Linkstew

"Knock Knock! Who's there?"
-- me, still asleep, to my roommate who was knocking on my door to wake me up this morning

Hey, if I move the office AirPort just so, I can get wireless net in, and at the tables in front of, the cafe downstairs. Wow, that was a productive way to spend an hour -- but now I can work from in front of the cafe and write up summaries of ResNet for work while taking advantage of this beautiful Berkeley day.

Of course, I've also got the option of heading over to Wall Berlin and taking advantage of their Surf and Sip participation -- but this is closer, and freer.

Disadvantage of my current location? Smoke. Blech.

Well, I mentioned The Magnetic Fields last night, and then Peter mentioned them, and suggested that Rabi liked them, and then Kevin jumped in and suggested that now he was going to have to look into them, which prompted me to walk down the street to Amoeba and pick up a copy of their box set -- 69 Love Songs. 3 CD's with 23 songs each.

And I've been listening to the album for the last 12 hours, since I picked it up at about 2 this afternoon. And I'd be lying if I claimed I felt qualified to do this album justice in a review at this point, so I'm just going to attempt to channel my gibbering happiness with this album into a quick and dirty endorsement. As if Pratchett and Gaiman (and Peter and Rabi) endorsing The Magnetic Fields wasn't enough, now you've got my endorsement too (and probably Kevin's soon as well).

The first song, all by itself, brought a huge smile to my face, and I listened to it three or four times before moving on. And then, at Peter's recommendation, I listened to the first disc twice, and then the second disc twice, and then the third disc twice. And now I need to go back and listen to the whole thing again reading all the words, because I'm already hooked on the music, and I already love the words I catch (there are a few tricky spots).

The album obviously has a theme, and it executes that theme with incredible skill. And the interesting thing about packing that many love songs into an album is that everyone will find something that speaks to them in the set. Be it the feeling that "I don't want to get over you," or the sentiment that "No one will ever love you," or loving "The Way You Say Good-Night." And the reason I grabbed those sentiments and not others is because those are the titles of songs, and ones that popped out at me as I scanned the list. It seems like it's got everything there, and you'll find something for you. Really.

As far as their style goes, it runs the whole range. When I was about halfway through, I felt like I couldn't actually identify The Magnetic Fields' own style, and instead I was confused by all of the misdirection. It seemed to my like every song was parodying some other style. But I'm pretty familiar with bands who flirt with every style under the sun, and so now I think I can more or less pick out the unifying elements between the songs. But even unable to detect those unifying aspects, I was still enjoying every new song as it came along.

Except for "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" (disc 2, track 22). The way that one bounced back and forth between the two speakers of my headphones built a standing wave inside my head and made it explode. Really. It was one of the most obnoxious things I've ever experienced, which is a shame because without headphones on it's another nice song.

It's worth mentioning that the set comes in two forms: Either the whole box set can be bought at once, or the three discs of the set can be bought individually. I highly recommend you dig up the change to get the box set (or all three discs), but if you can only afford two, go for discs 1 and 3, I guess, but I can barely recommend that -- it's like breaking up a family. But it's really an amazing album, and I only regret two things about it: 1. That I didn't look into it right after Pratchett recommended it to me, and 2. That I can't fit the whole thing on my Rio -- only 2/3 of it -- and I don't want only part of it there.

So as you might have noticed, I saw (New York Times Bestselling author) Neil Gaiman speak tonight at Cody's. He was funny, and very well spoken, but unfortunately, instead of being anecdotal and telling various stories, he merely read for half an hour from American Gods, and then answered questions for the other half.

Why unfortunately? Well, I can just as easily read American Gods as Gaiman can, and he himself described himself as "it's first reader," and suggested that a lot of the book seemed to write itself. For example, when I went to see Ursula K. LeGuin speak about Fictional Folklore last year, she instead decided to read from one of her novels, and I left out of boredom.

So the evening wasn't quite what I hoped for, but it was still enjoyable enough that it was worth my time. Another problem with the evening was that it wouldn't have been very approachable for someone who is unfamiliar with Gaiman, unlike the Pratchett talks I've been to. So if you're a moderate sized fan of Gaiman, I'd recommend going to see him speak sometime. Otherwise, I'm not so sure it'd be worth your time.

further thoughts: Kevin said that a friend of his who came along and had never read Gaiman was moved by the evening to start. And once he'd suggested that, I realized that perhaps there are three approaches for an author to take at an appearance: Like Gaiman, he can read a piece from his book in hopes of getting someone wandering by interested, and in so doing, sell more books. Or, like Pratchett, he can tell well-told stories which entertain people and make people respect the author, but not necessarily move the audience to go out and buy a book. Or finally, an author can be less than articulate, and move no one to do anything. So in that light, perhaps a well read reading isn't as bad for someone unfamiliar with an author as I thought.

While waiting for Gaiman at Cody's tonight, I overheard someone behind me say "Yeah, Gaiman just did a concert with the Magnetic Fields..." Which immediately caught my attention, and actually motivated me to turn around ask for some information about the band. You see, when I saw Pratchett speak last year, I was wearing my They Might Be Giants Flying Carpet/Mysterious Woods T-Shirt, and when I went to have my copy of The Fifth Elephant signed, the first thing Pratchett said to me, before I'd even had a chance to say anything to him, was "Have you ever heard of the Magnetic Fields?" Well, no, no I hadn't, I told him. And I tried to find something about the band at the time, but couldn't (I obviousy didn't look very hard), and forgot about them right up until tonight at Cody's.

It would seem that the Magnetic Fields are tied to that shirt, because, of course, I was wearing my They Might Be Giants Flying Carpet/Mysterious Woods shirt tonight as well. And the guy behind me suggested that Amoeba has their CD's, so I'll have to go look into that one of these days, because if Pratchett recommended them and Gaiman likes them...

It's funny, my teeth have never really bothered me, even when I had cavities. But when I was in Bakersfield, I went to the dentist, and they took their X-Rays, and I found out that I need to have my wisdom teeth out. And as I was looking at the X-Rays, I saw one of the teeth coming in at a 90 degree angle to the other teeth, and another way back by the jaw, and my dentist pointed out an infection I had under the gum above another of the teeth where food got caught... And I thought to myself "Wow, that looks like it should really hurt. Hmm." And my dentist said "You've never felt any discomfort? That's funny, most people with this sort of thing going on feel at least mild discomfort."

And the next day, as if I on cue, I felt like I could feel my teeth being squeezed together. And today, my jaw has been really bothering me -- opening it all the way hurts a fair amount. It's really horrible -- I know that this pain is probably mostly psychological, and yet it still hurts more than anything I've ever felt in my mouth (excepting certain drills I remember distinctly). Stupid mind games.

And so, on Thursday July 19th at 8:45 am I'm scheduled to have my teeth out (assuming all of my insurance things fall into place). Wish me luck -- I'll be sure to write some pain killer induced updates when the time comes. And if you're wondering why my wisdom teeth grew so far in before my dentist decided they should come out, it's because I haven't been to the dentist for a couple of years because of those insurance issues. Ah well, Hindbite is 4/28.

Yesterday at ResNet at Stanford, during the weed lunch, the options for beverages were just as limited as the options for food. Admittedly, this was because we got to lunch late, so the other beverages had been greedily grabbed by other ResNetters -- and all that was left for me to choose from was Mineral Water and Diet Coke. And since the mineral water tasted like salty crap (yeah, that was actually the first thing I tried), I gave in to the Diet Coke.

And I found out something strange: Diet Coke, very much unlike Diet Pepsi and Diet Dr. Pepper, does not make me gag. "Interesting," I mused to myself before I got distracted by getting to pick out a T-Shirt.

And today, when I got my lunch, I found out that the vending machine was out of Coke, and on a whim, I bought another Diet Coke. And I nursed that Diet Coke all day -- I didn't enjoy it enough to drink it right down, but I didn't hate it. It was effective in supplying me with my caffeine fix, and it was effective in washing down my lunch.

And so I've decided to drink Diet Coke in place of my normal beverages most of the time -- I'll drink less soda, and that will be much better for me. I'll still get my caffeine, but I'll spend less money on my caffeine habit. And since I don't actually care about the diet aspect of the beverage, it's not going to be something I get stuck with when I'm out and about. And if I drink it regularly, it'll make me savor my Dr. Pepper all the more when I drink it. Drinking Diet Coke is going to be a win-win-win-win-win-win situation! Wowzie.

And sadly, I have Stanford conference services to thank for this. And I only have them to thank because they incorrectly interpret the demands of their guests. You see, since people needed something to drink to choke down their weeds with, they had to take the drinks. And since all the drinks were taken, they assumed that the ratios of beverages they provided matched what people wanted. In reality, no one wants to drink mineral water, but people can be desperate, and Stanford catering are blind Fools.

Last week I was returning to Berkeley on the train, and on the way we got a little delayed. It didn't concern me too much -- Sure, I had a meeting I was supposed to be at, but what was I going to do about it? I understand that Amtrak doesn't own the tracks, and that delays might happen as scheduling gets goof-balled, and that taking the train is more efficient than driving, and more. Heck, I actually like riding the train a lot. Even if I could fly directly home (There are no direct flights to Bakersfield from the Bay Area) in an hour, and it cost as cheap as the train, I'd prefer taking the train to flying, and I certainly prefer the train to the bus or driving myself.

But, on the train last week, there was a young couple (Sophomores in High School) who were heading up to Oakland to see the Mariner's play the A's. It was their first time on the train, and they were having fits about the delay. "I checked the schedule and I told him we'd be there at 4:05! It's already 4:20!" I wanted to ask him why he expected we'd be precisely on time, and I was also vaguely curious why he didn't ask one of the eight people around him who had cell phones if he could borrow one and call ahead and warn the guy who was supposed to pick them up. I don't even know why they were stressing -- the game didn't start until 7, I believe I heard him say. What did they think they were going to do in Oakland for three hours anyway?

I would much prefer to spend the time on the train than at the stadium, for example. The train is air conditioned, the seats are comfortable, we happened to have a nice view of the bay, and I was actually pretty content sitting there waiting for the train to get moving again.

I was content, but this guy was stressing (and his girlfriend agreeing with him). When we "finally" started moving again, he told her "Next time we're driving!" Fine, you go right ahead and drive from Fresno to Oakland (or Anaheim, maybe -- it's the same either way) for a baseball game, and it's going to cost you the same, and you're going to be less comfortable, and most of the time you'll get there in the same amount of time, and you'll be much more likely to crash, and in general, I would far prefer to deal with a delay now and then than drive if I could at all avoid it.

But it wasn't the conclusion that "we should drive" that really irritated me, though it is a wasteful decision. No, what irritated me is that those kids rejected Amtrak based on one bad experience -- They were not at all willing to give it a second chance, despite the fact that the delay had been caused by a grass fire, which could have just as easily blocked the 5 as it did some tracks. What irritates me is that they didn't realize how illogical they were being, and instead decided that "This sucks, we can do it better ourselves."

No, sorry, wrong answer. C'mon people, think!

This weekend while at ResNet, we were staying at the house of a co-worker who lived in Cupertino. To accommodate all of us geeks, she bought a LinkSys Etherfast Cable/DSL 4 port switch/Router/Wireless Access point all in one super duper thingy. And it seemed great on paper -- it was cheaper than an AirPort Base Station!

But then two of us were sitting there trying to set it up -- him with his Linux Thinkpad, and me with my OS X PowerBook -- we were having the damndest time -- our laptops were both showing signal, but we couldn't get a DHCP lease. Grr Arg we were thinking. And then we heard her shout from down the hall "It's wireless for a reason! You don't have to sit there in the computer room!"

"What?!?" The two of us asked her together. "You mean it's working for you?"

"Yeah, I just opened my laptop and Windows detected the network."

The thought that LinkSys had somehow managed to make a Windows only router popped into both of our heads simultaneously, our eyes met briefly, and we both turned a baleful glare at the little box.

Then I read this review, and found out that it was only that they'd implemented goofy TCP/IP support on only the wireless side of things. I'm not sure how they did that, but, well, they did.

So if you think this box sounds great (which it really really does) but you have a soul and use an OS other than Windows, then you should look elsewhere for now. Nice try LinkSys, but do not pass go, do not collect $200, update firmware soon please.

Atlantis looked promising, but it turns out that I heaped a little too many expectations on it. It was an exciting adventure, and it had it's moments, certainly, but it had it's flaws as well. And rather than spoil the good moments, I'll just run down some of the flaws and let you make the decision to go see it or not.

First of all, while the movie hinted at darker themes, it still backed off and catered to kids. So much more could have been done with the story, and that it came in animated form would have allowed for all kinds of neat things without having to worry about the limitations of people -- But instead we got two or three fart jokes (though one was cleverly concealed), various jokes about cleanliness, and a number of other jokes aimed at squarely at the younger audience. On the other hand, there was one memorable line which I'm still laughing at, just because it was so ridiculous.

The next problem is that there were too many characters by far, and their backgrounds didn't play meaningfully into their decisions in most cases. A few of the characters were developed beyond the others, but we were told in a moderately amusing fashion that we didn't want to know about Mole's story, and Cooky and the Secretary were just running gags, and the villain was "in it for the money". I think it's that last one that irritates me the most, actually -- While the villain in Swordfish was also after money, at least he claimed to have other goals. In Atlantis, the villain just wants money, and possible aspects of his background are just dropped on the floor. There was so much action and such thin character development that I wished they'd considered balancing things out a little more.

And then I remember that this is mostly a movie for a child, and I realize that they didn't extend the movie with character development because today's kids would lose interest and wander away. And I realize that they packed the movie with action scene after action scene after fart joke after action scene to keep the kid on the edge of his seat. And I realize that this is what Television has done to the world, and I feel vaguely ill-at-ease about the future...

And I give Atlantis a 3/5 anyway, because it had it's moments.

Today wasn't so bad, actually. We slept in until around 10, which got the day off to a much better start for me. I'm amused that, at the moment, I have absolutely no recollection of what I wrote about ResNet last night. So, with that in mind, here's what I've got to say about the final day, and a bit about the whole experience.

This morning's vendor fair was exactly the sort of thing I expected it would be, with marketing droids dying to make a sale. The most interesting thing to be found was the Apple booth, where they had one of their 17" cinema displays on display. The 17" is a great size, and if I were buying a new desktop system right now, I'd buy a G4 Tower with that 17" display, as it's the best price to performance ratio. But, if the 22" display ever drops to around $1500, it'd be something I couldn't pass up. Whoops, I just got off track, sorry.

Anyway, after the vendor fair was lunch and the T-Shirt raffle, where shirts from all the different schools were given away. Lunch was very very disappointing, and this was by far the low point of the weekend for the food. The quality of the food had been steeply declining as the conference went on, and a co-worker said of today's lunch "I'm eating weeds! Seriously! These are the things I pull out of my garden and throw away!" I didn't eat anything at lunch but a roll. As far as the T-Shirts go, I got a couple of nice generic shirts -- one from UNC and one from an unlabeled school.

The first session I went to was about "Establishing fair access through bandwidth policies" or something. The presentation wasn't too bad, with a nice mix of technical and policy details, but it didn't offer me any new information -- it was moderately redundant after the other bandwidth session that I went to.

The final session of ResNet 2001 that I went to was about "EtherReg++", a system that Rice University uses to manage it's wireless connections. This was a very good presentation, with a lot of technical details that told me a lot of important things about the new network security model that we're currently building. Good session, good presenter, useful information. A funny thing happened during this presentation though -- During the presentation, I thought to myself "Hmm, it smells like rain." Then I looked outside, and said "Hey, it's raining!" This was surprising, you see, because it was sunny before the presentation started. It just came out of nowhere!

We chatted for awhile, and then returned to a car or three, and after several chinese fire drills, four of us (a fifth showed up later) arrived at dinner at the Stanford museum. There was an open bar which some of my co-workers were very sad they couldn't take advantage of (because they had to drive home), and there was a fair amount of nice art to chat about. The one that sticks out in my mind at the moment, though, was the one that said simply "Fools".

We had a lot of fun at the dinner table, laughing like mad with our UCSD colleagues, and dinner was of a much higher quality than all the other meals of the weekend. Unfortunately, while it was high quality, it wasn't quite in line my tastes -- all of the dishes were cold. I think it was intentional, but I'm not positive. But intended or not, cold asparagus and previously cooked salmon and pork -- well, it just doesn't quite appeal to me. When I dished it up from the buffet I was thinking "Oh yeah, now this looks good" -- and then I took a bite of each of the things in turn and grimaced at each thing in turn. So I had some lettuce, some rice, some potato-salad, and a bread-stick. Ah well.

In a ridiculous turn of events, there were a total of 9 Berkeley people who were at ResNet today, and between the 9 of us we had 7 cars at Stanford today. The five of us at dinner each had a car we had to drive back to Berkeley (I was driving ResComp's van). What a waste!

Overall, I enjoyed myself a lot more than I expected to. Once some of our students had given their presentations, it seemed like people realized that Berkeley student staff was, contrary to popular belief, competent. I hear that at the presentation my manager gave about "Managing Student Staff," observers were amazed to hear how much Berkeley students made, and people mumbled things like "They make more than me!" Heh, my boss didn't even tell them how much the lead technical staff makes -- just how much the people I supervise make.

An interesting aspect of Stanford that we noticed today was that they like arbitrary walls -- walls that are just kind of there, and that don't serve any purpose. Well, that's not true, we found out that they served a purpose -- to be exactly between where we were, and where we wanted to be. It got old fast.

Next year's ResNet is going to be at the University at Buffalo, in New York state, pretty near Niagra Falls. The way things look right now, I'll probably be attending, and I'm actually looking forward to it. In fact, I have an idea about something I want to present next, and I was writing an outline in my head while driving back to Berkeley from Palo Alto. Stay tuned.

During ResNet, my (boss's) boss is staying in the dorms at Stanford, so tonight when we dropped her off, my co-workers and I exploited the opportunity to compare Stanford's dorms to those to be found in Berkeley. You see, there is a huge rivalry between Berkeley and Stanford, so any ammo we can find to use against Stanford is very important. Anyway, we were walking along through the hallways, and there was a door labeled simply "Tub". Being the ever curious Berkeley students that we were, we took a peak inside and saw, of course, a bathtub - but more importantly, we saw a lock. This, in and of itself, invited a fair amount of heckling from the peanut gallery. But then we noticed the mirror, and started laughing even more. And then we noticed that there were some hinges on the mirror, and it could be nicely angled down to point at the floor -- "My, that's an interesting feature," we decided.