Greg

Strange findings about Microsoft on the web

Microsoft is a really good company to work for, but amongst the tech community (online and in person) there is kind of a love-hate relationship with the company.  In fact, even amongst the non-tech folks, people make fun of MS

Anyway, Clodagh was looking for a co-workers office to go to tomorrow that's in a different building neither of us were sure the exact location.  Rather than bothering to RAS (connect to the secure company network) to check the official campus maps, we just google'd it.  And as I was curious about the other hits that came up - yes, we did find the map we were looking for - I came across this link: http://www.cities21.org/Redmond.htm.

How cool would that be?!?!?!?  Our own monorail system just for 'softies!  How much more would that contribute to people thinking that we're some sort of weird incredibly focused and self-contained crowd?  How much would that inflate the ego of the people at the company?  Or would it just be a little too "evil society from a James Bond movie"? 

And how obsessed with monorails must this area be if someone is proposing one just for a single company's campuses?  Yes, I just got my car-tab renewal notice which calls out the obscene amount of the dreaded monorail tax. That they're now saying is going to last until 2050.  The damn thing better be free because I've sure paid my share of ridership dues already in the last couple years.  Not that I'm opposed to the concept - one of the things that is tremendously lacking from the puget sound area is a really good, efficient light rail system (or some public transit) that runs across the lakes and for reasonable hours.  When I lived in Redmond I tried to plan a night out downtown and back home using the bus system for transportation - if I planned on heading home roughly when the bars closed it would take another FOUR HOURS to get home between all the transfers and waiting.

[Edit 6/27 10:48pm: add below links]
more links about the PRT (personal rapid transit) including a snazzier version of the above website:
http://gettherefast.org/bettercampus.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/

The end is near (for the kitchen remodel)!

Clodagh spoke with the countertop people today and they said they'll be done this week coming up.  We're up against a ticking clock because we have people over for the fourth to see the fireworks and it'd be ideal to have a fully operational kitchen again.  Even if they get done this week, we need the cabinet person to come back and hook up the sinks and dishwasher (and while he's at it, he's going to add an electrical outlet so the power cord of the wine fridge doesn't stick above the counters) this week too.  Even if it doesn't happen in time for the fourth, it's nice to know that everything is finally coming together and there will be no more need to wait at home (and no more unexpected expenses) soon!

Latest batch of planning gone awry?  Our kitchen sink and bar sink faucets need to be exchanged for ones that need fewer holes.  Oh well, what's a weekend without a trip to Lowe's?

Random thought for the night

Second post for tonight before I go to bed.  Got an email from one of my friends who stumbled across this site.  It was a great reminder that every so often someone actually reads this (well, other than Aaron :)), and that something like a blog is a handy way to quickly catch up on what's going on in someone's life and ask relevant questions rather than just the generic 'hey, long time no talk, what's going on'.

2nd random thought - I miss having a kitchen sink.  Kitchen remodel week 6 - when will things be back to fully functional?!?!?!?!?!?

Review time...

It's coming up on annual review time here at work.  What does this mean?  Well, it's one of these things where you're supposed to reflect back on what you've been doing, what's gone well and what has need improvement, etc. Since it's something that remains in your file (so to speak), you want to do a fairly decent job of documenting the things you've been doing.  I've yet to learn how to just whip one out really quickly... 

Oh, and since I have six people reporting to me it means that I get really really busy trying to take care of all of my normal day-to-day work in addition to writing my own review (which I'm now 3 days late on) and trying to write meaningful feedback for my team.

Danger Will Robinson Danger!  Late night and weekend work ahead!

Happenings of the day. Photos

I've just uploaded the pictures from today's summer soltice parade in freemont to the 'community server photos' area (as opposed to the gallery software that I have been using in the past.  Pros and cons that I see thus far:

+ tighter integration with this site
+ the frames and area around it (skin/theme if you will) look nicer
+ saves smaller pictures so SHOULD be faster to view
- PAIN to upload - only supports one picture at a time uploadin :|
- seems to be quite slow thus far.  not sure if it's running client-side or server-side code (i.e. where the slow down is).  If thumbnails of all images (in the slideshow, for

Settling into the new site

Got a call from Aaron last night wondering when the site was going to be 'fixed'.  Well, it's not fixed in a sense of matching the old site/blog structure and capabilites but I have settled on it for the foreseeable future.  The root of the software now lives at kinasewitz.net instead of kinasewitz.net/greg.  This is because I was having immense trouble moving the blog to be the root of the site (so kinasewitz.net/greg would be the blog), and I think I'm going to start using the gallery software built into community server instead of 'gallery' so this gives a little more flexibility.  Got a redirect up from the kinasewitz.net/greg to kinasewitz.net/blogs/greg/default.aspx the one person looking for this page will be pushed over here instead.

It turns out that community server (and the blogs) are not the easiest to customize and create new skins for, etc.  Expect some time in the future (maybe even this weekend if it starts raining or something) the layout within the blog itself to change a bit along with colors, etc.

Back online. For now...

My router died earlier in the week.  :(  It had been having problems of periodically losing the connection to the outside world anyway so it was probably having some sort of issues that I expect to not see for a Long Long Time. 

I've now replaced it and am back in action.  Actually, I've replaced it twice in two days.  The first one I bought as replacement had a few problems so I ended up getting a 2nd new on today.  Need to go return the first one early next week...  I was going to go on a rant about how crappy that company was, but Dan claims he's had fantastic success with them in the past so I'll just believe it's an isolated incident for now.

At the same time, I've simplified the network layout: it WAS that the server this is all hosted on was behind a hub behind the router:

(internet)<-->[cable modem]<-->[router]<-->[hub]<-->(server)

as part of this I also got a REALLY LONG ethernet cable so I eliminated the hub...  simplification is always a good thing.  Why don't I just use a web hosting company?  Basically, I have the 2nd machine and it's usually no trouble so I don't really have a lot of motivation to do it.  Plus that'd be an ongoing monthly fee, whereas this is gratis.  And then only thing that's really impacted is the upload (from me) or download (to you) of the full size images from the gallery.  And very few people are looking at those anyway so I'm not too concerned about it yet.

Hold on while I adjust the tracking...

Remember having to adjust the tracking back with VCRs???  I'm in a bit of a similar situation at the moment here on the site.  I've just upgraded the software to a new version - they discontinued the version I was using for this more complex (read: do everything, including crap I don't want) version.

It might be a few days before things return to normal, depending on how motivated I get to futz with the settings.  In the meanwhile things may be a bit screwy.

Drive-in movies in 2005???

Yep, it's true.  Drive-in movie theaters are still around even in 2005.  Last night a few of us went to the Valley 6 drive-in theater down in Auburn^* to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith.  Of the five of us there, only one person had ever been to a drive-in before (Suzanna, not me).  It was definitely different than your normal movie-going experience...  What are the things that stood out?

- The 'festival-like' atmosphere before the movie.  We got there a bit early (OK, really early) because of a misunderstanding of when the movie would start - Suzanna read that it was 8:30, but it actually started closer to 9 when darkness set in.  In the meanwhile, people were out of their cars walking around, we were throwing a frisbee, some kids were playing soccer and throwing a football...  Very cool way to just kick back before the movie, but it was crying out for a mini-bbq and a beer :)

 - Speaking of food, I'm pretty sure the concessions were all still there from when the place was built in the 60s or 70s.  This was by far the worst movie-theater popcorn I've ever had.  Stale and cool.  I highly doubt they popped it there, but instead bought it elsewhere and just poured into movie theater bags.

 - the need to bring massive amounts of cushions/pillows.  We brought a few couch-pillows and blankets but definitely could have used more - the back of the XTerra is NOT built for the comfort of people lying down watching a movie.  After a while, shifting around trying to get comfortable gets old.

 - be prepared for highschoolers.  Somehow the drive-in wasn't cool when I was in high school, but it must be now...  Why do I say this?  There was carload upon truckload of high school kids at the movie.  And most of them brought an excess of cushions and air-mattresses so they must have been before!

 - the crunch of the gravel as people walked by during the movie.  while you have the advantage of not having to listen to other people's converstaions from the aisle behind you, one of the weird things you did hear was the crunching gravel as people walked back and forth between cars during the movie.

So would I go back?  Yep, but I'd remember to bring more cushioning and a few bottles of water...

^*Wow, Auburn is far away and this place is random to get to.  Or maybe it seemed that way because the other car drove too far on the highway and we went the 'experimental route' to get there...

Always read the contract before signing

In the neverending sage of remodeling the kitchen, more progress has been achieved (finally):
- cabinets installed? Check.
- New microwave installed? Check.  It's MUCH better than old microwave! :)
- Subtop down for the counter? Check.  I did screw up in three places punching a nail to where it's visible :(
- Template for new counters created? Check.
- Stone fabrication in progress?  Hopefully!
- Photos from while it's been in progress posted online?  Not yet - but they're finally off my camera and should be up later tonight... [Edit: Now they're online, look here].

What's not done?  Well, obviously counters being finished and installed.  But also, we still have no kitchen sink or dishwasher.  Which is a REAL pain for when you're making chicken or something that requires things from the fridge and periodic washing of hands due to raw chicken issues...

Oh, and about that contract...  We had verbally gotten agreement from the countertop guy that the undermount sink holes and backsplash were included in the quote.  BUT apparently neither made it to the contract we signed and since the guy was chatting away with us and his handwriting is illegible, we didn't realize it.  Fortunately when we went down to confirm the stone the counters will be fabricated from, he agreed to waive the cost of both - but earlier in the day he was not planning on being so lenient...

We got the potentially pricey lesson at a discount, but I remind myself and anyone else moving forward about this episode's life lesson: “read the contract before signing.  And ask for explanation until you're satisfied.”