I quickly found that depending on how the ebook was put together, the quality can be hit or miss when it comes to diagrams and pictures. I can provide an example:

Example of something you CANNOT read

As you can see, it's pretty fucking blurry. In fact, I cannot make out most of the stuff on this table. A few words are legible but this is completely unacceptable. My camera was focused. This book was purchased from Amazon Kindle store. What you see there is the completely zoomed picture of the table. I can't zoom in any more. Actually, Kindle can't zoom at all. It will attempt to fit the picture as best as it can on the screen like you see above.

See the difference between legible text and illegible table

File Support

Poor. Amazon has decided to go with the Sony bullshit route and utilize proprietary formats (although it is a version of Mobi). The reader natively supports very few file formats which is a HUGE bummer. So what does this mean for people who want to pirate books and then read it on the Kindle? It means that you should wait because it's not that great on the Kindle. PDF conversion can be a chore and some PDFs come out really badly. I've tried most of the suggestions on the web with regards to PDF files but none of them work perfectly.

Highlighting

It's okay. If you are a student going through a text book, you may want to highlight key facts, etc. It's not too bad but the navigation can be a problem when you have a lot of text and you want to highlight something at the bottom.

Taking notes

I tried to show how the cursor and letters always lag behind when typing but the picture didn't come out well.

Typing is sluggish because "refresh" is slow and sometimes the processor can't keep up with my mad typing skillz. I'll sum it up in one word: frustrating.

Battery Life

"Read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on." -Amazon.com

This is really pushing it. With the wireless on and minimal web surfing, I was able to get 3 days out of the device (this is with ~4+ hours of reading every day). On a fully charged battery, I was able to get about 5 hours out of it when I was reading and surfing the web intermittently. I haven't tried the device with wireless off.

Ordering books

Although you can narrow the search by choosing various subcategories, sorting titles in the Kindle Online store is limited. I wish they would allow you to sort titles according to user reviews, price, popularity, etc after a search. They have "most popular" category on the main page but if i want to find the "most popular star wars books", I'm out of luck.

Kindle storefront

Also, the one click purchase option can be "dangerous". I have accidentally purchased books while navigating toward a different part of the screen. Because of the refresh delay, your cursor can end up in the wrong place and you may click the wrong option...if you're impatient like me. Fortunately, there is an option right after you purchase your product to negate the order.

The one thing I would like to see added is pricing information on the "Purchase now" page after you read through a sample chapter. One nice thing about the Kindle is that you can sample books. They send you a chapter or two and you can "try it out" before buying it. One the last page of the "sample", you have an option to purchase the entire book. However, the pricing is not listed. So the only way you can see what the fucking book costs, you have to navigate the Kindle Store and find the damn thing again. It's a chore.

Browser

Browser in advanced mode

Slow. It also displays websites like my cellphone. Navigation in a website can be painful. Amazon needs to update the browser or pay Google to have their Chrome modified for the Kindle. Where is the 3G speed? I'm definitely in a 3G area but the speeds are slower than my EDGE cellphone. There is no flash support. Javascript is "supported", although I must say it's like javascript on mediocre smartphones. The browser is under their "experimental" category so I guess we're supposed to give Amazon a break. Well, I won't. Amazon needs to makes this browser better. And I want it done NOW.

Browser in basic mode (same web page as the picture above)

Resolution

Problem. Properly formatted books (ie. commercial books purchased from Amazon) look great on the device. The text is clear and the pictures can look really nice. However, if you have non-Amazon-sactioned reading material, the text can be hit or miss. I was hoping for clearer text but then again, my standards are high.

For the most part, it feels like reading a paperback edition of a book printed on gray paper. Not terrible. Not amazing (although I'm not sure what AMAZING text would really look like...it's just fucking text). Converted PDFs are an issue. If the PDF has two columns like in many textbooks, it's a big issue. If the PDF was scanned in a subpar manner, conversion to Kindle accepted formats are a pain and the results are not great. I would say that the lack of good PDF support is the real negative aspect of this device and because of this, the device should receive less than stellar review.

Text to Speech

The publishers and writers that were pissed off about this feature should SHUT THE FUCK UP. If they had purchased a Kindle and checked out the feature, they would realize that they have nothing to fear. Listening to this damn thing is like listening to Stephen Hawking with a broken voice synthesizer. It's not that great. It's like having one of those AT&T text to voice bots or your text to voice GPS navigation device read to you. It's robotic and they pronounce words incorrectly. Stephen Fry will be able to keep his day job.

Weight

Heavier than I expected. As a supporter of ultralight backpacking, this kindle will not be accompanying me into the canyons.

Value

This is a tough one. At $360, I do not think an E-reader is worth this much money at this point for most people. As an E-reader + mediocre internet browser device, it barely makes the device worth the investment. However, as a student, this device might be worth it. If you have many text books like me and you want to read 1500 page text books while walking down the hallway, Kindle can be a great way to take that shit on the road. (Of course, you won't be able to see many pictures or read many of the charts/graphs/tables.)

Cover

One concern I have with the cover is shown in the picture. Although it's secure, the device lifts up. I'm afraid that my Kindle will break off at the attachments.




Conclusion

Kindle is interesting. Although this thing could have improved my life by lightening the load on my back, the device fell short. The reason is that the super thick books i need to read have pictures and diagrams that the kindle does not display very well. Even the commercial Amazon sanctioned books have really bad quality diagrams and many of the tables and charts that are important to me are completely illegible. It's like looking at a blur. This really pisses me off and I feel like I've been ripped off. I'll have to buy the paperback just to take a look again, which in the end doesn't save me any money.

Having said that, I still like the damn thing because it's a new toy. I'm hoping that my letters to the editors get through and they fix some of this stuff. I'm also hoping that amazon will fix some of these bugs and give us a OS upgrade. I think that if you enjoy electronic toys, this is a cool one to buy. Also, if you commute a lot, I think reading novels on the thing is pretty cool. But beyond that, I would wait for Kindle 3.0.

Ditching Work...and the people who suck at it

There is an art to ditching work. What separates a ninja from a n00b is the attention to detail. For example, if you're coming in to work late and you're about to sign in, you should already be in work clothes instead of having all of your crap that you brought from home in your hand or on your body. Your coat, your bags, and shit should be safely stowed in a discrete location so you can blend in with the environment. You don't want to show everyone that you just came into work. You want to make it seem like you've been there all along.


This kind of detail seems like common sense but some people forget about these things and get busted.

I consider myself a pretty decent ninja. I like the challenge of getting away with things that you're not supposed to get away with. By myself, I could probably leave for 8 hours and still get credit for it. I also have some experience in ninja-like behavior since I used to engage in petty theft back in the day. However, I consider myself like Jean Valjean than like a common thief.

The problem I have is this: I'm paired up with a novice. This novice is slowing me down. This person means well but can't seem to understand that you need to be quick and can't be weighed down by extraneous crap. This person carries their entire apt with them and it takes them forever to get ready. Timing is important and I hate the fact that this person is dragging me down.

Last week, I was with another ninja. We made a great team. This week, I'm with a FNG and i think this person is going to get me killed.

Rant: Hulu and the rest...

Hulu is pretty good. I like the fact that we have access to full episodes of many tv shows and I don't even mind the intermittent commercials. I recognize the need for revenue and I think the 15-30 second interruptions are reasonable.

However, hulu, as well as other sites dedicated to specific shows are doing something that really annoys the shit out of me. They are pulling full episodes after a certain amount of time and they only keep around the recent 3-5 episodes. I believe this is a mistake.

The great aspect of these online video sites is that we, the consumer, have the ability to watch episodes whenever we want. However, when they pull the episode, we're back to the situation where the consumer has no legitimate way of watching the episode until the iTunes video, DVD or Bluray comes out. So, in the interim, how can we watch the videos?

We pirate it. That's how.

So here are my suggestions:
1) Keep the fucking episodes online until the day before the iTunes/DVD/Bluray comes out. That way, the consumer has, at all times, an option to enjoy your product legitimately.
2) Stop increasing the commercial length. As soon as these "tolerable" commercials begin to annoy, pirating will be the option once again.
3) Stop fucking us over.