Big Sky, Here I Come

I've been crazy busy at work, leaving at later hours--Monday at 8pm, last night at 10pm. I have sooo much to do and only so many hours to do it in a given, sane day. I leave for a few days of snowboarding at Big Sky later today--wahoo! But man, what a price to pay to take a few days off, scrunching all the work I would have done in a week into the few days I am at work. I've already delayed turning in my annual self-review, a document that I usually spend days writing as it's my one opportunity to document basically everything I did at the company in the last year. I asked for an extension last night...let's see if I get it. Otherwise, I'll have to be turning something in that's really short and bullet-pointed in this year. Oh well. This just means I'm bringing my laptop to Big Sky with me...yay. I can't wait to check out this mountain...I've never even been to Montana, not even driven through it so this'll be a first in a lot of ways. The peak of Big Sky is 11,180 feet--how crazy is that? 23 inches of snow last week and it's been getting some good snow all week long this week so conditions should be ripe for some good powder days.

Faith, the Wonder Dog

Dog born with only 2 legs (in the back) learns to walk---watch the Amazing 2-Legged Dog video. Trippy.

3-D Tetris, World Pictures & DVR Thoughts

Weird---a table top 3-D version of Tetris. Check out the TV Commercial. It's just not the same.

Gorgeous pictures from a couple's recent One Year, One World travel journey---really inspriring.

Now that I've been using the Motorola 6412, Comcast's DVR, for a few months, I thought I'd comment on some of the pros and cons of it compared to TIVO (which seems to be teetering on the edge of death with recent events like 2 executives stepping down or leaving and DirectTV announcing that they're not going to renew their contract which ends in 2007). TIVO needs to do something to stay alive--as much as I loved it, it wasn't enough for me to stay with it. After only about 6 months, I switched to Comcast's solution and sold my Series2 for a measly $50 (which isn't bad for a 1 year old machine, considering you can now buy a new one for $75 after rebate).

Features that I get with the Comcast DVR that I don't with TIVO:

One box, one remote. Instead of a separate cable box with a separate remote, it's just one machine.

Because the box is integrated with your cable, you don't have to rely on a trusty telephone line or ethernet connection to make sure your programming is up to date.

Also, you don't have to "guess" which programming is *your* programming. With the TIVO, you're given options..like "do you have the Comcast digital gold lineup? or the Comcast silver basic digital lineup?" A screwup in that initial choice can result in channels not being what you think they are and inability to access other channels. Total pain.

Dual tuner. Dual tuner. Dual tuner. This means you can record two shows at the same time...or record one show and watch another at the same time. This just rocks.

It records HDTV in HDTV quality. Enough said.

In the short term, this is just cheaper. It costs $5 for HDTV from Comcast plus $5 to rent the box on a monthly basis. With TIVO, you have to buy the entire unit and then spend $12.95/month for the service. So even if you get the TIVO box for free, you're saving $3/month for the service..and you get a lot more. Plus, it's nice to not commit to the hardware by buying it outright and just renting it.

There's a 4th fast forward/rewind level---which goes in increments of 15 min., making it way faster to go through a recording.

The machine clearly tells you how much space has been used ("57% full") so you have a sense of when you should delete recordings. With TIVO, you would only know the size of your harddrive and just prayed that your next recording wasn't going to bump that movie you recorded 2 months ago and hadn't watched.

Flipping between channels is way faster. If I was on one channel and just pushed the Channel Up button, it flips the channels soooo much faster than the TIVO.

Flipping the guide is way faster. Same here, if I was going through the channel guide and paging up or down, it goes a lot faster.

Comcast customer service rocks. You don't have to wait long on the phone and because they are the cable company, they can ping you with direct software upgrades as needed.

Being able to continue to watch your show as you go through other settings. Like, if I want to go through my list of recorded shows, the menu is set up such that there's still a small screen showing what's on Live TV along with the sound. With TIVO, the minute you go into your TIVO recordings, you lose the audio and video of the live TV.

Things that I miss with TIVO:

The sounds. They were pretty cool.

Online scheduling (tho' I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft or Comcast already have something like this in the works). I liked having the ability to read about a program from work and then setting it to record without having to go home to do it.

Displaying pictures and music from my home computer via the TIVO via the common network . That was neat. Then again, I have a laptop and it takes just as much time for me to bring my laptop downstairs and connect it to my plasma monitor as it does for me to drag-and-drop and pictures/music I want to "share" onto the TIVO Home Media program.

Being able to say "I'm going to TIVO that show"---it's more awkward to say "I'm going to DVR that show" or whatever replacement vocabulary. Even saying "I'm going to record that show" doesn't sound as cool as saying "I'm going to TIVO that show".

I'm probably missing a few points...but all in all, I'm really happy with my Comcast DVR.

pink eye

The good news is that my uveitis did not resurface. The bad news is that I have pink eye instead. First time in my life too. I immediately started on some antibiotic eye drops which have worked like a charm throughout the weekend. My eye is way less red than it was on Friday.

Weekend was busy and fun-filled. Friday, went to a crepe party at Phoebe & Ray's--what a great idea! Some spinach, mushrooms, banana and nutella and you got yerself a party. Saturday, I went over to the I-District for the Chinese New Year festival in the Union Hall to work at a booth for the Youth Tutoring Program to try to recruit more volunteer tutors. Was really fun actually talking to people about the program while at the same time getting entertained my little Chinese girls doing fan dances. Later that day, I headed to the East Side for Eric & Christina's farewell party before they head off for the next chapter of their lives in China...and then had a cultural evening with Matt by going to the Symphony to watch a Prokofiev piano concerto and Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Today was a restful day which ended by attending a Graha Pravesh at Jigna & Matt's (a blessing of their house by a Pundit).

While at the I-District on Saturday, I decided to sign up for Comcast Cable Internet since they were having a "lunar new year" special ($24.95 for 6 months). I just finally installed the new modem and it works like a charm. But argh, my wireless is still all messed up. I wonder what the issue is with that--maybe Linksys just sucks and I need to change my router. The signal never seems to reliably be up. So frustrating.

Uveitis

Crap. I think my uveitis may've resurfaced. Last night, I noticed my left eye to be a bit redder than normal..but I just thought I was tired. This morning, I woke up with a bunch of "sleepy eye" or "ahn tze" (as my mother would call it in Chinese) in it with my eye even more red and feeling a bit sensitive. Since I've had uveitis in left eye twice now in the last four years, I've become familiar with the early signs of it. I also know that it's not cured and I'll just have uveitis in my left eye for the rest of my life. Crap crap crap. How annoying. Need to make an appointment with Dr. Cowen as soon as possible so I can begin dilating my eye for the next month. Fun Fun.

Gong Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Today marks the year 4702 in the Lunar New Year calendar and begins the Year of the Rooster. I made the obligatory phone calls to Hong Kong last night and have plans for a small dinner with some friends tonight in the International District. Oooo--look at the horoscope for Snakes this year:



The Intuitive Snake - The "Learned One"


In 2005, aesthetic Snakes profit by life and complete some of their most personal projects. You will lean toward the idealistic side of your nature, and some may well daydream and procrastinate to the point of losing track of reality for a while. Strive for a balanced view of people and circumstances. Snake souls are within the Triangle of compatibility with the Rooster year and throughout 2005 -- love is in the works! Don't let a love affair turn into tabloid fodder or scandal. Spend some extra time with family as they will need your emotional support now. In 2005, Snakes increase their income and a promotion is heading your way. This paves the path to a much more interesting and satisfying career. This pleasant financial surprise will allow you to purchase something you couldn't previously afford. Resist any form of greed or temptation to take your comforts for granted, as both wealth and poverty walk down the same road.

Red Hot Soiree

Photos taken last night from Amazon Post-Holiday Party posted now. It was at The Premiere with the Dudley Manlove Quartet up on stage. Not a bad party compared to the last one I went to (which was just horrible), although there have been more fun parties in the past. Everyone had their splash of red on and a good number were dancing (although it felt wedding-like or high-school-dance-like at times).

Samsung i550

Bummer. I've had my eyes on the Samsung i550 pda phone for the last year, waiting to see when it would be released. There were rumors that it would come out in late Q4 2004 but nothing seemed to ever come of it. Then I just read that Sprint has cancelled this phone so they can focus their efforts on the Treo 650 and the Windows Mobile version version of the Samsung phone (the i600). Darn! I can't believe that. Personally, I much much prefer the design of the i550 over the Treo 650 primarily because of the clamshell design. Most pda phones have fallen into two design camps: 1) it looks like a pda that also functions like a phone (Treo), or 2) it looks like a phone that also functions as a pda (550). I prefer the latter. The i500 and i550 are just smaller phones. I was really looking forward to the i550 with the upgrade in Palm OS (5.2), more memory, SD card memory slot and a camera. Argh.



So why don't I just look at the i600, the Windows Mobile version? Honestly, I'm not sure. With regards to pdas, my first introduction happened to be one using the Palm OS and I've just stuck with what has been familiar. In the U.S., the marketshare of palm-powered handhelds is 76%; however, the Windows CE OS surpasses the Palm OS worldwide. This competition isn't over yet and there is still a lot of room for Microsoft of Palm to take over, particularly with the increase in popularity in pda phones.



Anyway, I'm still bummed about the news of the i550.

dreaming of work

Things must be stressful at work if i'm supposedly mumbling something about "deliverables" in my sleep. Ack.



I'm tired and can't think very straight. All Hands is tomorrow---A9 folks from San Jose are flying up to give a preso on Yellow Pages, including Betina and John: can't wait to see them! I really like this feature and hope it is successful. The block view is pretty darn cool---I spent a bit of time last week picking out the Best Image for a number of Capital Hill area businesses. Here's the flower shop on the ground floor of my building. If you "walk to the right", you can see the entrance to my condo. Nifty.



Tugboat story to remind ourselves that sometimes life surprises you and keeps you afloat.



Matt left this afternoon for a Boys' Snowboarding and SuperBowl weekend trip...so jealous with the crazy amount of snow over in Tahoe. I'll miss him...