January 2010
Summary: Shangri La 3rd anniversary, Cousins reunion at Secret Garden Korean Cuisine
Dates on this page
Fri Jan 1, 2010
Slept in. Patrick made a breakfast burrito for me. Weight training: various upper body. Stretches. Final laptop prep for sale. Lunch: deep-fried porcini mushroom and truffle ravioli, organic greens salad with gourmet mushrooms, side orzo salad. Watched Maxed Out on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Watched Stomp Live on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Late meal: mushroom, spinach, and salsa tamales.
Sat Jan 2, 2010
Mailed a package, bought new fluorescent light bulbs for the bathroom. Determined that the light fixture in the bathroom might need repair. Brunch: garlic-ginger udon noodle soup with mushroom broth, bok choy, carrot, parsley, 2 eggs. Requested repair for a frying pan. Taco night and farewell to Andy S at DDP with Patrick, Drew, Quyen, Nate, Andy S. Dropped Danny off at Trigger. He says he will be vacationing in Vietnam in a week and sharing an apartment with Antuan after his return. Home. Altered clothes. Late meal: elicoidali with marinara sauce.
Sun Jan 3, 2010
Oatmeal with organic cinnamon, organic bosc pear, and organic nonfat milk. Altered clothes. Processed old piles of paper and junk. Lunch: veggie burger, salt and pepper fries. Late afternoon meal: frozen pizza, salad. Altered clothes. Archived documents. Late meal: organic chow mein noodle soup with mushroom broth, carrot, bok choy, parsley, gourmet mushrooms, 2 eggs. Dessert: 1 slice of crystallized ginger.
Mon Jan 4, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: various lower body, upper abs (crunch), lower abs (leg lift). Breakfast: oatmeal with organic banana, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Listserv management. Handled email account issues for student IM. Minor web page update for Carol (pharm sci pubs). Laptop troubleshooting for student CF. Lunch: an orange, a bosc pear, some pretzels and crackers, some persimmon bread. Facelift project review with Eric D and Susie L. Landlord repaired the bathroom light fixture. Dinner at home with Patrick: korma sauce with mushrooms, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, daikon, zucchini, and garlic over steamed medium grain white rice; hot water. Unpacked new Lock & Lock containers for our pantry organization project.
Tue Jan 5, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic banana, brown sugar, cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8 juice. SCWG meeting. Facelift project work. More laptop troubleshooting for student CF. Lunch: organic braeburn apple, crackers, leftovers from dinner last night, tortilla chips. Brief 1-on-1 meeting with Cindy. Facelift project work with Eric D. To home. 6:50 bus 66 left 9th and Judah a minute or two early, so I missed it. Dinner at home with Patrick: pumpkin-chestnut ravioli with mushroom sauce, hot water. Washed and dried pantry food storage containers with Patrick. Stretches. Weight training: superslow front raise, superslow lateral raise, superslow dumbbell row, shrug. Late meal: mushroom, spinach, and salsa tamale.
Wed Jan 6, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with diced organic pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Reported a problem logging in to the SAA Staff Portal. They had recently (?) switched their authentication for it to Active Directory but there was no indication of the change on the login screen. Additionally, I discovered that Staff Portal passwords are now limited to 15 characters whereas Active Directory passwords are not, so now that I have set my Active Directory password (which I was forced to change due to strong password requirements), I can no longer log in to the Staff Portal. (The explanation for the problem: "Our IBM DB2 database limits passwords to no more than 15 characters long.") I was offered 2 solutions. (a) Change my Active Directory password so that it is 15 characters or less. However, I can't do this today like I'd prefer since UCSF strong password requirements for Active Directory prevent you from changing your password if you've changed your password within the past 8 days; I just changed mine today. I would prefer to change it right away so that I can make my most frequently used passwords the same so that they're easier to remember. (b) They can create a new Active Directory account with a different username and password for me to use solely to access the Staff Portal. But what's the point of using existing authentication if I'm going to require a new login and password?! Followup with student IM about email account. Discovered that MyAccess failed to accept an apostrophe when changing the password. That wouldn't be a problem if the password rules page told you that apostrophes were forbidden, but it doesn't. ucsfcomm Google Group maintenance. Calendar management, furlough planning. Followup with student AP about Droid email setup. Helped student BP with an email setup problem. Followup with student FP about an email setup problem. Short lunch: couscous and corn off the cob from the cafeteria, mini pretzels. Faculty awards database meeting with Sue A, Shannon W, Susie L, and Eric D. Sue gave me a cute 2-color pen of Japanese origin; I like it. On Wed Dec 30 at 12:34 AM I was sent an email from lstraining@ucsfmedctr.org with subject "You have been assigned the course Annual Infection Control Training." I replied with, "Hi, I believe I was sent this message by mistake. Can you please confirm this?" Following this there was some back-and-forth about whether I really needed to take it, and after some time I just got fed up with it all and took the training. Turns out they had no way to accurately determine who was legally required to take the training, so they made their best guess but didn't say they were guessing, so people like me who didn't need to take the training were told they needed to take the training, even after I contacted someone in training to ask. Schedules update for Lucia. Lots of catching up on email—around 50 items in my inbox. More laptop work for student CF: reinstalled Vista from scratch, then installed Sophos, SP1, and SP2. Drivers, Microsoft Update, Roxio, basic apps, and data restore are next. Snack: an organic fuji apple. To home. Bus 66 leaving 9th and Judah at 7:10 PM turned on Pacheco instead of Quintara—oops! Dinner at home with Patrick: fried rice with vegetables and firm tofu, hot water. Pantry organization project with Patrick: we selected some items to put into our new containers, then I labeled them. Stretches. Weight training: superslow hammer curl, crunch. Stretches. Late meal: all-organic chow mein noodle soup with mushroom broth, seaweed, corn off the cob.
Fri Jan 8, 2010
Breakfast: pumpkin seed and flax seed granola with diced organic fuji apple and nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. Met with Eric D, Beth B, and Sarah P about Drupal and working together amongst groups on campus. Lunch: dijon salmon, carrots, broccoli, water. Email catchup, still around 40 or 50 items in my inbox. Snack: small piece of rainbow sprinkle donut from a box of donuts that a student had brought in for our office. Dinner at home with Patrick: pizza delivery with greek salad and thousand island dressing. Watched 1 hour of Serenity on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Some pantry organization.
Sat Jan 9, 2010
Stretches. Mailed a package. Labeled some pantry items. Organized the box of plasticware and other picnic supplies. Weight training: various lower body, upper abs, lower abs. Breakfast at home: organic granola with pecan, sunflower seed, sesame seed, crystallized ginger, fresh diced organic columbia gorge bosc pear; 10 ounces of V8. Talked to mom on the phone. Repaired a loose screw in a ceiling vent. Cut my hair, showered. Lunch at home with Patrick: leftover pizza, leftover greek salad. Shopping with Patrick: REI, Peet's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Office Depot, Safeway, Rainbow Grocery. Dinner at home with Patrick: garden burgers, onion rings. Finished watching Serenity on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Realized partway through that I had seen it before but didn't remember that I did, looked it up after and found the date: November 4, 2007. Started getting a sore throat. Late meal: noodle soup.
Sun Jan 10, 2010
Breakfast: organic granola with pecan, sunflower seed, sesame seed, organic fresh diced columbia river gorge empire apple; 1 gram of Natrol Easy-C; 12 ounces of V8. eBay followup. Pantry organization. Created records of product packaging. Took 1 gram of Natrol Easy-C. Nap. Dinner at home by myself: nonfat yogurt with mixed berry preserves, organic multigrain with flax english muffin with Smart Balance Light, 100 mg of zinc, 12 ounces of V8.
Mon Jan 11, 2010
Stayed home from work with a sore throat. Breakfast: oatmeal with organic diced apple, 1 gram of Natrol Easy-C, 12 ounces of V8. Drank hot water throughout the day. Recently finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin which I borrowed a long time ago from sneeper. Left this feedback for levis.com today: "I want to be able to enter current sizes for everyone in my family then be able to visit the site or receive html email to see which items (a) fit members of my family and (b) are on sale, showing the % of savings. No one does this now, but with as many resources as Levi's has, why can't you be the first? The 'larger' images aren't large enough, and I can only seem to zoom in on the first, default image—why? I can't see all styles that are low-rise, I can't figure out what the difference between '18XR' and '18WXR' is, I can't filter to see all in a certain waist size regardless of length (because I can do hems on my sewing machine myself). I'd prefer to see actual measurements in addition to the standard sizes. This is more helpful to me than peer reviews that say "yes this fits" (since my body type is different than others') like other clothing websites have recently introduced." Chatted briefly with Tina on the phone while making dinner at home by myself: Russ Parsons' southern comfort soup from his book How to Pick a Peach: olive oil, garlic, Joe Heger Farms organic lacinato kale, organic spinach, organic rainbow chard, medium-grain rice, mushroom broth, freshly grated pepper. I used a blender instead of a food processor, and that worked better than I think the food processor would have worked.
Tue Jan 12, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic fresh sliced banana, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Sent Lucia instructions on how to send a message to all students at UCSF. Responded to a student request for laptop support. Lots of calendar management. Archived the 3-year service contract document for Don's new HP printer. Management work. Updated current students news. Followup with OAAIS about exvs06 versus ex06 setup instructions and server name for UCSF Exchange. Made an adjustment in ICRD to resolve a student's access problem at Mission Bay Genentech Hall. Lunch to go from the cafeteria: tuna salad on whole wheat sandwich, cottage cheese, assorted cut fresh fruit. $5.32. Sent Geordie E the link to the OAAIS Blackberry setup page, made an adjustment to mine. ComNet work. SCWG work: provided feedback on Burton and identity management, notified SCWG about exvs06 versus ex06. Sent a supp app status update to JCB, JWG, and CBW. Web updates: faculty page for Sue A. Chatted with Cesar about exvs06 versus ex06 and about Lucia's monitor, which is having problems. Updated my web pages regarding exvs06 and ex06, then notified the 2 students who reported the problem that the pages were updated. More ComNet work. Listserv management. Followup with Mark B and Rebecca N about exvs06 versus ex06. Communications web page work: videoconferencing. To home. Dinner at home with Patrick: soup with tofu and mixed greens. Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell fly. Late meal: whole wheat english muffin with organic roma tomato slices and sharp cheddar cheese, toasted; leftover tortelloni and vegetables. Recently began reading A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin but then decided instead to reread A Game of Thrones.
Wed Jan 13, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic peruvian fresh sliced banana, organic cinnamon, 1 level tablespoon of brown sugar; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Web edits: videoconf, naplex. Followup with student AC about how to distribute a message widely and how to submit an announcement to the kiosk. Shuttle to Laurel Heights. Web team meeting. Lunch with Eric D at Sweet Jo's—his first time in the center. Tuna melt, salt and pepper french fries, ketchup, ice water. Took photos of 2 conference rooms and the bulletin board area. Shuttle to Parnassus. Various web edits: videoconf, about the students. Walked to the bus stop. Realized that I left the produce I bought today in the office. Back to the office, picked up produce. To home. Dinner at home with Patrick: grilled vegetables quesadillas.
Thu Jan 14, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic peruvian fresh sliced banana, organic cinnamon, 1 level tablespoon of brown sugar; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Student PG reported a problem with CLE; I forwarded it to the CIT lab. Image editing (saturation) for a PowerPoint for Susie. Listserv management. Notified staff about legal name changes reported by the Registrar. Chatted with Susie on the phone following her meeting with MAK. Attempted to get my H1N1 vaccination but I was 40th in line and it wasn't moving very quickly. I waited perhaps 15 minutes and then ditched it. Skipped websteering lunch and IT Services meeting, but said hi to John K and Ed C. Lunch: salmon burrito from Carmelina's. Facelift project work: forked the code, stripped out the accordion, inserted the tabs feature, made many adjustments. Had planned to have dinner with psychobauble but didn't because I still felt remains of illness in my lungs related to my recent sore throat even though all my outward symptoms had disappeared a few days ago. Prepared a package to mail. To home. Dinner at home by myself: leftover Russ Parsons southern comfort soup. Stretches. Weight training: superslow tricep kickback, superslow dumbbell row, superslow shrug, superslow front raise. Stretches. Beverage: 12 ounces of V8. Late snack: about 12 ounces of Nancy's nonfat yogurt with about 2 heaping teaspoons of Mad River Farm wild huckleberry jam.
Fri Jan 15, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic peruvian fresh sliced banana, organic cinnamon, 1 level tablespoon of brown sugar; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Office celebration for Don K. Met briefly with Stephen F. Web team meeting with Susie L and Eric D. Pre-lunch: one clementine. Lunch: to go from Panda Express: fried rice, deep fried shrimp, veggie spring rolls, water, fortune cookie. A funny thing happened when I ordered at Panda Express. I wanted the tangy shrimp entree but the woman behind the counter said I would have to wait 4 minutes. I thought about it for a few seconds and then said I would wait. She immediately said, "Oh, we're out of that" but not with any surprise like she just remembered. She didn't even turn around to check at the chef's pass-thru window. My fortune: You will be successful through innovation and determination. Post-lunch: one clementine. Met with Eric D to do facelift project work: updated our to do list. To home. Dinner at home by myself: organic mixed greens salad with sliced boiled egg, grated parm-reg, Annie's cowboy ranch dressing, sunflower seeds; warm dinner roll, Smart Balance Light, hot water. Transcribed voice memos. Linkchecking for home websites. Stretches. Weight training: bridge. Snack: about 10 salted cashews. Maintenance for home websites: created new pull rsync scripts, ensured that local copies were all current, resolved a problem that I thought I had solved on December 21, 2009—when using rsync to copy files that include special characters (e.g., a u with an umlaut) the file is deleted and recopied. The real solution is "-s --iconv=utf8-mac,iso88591". Late snack: 3.5-ounce bag of popcorn (before popping).
Sat Jan 16, 2010
Breakfast: cream of wheat, organic flame raisins, organic nonfat milk, organic cinnamon. House chores. Archived receipts. Organized files. Installed Komodo Edit 5.2.4 and Google Chrome on my iMac. Snack: raisin bagel with creamy peanut butter, leftover soup (Patrick's batch). Minor web edits for Recharge Spa: new specials, community. Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell press. Dinner at home by myself: leftover soup (Patrick's batch). Nap. Shower. Veggie pizza slice, tap water at Volare. Dancing at Underground SF, encountered Bruce N, met his friends. My favorite part of the night: everyone singing along to the backup vocals on "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Cheese pizza slice, tap water at Volare.
Sun Jan 17, 2010
Breakfast at home with Patrick: beer-and-parmigiano-reggiano biscuits with melted honey-butter and Mad River Farm spreads, Ritual coffee. Snack: grits with monterey jack, halved hard-boiled egg, black sesame seeds, freshly ground pepper. Research for the Recharge Spa web host migration. Lunch: noodle soup with organic udon noodles, sliced roma tomato, sliced carrot, sliced zucchini, gourmet mushrooms, tarragon, baby bok choy, mushroom broth, garlic, olive oil; 16 ounces of V8. Dinner at home. Patrick had eggplant parmesan from the freezer. I made stir-fried spinach with red onions, garlic, and soy sauce on a bed of jasmine brown rice topped with toasted sunflower seeds. Watched extras from Stomp Live on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Patrick and I watched one episode of Facts of Life ("The Runaway") and one episode of Moonlighting ("In 'n' Outlaws") on hulu. More announce-only mailing list software research: DaDa Mail and phplist. Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell fly, superslow crunch, superslow bridge. Patrick saw Avatar with Joseph and Michael earlier today.
Mon Jan 18, 2010
Minor web edit for Recharge Spa. Breakfast: oatmeal with diced organic bartlett pear, 2 leftover biscuits, 16 ounces of V8. Nap. Web work for Recharge Spa: centered the layout, lots of small edits for Drew. Snack: About 12 ounces of Mountain High nonfat yogurt with about a tablespoon of Mad River Farm wild huckleberry jam. I've been using Komodo Edit for text editing the past 2 days, and today I decided to uninstall it. The dealbreaker was that sometimes I'd click into an open window and the cursor wouldn't appear where I clicked. I'd Command+Tab away then Command+Tab back and then it would work. Or, I would Command+Option+LeftArrow to another window and then Command+Option+RightArrow back and then it would work. Switching now to MacVim when what I really want is HTML-Kit for Mac. Dinner at home by myself: hearts of romaine salad with grated carrot, sliced roma tomato, toasted sunflower seeds, blue cheese dressing. Got Lodestar running locally after restoring the database and fixing database connection issues. Late meal: Annie's shells and real aged cheddar with tuna, hot water.
Tue Jan 19, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with flame raisins, organic cinnamon, nonfat milk; 12 ounces of V8. To work. Copied backup files for student CF. Began laptop maintenance for student MW. Estimated time remaining on the facelift project with Eric D. Eric D, Susie L, and I met with MAK to review our facelift project. Continued laptop maintenance for student MW throughout the day. Lunch: veggie burger and fries from the cafeteria. The cafeteria closes tomorrow for 10 months for a renovation project. Facelift project work—getting frustrated with the stylesheet code which has gotten very unruly and unworkable. Did a lot of catching up on mail and helping students with questions. Some were resolved quickly, others will need to drop laptops off or come in for appointments. Dinner at home with Patrick: organic brown rice rotelle in marinara sauce, hot water. Played with vcard for Recharge Spa, linkchecking for home websites. Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell row, superslow lateral raise. Stretches. Late meal: About 12 ounces of Mountain High nonfat yogurt with about a tablespoon of Mad River Farm wild huckleberry jam, corn tortilla quesadilla with monterey jack cheese and finely diced red onion.
Wed Jan 20, 2010
Handed off account info for a student organization. Handed off completed laptop maintenance for student MW. Reported a redirection problem to Doug C—they are having some issues with a new Drupal website they are bringing online; alerted staff. Laptop maintenance for student PG. Web team meeting: background images, new selections. Lunch: shrimp burrito, tortilla chips from Carmelina's. Dinner at Osha Thai on Valencia with Sandip, psychobauble, Nate, Drew, Phil. Saw Gaucho at Amnesia with psychobauble, Nate, Drew, Phil. Tamar Korn provided special guest vocals, and there was one guest musician but I don't recall his name. Bought 2 discs of Deluxe, $15 ech. Encountered Kamran at the event, chatted with him a bit. Tried to stay for the 2nd set but it grew too late and I went home.
Thu Jan 21, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: Superslow tricep kickback, modified superslow tricep kickback, crunch, superslow bridge. Breakfast: oatmeal with organic green apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Laptop maintenance for student PG throughout the day. Facelift project work. Reported a distribution list problem. Submitted a suggestion to OAAIS about Blackberry setup instructions. Lunch: half tuna sandwich, half spinach sandwich from Palio. Facelift project work with Eric D. Dinner with psychobauble. We tried first to go to Katana-ya, but there was a waiting list with perhaps 15 names on it—another time. We ate at Max's. psychobauble had chinese chicken salad and plain water, i had crab cakes sandwich with side salad with corn kernels and potato, hot water. No dessert. $41.59 after a $6 tip. Afterwards we went to San Francisco Comedy Club—our first time. Thursday nights you enter on the 7th floor and pay $5 to hear new talent. Some jokes were hits, many were misses, and sometimes we laughed at the comedians instead of with them, but we were very polite. None of the comedians had a solid set, but the host seemed pretty seasoned. For the first 15 minutes there were only 4 people in the audience, but 4 more arrived later on. psychobauble laughed more than I did. Supposedly the pro shows on Friday and Saturday nights on the 5th floor are funnier/better. The elevator in the building is one of the most unusual I've ever seen. The elevator car has two door openings, but they are not opposite each other, which makes it confusing to know which way to face when the car is crowded. (I think everyone should turn 90 degrees on cue when the door opens.) You can no longer bring your own booze to the show—fyi. Home. Late snack: leftover rotelle in marinara sauce. I recently joined eat.ly. Come find me there if you like, but I'm not sure if I'll stick with it.
Fri Jan 22, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: various lower body. Breakfast: oatmeal with diced organic green apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Finished laptop maintenance for student PG. Facelift project work with and without Eric D. Mailed a package. Lunch at Golden Rice Bowl by myself: sweet and sour meatless "chicken", chow mein noodles, hot tea. My fortune: You will find your solution where you least expect it. Met 1-on-1 with Rodney. Met with student JR to resolve a problem in which UCSF email would always automatically go to the trash. Facelift project work with and without Eric D. To home, missed the bus by a minute or so, took the bus back to work, picked up food in the fridge that I had forgotten, to home again. House chores. Dinner at home by myself: leftovers from lunch. Linkcheck for home websites. Screwed up the Recharge Spa website after attempting to use Cyberduck's Synchronize feature—never again! Did a full site restore, which involved uploading 400 MB of data—it took about an hour over my 1 Mbps upload connection.
Sat Jan 23, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with diced organic red comice pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. Installed Xfile 2.1.0.3 64-bit test drive. Uninstalled it after a few minutes discovering that it doesn't have enough keyboard shortcuts for me. Lunch: leftover soup, dinner roll, Mad River Farm mixed berry jam, hot water. Web work for home: Drupal updates for Patrick's website, drush installation, mailing list research for Recharge Spa: installed Dada Mail. Dinner at home by myself: salad, hot water. Nap, shower. Snack: cow tamale, 12 ounces of V8. (It was an emergency.) Drove to End Up, got in line just before 11 PM, waited in line about 50 minutes before I got in—it was the 3rd anniversary of Shangri-La so it seems it was more crowded than usual. While in line I chatted with Henry V, Le, Diana, Mary, Alex, Brian, Dale, JY, Adrian, Derek, David, and others. JY let me borrow his pea coat for a few minutes. Inside I ate free cold chow mein noodles and a Patesserie Philippe meringue left over from (seemingly) the staff party that must have happened before tonight's opening. Danced. Home. Meal: stir-fried spinach, red onion, mushrooms, and garlic with leftover brown rice, hot water. To bed.
Sun Jan 24, 2010
Spent all day in bed mostly sleeping. Meal at home by myself: leftover soup, pepper crackers and tortilla chips with hummus, hot water. House chores: folded laundry, organized the pantry. Archived documents. Watched Romy and Michele's High School Reunion on Netflix instant watch.
Mon Jan 25, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with diced organic bosc pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. Verified integrity of a portable hard drive for our backups. Made a new backup of my Windows XP VM. Followup with student IM about email address change. Communications work: sent new comm team draft to Eric D and Susie L. Facelift project work: inserted the gradient bleed. Student CF left me a very nice gift today. Web team followup work. Management activities. Lunch: tostada salad and hibiscus tea from Carmelinas for me and Scott E. Web team meeting with Susie L and Eric D. Worked late on the facelift project: widened the panels, updated the tab headings, adjusted the layout for the vision panel. Dinner at home by myself: veggie stir fry with tofu, spinach, mushroom, red onion, garlic, soy sauce; hot water. Dessert: one yogurt almond.
Tue Jan 26, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic bosc pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Worked all day on the facelift project. Lunch: fried rice, mixed vegetables, hot and sour soup from Panda Express. Dinner at home by myself: multigrain crackers and hummus, leftover soup. Dessert: one yogurt almond. Late snack: leftover veggie stir fry. Later snack: microwave popcorn, one yogurt almond.
Wed Jan 27, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic bosc pear, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Facelift project work. Lunch at You See Sushi with Eric D and Scott E. Facelift project work. Dinner at home with Patrick: tacos, hot water. Apple announced the Apple iPad today. This device isn't for everyone, but it fits a niche, and I think there's definitely a place for it. It shows a lot more data than an iPhone or iPod touch, and it's smaller and much easier to handle than the MacBook or iMac. If your needs are simple and you, for example, want to (read/watch/listen/view) a/an (email/book/webpage/song/video)—particularly (in/on) a (couch/airplane/garden)—no other single device is better. Some complained that it's not a full computer, but there are people in our world who don't want or need a computer but they do want the things this device offers. For some, having a computer is more than they can handle. Here's an example: You can fit the iPad into a traditional cookbook stand for displaying recipes and cooking videos in the kitchen then take it upstairs to your favorite easy chair for checking email and reading a book. Is there any other device than can claim the same and has the same kind of elegance in UI? I can't think of anything that could. Yes it costs more than a Kindle, but it also does a lot more than let you read e-books and send email using an experimental web browser. People make comparisons to Kindle and netbooks but I think this is really the creation of a new product category that didn't exist before. It beats out Kindle for people who want to do more than read e-books. It beats out netbooks for people who don't want to deal with computer viruses, Windows/Linux/Ubuntu, or heavier and more cumbersome form factors. The iPad weighs the same as the lightest netbooks—1.6 pounds—but it doesn't have the awkwardness of the hinge. I think it will steal market dollars from a lot of other products without directly competing with them. (Most iPhone and many iPod touch owners don't need to buy meatspace compasses, levels, alarm clocks, voice recorders, maps, cds, dvds, newspapers, photo albums, travel guides, and so on.) I can picture someone loving their Kindle for what it does really well and also buying an iPad to let them do other things. I can picture someone loving their netbook for what it does really well and also buying an iPad to let them do other things. I think that there was so much hype leading up to this device that (judging from comments on Facebook) most people immediately found themselves disappointed without realizing that it has a lot of interesting possibilities. I won't be buying one right away; I rarely buy first-generation hardware. But I wouldn't rule one out for the future.—On an unrelated topic, I left this comment on Jenn S's Facebook stream: "I've always wanted a web app that would let me enter my home airports and show me potential destinations in degrees-gained-per-dollar based on the current forecast and perhaps taking into account historical weather data. Essentially, a warmest-bang-for-the-buck feature. It could work the other way around, too, for people living in hot climates seeking cooler places."
Thu Jan 28, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. 1-on-1 meeting with Susie: facelift project work: edited text for some panels. Web communicators working group meeting. Helped Darius M with some Apache issues. Lunch: hummus, lettuce, tomato sandwich from the University Store; pretzels brought from home. Infrastructure meeting: videoconferencing. Tripwire demo and webcast. Computer maintenance for the computer in the dean's conference room. Facelift project work. More computer maintenance for the computer in the dean's conference room. Dinner at Patxi's with psychobauble. Afterwards we had a drink at Smuggler's Cove and Nate joined us. Nate and I each drank a hotel nacionale, and psychobauble drank a mai tai. Home.
Fri Jan 29, 2010
Stretches. Weight training: superslow dumbbell fly. Breakfast: oatmeal with organic gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk. To work. Met with Leslie K about html email. Facelift project work by myself: stairs background. 1-on-1 meeting with Cindy. Lunch with Patrick at Ten. 1-on-1 meeting with Eric D. Facelift project work by myself: panels. Answered a question for student BP about how to create PDF files. Listserv management. Facelift project work by myself: panels. Administration work: lots of catching up on email. Forgot to leave work on time—ended up working really late. Drew and Romy picked me up at work. Dinner at King of Thai Noodle on Taraval with Romy and Drew. We tried first to eat at Kingdom of Dumplings but there was a long line and they didn't seem to have a waiting list process. We walked down the street about a block and were seated and eating in about 10 minutes. I rode along while they picked up Danny from his meeting near Stonestown, and then they dropped me off at home.
Sat Jan 30, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with diced fresh gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; fresh citrus juice blend. Cut my hair, showered. Drove to Santa Clara. Got lost because Google Maps provided incorrect directions to Secret Garden Korean Cuisine. Lunch at Secret Garden Korean Cuisine with my sister's family, Jessica, David, Alex. To my sister's place. Checked out their master bedroom renovation newly under construction. Lani prepared homemade mochi—delicious! Chatted. Took a nap. Drove to the Mission. The rising moon was large and beautiful on the way. Dinner with Drew, Phil, Romy, Steven, Dong-yi, Dave, Quyen, and Danny. Phil prepared two meat dishes and one vegan dish, side of steamed rice. I think this was the first time I saw the new green bird cage. Dessert: brownies with 4 flavors of ice cream: pumpkin, egg nog, ginger, green tea. Chatted. To home. Bought gas.
Sun Jan 31, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with diced fresh gala apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; fresh citrus juice blend. Web work for Recharge Spa: lots of edits and restructuring. Errand: Walgreens. Washed the car rims. Light lunch: chow mein noodles with organic red onion and organic gourmet mushrooms. Some house chores: laundry. Dinner: tacos.