Thursday, July 01, 2004
VINs Diesel
I loved this link that appeared off the front of slashdot. Apparently Detroit ran out of VINs (Vehicle Identification Numbers) that uniquely identify every automobile off the assembly line. A Y2K-esque dilemma? Yet another reason to write better, modular code so that Jiffy Lube won't mess up your oil change when you come in with your 2006 Escalade. Read about the whole problem here:http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0407/01/a01-200548.htm. Cool bonus feature: How to Read a VIN.
I loved this link that appeared off the front of slashdot. Apparently Detroit ran out of VINs (Vehicle Identification Numbers) that uniquely identify every automobile off the assembly line. A Y2K-esque dilemma? Yet another reason to write better, modular code so that Jiffy Lube won't mess up your oil change when you come in with your 2006 Escalade. Read about the whole problem here:http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0407/01/a01-200548.htm. Cool bonus feature: How to Read a VIN.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Back to the normal life tomorrow after what has been a great weekend following a great holiday. It's funny how I claimed I don't need a vacation because I didn't feel productive at lab or at life in general. The ingrained instinct is just to work harder, blow off all pleasures, and stick to it until shit turns around to one's liking. Funny thing is, just the opposite is better. Having left town for a week and took an easy weekend, I feel like I can clearly assess my life for the first time in years. I know where I want to go, what I want to do, and have a pretty good idea on how to get there, whehter the topic be my life at MIT or with Gabrielle.
I'm not obsessing about how all those side projects I've been meaning to get finished are actually going nowhere. (You'd be amazed at how much mental capacity stress consumes.)
I'm not obsessing about how all those side projects I've been meaning to get finished are actually going nowhere. (You'd be amazed at how much mental capacity stress consumes.)
Basically, thinks are peachy for now. I know that as the deadlines for my ESR-NMR projects approach I'll be all frazaled again. Hopefully I can read this entry and remind myself about how lucid the world has felt for the past few days.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Last morning in sunny Cupertino, CA for a while. I've had a nice trip out to California to take the edge off of daily MIT life. San Francisco and Napa were great; so was visiting Infinite Loop and seeing where all the goodness goes down. Pictures of my travels to arrive soon.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Visited the Cambridgeside Galleria to get my free cone for Ben and Jerry's anniversary. And boy were those scoopers disgruntled after answering the rhetorical "Is today free cone day?" when the those inquisitive fucks just read that it was on the sign. The guy working even took the sign down 10 minutes early because it gave him some "personal satisfaction". Workers unite! I always thought that working as an ice cream man would be some rewarding -- giving joy to all those little youngsters.
On another note, I stopped by the Apple Store @ cambridgeside to ogle the ipod mini once again. Last time, the wait list was 100s of people deep depending on the color. Today: 3 months. Even the online store quotes a 6 week delivery time. What the fuck is up with those lil' buggers? I guess Apple had no idea how popular they were going to be. Since 3 months from May is August, WWDC will come and go most likely without a speed bump in the mini since the market is supply deficient. I predict that the 15GB ipod will get a major price slash, on par to the mini $250 or even below if those ipods get speed bumped. Apple really needs to roll out a product tangential to the ipod for the WWDC keynote to diffusive the ipod enthusiasm to a broader market, and I don't mean an new iMac for $2000.
On another note, I stopped by the Apple Store @ cambridgeside to ogle the ipod mini once again. Last time, the wait list was 100s of people deep depending on the color. Today: 3 months. Even the online store quotes a 6 week delivery time. What the fuck is up with those lil' buggers? I guess Apple had no idea how popular they were going to be. Since 3 months from May is August, WWDC will come and go most likely without a speed bump in the mini since the market is supply deficient. I predict that the 15GB ipod will get a major price slash, on par to the mini $250 or even below if those ipods get speed bumped. Apple really needs to roll out a product tangential to the ipod for the WWDC keynote to diffusive the ipod enthusiasm to a broader market, and I don't mean an new iMac for $2000.
Stata center is opening at MIT on May 7th. I've contemplated order 100 pocket protectors from Staples and decorating them with aluminum foil in honor of Frank Gehry's titanium skin on the towers. The building will definitely be cool; I'm kind of envious of those course 6ers who get to have an n-sided polygon for an office. Rumor has it an extra floor was added to support the unplanned parking garage, so maybe I'll have my chance yet...yeah right.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Having realized that this is the last weekend of April, I see my boring life slipping by me once again. Lab research is going awfully...no results and no equipment. I'm in the core of my PhD and it feels like shit.
