Internet is becoming more and more polluted with junk-mail, people selling crap, and businesses which don't know their place on the net. They're all trying to make this wonderful place (i.e.: the net) in to hell (i.e.: real world). Internet should be viewed as a place of imagination, creativity, and most of all: fun. Internet is not some really advanced tool for searching for people to rip-off. It's about searching, and finding, things which are useful, helpful, and promote the sharing of ideas. This is what this site is striving to become.

Finished reading Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. The first book. It's pretty damn good; sort of hard to put your finger on what the story is about---and then the hodgepodge of a story doesn't even end when the book does (ie: I plan on reading 2nd book).

Starting on Einstein's Bridge by John Cramer.

- Alex; Mon Mar 8 07:03:04 EST 2010
March 8th at wikipedia...

Finally found a usable Kindle hack for Unicode that actually works "as expected" (ie: you don't need to root your Kindle, and the device can display pretty much all fonts after the update---including the original latin).

- Alex; Sat Mar 6 03:49:08 EST 2010

Rewriting my simple renderer I use in all my applets---making it opengl-ish in style (as opposed to hoky matrix, clipping, and hodgepodge of crap all over the place---the inconsistent mess it is now).

- Alex; Tue Mar 2 02:14:08 EST 2010

Snow rox!

- Alex; Fri Feb 26 07:50:39 EST 2010

Played some OpenArena. It is essentially a Quake3 Arena clone, except with custom maps, models, sounds, etc. Totally fun to play!

- Alex; Thu Feb 25 23:27:29 EST 2010

Got a cold and been feeling horrible these last few days :-/

- Alex; Wed Feb 24 07:33:57 EST 2010

Economists: Recovery is firmly on track. Yep. Nothing to worry about it.

- Alex; Mon Feb 22 03:53:40 EST 2010

Have you ever had to knock a door in? I haven't seriously tried before... But... My door lock fell apart, and the piece of a lock that sticks into the frame got "stuck" there. So my solution (besides unscrewing all possible screws I see from the outside---with screwdriver borrowed from a neighbour) was to call the energency service---who called locksmith, who never showed up. My other solution (sometime later) was to knock the door in... that's about the time neighbour came out and lent me a screwdriver; I guess the noise of me crashing into door got'em concerned.

Well, knocking down door didn't work as it appears to work on TV. Maybe on TV the door frame is not made out of metal! Yep, that's about it. When the door frame is made out of metal... and the door is made out of metal... a small solid piece of metal stuck between the two makes it... pretty much impossible to knock down. I'm actually very impressed by this... folks get all sorts of fancy door-protection thingies, but the basic lock, with metal all over is all by itself pretty damn good security.

In any case, after a bit of time (and lots of noise), the door frame got bent out of shape, enough so for me to pry the now-bent lock piece out with a screw driver, and get the door open. Now still gotta call locksmith to fix (hammer in) door frame and install new lock.

Oh, and shoulder hurts... :-/

- Alex; Fri Feb 19

Signed up for TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour. My first time biking in any such event---I guess I should buy a helmet ('cause it's part of that long small-print waiver).

- Alex; Thu Feb 18 01:14:38 EST 2010

Yey. Got the Nexus One (along with the data plan, and unlimited thingies). This thing is amazing. Has a ton of apps---and pretty much every feature I can think of iphone having, this one has it too. Even has free SSH client! Best of all (or not???): all the data is tied into google apps (so gmail, google talk, calendar, etc., are all @theparticle.com thingies). There's also wonderful integration with Google Voice (you can simply use the phone via WiFi, and make phone calls via Google Voice, etc.). I used the phone for a few hours at home, and pretty much all that time it was only connected to my WiFi (and not t-mobile). Wish the data-plan thingie was a bit cheaper, but, eh, it's so amazing it's worth it.

Finally got around to play New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's essentially similar to DS mario game (which rox---same style as original mario bros, but updated and cooler). This Wii one is an updated version of the DS game; looks very fun. Got wiped in the first castle though---need a bit more time to get used to Mario :-)

- Alex; Wed Feb 17 02:57:43 EST 2010

Went for a hiking trip upstate; primarily ended up walking up Peekamoose Mountain, but didn't get to summit---got maybe 3/4th of the way up. It gets colder, hungrier, and more tired as you go up... also snow gets thicker (prolly need snow shoes).

- Alex; Sun Feb 14

Decided to move into the mobile land, and ordered Nexus One (that google phone).

Finished reading Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox. This book is horribly written! Or edited. Or something. Seems to jump from topic to topic, for no particular reason. It does try very hard, and has some good intuition---but that doesn't make the book readable.

If you want a good explanation of the basics between mass-energy thingie or simply to understand intricacies of Relativity, I highly recommend reading The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality instead. Though this one has a ton of String Theory bullshit; but the first half of the book is just well written intuition on steroids.

Started reading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by DNA.

- Alex; Sat Feb 13 02:22:52 EST 2010

Actually ran out of space on my HD. The drives are so huge, that I didn't even *think* of looking at space usage... and poof, home folder is at 100%. Now gotta move stuff around.

In other news,...winter olympics, Vancouver 2010!

- Alex; Fri Feb 12 03:42:43 EST 2010

Yey, finally mentally back from vacation (physically, was back last monday :-)

- Alex; Mon Feb 8 06:41:54 EST 2010

Day 8 (sunday-monday):

Went back to Kona, using the north route. So technicaly, went all the way around the big island on this vacation (to volcano village via south loop, back to kona via north loop). Visited a really nice gated beach [Kikaua Beach, I think, near Kona] (you just tell'em "i'm here for the beach" and they let you in).

There's another beach near by; Kekaha Kai State Park, but you really need an SUV (or some sorta all-terrain thingie) to get there. The road is an unpaved gravel road through the lava rock field... very uneven terrain. Teh minivan just couldn't get us there... and we saw one stranded car---right before we pulled back.

(Airport!) Had a gin and tonic after the security check. Took an evening flight out of Kona to LAX. Luckily the Kona to LAX flight was about an hour early.

LAX: waiting for connecting flight that's in 10 hours (it was supposed to be in 9 hours, but first flight was a bit too swift).

Dozed off for... a while. An hour? Two? It's all a blur.

Just talked to the customer service rep, and was added to standby list for next flight, which is in about 20 minutes---so might just get to NYC soner than I thought (and had another gin and tonic---apparently much stronger than the one mixed in Kona---note to self: don't go to the "double that for another $3" thing next time; Still had a quite a bit of alkihole in theh system when airplane landed [monday evening] in JFK).

Was concious enough to pay $12.99 for that American Airlines gogo in flight internet access; it actually worked---was able to SSH into my homebox (and VPN into my wr0k desktop). Kinda neat. Except my laptop crashed about 5 minutes after I connected.

Also... I think I'm developing a cold; NY weather sux :-/

- Alex; Sun Jan 31

Day 7 (saturday):

Eary mr0ning walked 2 miles in pitch black (moon light) to a bus to Hilo, from there took a cab to Hilo airport---and from there, flown to Honolulu.

Visited Pearl Harbor sites, including Bowler, Missoury, and Pacific air museum ("do it all" ticket for $42 [again this number came up]). First a few things... the Bowler tour was great. This is technically my 2nd time inside a submarine (on this vacation and ever), and this one felt "real"; kinda like "old style" fully metal type things. Every knob looked lethal, and every edge was gonna hurt your elboe or hit you on the head if you moved a bit wrong.

The Missoury tour sucked (that ship is huge, and all the interesting areas are closed, only outside is open to tourists), and I spent an hour waiting for the "every 15 minutes" shuttle bus.

The Pacific air thing was cool, but it only had 4 or so planes, and the coolest attraction was a flight simulator... which turned out to be a late 1990s flight simulator type game, the "conrols" and enviroment was not realistic (you use a regular PC joystick, and there's no feedback, etc.). In other words, totally not worth $10 ticket price.

And then I learned that the "do everything ticket" didn't include a visit to Arizona, which kinda sucked, 'cause tickets for Arizona were sold out by then.

Since I had 4 hours left before my return light to Hilo, I decided to walk to the airport (instead of taking cab). That's like an 8 mile walk, so I thought it would be fun... it wasn't. The road follows a highway, which sux, and I ended up returning to Arizona Memorial to catch a cab. Yey, day well spent...

On flight back, recorded in-cabin altitude with my altemeter... apparently on take-off and landing, cabin pressure makes it seem like you're 150ft *below* sea level, while cruizing is ~4500ft above sea level. I would've thought cabin pressure would be "at sea level" for maximum comfort, etc., but... guess not. No wonder ears pop in airplanes!

Before returning to lodge, went to take moonlight photos of coastline, and visit a smoking volcano...twice (first time didn't have my winter coat).

On the whole trip, I'm amazed how different Hawaii temperatures can be... during the day it could be 90 degrees, and 40 during the night... drive 20 minutes, and it's very different.

- Alex; Sat Jan 30

Day 6 (friday):

Woke up early to get to the 7am "open door" helicopter flight (Hilo airport) This was *great*. A 45 minute flight around the island's volcanic attractions. Finally saw flowing lava (not into the ocean, just burnin some trees, and a road).

Open door flight was amazing. My foot was sticking out of the helicopter most of the flight. It was windy and freezing.

Went to blacksand beach, again; as well as some scenic areas to photograph.

It's next to impossible to walk barefeet in black sand, since the sun heats it up quite a bit... sorta like walking on black pavement in the summer, except the sand is all over your feet not just under them.

- Alex; Fri Jan 29

Day 5 (thursday):

Went to airport to arrange helicopter flight. Then went to solar heated tidal pools; warm water that's recycled by ocean tides. Apparently you get to swim right next to fish, leaches, crabs, eels, etc. I didn't swim---just slept for 2 hours on the "beach" (rock---there's no 'sand' anywhere, apparently). Something (crab?) tried to crawl up my nose.

After some tips from locals (local who speared a big fish just off the coast, and still had it on his speargun), went to black-sand beach, near end of highway 130. Apparently that's where "comunity lava viewing" thingie is setup. Stayed late, to take picures of flowin lava... which turned out to be glowing dots on top of a hill very very far away).

- Alex; Thur Jan 28

Day 4 (wednesday):

Went up Mauna Kea. That's almost 14,000ft above sea level. Went to Keck visitor's center, etc. That place sucks if you're visiting though---everyone is very rude and unhelpful. It's literaly below freezing there, nobody lets you inside (except Keck lobby; with is essentially a door leading to the rest room), and the only helpful person was a Univesity of Hawaii Ranger.

The students were a buncha a-holes---that's my first impression of them. In any case, the telescopes aren't on the summit, but there's a trail that leads up there---which is surprisingly difficult to traverse (you get tired walking up 10 feet... so after a "short" walk, you feel totally drained). Oh and there's a *huge* headache. You do have to rest for a few hours at 9k feet, but nobody forces you to stay, and after getting a coffee and buying some overpriced items (I got an $85 sweatshirt, 'cause my jacket was a bit lacking insulation, and it's f*cking freezing up there), you just continue driving up (on a mostly unpaved road that drops off into a cliff on one side).

After stayin at the top for about 5-6 hours (to see sunset), went back to 9k ft visitor's center, where an astronomer gave a nice presentation with a buncha "small" (not something an average person can afford) telescopes setup to view various stars; which was neat; you can apparently see nebulas via a `regular' telescope.

Drive back... thickest fog I've ever seen. Maybe 5-10ft visibility. Prolly like driving through a cloud (maybe literally driving through a cloud?). Funny thing is, other cars (prolly locals) speed through it as if it's nothing. You can't see'em, yet they woosh by you without worry.

Although one technically "needs" a 4-wheel drive to drive up the mountain, I've seen some normal street cars up there, and they seem to have done ok.

This day was very physically exhausting.

- Alex; Wed Jan 27

Day 3 (tuesday):

On way to Jagger place (again), saw a buncha steam vents.

Went to see lava flowing into the sea, but apparently that hasn't happenned in the last two weeks... so.. beh. Still went around old lava fields (jumped on wastelenads of rock). Took a picture of the `road closed' sign embeded in lava rock.

Also visited a lava tube, and walked about halfway in (500 feet?) with a flashlight until...creepiness got the better of me and turned back. I'm not used to walking in a pitch-black cave with..well..who knows what might be lurking beyond the flashlight's reach... Might go back if can find a bit better flashlight(s).

Stopped by the same crater (jagger point) as yesterday, but it was all foggy.

Walked outside for about an hour at about 9pm. Thing is there are no street lights, so you're walking in total darkness, illuminated only by the cloud-obscured moon. Didn't see any humans in that whole hour walk (good thing for GPS trackback feature---otherwise would've gotten lost). Only saw 2 cars in that whole time. Total silence. Amazing.

Saw a suicidal cat. There's literally *nobody* around, and that lonely car approaches... and guess who jumps right in front of it? A cat. Luckily the car stopped and let the cat cross the street. But why on earth did he wait for that lone car to even be there? Stupid suicidal cat.

Eyes adjust to the minimum light, and it becomes comfy after a while.

Nearly ruined my pants (figuratively) when somethin groweled and started chasing me (this is all in pitch black, with nobody around). Then a yanking sound of a dog on a chain. Ah... good thing he was tied up, 'cause he certainly sounded big and vicious. Then about a dozen other dogs picked up on the barking, so was walking in that unfriendly barking for 15 min or so.

- Alex; Tue Jan 26

Day 2 (monday):

Woke up unusually early (7am) though technicaly, that's like noon in NY time. Saw a real life *big* turtle right on the beach by the hotel. Wow. The ``beach'' is lava rock!

Went for submarine tour: Apparently real life fish are actually color-less. The sub didn't use any artificial lighting, and all those tropical fish that you'd expect to be brightly colorful, wasn't. They were all bland gray-ish colors. Sub went down to over 100ft deep (~150ft?).

Then to Costco (horay for more canned goods), and some fruits (and socks, underwear, etc., to avoid laundry :-)

Kona coffee farm; taste coffee beans at each step of production---though I must say after sun-dying, coffee is a bit tough to chew.

Next `hotel' (more like lodge) is in Volcano Village (drive from Kona via southern highway), near volcano national park. That's right by Jagger Museum (~10 min from lodge), which has a great view of a smoky crater. Took some night shots.

- Alex; Mon Jan 25