iWoz

Simply put, this book was awesome. It's all lighthearted, and very non-technical. In some sense it is more like a collection of little interesting stories than it is a narrative of exactly how everything came to be.

In case you are wondering, Steve Wozniak was a cofounder of Apple Computer with Steve Jobs. Woz was the shy technical guy behind the Apple I and Apple II, the sole designer of the circuitry.

As this book alludes to, Woz is also a big prankster. He shares stories of many pranks he played back in his high school and college days, and even while at Apple -- the book is probably worth buying for these stories alone. Sadly, he didn't include his Two Dollar Bill Story, which is probably his best.

Check out this book, you'll like it. And if you do nothing else, read the Two Dollar Bill Story. This means you. Read it. Now!

Monterey and Big Sur

My friend Arjun and I went on a little mini roadtrip to Monterey, CA and the area below it known as "Big Sur". There was a lot of great scenery, and great company.

Monterey
This is a very touristy area, but didn't live up to what I expected. We battled stop-and-go traffic and paid $20 to park, only to find nice looking downtown full of restaurants and souvenir shops. That said, we didn't go on the 17 Mile Drive or visit the Monterey Aquarium, both of which this area is known for. (I think those two can be a day trip in themselves.)

Big Sur
The name Big Sur refers to the area along the coast south of Monterey. It has got to be one of the most scenic areas in the world. Even with a point-and-shoot camera, it's hard not to take some amazing photographs here. We were stopping on the side of the road every mile or so to explore little trails and photograph the cliffs and surf.

Bixby Bridge
We continued south until the Bixby Bridge, a long concrete arch bridge that built between two cliffs. It is certainly not as well known as the Golden Gate Bridge, but similarly scenic. Unfortunately it was somewhat cloudy around this part, so the photos aren't as spectacular as they could have been.

Hurricane Point
This is a very touristy area, but didn't live up to what I expected. We battled stop-and-go traffic and paid $20 to park, only to find nice looking downtown full of restaurants and souvenir shops. That said, we didn't go on the 17 Mile Drive or visit the Monterey Aquarium, both of which this area is known for. (I think those two can be a day trip in themselves.)

View all 26 photos from the trip as a Flickr Slideshow

My Car is California Bound

California Bound

Thank God. Six sevenths of the time I don't need, and don't miss my car -- I bike to work, and can take the train into the city. But its that last one seventh of the time that can be really painful.

See, biking to the grocery store seems all romantic -- saving gas, and the environment -- but alas, you can only fit 1-2 days worth of food in there. And forget transporting ice cream on a hot day. My car is on a truck now, and should be arriving here mid-week. I'm looking forward to the freedom that the car enables, and hopefully the first significant mini-roadtrip of the summer.

Bose Headphones Update 2

A few months ago I wrote about Bose Quietcomfort II Headphones that I purchased, and the experience I had. I was slightly disappointed at the time, but now I'll say that I'm completely happy with the purchase.

Having used them on a few flights, I'll say that I will never fly without them again. They turn the roar of a jet engine into a gentle hiss, like that of an air conditioning fan. In fact, I periodically take them off just to see what I would be putting up with if I didn't have them. Surprisingly, I've found that most flight attendants will let you wear them during takeoff and landing, so long as they don't see the red LED switched on. Combine them with an MP3 player, and you've got comfort, er well, at least as close as you can get in a cramped coach seat.

Thoughts From A Trip Back East

I took a last minute trip home this week due to a death in the family. Some notes:

• Of the four major airlines in the US:
• Two do not offer any bereavement rates
• One offers a 5% discount, which basically means it's not worth the hassle of ordering by phone instead of online
• Continental offered a very significant discount on the order of 60%, but alas they had not seats that qualified for that rate. I can't imagine many situations where one would know about a death much in advance, so I don't anticipate they actually have tickets at this rate very often.
• McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas offers free WiFi, so long as you're willing to provide an e-mail address (or a fake one presumably.) It performs pretty well on the c|net bandwidth test -- about 680kbps downstream.
• Children with high pitched voices are the Kryptonite of the Bose Quietcomfort headphones.
• NPR podcasts make for great listening material on long flights -- a nice break from music.
  

Back at Oakwood

After last weekend's puzzle hunt I finally moved back into Oakwood. I feel like I'm back in civilization, and within reach of my friends. The photo above is of the my studio.

For the previous two weeks, I had been staying at a corporate housing apartment provided by my employer. The place itself was nice, but without a car it made my commute very long -- ~40 minutes walking ~40 minutes on the light rail.

Oakwood seems to have a much greater sense of community, as all the residents here tend to be from out of town. In the past week alone, I've met two teenagers from Spain, a guy from Illinois, two people from Argentina, two from Mexico, one from the east coast, one from Portugal, and one from a country whose name I had never heard of and still can't pronounce (FWIW it was near the Baltic Sea). One of these new friends proposed holding an "International Pot Luck" here which I would certainly look forward to. Question is: what does the US citizen bring to the party?

One downside to Oakwood currently is that the free "Internet Access" still sucks. That said, it has improved since last year. And by improved, I mean that one guy probably just stopped a bittorrent. Aside from that -- as much as I like this place, I can only reasonably afford to stay here for a month or so. I should have my car on the way here soon, so that will make finding a more permanent apartment much easier.

"The conference bike"

"The conference bike"

I had the opportunity to ride a 7 person "Conference Bike" at work recently. Everyone pedals, and one person steers. It clearly gets its name from the fact that everyone faces one another while riding -- but someone took the liberty of setting this up as a conference room in the company calendar -- so you can actually schedule a meeting on it!

With the way it's setup, pedaling only helps if you go the same speed as everyone else -- it's not additive. Stated differently velocity[bike] = max(velocity[person 0], velocity[person 1], ..., velocity[person 6].

Interestingly, on our ~0.3 mile trip to another office building, two cars pulled over to take photos. As one other rider commented, "That was a good thing to try once."

The photo is actually of some random other people riding it, and comes courtesy of Matt.