Mikes Thoughts

Heading Home

January 12, 2010 in Travel | No comments

Heading back home today. First stop Narita after some 7 hours of flying from Singapore. Then get on an evening JAL flight and arrive before I left. Gimme that time back . I’ll be back in Singapore and India mid-February for a few weeks. Got travel planned out pretty much rest of this year back. One of the trips, I’ll do a rather neat side-trip I have wanted to do for awhile to China and another one my 12 year old daughter goes to India with me. I have this list of places in China to go mostly around history and prehistory. I will take my daughter someplace interesting as well perhaps a train journey.

This next trip back to India is a quick one and mostly around office management stuff. It will be good to see all the Cel India folks and harass them for awhile.

Catch everyone on the flipside.

Singapore then Home

January 10, 2010 in Current Events, Travel | No comments

I’m here in Singapore now; gonna meet up with Art tomorrow night for a dinner and a trip to Funan Center DigitaLife Mall here. Going with Art to a electronics mall is like being taken to Disneyland by the Mouse or Duck. You have the feeling that they know what is around each corner, know all the doodads and gizmos worth looking at, and also know what things to miss. I’m looking forward to going to the Mall. Been there one other time when I was here in Singapore the first time.

I also went with Art to the Akihabara Electric Town in Tokyo. Imagine a place you can walk into a tiny stall and ask for something like “type 10035 dual home toggle switch with backlighting” and the guy knows what you want. The bigger thing is that Art knew what one was too. Art is the Gizmo Guy!

On Wednesday morning I board the financially bankrupt JAL but still possessed of some of the best in-flight service (bar Singapore Airlines and perhaps ANA) and head on back to the home frontier. A few things await me there like a Nexus One phone and three calls from AT&T offering an iPhone upgrade to my almost ended ATT account. I think you know my answer. Not interested. I’ll stick with the prepaid sim card thing I got going now.

Good Morning Singapore

January 8, 2010 in Travel | No comments

Here I am in Singapore now. Got in after a 40 minute flight from Koala Lumpur. As usual, customs coming in takes about 5 minutes. Yay!! Finally got to my hotel around 1230am and fell into a coma for 7 hours. Thanks to Celestix Singapore for taking care of me. I appreciate the little extras for this stay. I’m here for 5 days and fly back stateside on Wednesday morning. First off to Narita and then to San Francisco on JAL.

I’m really glad to be here because I like Singapore a lot. It just feels comfortable, easy to get around and do things, and I have an old friend coming into town this Monday from the Linuxcare days and before. We get to share a dinner and a drink or two, talk about the days and friends, and look at what 2010 will offer. Normally, I go off to the Southern California Linux Expo but this year I will miss it for the first time ever. I leave for Chennai, India on 16 February; barely a month after I get back from Singapore. I miss and really love Chennai and its people, culture, traditions, food, beer; so I will enjoy being there for a week or so in mid February. I also get a quick stopover here in Singapore on that trip since I cannot muster the endurance to make the 21 hour flight all at one time. This time I fly on Singapore Airlines to Singapore and then Jet Airways to Chennai.

This weekend is rather free even though I have work I need to get done which was delayed last week due to our sales conference. As much as I liked the conference, I think if I am invited to a similar event in the future, I’ll just decline. I’m not good in large numbers of people and never have been. I don’t like community lunches or socializing with folks in bars. I can do a person or two; but not 30. Its a built in limitation I have.

Tomorrow, two developers I manage come in from India to work in Singapore for 2 days. We need to get a bunch of stuff done and this is a great opportunity for the “pollination” of offices I think we should foster.

So, there ya go. My life and welcome to it. Its a slow Saturday in Singapore. I’m still a bit tired and will probably really not do that much today. Restaurants around the hotel are easy to get to and there is some decent shopping over in Tampines if the mood includes.

Clearing out of Hanoi

January 7, 2010 in Travel | No comments

Been here in Hanoi a week and its been great. Enjoyed the time and shopping and dining experiences. Today I fly off to Singapore for a few days. I get to see my friend Art there which is big bonus! I’ve missed him the last few times that he’s visited California from the Philippines. We’ll do dinner at his hotel and then wander to Raffles Long Bar for a drink or two.

If one thing has emerged from the week of work its that my job really does not end just because a boundary of day and night goes down. I did calls with Singapore and India almost every day this last week. It all makes the enjoyment level and challenge criteria go way up!

Today I fly off, get a weekend in Singapore. Wednesday next week I leave for home via Narita again. As a surprise, United gave me Premiere Executive status which is quite nice. Means I cannot get bumped and get special mileage criteria for some things.

Talk with you all on the other side of a few hours flight today.

Travel Bluez

January 3, 2010 in Travel | No comments

The 2009 travel season is barely over for me. I logged almost 6 months in India in 2009 I believe. I went around February 2009 for a week or so. Then in April for a week. Then back in June for 3 months and then back in October for 2 months. I was mentioning to an IRC friend that this is not your regular brief business travel type thing. This was rather intensive at a few levels. But… I have to admit to loving Chennai and its people, food, and all the places in India one can visit. I went to two unique places this last time which included Mysore and Goa. Mysore is a rather amazing historical and cultural site while Goa is beach, sand, sun and Kingfisher Ale. I’ve been to a few beach places and I don’t recall a single place that looked like Goa with its Portuguese fort ramparts, the wondrous tourist hangouts for beer and seafood. The delicious and addictive cross-over foods which team up giant Prawns with a hot and spicy Portuguese flavor. Served with Goan bread.

I’ve also done a few trips here and there to Singapore. I really love going there for some reason. Perhaps it has all the things I enjoy doing. The eating, drinking, visiting and the quality of life there is quite nice. Shopping malls, evenings spent drinking a few Tiger Ales in open air restaurants, and finding new places to eat. I got to spend a few weekends away from Chennai in Singapore which I enjoyed immensely.

Flash to 2010

So what happens in 2010 around travel? Well, no more long trips to India this year; but I will go every few months. I have a trip approved and scheduled for February and one in April. Both are important for ongoing engineering work, India office requirements, and business management for the India office. Now I am in Hanoi for a week or so and this Friday I leave for Singapore yet again for a few days in that office. I fly back home on 13 January.

Lots of folks ask how my family deals. The family deals like they deal I guess is the answer. So much has happened around that front in the last year; kids are grown up almost. Oldest is working (and hating it). Youngest has a share of independence enough for both. I am needed there but I see this end or termination point for what people need there from me. I won’t even speculate on other issues which have gone down there which are more personal in nature.

Travel is good for me. Clears away some of the carbon build-up. I need it.

Hello Hanoi!

January 1, 2010 in Current Events | No comments

I landed in Hanoi, Vietnam at about 1045pm and got through customs in record breaking time. Took all of 10 minutes from start to end. Very nice. I’m staying at the Intercontinental Westlake for a week or so. I’m here for our annual sales conference and to do a few presentations myself on our products and engineering focus.

After a week here, I fly out to Singapore next Friday for 5 days and then back home again. Not like my earlier trips where i stay gone for months at a time. Around mid-February, I will depart again for Singapore and India for engineering meetings, work and deliverables execution, and other stuff. I’ll be on the road it appears every 45 days for this year. That’s fine for me.

First night after flying 16 hours is kinda strange. I slept or rather fell unconscious for about 6 hours. I slept on the 6 hour plane ride from Narita to Hanoi. Luckily the flight to Hanoi was not too crowded so I had two seats to myself so I could stretch out.

This trip, I’m going with no real books. Instead, since I am an inveterate reader; I’m going with the world kindle. Folks tend to ask me all sorts of questions about it. Yes, its easier than lugging around 2 or 3 pounds of books. Battery life is decent. It links to my regular amazon account. Books are downloaded to it automatically. If you travel; its worth the savings in weight.

I also purchased a Lenmar 4 port international USB charger which lets me charge phone, iPod, kindle and even my PSP at the same time. Very handy. This is a great deal if you travel frequently. Just remember to carry the slightly different USB cables. Beats the heck out of carrying little travel chargers with plugs, etc.

Today, I find a cheapo Vietnam Simcard to use while here and also just rest a bit after the flight. Going to have breakfast here in a bit and take a look around the hotel boundaries. Maybe take some photo’s to add to my flickr stream.

Finally, don’t travel with the wrong OS on that computer folks. Leave Windows at home and use Ubuntu. Easier to manage, update, deal with strange networks. I’ve found Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 to be a very handy and capable OS. If you cannot do this; how about using a live CD instead? No real tracks of what you did, banking, etc. Give it some thought. Do you really need all that fluff and stuff on Windows 7? Probly not

Santa says

December 31, 2009 in Current Events | No comments

Travel to Hanoi and have fun. Don’t buy paper books or hardbacks. Use the Kindle. I bought one and the idea of being set free from trying to plan out the books, carrying all that weight, and having something portable and easily packed in carry-on baggage is very nice. I read a lot so always in the past had to carry two books. Now, I carry a few more but they’re inside the kindle waiting.

I’m sitting at SFO in the International Terminal patiently waiting for my JAL flight to Narita and then on to Hanoi. Its pretty exciting since I have never been there. After a week or so in Hanoi, I fly over to Singapore for some days for work. Perhaps meet Art there for drinks at Raffles Long Bar.

Happy New Years folks. Hope you all have a happy and profitable year in 2010. If you went to Vegas in 2009, don’t worry. Its all forgotten and in the past…

The AnythingbutItunes Experience

December 28, 2009 in Subterfuge | No comments

There already is a site called Anything But Ipod now we need a site for anything but iTunes. First we need a media server which does not do the serving the brain dead way of iTunes. Firefly Media Server works with a variety of clients unlike the brain dead iTunes method that locks people out of the share unless running iTunes. What’s up with that? How can that possibly be “sharing”?

Now we need some clients. Here are a few interesting media players:

Songbird – This one has come a long way on Linux. When I first tried it it would lock up my debian system solid. Now it works,

VLC Media Player – You gotta check this one! Works across the board very reliably. its industrial strength and a lot of people use it on a variety of platforms.

aTunes – I have not checked this one out yet; but it fills the bill because it can install on multiple platforms too. Let me know whatcha think if you use it.

XBMC – Finally, how about this one? Not tried it yet either; but it appears interesting and alive as well

Friends don’t let friends use iTunes. Its evil and it steals your music and soul. Become a discerning user and make a choice. Don’t let the iKingdom dictate to you just because you have a MAC that iTunes is the place. It ain’t and never will be.

Information Repo’s on the Go

December 25, 2009 in Events, News | 1 comment

You all know the scheme. You are busy professionals on the go. Always having not quite enough time to read, scan, or see the latest news. I’ve been using this rather nice web service along with my Android phone to track articles I just don’t have the time to track. Its called Read It Later and there is a very nice little client on the ‘Droid called Paperdroid which will do this list as well as others. The idea here is to tag the articles, websites, information online using the bookmarklet you house on Firefox. You all use Firefox right and not that despicable other browser called Exploder, right? If not shame to you. Anyways, you place the bookmarklet on your browser and off you go after setting up an account which is free. Tag an article, download and sync to the android. Off ya go.

A second thing to try is Evernote to track your rapidly changing digital information. Evernote is orders of magnitude better than OneNote because its smartphone clients actually do something and OneNote locks you to a single OS. There is now an Evernote Client on the Android which works remarkably well. You fire it up with a 3G or Edge or wifi account and it sync’s the notes. If you don’t have a net connection it will then sync the changes when you do.

Finally, to share what you should be doing and are not tracking and if you either are or are not fond of GTD or my nGTD advances (notGetting Things Done) which focus more on not emptying your brain but finding reasonable receptables for the information you have to track, assigning statuses to each one, tracking it, and then finishing it without worrying about contexts and Nexts; try Astrid plus Remember the Milk. RTM by itself allows you to track that evolving and distinct bits that make up your various lives. We all have various lives that cycle around work, pleasure, fun, personal. I track things by using this combination. I guess you could use it for GTD but why bother. By the time you find the right desktop, web, and smartphone client all the “things” you must “Get Done” will be overdue

Finally, I see that Apple may have a tablet. Who cares? They always have some rumor that they incite with. Who cares about another silo? Another iPhone experience where you are locked into one OS, one experience, one view. I’ll take the original Slate tablet and carve into it using stone tools instead.

My take on Vick, etc

December 24, 2009 in Current Events | No comments

The dude did something wrong. The dude paid his time. The dude is talented and got hired to play football again and won an award. How about we give him the same rights as the thousands of others who pay their bill to the so-called society and let them get on with life? If his life happens to be in the NFL spotlight, so be it. You all think anyone is truly a saint? If you do, I got this awesome bridge in California to sell ya.

Let the man go.

The ETC…

I always add one. I got my Moto Milestone and I’m stuck in a loving mood with it. Its a great device, has this kinda strange and quirky good looks. It does the phone thing well; but is that the only reason we truly get Android devices? I think we want them because we are discriminating and we don’t want stupid Apple phones that only come in one flavor, one hardware type, with no flashing of ROMs. There is no root on this phone (yet) but we saw the same thing happen when I bought my HTC Magic from Airtel in India. Inside of a month, the phone was rooted and we had great customized ROMs on it. It all takes time.

You may be tempted to think that its the same as the Verizon Droid; but it ain’t. Its unlocked which is the only kinda phone I’ll buy any more. It did have the battery cover issue which I fixed today thanks to this video: