Recently in Miscellaneous Category

Usually, Google Maps is a lifesaver when it comes to figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B: more or less precise, turn-by-turn directions, public transit suggestions, and even promoting personal fitness by suggesting that you actually walk every once in a while.

Well, in some cases, Google Maps likes to give you the freedom to choose your own path to reach your destination. Note the "as the crow flies" arrow, allowing you (or rather, me) to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B, hilly obstructions and private property be damned.

Maybe I should just take the bus...

Greetings from the Land of the Rising Sun!

As those few of you who look at this page regularly probably already know, the USS George Washington finally arrived in Yokosuka, Japan to much fanfare on September 25th (and then promptly turned around and left again less than a week later to steam in circles around the Western Pacific for a couple of months). The twist to this particular tale is that I, your humble blogger, am still here! Due to a minor surgical procedure and an ensuing month-long recovery period, I was placed in a medical holding pattern while the ship is underway, leaving me temporarily attached to the hospital on the base here in Yokosuka.

All that aside, I figure this would be a great opportunity to relate my experiences thus far after two and a half weeks in Japan.

First off, the people. The Japanese are by and far the most friendly, polite, and well-mannered folks I have had the pleasure of dealing with in my twenty-seven years thus far. Despite all the brouhaha in the media about the locals' opposition to GW's deployment here due to its nuclear-powered nature, even the one protest I witnessed up close was very well-organized and well-behaved. Even the taxi drivers are unfailingly polite -- now that's a telling attribute!

Next up, public transit. The train system in Japan is renowned for efficient, timely service, and boy, has it lived up to its reputation. It took me the better part of two days to get familiar with the system -- which lines go where, which trains stop at which stations at what times, and so on -- but within a week I was extremely glad I did. Nearly everything worthwhile in Japan (at least, as far as I have found so far) is within walking distance of a train station. With the RFID-based card system the transit system has in place, you don't even have to take the card out of your wallet -- just tap the whole thing on the appropriate spot on the turnstile, and off you go. Very convenient and efficient. (Just don't try to stick the card in the slot where "regular" tickets go, as I did right after I got mine -- I felt a bit sheepish when the station agent plucked the card from the works after it got stuck inside.)

Then, there's Akihabara. Where to begin...? Akihabara is the home of all things geeky, from videogames to computers of every description, from manga and anime to life-sized models of popular characters. If you have a hobby of nearly any description, you'll likely find a place for it in Akihabara. Among my personal favorite places to frequent: the Mac Collection, four floors of Apple goodness, including two floors of second-hand Macs covering the entire line. Highlights: several classic Macs (including the Mac Plus), two (as of my last visit) G4 Cubes in great condition, a green clamshell iBook, and even a 20th Anniversary Mac, all for sale! On my last visit, I was lucky enough to snag a second-hand (but apparently lightly or never used) Wacom Intuos3 6x8" tablet for $199 ($100 off retail!). All in all, an awesome place for a Mac enthusiast like me.

Speaking of Apple, let me relate a particular experience with the company here in Japan. I picked up an iPhone 3G from SoftBank Telecom at the Navy Exchange on the base, and made the mistake of not checking to see if everything worked right before leaving. When I took it back to my room, turned it on, and fired up Safari, a problem quickly became apparent -- the screen immediately shifted to landscape (as if the phone had been turned to the left side), and no amount of coercing could get it to return to portrait. The same problem exhibited itself in every other accelerometer-enabled application I ran. Upgrading the software to 2.1 and restoring again did not correct the problem. A call to AppleCare in Japan (a very polite lady who spoke clear English) confirmed the problem was hardware-based, and she set up an iPod Bar appointment at the flagship Apple Store in Ginza for the next evening.

The next day, I take the phone to the bar for my appointment. The Genius takes a look at it, asks a few standard questions (did you try restoring the phone? Does it do the same thing in more than one app?), and confirms that the problem is indeed with the hardware. Not ten minutes later, I'm out the door with a brand-new, fully-functional iPhone in hand. No other company I have ever dealt with has given such consistently satisfying support and retail experiences as Apple -- they are absolutely deserving of their reputation as one of the best consumer electronics companies today.

*Ahem*. All evangelizing aside, I am thoroughly enjoying my time here in Japan, and am looking forward to the rest of my tour. I'll doubtless have more stuff to post about in the coming weeks/months, so don't forget to come back later!

Lots going on in the coming days/weeks/months...really, far too much to mention in a single blog post (especially here). Summarizing...

-Macworld Expo next week: wow, so much going on during Expo this year that I'm seriously wondering whether I'll actually be able to make it to everything (on time, at least). Unlike past years, this time I'm actually (more or less) on a schedule for the entire week, Monday to Friday; between Lightroom training, the Stevenote, meetings, parties, and even a shift at the Apple Consultants Network Tech Assist booth (which I'm really looking forward to, actually), I'm going to be busier this Expo than I've ever been - and that's a good thing, believe me!

-Leaving for Japan: this is coming up quicker than I realized. Among other things, before we leave the East Coast for good, I've got to figure out what to do with my car -- the most likely scenario being considered involves yet another cross-country drive (my fifth) with a one-way flight back to Norfolk. While I very much enjoy visiting home, I much prefer the 'not having to spend eight hours a day in the car' option; in any case, it most likely can't be helped, especially if I want said car to be in decent condition when I (eventually) return to the States. At least I won't be bringing (too) much with me this time.

-Going into business: I'm looking into starting my own consulting and tech support business, primarily based around Apple hardware and software solutions. There are some unique challenges I'll have to overcome, however, before I can actually get this off the ground, one being location: I live on an aircraft carrier, and for the forseeable future (about the next half a year or so) the crew itself would be my primary client base. As-is, there is a small but slowly growing Mac user community aboard the USS George Washington, and in my short time aboard I've been frequently questioned about various aspects of the Mac and iPod families. Another challenge is the lack of reliable Internet access aboard the ship; many aspects of performing technical support or product research require having access to the most up-to-date information available, and the de-facto source of such information is, of course, the Internet. Having limited access to that invaluable resource could potentially make the job much more difficult (but not impossible). Challenges aside, this is an opportunity that I am seriously pursuing, and hopefully things will work out in the end.

-Getting to Japan: we're expecting to arrive at our new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan sometime in the latter half of this year, and I am very much looking forward to seeing my new home in person. One of my first priorities on arriving in Japan is finding a place to call "home": someplace reasonably close to transportation (the train, of course), but far enough from the base that I'm not surrounded by "squids" 24/7. It's not that I don't enjoy working with my shipmates -- far from it. However, I do like having the opportunity to spend some time away from the people I already live with day and night when the ship is out to sea. Even tolerant folks have their limits. :) The nice thing is that I've got a fairly reasonable living budget to work with: ~US$1900/month housing allowance, $500/month utility allowance, and $700/month cost of living allowance -- all tax-free. So, one intends to get the best place available (within the budget, of course). All in all, can't wait to get there.

Not bad for the first post in almost half a year, eh? I'll have to make it a late New Year's resolution to post here more often. (Yeah, like that'll happen.)

If you'll look to your right, assuming you have Flash installed, you should see the newest addition to the site: a Twitter badge, a sort of public metablog where anyone can post mini-rants, or just whatever happens to be on their mind at the moment. 'Tweets' tend to require less overall thought than a typical blog post (for me, anyway), and as a bonus, can be posted from darned near anywhere (by phone, BlackBerry, or via the Twitter site itself). Since I tend to post here only sporadically, you'll probably be better able to find out what's on my mind if you keep an eye on my Twitter page (linked on the right).

It's so overkill...and yet, so cool at the same time. This shot was taken before I added the rotating shelves to the sides of the center desk; the LCD on the left side is now sitting on the left-side shelf and the right side holds the printer. I have no idea whatsoever why it took me so long to get everything setup this way -- this is infinitely better than my previous setup.

Yes, it's that time again: time for two and a half months of collected ranting, musing, and raving to be collected in a single, mammoth post (well, mammoth for me, anyway). There's lots to cover, so here goes...

First, the world of technology. The gap since the last post has seen the release (and in some cases, the prompt acquisition) of a myriad of gadgets of every shape and size. Recently added to my personal collection: a BlackBerry Pearl, a replacement 1GB iPod shuffle (hey, it was only $50!), and one shiny new 20" iMac with a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo. Which, coincidentally, I'm using to type up this post. I wasn't quite expecting it to be much faster than my MacBook Pro, but I've been impressed so far; a faster hard drive, full-fledged (i.e. non-Mobility) Radeon X1600, and (obviously) the newer generation CPU are to thank for that. The display on this thing is a thing of beauty, too; compared to the old 17" US Logic sitting right next to it...well, really there is no comparison, it's that much better. The new iMac is easily the best computer of any kind I have ever owned, hands-down.

I've also finally gotten around to resurrecting the old tower (with a new 300GB SATA drive that'll be going in as soon as I get around to it), bringing the tally up to a whopping five operational machines, not counting PDAs. I've practically got a full-fledged command center-type setup going on here - two notebooks on my left, the tower's LCD on the left-side rotating shelf, the iMac in front, an HP Photosmart on the right-side shelf, and finally, the MBP on my right. So, the question now becomes, what am I to do with this somewhat ridiculous collection of underutilized hardware?

The answer: Folding, of course! A better description can be found at the linked page, but essentially, folding uses idle CPU time (much like SETI@Home, or any other distributed-computing project) to 'fold' simulated proteins in a massive effort to conduct research on the causes of certain genetic disorders. As with other distributed computing projects, contributors are able to form teams as part of a friendly competition; there is no prize, other than the knowledge that one is contributing to a greater understanding of the underlying causes of disorders such as Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, and others. I'm an active member of Team AppleNova, which is comprised of AppleNova Forum members. We're #125 out of more than 2,000 teams, which is pretty impressive considering that we 'only' have 92 team members (the #1 team has over 10,000, and a fairly significant portion of the top hundred teams have over 1,000 members each).

Moving along...ah, yes, the sadly underutilized anime/manga category. I've finally gotten back into following a few series regularly again. Currently on the list: Ah! My Goddess (both the manga and anime), Aoi House, Chibi Vampire (augh, just give it back the original title, already!), Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Negima!, and the novel series .hack//Another Birth. I'm thinking there are one or two more that should be on there, but I can't remember them right now. Meh.

And now, entertainment! I've really been digging through the iTunes Store recently, and I'm pretty impressed with the sheer amount of content now available. There's more music than you can shake an iPod at, TV shows for every taste, and now full-length movies. I was browsing the iTS recently when I finally broke down and purchased a season pass for Battlestar Galactica Season 3 (the clips on YouTube from the third episode were the straw that finally broke this camel's back), and I haven't been disappointed. Yeah, the video quality isn't the best when scaled to anything more than original size (full-screen is particularly ugly), but it's convenient, and being able to watch it on my iPod is just icing on the cake. I've also been perusing the Japanese version of the store, and while I think that there could be a better variety of anime music on there, I'm still pretty impressed with their current offerings (and the recent addition of BMG Japan's library should help out a bit).

Ummm...I keep thinking that there were a few more things that I was going to post today, but I've once again completely forgotten what they were. If I remember later, I'll append them to the end of this post. In the meantime, have a great rest of the weekend, all you happy people!

...what do Alf, Garfield, the Muppet Babies, the Smurfs, Slimer, the Chipmunks, Winnie the Pooh and friends, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Michaelangelo (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle variety) have in common, aside from the fact that they're all cartoon characters?

Give up yet?

The answer is right here. (32 minute video, dial-up users beware!) For those who don't feel like waiting for it to download, it's a public service announcement from the early 90s called "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" that features popular cartoon characters from the 80s teaching kids about the dangers of doing drugs, and includes a brief introduction by none other than then-President George Bush Sr. The video is pretty low-quality, but still very watchable, and personally brings back some fond memories of those old Saturday morning 'toons.

How I missed this for nearly a decade and a half, I'll never know, but I'm definitely saving a copy of it now, before it disappears again.

So, yeah, I guess this was what I forgot about. It's been, what...two and a half months since my last post? Not a good sign. Guess I'd best start making up for lost time!

First topic: my job thus far. In a nutshell, it's been crazy. Long hours, bouncing all over the place in the "G-jet", filling out enough paperwork to drive an IRS auditor insane...yeah, welcome to the world of Navy recruiting. I'm starting to wish I'd gone for that instructor billet after all... So, work leaves much to be desired. (What else is new?) Thankfully, "it gets better," so they say. We'll see about that.

That rant aside, time to move on. Next up: entertainment! Once I got the apartment setup more or less the way I wanted it, the next step was to start finding ways to keep from being bored for those rare periods I would be able to enjoy between work and sleep. Internet was already taken care of, but you can only surf and play simple games on a computer for so long before the need to do something else sets in. So, after careful deliberation (about 5 minutes' worth), I decided to head out and pick up a decent television. I already had a TV, thanks to my grandparents, but I decided that since I'm going to be here for the long haul I might as well pick up a set with a bit more lasting power. Enter the Westinghouse LTV-32w6, a 32" LCD HDTV on sale at Best Buy for $899. Oooooh, pretty. So, TV: check.

The next step was to obtain decent cable TV. This was a bit more challenging, as it required me to set an appointment that required my physical presence at the apartment during Comcast's working hours. So, that pretty much eliminated Monday to Friday, as my typical arrival at home tends to be between 7 and 9 in the evening. That left Saturday, which was itself hit-or-miss since I've been working quite a few of those, too. So, I set an appointment for the first Saturday they had an opening, which was a week and a half away. Bleh. Saturday rolls around, and the appointment is scheduled for between 1pm-5pm. 5pm rolls around...nothing. I call Comcast, and find out that the cable guy is behind schedule, but should still show up that day. So, the waiting continues. Around 7pm, Comcast calls me, telling me that they're still behind, and confirming that I still want them to install my cable tonight -- of course I do. I continue to wait. Finally, at around 8:45pm, I get a call from the cable guy himself, saying that he's on his way -- but he has no idea how to get to my apartment complex. I give him directions, and tell him to call again when he gets close so I can direct him right to the apartment. Thankfully, he finds the place just fine and shows up about 15 minutes later. Then, the real fun begins.

The first part of the process went by just fine, aside from the fact that the guy didn't show up until nearly 4 hours after the scheduled time. Then, we break out the cable converter (an HDTV box, the only one he had with him since it was a last-minute request), and lo and behold...it doesn't work. We double-check all the connections, power-cycle the box a couple times, but no good -- it refuses to display a single channel, even though we know the cable itself is fine because basic channels work just fine when plugged directly into the TV. So, we pull a regular cable converter box (also the only one he had) out of the guy's van and plug it in...and it doesn't work either. So, the guy shows up four hours late (not really his fault, mind you, but still kinda annoying) and neither of the boxes he brought with him even works. Joy. So, after a few calls to the Comcast help desk, I decide that I'll simply drive down to the customer service center in a couple days and pick up a new HDTV box and install it myself. Thankfully, the new box works just fine, so coupled with a Sony 5-disc HD-upscaling DVD player I now have a halfway decent entertainment center.

Fast-forward a couple weeks. I sense that there's still something missing (actually, a couple somethings, but I'm going to wait a bit before picking up a decent audio system). On a trip to Fry's after work that Friday, I made the mistake of passing through the video game console section...and I felt it calling to me, drawing me in. The temptation was too great to resist, and about twenty minutes (and some $400+) later I found myself lugging a brand-new Xbox 360 to my car. Let me tell you, if you have one of these systems and you don't have an HDTV to go along with it, you're missing out. The graphics on this thing are simply beautiful in HD.

Xbox Live Arcade is probably one of the biggest selling points of the hardware, and now I can see why: some of these games are ridiculously addictive. Geometry Wars: Evolved in particular has consumed the most of my gaming time, along with Joust and, of course, Uno. Overall, the Xbox 360 experience has been so far outstanding, and has given me (so far) a favorable impression of this next-generation console.

Moving along... A few quick notes before I close. First up, WWDC 2006 is coming up fast, and the Mac community is waiting with baited breath to see what surprises Steve and Co. have in store for us. Will the fabled iPhone make its debut? Or will the ridiculously powerful Mac Pro steal the show? The only thing we know for sure is that the next generation of Mac OS X, Leopard, will be featured prominently. I'm looking forward to watching the keynote video stream in a couple weeks -- it's not quite the same as actually being there, but seeing as passes to the conference are a cool $1,595, I think it will have to suffice.

Also, another cool event is coming soon that I'm pondering making the trip for: MacMania V, a Geek Cruise to the Western Caribbean from October 28th to November 4th. I'll be getting my annual re-enlistment bonus payment on October 1st, so if I decide to spring for this, it'll be awfully close to the deadline...but hey, it's a cruise (that I won't have to work on) AND a Mac convention rolled into one! The downside is that I'd have to rush to get a passport before the cruise if I decide to go...something that I've been meaning to do for a few years now but never really got around to. I suppose now is as good a time as any...

Whew. OK, that's all for tonight. Maybe I'll get around to adding a few links to this post in the next day or two...I'm feeling a bit too lazy to do it right now. :P

What is it with Florida and storms, anyway? It seems like every time I turn around, there's another thunderstorm barging its way through, dumping massive torrents of rain on my head, and vanishing without a trace before I even have time to utter "What the @&*# was that?!" And then there's the lightning. Don't get me started on the lightning. I don't think I've ever seen a storm in Cali where lightning lit up the entire sky like a camera flash in a small room.

I never thought I'd be looking forward to getting back to California this much.

So, meanwhile, school's halfway over now...another two and a half weeks until the happy-happy-fun-fun return drive to the Golden State. I'm debating whether to take the same route that I used to get here, or head a bit further north, taking I-80 through Nevada and straight to my district HQ. Hrm.

(This actually should have been posted a few days ago, but a thunderstorm barged through and knocked out my Internet before I could hit 'Publish'. Figures.)

EDIT 5/15: Lightning just hit the building I'm staying in, or right in front of it, four times in the past five minutes. To hell with this place, I'm going home.

So, yeah...nothing's been happening here for a while. Chalk that up to me having to pack up everything and drop it off at my parents' place, shortly before driving all the way from California to sunny (and occasionally quite stormy) Pensacola, Florida for five weeks of recruiting orientation. Yay, back to school again! I'm about to start the third week, and so far I've been enjoying the class, which is a lot more than I can say about the last couple schools I went to. In another month, I'll be back in California, working out of a station in west Sacramento, which I'm very much looking forward to: the area I'll be working (from what I've seen so far) seems much nicer than San Diego.

I've had precious little time for gaming as of late, but I have managed to spend a bit of time over the last few days playing my recently-rediscovered DS. I picked up a copy of Mario Tennis Power Tour, and I'm starting to wish I hadn't. Not because the game is bad, but because it's almost too good -- it's taking up far too much of my down time, when I could be doing more useful stuff (like posting stuff on SpecMode!). I also got a copy of Mario Kart DS, but I haven't gotten around to breaking it out yet. It's a good thing I left my PSP at home, because if I hadn't, I really wouldn't get anything done around here.

I've got class in the morning, so I'd best wrap this up and get some sleep. (I've found that I tend to perform best when I'm able to maintain consciousness, as opposed to being so fatigued from staying up all night that even prodigious amounts of caffeine can't help me keep my eyes open. Funny how that works.)