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My Stuff

I recently upgraded to a

Blackberry 8700g.

Email, cellphone, web

access, and PDA all-in-one.

 

I love Canon digicams.

I had an S330, then an S230,

now an SD400.  They're solidly

made, they take great pictures,

and they're ultra-portable.

 

I've gone back to the dark

side.  I once again have an iPod.

This time it's a 60gb iPod Photo.

 

The Dell Latitude D620

is my current work laptop. 

It's a cleanly designed

Centrino Duo machine with

amazing battery

life and a nice screen.

 

My home laptop is a

15" Apple MacBook Pro

dual-booting both Mac OS X

and Windows XP.  Hooray for

Boot Camp!

 

I recently upgraded to a 20"

Dell 2001fp LCD.  It has great

image quality, and convenient

USB ports on the side.

 

My current PC is

a P4 system based on an Intel

D915GAG motherboard in an Antec

Sonata II case.  200gb Seagate

SATA hard drive, nVidia GeForce

6600GT video card, SB Live 5.1,

and NEC DVD-RW drive.

 

Just like with digicams,

I like Canon inkjet printers. My

i860 is quiet, fast, and produces

first-class color prints.

 

Not much to say here.

If you're an aviation enthusiast

and you have a fast PC,

go buy FS2004 now.

 

If you get hooked on

flight sims like I did, you'll want

a good flight controller.  The

CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB

is probably the best all-around

flight controller out there.

It ain't cheap, though....

 

My Current Reading List

 

Eastward to Tartary:

Travels in the Balkans,

the Middle East, and

the Caucasus

by Robert D. Kaplan

 

Falling Off the Map

by Pico Iyer

 

Great Bridge:  The Epic

Story of the Building of

the Brooklyn Bridge

by David McCullough

 

The Polish Way:  A Thousand

Year History of the Poles and

Their Culture

by Adam Zamoyski

 

Best of Europe 2006

by Rick Steves

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2008

October (2 entries)
August (1 entry)
June (1 entry)
May (2 entries)
February (2 entries)

2007

July (1 entry)
June (7 entries)
April (5 entries)
February (4 entries)
January (11 entries)

2006

December (5 entries)
November (3 entries)
October (10 entries)
September (6 entries)
August (4 entries)
July (7 entries)
June (5 entries)
May (7 entries)
April (15 entries)
March (9 entries)
February (7 entries)
January (15 entries)

2005

December (4 entries)
November (6 entries)
October (15 entries)
September (4 entries)
August (9 entries)
July (18 entries)
June (10 entries)
May (12 entries)
April (19 entries)
March (18 entries)
February (10 entries)
January (20 entries)

2004

December (9 entries)
November (21 entries)
October (9 entries)
September (15 entries)
August (7 entries)
July (7 entries)
June (8 entries)
May (10 entries)
April (5 entries)
March (12 entries)
February (18 entries)
January (9 entries)
11/20/2005 19:07
After much deliberation, we went shopping for an HDTV today. We ended up picking a 42" Sony LCD Projection set, the KDF-E42A10 Grand VVega. It will arrive on Wednesday, and we have the cable company scheduled to come out and upgrade our programming shortly after that. Now we'll be cool....

11/10/2005 17:27
Just on a whim, I called Hilton. They pointed out that our reservation has not been canceled, and that the only people who can cancel it are the hotel themselves, if they have a fire, or a problem where they physically can't provide the rooms; or us. I told them that I have no intention of cancelling, and they said they didn't either. They added my Hilton HHonors number to the reservation while I was on the phone, too.

Here's what I think is happening. These are pre-paid rooms, and Hilton got the reservations for them, and they're happy. Once people check in under these reservations, Hilton bills Expedia. Expedia's only way out is to get people to not use the reservations. They're offering discounts on rebooked hotel stays, and they're telling everyone that the reservations will be cancelled. They desperately want people to make other arrangements, and no-show for these. When you talk to them on the phone, they keep asking if they can help you make a rebooking. They slightly increase the amount of the coupon they're offering to try and get you to rebook, because they know they can't cancel the reservations.

Diabolical.... What next? Expedia employees unplugging my alarm clock the night before the flight to Tokyo? Expedia employees letting the air out of my car tires, or cutting the brake lines just before driving to the Airport? Phony street signs in Tokyo so I can't find the Hilton?
11/09/2005 23:25
The weasels and other vermin at Expedia have changed their minds after 4 days, and have cancelled my Tokyo hotel reservation. Even after their customer service reps were sending out emails saying they knew it was a price mistake, but they would honor it anyway, they have done a 180 and cancelled most of the reservations. I say most, because they're leaving anything for the month of November alone.

They're offering a $250 coupon towards their (overpriced) package deals as some sort of compensation, but I already have a flight, and I don't need a car in Tokyo. The coupon is pretty much worthless. I filed a complaint with the BBB, but I'm not getting my hopes up. We were going to go to Tokyo anyway, and I'm still happy that I got a frequent flier ticket, but it would have been nice to have a cheap hotel.....

I'm done using Expedia, and I threw away the fancy rubberized baggage tags they gave me as a thank you gift for being one of their early customers back in 1996. I'll see if Travelocity knows what they're doing....
11/06/2005 20:36
So I called Air Canada (part of the Star Alliance) to find out about booking an AmEx membership rewards ticket to Tokyo, to go with the Hilton Tokyo "special" that I just got. Sure, no problem, the woman says, there are seats available, and it takes 60k miles.

Next I called AmEx and have them start the points transfer, then call Air Canada back to go ahead and book the ticket. Air Canada dude says "Someone told you wrong, it's 75k miles." Well, i don't have 15K more miles to give them, and points transfers are one-way, non-cancellable. I was steaming mad.

The only thing I could do was try to stop the points transfer so I didn't "lose" them. I called AmEx back, and they felt bad about everything, and just gave me the additional miles out of goodwill. You have to like that. I knew there was a reason why I use my AmEx all the time. Now i'm all booked on the direct flight from SEA-NRT on United. It couldn't be better.
11/06/2005 10:30
I woke up Saturday morning around 6:30am, and headed for my office to check E-Mail. There was a message from farealert.com, with news of a "special" on rooms at the Tokyo Hilton through Expedia.com. Most of what farealert.com covers are price mistakes, limited-time promotions, and so forth, so when I read that you could book rooms at the Tokyo Hilton for $2/night, I was a little skeptical, but I like a good deal as much as the next guy. Figuring what the hell, I booked a king-sized executive room for a week including my birthday in January. I got a confirmation from Expedia that they received my reservation, then another one that they had charged my credit card and passed the reservation along to the hotel. It looks legit at this point, so I may well be going to Japan for my birthday. Konichiwa!
11/06/2005 10:13
Wow, long time no blog. I just got back from a 2-day business trip for a workshop about our electronic charting software. The trip was fine, except for getting a crippling migraine the second day and having to lay curled in a fetal position in the rental car for 2 hours. I never used to get migraines, but I've had 3 in the last year, so I might as well get a prescription for Imitrex. I get the full blown kind "with aura." My field of vision narrows down, I see flashing/strobing effects in my peripheral vision, I get dizzy, I have a tough time speaking complete sentences, and then I get a shooting pain behind my eyes. Add in nausea and sensitivity to lights and sounds, and it isn't very fun. I'm completely non-functional for a couple of hours.

Now that I recognize what is happening, I should be able to use Imitrex to stop the migraine before it really gets going. It's actually pretty scary to know that you're very rapidly becoming sick and that you will soon be unable to function.