Archive for the ‘Daily Life’ Category

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Cleanup

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Bottles and CansToday and yesterday I spent cleaning up my room and car. I’ve dumped all the packaging I have accumulated in the car and room, sorted all the paper, and brought all the bottles and cans in for recycling. Got more than $5 for the bottles (5¢ each).

After recycling, I went to the Toyota dealership where I bought my car for a 6-month service. Because I only drove 2,900 miles, the service included only an oil change and general inspection. However, they took a long time to perform the service, so instead of paying $28, I got the service and materials completely free.

Now I’m back the office. Later today I’ll go to another boardgaming session in San Jose (30min drive from here).

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Posted in American Culture, Daily Life | 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 »

Quake 5.6

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

5.6 Magnitude EarthquakeYesterday night, I have felt an earthquake of magnitude 5.6 on the Richter scale. At the time, I was playing boardgames in Mountain View and all the tables started moving slightly and then stopped. No damage or injury was caused by the earthquake, but immediately people called their friends on cellphones to check on them and to tell them they are OK. I didn’t call because it was 4 AM in Israel. I decided I’ll blog on it when I get home. When I did get home, I started writing this post, but I fell asleep due to jet lag.

In other news, I’m giving a talk today at the group lunch as the person who was planned to talk today had to cancel. I’m giving the same talk I gave at Dagstuhl, so it should be easy for me.

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Posted in Academia, Daily Life, Gaming | 4 Comments »

Errand day

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

After returning from Mexico, I had a lot of things to take care of. I got lots of mail in my office: A new miniSD card and a new SIM for my iPAQ, an American Express credit card, a and VISA debit card. I also had to print a paper I have to review and read a backlog of Hebrew e-mails I couldn’t read on my iPAQ (I still have a backlog of blog posts to read).

After taking care of all that in Stanford and eating lunch, I headed for the Social Security office in Redwood City. After I few wrong turns I have finally arrived and had to wait in line for about an hour, so I read the paper I have brought with me. When my turn finally arrived, I submitted the form and was told I’d get a social security card that’s valid for employment in six weeks, however the number will remain the same.

Two blocks from there is a California DMV office, where I applied for a driver’s license and passed the written exam (with only one mistake). I was issued a temporary license on the spot and scheduled a driven test for two weeks later.

After finishing these errands, I returned to Stanford and joined another event of the Stanford Jewish community, held in the Sukkah. There I met another new post-doc (only a week here) that knew me from FishEye. I told him some useful information about getting a car and a driver’s license and we exchanged e-mails.

The event ended at 9pm, and it was just time to go see House on FOX. It seems that the TV method of seeing shows has the major disadvantage of having commercial breaks interleaved with the show, however you can see shows only 3 hours late (we’re on the west coast) and before they arrive on file sharing.

Today I came to the office early as I forgot the charger of my iPAQ and my battery has run out. I’m still waiting for the extended battery I ordered to arrive. No special plans for today, though I do plan to begin doing actual research.

P.S. check out the posts from Mexico, as I have added links and pictures.

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Posted in Bureaucracy, Daily Life, Stanford, USA | 3 Comments »

New car, new friends

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

My CarI haven’t updated in some time. You don’t have to worry. I’m doing fine. Yesterday I picked up my brand new blue 2008 Toyota Yaris, all paid for and insured. So now I have a car and a place to live. I got a good deal on the car and paid only $16,300 for it including all taxes.

Today I bought a parking permit for the car, so now I can actually park on campus. I also finally got my student number and ID card, and my network ID, so now I can use my laptop anywhere on campus.

I have done other stuff this weekend. On Sunday I went on a short hike to “the dish”, a radio-telescope here at Stanford and made some new friends from all over the world.

I was also told about a BBQ at the Jewish center here at Stanford on Monday night so I went there as well. Many nice people, very few Israelis there. After the BBQ party, they aired the first episode of season 2 of Heroes on a big screen, so I stayed to watch.

Next post I’ll talk about the wonders of eBay.

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Posted in American Culture, Bureaucracy, Daily Life, Stanford, USA | 3 Comments »

Residential Address

Friday, September 21st, 2007

Good news: I have found a place to stay!

Today I started my search for a less temporary place to stay and I immediately found one. The chepest place available answered and had all what I need (bed, electricity, wifi) and for only $450/month. It’s also a short 12 minute drive from my office. After several calls to the landlord and my parents I decided to go for it, without seeing any other places. The room was so cheap because I am barred from any kind of cooking in the room. However, with the money I saved I can eat out every day if I want to. All in all, I think I struck a great deal.

My residential address, if you would like to send me mail, is:

Alon Altman
256 Walter Hays Dr.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
USA

Yesterday I went to Stanford’s compulsory postdoc orientation meeting. In this useless 2.5 hour meeting, we were explained a lot of practical information I have already read online. I didn’t even get my student ID number, as the postdoc office did not receive all my information on time. I also went to the weekly meeting of Yoav’s group and got introduced to all the other researchers in the team.

Later that day, I went to the social security office to get my card replaced to one that is valid for employment. They told me that I must arrive after the start date of my program, which is October 1st.

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Posted in Bureaucracy, Daily Life, Stanford, USA | 3 Comments »

Office 2007

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

Yesterday was my first full day here. In the morning I went to eat breakfast at McDonald’s, guided by my trusted navigation system. The first McD I went to was closed, so I went to another one which was open.

After breakfast I returned to the motel, and figured out I somehow managed to lose my room key. In any case, I decided to go on line and plan the rest of my day. It was still early to go to the International Center at Stanford, so I decided to go to see a new car for sale. I called the person I’ve been in touch with at the dealership and set an appointment for an hour later. The price he quoted at the dealership was too high for my parent’s taste, so I did not yet buy the car.

From the dealership I made my way to Stanford, ate lunch, and went on to get my temporary ATM card and visit the Int’l center for an orientation. Then, I drove to the CS faculty and met with the administrator there. I signed lots of forms to be on payroll and got signed up for an orientation meeting today. Then, I went to see Yoav — the professor I’ll be working with. Even though he was not expecting me, he took the time to give me a short tour of the faculty and have his assistant assign me an office and give me a key. Now I have an address where I can get mail! The address is:

Alon Altman
Gates Computer Science
353 Serra Mall, room 258
Stanford, CA 94305
USA

After arranging all that, I went back to the hotel room and on line. I had a chat with my friend whom I met in Hawaii and met up with her for dinner. I really enjoyed it.

Overall, I feel good and even though getting settled is hard, I think I’m doing pretty well. Today will be another day at Stanford and I hope to start looking for places to stay tomorrow.

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Posted in Daily Life, Personal, Stanford, USA | 6 Comments »

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