mintrix.net

Happy 4th!!!

minhsao — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:08:37 +0000

Only in Las Vegas in July!!!! Only in USA!!!! Happy 4th of July!!!

Walking around LV in the hot summer evening…

minhsao — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:29:59 +0000

Las Vegas is hot!!! Here are some picture of my brief walk around.

Cisco Live 2010

minhsao — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:58:11 +0000

Pictures from the plane

minhsao — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:43:39 +0000

Pictures from the air!!! Mt. St. Hellen And Columbia River!!!

Woo Hoo … New iPhone 4!!!

minhsao — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:45:52 +0000

So about an hour ago… after an hour wait in line in front of the Apple Store in Lynnwood, I finally got my new iPhone. This is my 3rd version of iPhone and I am pretty excited. I am still very very surprised that I was in line to get a phone. I am pretty surprised, but it was all a mistake on my part for not get it shipped to my house. However, I did meet a very interesting person while waiting ini the line. This gentleman is an iPhone developer. He actually developed few really simple apps that make him enough money to quit his full time job and to go back to college. That is truly inspiring!!! His app is called “magic card”. What is also very interesting is that he is the personal friend of Al Gore. That is a shock.

Anyways… off to playing with my new iPhone :)

My quest for an iPhone 4

minhsao — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:21:30 +0000

So today I went to the apple store to pick up the iPhone. What a line for a reservation??? WTF!?!?!? The reservation line was longer than the regular line. It extended all the way to PF Changs!!!!

I guess I will be getting my iPhone 4 in the afternoon… or I may not be getting my iPhone 4 at all!!!

Another Monthly Update

minhsao — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:46:59 +0000

It’s been almost a month since my last blog posting. Things have been moving pretty fast. Finally moved in to my new house. It’s great, however, almost everything is still in the garage. I’ve been really busy with my New York project. I was just back there this past week. It seems that I’ve been alot busier than ever before. The house requires constant caring. Just yesterday I repaired my doors, just last week changed locks, just today, I fixed the guest toilet from leaking. And as soon as the rain stops and dries up a bit, I will need to mow my lawn.

So, what else been going on? Well… I pre-ordered a new iPhone 4. I will be picking that up on Thursday!!!!

Woo Hoo!!! I am officially a home owner in Washington!!!

minhsao — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:28:09 +0000

After many month of looking and hunting and dealing with stupid lender funding my loan, I am finally and officially a home owner!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

So what’s next???

Weekend / Monthly Update with Min-Hsao Chen

minhsao — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:02:21 +0000

So it has been a very long time since I wrote in my blog and since I am in the middle of my craziness at work on a Sunday, what better time to write a little bit about what have been going on so I won’t forget all the little things.

So Let’s start from now and go back to where we last left off…

Today.. I am working in the office today… overwhelmed with 2 major projects. Oh and I also receive my new glasses… which is incredibly fast. I ordered them on line on 05/20/2010. Which means I got them in 2 days!!!!! oh and it was only 15 dollars with lens and coatings and all!!! Coastalcontacts.com baby!!!

I may post a picture later if I have time.

Yesterday (05/22/2010), we spend an entire day looking for carpets and paint colors…. why? well… look below…

This past Friday (05/21/2010), I was suppose to be a home owner, however, the stupid lender decide not to fund in the last minute and then decided that they made a mistake and will be funding me. So I will be closing on Monday!!! Oh … I guess I will be a home owner soon!!! yeah!!!

This past Friday was bike to work day, and I biked to work going my fastest getting to work for an 8AM meeting. 54minutes from my townhome to my office!!! just short of 14mile/hour average time. I am getting stronger. In the afternoon, I took on the challenge of 8th Ave NE going south bound. Yes, it was a super step hill and on top of that it was pouring !!!! I was soaked!!!

Wednesday, my folks arrived in Seattle.

Monday, I biked to work with my new bike seat… I felt the comfort and more power!!!

2 weeks ago… I was back in NYC for my second trip for my project.

about a month ago… oh I signed contract for a new house.

So did I miss anything?

3 years in Seattle!!!!

minhsao — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:10:59 +0000

I was reminded that today is my 3 year anniversary with Sparling, my current company. It is hard to believe that 3 years ago I moved from the little town called Ephrata to Seattle. It was 3 years ago that I started my life in Seattle. So many things have changed since that time and more changes are coming … stay tuned!!!

What will happen to Space Camp after the Space Shuttle Program?

minhsao — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:40:17 +0000

About 15 Years ago, I participated in Space Academy, it was a more advanced Space Camp. It was an amazing experience. I loved it. I remember, it was the day that I decided after space camp that I should pursuit a more realistic dream and become an engineer instead of a pilot for the space shuttle.
But take a look at this person that continued her dream, I think she was in Space Camp around the same time I was.
http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12260779

It does make you think what will happen to space camp after the shuttle program.

http://gizmodo.com/5517896/neil-armstrong-blasts-obamas-space-plan

I corrected Google maps!!!

minhsao — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:35:21 +0000

Few weeks back, Google released the updated google maps that supported bicycle routes. Of course I immediately map my route from home to work and I found that they did not connect a segment of the Inter-urban trail. So I wrote to them and today I got a response back!!! Woo hoo!!

Hi Min Hsao,

Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We’ll update the map soon and email you when you can see the change.

Report history
Problem ID: 5D86-46E6-CFDF-4DA5

Your report: After step 35 there is an interurban trail from 52nd Ave W linking to 44th Ave W. this is a much better route than what is suggested on the bike directions from google.
–

Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

My first paper to be accepted by a conference!!!!

minhsao — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:45:47 +0000

Wow… what an amazing morning. I received an email that one of my paper just been accepted by this conference. ICWN (International Conference on Wireless Networks) is the conference name. Oh!!! Exciting!!!

My Awful Experience with Delta Airlines!!!

minhsao — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:17:44 +0000

So this past weekend, I travelled from New York City Airport (JFK) back to Seattle. On the way back I faced few of the most awful costumer services experiences ever and I even found few pieces of glass in my salad. On top of that Delta’s response to my complaint email was shockingly disappointing.

So let me tell you about my recent experiences.

1) Rude ticketing and gate agents in JFK.

When we arrived, at JFK 2.5 hours before take off, we were hoping to get a companion upgrade for me. Since my girlfriend is a Delta Airlines Platinum Status member and is entitled to a companion upgrade. Not allowing us the upgrade is one thing. But the rude attitude and not knowing their own company policy and in addition, constantly trying to charge me $250 dollars for put me on a standby for upgrade is just plan wrong. Especially, when in the end, when we were onboard the airplane there were two empty first class seats available. So as a result a long email letter was written to the customer service about the situation. After some back and forth verification, Delta’s customer service finally admitted to their mistakes and apologized. They also provided 15000 miles to our frequent flier account each. A simple upgrade or even better customer respect in the beginning would have prevented all of this drama. This was the good response.

2) Your onboard food safety is only worth 3700 sky miles!!!

So on the plane back home I found the following pieces of glass in my $8 dollar salad.

On the flight when I tell the flight attendant of the situation the response I got was simply… oh we will refund you but tell your complaints to our website.

So I wrote the following email to Delta.com

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Min-Hsao Chen. I’ve been flying with Delta for over ten years, and my experience with Delta’s services was fairly good until last night.
During my flight from JFK to Seattle, I ordered a Southwestern Caesar Salad with Cajun Chicken for $8 for dinner. The salad was tasted kind of bad, but I was hungry. Half way through eating my salad, I ,all the suddenly, bite into something hard. When I spit the mystery item in my hand, it was two pieces of small broken glass. I immediately spit out the rest of the contents in my mouth into the salad container. I think there may have been other pieces in there. You can see a picture of the two pieces that I found in my mouth here.
(http://tweetphoto.com/17237670)

I immediately notified the flight attendants and the response I’ve
receive was shocking and very disappointing and unsettling. When I notified the Delta flight attendant of what has happened and that I’ve found, she simply said that “oh.. don’t eat that salad anymore and we will refund your money”. Then about 15 minutes later another attendant came by and I told her again of what happened, and she simply stated that they do not prepared the food and I need to complain to the delta.com website. Finally about 20-25 minutes after I notified the attendants, they came by and collected my credit card and refund my 8 dollars.

It is not the 8 dollars that I am concerned about, but how the flight attendants reacted to the situation. The situation was disappointing and very unprofessional. The first impression I received from the flight attendants were that they don’t really care. Even now, I am still uncertain if I swallowed any glass or maybe potentially cut my throat or mouth. I am continuing to monitor my condition. The point is, the flight attends did not show any
care and concern and that was very disappointing with their very poor customer service. In addition, when I ask the flight attendant again, they simply shifted the blame to someone else by stating that they did not prepare the food and I should contact someone else. This response was totally, unfriendly and unacceptable. A simple response of “are you ok?” and
“what can we do to help you?” would have made a world of difference in my impression and my feel of Delta’s culture.

To recap, please check with your food service provider and make sure that there are no more glass pieces in your salads. I do not want anyone else be caught in the same situation as I or even worst if anyone get hurt because of the glass in their food. Second, please re-evaluate your exception handling procedures with your flight attendants. This situation could have been a none issue if the attitude and the actions of the flight attendants were much better. All in all, I think it will be a benefit to the over all public view of Delta Airlines.

Thank you for your time and please let me know if you need any additional information regarding my experience and regarding the broken glass in my food.

Thanks again for your time and looking forward to hear Delta’s Response.

Min-Hsao Chen

PS. I will be posting this story on my blog and other social networking site. I am hoping to hear a response from Delta.

Delta Airline’s Response is a follows…

Dear Mr. Chen,

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the service provided while traveling with us. On behalf of everyone at Delta Air Lines, I sincerely apologize for the disappointing customer service you have received from one of our flight attendant and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concern.

I am truly sorry for your disappointment with the meal quality on your recent flight. Flying with Delta should be enjoyable and the difficulty you experienced does not support our goal of providing a high level of service and value to our customers. I realize that this was particularly concerning as you have found pieces of small broken glass in your salad. Customer service is very important to us, and we are working hard to continually improve and meet high customer expectations.

Passenger comments like yours are critical in evaluating our food service, and our future course of action is based on feedback like you have provided. Please be assured your concerns will be shared with our Onboard Services leadership team.

However, as our customer, you are in the best position to point out areas that need attention and where we are falling short. After reading your comments, I certainly understand why you wanted to bring this matter to our attention. It is equally disconcerting to learn that at this instance you did not receive the service you expected and should have received from one of our team member, as we expect our employees to be helpful and professional at all times. I strongly believe that this situation could have been handled in much better way. Excellent customer service is our key and your comments and observations are helpful in ensuring we maintain our goal of providing this level of service. Feedback like yours will help us improve our in-flight processes and overall customer experience.

Additionally, when these types of things happen, we want our customers to know how much we care and regret that their time spent with us was less than satisfactory. Therefore, as a gesture of apology for the lack of service you have received from our flight attendant, I have added 3,700 bonus miles to your SkyMiles account. Please allow 3 business days for the miles to be added.

Mr. Chen, I thank you again for writing and bringing this matter to our attention regarding the unsatisfactory customer service you have encountered from one of our flight attendant. I am keenly aware of the need to listen to our customers and follow up on problems they bring to our attention. As a valued SkyMiles member, your business is important to us and we will always do our best to merit your confidence and support.

Sincerely,

Zinette P. Kent
Coordinator
Customer Care

So basically from this email, they did not ask if I was ok, no concern for the customer what so ever. Did they even read my letter? Do they even know that I almost swallowed two small pieces of broken glass??? I may have swallowed some other pieces, but no concern what so ever.

So in the end… few pieces of broken glass in my food is worth around 3700 sky miles. So with my calculations, a typical round trip Delta airlines ticket is around 400 dollars. To trade in for a free ticket take around 25000 skymiles to 60000 skymiles. So that bring the 3700 skymiles to around $25 – $60 dollars.

Sure, I will pay $100 dollars for one of the person responsible for Delta’s customer service / food services to eat a salad with pieces of broken glass mixed in.

Please help me out here. Why is it like this? Am I just complaining too much?

Thanks for reading… and more NYC pictures coming up soon….

Third Full Day in NYC

minhsao — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:14:57 +0000

Yesterday was my third full day in NYC. It was also the first day that I don’t have to work in NYC. And on top of that it was Good Friday. The day started pretty late after sleeping in. Since we were staying near Madison Park in The MAve Hotel, which btw reminds me of the hotel in Paris France. Why? Because of it’s small size in the hotel room and the modern hotel room design. It even use a similar RFID door opening system. Cool huh?

So in the morning (more or less Noon time), after the complimentary non-existing hotel breakfast, we went back for a to Madison Park for a walk also to take some pictures more pictures of the flat iron building. Afterward, we stopped by the Museum of Sex. Yes it sounds really bad/good. But in reality, it was a big waste of money. Yes… the 5 minute gallery of history of condom is interesting, however, after that it was all pretty boring and could probably got most of the gallery items from a store like Lovers.

After the walk around the Madison Park area, we grabbed our stuff and move to our new location. For this weekend, we are staying in a studio apartment 2 blocks from Central Park. It is very nice even with a small balcony on the top floor of this old building. The place is very small but it does have a kitchen. And the price was good relative to the hotel in the near by area.

For lunch, Whole Foods. Got some salad from Whole Food and ate on the bench of Central park while we people and dog watched. Yep, since it was Good Friday, we saw so many people.

Around 5 we went to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), since it is Friday after 4 it is free to enter. Oh my, the line was super long, however, it went through pretty quick and we were able to go in. We saw almost everything except for the Tim Burton exhibit.

After MoMA, we met up with some friends of Vicky and had a interesting Bday dinner at a cheap Thai place. The food was crappy, but the company was great. They even said that I don’t sound like I am from Seattle. They said that they thought I was a New Yorker… I guess that is a good thing right?

So after dinner around 10:45pm we decide to catch the last elevator up the Rockefeller Center Tower. We ran few blocks from the restaurant near MoMA to Rockefeller center and we thought we were late, but we were not the last. we got our tickets and got to the top. At the check in, the attendant told us, we just help break their entry record. Yes… with our help we broke their attendance record of 150,000 people in a day. Wow…

And with the beautiful view of New York… that concluded another wonderful day in NYC. Enjoy the pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/minhsao/NYCDay3#

Man near Madison Park

Flat Iron Building

Central Park

Towers Near Columbus Circle

Flowers Near Columbus Circle

Central Park

Imagine

From Central Park

Bench in Central Park

LOVE

Tim Burton Exhibit

Living Art in MoMA

View from top of the Rock with Min

Another view from top of the Rock

Time Square

Our weekend apartment in New York

minhsao — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:50:18 +0000

Oh just got to our weekend apartment in NYC. It’s small but nice!!!

Second Full Day around NYC.

minhsao — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:34:31 +0000

Yesterday was a busy day. I had to work most of the day, but in the afternoon, I had a chance to enjoy the nice weather and walk the Brooklyn Bridge. The view of south Manhattan was just beautiful. I get a chance to check out the location of the former World Trade Center Towers. It is amazing that it has been 9 years since the event. I remembered exactly where I was when that happened. After the walk around town, We had dinner at a local French Restaurant. It was call Les Halles. The food was good but wow… we accidently got an $8 bottle of water. All I wanted was ice water. I think that was the most expensive bottle of water I’ve ever drank and it tasted like tap water.

Anyways, today is a free day for me… so lots of exciting things to do today.

Enjoy the pictures.

The guys near Madison Park

Flat Iron Building… once the tallest building in the world

Buildings around New York

Brooklyn Bridge

The Lady of Liberty from Brooklyn Bridge

More Brooklyn Bridge

Min and Bob in New York

Me in New York

Statue of Liberty in a distance

Manhattan Bridge

Min and Manhattan Bridge

Vicky and Min on Brooklyn Bridge

around New York

St. Paul’s Chapel near ground zero

more buildings around NYC

NYC Subway

Rabbit Dinner

First Full Day in NYC

minhsao — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:12:05 +0000

After a full day of meetings in NYC with my clients, it was awesome to see Vicky!!! So after work today, my co-workers and I took a long wall to time square and got some dinner at the BBQ place called Virgil’s. It was pretty famous, but the sweet tea was not good and the BBQ was … well… just OK… Dream Land is much better.

Well… So you can check out some of the pictures from today .

Empire State Building

Time Square

Time Square again

more Time Square

V and M at Time Square

Virgil’s Memphis Style BBQ

Rockefeller center

St. Patricks Church

Atlas

Radio City

New York Apple Store

New York New York!!!

minhsao — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:25:59 +0000

After a full day of travel, I am finally in New York City. So far my impression of NYC is that it is an amazing city with so much history. It reminded me alot of Paris. But then again, I haven’t been to that many big cities before. Even tough it was a super raining day, but it is still amazing to walk around town.

Dinner

Want Curry? Curry in a Hurry?

On a flight to NYC!!!

minhsao — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:54:41 +0000

So this week is my New York trip. It will be a pretty busy trip… but I think I will have a chance to return soon with my other projects in New York and NJ. So once again, I am on a Delta flight using the onboard Wi-Fi. It is pretty cool. This is my second time of using WiFi in mid air. Yeah … the world is changing.

Enjoy!!!

Columbia River (Wenatchee)

Great Lakes

What a weekend… of almost buying a house

minhsao — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:58:06 +0000

Once again, I don’t think a weekend can go by now without some exciting news. Well, this past weekend it was no different. I almost bought a house. But in the end the deal fail through because of few minor details.

Oh well … the hunt continues.

— UPDATE 3/30/2010
Yesterday around noon my agent called back stated that they are interested again in my original offer. I was excited and ready to take the deal. But after some more talk and negotiating, the seller decided to stay with the original counter offer and not lower the price and the deal failed again.
What a waste of time!!!

Once again… the hunt continues….

CTIA 2010 Day 2 Recap

minhsao — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:51:24 +0000

Today was another interesting day at CTIA. The morning started off pretty late. I was still recovering from last night. So my first even was the mobile health seminar. This was pretty slow but they had some interesting ideas and concepts. I met my friend Xavier for lunch we went to the LV Hilton’s Buffet. I have to say, their buffet have really gone down hill. It was a pretty awful lunch buffet. After lunch, I discovered many interesting exhibits as well as few interesting spots inside LV Hilton. Just check out the pictures below.

The first picture was taken right after lunch in the men’s restroom in Las Vegas Hilton. It’s pretty fun trying to use the restroom and looking up seeing those pictures.

After returning to the exhibition floor, I ran across one of motorola’s future computer idea called Golden Eye!!! It is a computer based on Windows CE with voice command and also pan tilt zoom of the images in the display with a built in accelerometer. It is a pretty cool interface. I had the fortune of testing it out, there are still bugs, but it is working pretty well. I can see a future in this device.

Golden eye by Motorola

I also ran across the Nokia’s PUSH winners. (http://blogs.nokia.com/pushn900/usa/) What is PUSH? PUSH is a competition sponsored by Nokia to use the Nokia N900 ( $500+ device) to create something. Nokia provides a complete SDK for free and also you can program in python. The winner for this year was a bike computer. The guy that created this built an interface and circuits for a wheel sensor for a bike. It is pretty cool. The N900 will also turn on the bike light when it gets dark. All this was written in Python and Qt Scripts.

First Prize winner of N900 PUSH Challenge. An N900 bike computer

N900 Cellphone

Output of the N900

The second prize was the N900Niko. It is a twitter commanded N900 robot. It is pretty cool. All the intelligence is in the N900. The N900 controls the Mindstrom NXT via bluetooth. Everything was once again written in Python. You can check out his project site here. The robot also has a twitter account!!!

Niko took couple pictures of me too!!!

http://www.twitpic.com/1ap8to
http://www.twitpic.com/1ap8g
http://www.twitpic.com/1ap8bd
http://www.twitpic.com/1ap84n

Mindstorm NXT controlled by the N900 via Bluetooth

Finally, I was fortunate to get a full blown demo of LTE by Alcatel. I also see a similar demo yesterday with HuaWei. However, the Alcatel gave us a much better presentation. I think we will start to see LTE in 2011 and let me tell you, it is FAST!!!!!

Alcatel LTE Demo

Tomorrow, I return home to Seattle. Thanks CTIA for a wonderful show!!!

CTIA Day 1 Recap

minhsao — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:55:20 +0000

Well, it is day 2 of CTIA in Las Vegas, let me recap my experiences from yesterday. The day started with meeting up with Xavier for breakfast. We had a simple breakfast at MacD’s, but I have to say this McDonald has the look and feel of a coffee shop. It was really interesting. We then walked to the convention center to get my ID and head toward the Keynote.

As we were headed toward the keynote, we ran into couple of Google Androids.

The keynote was ok, a little dry, but you get to learn a bit about the common trend

CTIA Day One Keynote

After the keynote we attending the series of classes on backhaul technology for the future wireless systems. I’ve learned alot and picked up a few new topics to research. (e.g. IEEE 1588 , carrier ethernet, vendor such as Dragonwave)

After we enjoyed our free lunch and can’t listen to any more seminars, we headed down to the show floor.

It’s pretty exciting to see all the different vendors, however, it was not what I expected. I was expecting alot more.. but it was very very few consumer high lights that I’ve found.

Few notes, Nokia was trying to push for their email service, which was lame. Why would I get email from nokia? But what was cool was nokia’s bluetooth headphones!!! no no not the one ear kind, the bluetooth stereo headphones!!!
and of course the HTC Supersonic!!!

The supersonic is the first “4G” aka WiMax phone out there. It is spec’ed with a pretty high megapixel camera and it also has a front camera too… so video conferencing on the go? Neat!

HTC EVO 4G (aka Supersonic)

After the show, we met up with some contractor friends for a show and dinner. Thanks Ryan and Sam!!! Yes, Zumanity was shocking and amazing. When Ryan said, yeah meet us at New York New York for a Cirque du Soleil show called Zumanity, I thought oh ok… that should be fun. I’ve never been to a Cirque du Soleil show and I thought this one was the same PG rated show that you can see in Seattle. Oh… was I in shocked!!! It was a good show!!!

After dinner and show I walked 3 miles back to my hotel and called it a night. Fun huh…
Pictures below are from the walk!! and strangely … part of it reminded me of France.

Vegas Strip at night

Paris?

France National Library?

Bellagio Hotel

CTIA DAY 1: Good morning

minhsao — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:59:41 +0000

Good Morning, Today is CTIA day one. It is pretty exciting. I am staying at a pretty nice hotel in Vegas. Even though it doesn’t have a casino in the hotel, which is a bit strange for vegas, but it is a suite, with a living room kitchen and even a hot tub. All that room for myself. So getting ready now, then breakfast and then head over to the keynote speaker presentation.

At the airport… Going to CTIA

minhsao — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:35:32 +0000

An interesting thing happened while I was going through security. While I was waiting for my bag, he person next to me was getting his bag checked by TSA. He said, “it’s phones in there, can you check them without taking them out, our cover them up while you check. They are confidental!!!”

Oh really? What does that mean? Does he mean that he is taking a brand new secret phone to CTIA?? Exciting !!!!

Enjoy the picture!!!

Another Short Weekend

minhsao — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:58:03 +0000

Weekends just seems shorter and shorter!!! So what happened this weekend. Let’s think back…

Friday night I went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D IMAX. Oh it was so cool, the movie was not so bad either. But I have to say the $31 dollar ticket price for 2 was a bit expensive. All I have to say is I can’t wait until Tron Legacy!!!

Saturday was an all day house hunting, I saw so many houses and townhomes, I even saw couple of town houses on Eastlake, but ultimately, I decided that, beside the view, there is really no benefit for me to be in eastlake. Mapleleaf is still the best area for me. I also decided to make an offer on a house near N 100th Street.

Sunday was another house hunting day. I went to take a look at the house across the street from me. They lowered the price by 20k. Tempting, but they are right next to a cell tower, which get my folks worried. I also looked at couple other houses, finally, I went back to the house I was going to make an offer on to take a look. The second tour was good and the house was very acceptable, I told the realtor that I am ready for an offer, he called to check on the status, and some one have already beat me to it with a full offer. Oh well… the search continues.

There are good houses around, but at the price range that I am looking for, and with the 8k from the government, they go pretty quick.

So tonight I will be heading over to Las Vegas for CTIA 2010. More to come about that tomorrow.

Wow, it’s Friday already?

minhsao — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:11:55 +0000

This week just flew right by. I can’t believe it is Friday already. I still have so much stuff to do. This week is pretty interesting. I looked at many houses. Some are very tempting because of the prices, some are very tempting because of the location, but I just have to found that house that I must have yet. I wonder is it because I am valuing price too much? We will see … I will need to make a decision soon. So… next week will be a super exciting week. I will be in Las Vegas for first part of the week for CTIA. For those of you that don’t know what CTIA is, it is the biggest Cellular Conference in the world. Hopefully I will get a chance to learn some new things and maybe check out some new technology. The second part of next week, I may be going to NYC for the first time for a kick off meeting on Friday. This should be pretty interesting. So I will keep everyone updated.

Well, Happy Friday… oh and enjoy the beautiful weather!!!

Tennis? anyone?

Mount Si Hiking Pictures

minhsao — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:12:12 +0000

Allons-y …

4 Miles to go!!!

Chuck at .5 miles!!!

@ 1.0 mile

@ 2 miles!!!

@2.5 miles

@ 3 miles!!

Seattle in the distance!!

Amazing and super busy weekend

minhsao — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:45:30 +0000

This past weekend was amazing!!! Super busy!

First the week before, we received some amazing snow dump in our regional mountains, so on Saturday, my friend Colin and I headed up bright and early in the morning for Crystal Mountain for some powder skiing!!! We rode up to Crystal with Patty and met up with Lawrence and friends. This is one of the few time that I actually hike up to a run and really enjoying it. I have to say Northway is the bomb!!! The knee deep powder field was amazing… riding super past through the field and tree then down the cliffs and back to the lift.. oh … we did that for about 3 times. It was an amazing day.

Afterward, we stopped by a spring on next to mile post 34. Fresh spring water with a hint of beaver pee… ha ha ha .

Sorry … my lens fogged up in my iphone… but don’t worry.. the iphone is ok.

Sunday was another interesting day. I was super sore from the day before. I cooked some breakfast and was ready for a full day at home and then maybe go to the gym. However, the weather was so nice that I decided to go and join my friend for a hike up Mount Si. I looked up the stats on Mount Si and figure that oh it is only 4 miles … I should be fine. Oh was I wrong. After 6 hours later we made it up and down the mountain. The 4th mile up to the peak was covered in snow and we had to find making sticks to help us up. Eddie, the yellow lab, was a really great encouragement and I think he really helped us get up the mountain. Thanks eddie. Afterward, we all went to a Korean BBQ place in Bellevue for some quality time with friends!! I think I will start hiking more. I think it will really help me to reach my health goals.

Google Voice Turns 1

minhsao — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:48:26 +0000

It’s pretty interesting… Just recently I figured out how to use google voice and my old packet 8 ATA to get free phone service within US and today I found out that Google Voice turns 1.

Happy Birthday Google Voice!!!

http://lifehacker.com/5491684/google-voice-turns-one-heres-how-to-get-the-most-from-it?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29

Free land line phone with google voice, sipgate, and an old packet8 ATA!!!

minhsao — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:48:53 +0000

So I don’t know what got into me yesterday, but I guess it was because of the awful AT&T services in my area. I cannot make a continuous call on AT&T’s 3G in my area without call drops. This is not only my problem, but everyone that I know with AT&T 3G service in Maple Leaf area. But anyways, that is not what this post is about.

So it’s been 2 over years since I moved to Seattle, and I’ve been thinking about moving my 509 number to a local 206 number for home, however, I never felt the need to do so. However, as weeks and months go by, I started to realized that I almost never use my land line a.k.a my home phone line or my plain old telephone service (POTS). So I’ve been thinking about dropping the service. The problem is that AT&T have such poor service in my area that I can not just depend on my iphone, no matter how awesome it is, I still need to have a home number. but $20+ dollars a month just to hold a number is pretty pricy. So here comes my solution…

At one time I have 2 lines with packet8, when I cancelled the 2nd line, the analog telephone adapter (ATA) from 8×8 was not returned. I have a bit understanding about VoIP so I figure since Packet8 uses SIP I can probably use the same ATA to point to some other SIP provider and get by really cheap. I’ve also already have a Google Voice (GV) account, so if I can link my google voice to my home phone that will be just wonderful. The following is what I found I can do and what is my plan.

The following are my steps and comments…

1) I know that I want to use GV as my home phone number, However, I need GV to point to an actual number since GV does not provide a physical phone service yet. One option is to use Gizmo5, but since they are being integrated into GV that is currently not an option. So I register to SIPgate for a free account. The advantage of a SIPGate account is that they provide a free 206 number and also they do not charge for incoming calls.
Check out this article.
http://www.voip-news.com/feature/how-sipgate-one-stacks-060509/

2) The second step is to convert my DTA-310 ATA from packet 8 into a usable ATA. After reading online and playing with couple of different firmwares, this is what worked for me
- Downgrade to packet 8′s firmware version 1235 (sip1235unl.bin)
- From there load the leadtek firmware version AR171 (sip_bva8051s_ep1_voi86171.r0)
… it took me many tries to find this version of the firmware. Look in DSLreport for the firmware if you can’t find it in the archives.
- once load is successful, make sure you reload and restart the DTA-310 by using the reset button.

3) Once the new firmware is loaded it should look like this.

4)I found this site to help fill in the configuration. Use the SIP credentials in sipgate under settings to fill in the configuration. your sip-id is also the sip number in the DTA-310 configuration. Also make sure to change the server to point to sipgate.com. So after I finished this configuration, I was still unable to connect to the sip server until I configured the STUN server settings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN) STUN= Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT. By configuring this server setting, it let you get back the local firewall. This is also the reason why we need to install the AR17I version of the firmware. The Packet8 1235 will allso SIP server configurations, however it does not have STUN settings. Only the Leadtek firmwares have those settings.

5) Finally, reboot the DTA-310 ATA and check to see if it is registered with SipGate. You can use Sipgate to test the connection.

6) Since I am using GV # as my primary number, I changed the outgoing caller ID within SIPGate to my Google voice number. and forward all google voice calls to my SIPgate number.

7) Test and all done!!!

Comments: Ok, I know that the title states that it is free.. well it is free for all incoming calls to SIPGate, however out going calls will cost 1.9 cents per minutes. But if you really think about it, for 9 bucks, it will give you around 450 minutes of talk time. So typically, those unlimited VoIP services are charging for 9 dollars a month. While SIPGate is a pay as you go solution.

Comment 2: There are also concerns about replacing land lines with this service without 911 services. Well, that is not entirely true. SIPGate do offer E911 service for $1.90 per month. That’s not too bad for a peace of mind.

Comment 3: SIPgates offers few other things in additional to GV, such as Free online FAX and they also provide additional phone number for a price.

Ultimately, it is a pretty cool deal… by using the GV frontend, when google finally allows SIP connections, it will be a very seamless switch over from SIPgate to all google. Gosh I am such a google fanboy… So this afternoon, I will go get me a DECT 6.0 wireless phone for my new home phone setup. Yeah!!!

Oh … and if you look in the diagram above, yes there is an even cheaper alternative shown it my hand drawn diagram, by using IPKALL and PBXes.org. More on that method maybe later.

References…
http://linuxstation.net/pub/voip/ — a place where all the old packet8 firmwares are located.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Packet8+DTA310+and+Asterisk — another step by step instructions on working with DTA-310
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/ — look for additiona information on DTA310
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13924154~start=40 — Leadtek AR171 firmware
http://sipgate.com — sipgate website
http://voxilla.com/voxilla/tools/device-configuration-wizard/leadtek-configuration-wizard — ATA configuration Wizard

Updating my blog and just chilling…

minhsao — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:48:08 +0000

The last couple of days been pretty busy, with my family visiting… I moved from the master bed room to the guest bedroom, and from the guest bedroom to the office. But the exciting thing is my parents and my uncle from taiwan are all here in Seattle visiting me. It is good to be with family

So as for work… it has been pretty busy. Good news is that we got the NY project. Even after the lack of onsite interview… YEAH YEAH!!!! so NYC here I come.

More updates to come.

Woo Hoo… just in time!!!

minhsao — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:54:56 +0000

I just submitted my first conference paper… right before the deadline… wish me luck. I am submission number 75. The conference is http://www.nas-conference.org/.

Remaining in Seattle after all …

minhsao — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:41:41 +0000

{This is a backfill post}
What an interesting day today, I woke up early this morning, got ready and went to the airport. I parked my car in an off site parking lot, I got to the terminal, I went through the security line and I got to the gate. I was still early, so I went around and look for some food. I got an bottle of OJ and a musubi and went back to the gate. Shortly after, they started the boarding process. I checked in, walking half way through the jet way and then my boss came walking up from the airplane. He said. “well, I just talked to the pilot and they said they don’t understand why we’re still taking off”. The pilot also said that a lot of planes already got cancelled. So my boss ask us if we should go or not. Finally our boss decided to cancel our trip to New York and not risk the chance of getting stuck either in New York or worse get stuck halfway between here in New York because we’re unable to land in New York and miss our interview.

So after walking back out to the terminal, and pick my car back up … I was back to work in Seattle

Getting Ready for NYC!!!

minhsao — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:23:51 +0000

I hardly can sleep last night. No no it is not because I did really well in the poker game last night but that was fun… thanks my friends for coming over. I am excited because I am going to NYC for the first time!!! No no I am not going there for fun, but for work and the bad news is that I will be returning tomorrow night. so more about NYC later today… have a wonderful Thursday everyone!!!

Gundam Unicorn is just awesome!!!

minhsao — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:47:53 +0000

I just finish watching Gundam Unicorn and it is just awesome!!! It is amazing how much detail they put into recreating the UC universe. They brought back the old school designs the drawing styles and even the mecha. Everything fits so well into the existing Universal Century Gundam Universe. It is an amazing first episode that all Gundam fans must see!!!

My Chicken Noodle Soup

minhsao — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:11:41 +0000

Since I was sick the last couple of days… I decided to make some chicken noodle soup.

More Yummy Sushi for Dinner :)

minhsao — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:28:23 +0000

So with some leftover sushi supplies… I decided to make some more sushi and try to improve my sushi making skills. Let me know what you think.

Pike’s Market Place on Caprica?

minhsao — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 01:37:49 +0000

Just sitting and chilling watching Caprica on Hulu and look what I noticed?

My dragon sushi :)

minhsao — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:38:48 +0000

So today for lunch… I wanted some Sushi… so I made some

How ’bout my dragon roll??

A Beautiful Blue Bird Day for Snowboarding

minhsao — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:46:42 +0000

Yes this morning I did feel better but I had a commitment with the Seattle Auburn Club on a snow day trip so … on a beautiful Saturday I am out on the slops. It was an amazing day, it was also my first trip really gone out into the back country. It sucked. I hiked for over 30 minutes in knee deep snow and then I was tripping left and right coming down on the bad snow. But the view was amazing.

All in all it was a great day and my lungs really cleared up.

On 7th Heaven on a blue bird day!!

What a bad day to be sick…

minhsao — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:03:16 +0000

Today is a beautiful Friday. Unfortunately, I’ve go a cold and I am at home drinking hot tea with a box of tissue and trying to rest and trying to recover.

Interesting week so far..

minhsao — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:19:44 +0000

So this week has been pretty interesting so far…

Work has been busy… I finally got a chance to place some tennis yesterday… went to the dentist today… my mouth is all numb now. About 10 days ago, my 4 liter hot water maker broke, I took it apart found out that the thermal fuse burnt out, I ordered an exact thermal fuse from ebay, got it in few days. However, I needed to find a crimping coupler to bind the fuse with the wired. I can’t solider it, because it is a thermal fuse and the heat will probably break the fuse. So after finally going to Radio Shack to get some parts, I put the hot water maker back together and yeah… it is making hot water again… just perfect too.. cause I need a nice cup of hot tea

see the red light… it is boiling

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

minhsao — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:36:46 +0000

Yesterday I had a dumpling making party . Happy Chinese New Years Everyone!!

Back in the days when I had one gigabit per second to my home…

minhsao — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:12:49 +0000

Years ago before I moved to Seattle, I was working in Grant County PUD as a telecom engineer. At one time, I was actually the responsible engineer for their Fiber to the Home project there. It was super interesting when we were providing 1 gigabit connections to all the houses in Grant county. We were also doing triple play at this time. Triple play is when a service provider is providing voice, data, and video. This may not be a big deal today, but this was in 2003 in Grant county Washington.

So today, I learned that Google is going to try to provide Gigabit Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6193XH20100210

Interesting… but we’ve done it before already in GC. But with that said… I am sure google will do a better job. it just seems like we had some good ideas but just not at the right time.

Just like this Google power meter thing… we did that too…

Welcome to the new mintrix.net!!!

minhsao — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:04:55 +0000

Well… after one week of messing around with my server, php, WordPress, and blogger, I finally migrated over to WordPress for my blog. I debated with moving my blog to a paid host, but in the end, I decided to stay with my own server for now. I think I will move it to a paid server one day, but just not yet. I still have few more things to touch up before I can call it complete, but please look around and let me know what you think. Thanks and welcome back Mintrix.net!!!

PS… All the header pictures are from my photographs in 2009. Enjoy!!

1706 blog entries ago…

minhsao — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Many years ago, I started this blog with Blogger.com. Today, I found out that blogger will no longer support the FTP blogging support.

So what does that mean? Well, that will mean that my current blogging format will change before March 26th. I knew this was too good to last forever. I was really lazy and was going to sit on blogger.com until I really have to. Now I am forced to move to a different blogging format.

In the next few weeks I will see what I can do in my server to host my own blogging engine. It will most likely be wordpress.

so stay tuned!!!

Traveling without a car today

minhsao — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:25:00 +0000

I like public transportation. I like trains, ferries, and buses. I never really thought about why I like them, but I just like them. Today is a special day, I am going to Bremerton for work. My coworker will pick me up at the ferry terminal on the otherside. So, I am taking the public transportation the entire way.

Few things I notice, and maybe these are the reasons why I like public transportation.

1) The city looks so much different when you are on the bus.

2) When I am traveling without my car, I just feel so light and free. I mean I don’t have to worry about parking, break-in’s, and everything else associated with a car. Granted, I don’t get the excitement of driving, but it is good to change it up a bit.

3) no traffics to deal with. That is relaxing

Something light for lunch

minhsao — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:05:00 +0000

I made these brown rice sushi

Still back filling my blog post

minhsao — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:38:00 +0000

I know it is very unusual, but I am still back filling my French Vacation posts… the notes are there, but I just need to fill it all in with pictures and other goodie goodies. Hopefully, I will get a chance to do more tomorrow. As soon as all the posts are done, I will post all the pictures of the trip up.

Today I learned to tie my shoes…

minhsao — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Yes I do know how to tie my shoe laces… so I thought…
I’ve been doing it the same way since I was in preschool… two bunny ears and so on…
I have received many comments through out the years that I tie my shoe laces like a kid. I don’t mind those comments but what I do mind is that my laces always comes loose.

I think today I figured out why.

http://lifehacker.com/5451765/ditch-the-granny-knot-to-tie-your-shoes-more-effeciently

After looking at the above article, I tried to change my second knot in revers I think that is why it is always coming loose. so… yeah… we will see…

So I still tie with bunny ears.. but the second knot is now in reverse to be tigher…

I hope it works…

Doh… read it too fast…

minhsao — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:22:00 +0000

So… because of my long trip to europe, I decided to start reading the manga Full Metal Alchemist. Well, first I read past the point where the anime is currently. I then started to read all the available menga volumes of FMA from the Seattle Public Library. After I finished with that, I still can’t get enought and I started to read the most recent chapters online. So last night I reached chapter 103 and oh no there is no more.

Ahhh…. it is so good I need to know what’s going on.

Back Fill my European blog posting

minhsao — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:11:00 +0000

Well.. for the next few days.. I am going to try to back fill my blog post with events from my France trip. After the blog is complete I will post the pictures on my blog and on Facebook. Stay tuned!!!

Ideas for a book…

minhsao — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:41:00 +0000

With my school done and just work left… during my travel I came up with two new ideas…

1) A book…. a travel guide for photographers, maybe for Paris or even just for Seattle.

2) an invention for making the bed.

hummm.. I wonder if I can accomplish part of this before 2011.

Last Day … in Paris … in 2009

minhsao — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:07:00 +0000

First of all Happy New Years Eve Everyone. Well, today is the last day of 2009 and it is also our last day in Paris, France. It was kind of a low key day today, but as usual it is still alot of fun and excitement.

Big head

wonder around paris

Vicky shopping

looking for dinner location.

African Dinner

free RER and Metro

Can’t find Ibis hotel near the airport.

early flight out tomorrow.

A day at the Museums

minhsao — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Today was a Museum day. It is our second day with the museum pass and our second to last day in Paris and France.
The day started off with a visit to Orsay – The line outside is around one hour long .. However, we have a museum pass and no wait.

Inside Orsay it was pretty awesome, I was amazed to see the real version of a painting that my parents have at their place. I have to say Orsay was an interesting art museum. After a few hours it was time to move on.

We Walk across the pedestrian bridge and on to Louvre park. Along the way, I took some very good black and white stair pictures of the pedestrian bridge. I’ve also took some more pictures of the tower.

From there we walked along Champs Elysees toward the Arc De Triomphe. We stopped by a small side street greek food restaurant and hand lunch. The owner was interesting, when we told him that we were from Washington state in the US, he says oh… I have a relative in Washington DC. I guess, that is a common mistake. DC and Washington state are not the same .

Afterward, Vicky spent some time shopping on Champs Elysees while I just people watched and got some interesting street photo.

From there we marched on toward Arc De Triomphe. It was pretty funny, we could not find the tunnel to get across to the arc, but when we finally do get there, there was a 30-40 minutes line… however no waiting with museum pass .. yeah!!! The steps going up to the top of the arc was long but worth it. The view on top was great!!!
After the tower, we decided to head back to Notre Dame to take pictures of the gargoyles, but unfortunately when we arrived, they close the line already. We were not able to get up to the tower… This is something for the next trip, i guess. Note to self, Notre Dame line closes at 4:00 pm. Since, we can not make it up to the top of Notre Dame, we got some ice cream on the island and headed toward the Louvre.

The Louvre also had a long line, but with the museum pass… no line!!! yeah!!! Once again, people every where especially all the famous paintings and exhibits.

After the Louvre, it was time for dinner. We bought some things at the super marche next to the hotel, however, I thought it was a good idea to get some cheap French Chinese food. Well, it was not cheap and the food was not good at all… another learning experience.

So Tomorrow.. is new years eve… and my last day in Paris.

A day at Versailles

minhsao — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:50:00 +0000

Today we went to the famous chateau Versailles. We woke up early to take the RER to Versailles. Oh and RER stinks. Anyways. We grabbed some breakfast in the metro station and jump on our train to Versailles. Today, the weather was pretty flakey. We stood in the rain to get inside. The line was super super long and after inside there were so many people we immediately realizesthat to get to the garden we had exited … What a waste of time. My comment on Versailles is that it is so huge!!! It took forever to walk around. We even saw people on Ez-go’s and Segways. The Versailles’ winter garden is really disappointing. I have to agree with my mom, it’s probably much better to come here during the summer. After a long walk around the huge garden, I was so tired from walking and decided to take the “little train”. On the transport something funny happened. We drove by a field and saw a bunch of sheep, and the girls behind us asked, “are those pigs?”. Oh Wow…. the person next to here immediately responded… “have you ever seen pigs eating grass? ” City folks… ha ha ha

Once we got inside the chateau, it was nothing like the chateau near Tours. First of all there were so many people. Just people everywhere. Second, maybe it is because of our visit near Tours, I just find Versailles pretty boring. Every room is just another room with different color furniture. After fighting through the crowd, we took the early train back to Paris.

After returning from Versailles, Xavier took us for Lamb dinner J’go near the Opera.

oh another wonderful day in Paris… tomorrow… the Museums!!

PS… see I am in new clothing today Finally got my luggage.

New week New hotel and Luggage!!! Finally

minhsao — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:27:00 +0000

So today started off pretty late, I guess I am pretty tired from all the long nights from previous days, but it is the beginning of a new week and the beginning of my last week in France. Today started with my panic attempts to access the internet to finish my work timesheet. With all this traveling, I forgot that I still need to fill out a vacation time card for work. So, I ended up at the local McDonald trying to use their free internet to VPN back to our office to complete my time card. Yes for some reason our internet did not work in our hotel.

Amazingly, right after finishing my time card, we discovered that there is an Air France Office nearby. We’ve been here for a few days and there is an Air France office just right next to where we were staying, AMAZING!! Since we have not gotten our luggage yet, we decided to go and see if they can help us. After around 20 minutes of waiting and talking to the reps, we got our new hotel address updated in their system, and found out that they have found one of our luggage and maybe delivering it today. Woo hoo!! With that wonderful news, we help our friends drag their luggages across Paris to our new hotel.

Our new hotel is a bit nicer, it even have an RFID key for opening room doors. How cool huh? However, the location of the new hotel is a bit farther than the previous location, but it is still very close to the metro.

Once we all checked in, we decided to go for another city bicycle ride around Paris. Oh, I just love riding bikes around Paris!!! This time, we rode to the Picasa museum and the Victor Hugo’s House. Unfortunately the Picasa Museum is closed until 2012 and all other museums are closed for Monday!!!

We parked our bikes and stopped for lunch at the Cafe Hugo. Yumm Yumm… Beef and Carrots!!

Victor Hugo’s House.

After a short break we decide to get another bike and ride to Pompidou center. However, I ended up getting a bad bike and unable to return it properly so I was not able to check out another bike. My friends ended up pushing their bikes along the side walk all the way to the pumpadu center. sorry guys…

More stairs!!! This is one of my favorite stairs shots.

After a short visit around the Pompidou center, I got a new bike (paid another 3 euros) and rode to the islands to have some ice cream with my friends at the Berthillon ice cream shop. Yummy!!! They have, supposedly, the best ice cream in Paris. So on a cold winter day, we were having ice cream.

Xavier making Hot Chocolate!!

The shops on this street have some really interesting things.

A night view of Notre Dame de Paris, as we walked toward the near by Metro Station.
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For dinner, we went to a small wine shop near Bercy. So, tonight I learned that you can not call red wines smooth, you have to describe the wine as fruity or not so fruity… so many things to learn about drinking wine.

Sausages and beans.

Duck breast salad.

After our wonderful dinner, Xavier took us to a night stroll near the France National Library.

and more “stairs” pictures

After we finally returned to our new hotel, half of our luggage was waiting for us!!! YEAH!!!! However, the other 1/2, my half is still missing!!!… so far I have travelled in the same clothe for 7 days. Oh don’t worry, I do wash them nightly .

Tomorrow: Versailles

Paris Day 3

minhsao — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:24:00 +0000

It is Sunday today, not much going on, so I will just start with some of today’s highlights.

First, Bastille market!!! It’s amazingly cool, it is like the French Market in New Orleans or the Taiwanese open air market in Taiwan. It’s pretty awesome with all the fresh food and goods. It really makes me want to buy some food and cook. Unfortunately we do not have a kitchen .

Look!!! it’s actually a fish bowl with gold fish on his head!!!

Our breakfast break… We bought some bread and beef and carrots. YUM YUM!!!

Churros … freshly made… much better than Costco churros!!!

Lunch … French McDee’s. uh.. they are actually not very good.

After lunch, took the metro to met up with our friends Xavier (aka French guy) and Huey. From there we took the RER (the regional rail) to a French outdoor outlet. Since my luggage hasn’t arrived yet, I decided to get a new shirt while I am here. I bought a nice purpose dress shirt with french cuffs and chinese knot cufflinks!!!

Afterward, since we were so close to Disney Land Paris, we decide to visit the Disney Village. From the short visit there, I get the feeling, Disney Land is more like American Land, everything there is about the American and Disney culture.

Bam!!!

After our short visit at the Disney village, we decided to head back to Paris for dinner. When we returned to our hotel, we walked out to the beautiful street of Paris and found Leon’s. It is a restaurant that serves mussels. What we did not know is, Sunday night is all you can eat mussel night!!!… Yep after 3 rounds of mussels, I was super super full… so good … so yummy!!!

Finally, still nothing about the where about of my luggage and tomorrow is a new week and we are moving to a new hotel.

Lost in Paris!!! … Day 2 :)

minhsao — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Today was a beautiful looking day, we are so fortunate to have such a beautiful weather day in Paris during the winter season. So the first thing that we did today was to walk to another not very well known, but beautiful view point.

Printemps is a famous department store in Paris. It has a fabulous view point of Paris from the roof. Take a look… oh it is so beautiful and so wonderful and it is free. The location is also super close to our hotel as well.

Oh look more “stairs”…

I also rented a bike today… woo hoo It is great to be able to ride around Paris on a bicycle. I think it is one of the best way to see Paris to ride around in one of the city’s bikes. The cost is around 1 – 2 euros depending on the time.

Some of the places that we saw on our bike ride.

We also rode by the US embassy, however we were quickly asked to move and don’t stand around the front of the embassy… interesting…

The ride was great… the city seems pretty dangerous for bike but it was actually not as bad as riding a bike in Seattle. And these bike are not too bad either, it has 3 gears and very easy to ride.

After the bike around downtown Paris, we met up with our friends in Sacré-Cœur Basilica. The Metros in Paris are just so easy fast and convenient.

more “stairs”… this is actually pretty famous… “the stairs of Rue Foyatier”

Mur je t’amie aka I Love You Wall.

and Mulin Rouge

Afterward, I had a BIG glass of beer near that Mulin Rouge…

Later that night we had dinner at a creole place and I found out that Creole boudin is not like the cajun boudin.

and that ends another wonderful day in Paris…. Tomorrow is Sunday… and Sunday Market Here we come!!!

Oh… and my luggage is still missing.

Christmas Day in Paris!!!

minhsao — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:27:00 +0000

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009 from Paris with Love

Well, today is Christmas day, I can not believe I just spend a long eventful day in Paris on Christmas day. So where to start, well , lets see this morning we realized that everything closed today so we had breakfast in hotel… holy crap 12 Euros for baguettes and OJ???… uh… baguettes!! ha ha ha.

So after breakfast today, we followed my original plan and went to Notre Dame Paris for a Christmas day Mass. The mass was awesome, it was all in French, however, mass is a mass they are all the same no matter what language they are in. One thing that did bother me was that tourist that were just going in and out in middle of the service, taking pictures. I just thought it was very rude and impolite. After the the mass we took some pictures around the church and walk our way toward the Arab center.

Monde de la Arabe was pretty cool. They had a very interesting window shade design to let in light. The most awesome thing is that they have one of the best views of the Notre Dame.

Great view of a Notre Dame from the Arab Center.

After the visit there, tried to find some ice cream, however, they were closed so we took the metro toward the tower to meet our friends.

We were in line for an hour or so and then we walked up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. The 2nd level doesn’t sound too bad huh? Well, except in France, 2nd level equals 3rd level, because they start with level zero. What? starts counting with zero? What is this a computer science class? ha ha ha … but all jokes aside, the walk was not too bad, and I get alot of chances to take pictures for my side project… “stairs!!”.

After a cold evening on the tower, we took the metro to China Town for some French Chinese Dinner. Xavier said there was a very good Pho place, however, when we got to China Town and walked half a mile, the place was not there any more … ha ha ha … that’s ok. We walked back and found a chinese place that had everything. The place felt alot like few restaurant in Seattle’s ID, with one exception, everyone in the restaurant spoke French. In the end, after dinner, I was just excited to get back in my hotel and get some sleep and get ready for another exciting day in Paris tomorrow.

Oh status update… still no news on my luggage…

Christmas Eve in Paris

minhsao — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:45:00 +0000

Today is Christmas Eve, We had to get up super early to check out of our hotel in Tours and then catch our train to Paris. We still don’t have our luggage so traveling is simple and light. Just my backpack and what I am wearing since I arrived in Europe.

Our return trip, we did not book TGV, instead it was just a regular train, however, it was not too bad at all. The train ride was around 2 hours from Tours to Paris. It was interesting to see the number of people traveling by train in France. Oh and did I mention that I love riding in trains!!! Because we are trying to get to Paris a bit earlier to have lunch with our friends arriving from Seattle, we decided to jump on an earlier train to Paris. We got to Paris around 11:50 am. From there, we jumped on a metro train to Opera station in Paris and checked in to our hotel. Our hotel location is just simply awesome!!! it is pretty much walking distance to every major location in Paris and it is only seconds away from 2 or 3 different metro rail stations. Only one thing about this hotel that kind of bothered me. It is the size of things. The stair way was tiny, and the elevator was even smaller. The elevator can barely fit two adults. It is pretty scary. The actual hotel room was ok, but the bathroom was just small. Everything almost overlapped each other. The only time I experienced this size of a hotel room in the States was in Maui’s Best Western near Kihei.

After checking into the new Paris hotel, it is time to find food.

As we were walking back from lunch and were lost trying to find the Opera, we ran into our buddies Xavier, Huey, Peter, and Will on the street of Paris. Amazing!!! it was great to see them and we showed them back to the hotel and checked in.

Xavier gave aus a quick walk around of Paris before we got some RER tickets and headed over to Xavier’s home for Christmas eve dinner.

Xavier’s family was just super nice. We had so many awesome pate, foie gras, and oysters. Oh and that was just the appetizer. We then had a wonderful hotpot dinner afterward. We were so full and tired by the end of the night that there was no way I was able to fulfill my original plan of going to a midnight mass at the Notre Dame de Paris.

On the way back home, we stopped by the Lafayette Gallery, which was one the way from the metro station to our hotel, to take few pictures of their window display.

So tomorrow morning Christmas day mass at Notre Dame!!!!

The day of Chateau …

minhsao — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Today was an super early day, since we got the tickets from train ride to Amboise yesterday, we had to get up super early to walk to the Tours train station to ride over to Amboise. We really know nothing about Amboise or what is it all about, but since we are out in Tours so we should go to some of the near by places to check out the local castles. So our first stop was Amboise.

Small town Amboise

Amboise was nice and peaceful, when we arrived at the train station, we did not even know which direction to go. Without data plan for the iPhone, google map was useless, so using the old compass (iphone compass) and old school map and following street sign is what we did. We did get a local map from a small hotel. People in rural France are really friendly.

After a visit at the Chateau Amboise and discovering the burial place of Di Vinci. (a total shock to me) We found a local orange store and got some credits added in the the SIM card that we bought. Once again, it is amazing how helpful the French are. Afterward we went for a brief lunch and on to Chenonceau.

So for use to get to Chenonceau, we had to get a taxis. It was very interesting experience for me to call a taxis number and tell them where I am and tell them that I needed a pick up, doing this with the taxis driver knowing only very very little english. But I got a cab and he came and picked us up and we were on our way to Chenonceau. The ride from ride from Amboise to Chenonceau was great, we told the back roads and get to see a bit of the country side of France.

Chateau Chenonceau

Chateau Chenonceau was awesome, the castle was built across the Cher River. The self guided tour was awesome. The guided tours was on an actual Apple video iPod. The 60 minute audio tour gave an awesome historic tour about this beautiful Chateau.

After Chenonceau, we caught a train, which is right in front of the entrance to Chenonceau back to Tours.

When we got to tours, we walked toward dinner and half way, I stop at an Orange store and got the data plan activated …. woo hoo… finally… after so many days without wireless data I am finally reconnected again.

With the help of the iPhone and data plan we finally found the restaurant we are looking for… however, it was closed. After few other restaurants we finally found one that will open around 8pm. We waited for about 15 minutes outside of the restaurant reading the menu and trying to decide what we want to eat and went in around 8.

As you can see it is another wonderful meal!!!!

Tomorrow Paris!!!!

Around Tours

minhsao — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:40:00 +0000

around town during the day….

during the night…

Today is my first day in Tours. It is amazing to finally be in a place full of people which I do not speak their language. Travel around is so different, but so amazing. So after a full day of traveling around, I think we’ve walked around the town around 3-4 times… but it was pretty good. So today besides the site seeing and lots of pictures, we’ve accomplished few very key things that I am very proud of

1) A new Orange SIM card. This was one of the first item that i’ve purchased in France. Yes my Iphone is still broken, but Vicky’s is not… so we purchased a new sim card and now we have a French number but… internet and data plan is still not working.

2) Since my bags were still lost, I had to get a new power adapter. Yep… visiting the French hardware store was interesting

3) Buying French fruits.. what I have noticed is that French fruits so far are not as good quality and sweet as american fruits. They are a little be less healthy looking fruits. Definitely not as good as the fruits from Taiwan. BTW I love the fresh markets in France… so many food… so many different type of stuff… I even saw them cutting up a rabbit… ummm… looks delicious.

4) Buying tickets for Chateau viewing tomorrow. Yep got two rail tickets to Amboise and Chateau Chenonceau. How exciting!!! More to come tomorrow.

5) Ordered food in a French restaurant. So after a full day of walking around town we found this little French restaurant, it was amazing. Wonderful food. Oh and their escargot was great!!

Some status updates.

1) Bags are still lost… KLM have no updates and I’ve called AmEx for help… we will see what they can do for me.
2) My iphone is finally back to life.. but unfortunately I had to reload everything.
3) no time to really work on the photos … maybe in a few days.

Once again… it is late and got an early start tomorrow…

Journey to Tours, France

minhsao — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:30:00 +0000

It has been an amazing adventure so far… with with lots of luck and good fortune, we are finally in Tours. Tours is very very quiet and wet right now, but it seems like a very peaceful town. So what happened?

Well, shortly after my last post, Vicky came back with good news of locating us 2 tickets to Paris. That’s the benefit of being a Gold Status member of an airline. So our flight was around 3:30 pm. Of course, the flight was once again delayed, this time it was because of another flight that caused us to have missing crew members. When we finally arrived in Paris around 6:30pm, we weren’t able to locate our luggages. Yes… after yesterday’s huge mess, our bags are lost. we went to the lost luggage declared our missing luggage and got a tracking number. What I’ve noticed is that when the French say they know a little English.. well.. they actually know alot more than I know French. After I’ve given up looking for our bags, we tried to get our train ticket to Tours. Our original tickets have expired already, so new tickets had to be purchased. Since the TGV was also delayed… more waiting. Our ride to Tours was a 3 segment ride. From Paris to Messy and from Messy to St. Perrier and from St Perrier to Tours (via regular train). We were very very fortunate to run in to a French student coming home from Edinburg. His name is Fransua (I think that is how you spell it). He was also going home to Tours. We were so lucky to have met him, because both of our connections were a little bit strange. 1st connect to St. Perrier, two arriving TGV trains arrived connected together, our train was the second train in the back. I would have missed that train and waited for the next train if it was not for our new friend. Second, during our transfer to the regular train in St Perrier, it was our friend that help us realized that we were boarding now and we barely made it on board.

After a final short train ride from St. Perrier to Tours, we are finally here. Tours was very very quiet. Yep it is a smaller town, where when I ask “if you speak English in Paris”, most people do… But so far the three people that we’ve met do not speak any english. So finding the Hotel at night was an adventure. The hotel was kind enough to leave us the passcode and our room key. So we checked in with out any problem.

The room is small.. but reasonable. Well.. it is late… time for another wonderful adventure tomorrow

Day 2 Trapped in Amsterdam

minhsao — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:23:00 +0000

Our flight was delayed yesterday because of the big snow storm in Europe. We wasted alot of time in air and then landed in London for refilling and then more time in air. when we finally landed in Amsterdam everything was cancelled. So after 6 hours of waiting in line yesterday in Amsterdam airport for our cancelled flight, we finally got a hotel room at the Ibis hotel near the airport. The hotel was comped by KML and we had dinner and breakfast this morning

So this morning we are back in a 4 hour minimum line for getting a flight to Paris. I don’t know if we will get to Paris tonight. My thought is trying to get them to get us a ticket to paris on the 24th. and just spend our vacation here in Amsterdam. It is already 10:40 and I don’t think we will be getting to speak to anyone before 12 pm today.

We already missed one day of hotel in Tours, missed our TGV train to Tours from Paris, and we will probably miss our return train if we decide to stay here. My iphone is broken so no Iphone.

so yeah… so far this trip really sucks so far… maybe it will turn around soon.

On my way to “Min”neapolis:)

minhsao — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:32:00 +0000

I love riding trains

ISU Alumni

minhsao — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:07:00 +0000

Woo hoo, after exciting graduation, I am now a Master of Science in Information Assurance. Yeah!!!

Few comments about my masters graduation. I am very excited and nervous about my graduation it was interesting. During the pre-graduation reception, the engineering college offer us a one minute speech time…. yes and my most memorable experience in Iowa State is being signaled off the stage for talking over my one minute time … it was actually very funny

The graduation was good, however, after seeing all the cool gowns of the PhD students, it really makes me want to get a PhD just for that Oh maybe in another 10 years.

Speaking of 10 years, I graduated from Auburn in 1999 for my Bachelors. In 10 years, I finally got my Masters. Thanks for everyone that supported me, especially my parents for encouraging me to get a Masters degree. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Also can you believe it … I actually accidentally meet couple of my classmate during graduation. yes… my classmates were all online classmates. I also met another guy, who also took exactly 10 years to get his Masters. Both of his graduation was on the same day Dec. 18 1999 and 2009. Cool huh?

In Ames, IA

minhsao — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:41:00 +0000

Burr…

Wow Mall of America

minhsao — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Wow an amusement park inside a mall!!! Cool!!

MSP

minhsao — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:33:00 +0000

Just landed in MSP… Cold and white stuff everywhere… Burr…

All Aboard… :)

minhsao — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:39:00 +0000

Super early start!!! 3 hour flight to MSP. Just barely fit everything on the flight… So many people … So much stuff!!
Packed flight!!!

Trip begins tomorrow…

minhsao — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Packing and getting ready for my big adventure. This afternoon I was getting really nervous for some reason. I guess it has been a while since I took such a long trip… I am always worry that I forgot something while I am traveling. I try to back light and still try to have everything. It is difficult. So… for my graduation, I have decided not to take the camcorder… and just my camera.

I am very excited and nervous all at the same time. So tomorrow morning bright and early I will be flying to MSP.

So let the excitement begin.

Doctor Who treated Tiger Woods???

minhsao — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Really? is the Doctor in trouble??

Euros

minhsao — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:58:00 +0000

So I got my first Euros today. I have to say… I have never seen stick figures on money, i mean real money before. But they got them on Euros.

That is some funny money.. How come such funny money get such a high value???

Getting nervous and excited!!!

AT&T Experience

minhsao — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:49:00 +0000

So… After about 15 dropped calls in under 2 hours and 3 calls to AT&T;, I finally got them to admit to their problem.

They even gave me a trouble ticket number (12590697).

So they actually say that they are working on multiple towers around the area. They are saying that there are alot of problems going around the area. maybe my Mark the Spot application is actually doing something.

Or maybe it is just a feel good app that send my complaint straight to the bit “trash” bucket.

oh well.. we will see…

This is the week!!

minhsao — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:20:00 +0000

So this is the beginning of the week of my big adventure. It is funny… I am very nervous lately about my trip. This is the first time that I am traveling some where, where the locals speaks a language that I do not speak. (well.. since 1985 when I moved to the US). I am very nervous about traveling around France with my really really poor French.

But I am sure, no matter what it will be a fun adventure.

So… few things I just realized….

1) It is super cold in Ames right now!!! and this weekend it will get colder!!! Why Ames? That is where I am going for my graduation.

2) WHAT!?!?!? No hood for Masters Students ??? huh? Well… I just got informed that only PhD students have hoods for ISU. Is that true??? that is so weird… I mean… every other school that I have seen have hoods for their Masters students… but not here? oh… this bites! … maybe I should go get a PhD just to get a Hood… nah… maybe not.

3) The weather in France seems to be ok right now .. and the 10 day forecast seems to be good… I hope it stays that way.

4) Trying to wrap up all my stuff for work…

5) oh… I really wonder how connected will I be when I am in France? in some ways I probably don’t want to be connected…

6) Still need to pack… and damn US airlines for charging extra for bags… what gives…

7) got to work out all the logistics for the Thursday morning airport craziness. (tripit.com sure do help alot)

Plenty more of things to do…

12-08-2009 … choo choo…

minhsao — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:57:00 +0000

So tonight I’ve reserved my train tickets from Paris to Tours. It’s going to be interesting… I will be riding on the TGV!!!
So what is the TGV… TGV is the high speed train in France. I remember reading about it when I was a little kid. I remember reading about the bullet train in Japan and the French TGV. Oh… and now I will have a chance to ride in one!!!! woo hoo!!!

I am very excited about the train ride…I love trains… I remember seeing a steam engine train when was little and riding a the back of an old train with my dad … so many train memories…

so… more information on TGV!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV

Next job rental car and stuff to do in Tours… any suggestions?

12-05-2009… making progress

minhsao — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:41:00 +0000

I know I supposed to be writing everyday… but the past few days has been busier than I expected and I still haven’t got my server to the point where I can put a second wordpress on my server just for December… so I will just continue to post on my main blog. Which is just fine.

Well… after a long night of company party and talking with my friends about hotel rooms in paris, we finally reserved a few rooms in Paris. They look ok… but I am not going to put too much hope into it… but the good thing is they are very close to everything so that’s good.

So here is were we are going to say.

Dec 24 – 28
Hotel Opera Vivaldi
http://www.parishotel-operavivaldi.com/

Dec 28-31
Hotel Le Prieure
http://www.hotelgrandprieure.fr/
View Paris Trip 2009 in a larger map

My Shared Google Map

12-02-2009

minhsao — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:34:00 +0000

Today is my first day back to work after Thanksgiving. It was a busy day and I still have this nagging cold. This is very annoying.
But one good thing is that we manage to book the a hotel in Tours France for the first few nights. We are still looking for the hotels for the rest of the trip in Paris.

But this is where we are planning to stay for the first few nights.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187130-d219884-Reviews-Hotel_du_Manoir-Tours_Loire_Valley_Centre.html

View Paris Trip 2009 in a larger map

More to come… I am feeling tired .. so I am going to bed now… I will try to set up a new site for this month’s activities… maybe tomorrow.

Beginning of December 2009

minhsao — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:55:00 +0000

So, gone is another November and so begins December. This year i will do something different. I am planning to post every day in December and document my busy and exciting December. So I am currently on my connection flight back to Seattle. Work tomorrow… But… Graduation and France in few weeks!!! More to come … Time to shut down and get ready for take off.

iPhone was lost now iPhone was found

minhsao — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Every few years, I get to experience a lost and found thrill. (my camera, my keys…) Well, this morning I had a chance to do it again. So here is the story…

So while I was about to step on to the plane for my flight to MSP from DSM, I realized that my iPhone is not on me. By the time that I’ve confirmed that I do not have my phone with me, I was already onboard and the flight attendant said that I can’t get off. I told her that I probably drop it or left it in the men’s restroom in the concourse. She said that she will call it in and see if they can find it. After a fe minutes, she told me that they can’t find it and they are about to close the cabin door. I was pretty much given up hope. The passenger behind me offered me his iPhone to call or send a text message. So I did. I was already planning to call my phone when I get to MSP. The airplane cabin door was closed. All the sudden, I see this guy running across toward our plane and the attendant signals me that they found my phone. Few seconds later she came by and said is your name Chen?? I said yes and she gave me my trusty little black iPhone. I asked where did you find it. She said I don’t know they found it and all I open the door and they handed it to me.

Oh my gosh!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! Thank you the Des Moines NW Delta land crew, thank you, flight 3552 flight crew, thank you for the person that found the phone, and thank you for the passenger that let me text to my phone.

After this brief experience, I really believe people are by nature good people!!! It’s a good day!!!

Completion of another phase

minhsao — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:59:00 +0000

After a super awesome and smooth presentation, I am happy today say I am an official graduating graduate student!!! Now all I have to do is to wait for December 18th for the graduation day!!!

So from my last post, I was pretty nervous. I had 60 slides and I had a total of at most 45 minutes to present. I ended up finishing around 35 minutes and started my demo. However, Murry’s law … I mean murphy’s law strikes again. I tested my entire setup before my comittee member’s arrival and it worked great. Half way through my presentation my VPN connection back to my home network dropped. I did not think much of it, I figure I can just restart the VPN when I am doing my demo. Well, when it is time for my demo, the VPN would not connect and I was not able to do my demo. My professors wanted me to move on and finish the rest of my presentation. I did and I was expecting grilling questions, but all 4 professors had no questions. So I was asked to leave the room and with in 1 min. I was congradulated!!

I am having alot of mix feelings… I am happy that is it over but it also means I will have to start to search for my next challenge

Yeah!!! I am graduating!!!

On Campus…

minhsao — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:52:00 +0000

So I am in Ames, Iowa today doing my final exam. I think I am prepared, but I am more nervous than anything else I have done lately. So while I am waiting for my presentation … in 7 minutes… I am writing this blog.

So walking around a campus on a beautiful fall day in Iowa makes me really sad that I miss out on my grad. school on campus experience, but after thinking about it for a while… nah… I would probably hate all the test and all the research… but then again … they pay you money to do research… very little money .. but still..

So still 5 minutes left… no one here but me. well.. last night I have over 77 slides to present… now I have 60 slides to present. Ok ready for the kicker… I have total of 1 hour and that means 30 minutes to present my project and time for them to ask questions.

At least 30 minutes is my goal. you will see me talking faster than I have ever talked.

ok.. time to start

33

minhsao — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

I can’t believe it my birthday again!!! wow… amazing!!! But it has been a pretty short and busy weekend but a good weekend.

So let’s see what happened…
Friday night… I was working on my paper…
Saturday morning… I was in a workshop…
During the workshop… Auburn Beat Ole Miss!!! WAR EAGLE Hey!!!
Saturday night I went to a small low key halloween party… It was suppose to be a gansta 1930 style theme… but I wore a traditional chinese long clothing. I said I was the triad’s dragon head. ha ha ha ….

The party was slow, but pretty good… My friend Hang gave me a really big surprise gift.

Yes it is Lego!!! but it is not just any Lego.. it’s the Lego Mindstorm!!!! oh… so in short this lego has a micro controller that can be connected to a computer and programmed in Labview !!! Labview!!! Labview is what we used in my senior design project!!!!

So after receiving that gift, I was like a 8 years old kid… hugging to my box of Legos… I wanted to open that box up and dump it out on the table right there at Steve’s place…. STEVE… {ha ha ha just kidding … if you did not get this joke… listen to some Flight of the Conchords}.

But seriously, I was really really really excited about the lego and wanted to play with it right away…but I did not… I kept everything in the box because I knew I still have to finish my paper the next day.

Sunday was interesting… time change today.. so I gained an hour. that really help. I worked on my paper all morning and finished right after noon. I will put it up after my final oral exam so everyone can check it out.

But anyways… so I called up my friends for some hotpot tonight.

so many friends showed up… I am so happy!!! Thanks guys!!!

The hot pot was good and filling … great company…. I feel really content!!!

Thanks guys for making it a great 33.

PS… Movember starts today …

Happy Halloween!!!

minhsao — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:14:00 +0000

I went to a pumpkin carving party tonight …. had a great time with lots of friends … and at the end…
My pumpkin looks like this

Happy Halloween!!!

Super Chestnut in Seattle!!!

minhsao — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:20:00 +0000

While taking some autumn photos in Seattle, we discovered some supersized chestnut!!!

They are some of the largest chestnuts I have ever seen!!! They are huge!!! so maybe roasting some chestnuts tonight

Google Wave initial reaction.

minhsao — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:38:00 +0000

So .. I got an invitation to the new Google Wave, and I even got 8 invitations to give away… but so far my impression is not that great. I watched some of the videos on this uber cool sharing and collaboration platform and how it suppose to be how email will be if email are invented today….uh… right… I don’t think it is an apples to apples comparison.

First my impression was that Wave was just another Twitter or Facebook or basically a virtual chalk board. It is a way to virtually have everyone at the same table all screaming or writing at the same time. It is a little bit crowded and messy and a confusing when there are multiple waves going on. I might as well write XYZ on the chalk board at the ShinJuKu Station and wait for the sweeper .

Second, the email comparison they make is not really fair. Emails are for multiple systems, any one can setup an email system, while the wave is a google contained system. it is not the same. They maybe opening the system or the protocol up in the future… but until then … it is no email.

Finally… it is just another social networking attempt… few new ideas in the product but … nothing too new or too shocking.

I maybe wrong or missing something, but I will update my experience in the next couple of day.

mean while … bye bye google wave… I hope version 1 will be better

Sunset after a rainy day

minhsao — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Wow… The sun!!

Seattle Auburn Club Fall Food Drive

minhsao — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:58:00 +0000

Oh.. It has been many many weeks since I last posted….
I am doing alot better… the wounds are healing up and the H1N1 bug has been beaten down. I am much much better!!!

So… work has been keeping me busy… Seattle Auburn Club and Auburn Football has been keeping me busy during the fall weekends.

So starting this weekend we will start collecting for our Fall Food Drive.

take a look.. (http://seattleauburnclub.com/2009/10/12/seattle-auburn-club-fall-food-drive/)

We will also be selling t-shirts with this Aubie YES WE CAN design for club fund raising. Anyone interested in a t-shirt, please let me know.

Blogging from 36000 Feet off the ground!!!

minhsao — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:46:00 +0000

So… it has been a while since my last blog entry… I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean life hasn’t been moving. Actually, it is very much the opposite. So this past weekend was Labor day. as usually, I went back to Auburn for Labor day. It was also my Mother’s 60th birthday!!! The trip was good had plenty of good food and Auburn Won their first game of the season!!!..

oh don’t worry… more pictures to come when I get home. But as for now… let’s talk about on board Wi-Fi!!!

Woo hoo… so this flight from Atlanta to Seattle actually have on-board wifi…. actually .. I am writing on it right now!!!
So of course as a super geek… I took pictures.

and I ran speed tests.

All in all it’s pretty nice…

For on-board wifi it is pretty nice. 1.5mb/s down and 256k up. Not too bad..
.. I was not able to get voip to work… VPN works but very unusable. Youtube is watchable… but I wonder how many people can watch it at the same time.

The only problem I see is that my battery will only last 4 hours and the flight is 5 hours… yikes…

Well… I actually have to work now.. on the plan and send something out… ha ha … anyways… short week this week

Last days of August 2009

minhsao — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:46:00 +0000

So this past weekend was pretty interesting so let’s talk about what happened….

On Friday… oh a great Snow Leopard adventure… so after rescuing my copy of Snow Leopard from FedEx. Yeah… they did not deliver my copy because they thought I had the wrong address … anyways.. The upgrade and installation went very very well. So now I am upgraded to OSX 10.6 … yeah!!!

On Saturday, I had a wonderful dim sum lunch with my friend Howard and pals. It was good to finally catch up with some old pals. Later that day, I participated in the Pig-O-Rama 2009. It was almost as good as the 2007 Pig-o-Rama

On Sunday was interesting. It was our A/E summer volleyball tournament. It was a full day of volleyball, unfortunately, I can’t play. I am still recovering from the burn. I was on the sideline cheering for my team. Oh how I wished that I could have joined in. So… we did not win the tournament… surprisingly … but we were not last place either… yeah!!! We actually won 2 games!!! out of 8 games

It was a pretty interesting weekend… oh and I also found a Electric outdoor grill… so no need to buy a grill anymore So.. Steaks anyone?

Finally… the weekend ended with an awful dream about fire…

So… it has been over a week since my shirt fire… but since then I’ve been really spooked around fire and just over all a little nervous around fire. So Sunday night, I had a nightmare about fire on my shirt.

So it started like this … I was talking with two people with who were playing with two lighters. Some how, the fire got on my shirt. and I was on fire. I tried to put the fire out with my hand, and it was getting bigger. I then decided to take out my shirt, then I realized that I had 6 layers of clothing on and I can’t take out my shirt fast enough. Then I remembered that last time that I put out the fire I roll on the ground. So, that is what I did … I rolled on the ground and it went out. But as soon as I stood up the fire came back. I don’t remember how the dream end.. but it was just a little spooky…

But hey… the good news is … I use my stove for the first time tonight… I cooked some noodles… and I am still burn free

Damage Report

minhsao — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:55:00 +0000

So I went to the doctor for a follow up check… I am doing great! The doctor was very surprise that I am not feeling any pain. He also stated that I was very fortunate to have put out the fire on me without too much damage. He said that he has seen many people with fire damage that requires skin grafting. He also commented my actions were good… so kids… remember when you got fire on your body … Duck an Roll!!!! get on the ground and roll.

Reflecting about the event, I feel like I should have rolled sooner… but ultimately I am glad I am doing ok.

So the key now is to keep the infections away.

A Flaming Weekend…

minhsao — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:09:00 +0000

So gone is another summer weekend… this past weekend was supposed to be filled with fun sun and full of clam digging and outdoors play, but instead, my shirt caught on fire while I was cooking and I ended up in the emergency room Friday night.

So what happened?

Well.. I was in the kitchen cooking some noodles with Vicky. Remember, I have a gas stove. As I was cooking the noodles, I decided to clean up the mess I made in the microwave. I must have lean over the stove and the flame with the a small wind current caught my loose shirt on fire.

When I realized that I was on fire I knew that I got to put it out. I panic a bit and could not find anything to put my fire out. I can’t get my shirt off and the fire continued to burn. I tried to put water on it but It was too slow and the fire was crawling up my back and getting bigger and I started to feel pain. Finally I gave in and decided to sacrifice my new Auburn Tigers floor mat that my little sister gave me. I dropped and started to roll and the fire was out.

So the aftermath… I ended up with a few 2nd degree burns and lots of blisters. What was interesting was that my outer shirt was 60% polyester and 40% cotton, and it went up in flame causing majority of my burn and fire. My inner shirt was 100% cotton, and it was barely burned. However, even though my inner shirt was not burnt, the heat from the fire was enough to cause some damage.

Weekend Updates with Min

minhsao — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:38:00 +0000

Oh another week of August 2009 is concluding or beginning depending on how you count the weeks. Anyways… this past week has been pretty interesting.

1) My folks are in town. Yeah… Good to see my folks They will be here until Tuesday.

2) Only rode my bike once this week. On Wednesday , however, I got a record time returning home of 61 minutes from Lynnwood to maple leaf.

3) Scratched my glasses and ordered another pair and got it in two days via mail!!! It is awesome!!! for 80.41 dollars I got a new pair of glasses from CoastalContacts.com with in two days!!!! BTW the glasses are frames and lens with all the coatings (UV, anti-scratch, anti-glare) !!! AWESOME!!!

4)Clamming yesterday with my parents. We had a great time clam digging yesterday. Even though the tide was rising pretty quick, we were still able to get a great number of clams and have a great wonderful feast at home.

5)Installed Windows 7 Pro 64 on my computer. I upgraded from Window Vista 64. I don’t notice much difference so far… just slicker interface I guess. I hope it is more stable and better… we will see…

08081985

minhsao — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:15:00 +0000

24 years ago today our family left Taiwan for the US. it is pretty amazing that it has been 24 years already. Happy 8 8 Day. (Chinese Fathers Day). Today I am just chilling at home and with my buddy Robert and cleaning my place. It is just a relaxing day.

GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra

minhsao — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:55:00 +0000

I can’t say I was a super big fan as a kid of GI Joe, but I was a fan. Last night my friends and I went to see the premier of GI Joe: the rise of cobra. We were expecting it to be bad, but good god we were not expecting what we saw. I will try to comment without spoiling too much about the movie.

So first of all the movie’s special effects started pretty cool… then it got bad.. especially in Paris. The actors were poor, even though I thought it would have been cool to see the former Doctor in the movie, but it was bad. The chicks were hot, but that’s pretty normal now for all action packed Hollywood movies. The characters do reflect all the old characters from the 80′s cartoon.

Now here is what was interesting about the movie, about half way through the movie, I started to say to my friends… I seen this movie before… it is ….

1) Team America World Police (2004)
2) Firefox (1982 movie)
3) Moonraker (1979 James Bond Movie)
4) Starwars : Phantom Menace (1999)
5) Stealth (2005)
6) Top Gun (1986) except under water…
7) Appleseed and really bad Robocop

It was like a Frankin-movie. Hollywood have truly ran out of the original ideas.

Now with all that said … there were few plot twists that was interesting and it was obvious that the movie was building up to part 2 so I will be interesting to see what they will try to do in part two. Maybe bring back Sgt. Slaughter?

So finally, my comment to everyone is yeah.. not a date movie and I would probably wait until it comes out on DVD or Blueray and just get it from the library or Netflix.

Happy Friday!!!

minhsao — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:34:00 +0000

Today is a wonderful day. I showed up at work, we had a pancake breakfast and I moved to a new cubical. It has been 2 years since I had an office with a window. It has been over 5 years since I had an office with a view. Ok even this this is a cubicle… this cube does have a view and a window. yeah!!!

Happy day … happy day…

The bad news is … I did not ride to work today:(… I guess I will need to play some ball tomorrow or this afternoon.

Thursday

minhsao — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:32:00 +0000

Today I will conclude this round of watermelon delivery. Don’t worry, if you did not get one, I am sure you will during the next round.

080509

minhsao — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Another Wednesday This has been an pretty interesting week so far. I rode my bike for the second time this week and this month. I can feel myself getting stronger. Yesterday, I did not feel any pain going home and going up all the hills. That is a very good thing. However, today my left ankle is a little bit weird… slight pain. I think I must have pulled something yesterday… so today’s early morning ride was extremely slow.

So this week I’ve been the watermelon man. I had the opportunity to visit my favorite place for fruits in the world. Tonnemaker’s in Royal City Washington. It is just wonderful!!!

So I’ve bought 27 watermelons and been sharing the watermelon goodness with everyone. I hope everyone enjoy the delicious golden watermelons from central Washington!!!

Last day of July 2009

minhsao — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:25:00 +0000

July 2009 has been an interesting Month.

1) 10 bike rides to work this month, yes today is my 10th trip to work!!! only 87 more to go!!! So with the total work days of 22 work days this week I rode 10 trips.

10/22 = .454545 = 45% of my working days are riding to work.

2) Seattle hits the record heat temperature this week. 103F+ Super Hot!!!

3) I started to count calories in conjunction with my bike riding. Yes I am trying to get fitter and maybe get back to my goal of 175. I have a long way to go

4) I discovered the Seattle Public Library this month!!! Wonderful Place!!!

5) I wrote my first Iphone app this month.

6) Tried to do online ads this month and got shut down because of suspicious clicks. What gives google???

7) We won our first volleyball game this month. Hopefully next month we will win our first set!!!! Current record 3-37.

Overall, it has been a good month… there are few things that I do need to change and improve. School work needs to be completed!!!

But all in all I think I am making a little progress.

Another summer week flying by…

minhsao — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:29:00 +0000

So another week in the summer is almost over. Yesterday was the hottest day recorded in Seattle since the record keeping began in 1891 and what did I do? I rode my bike to home in the 103 degree weather. 13 miles of super heat!!! I started with a bottle of ice water and when I got home the bottle was warm and empty. The water was pretty much warm half way home. It was so hot when I got home, it was 97 degrees inside my place. Ok Ok, I know all my southern friends will say that 97, that’s nothing. Well, all I have to say is try to turn of your AC at home next time the temperature get up to 100 in the South you will know what I am talking about. And Yes I do not have AC. Oh that’s another long rant.

So after I got home yesterday, I immediately head over to volleyball practice and stay away from the super heated house.

But the uniqueness of the heat allowed me to experience few new things.

1) I’ve never realized that my leather couch can radiate heat after baking in a 90+ degree room all day. It was not fun… very hot.
2) I started to find ways of cooling myself off at night…
a) cold shower…
b) wet towel over my head with a fan blowing
c) thinking about building a swamp cooler dude to the lower humidity of the day…

3) My shampoo became super runny liquids because of the heat… that was a strange experience.

What a unique day… Today suppose to be pretty hot too .. but we will see…

Hot summer nights in Seattle

minhsao — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:36:00 +0000

For the last few days, we’ve been getting some record heat in Seattle. Coming from the south, I should be used to this but I have to say it is still hot. The high today was around 95F. When I got home today, it was around 90 in my house. Even now it is 83 outside and about 87 inside. At least in the south we had AC. But …. What I realized is that this heat really makes you appreciate the modern technology and realize that we (humans) are very weak. I mean we complain about a little heat. What do people do before the AC? But then again, they probably can go swim in the lake or the river anytime they want;)

enjoy the heat… My predection for the weather is that the cold front is coming in the Future

Impressions of the Palm Pre

minhsao — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:38:00 +0000

So after a killer filling Chinese buffet lunch… which we swore not to do it again until a date after Sept 1, 2009, my friends and I visited the local Sprint store to check out the Palm Pre. I know it is like couple month late, but I am just curious to see what all the hype is about and if it is in any way a competitor for the iPhone. So my first impression is oh… it looks small and it looks pretty neat. The second thing I did was to poke and start opening applications. The first application I opened was the camera, and what did I notices? The camera application opened up really choppy. It almost seems like it is being interrupted by another process as it is opening. It was not a smooth and beautiful app open. This could very well be caused by the background processes. After that initial discomfort, I continue to open more apps and more apps, what I notices that the OS will let me open and running many apps all at the once. The speed for each just decreases slightly. I can very well see some potential problems with this.

With all plastic and plastic view screen, the phone just feels a bit cheap. The touch stone charger is really cool. The phone has a LED flash to support the camera and that is pretty cool too. The mirror on the back was worthless.

All in all, I would have to say that iPhone still won!!! Oh… I will probably not buy any Palm stocks anytime in the near future. I mean, if Palm is really depending on this phone to save their entire business, I hate to say it, but I think Palm’s end maybe near soon.

Updates Updates Updates!

minhsao — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:22:00 +0000

So … First of all … Happy Friday!!! Yes it is Friday.
So, yesterday was pretty cool. Our volleyball team won 2 more games yesterday. Yep, yep. we are now 3-32 … awesome record right? So we will be going for 3 wins next week. What’s new today? What’s new this week? This week I am almost done with with 3 day bike week to work. my trip computer currently says 179 miles on my bike so far. Nice! I also been tracking my meals. I’ve been using the livestrong.com ‘s calorie counter to keep track of what I eat daily. It is tough, but hopefully, I can see some results in a few weeks. Nothing to show so far.. but I guess it takes time.

I been having interesting dreams in the last few days. yes if you read my blog you will probably realized that I have dreams almost everyday. I remember bit and pieces of most of my dreams. I don’t know why that is, but that is what it is. So, two nights ago I had an interesting dream.

I was at night in the dark with a flashlight. I was holding the small flashlight in my hand (I think it was the one off my bike). all of the sudden, I realize that my hand was hurting. It seems that the light’s battery is leaking acid (don’t ask me how). The acid was burning the palm of my left hand. I scrambled and ran to try to find some water, I was looking for a faucet . I saw a puddle of water on the ground, I quickly ran toward it and put my hand in the water. I then saw a faucet by the street corner. I ran to that turn it on and trying to rinse my hand. Here is the scary part, my skin and tissue started to come off with the water. It was weird, but I was also seeing it starting to grow back. Not much blood, but just pretty weird stuff.

Ok… enough about my weird dreams. Going to enjoy a nice Friday lunch.

Reading my friend’s grandfather’s war Journal

minhsao — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:33:00 +0000

So… my friend Colin, just pointed me to his updated blog. He is transcribing his grandfather’s war journal from 1945. It is pretty amazing. It was like a short and sweet blog entry one after another form 1945. This started me to wonder, will my grand kids read my blog 50 years from now? That would be 2059 and I would be around 82 years old. I wonder how will everything look from the future? It is an interesting mind exercise. Check it out.

Stewart-Davis.com

As for me … I guess I need to write some more interesting things for the future to read

Wednesday …

minhsao — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:08:00 +0000

My ride to work was fun this morning. So I made it under 1 hour from my house. 55 minute of riding time and 3 minutes of stops alone the way. My average speed today was around 14. It was good, but I still feel very tired. I’ve been tracking my diet as well on LiveStrong.com. I am hoping with the tracking of my diet and my excercise, I will be able to accomplish some weightloss. Yeah.. I know… I am getting big… reaching the unthinkable 200. .

So the REI app provided me some interesting data today.

For my morning ride I did the following, this is relative to driving my G35x.

Trip Carbon Reduction: 14.31 lbs
Trip Calories Burned: 623 C
Trip Dollars Saved: $1.93

So here is the ride to work today.

6th trip to work

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Running late this morning ..

minhsao — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:26:00 +0000

This morning … I am running late.. I slept a long time but still did not want to get up. Don’t know why? Maybe my ride to work will wake me up. I better get going… I am running later

Another day of riding to work

minhsao — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:39:00 +0000

Today been a busy day. My trip counter is up to 4 1/2 now… and it will be 5 trips after I return home today. A while back, I calculated in order to get my money’s worth for my initial bike purchase,I need to have made 97 trips. so that just means I only have 92 more trips to go… woo hoo!!!

So for me, it was tough getting up this morning, I was losing my mind…. I even forgot to wear my helmet. I had to ride back to my home to pick it back up. That added 10-15 minutes. But all in all it was good. I thick I can ride to work just around 1 hour now. Which is about right, because my average speed on my trip computer is around 13 mile/hr.

So that mean I can travel 13 miles in an hour… and guess what work is around 13 miles

Yeah.. I know that’s so stupid… so here are the stats.. enjoy!!

5th trip to work

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Three New Addition to Mintrix.Net

minhsao — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:39:00 +0000

So after a very very very long time, I finally decided to add some more things to my website. This week, I added 3 new additions to my site. Back in the old days I was a purist and would never add all the 3rd party scripts and etc. I remember, when I needed a search for my site, I modified an open sourced search to fit my site. But today… I just don’t feel like doing that any more. I guess how time have changed.

So the following are the changes…

1) Site Search Engine … New site search engine by Google. Now if you ever wanted anything that I wrote about before just search there. (both front page and under blog)

2) New RSS Feed… I modified the RSS feed to use feedburner by Google. This helps with tracking the feed readers. (in blog only)

3) Call Me with Google Voice. Since I got Google Voice recently, now you can call my Google Voice number anytime from my website. (in blog only)

Yes… I also noticed that all 3 apps are from Google. I guess they make some pretty neat products huh?

Enjoy and let me know if you have any comments.

Click here to go to my site.

http://www.mintrix.net

Come here Neo Sweetie…

minhsao — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:01:00 +0000

So… last night, it was very hot here in seattle, so I decided to sleep with all of my bed room windows open. So around 3:00 AM this morning, I heard a girl calling “Come Here Neo, Sweetie.” coming from outside my bedroom window in the alley way. Maybe she was calling for Leo… but I was not fully awake. So at first, I though … “hum, who would walk their dog around this time of the night”. I looked at the clock and it was 3:00 AM. I then thought to myself… “I am sure they will go away soon” and I continued to sleep. I continued to hear the calling for Neo. “Neo come here… Neo. Sweetie come here…. Neo Neo Neo…”. On and on… and finally around 3:30 AM, I can not take it any more and decide to say something…. I stood next to my window and said one word… “PLEASE!!!”. The response I got was so shocking that I did not know how to answer in my half awaken state and I just went back to bed.

What was it?

So… when I yell out “Please”.

The response I got was from a dude..
He said… “Sorry, but my pet parrot just flew out and he is my best friend”

WHAT THE…????

Pet Parrot?

HuH? am I dreaming??? they were looking for their pet parrot???? if they found it how were they suppose to catch it??? what?

After that I lay back down on my bed and went back to sleep… I think the calling continues for few more minutes and stopped.

Interesting huh? … the question is was I dreaming or was it real???

Morning Ride to Work

minhsao — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:12:00 +0000

Today is my second time riding to work this week. Few interesting things happened during my ride to work.

1) Gosh I was tired…. I guess the ride from Tuesday, the volleyball practice on Wednesday, the volleyball game last night really mess my body up.

2) I hit a new top speed today. 35 miles an hour … woo hoo…

3) My average speed today is 13.5 miles per hour.

4) My odometer hit 100 today, miles that is … woo hoo… take a look.

5) Finally, my bike ride

Another trip to work

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Friday Ride to work…

minhsao — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Goodness… I am so tired this morning… need to wake up and get ready for my ride to work…. need coffee.

Updated RSS Link

minhsao — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:07:00 +0000

Hey Guys and Girls that are subscribing to my blog feed. I am changing my feed slightly so please update your subscription to the following link. Just click on it and your reader should update. Thank you.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/InsideMintrixnet

Cube Cheater!!!

minhsao — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Wow this is pretty amazing. An app that can solve the rubiks cube. I guess I am more interesting on how it was solved. I think I remember something about if you understand linear algebra you can solve the cube really easily, however, I never could visualized how to solve it really quick. Almost but not as quick as this app.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNwx0nbgm7M

Feeling good and Google Voice

minhsao — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:08:00 +0000

So I got a new number today… Google voice number. Will this be the last number that I ever get? who knows… maybe few years later I will look at this entry and laugh. So yeah.. I rode my bike back from work. I am not as tired this time as last couple of times. I will try to ride again later this week. I think it is good for me. I am building up my strength and endurance. Sorry guys, no everytrail post today. 2 things happened. I forgot to log off after I got home until 30 minutes later so the data is all mess up, second, for some reason the GPS was acting up and the map was messed up. I believe it is because it doesn’t handle pausing very well.

Another Successful Ride to Work and it’s only 8:30 am

minhsao — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:29:00 +0000

Oh… it is anothe Beautiful day with another successful ride to work. It took under 1 hour from Colin’s place today …woo hoo!!! Good ride!!

3rd Trip to Work

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Monday…

minhsao — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:23:00 +0000

So… yeah… I wrote my first Iphone App today and it’s actually pretty cool. Oh it is just a silly random generator app, with a bit of twist to it. It is a B number generator. Well, since I am a consultant and we are always ask about billable hours and where each minute of our working hour is going to charge to, this silly app will provide just that. Ha ha ha… I know it is completely useless, but yes… it will provide minutes of fun… ha ha ha …

oh… I also started a second blog documenting my experience…

www.tricklingprojects.com

It is a site for all my little side projects.

M.I.N.H.S.A.O

minhsao — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

If I was a robot… I would be …
a Mechanical Intelligent Neohuman Hardwired for Scientific Assassination and Observation

Get Your Cyborg Name

A Team of Mighty Bicycle Riders

minhsao — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Oh… just a picture of my co-workers and I

I know I know… I should be going to bed… I am …

Tired after riding today…

minhsao — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:48:00 +0000

After a full day of working and then riding back.. I am tired. I think I will go to bed a bit early today.

2nd trip home from work

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another day for a bike ride

minhsao — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:53:00 +0000

7 – 8 – 9 … I ride my bike to work …

So I made another trip to work. so I calculated how many trips I need before I break even with my bike… the magic number is 97. So I am on trip 1 1/2. after I return home today I only have 95 more trips to do… whoo hooo… Let’s keep count!!!

So today is Brian’s first day of riding with us. We took it really slow today, but we did good.

check it out.

2nd trip to work

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Sunday before returning to work

minhsao — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:45:00 +0000

It is Sunday morning. Tomorrow, I will be returning back to work. I am feeling a lot better than I was on Wednesday and Thursday. So this weekend, I am wrapping up my paper and starting to do some simple iphone development. I am still learning. But what I have discovered is the amazing amount of media resources that one can check out from the Seattle Public Library. It is really amazing how much media information you can get from the library system, from books, to mangas, to CDs, to DVDs, to digital books, and even MP3s. It is just amazing. If you haven’t checked out the Seattle Library System before, go and check it out… it is amazing!!! Maybe I should cancel Netflix, now I discovered the library system!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

minhsao — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:32:00 +0000

So.. for the last couple of days I’ve been hiding out in my home trying to finish up my paper. Today, it is not much different. I am alot better from my sickness. I should be 100% soon. So right now I am sitting in a dark room… looking out the window seeing fireworks and listening to boom boom boom. It reminds me of Shanghai. {sigh}…

So … so many little things lately is reminding about how critical time is. So 2002 July 2, I became a US citizen… so I guess that makes me a 7 years old American. Can you believe it has been 7 years….

So many things has happened. Just read this blog….

and yet … I am just drifting….

I hope in 10 years I won’t be sitting here saying the same thing again.

This 4th is particularly different then the rest. i did not BBQ… i did not go home… I did not see a soul… I was at home working on my stuff and trying not to be distracted by myself and by the heat. Oh yeah it is around 80+ during the peak of the day.

I want to play tennis… but I got to finish…
I want to go out with my friends … but I got to finish…
I want to do so many things… but I got to finish….

Happy Birthday America!!! Thank you for such a wonderful place and a wonderful country!!!

Thank you all the people working to keep this country so wonderful!!! Thank you..

Amazing amount of resouce

minhsao — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Well.. the temperature is around 89 degrees today… why too hot to stay at home. So I decided to head to the local library branch to do some work. First I was surprised of how many people were there, I did not think much of it and went and found a nice quiet corner to do my work. It has been a long long time since I been back to the library… maybe since college? But right before I was about to get kicked out of the library because they are closing at 6, I decided to get a library card and check the place out. Oh my Gosh!!! It was amazing, what I’ve found!!! With a library card.. you can get access to more than just books. I mean you can get some really good books and reference guides too but you can also get access to DVD’s CD’s, mangas, and even online downloads!!!

I am completely amazed!!! The library even supports a self checkout using RFID… which is super cool.

Wow… amazing experience with the Seattle Library System… I think I will revisit them more often.

WOW WOW!!!

Very good doctor’s experience

minhsao — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:59:00 +0000

So… my past experience with US doctors has been, you call in they say humm… can you come back in 3 days for your appointment. I am like, but I am sick now!!!… but there was no choice… you have to wait and see. Today, was amazing. I woke up, I call in at 7:30 am, and got an appointment at 8:00 am, got checked out and out the door of the clinic by 8:30, pick up my meds at 9:45 and now sucking down antibiotics at 10:00. And the entire process only cost 6.98 for the antibiotics. Pretty cool.

Oh I am sure my insurance will back bill me somehow… but for right now for today… I am content.

As for me… Strep Throat.

Few days of antibiotics and stay away from people … That is good.. I need some time to finish my work…

24 miles in one day…

minhsao — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:49:00 +0000

so it may not seem like much to the major hardcore bikers… but to me it was alot. Yes, the return trip was harder then the going trip. I don’t know why? was it doable… yes very much so… can I or will I do it again… definitely! will I do it again tomorrow? humm… probably not… I am thinking thursday!!!

Thanks Colin for all your guidance.

As you can see I was having some trouble getting my GPS on the iphone to work next to my office… so it was not until 1 mile after I start did the program started to track.

So take a look.

Return home on first day bike to work

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Woo Hoo I am at work!!

minhsao — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:42:00 +0000

So after a little over an hour.. I am at work. Thanks for Colin leading the way. It was a long ride, but a fun one. I was pretty much drafting Colin most of the way, not on purpose but because I am slow I think I do need to eat something before I ride in the morning.

Please take a look at my progress.

First bike ride to work

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UP and ready for my first day of biking to work

minhsao — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Woo hoo… I am excited….
I will let you guys know how it goes when I am in the office.
very exciting.

BUSY BUSY BUSY DAY LIST

minhsao — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:04:00 +0000

So… Busy Day today …

Here is my list

1) Work
2) Tomorrow Biking… got a new bag for biking…
3) Drop box=
4) Good Bye X … sorry that I missed our last tennis game … i hope you had fun
5) Picked up Shirts from shirt jail.
6) Did you get the memo on the TPS report cover sheet?
7) yeah… got to work a little late
no chance to finish up the draft report… being delayed more
9) oh… Multiband WiFi at home
10) I am tired…

One week review with my New Iphone 3GS

minhsao — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:41:00 +0000

So it has been one week since I got my IPHONE 3GS and how do I feel?

Well… pretty mixed up…

So a bit of background … my previous phone was an original IPHONE. It worked fine except for the power button. It was not always responsive, and it was a bit used (AKA a bit dented up).

So here is my short list of Pro’s and Cons.

1) Great new camera on the Iphone 3GS. with this new camera, Evernote is so awesome and great!!! but of course you can do pretty much the same with a macro lens case from Griffen. But auto focus is pretty awesome.

2) Voice activation is cool. Even does chinese!!!

3) International input is awesome .. it even does Chinese with zhu-yin.

4) The 32 Gig is super awesome!!!

5) Video is cool.

6) Speed is pretty fast … a bit faster than my old silver back.

7) Gosh the speaker phone is so much better then my old phone. I got one of the bad batch with bad speakers.

Earphone jack was not recessed. Yeah no more adapters. Of course 3G would be the same.

9) Compass is cool… haven’t really used it much yet.

10) 3G and GPS is really cool… check out everytrail… it is so cool!!! you can do the same with Iphone 3G

11) A2DP is AWESOME!!! of course this will also work on 3G Iphone

12) oh and nice power % for the battery. It seems that you can only do this on the 3GS.

13) Same size as the old Iphone.. so all 3G accessories work… YEAH!!!

Con.

1) 3G drop calls is really really bad. I have never experienced this with my old EDGE silverback. But with my 3G phone .. 4 dropped call in 30 minutes. It may be just AT&T; or it maybe my phone. We will have to see.

2) Battery life. I don’t think it is any better battery life than my old silverback. It maybe psychological, but with the power percentage constantly on display I feel like the battery life drops pretty quick. Don’t get me wrong, it does last me a full day of phone use.

3) Black plastic back, I miss my old silver back. It is a hardy little phone… everyone that have seen my phone knows how hardy it is.

4) Stupid earphone… new earphone with volume control next to the mic for the iphone… so now it is even more expensive to get a replacement.

5) .. and that’s about it.. I think…

So … in conclusion, should you get one? Oh I think you should get one if you don’t have an IPhone or if you have a first gen iphone and really like gadgets. Or else I would recommend sticking with the IPhone 3G or just buy the 99 dollars iphone 3G. It pretty much does everything that the new 3GS does… you really won’t notice any difference.

Do I like it… Yeah… I really like it and I use it … ALOT!!!

Second Bike Trip

minhsao — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:35:00 +0000

After tuning up my new bike added in all my gear and stuff. I went out for a ride with Colin. This was a trip from Colin’s place up to Inter-urban trail back to Colin’s and back home. This was my second trip… and YES and I did fell flat on my side with my feet locked in… yes.. that was pretty funny and it kinda hurts. After I went back to Colin’s place, I did re-adjust the seat and handle bar.. it is much better now!!! Yeah!!

Oh … it looked like we took a long time, but I did stop a while while working on the bike seat… so the time is inaccurate. My new bike computer said that I only ride 45 minutes on this trip.

Trip 2

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My First Bicycle trip with my new bike

minhsao — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:33:00 +0000

First bike trip

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It was just a short trip to Colin’s place. No major accidents. Good ride… nice new bike.

Ok… I have to get this off my chest…

minhsao — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:38:00 +0000

First of all don’t get a roommate that is someone you don’t know.

So for the last few month I had a roommate that was a FOB. He was a friend’s friend and I thought oh… sure it should not be too bad. He was a friend’s friend’s relative. A young kid that was coming here for school. I though… sure .. not problem. I will rent him a room. So for $550 including everything … bed, table, internet, power, water, private bathroom, detergent, all my pots, pans, dishes and bowls. I figure it will be ok. His parents and his relative and my friends friend showed up to take a look at the place. They all seems nice. His aunt even offered to come and clean up if he was too dirty. I felt like nah… I am sure he will be fine. They ask if they needed to pay for any deposit.. and I said no…I trust you it will be fine. So he moved in few days early and without deposit. I am ok with that… he was a kid far away from home.. I am happy to help.

So as months goes alone… many minor things just annoys me but I am thinking it is probably just me. I did ask him to clean the range with me and he said I never did that before… back in China, we never had to clean the range like this. Ok… that’s ok he’s young, but he needs to learn to clean and keep it up.

So all the sudden out of the blue, he asks me can I lower his rent? WTF? of course I said no. I think $550 is very fair. And this weekend he told me he is going to move out on Tuesday. Which is today. I said that’s fine… just please clean up your room and clean up the bathroom.

So he moved out mid day while I was not here. That’s fine. So when went up stairs I saw that the bathroom was super nasty. I don’t think he ever cleaned. He also left a blue bag in the closet, a bed sheets, and a pillow cover in his room. I though he was coming back later that evening to clean and pick that up. I waited until around 8pm. I decided to give him a call. When I told him that he still left some stuff here, he was shocked as if I was kidding, I also told him that he needed to clean the bathroom as well.

He agree to come back. He showed up around 9:30pm. Pick up the bag and was going to walk right back out. I said, wait, what about the bathroom. I even gave him all the cleaners, toilet cleaner, toilet brush, and Clorox wipes. All I ask is for him to make an effort to clean the bathroom. I went and wipe in less in one minute and said… “I am leaving, thanks”. I was like … what the F… So I went downstair as he told his friend to hurry and get going. I was really pissed… when I confronted him he basically said sorry… and walked out!!!

WTF!!!!

I felt really used.

Is it wrong to ask your tenant to make an effort in cleaning his bathroom before he leaves?

So Lesson Learned…

1) Don’t rent out to a roommate unless they are cool and have the similar culture.
2) Don’t mix business with kindness…. Collect the Deposit Upfront!!!
3) Interview much longer and if all fails don’t rent out to a roommate.

23 hours later…

minhsao — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:33:00 +0000

so I got my Iphone 3GS yesterday, and it is amazing except I can’t use it. Well, I can use it, but pretty much as an Ipod touch. Why? because AT&T; states that it would take up to 48 hours to have my phone activated. 48 hours!!!! oh my gosh… I hope that is not 48 working hours… that would mean I will not have my phone activated until Tuesday? :O … seriously, I think it just means 48 hours max… or at least I sure hope so. So after waiting for 22 hours … I finally gave in and decided to look online for some solutions. I found that some one posted the following:

(1) Call 800-331-0500

(2) Dial 0 and then 0 again

(3) Ask the customer rep nicely to activate you.

(4) Give them your SIM Card # and IMEI. To find this quickly, go to “Settings” on your iPhone, click on “General,” then “About.” The “ICCID” is your SIM card and the one above that, IMEI is the other number they need.

(5) They will ask you to shut down your phone, wait 30 seconds and turn it on.

(6) When the phone turns back on, you should be activated.

so I gave it a try….

After the lady updated my account and my IMEI number and it still did not work… I got passed around to Apple and then back to AT&T; like a hot potatoe.

and more waiting…..

30 minutes later … still no activated phone…

48 minutes later … after they finally change my numbers on their system it all the sudden worked.

What they did was to change the system’s IMEI number to my new Iphone and also change my SIM Card number to my new Iphone’s sim card. and now it all works.

so 23 hours laters after I got my iPhone, I have a fully working Iphone 3GS.

AT&T; Wireless… Thanks for for activating it … but you guys really sucks…

Thursday… This week is flying by…

minhsao — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:08:00 +0000

Way too much stuff going on…

- So yeah… I started twittering … not like I have alot of time… but I just started since few of my good friends are all on it. I’ve got to keep in the loop I guess and see what the hype is all about. But this is very interesting, there is a trending topics column on the side. This means that if everyone is tweeting what they are thinking then the most commonly thought of topic would appear. What would be interesting is if it is possible to artificially create a trend in the twitter ecosystem?? hummm…. interesting.

- So yeah… Iphone OS 3.0 is pretty cool… been having alot of fun with it. I am waiting on my Iphone 3GS. My friends been asking me for my old Iphone and I would love to give it to a caring person… however, anyone who have seen my iPhone will know that it is pretty beaten up… yep.. power button don’t respond all the time.. and a small dent in the back… yeah… pretty beaten up. So I am thinking a retirement party for it and then off the the lab it goes…;)

- So yeah… Iphone OS 3.0 supports CalDAV which means I can activitly interact with googlecal, since it also supports CalDAV. So I use googlecal as a centralize keeper for all 3 of my calendars (work, personal, school). The only thing that I found is that the update is not as quickly as I thought and I can’t find a way to force update yet. Also no push notification when an invitation is sent to the calendar, oh bummer.

- so yeah… my work for graduation is still in progress… don’t ask how far along… it will happen when it happens… no pressure please… thanks…

IPhone OS 3.0 Upgraded …

minhsao — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:30:00 +0000

After an early scare on my upgrade… I went from a jailbroken iphone OS 2.2.1 to a standard 1st gen. Iphone OS 3.0. At first I was getting the emergency dialing only screen. This is because the Apple App store server was busy and had issues. For a while I thought I bricked my old Iphone. But I am happy to announce that it is back and for two more days of service before it’s retirement.

But so far I am pretty happy with it. Well, besides the fact that I can’t use tethering everything is very cool.

- The search spotlight is pretty awesome.
- Copy and Paste!!!! Woo hoo finally!!!
- Push is awesome
- International.. now I can type chinese in Zhuyin!!! … I can send my little sister messages in chinese hee hee… maybe even get my parents an Iphone
- caldav is awesome!!! now I can sync my calendar over the air…

I can’t wait until I get my 3GS… then I can..

- A2DP…
- better camera with auto focus and macro… great with Evernotes… yeah!!!
- voice commands
- never get lost with a digital compass
- Auto Car wash with iphone
- Solve all homework problems on the fly
- acts like a vaccuum and sweeper with the new 3GS

oh… how wonderful is technology…:)

Working on my school project

minhsao — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:47:00 +0000

When you have a good idea… it is always the hardest to get started. I seem to have a big problem about getting started with things, however once i am in the groove, things seems to be pretty fast. I have so many ideas in my head and I need to get it down on paper and then work and shape it. So this weekend… I have turned off everything and I am locking myself in the downstairs office and work on my paper. So … if i am not answering my phone … it is because it is turned off and I am attempting to work…. yes yes… I am on lunch break right now but back to work soon.. I think I will go to the library when the sun starts to heat up my office. but right now it is pretty good and comfortable.

What’s going on lately…

minhsao — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:41:00 +0000

So… few key notes…
1) One of my best buddy Xavier is leaving at the end of this month. He is going back to France and Germany for work I am sadden by this even. Got to find time to throw him a party.

2) Work just went through some layoffs… as previously posted… this is not my first experience.. but it is still very disturbing to me. Especially when I see all the people that got hired at the same time as me got let go.

3) I need to finish my creative component before month end to even have a chance to graduate for Summer.

4) seems like all the weekends are filled up and not time for anything… still got to do alot….

5) Pre-ordered the new Iphone 3GS… it is coming in next Friday.

6) Want to get a bike to ride to work.

7) Want to get a BBQ grill… to be exact … the Webber Q Grill … don’t know which model yet.

Need to finish up my side project… it is draining my energy and my resources

9) Need to plan some summer events for the Seattle Auburn Club.

10) Need to replace my Bluetooth speaker mic that got stolen few weeks back during my car break in…

Good grief… it is mid month already… better get started.

Wow sunrise at 5:12 AM and Sunset around 9:05pm

minhsao — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:36:00 +0000

it is crazy summer days… really early sunrise and really really late sunset. I got to take advantage the summer. But it seems that there are too many things to do in my life right now to be enjoying it outside . Well… got to tough it out.

This is not my first experience…

minhsao — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:32:00 +0000

Even though, this is not the first time to survive layoffs, it is very hard to hear about it, this round. I remember the first time in 1999 right after I got hired out of college. The second time was in 2002 in Houston. And now, June 9th, 2009. I don’t know why it is bothering me this time. I guess it is because I am a bit older and the company that I am working for is alot smaller so … well… it is all a game of numbers.

I am going to bed and sleep it off. Big meeting tomorrow morning.

Beautiful Saturday!!!

minhsao — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Oh another amazing beautiful Saturday in Seattle, and I am working on my side project. I really need to get this done. So I can enjoy the rest of the summer… oh wait … I got to work on my school project too… yikes!!! More to come.

New Glasses from Costal Contacts are in 7 days from ordering!!!

minhsao — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:32:00 +0000

So this is super fast… 7 days after ordering online… I got my glasses in the mail.

What do you think? It is very snug, but it is nice. Slight distortion on the top of the glasses… this might be because of the size of the lens. This may not be a good pool glasses. Still in search of a better pair for playing pool.

I love the sides on this frame and the gray and orange coloring. After everything it was 99 dollars. Sweet deal huh? yes it does include 1.61 reflection index lens with all the coatings ( anti scratch/ UV/ anti glare)

https://www.coastalcontacts.com/glasses/index.ep

Clean Camera = Happy Min

minhsao — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:21:00 +0000

So … As I stated before … I got my CCD cleaned this week … so here is a comparison for everyone on how much difference it made on my pictures. So look in the sky on the first picture and you will see all the black dust spots. Then look again on the new picture … and it is dust free!!!
With Dusts… look in the blue sky

With out dust… (yeah!)

So I think I will take my camera for a good cleaning one a year now.
Oh if anyone else wanted to have their CCD cleaned…

Go to Camera Clinic in Shoreline, WA!!!

Camera Clinic
518 NE 165th St
Shoreline, WA 98155
(206) 367-2440

They are awesome!!!

Sunny Day in Seattle!!

minhsao — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:24:00 +0000

Sunny Day
Sweepin’ the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street

Come and play
Everything’s A-OK
Friendly neighbors there
That’s where we meet

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

It’s a magic carpet ride
Every door will open wide
To Happy people like you–
Happy people like
What a beautiful

Sunny Day
Sweepin’ the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame street…
How to get to Sesame Street
How to get to…

– Big Bird

Camera Clinic in Shoreline

minhsao — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:42:00 +0000

So Yesterday I drop my camera off to this small camera repair shop in Shoreline WA. I been getting alot of little dust spots on my pictures. and since the weather is so nice it is really annoying to take pictures and then spend 30+ minutes on the computer trying to fix all the dust spots. So I decided to drop the camera off and get it cleaned. It is pretty amazing little place. They have been fixing cameras for 30 years. So today I brought my old Nikon camera over there for them to take a look. And it was amazing… the guy immediately told me everything about the camera and said that it was a pretty good camera for its time. Oh… I’ve got to tell Dad that, but I am sure my dad knows. It really got me thinking. The Nikomat FT3 was manufactured from 1977 – 1979. I was born on 1976. I think my dad bought the camera to take pictures of me and this camera is still good enough to take pictures today and even produce good pictures. I wonder in 30 years will my Canon 30D still be good enough to be appreciated by my kids? Probably not. I guess that shows how things are today. Thing are being built today to be instant satifaction and to be disposable and that is the world of 2009.

A wonderful Long weekend around and about

minhsao — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:19:00 +0000

This past weekend was pretty good and relaxing. Of course after the break in incident. Well, of course after Saturday morning of running around getting my window replaced and oh and I got my wind shield replaced as well. Yeah, I guess, after I moved to Seattle, I have done alot of work on my car. front bummer replaced because of a hit and run. From grill replaced because of stupid idiots stealing my grill logo. dent in the right rear panel fixed because of stupid people at the apt keying my car. passenger rear and passenger front window replaced because of breakings. Front wind shield replaced because of rock chips. Gosh… yes… alot of work done.

Anyways, this weekend, I had a chance to go out take some pictures enjoy the great NW with friends. It was good food and great times. Gosh I really do not want to come back to work. I will try to work on the pictures and get them posted.

I hate stupid people in Seattle!!!

minhsao — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:02:00 +0000

So it was a great afternoon, a beautiful day and a wonderful afternoon. I had an oppertunity to go and watch an exciting 12 inning Mariners game. Yes and the Mariners won. After the walk back to the car after a wonderful evening… I discovered my car was broken into AGAIN!!!! Yes second time this year!!!! What is wrong with you guys? Why do you keep on breaking into my car??? and why did the person take this time? a 80 dollars handsfree bluetooth device. Yeah… very very nice. sigh… Well.. the police was called and they don’t want to come and see me unless it is over 1500 dollars. So everything is done over the phone. Well… I am ok… that’s the important thing. Tomorrow… I will go and fix my glass. DAMN those idiots!

Revisiting Star Trek and Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville

minhsao — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Oh… around summer of 1991, I attended Space Academy (aka older kids Space Camp) in Huntsville, Alabama. Now almost 20 years (ok 18 years) later, I revisited the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville to watch the new Star Trek movie. It brought back so many memories. What amazes me was that after 18 years not much have changed in the space center. Still the similar displays, still the same posters at the gift shops. What have changed was the amount of commercialism. There are also some plans for the future of space… that have changed greatly. It is truly amazing how majority of most of the space travel was done in the 60′s, 70′s, and early 80′s. Well… it is also amazing that so many years after the first Star Trek episode, the reboot movie is out. It was actually a pretty good reboot movie. I was very impressed. however, I don’t think I would go to an IMAX theater to watch this movie again. It was too stretched and also you can’t see anything when there’s motion. I guess I will just have to watch it when it comes out on netflix.

My exciting airport meeting

minhsao — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:43:00 +0000

So it is so interesting. While I was waiting to go through security today at SEATAC. I saw a Chinese priest. I ask where is Father going today. He said San Francisco all the sudden I realized that he is my uncle (my father’s cousin, the Archbishop from Taiwan!!!) Oh my gosh… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I ran in to him at the security check in in SEATAC. This must be something special!!!!

The Sea Snail Dilemma

minhsao — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:51:00 +0000

So you know, we got one sea snail yesterday from the clam dig. Well, everything else was eaten last night except for the sea snail. It was a pretty cute and big sea snail. So since no body knows how to cooked, it created a small dilemma for me. It was pretty cute and pretty fat little sea snail. So the dilemma is that, do you kill it first by pulling it’s meat out or cook it first and then pull its meat out. wow it sounded pretty cruel. Maybe I should just let it go. But there is really no good place to put it? Make be I should just let it live out the remaining life in the little bucket, but that is also just as awful as torture. So I was going through this mental struggle. What should I do with the sea snail. Finally, I came to a conclusion. The moment we decides to keep it, there was only one road for the little sea snail and the only human way to reach the end of that road is for me to eat it. Why? because if I consume it then it’s death is not without cause. The cause is to feed my hungry stomach. I reasoned that any other way is pretty sad and suffering end for the little sea snail. So with that decision made, I drop the little sea snail into my wonderful Salmon and Sea Snail Soup. … yumm yumm yumm Oh and yeah.. I cook the sea snail whole, the meat actually came right out after cooking. And my dilemma was solved!!!

Oh… what does it (sea snail) taste like? humm a little bit tough.. very much like eating a old rubber band.

Clamming on Mother’s Day

minhsao — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:44:00 +0000

This year’s is one of the very few mother’s day that I did not spend with my mom. The reason is my little sister and my mom are in Taiwan. So since last weekend, after only finding one clam with my dad I been really thinking about going back for some clams. Razor clam was also open this weekend, however, it takes 3 hours of driving to get to a razor clam location and low tide for that area is around 8:50. Yikes… I almost gave up on clamming this past weekend until I talked to a new friend who told me that she was going to somewhere near Gig Harbor, so after doing some research I found this site.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/beachreg/b280710.shtml

We left around 8:30 and stop for license purchase at Federal way and got there right at low tide around 12pm. It was super awesome. We dug up so many Manila Clams it was amazing!!! We even got a sea snail. Way cool!!!!

Dad’s Visit this weekend

minhsao — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:51:00 +0000

This weekend my dad came over from Alabama to visit. I has been a long time since I had some one on one time with my father, but it was great! We were able to go see the tulips in Skagit Valley and attempt to dig for some clams up near the canadian boarder in Birch Bay. Well, the flowers were great, however, we only found one clam in Birch Bay, I guess we just don’t have the right tools.

Returning to Central Washington

minhsao — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:39:00 +0000

This weekend is pretty special. For the first time in 2 years, I drove back over the cascades and back to Moses Lake and Ephrata area. Why? well, my friend’s oldest daughter is having her first communion. This is a special occasion for us Catholics. The drive over to Moses Lake was extremely special. I remember for 4 years when I lived in Ephrata, I was constantly doing that drive, so driving it yesterday brought back so many memories.

My friend is a super lucky guys, with 5 kids, I was welcomed by all of them when I arrived. I felt so loved. My friend’s house is a classic american family home…. super lovely and in this case super huge as well… I guess with 5 kids you sort of have too. His back yard was like a football field… huge back yard. The sun set last night was amazing. I forgot how beautiful it is in central Washington.

I do kind of miss all of this.

So just woke up to the smell of bacon and the sound of kids. Wow… what a life.

I will get ready for an exciting day in Moses lake… oh and hopefully will get some time to visit my friends in Ephrata too.

Another busy April weekend

minhsao — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:29:00 +0000

This past weekend was fairly busy. Oh… I guess it really started on Thursday night. I found a piece of bone in the fatty tuna sashimi at Red Fin Japanese Restaurant in Seattle near Stewart. can you believe it. It was a 1 cm piece of bone and the waitress was like oh… those things happens. Humm… see if I go back there again. They did give me another piece to make up for it… but still… I never ever had that experience in eating sushi before. On Friday night I went to see the Mariners play… wonderful seats right behind home plate and of course the M’s won!!! Yeah. Saturday I work all day doing one of my side jobs, and accomplished alot and had a wonderful evening. Sunday, I worked all morning, had dim sum and did some filming for my video side. All in all.. a very good weekend.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Yqo3hu2uM]

What a weekend… and an end of the 40 day experiment

minhsao — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:50:00 +0000

So this past weekend, I was in Houston helping my sister find a place. Houston brought back so many memories. I saw all the places I use to go. I went back to visit my old townhouse, and that tree was still there.. and it is huge now. ( look back in 2003… where I moved a tree with my car… hee hee) I went back to Osaka my favorite sushi place in Houston and Tom, the sushi chef still remember me … ( I use to go there alot). The Montrose overpass is now an underpass. May’s place don’t have my favorite vegetarian Taiwanese meatballs anymore (how sad). Drove around and saw all the other places where it just brings back so many memories. We found and picked some loquat. We bought alot of exotic fruits (I love fruits). We went to one of my favorite cajun place (Pappaduax) in Houston. We had lots of boiled crawfish… and it was only 4.99 a lb. vs 8.99 in Seattle… and it is so much better. I met up with an old co-worker of mine… we talked about how things have changed… talked about the good times in the past and BS a bit. It was fun.

so on top of all of that I concluded my 40 days of no soft drinks or hard drinks or any other sugar drinks. So I bet everyone is wondering what was my first none water drink after 40 days. Ha Ha….

It was a Cherry Limeade from Sonic!!! My second was a Dr. Pepper and my third was a sugar cane juice (soo good)!!!

All in all it was a busy but a good weekend. It was great to see my parents and my sister and it was great to revisit Houston.

Off to Houston…

minhsao — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:30:00 +0000

So interesting day today, I will be heading back to Houston today. It has been many many many years since I been back to Houston. No no… I been back to Houston IAH airport, but actually going back to Houston City.. it has been a while. So many memories… I will be there for Easter weekend and I will return to Seattle, on Monday morning. So the only thing now is to cross my fingers and hope for upgrades!!!

Taking Iphone classes from Stanford

minhsao — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:03:00 +0000

So… I’ve been thinking about Iphone programming and been working on learning some. The wonderful thing about internet is that you can take some free classes online. So I’ve decided to take some free IPhone programming classes from Stanford. So far it has been pretty cool. I will keep you guys updated on my progress.

Nature’s Candy

minhsao — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Oh… how I do love to have a good Muscat or Muscadine… I found some today at H-Mart during lunch.. so naturally.. I bought 3 boxes…

I love fruits!

Snowing on April 1st (fool’s)

minhsao — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:11:00 +0000

It is pretty amazing… 4/1/2009 and it is snowing outside. You got to agree that the big guy upstairs have pretty funny sense of humor… right?

New Keys and a Car Wash

minhsao — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:16:00 +0000

So I got my new blank keys for my car yesterday. Whoo hoo!!! yeah… so it means that I got to get it cut and programmed. So I called around and found that it was around 80 dollars to get one key cut and programmed… that means two keys would be 160. yikes… so I decided to call the infiniti dealership and see what they can do. They said they can program it for 65… so I figured… sure.. that’s only 130. When I got there the were going to charge me around 9 dollars per key to cut it, so I was like oh well.. then the surprising thing happened… they only charge me 65 for programming fee for both keys and they said that they will also wash my car. So I ended up with both keys cut and programmed for 85 dollars and it included a vacuum and a car wash… and my car really needed it too!!!..

Sweeet… on top of it … it’s a beautiful day to have my car washed… but I am sure it will rain soon.

No more BSG, no more Gundam 00

minhsao — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:49:00 +0000

So… the week before last was the end of BSG and this past Sunday was the end of Gundam 00. It is amazing to think what I was doing when BSG started in 2004 and Gundam 00 last year. Amazing…

Monday and new roommate

minhsao — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:57:00 +0000

So … after living by myself for a long time, I decided to give up one of my room and get a roommate. So after tonight, I will have a roommate. No, no it is not a hot girl, just a kid that is going to NSCC for school. I hope everything will be cool and happy with this roommate situation. So it was a very nice Sunday yesterday, relaxed, cleaned out of my rooms for my new roommate. Here are some of my random thoughts. I realized that I have way too much stuff and really need to get rid of somethings. I think yesterday feels like a very cool (temperature wise) spring day… played a little tennis yesterday (3 hours) … a bit cold … decided to use my old racquet again… think I will restring my new racquet and give it another go… if that doesn’t work out after restring then I will sell the racquet. Foot hurts again, this morning… that’s normal… master bedroom is still a mess… 16 days left to file my taxes….

It is Monday afterall…

Going from Superman to Clark Kent

minhsao — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:10:00 +0000

So I’ve been getting alot of feedbacks from friends about my new glass and my new look. Some feedbacks were positive, some were not… and some sounded positive simply because they were being nice. Hey, it’s all good. To me, I wanted a new look a new change … you know, changing it up for spring. It is like going from Superman to Clark Kent. So I made that comment to one of my friends and he said, “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” That got me thinking, you know, no … I think the better transformation is from Superman to Clark Kent. Being Superman, he is needed everywhere, busy all the time, center of attention in any major event, major responsibility, simply because he is Superman. Being Clark is he is just one of the normal person, he can make mistakes and people accept that, he can have error and flaws, he can be a normal person without the pressure and the responsibilities. It is a much simpler life… or so it may seem …

So what do you think?

My first Iphone app

minhsao — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:43:00 +0000

So… I woke up this morning feeling smarter with my new glasses on and figure out what was wrong with my “hello world” iphone app program. yeah… it just ended up that I was not running it on the simulator that is why I was getting a “code sign error”. So as soon as I fixed that the simple … I mean really simple “hello world” ran and I got an app that spits out “hello world”. Yeah!!!

“Hello World” is the confident builder when we geeks learn a new language.

Oh so yeah…I got my new frame in yesterday. Woo hoo… this time the lens were correct and the size was correct too. Gosh I have a big head. So how do I look?

All in all, my experience with online eyeglasses shopping was fair. I guess the important thing is to find the proper size and be really patient. In a modern on demand world, waiting two weeks for a pair of glasses just feels pretty painful, but you are paying only $55 verses $200 to $400. so yeah… it is a trade off.

So what happened yesterday…

minhsao — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:04:00 +0000

So… here is my story… just like another early spring Saturday, I went to snowboarding at Steven’s pass with my friends Howie and Pauline. When we got there, we geared up and headed toward the slopes… while I was walking toward the parking lot, Pauline asked if I got my keys.. and I jokingly laughed and said, “it would be really bad if I didn’t”, then I realized that I left my gloves in the trunk and return to my car to get them. Once I got my gloves, I quickly caught up with my friends and off to the slopes we went.

As I stated earlier, it was really spring skiing this weekend, most of the slopes were icy earlier on, but eventually soften up. So after about the 6th or 7th run, I had a major fall on the back mountain, I just laughed and I thought, “I hope I did not lose my keys”. I then padded my front pockets, nothing… I padded my back pockets, nothing… I check my coat pockets, still nothing…

I was thinking, “oh shit, I must have lost my keys during my fall.” After I realized there was nothing I can do on the slope, I decided to ask my buddies for help. I boarded down to Howie and Pauline and told them the situation. We decided to retrace my last run and see if we can find it. The good thing was that my key chain had a bright red dragon fly on it, but the bad thing was that my key chain has every important key that I owned on it and I do not have a backup. This includes my car keys, house keys, mail box… etc (my backup keys got stolen 3 month ago during my car break in) As one can see, I was pretty much in a major panic. We combed the back slop and could not find my keys at all… then I though about this morning, maybe I accidently locked my keys in the trunk this morning and never carried it on the slope with me. So I thought to myself, if my car was unlocked then the keys must be in the trunk. I must go back and check. After we gave up searching in the back mountain, I headed back to my car and hoped to find my car unlocked. When I got to my car, I notice my driver side door was locked… I pulled on the handle and sure thing, it was locked. “oh shit”, I thought “this really, really sucks.” Then I looked up and saw a white piece of paper, sitting at the corner of my roof rack wind deflector. I picked up the paper and behind it was my keys!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! at that instant there was a rush of relief and joy!!! Written inside the white paper was a brief note “Found this send reward to … ” . Oh my gosh!! thank you thank you!!! yeah I will send a reward…

I was so happy to have found my keys… but shortly realized that the actual address was fake. But I still want to thank the stranger that left my keys on my car!!! Thank you Thank you!!!

See.. there are good people in this world….

P.S. This is not the first time I lost my keys and have them returned… Look on Sept. 16, 2006 for my last lost key experience.

Post 1600 … I’ve been waiting for so long…

minhsao — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Woo Hoo… Blog Entry 1600 … I think I will throw a blog party for May… hummm… maybe a wine and cheese party… interesting.. I am having some ideas…

So Today M-Flo released their new side project album. M-Flo Works Best III. It is all of their side project combined into one album with another CD of continuous mix tracks. So far it is pretty cool… and it even have a few song covers from the past… e.g Been So Long to a new song called For So Long… sigh… it sure bring back some memories

So yeah… I definitely have to think about how to celebrate the 7 year blog anniversary… pretty crazy.

IPhone OS 3.0

minhsao — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:30:00 +0000

So… Today Apple.. the computer company not the music label or the fruit… did a preview of their upcoming Iphone OS 3.0. It is pretty amazing. Finally, they are going to turn my little Iphone to something that is friendly with all the cool Bluetooth devices around. I mean… I remember my old SE t616 I can do so much with Bluetooth… but of course it also had a bluetooth vulnerability that can allow anyone to download the entire phonebook without any alerts, but let’s not talk about that. Anyways… I took some notes … and this is what I noted about the preview today.

- Peer to Peer Bluetooth apps… Automatic discovery… Cool
- medical equipment for iphone… blood pressure cool… and maybe something for diabetics? Aw… they do have something for diabetics.. however they need to have some implant device so you don’t have to poke.

- Turn by turn.. woo hoo.. except with B.Y.O.M… Bring your own map… which means.. a nav system will likely cost around 99 dollars or so from the app store. We will see.

- Universal Push… Sweet.. this will really help with our new side project idea.
- copy and paste … Finally!!!!
- land scape keyboard … humm… not much a big deal for me.
- Search in Email and calendar … Nice… I needed this… even search on server too!!!
- Note Sync … Woo hoo .. but already using only Evernote
- Voice notes… already doing it in Evernote
and stereo bluetooth A2DP… WOO HOO… no more cable in my car!!!!
… Oh but wait.. what is that .. A2DP will not work on 1st Gen Iphone???? oh damn you Apple… forcing me to upgrade!!!

Proxy Sensor!!! oh.. imagine the possibilities.. like a do not touch app…
Voice chat API over WIFI!!!! …. wooo …cool!!!!

All in all pretty cool deal … I can’t wait to play with it this summer.

Dreaming of a little white dog

minhsao — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:49:00 +0000

It was strange… I woke up this morning I was remember I was dreaming about this little white dog. Sigh….

Mail Ordered Glasses Round 2

minhsao — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

So I finally got an email back from Goggles4U.com. The provided a coupon code for another free pair of glasses of my choice. So I decided to give it another shot. I did also adjust my frame size just slightly to try to fit my face better, and I enter in my prescription this time instead of just sending them the scanned version. I hope they will actually produce an accurate pair this time. Once again, I will let you guys know. It takes around 2 weeks for the glasses to arrive so I am estimating that I will get the glasses around March 30th. Oh what a time waster! If this one doesn’t turnout ok… I will go back to buying my favorite brand of frames, Lindberg.

Once again, I will let you guys know.

I got the pupils the size of a dime!!!

minhsao — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:01:00 +0000

So Today, I went to get my follow up check up for my eyes. Everything was good except I got my eyes dilated. So for the last few hours I can’t see anything and everything was blurry and my pupil was the size of a dime!!! Finally I am able to see again and I can type this blog entry. During my exam, I got my contacts prescription and I also got my new glasses checked out. The doctor said that the right lens was perfect, however, the left lens was way off. This is the reason why I was feeling a bit uncomfortable and having headaches. So … it is time to pursuit refunds from goggles4u.com. I mention their name directly because I am hoping my experience will help others to not have the same poor experience that I received so far. But then again, what was I really to expect for a pair of glasses costing $55???

Anyways… I did order new contacts today online and that was extremely cheap. It was only $66 for 90 days of daily contacts. It was the final price with shipping included. Woo hoo… good deal right?

I hope the contacts are better then my online glasses… I will let you guys know when I get them.

War Eagle!!! Hey!!!

minhsao — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:25:00 +0000

Our March Seattle Auburn Club Happy Hour Event.

New Glasses are in!!! Woo Hoo!!!

minhsao — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:50:00 +0000

So after a full day of stuck in the airport trying to find a way home from Medford, Oregon. I am finally home!!! and when I got home and open up my mail box… look what I found!!!

Ping Pong!!! my new mailed ordered glasses are in. If you guys remember, a few weeks back, I got my eyes check and then got my new glasses prescription, so I decided to try my luck with some online glasses!!! after a long wait, they are finally in!!! Woo hoo… I am soo excited.

So after taking some time opening it … I finally get a chance to put it on.

… my first reaction is … sometime is not right? If I look straight it seems to be clear but my peripheral vision is a little mixed up. I am thinking at first it maybe just my new prescription.

After a while I started to notice that I am getting a slight headache.

I am beginning to think that there is something wrong.

So… yeah… my follow up appointment with my eye doctor is this Thrusday.. I will ask her then.

But I think it is probably the lens or the frame maybe too small. oh well.. the worst comes to worst I am out of $55.

so … here is a picture of my in my new glasses.

Happy Square Root Day

minhsao — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:31:00 +0000

First of all… Happy Square Root Day!!!

So what is square root day? √9 = 3 or in another word 3 * 3 = 9 and today is 3/3/9.

Well… so many things has happened since my last post.

Let see I went to see a really cool movie called Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I would recommend this movie to everyone. What it did remind me is another movie that I really loved. Forrest Gump. Here are what I round very similar.

1) Both movies are set in the South. FG was set in Alabama and Georgia while CCBB was set in New Orleans Louisiana. Both are places where I grew up

2) Both movies were about a unique person’s life and hot it weaves through the fabric of time.

3) Benjamin had to learn to walk and it was a break through, while Forrest had Polio and were in braces and learned how to break out of the braces and run.

4) Both Ben and Forrest attended a foreign war and saw action. Forrest was Vietnam while Benjamin was WWII.

5) Both Ben and Forrest had a tough and rough influence figure, Forrest’s figure was Lt. Dan while Benjamin’s was the Captain.

6) Both Ben and Forrest had a childhood friend that they loved and met in and out through out their life. For Forrest it was Jennie, and for Benjamin it was Daisy.

7) Both Ben and Forrest had a kid in their life. However, Ben had a daughter while Forrest had a son.

In both movies, the kid ends up with one parent. Jennie dies and Forrest had to take care of his son, while Daisy had to take care of their daughter because of Benjamin’s conditions.

Ok this maybe stretching it , but …

9) Both Forrest and Benjamin had experience of sitting alone while their mom took care of business. Benjamin in joined the breathing of the sleeping house, while Forrest enjoyed the quiet (or not so quiet) southern night.

10) Both Ben and Forrest gain enough wealth in their life that they did not have to worry to much about money. Forrest gained his wealth from his investing in a fruit company (Apple) through Lt. Dan. and Ben from his father Tom Button. However, both did not abuse their wealth. Ben eventually sold everything to save up for his daughter.

It was an interesting movie, and it is definitely a movie worth watching. So what do you guys think?

Oh and I started to work out again… it is hard to keep up but I am still trying at least to do something every day. Tomorrow it will be 1 week since I stop drinking anything other then water and stop watching TV. It’s pretty tough, but I sure have gained sometime and slowly my life seems to be falling back in to place again. Still more things to fix.

Got my eyes checked.

minhsao — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:45:00 +0000

So during lunch … I went and got my eyes check. I got some new contacts to try and I got my eye glass prescription… so from my reading of Lifehackers… I will order my back up pair of eye glasses online. This should be interesting. I will blog about it and make sure everyone can follow my experience.

So I accomplished my step 1: Get my prescription. – Done!

I also did get my pupillary distance from my doctor… she did tell me about the risk of ordering on line. It may look bad and don’t fit right. Yep yep..

so costco wants 100 dollars for the lens and another 100 for a simple plastic frame glasses. so … lets see what I can do on line.

www.glassyeyes.com here I come.

Post Mardi Gras

minhsao — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:39:00 +0000

So it is the Lenten Season… I am starting fresh this year. I have made a few commitments to myself.

For the next 40 days, I will give up the following.

1) TV … yes television… This means no TV, no HULU, no Netflix… however, going to see the movies in a theater is ok. The goal for this is to free up some time for me to catch up on everything else. So far it has been pretty interesting.

2) Giving up drinks… that includes soft drinks, hard drinks … etc… I will drink only water for the next 40 days!!! The goal here is to cleanse my body and give me a chance to lose some weight.

3) Give up not working out… and slacking… once again… to get fitter

4) Giving up on missing church…. I find being in church for one hour does help me reflect on things..

It will be an interesting 40 days…

So today is day 1.

We will see how it goes..

Mardi Gras Party Coming Up

minhsao — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:11:00 +0000

Since my roots are from the south… I want to share some of that experience with my friends here in Seattle. So what more reason do you need to throw another party? Hee hee… So yep yep Mardi Gras Party next weekend. I got king cakes ordered, some plans for Cajun food and a long play list of Cajun music.

King Cake…

Beads …

Unclutter Blog

minhsao — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:54:00 +0000

So Lifehacker is my new favorite blog site.
I just found out about unclutter and wow… it’s pretty cool site. Go check it out.

Yeah.. I really need to unclutter my life.. and get things back in to an organized fashion. It is ~~starting~~ already spinning out of control.

Oh Finally… Hotmail on Iphone!!!

minhsao — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Oh… after so many months of dissing Hotmail and the Microsoft Hotmail team… Finally… they opened up Hotmail… and allow POP3. http://lifehacker.com/5151551/hotmail-enables-pop3-for-us-users?skyline=true&s;=x.

So finally, now I can check my hotmail from my one personal device!!!! YEAH!!!!

so… only if they have IMAP… am I asking for too much????

AMR – Fiber to the Home – google powermeter

minhsao — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:37:00 +0000

Few years back, back when I was working for Grant County PUD, we had this grandiose idea about reading power and provide a graphical view of the power with our fiber to the home. The idea was it will provide the users/rate payers a ways of seeing their power consumption and maybe assist in the more efficient use of power. The bigger benefit was for the power company to accurately predict the power requirement of the system at anytime.

So how we did this or the plan to do this was to use the meter which can provide us with a pulse and with in the fiber gateway there is a dry contact specified in the gateway specification. The gateway also have a buffer which hold the count and this can be accessible via SNMP. So the idea was pretty simple. The meter will spin and the butter in the gateways will keep count of the number of spins. There for keep track of a relative power consumption during a period. With an integration with a database and calculation, this can produce some nice graphs and estimate… so we imagined…..

Well… recently I read about Google’s power meter. I was like… “Oh my Gosh”… that was what we were working on…. Sigh… just did not have enough resources to make it happen like Google though.

But all in all… this is pretty exciting news.

I am still using XP at work!!!

minhsao — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:53:00 +0000

This is pretty interesting…
So a couple of Aussies decided to take KDE 4 out and say it is the next windows and see what are peoples reactions, similar to Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment. It is pretty funny. I played with Linux since Slackware days … long long long time ago… my relationship with Linux is off and on. Maybe I should get a cheap netbook and put linux on it to play…

so check it out…

http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Is-it-Windows-7-or-KDE-4-/0,139023769,339294810,00.htm

Superbowl 2009

minhsao — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Just some picture of this pretty cool superbowl Sunday with my friends.

Taiwanese Sausage Min-Hsao Style

Sunday Sunday Sunday

minhsao — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:41:00 +0000

Oh today will be a busy Sunday. Let’s see… i need to head to the office, install a PBX for a friend, and get ready for Superbowl. Oh and it sucks that Superbowl starts around 3pm PST. That really sucks. I better get going.

What I learned this week

minhsao — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:44:00 +0000

This week I learned that

1) Vista Sucks… Ok I already known that but I have confirmed that vista really sucks now since I discovered that the sleep mode on Vista will mess up my network interface and prohibits me from streaming video in my network properly.

2) G.R.A.W 2 (aka Ghost Recon Advance Warfare 2) is pretty cool and the game kinda sucks after you beat it and it is not as cool as the first one.

3) Time is really flying by this week

4) Setting up a not well documented device takes alot longer then expected

5) Superbowl is this week and I really don’t have a preference on who should Win

6) The Seattle Auburn Club will be having a happy hour in March with a ex Auburn Football player joining us … woo hoo

Things I discovered this week

minhsao — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:31:00 +0000

1) wow… there are sure alot of people riding Seattle public transit
I discovered that the bus system is pretty convenient in Seattle. I can take an express from my place to the train station in about 10-15 minutes. WOW… it would take me that long to just drive myself.

2) Slow Train
The train is always late and will always encounter delays. Rain, Snow, Flood, or even broken trains … in the case of today…

3) Business Class is worst than Coach
Only on the Amtrak can you pay more money and get a worst seat than coach. Trust me, if you are riding the cascade on Amtrak don’t take coach. There are power sockets in coach too.

4) Iphone earphones works on macbook pro
OMG… did you know that my iphone earphones works on my Macbook pro? I mean the button click will work just like my iphone.. it will pause, start, stop, skip songs with a click on the mic button. (wait isn’t pause and stop the same?)

5) Pathloss is really cool …
Ha ha ha … I got to learn something at work right?

My return trip to Seattle

minhsao — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:22:00 +0000

After a short trip in Portland to meet up with a co-worker that’s leaving and trying to sponge off as much knowledge as I can off of him, I am now on my way back to Seattle. The night right back to Seattle is a lot different then the morning ride. I actually spent my entire time in a cart that had a table. Once again, I should have just gotten the coach ticket and I would have been in the same seat. Well you live and learn. Interesting thing about riding on the train is that I really don’t have to spend too much time worry about driving and I get to have some time thinking about things. So many things have happened and I thing about all theses things. It is interesting, we often hear people say that “the grass seems greener on the other side”. Lately, I have seen a lot of that in my life and the lives of people around me. I believe that I would like to focus on making the best now and not worry so much about the future and so much about the past. As one of my ex-boss told me once… Min don’t worry so much… I said but… He said… if you can do something about it… then do something about it and don’t worry… if you can’t do anything about it then don’t worry… because you can’t do anything about it. So the past there is nothing we can do about, Don’t worry… the Future we can do something about it so do something about it TODAY and don’t worry…

… just listen to some m-flo and don’t worry …

On the train

minhsao — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:53:00 +0000

So … it has been a while since my last train trip. I think it was few years ago when I was still in Ephrata. I last took a train trip to Seattle for an interview. However, this time I am not going for an interview. I am actually going to Portland for work. So why did I take the train, besides it is cheaper and I can work on the train and it is not as stressful as driving and airport craziness? Well… I like trains… I always liked trains …ever since I was a little boy.

Trains are great!!!

It is interesting … riding on the train.. you pass so many little towns that looks like Ephrata or if not smaller. So I am in a small town called Kelso WA right now.

H-Mart in Lynnwood

minhsao — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:30:00 +0000

So today I went to the New H-Mart in Lynnwood today. To my surprise, it was more than a grocery store, it is actually a shopping plaza with many stores and a food court.

So after work today I went back over to H-Mart shopped a little and ate a korean run japanese udon/katsu place. It was pretty good. I think I will go back.

Woo hoo it is settled

minhsao — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Woo Hoo… I just talked to my insurance agent and all my stuff is settle and a check is coming my way.

Dinner Last Night

minhsao — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000

yumm…

Building my own tracking software for my new Macbook Pro

minhsao — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:28:00 +0000

So of course everyone by now know that I lost my little white macbook . So I did some research and found few softwares such as Undercover or Lojack for Laptop, or Adeona (which by the way is free but currently not working so don’t try it), and I even looked into mobileme. All these solutions seems good (except for Adeona ) and I almost bought one of them until I found this.

http://benstechcents.blogspot.com/2008/05/tracking-stolen-macbook.html

This solution is pretty cool… it is a home gown method of getting your laptop to dial in. The cool thing is … it actually works!!!

I installed the applications and modified the provided scripts and boom it works… pretty cool, pretty cool…

So I am still in the testing period of the is script and I will keep you guys updated on how it works.

Fishing back in Auburn

minhsao — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Well… while I was back in Auburn… I finally had a chance to go fishing with my dad. My fish count that day was 23… however not all 23 were keepers but it was still alot of fun.

Happy New Year

minhsao — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Well, it has been almost one month since my last blog post. I have had some friends asking about what happened to my website and my blog? Well, it is still here… during my xmas party I has a network problem my with my quick attempt to fix it I ended up messing everything us and well.. the short of it is that I never restored my DHCP assignments back until today. I guess I was too lazy. So… so many things have had happened in the past month. I was home for two weeks for Christmas and new years. It was alot of fun. I was able to catch up with some of my friend from high school while I was back home. Now that was alot of fun. Coming backing to Seattle was pretty fun. Last week was pretty exciting for 2009. So the big news is that on Friday I got my car broken into and my backpack stolen. Yep…. that includes my macbook and portable hd and everything else. I am in the process of working with my insurance to try to get some of this recovered. So the thieves broke my back left door window and took my backpack. It really sucks. Well… I guess the good part of all this is that all my data was backed up on my time machine so when I got my new macbook pro on to the network, it was easily recovered back to the way it was. Yeah yeah!!!

yep you got it right… I upgraded as well.

So… tomorrow will be interesting, since my back window is shattered, I will not be able to drive my car until I get the window fixed.

still alot of work to do…

What a great way to start 2009 right?

ha ha ha… as for resolutions…. I have many this year… and oh we will see …

Yummy Papaya

minhsao — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:08:00 +0000

On my last day on Maui… I am having some delicious Maui papaya!!!… ummmm soo good ….

Hawaiian Lunch… and more

minhsao — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:44:00 +0000

So another day around Maui… mostly today I worked in the hotel trying to catch up and but we did do one survey site and now we are done. Tomorrow is a free day.. and I will be finishing up some school work and work on some work work as well… But .. he look at my blacken fish lunch I had today pretty cool huh?

so… here is a Maui Sunset for everyone

Passion Fruit!!!

minhsao — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:16:00 +0000

Ever since I was little, I loved passion fruit. I remember finding wild passion fruit in Auburn and how exciting it was. I remember, last year in Maui, finding passion fruit on the beach and how ecstatic I was. The taste of a passion fruit is just well… passionate

So why is it called a passion fruit… well… I think it is called a “passion” fruit because of the its taste .. a bit sweet and a bit tart… just like a passionate relationship …

Sigh… memory it brings back with just the smell and the taste of it.

memories…