Archive for the ‘Tech stuff’ Category

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Going Out Alon(e)

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Computer History MuseumThis week I started doing stuff in my free time instead of staying home all day. It all started with me searching Google for information about the movie “Be Kind, Rewind.” That search popped up a link with showtimes in my area, so I decided to look around and see how much to movie tickets cost here.

So I browsed the ordering site, and found that tickets for the early screening cost $7.50. Not expensive, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, so I browsed out of the ordering screen. That popped up a message saying I could get the ticket for free. After a short signup on some other site I got my free ticket cupon (I’m a big sucker for free stuff). After going through all that work, I decided I might as well pay $1 for my “free” ticket and go see the move.

I went off directly from work to the theater in Redwood City: 20 auditoriums and lots of space, cheap and plentiful parking, and generally a nice place to be. As usual, I was about 15 minutes early, so I went into the theater and watched trailers before the movie. The movie itself was funny and enjoyable, and I didn’t feel weird watching it alone.

After the movie I felt like I wanted more, and wanted to see a more serious movie I heard good things about, so I went out to the cashier and bought a ticket for “Juno.” It was one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a while and I could really identify with the main character, even though my situation does not resemble hers.

That concluded that night out, but not my excursions for the week. Coming back to Google’s movies site, I noticed that an Israeli film called “The Band’s Visit” is showing in a small arthouse theater in literally on my way from work home. So I decided and go see the movie the next day. Even though I read very positive reviews about it on FishEye, I still think that Juno was much more moving. That said, I don’t think it was a bad movie.

Today is Saturday, and the day before Easter. I decided to finally do something I’ve been thinking of almost since I got here, and went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, about a 5 minute drive from my home in Palo Alto. Admission is free and we got a nice tour of the exhibits. The docent has also shown us some of the exhibits in storage that are not usually accessible to the general public.

After visiting the museum I visited the museum website, and found out that they do not have a Dragon-32 computer and are seeking donations. The Dragon-32 was the first computer I’ve ever used (The 32 stands for 32 Kilobytes of RAM it has). We should still have a working Dragon-32 at home in Israel, and I would like to ask my parents if they are willing to donate it.

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Posted in American Culture, Leisure, Tech stuff, USA | 6 Comments »

Cold, bill’d, stuck and fixed

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Yesterday I woke up with a cold, for not apparent reason. Had a work meeting with my advisor and told him about my sinister plans to go home. He immediately approved my decision. On my way back to the office, I peeked into the AI lab meeting room, where I saw a familiar face, someone the building was named after, the chairman of the most hated company in the world — Bill Gates. I didn’t stay much longer, as his bodyguards told me to move along, but still he really was there.

Later, I placed some orders for people who wanted me to bring them stuff, and went to buy a thermos (so I can have some tea) and then to the Tuesday games group. In the games group, we played my copy of Container. Then it started raining. So, someone with an umbrella helped me walk to the car without getting my game wet, and I put it in the trunk, and closed the trunk…. with my keys inside. Luckily, someone else from the game group was generous enough to drive me home and back so I can get my spare keys and open the car.

When I finally reached home again, I found a pleasant surprise. My laptop was back from repair. I did not expect it to return so soon. It was picked up on Saturday, repaired on Monday, shipped the same day, and arrived back on Tuesday. Not bad, especially given the fact that it was flown to Memphis for the repair.

So, now I’m home, with a working laptop, and a cold…

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Posted in Gaming, Health, Tech stuff, USA | 2 Comments »

Fan Error

Friday, February 15th, 2008

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog. The reason is a combination of lots of things happening (so I don’t have time or will to blog) or nothing happening (and thus nothing to blog about).

The news in short: I have missed submitting papers to two major conferences, had some medical trouble (more on the US medical system in a separate post), and my postdoc was extended for a second year.

The title of this post does not refer to a mistake by an admirer, but rather to the message my laptop displays shortly after starting up. I have to send it in for repair, and remain laptop-less for 7 business days or more. I’m writing this post from my green OLPC laptop, after I made it work with the encrypted network at home.

Speaking of home. my next visit to Israel is in two months from now. I can’t wait to be back and meet my family and friends.

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Posted in Academia, Tech stuff | 1 Comment »

Memory Loss

Friday, January 11th, 2008

2GB miniSD CardI know I haven’t blogged in a while. There was not much to write about, and I skipped writing about some interesting stuff, but anyway I have something to write about today.
Last night, as was walking to my car like any other day, except that I had dinner with a visiting professor. I didn’t want to be late so I left half an hour before the meeting, even though it was 5 minutes away from campus. On my way to the car, I keyed in the location into my GPS just to be sure. Trying to type while walking, I dropped my iPAQ (which is also my GPS). The drop did not damage the iPAQ, but it did separate the screen cover and the stylus, which I have easily recovered, and kept on walking. After a few meters, I noticed that the GPS software wouldn’t work. After another try I realized that my miniSD memory card was gone.

Now, you should understand that a miniSD card is only 2cm x 2cm large, about the size of a SIM card. Looking for the card on a sidewalk in the darkness, when I did not know where exactly it fell was not an easy task, and indeed I did not find my card.

As time was running out, I decided to head for dinner, without a functioning GPS. It shouldn’t have been hard since it was basically one right turn in a major intersection. I missed the turn. If I had GPS, I would have known exactly where to go. Being GPSless, I decided to take the next right turn. Unbeknown to me, that road did not intersect with my destination road. Anyway I had to turn several times until I finally reached my destination. Google map of my path.

Today, I looked for my card in daylight and I couldn’t find anything, so I restored my backup into my old 1GB card, which am using now.

Lesson: Always look for your memory card if you drop your phone.

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Posted in Daily Life, Stanford, Tech stuff | 2 Comments »

OLPC XO XD!

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

OLPC Green LaptopI just got my XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child give one get one program, and I’m happy. It’s a lean green Linux machine and it’s all mine for $423.95 (and one additional laptop was donated to some poor child).

I ordered it a few weeks ago when they announced the program because ever since Zvi Devir’s Haifux talk I wanted to have one. It’s small, relatively lightweight and runs Linux.

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Posted in Tech stuff | 4 Comments »

New gallery and pictures from Mexico

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

I am experimenting with some photo gallery software. I have just installed Gallery on my hosted server and uploaded my pictures from Mexico including pictures taken by the other travellers on the trip to the pyramids.

You can visit the gallery site at http://gallery.8LN.org/. I will probably upload more photos later.

You can also try an experimental map showing where some pictures were taken using GPS coordinates.

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Posted in Mexico, Tech stuff | No Comments »

iPAQ & I pack

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

HP iPAQ hw6945Yesterday the HP iPAQ I have ordered from eBay has arrived unexpectedly to my office. It was not expected because the US postal service website did not update the details of the delivery.

So, what is this iPAQ you ask. Well, it is a mobile PC slightly larger than a mobile phone. My model includes a full QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen and supports WiFi, cellular, GPS, and bluetooth. It can also hold up to 2GB of flash and be used to surf the web, play music and videos, and to write notes (such as this blog post).

The last day was mostly spent playing with this new toy. The other things I did were send my laptop for warranty service (LCD problems) and pack for my trip to Mexico City. I am writing this post from the Delta crown room in San Francisco airport.

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Posted in Mexico, Tech stuff | 1 Comment »

The wonders of Skype

Saturday, August 11th, 2007

Get Skype Credit To Your AccountFour countries… seven people…. one hour, and $4, and all the family is in one phone call.

My parents are currently in Ürümqi, China, while I am in Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey. So, they sent me a text message with their room number and I immediately called via skype. After talking for some minutes they wondered what my younger brother in Israel is up to. So, I suggested adding him to the call. A few clicks later, and he was on line. During the call I saw that one of my older brothers (also in Israel) is online on skype so I added him to the call as well. Then I also added the oldest brother who currently lives in Saarbrücken, Germany by calling his number again via skypeOut. So now, there were 6 people online (my parents, myself, and all my brothers).

My parents repeated their story about their trip to China and asked everyone to tell how they were doing. During the call, they wondered about my grandmother, so after all the brothers were off the phone I connected her cell phone. So, in total seven people were online in this one conference call made possible by skype. The most amazing thing, that even though the entire conference lasted more than an hour, the total cost was less than $4.

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Posted in Tech stuff, Travel, Turkey | 1 Comment »

There’s Linux in the Air

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

Linux on a plane!

Today I flew on a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 to Istanbul in order to attend the 2007 European Debating Championship. On the way there, there was a very nice on-board entertainment system with personal screens, and the route display system ran on Linux. I know that because a Linux boot screen was visible on all personal screens for several minutes. Regrettably, I did not bring my digital camera over, so all I have for you here is the caricature above.

If you are reading these lines and wondering to yourself “what is this Linux he’s talking about?”, I’ll have to first point you here and then explain that I am a Linux and Free Software enthusiast for many years now and use Linux exclusively for at least 8 years.

Anyway, after we landed at the airport, it took a long time to pass passport control, and then a much longer time to wait for all the Israelis to pass. Especially as one of our group needed to buy a visa while another lost her passport (she found it eventually).

After finally everyone was set, we were taken to the university and got our room. The four Technion males were allocated to one dorm room. I’m now very hungry so we’re soon going to grab some food. My plan for the weekend: check projects and get some work done. The tournament will start on Sunday. Expect another update then.

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Posted in Tech stuff, Travel, Turkey | No Comments »

Moving Servers

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Server MoveAs many of you know, I host my own server with domain name 8LN.org. What many of you do not know, is that this server is hosted in my dorm room at the Technion. As part of the process of leaving the Technion and moving to Stanford I need to move this server as well, and this is not an easy task.

Dedicated server hosting, which is comparable to what I have now costs an arm and a leg. The cheapest hosting I could find is in the order of $30/month. Therefore, I decided to go with a web hosting service. After doing a brief survey, I signed up with bluehost.com. For less than $100/year, I get all the bandwidth and disk space I need, plus a free domain name.

I registered the domain epsalon.org and have already moved this blog there (please tell me if there are any problems). I’ll soon start copying all the contents of my website to the new server, one service at a time.

I expect to leave the dorms around late July – early August. By then, most of the primary services should already be hosted on the new server. There should be no change in the URLs.

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Posted in Tech stuff, USA | 1 Comment »

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