We arrived at the Melbourne airport to discover that not only was the flight to Launceston not run by Qantas, but also we were for some reason not in the computer system! Fortunately, all that was straightened out but we barely got to the gates on time. After all the smooth flights so far this was quite a shock.
Arriving at Launceston airport, we found ourselves in an airport so un-automated that baggage carousels didn't exist! Tasmania was also very strict about enforcing quarantine, and they used dogs to sniffed our carry-on baggage as well as our lugguage for non-native plants and fruits. The process was long enough that I had time to check out the rental car and still come back and watch the baggage carousels unload.
Then we headed downtown to buy everything we couldn't buy before --- fuel for the stove, lighters, matches, and regular food for 3 nights of car camping. We found an organic foodstore that had vegetarian indian pouches for food, and the super-market had Horlicks instead of just Milo. That's quite a treat for us, so we bought it despite the price. We loaded up with water, and then headed over to Cataract Gorges, which was both a swimming area and a hike.
While Lisa took a nap, I swam around the pool and then checked out the gorge's swimming hole. It was the oddest swimming experience I ever had --- the top layer of water was warm, but if you swam around you swirled water up from the bottom and got quite chilled!
We then took a quick walk and then I looked at the map as to where to spend the night. The visitor center had suggested Longford, but I saw pictures of Freycinet National Park 2.5 hours away, and was captivated and wanted to drive there right away! It was a long drive, but quite worth it as the scenery along the way was gorgeous. When we got to the Park the visitor center was closed but they had kindly listed the open camp-sites. We visited the first one that was free (site 19) and couldn't believe our eyes! The site is a raised platform that had fences on four sides, no benches or table, but the beach was literally 10 foot steps away! Not only that, the beach was next to empty!
We just couldn't believe how luck we were, until we had to drive the stakes into the ground --- Freycinet is only recommended for free standing tents, and we didn't bring one this time! Nevertheless, we got dinner, sunset pictures, and then discovered that the showers were cold! Ouch ouch. That night a possum visited our site, attracted by our garbage --- it must have een quite used to people, since it did not scare at all, and after we took away the garbage bag, it climbed a tree.
The next morning, we made a quick breakfast, and then were approached by a ranger who gave us a friendly notice to pay up! He noticed me struggling with the stakes, got a pair of pliers, and helped me with them. What a nice guy. We took a walk on the beach and then we to pay up our visitor park passes as well as the camping ($13 a night!). Then we were off to hike Wine Glass Lookout (pretty, and not at all strenuous) and the Cape Tourville Lighthouse (gorgeous!).
One of our Easton aluminum stakes had a separated cap as a result of our struggling with stake removal, and the ranger had suggested that we go to Bischofen for contact cement. We drove there and found that as promised, the general store (named The Log Cabin) was indeed opened, and sold us super-glue, some guylines, and a couple more stakes for car camping. I'd spied a scenic drive marker earlier, so we went back and drove that. There's an incredible blow-hole right in Bischofen, where the waves pushing through below some beach rocks, would pressurize and blow water up through some holes. Touristy but in a nice way.
More scenic driving until about 4:30pm, when we arrived at St. Helens and determined to find a campground with hot showers this time. We ended up at the Tourist Caravan Park just out of St. Helens, and had a grand time talking to our neighbors in the park, who were eager to give us suggestions as to where to go and so forth.
That night, I discovered that my CPAP machine was no longer getting power from the battery. A look at the cigarette lighter mechanism showed that it had broken. Well, I could take it apart but that would take daylight, so I went to sleep without it instead.
The next morning started off gloomy. We ate a quick breakfast, took down the tent, and were sent to a local auto-parts store to find a replacement fuse for the cigarette lighter adapter --- when I took it apart, I found a broken fuse. Replacing the fuse did the trick, and I bought several more fuses to tide me over in case of another failure.
We then drove out to the Bay of Fires and the Garden, which was a pretty collection of rocks similar to what one might see in Point Reyes, but in a desolate and windy environment with very few tourists. Wild and desolate country indeed! That detour took a couple of hours so we had lunch back in St. Helens on the way out. We then started to drive West towards Cradle Mountain. Lisa wanted to see a Lavendar farm/garden that was on the map, so we drove there, stopping only for a short walk through a rainforest that was an educational exhibit on the road. Arriving at the Lavendar farm, we smelled lavendar oil in the air and went to see the distillery.
After that we had a decision to make --- camp out on the North coast? Or head down to Longford where we had a campsite recommended to us on our first day in Tasmania? Looking at the map, I wanted to avoid more driving, so we drove down to Longford to find that the commercial campground was pretty and very well laid out. Well worth the $20/night.
The next morning, I started by arranging transportion from Lake St. Clair back to Cradle Mountain for when I shuttled the car to the southern end of the Overland track. Transportation being what it was in Tasmania, it took me a few calls to find someone who would do it --- it turned out that the Tasmania Tour Company was happy to do so.
The drive to Cradle Mountain Lodge was interesting, taking us past King Solomon's Caves, where we arrived just in time to get a National Park Service tour. This was much different from the Jenolan Caves --- this tour was much more about ecology and damage, as well as living creatures in the caves than it was about the formations. Quite worth the money, however, and the views were very good.
Arriving at Cradle Mountain around 1:00pm, we ate lunch at one of the hotels, then visited the park information office to confirm everything. I was then told that I had to book the ferry for our return if we were planning to use the ferry. Discovering that my cell phone didn't work, I had to wait until we got to our hotel room at the Cradle Mountain Lodge to make that arrangement.
By the time all was said and done, it was time to take the Enchanted Walk scheduled at the lodge to see and hear about the interesting animals living in the park: the Wombat, the Platypus, and of course, the Tasmanian Devil. I also found out that it would take a 3 hour drive to get to Lake St. Clair, which meant that I had to get up at 6:00am the next day to make the 10:00am shuttle that I had arranged!
The evening was spent packing, arranging what had to be brought with us on the overland track, what would be left in the car, and checking that we had everything we needed for a 6 day, 5 night walk --- the longest self-contained backpacking trip I had arranged in my life.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Melbourne
Melbourne
We picked up our rental car and found ourselves driving on the freeway towards the city. There was a toll-way, but after our last experience paying for it, I opted instead for the surface streets. Australian drivers are generally terrible. They swerve all over the place, drive too fast, and seem generally unable to follow a painted line. But Melbourne takes the cake for driving insanity. There are 12 intersections where you cannot turn right from the right-most lane (they drive on the left side of the road, so you already have a cognitive disadvantage). Instead, what you're supposed to do is to make a right turn from the left-side curb, executing in a car what cyclists call a box-turn: you drive to the corner of the street where you wish to make a right turn, stop the car (annoying anyone behind you), and then when the light changes, you can then execute your right turn after the intersection clears but before the rest of the cars move. I have no idea how accidents don't happen, but this is easily the biggest insanity I've seen as yet.
We arrived at our hotel at 6:00pm, and then headed out for lunch. By sheer luck, I walked into what was the best Singaporean restaurant of the trip so far, a place called Singapore Chom Chom. One of my favorite noodle dishes in Singapore was this dish called Mee Pok (sic). It's basically a noodle dish with fishballs, fishcake slices, minced pork (yes, that's probably how the name came about), and flat twisted egg noodles, with a spicy vinegar sauce that when done right, gives it the distinctive taste. It's served unmixed so you can mix it all. Well, Singapore Chom Chom is the only place outside Singapore I've found that served Mee Pok, and what a treat that was! Lisa also tried Rojak for the first time.
We then walked around the city some more, and I shot some night scenes and we went to bed.
The next morning was shopping day, as this was our last chance to pick up more camping gear in a big city before having to pay island prices. We bought cheap sleeping pads, mosquito veils, insect repellent + sunscreen, freeze-dried food (none of my favorite Mountain House was available, mugs, cutlery, and lexan bowls, so we had to settle for a New Zealand brand and pray that it tastes good), a hat for me, and enough ramen to tide us over for some time.
By lunch time, we were quite hungry and found yet another Singaporean restaurant, this one not as good as Singapore Chom-Chom, but we did end up meeting some Singaporeans who were living in Melbourne who could give us tips on where to go. They suggested St. Kilda Beach, the Victorian Market, the Eureka SkyEdge building for views of the city, and the botanical gardens. We went back to dump all our gear and then proceeded to take the train ride around the city. By the time we got to the Victorian Market, however, it was closed. We ate once again at Singapore Chom Chom (the Mee Pok was just as good the second time) for dinner, and then visited the SkyEdge building, which is easily the tallest building in Melbourne.
The night view was very pretty, but the place was totally a tourist trap. It was a nice enough place to watch the sunset, but the glass had just enough dirt and dust on it that pictures came out horrible. You'll just have to pay up. The gimmick here is the Edge experience, which is a glass cube that extrudes from the building with variable frosting so you can see all 88 stories below you as well as the sides and top. I think it's highly over-rated, but we're tourists, so what can we do.
By the time we were done it was 10:00pm, so off to bed it was with us.
The next day, we rented bicycles and rode to the Botanical gardens and even rode through it quite a bit before being told that bicycling was verboten there. Oops. Well, that took care of that. We then toured the veterans memorial, rode along the Yana river until it went out of town, and then came back just in time to catch a new performance at the computerized bells exhibit. This time for a change they got human performers, who would stand on elastic steel stilts and use their body weights to swing from bell to bell and ring the bells to music. There were 3 of them and we got to watch a rehearsal and a performance for the cameras.
Lisa wanted to try out a cantonese restaurant for lunch, so we did, and after that we went back to the hotel to pick up the car and drive it to St. Kilda Beach, where Lisa got a foot massage and I visited an internet parlour that was too slow for use but nevertheless had every booth filled with people performing job searches.
With that, we returned to the hotel where I paid the toll for tomorrow's trip to the airport, having finally figured out that you could pay the toll in advance! Then we went out to get some more food at the Old-Town Singapore Kopitiam (not recommended) which the Singaporeans suggested but I found not so good. We ended up back at Singapore Chom Chom for a third visit when Lisa wanted some coconut rice and I pointed out that for $3 more we could get a whole plate of Nasi Lemak at Singapore Chom Chom.
We picked up our rental car and found ourselves driving on the freeway towards the city. There was a toll-way, but after our last experience paying for it, I opted instead for the surface streets. Australian drivers are generally terrible. They swerve all over the place, drive too fast, and seem generally unable to follow a painted line. But Melbourne takes the cake for driving insanity. There are 12 intersections where you cannot turn right from the right-most lane (they drive on the left side of the road, so you already have a cognitive disadvantage). Instead, what you're supposed to do is to make a right turn from the left-side curb, executing in a car what cyclists call a box-turn: you drive to the corner of the street where you wish to make a right turn, stop the car (annoying anyone behind you), and then when the light changes, you can then execute your right turn after the intersection clears but before the rest of the cars move. I have no idea how accidents don't happen, but this is easily the biggest insanity I've seen as yet.
We arrived at our hotel at 6:00pm, and then headed out for lunch. By sheer luck, I walked into what was the best Singaporean restaurant of the trip so far, a place called Singapore Chom Chom. One of my favorite noodle dishes in Singapore was this dish called Mee Pok (sic). It's basically a noodle dish with fishballs, fishcake slices, minced pork (yes, that's probably how the name came about), and flat twisted egg noodles, with a spicy vinegar sauce that when done right, gives it the distinctive taste. It's served unmixed so you can mix it all. Well, Singapore Chom Chom is the only place outside Singapore I've found that served Mee Pok, and what a treat that was! Lisa also tried Rojak for the first time.
We then walked around the city some more, and I shot some night scenes and we went to bed.
The next morning was shopping day, as this was our last chance to pick up more camping gear in a big city before having to pay island prices. We bought cheap sleeping pads, mosquito veils, insect repellent + sunscreen, freeze-dried food (none of my favorite Mountain House was available, mugs, cutlery, and lexan bowls, so we had to settle for a New Zealand brand and pray that it tastes good), a hat for me, and enough ramen to tide us over for some time.
By lunch time, we were quite hungry and found yet another Singaporean restaurant, this one not as good as Singapore Chom-Chom, but we did end up meeting some Singaporeans who were living in Melbourne who could give us tips on where to go. They suggested St. Kilda Beach, the Victorian Market, the Eureka SkyEdge building for views of the city, and the botanical gardens. We went back to dump all our gear and then proceeded to take the train ride around the city. By the time we got to the Victorian Market, however, it was closed. We ate once again at Singapore Chom Chom (the Mee Pok was just as good the second time) for dinner, and then visited the SkyEdge building, which is easily the tallest building in Melbourne.
The night view was very pretty, but the place was totally a tourist trap. It was a nice enough place to watch the sunset, but the glass had just enough dirt and dust on it that pictures came out horrible. You'll just have to pay up. The gimmick here is the Edge experience, which is a glass cube that extrudes from the building with variable frosting so you can see all 88 stories below you as well as the sides and top. I think it's highly over-rated, but we're tourists, so what can we do.
By the time we were done it was 10:00pm, so off to bed it was with us.
The next day, we rented bicycles and rode to the Botanical gardens and even rode through it quite a bit before being told that bicycling was verboten there. Oops. Well, that took care of that. We then toured the veterans memorial, rode along the Yana river until it went out of town, and then came back just in time to catch a new performance at the computerized bells exhibit. This time for a change they got human performers, who would stand on elastic steel stilts and use their body weights to swing from bell to bell and ring the bells to music. There were 3 of them and we got to watch a rehearsal and a performance for the cameras.
Lisa wanted to try out a cantonese restaurant for lunch, so we did, and after that we went back to the hotel to pick up the car and drive it to St. Kilda Beach, where Lisa got a foot massage and I visited an internet parlour that was too slow for use but nevertheless had every booth filled with people performing job searches.
With that, we returned to the hotel where I paid the toll for tomorrow's trip to the airport, having finally figured out that you could pay the toll in advance! Then we went out to get some more food at the Old-Town Singapore Kopitiam (not recommended) which the Singaporeans suggested but I found not so good. We ended up back at Singapore Chom Chom for a third visit when Lisa wanted some coconut rice and I pointed out that for $3 more we could get a whole plate of Nasi Lemak at Singapore Chom Chom.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Review: JAG in Space novels
Another eminently readable John G. Hemry science fiction series, this one is composed of four novels so far: A Just Determination, Burden of Proof, Rule of Evidence, and Against All Enemies. All four novels revolve around the naval career of Paul Sinclair, who starts the series as an Ensign in the United States Space Navy. All of them introduce an interesting legal situation, resulting in a court martial that then gets tied up at the end of each novel, thereby ensuring that each novel is readable independently and without reading the others. There are recurring characters, however, so you will learn the characters better if you read them in order.
What I enjoy about these novels is the use of Hemry's experience. The depiction of life aboard a naval warship is as realistic as one would want, including the requisite dressing down by the skipper or senior officers. There's also references to age old naval traditions Hemry speculates will probably never be abandoned (and probably rightly so). Yet none of it is confusing --- even the ticing of hammocks is explained, though not in a fashion that's annoyingly pedantic (Hemry has clearly mastered what Jo Walton calls "in-cluing", providing information in-line with the character's experience without extensive explanation).
A Just Determination examines the role of the Captain and his orders on the ship. Paul Sinclair, as the ship's collateral legal officer finds himself testifying in a court martial when a routine patrol results in an international incident. The procedures of a court martial are provided and followed to the letter, and the legal procedure both interesting and educational. We also get insight to a certain style of leadership --- one where junior officers are provided guidance without explicit direction. It's the kind of leadership that works when recruits are of extremely high caliber and can respond to little clues, but falls apart when hiring standards drop. What's interesting to me is that the navy Hemry portrays has commanders and senior officers capable of discerning what type of officer Sinclair is and adjust their leadership style correspondingly. My experience in military organizations (and civilian organizations as well) is that such senior officers are rare.
Burden of Proof revolves around a ship-board accident and a certain kind of officer that one frequently encounters --- the man who can do no wrong from his superior officers' point of view. When a fire occurs on a naval ship, an initial investigation finds Paul Sinclair at fault. He leads an investigation which leads to the court martial of what turned out to be something more sinister. What's interesting about this plot is that Sinclair has a personal stake and while he rises to the occasion, he is not at all rewarded for his performance. Again, this is extremely realistic --- we are reminded that the navy is a large organization which does not always results in justice being done.
Rules of Evidence gets even more personal --- Sinclair's girlfriend is accused of sabotaging a navy ship, causing the death of hundreds in a massive explosion. This is where the series starts to sag, as while the investigation is interesting and logical (Hemry provides all the correct clues in the right places), one has a hard time understanding how the court martial process could be so screwed up that major pieces of evidence could be left out. Then again, knowing about government procurement procedues perhaps this is not too surprising. Nonetheless, with the format not being fresh any more, this rates as a less interesting read than the first two.
Against All Enemies shows a clearly different approach. Rather than leading the investigation, Sinclair is roped into an investigation by internal intelligence officers, and then involved in the court martial only peripherally. His role being only to be manipulated into doing the right thing. This is the weakest of the novels, though it does introduce the complication of having civilian lawyers in a court martial (a rare occurance).
Rather than being a who-done-it in classic fashion, these novels explicate navy life, leadership lessons, and how there's the wrong way, the right way, and the navy way. Eminently readable and short, these are perhaps as perfect as it gets for airplane novels or for surface intervals between dives. Recommended as such. And the price at $30 for 7 novels is not bad at all, in DRM-free form.
What I enjoy about these novels is the use of Hemry's experience. The depiction of life aboard a naval warship is as realistic as one would want, including the requisite dressing down by the skipper or senior officers. There's also references to age old naval traditions Hemry speculates will probably never be abandoned (and probably rightly so). Yet none of it is confusing --- even the ticing of hammocks is explained, though not in a fashion that's annoyingly pedantic (Hemry has clearly mastered what Jo Walton calls "in-cluing", providing information in-line with the character's experience without extensive explanation).
A Just Determination examines the role of the Captain and his orders on the ship. Paul Sinclair, as the ship's collateral legal officer finds himself testifying in a court martial when a routine patrol results in an international incident. The procedures of a court martial are provided and followed to the letter, and the legal procedure both interesting and educational. We also get insight to a certain style of leadership --- one where junior officers are provided guidance without explicit direction. It's the kind of leadership that works when recruits are of extremely high caliber and can respond to little clues, but falls apart when hiring standards drop. What's interesting to me is that the navy Hemry portrays has commanders and senior officers capable of discerning what type of officer Sinclair is and adjust their leadership style correspondingly. My experience in military organizations (and civilian organizations as well) is that such senior officers are rare.
Burden of Proof revolves around a ship-board accident and a certain kind of officer that one frequently encounters --- the man who can do no wrong from his superior officers' point of view. When a fire occurs on a naval ship, an initial investigation finds Paul Sinclair at fault. He leads an investigation which leads to the court martial of what turned out to be something more sinister. What's interesting about this plot is that Sinclair has a personal stake and while he rises to the occasion, he is not at all rewarded for his performance. Again, this is extremely realistic --- we are reminded that the navy is a large organization which does not always results in justice being done.
Rules of Evidence gets even more personal --- Sinclair's girlfriend is accused of sabotaging a navy ship, causing the death of hundreds in a massive explosion. This is where the series starts to sag, as while the investigation is interesting and logical (Hemry provides all the correct clues in the right places), one has a hard time understanding how the court martial process could be so screwed up that major pieces of evidence could be left out. Then again, knowing about government procurement procedues perhaps this is not too surprising. Nonetheless, with the format not being fresh any more, this rates as a less interesting read than the first two.
Against All Enemies shows a clearly different approach. Rather than leading the investigation, Sinclair is roped into an investigation by internal intelligence officers, and then involved in the court martial only peripherally. His role being only to be manipulated into doing the right thing. This is the weakest of the novels, though it does introduce the complication of having civilian lawyers in a court martial (a rare occurance).
Rather than being a who-done-it in classic fashion, these novels explicate navy life, leadership lessons, and how there's the wrong way, the right way, and the navy way. Eminently readable and short, these are perhaps as perfect as it gets for airplane novels or for surface intervals between dives. Recommended as such. And the price at $30 for 7 novels is not bad at all, in DRM-free form.
Atherton
Pardo's friend Guy Carpenter greeted us onboard the Spirit of Freedom right at 7:15am, having told us via e-mail that if we tried to take the taxi to his home where he'd offered to put us up for a couple of nights, the taxi driver would just laugh in glee. Tall and with the look of a well-adapted Australian, Guy had lived in the Cairns area for the last 15 years or so.
Lisa had mentioned wanting to get a photo with Koalas, so Guy offered to take us to what he felt to be the best of the Wildlife habitats in the area. It turned out that Guy contracted at the Geographical Information Service department of the government two days a week, as well as supporting the local conservation efforts as a volunteer, which made him eminently qualified to make good decisions about such things. We then made a long drive to the place, making stops every so often to get pictures of the area. He mentioned that that past Port Douglas, there were the Daintrees, which had voted to stay off the grid. If the weather had been less warm and humid we would have considered going out there, but it was hot and humid and Guy lived up in the Tablelands/highlands area, which would make everything really more comfortable, so we decided that we would make our way back to his place eventually.
The Wildlife habitat was great --- they somehow managed to get a lot of wildlife in a small place without it seeming unnatural. We arrived early enough to follow the morning feeding cart, and so we got to see birds arrive and snatch fish off the feeding cart, as well as get various species of birds pointed out to us, either by Guy or by the feeding agent.
After that, we went to Port Douglas for lunch, where we found a cheap sushi place that also served an amazingly authentic Char Siew Bao. Then on the way back, we stopped by the Barron Falls --- with the monsoon rains we could see the incredible amount of silt built into the river --- an outpouring of brown water slammed down 500 feet from the top of the fall, creating a massive spray and a breeze that blew secondary streams into the air before they even met the river.
After that sight, we got to see the train station over at Karuda, unchanged for 100 years, with train passing at most once very 3 hours or so. We were then brought to the Carpenter home, with introduction to Francesca, their lovely daughter Jasmine (an impressive 10th grader at Atherton high school). They fed us an amazing dinner with vegetarian pumpkin soup, fresh homemade bread, and we talked for the rest of the evening about friends and matters in Australia and throughout the world.
The next morning started with a visit to the Curtain Fig, an enormous fig tree that had strangled its host, which then fell upon another tree during a windstorm, forming a curtain of roots from up high that was amazing. We then walked around Meecham lake, reminding me why I didn't plan any camping or hiking in the rainforest --- the verdant lush growth made me itch just walking around on an improved trail around it.
Lunch was at an old veteran's convalescent home. We then took the waterfalls route, stopping at no less than three waterfalls, which were clearly at the height of the wet season --- it was hard to believe that in June, these powerful cascades would diminish to a trickle. We then dropped by the local chocolate and cheese factory, buying some chocolate for the family, and getting a video of the cheese-making process, then a quick visit to the Chinese temple that was closed. It turned out that some of the early settlers in this part of Australia were Chinese, and unlike Chinese in other parts of the world, they were so respected that they were never subject to any of the concentration camps that occured during world war 2.
Guy knew the person who ran the bat hospital, so after a quick call we received permission to visit. The facility, which had taken over Jenny's home and her life had both mega (fruit eating) and micro (insect eating) bats, and took in bats that were injured in barbed wire, carelessly put together fruit nets, or in recent years, orphans whose parents were infected by a virus carried by local ticks. We were given a quick tour of the facilities, including the recovery areas as well as shown the baby Albino bats that were brought in from Cairns that looked just amazing.
We then returned to the Carpenter home for a soak in the pool, just the thing for the tropical heat, and another great meal and more conversation. It's always great to have hospitable hosts watch out for you and show you around, and this would definitely be a highlight of our trip!
Lisa had mentioned wanting to get a photo with Koalas, so Guy offered to take us to what he felt to be the best of the Wildlife habitats in the area. It turned out that Guy contracted at the Geographical Information Service department of the government two days a week, as well as supporting the local conservation efforts as a volunteer, which made him eminently qualified to make good decisions about such things. We then made a long drive to the place, making stops every so often to get pictures of the area. He mentioned that that past Port Douglas, there were the Daintrees, which had voted to stay off the grid. If the weather had been less warm and humid we would have considered going out there, but it was hot and humid and Guy lived up in the Tablelands/highlands area, which would make everything really more comfortable, so we decided that we would make our way back to his place eventually.
The Wildlife habitat was great --- they somehow managed to get a lot of wildlife in a small place without it seeming unnatural. We arrived early enough to follow the morning feeding cart, and so we got to see birds arrive and snatch fish off the feeding cart, as well as get various species of birds pointed out to us, either by Guy or by the feeding agent.
After that, we went to Port Douglas for lunch, where we found a cheap sushi place that also served an amazingly authentic Char Siew Bao. Then on the way back, we stopped by the Barron Falls --- with the monsoon rains we could see the incredible amount of silt built into the river --- an outpouring of brown water slammed down 500 feet from the top of the fall, creating a massive spray and a breeze that blew secondary streams into the air before they even met the river.
After that sight, we got to see the train station over at Karuda, unchanged for 100 years, with train passing at most once very 3 hours or so. We were then brought to the Carpenter home, with introduction to Francesca, their lovely daughter Jasmine (an impressive 10th grader at Atherton high school). They fed us an amazing dinner with vegetarian pumpkin soup, fresh homemade bread, and we talked for the rest of the evening about friends and matters in Australia and throughout the world.
The next morning started with a visit to the Curtain Fig, an enormous fig tree that had strangled its host, which then fell upon another tree during a windstorm, forming a curtain of roots from up high that was amazing. We then walked around Meecham lake, reminding me why I didn't plan any camping or hiking in the rainforest --- the verdant lush growth made me itch just walking around on an improved trail around it.
Lunch was at an old veteran's convalescent home. We then took the waterfalls route, stopping at no less than three waterfalls, which were clearly at the height of the wet season --- it was hard to believe that in June, these powerful cascades would diminish to a trickle. We then dropped by the local chocolate and cheese factory, buying some chocolate for the family, and getting a video of the cheese-making process, then a quick visit to the Chinese temple that was closed. It turned out that some of the early settlers in this part of Australia were Chinese, and unlike Chinese in other parts of the world, they were so respected that they were never subject to any of the concentration camps that occured during world war 2.
Guy knew the person who ran the bat hospital, so after a quick call we received permission to visit. The facility, which had taken over Jenny's home and her life had both mega (fruit eating) and micro (insect eating) bats, and took in bats that were injured in barbed wire, carelessly put together fruit nets, or in recent years, orphans whose parents were infected by a virus carried by local ticks. We were given a quick tour of the facilities, including the recovery areas as well as shown the baby Albino bats that were brought in from Cairns that looked just amazing.
We then returned to the Carpenter home for a soak in the pool, just the thing for the tropical heat, and another great meal and more conversation. It's always great to have hospitable hosts watch out for you and show you around, and this would definitely be a highlight of our trip!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Kindle 2 Launch
As a Kindle advocate, I want the Kindle to succeed, but Kindle 2 shows the pernicious effect of Apple on the design of products in the industry. Kindle 2 is all about slimness. Thin is in, but that meant that they sacrificed an SD card slot and a replaceable battery, both practical features that I've used on my Kindle. As a result, I'm going to pass on this upgrade and wait for Kindle 3 or all my Kindle 1 batteries to die. What a disappointment for those of us who want our devices to work, as opposed to those who want to be fashionable. Reading isn't fashionable, no matter how you cut it, and Amazon will never sell those for whom fashion is the most important attribute in a device anyway.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Review: Stark's War, Stark's Command, and Stark's Crusade
For those who don't know, John G. Hemry is the same person who wrote all of the Lost Fleet series as Jack Campbell. This series, rather than being about space ships and relativity, is about war on the moon. At least, that's the military shtick. Hemry works through all the implications of fighting in 1/6th gravity, including what you have to do to muzzle velocities in order to keep your bullets from achieving orbits.
But that's not really what the series is about --- it's about empire and ossification, and what tends to happen in large organizations that stay successful for too long, and end up with promotion systems that encourage cronyism and sucking up rather than true merit.
The story revolves around Ethan Stark, who begins the series as a squad seageant in the U.S. military of the far future, where the USA remains the only military super-power on the planet. Unfortunately, as citizens kept voting down taxes, the military ends up getting funded through corporate sponsorships and reality-TV-type broadcasts of military operations. The implications of all this is dire --- esentially big business dictate where wars are fought, and the infantry is micro-managed in a way only control freaks could dream of.
Yes, this is non-right-wing military fantasy, which is great. Stark ends up by a twist of events and by his own initiative, in charge of the lunar operations and the series then turns into a series of leadership lessons, from putting the right person in charge of the right job, to being able to trust and not micro-manage a battle. Very good, if cliched plots that are yet handled with a ring of authenticity which only a former military man can manage.
While all this is going on, Hemry manages to provide some insights into historical battles, as well as drawing an analogy between the US and Athens. The character of Stark is extremely likeable, and perhaps draws heavily on the ass-kicking seageant often seen in military fiction, movies as well as books.
In an age of 1000 page novels, Hemry manages to deliver a satisfying story in 3 200 page books. You can buy them one at a time: Stark's War, Stark's Command and Stark's Crusade in paper form, or pay $30 and by all 7 pre-Lost-Fleet books in non-DRM form. Since I'm halfway through my $30 stack, I have to say I'm definitely getting my money's worth --- not heavy fiction, but great vacation reading.
But that's not really what the series is about --- it's about empire and ossification, and what tends to happen in large organizations that stay successful for too long, and end up with promotion systems that encourage cronyism and sucking up rather than true merit.
The story revolves around Ethan Stark, who begins the series as a squad seageant in the U.S. military of the far future, where the USA remains the only military super-power on the planet. Unfortunately, as citizens kept voting down taxes, the military ends up getting funded through corporate sponsorships and reality-TV-type broadcasts of military operations. The implications of all this is dire --- esentially big business dictate where wars are fought, and the infantry is micro-managed in a way only control freaks could dream of.
Yes, this is non-right-wing military fantasy, which is great. Stark ends up by a twist of events and by his own initiative, in charge of the lunar operations and the series then turns into a series of leadership lessons, from putting the right person in charge of the right job, to being able to trust and not micro-manage a battle. Very good, if cliched plots that are yet handled with a ring of authenticity which only a former military man can manage.
While all this is going on, Hemry manages to provide some insights into historical battles, as well as drawing an analogy between the US and Athens. The character of Stark is extremely likeable, and perhaps draws heavily on the ass-kicking seageant often seen in military fiction, movies as well as books.
In an age of 1000 page novels, Hemry manages to deliver a satisfying story in 3 200 page books. You can buy them one at a time: Stark's War, Stark's Command and Stark's Crusade in paper form, or pay $30 and by all 7 pre-Lost-Fleet books in non-DRM form. Since I'm halfway through my $30 stack, I have to say I'm definitely getting my money's worth --- not heavy fiction, but great vacation reading.
Cairns
We arrived on Wednesday and didn't even get into our transport shuttle before a deluge of tropical monsoon came down on us. Fortunately, the rain was warm, typical of tropical monsoons, but with word of three cyclones in formation in the area, the prospects did not look good for good diving. We gave Spirit of Freedom a call and they confirmed that we'd be picked up the next morning.
Cairns turned out to be extremely oriented towards Japanese tourists. Lots of stores had Japanese speakers and Japanese signs, and we counted no less than 3 Japanese restaurant, including a Japanese noodle place that was extremely authentic. We then explored the town, which seemed pretty dead in the monsoon.
The next morning we were picked up at 7:25 sharp by the van from the Spirit of Freedom, and were taken to a local small plane airport to get weighed and flown to Lizard island. The flight was a nice low one, at 2000', granting us what would have been a nice view of the area. However, we did see a few squalls and I worried very much about the weather on the upcoming dives.
Landing on Lizard Island, we found that our boat was on the other side of the Island from the landing strip because of the prevailing conditions. We were taken to the Spirit of Freedom by 2 tenders, and the luggage moved separately. Once everyone was on board we were given an orientation, checked out on rental equipment, and provided with snacks. The boat schedule was organized around eating and diving. You'd wake up, eat, dive, eat, dive, and repeat up to 5 times a day.
We started with 2 dives for our first days, and I could definitely see the effect of having three cyclones in the area. The water was murky, with lots of particulate matter in it --- so much so that I resolved not to bother with a camera under-water while I re-oriented myself to diving. The food was amazing. I couldn't believe what Chef Andrew managed to produce from his tiny kitchen.
The next day, I woke up at 6:15 for the early morning dive, and then chose to skip the second dive. I resolved to do no more than 3-4 dives a day, including the night dive, since DCI sounds scary, and I don't always trust computers. Others on the trip did all the dives with no side effects, but I was told that the previous week, someone got bent. If you do 4-5 dives a day for 3 days straight, I'm not going to be too surprised that DCI rears its ugly head.
After lunch, however, we received an announcement --- the rest of the dives were canceled while we searched for the lost divers from SpoilSport. Passengers with binoculars broke them out and helped search, but I didn't have binoculars, so spent the day reading. We did eventually help the tender which delivered doctors to Fascination, which eventually picked up the lost divers get back to SpoilSport.
Saturday morning brought us more diving, and my first night dive. The day dives were pretty good, but the currents were so strong that I could easily see how one could get swept away. In fact, on my second dive of the day, I exhausted almost all my air getting back to the boat because returning to it took intense swimming against the current. I'm normally a strong swimmer on the surface, but with scuba gear and underwater, I'm not as good as I normally am.
The night dive was fun, everyone wearing glow sticks, and a flash light that let you see what was going on. The water wasn't any clearer but since you only were seeing what you pointed your light at, you weren't getting it in your face all the time.
The last day had 4 dives, two of which were Steve's Bohmmie. What a fantastic dive site that was. Gobs of wildlife, and the crew were so enthusiastic that we dived it twice. After 3 dives, I was so exhausted that I skipped out on the last dive, choosing to spend it chatting with the skipper of the vessel instead.
All in all, while I was disappointed by the weather, I was not at all disappointed by the experience. The Spirit of Freedom is highly recommended if you're going to do a dive trip in the area.
Cairns turned out to be extremely oriented towards Japanese tourists. Lots of stores had Japanese speakers and Japanese signs, and we counted no less than 3 Japanese restaurant, including a Japanese noodle place that was extremely authentic. We then explored the town, which seemed pretty dead in the monsoon.
The next morning we were picked up at 7:25 sharp by the van from the Spirit of Freedom, and were taken to a local small plane airport to get weighed and flown to Lizard island. The flight was a nice low one, at 2000', granting us what would have been a nice view of the area. However, we did see a few squalls and I worried very much about the weather on the upcoming dives.
Landing on Lizard Island, we found that our boat was on the other side of the Island from the landing strip because of the prevailing conditions. We were taken to the Spirit of Freedom by 2 tenders, and the luggage moved separately. Once everyone was on board we were given an orientation, checked out on rental equipment, and provided with snacks. The boat schedule was organized around eating and diving. You'd wake up, eat, dive, eat, dive, and repeat up to 5 times a day.
We started with 2 dives for our first days, and I could definitely see the effect of having three cyclones in the area. The water was murky, with lots of particulate matter in it --- so much so that I resolved not to bother with a camera under-water while I re-oriented myself to diving. The food was amazing. I couldn't believe what Chef Andrew managed to produce from his tiny kitchen.
The next day, I woke up at 6:15 for the early morning dive, and then chose to skip the second dive. I resolved to do no more than 3-4 dives a day, including the night dive, since DCI sounds scary, and I don't always trust computers. Others on the trip did all the dives with no side effects, but I was told that the previous week, someone got bent. If you do 4-5 dives a day for 3 days straight, I'm not going to be too surprised that DCI rears its ugly head.
After lunch, however, we received an announcement --- the rest of the dives were canceled while we searched for the lost divers from SpoilSport. Passengers with binoculars broke them out and helped search, but I didn't have binoculars, so spent the day reading. We did eventually help the tender which delivered doctors to Fascination, which eventually picked up the lost divers get back to SpoilSport.
Saturday morning brought us more diving, and my first night dive. The day dives were pretty good, but the currents were so strong that I could easily see how one could get swept away. In fact, on my second dive of the day, I exhausted almost all my air getting back to the boat because returning to it took intense swimming against the current. I'm normally a strong swimmer on the surface, but with scuba gear and underwater, I'm not as good as I normally am.
The night dive was fun, everyone wearing glow sticks, and a flash light that let you see what was going on. The water wasn't any clearer but since you only were seeing what you pointed your light at, you weren't getting it in your face all the time.
The last day had 4 dives, two of which were Steve's Bohmmie. What a fantastic dive site that was. Gobs of wildlife, and the crew were so enthusiastic that we dived it twice. After 3 dives, I was so exhausted that I skipped out on the last dive, choosing to spend it chatting with the skipper of the vessel instead.
All in all, while I was disappointed by the weather, I was not at all disappointed by the experience. The Spirit of Freedom is highly recommended if you're going to do a dive trip in the area.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Aboard the Spirit of Freedom
Some of you might have heard about the case where a couple of Americans got separated from their dive boat yesterday in the Great Barrier Reef and drifted for 7.5 hours yesterday until they were found by a helicopter S&R. That couple was not us, but our dive boat was in the vicinity of SpoilSport when the event happened and our boat joined in the search and rescue operation. It was quite exciting with a lot of chasing and radio communications --- it turned out that it was very nearly the Spirit of Freedom that found them, but the information provided was a little off so the Spirit turned around just a bit too early and thus prolonged the search and rescue effort.
The weather's been not too great here in the Great Barrier Reef but we're still diving. It's just not super pretty with lots of current and waves, but the skipper is doing a great job finding relatively calm places and there's still plenty of wildlife to be seen, just not the 60' visibility we had hoped for. Oh well.
The weather's been not too great here in the Great Barrier Reef but we're still diving. It's just not super pretty with lots of current and waves, but the skipper is doing a great job finding relatively calm places and there's still plenty of wildlife to be seen, just not the 60' visibility we had hoped for. Oh well.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Jenolan Caves and More
We woke up early today to get an early start to get to the Jenolan caves. It took an hour to drive there, but what a trip! We got there just in time to sign up for the Caves of Baal, and the guide took us into a big cave, complete with stalactites, stalagmites, and lighting meant to set them off for best viewing. Well, not only that, they had music playing and the lighting fixtures timed to the music so you would see pieces fade in and out. It sounds really cheesy, but it was so well executed I had a great time despite my natural cynicism about such tourist traps.
Then we had a quick lunch and our second cave tour, the adventure "plug-hole" tour. They suited us up in safety gear, but unlike the Bridge Climb, we would actually need the gear. We first abseiled down to the cave entrance --- when I first saw the pictures I thought it was like rappelling, but you're supposed to walk down, not push your feet against the wall and bounce along the wall. This took quite a bit of doing. Then we were led into the caves proper, and talked through the various maneuvers needed to get ourselves through it. The guides did so with such natural humor that everyone did it and had great fun, crawling through spaces (some headfirst, some on the side, and many on our butts).
Then we took a self-guided tour of the huge caves at the entrance, then went to see the Kanaga Walls. This was where I made the mistake of putting my naked camera in the backseat along with the tripod. While driving along the unpaved road, Lisa heard a loud noise, and I moved the camera to the front seat but it was too late --- the screen of my DSLR is now cracked! My experience with Canon is that they will fix it under warranty at no charge, but since the camera is still operational, that will have to wait until I get back to the U.S. I've done this lots of times with my film SLRs with no problems, but I forgot that the DSLRs have a vulnerable component on their bodies. Ah well... If I leave the camera at home I'd never get any good pictures, even if it was kept pristine.
Then we had a quick lunch and our second cave tour, the adventure "plug-hole" tour. They suited us up in safety gear, but unlike the Bridge Climb, we would actually need the gear. We first abseiled down to the cave entrance --- when I first saw the pictures I thought it was like rappelling, but you're supposed to walk down, not push your feet against the wall and bounce along the wall. This took quite a bit of doing. Then we were led into the caves proper, and talked through the various maneuvers needed to get ourselves through it. The guides did so with such natural humor that everyone did it and had great fun, crawling through spaces (some headfirst, some on the side, and many on our butts).
Then we took a self-guided tour of the huge caves at the entrance, then went to see the Kanaga Walls. This was where I made the mistake of putting my naked camera in the backseat along with the tripod. While driving along the unpaved road, Lisa heard a loud noise, and I moved the camera to the front seat but it was too late --- the screen of my DSLR is now cracked! My experience with Canon is that they will fix it under warranty at no charge, but since the camera is still operational, that will have to wait until I get back to the U.S. I've done this lots of times with my film SLRs with no problems, but I forgot that the DSLRs have a vulnerable component on their bodies. Ah well... If I leave the camera at home I'd never get any good pictures, even if it was kept pristine.
The Blue Mountains
February 2nd
We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then headed out to Echo point to begin a relatively short hike: The Giant's Stairway to Leura Forest, the Federal Pass, and then the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. It was warm at the top of the stairway, but as we descended into shade it got cooler and cooler until deep in the forest we were feeling quite comfortable! Then, we walked into the forest which was nothing special, but once the stairs back up began we found some of the prettiest waterfalls ever. These weren't particularly big, but there were many of them, and each one was quite different from the previous ones. The stairways were constructed such that we could keep our feet dry, but there would still be the occasional spray to cool us off as we climbed. One of the highlights was a fall that came down like mist, lighting up in the air as the droplets descended.
At the top, the Prince Henry Cliff walk was also nothing special, though there were many lookouts. We then had lunch at a Cantonese restaurant in town that was nothing special, but did have Beef Rendang (not that great though!). Then we took a nap in the heat of the afternoon, and then did a driving tour of the area, though we didn't end up with any sunset photos worth speaking of.
We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, then headed out to Echo point to begin a relatively short hike: The Giant's Stairway to Leura Forest, the Federal Pass, and then the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. It was warm at the top of the stairway, but as we descended into shade it got cooler and cooler until deep in the forest we were feeling quite comfortable! Then, we walked into the forest which was nothing special, but once the stairs back up began we found some of the prettiest waterfalls ever. These weren't particularly big, but there were many of them, and each one was quite different from the previous ones. The stairways were constructed such that we could keep our feet dry, but there would still be the occasional spray to cool us off as we climbed. One of the highlights was a fall that came down like mist, lighting up in the air as the droplets descended.
At the top, the Prince Henry Cliff walk was also nothing special, though there were many lookouts. We then had lunch at a Cantonese restaurant in town that was nothing special, but did have Beef Rendang (not that great though!). Then we took a nap in the heat of the afternoon, and then did a driving tour of the area, though we didn't end up with any sunset photos worth speaking of.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Singh-Ray versus High-tech
Nearly every serious nature photographer knows that in difficult lighting situations, the difference between a skilled photographer and an unskilled one is the use of a Graduated Neutral Density filter, or sometimes two or three in super tricky situations.
The High-tech series cost about $35 each, and the Galen Rowell ones cost $100 a pop. What's the difference? First of all, the hard stops on the Galen Rowells are really hard stops. They have a definable line that makes them easy to place and easy to see.
The second one, and the one that really justifies their $65 premium, is that they come in a felt-case. As I was cleaning my high-tech ND grads tonight, I was shocked to see that they were scratched in ways that would be impossible for me to remove --- I'm going to have to replace these completely. The felt case that comes with the Galen Rowells ensure that they won't be scratched, an important consideration with repeated use.
Now, a real cheap-skate will make his own felt cases for the cheap High-techs, but together with the fact that the Galen Rowells are a bit longer and just that much easier to use, I think I'm going to be buying those in the future.
The High-tech series cost about $35 each, and the Galen Rowell ones cost $100 a pop. What's the difference? First of all, the hard stops on the Galen Rowells are really hard stops. They have a definable line that makes them easy to place and easy to see.
The second one, and the one that really justifies their $65 premium, is that they come in a felt-case. As I was cleaning my high-tech ND grads tonight, I was shocked to see that they were scratched in ways that would be impossible for me to remove --- I'm going to have to replace these completely. The felt case that comes with the Galen Rowells ensure that they won't be scratched, an important consideration with repeated use.
Now, a real cheap-skate will make his own felt cases for the cheap High-techs, but together with the fact that the Galen Rowells are a bit longer and just that much easier to use, I think I'm going to be buying those in the future.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Katoomba in the Blue Mountains
We got up and again had breakfast in the room. After packing everything, we walked down to the train station and caught the Eastern Suburbs line to Kings Cross, where we found our car rental place after walking for about 4 blocks. The day was incredibly warm (afterwards, someone would tell me it was 34 degrees), and we were relieved to discover that our rental car had air conditioning!
Using our handy GPS, we traveled out of town into the Blue Mountains on a 2 hour drive. Just before Katoomba, we turned off to visit the Wentworth Falls. I originally thought this was a 30 minute walk, but after getting to the bottom of the upper falls and taking a shower in one, I spoke to a Sydney native and he talked me into doing a longer loop to the National Pass. Well, Lisa and I had plenty of food, so we chose to forge ahead and do it. There's something about this trail that's great --- you feel like you're hiking in some exotic country, with step stones placed in the mud, but weeping walls above you dripping water onto you. (Where is all that water coming from? It's hot as heck and hasn't rained for days!)
We were really impressed by the beauty of this hike, though the mountains themselves aren't much taller than our native Santa Cruz mountains. (It still doesn't hold a candle to the Swiss Alps, though) After that, we checked into the Carrington Hotel, a swanky-looking colonial style old hotel with no air conditioner but really expensive looking lounges. At last it started to cool down and we went to have dinner where Lisa had a wonderful veggie pot pie at a diner-looking restaurant and I had a kangaroo burger (gamey, not all that great, but I gotta try, right?).
Then it was time to shoot the sunset at echo point, where we had an astonishing light show. We'll see how the photos turned out. I ran into a German couple (from Hamburg) who were on a round-the-world 9-month trip. You know, I do my little trips and think that it's so great that I can get 2 months off from work, and of course the Germans (and the English) out-do me all the time.
Using our handy GPS, we traveled out of town into the Blue Mountains on a 2 hour drive. Just before Katoomba, we turned off to visit the Wentworth Falls. I originally thought this was a 30 minute walk, but after getting to the bottom of the upper falls and taking a shower in one, I spoke to a Sydney native and he talked me into doing a longer loop to the National Pass. Well, Lisa and I had plenty of food, so we chose to forge ahead and do it. There's something about this trail that's great --- you feel like you're hiking in some exotic country, with step stones placed in the mud, but weeping walls above you dripping water onto you. (Where is all that water coming from? It's hot as heck and hasn't rained for days!)
We were really impressed by the beauty of this hike, though the mountains themselves aren't much taller than our native Santa Cruz mountains. (It still doesn't hold a candle to the Swiss Alps, though) After that, we checked into the Carrington Hotel, a swanky-looking colonial style old hotel with no air conditioner but really expensive looking lounges. At last it started to cool down and we went to have dinner where Lisa had a wonderful veggie pot pie at a diner-looking restaurant and I had a kangaroo burger (gamey, not all that great, but I gotta try, right?).
Then it was time to shoot the sunset at echo point, where we had an astonishing light show. We'll see how the photos turned out. I ran into a German couple (from Hamburg) who were on a round-the-world 9-month trip. You know, I do my little trips and think that it's so great that I can get 2 months off from work, and of course the Germans (and the English) out-do me all the time.
Sydney III
We woke up late and had breakfast in the hotel. Lisa was feeling a little tired after the activities of the night before, so we skipped the zoo in favor of a trip to the Aquarium. What's really amusing to me is how well they've tackled the space issues --- quite a bit of the Aquarium doubled back on itself, and they really made good use of space by having some large aquariums that had glass bottoms and underground passages so you could look up through. I'm definitely a big fan of tropical fish, and they had a nice collection of sharks and Dugongs.
After that, we finally cracked open our guide book to look for a place to eat, and discovered that the best food court was over in Paddy's Market near our hotel. We went there and ordered Nasi Lemak and Hainan Chicken. Yummy!
We then caught a bus out to the Circular Quay again, and then walked over to the Botanic Gardens, which looked quite a bit more wilted than I expected in the heat. Nevertheless, I ran around playing photographer, we got to see the fruit bats, and I even got some pictures of parrots later in the evening (shot at ISO 3200 --- I would never have attempted such pictures with film!). I'm definitely becoming a fan of the Canon 5D Mk II.
After that, we went back and had a late dinner, including more satay and Roti Canai, and Char Kway Teow which wasn't quite to spec. Food court dining is awesome, and I'd forgotten how much I miss it.
After that, we finally cracked open our guide book to look for a place to eat, and discovered that the best food court was over in Paddy's Market near our hotel. We went there and ordered Nasi Lemak and Hainan Chicken. Yummy!
We then caught a bus out to the Circular Quay again, and then walked over to the Botanic Gardens, which looked quite a bit more wilted than I expected in the heat. Nevertheless, I ran around playing photographer, we got to see the fruit bats, and I even got some pictures of parrots later in the evening (shot at ISO 3200 --- I would never have attempted such pictures with film!). I'm definitely becoming a fan of the Canon 5D Mk II.
After that, we went back and had a late dinner, including more satay and Roti Canai, and Char Kway Teow which wasn't quite to spec. Food court dining is awesome, and I'd forgotten how much I miss it.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The food of my youth
Nasi Lemak, Char Kway Teow, Roti Canai, Roti Telur, Satay, Fried Banana dessert, Chee Chong Fun, Mee Pok, Curry Fish-head, Rojak, Durian, Mangosteen...
I'm checking off each item as I find it in Australia, which, due to its relative proximity to South East Asia, is hammering me with food nostalgia in a big way. Obviously, it's unlikely I'll get to sample it all (and even more so once I get out from Sydney), but I obviously can't leave this country without giving it the old college try.
I'm checking off each item as I find it in Australia, which, due to its relative proximity to South East Asia, is hammering me with food nostalgia in a big way. Obviously, it's unlikely I'll get to sample it all (and even more so once I get out from Sydney), but I obviously can't leave this country without giving it the old college try.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sydney (Part II)
After another breakfast at the Chinese place, we went to the Sydney Opera House for a tour. The mother of all cost over-runs, the place cost $100 million and 16 years to build, confounding the early estimate of 3 years and $4 million. The architectural community must still be cackling with glee over the profits from this amazing building. Looking at the design today, I wonder how anyone could conceive that it would be cheap. What's neat about the place is that it's got several theatres in it, ranging from small intimate theaters to the large, impersonal halls required for formal things like Opera and classical concerts.
I would have gone for one of the small shows like the complete 37 works of Shakespeare in 90 minutes, but Lisa was enchanted by the Opera space and so we signed up for the Magic Flute. Then we visited Google once again for lunch with Lea, and then the Sydney Wildlife World, which is quite a bit of a tourist trap, but I did learn about all the poisonous snakes trying to kill me while I'm hiking. You do get quite a number of simulated environments, one of which is the nocturnal exhibit that's quite enchanting.
After that, we went back to the hotel and finally had dinner at Mamak. From the Roti to the Nasi Lemak, this place is quite good. Lisa ordered the vegetarian curry, a mistake as I don't recall ever having it in Singapore.
The Opera, however, was a disappointment. This was my first Opera and I can definitely see why the art form is dying. The stories are inane, the music --- well, I'm not the world's biggest fan of Mozart but even I could tell this was not his best work. The amount of latent racism is quite astounding for a modern audience. I will not be sad when this art form is consigned into the rubbish bin of history --- I was sorry that the multi-cultural world that is Sydney couldn't find anything better to do with the $100 million building. The venue did live up to its billing in the evening though, with views of the lit up Sydney Harbour bridge and the other side of the Bay.
We got back to the hotel around midnight, and I was quite tired from the day, so we scuttled plans to visit the Zoo tomorrow in favor of a quieter day around town.
I would have gone for one of the small shows like the complete 37 works of Shakespeare in 90 minutes, but Lisa was enchanted by the Opera space and so we signed up for the Magic Flute. Then we visited Google once again for lunch with Lea, and then the Sydney Wildlife World, which is quite a bit of a tourist trap, but I did learn about all the poisonous snakes trying to kill me while I'm hiking. You do get quite a number of simulated environments, one of which is the nocturnal exhibit that's quite enchanting.
After that, we went back to the hotel and finally had dinner at Mamak. From the Roti to the Nasi Lemak, this place is quite good. Lisa ordered the vegetarian curry, a mistake as I don't recall ever having it in Singapore.
The Opera, however, was a disappointment. This was my first Opera and I can definitely see why the art form is dying. The stories are inane, the music --- well, I'm not the world's biggest fan of Mozart but even I could tell this was not his best work. The amount of latent racism is quite astounding for a modern audience. I will not be sad when this art form is consigned into the rubbish bin of history --- I was sorry that the multi-cultural world that is Sydney couldn't find anything better to do with the $100 million building. The venue did live up to its billing in the evening though, with views of the lit up Sydney Harbour bridge and the other side of the Bay.
We got back to the hotel around midnight, and I was quite tired from the day, so we scuttled plans to visit the Zoo tomorrow in favor of a quieter day around town.
Sydney (Part I)
We arrived on Wednesday the 28th at 7:40am, right on schedule. Our travel agent had cleverly booked us on a window + asile seat, leaving us with an empty seat between us on a not-completely-full flight. A shuttle dropped us off at our hotel, Holiday Inn Darling Harbour, which is nicely located next to Chinatown, granting us access to excellent breakfast food in the morning.
My first impression of Sydney is that it's an incredibly diverse city. Even more so than San Franciso or Singapore. Looking around, you'd see all types of faces --- at least to me, it looked like the city wasn't dominated by any single race, which was impressive. The way this benefits the tourist is pretty obvious --- the food is nothing short of impressive. We found a Singaporean food place called Mamak almost right away, though due to their opening schedule we never did get to eat there until Friday night. The Nasi Lemak, however, was pretty authentic and their satay is the way I remember, though the sauce was not very spicy.
The first order of business on arrival was to visit Camera Warehouse in Sydney to pick up some LP-E6s. The Canon 5D2's batteries simply could not be had for love or money in the US, but Australia seemed to have plentiful supply as I placed an order on-line to be held for pickup. We won't need the batteries right away, but expect that during the camping portion of our trip access to power sockets would be challenging to come by and having a couple of spares would help tide us over. Hoping to get our jet-lag to a minimum, we walked to the store, giving us a chance to explore the city.
We immediately discovered the best thing about being so close to asia --- savoury pies! Those are yummy if not cheap, and we immediately bought some to eat as we go. The day was warm, well into the 80s or 90s, and we had sunny weather. Once we were done with our shopping, we found our way to the centerpoint, where we did the touristy thing and rode up to the top of the tower for a view of Sydney. Following the touristy theme, we then rode the monorail for a close aerial view of the city (with the city buildings literally a foot away or so from the monorail, it definitely looked different). We then returned to the hotel for a quick nap before visiting Google to have dinner with Lea Kissner and Ben Laurie.
Thursday morning found us having breakfast at a Chinese restaurant around literally the corner. Porridge and Taro cake and Chee Chong Fun! Wonderful stuff, if a little on the expensive side. Then we walked around town as Lisa wanted to visit the Opal museum. We visited the small museum, which seemed as much devoted to selling jewelry as to showing you where Opals came from. Then on the way to Campbell's Cove Pontoon, we stopped by another store which showed us a huge cut Opal.
We were signed up for a Sea Sydney Cruise + Twilight bridge climb package. Told to pack swimming suits, we were not at all prepared to discover a motor-yatch picking us up for a cruise just for the two of us. We were then motored around the harbour, with the crew telling us about what we were seeing before being anchored off a beautiful beach, given a Kayak, and given a chance to visit the shore. I changed into swimming trunks, and upon reaching shore took a brisk swim around --- warm water is such a delight, though even in this weather it didn't take very much distance from the beach before the water cooled rapidly, though not in such a way to make swimming unpleasant. Then we were served a late lunch on the boat and then finished up the cruise. Lisa loved the cruise and wouldn't stop talking about it for days.
All throughout this time we saw the bridge with people climbing it. With all the safety gear we were told to put on, we expected it to be steep or at least physically challenging, but it turned out that the top section of half dome was quite a bit more challenging, and we needed less safety equipment for that! What a tourist trap. Nevertheless, the views of Sydney was great, and we got up there at exactly the right time for a gorgeous sunset.
My first impression of Sydney is that it's an incredibly diverse city. Even more so than San Franciso or Singapore. Looking around, you'd see all types of faces --- at least to me, it looked like the city wasn't dominated by any single race, which was impressive. The way this benefits the tourist is pretty obvious --- the food is nothing short of impressive. We found a Singaporean food place called Mamak almost right away, though due to their opening schedule we never did get to eat there until Friday night. The Nasi Lemak, however, was pretty authentic and their satay is the way I remember, though the sauce was not very spicy.
The first order of business on arrival was to visit Camera Warehouse in Sydney to pick up some LP-E6s. The Canon 5D2's batteries simply could not be had for love or money in the US, but Australia seemed to have plentiful supply as I placed an order on-line to be held for pickup. We won't need the batteries right away, but expect that during the camping portion of our trip access to power sockets would be challenging to come by and having a couple of spares would help tide us over. Hoping to get our jet-lag to a minimum, we walked to the store, giving us a chance to explore the city.
We immediately discovered the best thing about being so close to asia --- savoury pies! Those are yummy if not cheap, and we immediately bought some to eat as we go. The day was warm, well into the 80s or 90s, and we had sunny weather. Once we were done with our shopping, we found our way to the centerpoint, where we did the touristy thing and rode up to the top of the tower for a view of Sydney. Following the touristy theme, we then rode the monorail for a close aerial view of the city (with the city buildings literally a foot away or so from the monorail, it definitely looked different). We then returned to the hotel for a quick nap before visiting Google to have dinner with Lea Kissner and Ben Laurie.
Thursday morning found us having breakfast at a Chinese restaurant around literally the corner. Porridge and Taro cake and Chee Chong Fun! Wonderful stuff, if a little on the expensive side. Then we walked around town as Lisa wanted to visit the Opal museum. We visited the small museum, which seemed as much devoted to selling jewelry as to showing you where Opals came from. Then on the way to Campbell's Cove Pontoon, we stopped by another store which showed us a huge cut Opal.
We were signed up for a Sea Sydney Cruise + Twilight bridge climb package. Told to pack swimming suits, we were not at all prepared to discover a motor-yatch picking us up for a cruise just for the two of us. We were then motored around the harbour, with the crew telling us about what we were seeing before being anchored off a beautiful beach, given a Kayak, and given a chance to visit the shore. I changed into swimming trunks, and upon reaching shore took a brisk swim around --- warm water is such a delight, though even in this weather it didn't take very much distance from the beach before the water cooled rapidly, though not in such a way to make swimming unpleasant. Then we were served a late lunch on the boat and then finished up the cruise. Lisa loved the cruise and wouldn't stop talking about it for days.
All throughout this time we saw the bridge with people climbing it. With all the safety gear we were told to put on, we expected it to be steep or at least physically challenging, but it turned out that the top section of half dome was quite a bit more challenging, and we needed less safety equipment for that! What a tourist trap. Nevertheless, the views of Sydney was great, and we got up there at exactly the right time for a gorgeous sunset.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Review: FDR
Franklin Roosevelt secured my position as a know it all when I was in Singapore. On the first day of my general paper class, the instructor asked if anyone knew who Franklin D. Roosevelt was. I raised my hand for the second time in the class, and the instructor said, "You know everything, don't you?" The irony of course, was that I learned who Roosevelt was by reading The Dark Knight Returns, a comic book that my instructor would never approved off.
Well, I've finally gotten around to reading about Roosevelt in a way my GP teacher would have wanted. Apparently, this is the same book Obama (kindle edition)read while running for the office, and it is extremely readable. The book starts off slowly, with a description of Roosevelt's ancestry --- it is quite obvious that Roosevelt was born into a position of privilege, wealthy and quite used to it. His mother, Sara Roosevelt, was a matriach who was very close to him and
provided quite a bit of financial support throughout his political career.
The book covers quite a bit of personal detail about Roosevelt, details that apparently most of the public never had access to, and would have made Roosevelt unelectable. For instance, the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt was rather testy after Franklin Roosevelt had an affair with someone --- he had to be persuaded to stay in the marriage for the sake of his political career. Imagine that being something that could be covered up! Interestingly enough, Eleanor takes her revenge by hiring the worst possible chef for the White House.
Jean Edward Smith brings to his biography an objective view of the president. There's not any hero-worshipping, and the president gets his comeuppance frequently and often, especially at the start of his second term. We do get a good view about the creation of social security, FDIC insurance, and the running of World War II. What he
doesn't do is to deal with all the myths and misconceptions that many consipiracy theorists have come up with over the years about Roosevelt and the presidency. We do get an idea of why many in later years have called Roosevelt the traitor to his class, and I don't think Jean Edward Smith gives quite enough historical context for the casual non-US reader to understand what forces were in play during the great
depression. Then again, Smith is a historian and not an economist, so that failing is not particularly surprising.
What comes through, however, is the character of Franklin Roosevelt. This is a man who survives Polio, goes on to lead a country in a dramatic fashion out of the depression, and then proceeds to help fight World War II. That he won as many terms as he did is not surprising --- and given how dramatically he started his presidency, I can see why supporters of Obama who expected him to be the second coming of FDR are bound to be disappointed.
This book is recommended as an easily digested, objective biography of FDR. For historical analysis and context, look elsewhere.
Well, I've finally gotten around to reading about Roosevelt in a way my GP teacher would have wanted. Apparently, this is the same book Obama (kindle edition)read while running for the office, and it is extremely readable. The book starts off slowly, with a description of Roosevelt's ancestry --- it is quite obvious that Roosevelt was born into a position of privilege, wealthy and quite used to it. His mother, Sara Roosevelt, was a matriach who was very close to him and
provided quite a bit of financial support throughout his political career.
The book covers quite a bit of personal detail about Roosevelt, details that apparently most of the public never had access to, and would have made Roosevelt unelectable. For instance, the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt was rather testy after Franklin Roosevelt had an affair with someone --- he had to be persuaded to stay in the marriage for the sake of his political career. Imagine that being something that could be covered up! Interestingly enough, Eleanor takes her revenge by hiring the worst possible chef for the White House.
Jean Edward Smith brings to his biography an objective view of the president. There's not any hero-worshipping, and the president gets his comeuppance frequently and often, especially at the start of his second term. We do get a good view about the creation of social security, FDIC insurance, and the running of World War II. What he
doesn't do is to deal with all the myths and misconceptions that many consipiracy theorists have come up with over the years about Roosevelt and the presidency. We do get an idea of why many in later years have called Roosevelt the traitor to his class, and I don't think Jean Edward Smith gives quite enough historical context for the casual non-US reader to understand what forces were in play during the great
depression. Then again, Smith is a historian and not an economist, so that failing is not particularly surprising.
What comes through, however, is the character of Franklin Roosevelt. This is a man who survives Polio, goes on to lead a country in a dramatic fashion out of the depression, and then proceeds to help fight World War II. That he won as many terms as he did is not surprising --- and given how dramatically he started his presidency, I can see why supporters of Obama who expected him to be the second coming of FDR are bound to be disappointed.
This book is recommended as an easily digested, objective biography of FDR. For historical analysis and context, look elsewhere.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Why the tech pundits got the Kindle wrong
A friend of my brother's recently asked me to get a Kindle for him. (Why? Because by tying the Kindle to my account, he got access to the well over 40 books in my Kindle library --- tying your Kindle to somebody more voracious a reader than you are means that you get back your $359 buy right away in content)
If you read reviews written when the Kindle first came out, you'll consider the device a failure. Those big buttons are too easy to press (leading to accidental page turns), and that keyboard gets in the way. Why buy an expensive device to read a book? A look over at Amazon's Kindle Forum, however, shows you why the Kindle is still sold out: the 20-something and 30-something tech pundits who are usually the tech industry's early adopters, aren't the early adopters this time. It's their 55-year to 75-year tech-phobic grandparents who are buying!
It turns out that two big things happen as you get older --- you start to lose your eye-sight (the world literally becomes a darker place), and you tend to get arthritis. If you look at the Kindle, it looks almost purpose designed to help you work around that. The easy-to-tweak font-sizes means that you can change the font sizes whenever you want and turn any book into a large-print edition. The big buttons means that even if you're arthritic or have some other disability, you can hit that button with your elbow, a pen held in your mouth, or your shaking hands.
It also turns out (by no coincidence) that the larger number of enthusiastic readers in this country are the older ones. So the fact that Amazon's still showing a 4-6 week delivery time means that they (unlike the tech pundits) really hit their target audience squarely, while Sony has again stumbled in their assessment as to what the market wants.
If you read reviews written when the Kindle first came out, you'll consider the device a failure. Those big buttons are too easy to press (leading to accidental page turns), and that keyboard gets in the way. Why buy an expensive device to read a book? A look over at Amazon's Kindle Forum, however, shows you why the Kindle is still sold out: the 20-something and 30-something tech pundits who are usually the tech industry's early adopters, aren't the early adopters this time. It's their 55-year to 75-year tech-phobic grandparents who are buying!
It turns out that two big things happen as you get older --- you start to lose your eye-sight (the world literally becomes a darker place), and you tend to get arthritis. If you look at the Kindle, it looks almost purpose designed to help you work around that. The easy-to-tweak font-sizes means that you can change the font sizes whenever you want and turn any book into a large-print edition. The big buttons means that even if you're arthritic or have some other disability, you can hit that button with your elbow, a pen held in your mouth, or your shaking hands.
It also turns out (by no coincidence) that the larger number of enthusiastic readers in this country are the older ones. So the fact that Amazon's still showing a 4-6 week delivery time means that they (unlike the tech pundits) really hit their target audience squarely, while Sony has again stumbled in their assessment as to what the market wants.
Going to Australia for 2 months
We're going to Australia for 2 months. Here's what our itinerary looks like:
Jan 28th: Sydney
Feb 1st: Blue Mountains
Feb 4: Cairns
Feb 11: Melbourne
Feb 14: Tasmania & the Overland trail
Feb 28: Melbourne to Adelaide via camper van
Mar 7: Perth (independent touring with camper van)
Mar 18: Ayer's Rock, Alice Springs, etc.
Mar 25: Back to California
I don't expect to be able to keep this blog updated except sporadically, but it is a vacation!
Jan 28th: Sydney
Feb 1st: Blue Mountains
Feb 4: Cairns
Feb 11: Melbourne
Feb 14: Tasmania & the Overland trail
Feb 28: Melbourne to Adelaide via camper van
Mar 7: Perth (independent touring with camper van)
Mar 18: Ayer's Rock, Alice Springs, etc.
Mar 25: Back to California
I don't expect to be able to keep this blog updated except sporadically, but it is a vacation!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Should a startup take outside investor money?
Dewitt asked several questions over at friendfeed which I thought were interesting, and worth writing about. The big one is when should a venture take on outside investors?
My feeling is that if you can fund a startup all by yourself, bring it to profitability, and own the business free and clear, there's no reason to bring in venture or outside investors. Once you take in that money you now have an obligation to grow fast and reward the investors with capital gains. If you own the business free and clear you can grow organically, and go for long term profitability. Gary Erickson's Raising the Bar covers this approach very well. Other examples are Perforce Software, a profitable company that's done very well over the years --- it will never be a Google, but you don't have to build a Google in order to make yourself very wealthy, and a low risk approach like Perforce's is very profitable for its owners.
The reason to take outside investors is that you need a ton of capital so you can move quickly. Why would you need to move quickly? The first reason is that the market has low technical barriers to entry. That means that as soon as you launch, your competitors will realize what you're doing and you'd better be growing fast in order to dominate the market before they can enter. This fits in very well with the VC model, since they want you to grow as quickly as you can as well (that ten year horizon on the VC fund is relentless!). Let me illustrate with two well-known examples.
When Reed Hastings started Pure Software, he worked in his basement for two years on the first product, Purify. He only hired an employee after he had something working on Sun workstations (he hired someone to port it to the MIPS processor). He then took out a second mortgage on his home, hired salespeople, and launched the company. The company was profitable within 3 months. He could take 2 years to build product because at that time, purify was such an off-the-wall idea that he could rely on nobody else building it with a bigger team. Pure Software eventually took VC money because Reed wanted to grow it fast, but the whole thing ended badly for the company, because Pure really fell into the Perforce model --- development tools are inherently an organic growth market and can't be forced.
When it came to Netflix, there was no way Reed could have funded it all himself without taking a lot of risk. Building a huge video library is expensive, and building the website for Netflix is not a significant technical barrier --- Blockbuster and Hollywood Video could have done it if they had realized what Netflix was doing. This was a natural fit with the VC model, and Hollywood and Blockbuster dithered enough entering the market that Netflix was dominant by the time they entered, and hence put both established companies in trouble.
My feeling is that if you can fund a startup all by yourself, bring it to profitability, and own the business free and clear, there's no reason to bring in venture or outside investors. Once you take in that money you now have an obligation to grow fast and reward the investors with capital gains. If you own the business free and clear you can grow organically, and go for long term profitability. Gary Erickson's Raising the Bar covers this approach very well. Other examples are Perforce Software, a profitable company that's done very well over the years --- it will never be a Google, but you don't have to build a Google in order to make yourself very wealthy, and a low risk approach like Perforce's is very profitable for its owners.
The reason to take outside investors is that you need a ton of capital so you can move quickly. Why would you need to move quickly? The first reason is that the market has low technical barriers to entry. That means that as soon as you launch, your competitors will realize what you're doing and you'd better be growing fast in order to dominate the market before they can enter. This fits in very well with the VC model, since they want you to grow as quickly as you can as well (that ten year horizon on the VC fund is relentless!). Let me illustrate with two well-known examples.
When Reed Hastings started Pure Software, he worked in his basement for two years on the first product, Purify. He only hired an employee after he had something working on Sun workstations (he hired someone to port it to the MIPS processor). He then took out a second mortgage on his home, hired salespeople, and launched the company. The company was profitable within 3 months. He could take 2 years to build product because at that time, purify was such an off-the-wall idea that he could rely on nobody else building it with a bigger team. Pure Software eventually took VC money because Reed wanted to grow it fast, but the whole thing ended badly for the company, because Pure really fell into the Perforce model --- development tools are inherently an organic growth market and can't be forced.
When it came to Netflix, there was no way Reed could have funded it all himself without taking a lot of risk. Building a huge video library is expensive, and building the website for Netflix is not a significant technical barrier --- Blockbuster and Hollywood Video could have done it if they had realized what Netflix was doing. This was a natural fit with the VC model, and Hollywood and Blockbuster dithered enough entering the market that Netflix was dominant by the time they entered, and hence put both established companies in trouble.
Angel Investing
I was recently involved in the second round of angel investing for Doyenz. Until I started doing it, I didn't know how the process worked, so I think it's interesting to talk about it.
The first part, obviously, is the selection of the firm to invest in. Unlike public companies where you're unlikely to get a chance to talk to the CEO or board of directors, an angel investor can expect to talk to the founders and probe them. During the first round last year, that was all we had. Many people have the image of Andy Bechtolsheim sitting on the front porch of his house writing out a check to Larry and Sergey after a demo, and in fact, if you have as much money as he does, and investing in the middle of the dot com bubble, that's probably the right thing to do. The truth is, though that the combination of a smart team with good business sense and ability to execute comes really rarely. Last year, Roberto and I went with a bunch of Googlers and ex-Googlers to Y-combinator HQ, and sat through about 5 or 6 startup presentations. It's worth your time to do so to get a feel for what the Silicon Valley startup vibe is (my opinion: it's surprisingly fashion driven, showing that even geeks like to look cool).
You have to evaluate the business plan with ruthlessness --- take into account how difficult the competition will be, what the technical risks are, and whether the venture is raising enough money to accomplish what they set out to do (most startups are under-capitalized, and that in itself is a big risk). As an individual investor, I hate investing in stocks, but as an angel, you get insight into the company you'll never have otherwise, and as a technical person you have an idea of how easy or hard it would be to build the product, as well as how easy or hard it is for the major competitors to replicate what your team is doing.
Now, you might think that typically an angel investor gets in and sets the valuation of the company and then invests at a given price. That can happen and does happen, especially if it's a large lump sum of money, but it risks a mis-price of the company. It takes a fit of optimism to fund a startup, so usually the risk is on the high side. Instead, what you typically do is get a promissory note with a principal, maturity, and interest rate built in. This note would then convert into stock at the first round of a large angel investing (where the valuation is set by the lead investor --- typically the largest investor) or a venture fund stepping in to fund the company. The conversion is at a discount to the lead investor (since angels came in earlier, they get a break), at the interest rate set in the note.
There's also typically a penalty valuation built in, so that if the company doesn't get a lead investor or a VC within the time period, you get the note converted at a penalty clause. This is not something I tend to pay a lot of attention to, because if the company runs out of money at that point your note is worthless anyway. On the other hand, if the company turns out to be wildly successful and profitable (and hence has no need for a VC round), you get a great reward for having the vision to invest in the business. The chances of that happening are low as well.
All through the process, the thing to remember is that ultimately, you have to be able to trust these guys you are giving money to. If they choose to spend it all on wine and plane tickets to Mexico, what are you really going to able to do to get the money back? Hence the typical emphasis on the team, what their track record is, and whether they are people of integrity. It helps if you know the team well from a previous life as well.
The first part, obviously, is the selection of the firm to invest in. Unlike public companies where you're unlikely to get a chance to talk to the CEO or board of directors, an angel investor can expect to talk to the founders and probe them. During the first round last year, that was all we had. Many people have the image of Andy Bechtolsheim sitting on the front porch of his house writing out a check to Larry and Sergey after a demo, and in fact, if you have as much money as he does, and investing in the middle of the dot com bubble, that's probably the right thing to do. The truth is, though that the combination of a smart team with good business sense and ability to execute comes really rarely. Last year, Roberto and I went with a bunch of Googlers and ex-Googlers to Y-combinator HQ, and sat through about 5 or 6 startup presentations. It's worth your time to do so to get a feel for what the Silicon Valley startup vibe is (my opinion: it's surprisingly fashion driven, showing that even geeks like to look cool).
You have to evaluate the business plan with ruthlessness --- take into account how difficult the competition will be, what the technical risks are, and whether the venture is raising enough money to accomplish what they set out to do (most startups are under-capitalized, and that in itself is a big risk). As an individual investor, I hate investing in stocks, but as an angel, you get insight into the company you'll never have otherwise, and as a technical person you have an idea of how easy or hard it would be to build the product, as well as how easy or hard it is for the major competitors to replicate what your team is doing.
Now, you might think that typically an angel investor gets in and sets the valuation of the company and then invests at a given price. That can happen and does happen, especially if it's a large lump sum of money, but it risks a mis-price of the company. It takes a fit of optimism to fund a startup, so usually the risk is on the high side. Instead, what you typically do is get a promissory note with a principal, maturity, and interest rate built in. This note would then convert into stock at the first round of a large angel investing (where the valuation is set by the lead investor --- typically the largest investor) or a venture fund stepping in to fund the company. The conversion is at a discount to the lead investor (since angels came in earlier, they get a break), at the interest rate set in the note.
There's also typically a penalty valuation built in, so that if the company doesn't get a lead investor or a VC within the time period, you get the note converted at a penalty clause. This is not something I tend to pay a lot of attention to, because if the company runs out of money at that point your note is worthless anyway. On the other hand, if the company turns out to be wildly successful and profitable (and hence has no need for a VC round), you get a great reward for having the vision to invest in the business. The chances of that happening are low as well.
All through the process, the thing to remember is that ultimately, you have to be able to trust these guys you are giving money to. If they choose to spend it all on wine and plane tickets to Mexico, what are you really going to able to do to get the money back? Hence the typical emphasis on the team, what their track record is, and whether they are people of integrity. It helps if you know the team well from a previous life as well.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Review: The Best of Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick has been a prolific writer of short stories, and this collection (DRM-free kindle compatible edition)puts together all of his award winning short stories and novellas, as well as some other significant works, such as his first two published short stories, which still read as fresh today as when they were written.
What surprised me is how little science fiction there actually was in this collection, despite my thinking of Swanwick as being mostly a science fiction writer. Perhaps that's because Griffin's Egg and Wild Minds stuck in my mind quite a bit more than the others that I had read.
There seems to be quite a bit of obsession with death as a theme, with it showing up in Mother Grasshopper and Radio Waves. Quite a number of stories have mature themes, so if you're the kind of person who believes that children should stay innocent, this is not a book to hand off to your 9 year old (and especially not your friend's 9 year old, lest you be charged with corrupting the youth).
I checked this book out from the library, and I think it might have been a mistake --- these stories absolutely cannot be rushed through, and they all bear reading more than once. I guess I can always buy the electronic edition for a second read through.
Recommended, and definitely not a book to rush through --- take a break between each story --- they are so rich that like food, you cannot take too much at once.
What surprised me is how little science fiction there actually was in this collection, despite my thinking of Swanwick as being mostly a science fiction writer. Perhaps that's because Griffin's Egg and Wild Minds stuck in my mind quite a bit more than the others that I had read.
There seems to be quite a bit of obsession with death as a theme, with it showing up in Mother Grasshopper and Radio Waves. Quite a number of stories have mature themes, so if you're the kind of person who believes that children should stay innocent, this is not a book to hand off to your 9 year old (and especially not your friend's 9 year old, lest you be charged with corrupting the youth).
I checked this book out from the library, and I think it might have been a mistake --- these stories absolutely cannot be rushed through, and they all bear reading more than once. I guess I can always buy the electronic edition for a second read through.
Recommended, and definitely not a book to rush through --- take a break between each story --- they are so rich that like food, you cannot take too much at once.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tax Resources, Inc without Turbotax
For the first time in 15 years I won't be doing my own taxes for the previous tax year (2008). The reason is that last year's international assignment was long enough that I'll have to file taxes in both Germany and in the US, so my employee is going to take care of that for me. This is great, though as a paranoid guy, I'll probably be doing the taxes myself as well to double check what they do.
My biggest concern was with tax audit protection. I was handed a policy that included ambiguous statements about whether or not I would get support for dealing with the IRS. Given that I've received an IRS notice every year since 2004, I figured I'd take ambiguity out of the equation and suck it up and pay TaxResources, Inc anyway.
So I called them, and asked for a renewal. Because I was a turbo-tax filer, I got transferred to a different department. After I got to an agent, I asked if I could be covered despite not using turbo-tax. It turned out that I could be, just at a higher price, $50, rather than $35. Since even the retail package would be worth the $300/year that they charge (one of my friend uses a tax accountant, and according to him it cost him $200 per letter his accountant had to write to the IRS), I just signed up. I don't know whether you can only get this deal if you were a previous year customer, however.
In any case, that's how you get covered if you're not using Turbo Tax to file this year. And yes, every year since I've been using them, they have dealt with the IRS for me, and especially when I was in Munich, where it would have been hard for me to deal with the letters in time, it was a relief to hand it of to professional, competent people to deal with. If you're an expatriate with a company that has a tax audit policy like mine, you are encouraged to pay for whatever protection you need that has you covered.
My biggest concern was with tax audit protection. I was handed a policy that included ambiguous statements about whether or not I would get support for dealing with the IRS. Given that I've received an IRS notice every year since 2004, I figured I'd take ambiguity out of the equation and suck it up and pay TaxResources, Inc anyway.
So I called them, and asked for a renewal. Because I was a turbo-tax filer, I got transferred to a different department. After I got to an agent, I asked if I could be covered despite not using turbo-tax. It turned out that I could be, just at a higher price, $50, rather than $35. Since even the retail package would be worth the $300/year that they charge (one of my friend uses a tax accountant, and according to him it cost him $200 per letter his accountant had to write to the IRS), I just signed up. I don't know whether you can only get this deal if you were a previous year customer, however.
In any case, that's how you get covered if you're not using Turbo Tax to file this year. And yes, every year since I've been using them, they have dealt with the IRS for me, and especially when I was in Munich, where it would have been hard for me to deal with the letters in time, it was a relief to hand it of to professional, competent people to deal with. If you're an expatriate with a company that has a tax audit policy like mine, you are encouraged to pay for whatever protection you need that has you covered.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
How I deal with Sleep Apnea and Cycling, Backpacking, and Sailing
As an active backpacker, cyclist and sailor, I refused to let my need for a CPAP machine stop me from doing things I love. So when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I viewed the need for the machine with dismay. Since I exhibit none of the typical symptoms of someone with Sleep Apnea (I sleep well and easily, I'm alert when I wake), my friends turn out to be very happy to help carry the CPAP machine so they don't have to hear me snore! For cycling, the Puritan Bennett is a nice lightweight (1.5 pounds, with a light power supply that's no bigger than one used to charge a cell phone) machine that was a pain to carry up the mountains, but no worse than a couple of extra water bottles. Incidentally, my doctor says that an occasional night without a CPAP machine won't kill me, but giving the degree to which I snore, my cycling companions might.
I've noticed that on the web at least, there's next to no information about backpacking with CPAP machines. A lot of this is likely because amongst Westerners, apnea is associated with being fat and out of shape, hardly a precondition for a backpacking/hiking lifestyle. However, among Asians, apnea is usually associated with a small airway, and Asians don't have to be fat or out of shape to have sleep apnea.
For camping and sailing, however, you don't just need a CPAP machine, you also need to carry your power supply with you. In the case of sailboats, they have diesel engines that can power an inverter, but if you ran the diesel engine all night, your crew would be extremely unhappy with you. For camping, there's just no real solution but to carry a big honking battery. Traditional batteries sold by the traditional manufacturers weigh well over 14 pounds. That's fine for a sailboat or for car camping but is not at all acceptable on a backpacking trip!
So I did some research and found Batterygeek.net's C-222 battery which has 222 Watt Hours worth of power in a convenient 5 pound package. I used it on both the Turkey Sailing trip as well as the recent overnight from Castle Rock to Big Basin trip. In particular, on the overnight trip, I started the trip with the battery fully charged (4 bars), and after about 10 hours of use, the battery still read 4 bars at the end of it, giving me hope that the upcoming Tasmanian Overland trail (5 nights) wouldn't strain it at all. (Update: Unfortunately, in practice, the battery will only last for 1.5 nights --- it turns out the battery indicator is just useless)
To their credit, batterygeek's numbers aren't all that promising for the battery --- they promise at most 2 nights worth of use, but the GoodKnight 420E is an auto-adjusting machine, delivering only as much pressure as I need --- my apnea is highly variable, so this means that most of the night I don't need very high pressure at all, but I do occasionally spike really high.
Personally, I don't want to put a "recommended" tag on this post, since I don't recommend having Sleep Apnea (it's genetic, so I don't really have a choice). On the other hand, given that this lets me sail and go backpacking almost like a normal person, it's as good as things can get, until someone makes a fuel cell battery that runs off a few centiliters of white gas or stove alcohol and weighs only a few ounces.
(And yes, batterygeek.net also sells similar sized batteries for folks who want to run their laptops for 24 hours at a time away from power outlets)
I've noticed that on the web at least, there's next to no information about backpacking with CPAP machines. A lot of this is likely because amongst Westerners, apnea is associated with being fat and out of shape, hardly a precondition for a backpacking/hiking lifestyle. However, among Asians, apnea is usually associated with a small airway, and Asians don't have to be fat or out of shape to have sleep apnea.
For camping and sailing, however, you don't just need a CPAP machine, you also need to carry your power supply with you. In the case of sailboats, they have diesel engines that can power an inverter, but if you ran the diesel engine all night, your crew would be extremely unhappy with you. For camping, there's just no real solution but to carry a big honking battery. Traditional batteries sold by the traditional manufacturers weigh well over 14 pounds. That's fine for a sailboat or for car camping but is not at all acceptable on a backpacking trip!
So I did some research and found Batterygeek.net's C-222 battery which has 222 Watt Hours worth of power in a convenient 5 pound package. I used it on both the Turkey Sailing trip as well as the recent overnight from Castle Rock to Big Basin trip. In particular, on the overnight trip, I started the trip with the battery fully charged (4 bars), and after about 10 hours of use, the battery still read 4 bars at the end of it, giving me hope that the upcoming Tasmanian Overland trail (5 nights) wouldn't strain it at all. (Update: Unfortunately, in practice, the battery will only last for 1.5 nights --- it turns out the battery indicator is just useless)
To their credit, batterygeek's numbers aren't all that promising for the battery --- they promise at most 2 nights worth of use, but the GoodKnight 420E is an auto-adjusting machine, delivering only as much pressure as I need --- my apnea is highly variable, so this means that most of the night I don't need very high pressure at all, but I do occasionally spike really high.
Personally, I don't want to put a "recommended" tag on this post, since I don't recommend having Sleep Apnea (it's genetic, so I don't really have a choice). On the other hand, given that this lets me sail and go backpacking almost like a normal person, it's as good as things can get, until someone makes a fuel cell battery that runs off a few centiliters of white gas or stove alcohol and weighs only a few ounces.
(And yes, batterygeek.net also sells similar sized batteries for folks who want to run their laptops for 24 hours at a time away from power outlets)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Review: Blackmark
Blackmark was drawn by Gil Kane and written by Archie Goodwin from a story told by Gil.
The art is reminiscent of drawings made in Weird Tales for Conan and the like, with strong dynamic lines, with well thought-out layout and a simple story. Unfortunately, Goodwin's writing is not really strong enough to stand next to Kane's art, and is simplistic and filled with exclamation points and declarations.
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where science is the new magic. It's not particularly coherent as a story, and one senses that Kane wanted a new Barsoom or Tarzan, and tried to build one, but didn't quite have the characterization or story chops to do it beyond revenge or violence. This is perhaps a product of the times.
Not recommended unless you're a nostalgia filled comic-book fan.
The art is reminiscent of drawings made in Weird Tales for Conan and the like, with strong dynamic lines, with well thought-out layout and a simple story. Unfortunately, Goodwin's writing is not really strong enough to stand next to Kane's art, and is simplistic and filled with exclamation points and declarations.
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where science is the new magic. It's not particularly coherent as a story, and one senses that Kane wanted a new Barsoom or Tarzan, and tried to build one, but didn't quite have the characterization or story chops to do it beyond revenge or violence. This is perhaps a product of the times.
Not recommended unless you're a nostalgia filled comic-book fan.
Windy Hill OSP
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| Windy Hill OSP |
I had never hiked from the bottom to the top of Windy Hill OSP, so this morning Dick & Donna Matthews, Cynthia Wong, Kekoa Proudfoot, and Dan Wallach joined us for a hike in the area. It was cold in the parking lot but it warmed up very very fast on Spring Ridge Trail! It probably warmed up even faster for Dan since due to a misunderstanding, he showed up at the parking lot 20 minutes late and had to run to catch us.
Since it was such a nice day, we eschewed Hamms Gulch for the descent and went with Razorback Ridge trail instead, resulting in a nice traverse of the area and beautiful shaded and cool views, which would not have been welcomed on any normal winter day.
In memoriam: Nikola Postolov
In the wake of all these recent news about health problems, I received more bad news today. Nikola Postolov, who was my intern last summer in Munich working on Gtags. Nikola did many wonderful things, including reducing the indexing time by a factor of 75% (yes, it ran 4 times faster when he was done).
Nikola had a brain seizure on January 3rd, and after a short period in coma, passed away on January 16th, apparently due to some birth anomaly. There were no symptoms (certainly not when he was working for me), and I am very shocked as we were putting him through the intern conversion process so we could (eventually) make him a full time offer at Google --- he was back in school but expected to graduate soon and either pursue graduate school or work in industry.
This is definitely a loss for me, and for computer science in general.
Nikola had a brain seizure on January 3rd, and after a short period in coma, passed away on January 16th, apparently due to some birth anomaly. There were no symptoms (certainly not when he was working for me), and I am very shocked as we were putting him through the intern conversion process so we could (eventually) make him a full time offer at Google --- he was back in school but expected to graduate soon and either pursue graduate school or work in industry.
This is definitely a loss for me, and for computer science in general.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Serial Angel Investor
Have you ever wondered why successful angel investors almost always invest in more startups? Having gone through the vetting process of some 10-odd startups before settling on one, it's definitely work, and good startups don't come along frequently, but I've seen some angels invest in what I considered questionable businesses (for example, I once saw a startup that could not attract any engineers get funded with about $100,000 of funding --- even during the dot com bubble, this was clearly questionable).
It turns out that there's a roll over rule, whereby the gains from a previously held small business can be put into a new small business (and startups qualify), which means that the afore-mentioned $100,000 of investment really cost about $50,000 after the tax-break is realized. Now, there are all sorts of timing rules involved, but now you know why Andy Bechtolsheim could so casually write a $100,000 check to Larry and Sergey when they demo'd Google to him. Andy has done several successful rounds of startups before, and not only did he know a good thing when he saw it, but he was getting it at 50% off because of this rule!
Now, if you joined a startup early and exercised the options early enough (before $50 million of revenue is reached), then you too can qualify for this break. Yet another reason to pre-exercise your options (or at least some of them) when you join a startup.
It turns out that there's a roll over rule, whereby the gains from a previously held small business can be put into a new small business (and startups qualify), which means that the afore-mentioned $100,000 of investment really cost about $50,000 after the tax-break is realized. Now, there are all sorts of timing rules involved, but now you know why Andy Bechtolsheim could so casually write a $100,000 check to Larry and Sergey when they demo'd Google to him. Andy has done several successful rounds of startups before, and not only did he know a good thing when he saw it, but he was getting it at 50% off because of this rule!
Now, if you joined a startup early and exercised the options early enough (before $50 million of revenue is reached), then you too can qualify for this break. Yet another reason to pre-exercise your options (or at least some of them) when you join a startup.
Up and down Highway 9
Just a 2.5 hour ride today, straight up and down 9. I've forgotten how fast descents on the tandem are. It'll take a bit to get my skills back, so I took it a bit easy. At the start of the ride, the rear tire looked a little worn, but that turned out to be an illusion. I carried a spare anyway. Gorgeous weather.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Stitching Software
When people ask me how Phil managed to produce this (click through, select download for the full effect):
I pointed them at Hugin.
It took Phil quite a bit of work to produce these, but now there's a really easy way for anyone to produce stitched pictures. Microsoft research has produced a free tool that allows you to simply drag and drop a series of pictures into the composite editor and let it figure out all the pinning, which pictures are in or out of the composite, and all that jazz. Best of all, it runs even on my 3 year old Mac Mini (though you want at least 2GB of RAM). It does suck up all the CPU but the machine is still pretty responsive. I played with it for about 2 hours and here are the results:
If Microsoft keeps producing software like this, everyone else in the industry should get very very scared. What annoys me is that neither Picasa nor Lightroom has this integrated into their workflow, and it should be. Click-select-stitch! In any case, this is a great tool, and is yet another reason why my Mac Mini runs XP.
 |
| From Rosenlaui |
I pointed them at Hugin.
It took Phil quite a bit of work to produce these, but now there's a really easy way for anyone to produce stitched pictures. Microsoft research has produced a free tool that allows you to simply drag and drop a series of pictures into the composite editor and let it figure out all the pinning, which pictures are in or out of the composite, and all that jazz. Best of all, it runs even on my 3 year old Mac Mini (though you want at least 2GB of RAM). It does suck up all the CPU but the machine is still pretty responsive. I played with it for about 2 hours and here are the results:
 |
| Stitched |
If Microsoft keeps producing software like this, everyone else in the industry should get very very scared. What annoys me is that neither Picasa nor Lightroom has this integrated into their workflow, and it should be. Click-select-stitch! In any case, this is a great tool, and is yet another reason why my Mac Mini runs XP.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
PG&E Trail Hike
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| PG&E Trail Hike |
With temperatures projected to be in the mid-70s, I had to schedule a hike. So Kekoa Proudfoot, Cynthia Wong, and Lea Kissner joined me at San Antonio Park at 9:00am to start up the PG&E trail. Though there was quite a bit of smog in the valley, we were quite a ways away from the smog producers and could get quite high and see the clear skies. Very sweet!
Since it was such a nice day, we tacked on the Mora loop on the way back to the car to gain more views. Note to self: clip toe nails before wearing hiking boots!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Review: Incandescence
Greg Egan has always been one of my favorite science fiction authors, but he's not prolific --- a novel or so every 2 or 3 years is what he seems to do, though he publishes short stories quite frequently. Incandescence (DRM-free Kindle-compatible ebook) is his latest novel.
The novel takes place in the far future, in a universe where the Galaxy has been largely explored by sentient life, which has somehow built a network where digital citizens can interact with each other in virtual worlds, choose to become embodied or remain virtual, and travel as data between star systems at light-speed. The central part of the galaxy, however, is largely off-limits, held by mysterious beings known as the Aloof, though they seem to happily allow their network to be used by other beings as a short-cut across the galaxy.
When a being who has recently used this short-cut unencrypted passes on to Rakesh (the protagonist) her experience, in which the Aloof had none too subtly showed her evidence of DNA-life near the galaxy center, implicitly inviting explorations by non-Aloofs, Rakesh immediately launches an expedition to discover what kind of DNA life could live in that harsh environment.
From then on, we alternate between chapters involving Roi (who we understand to be one of those aliens) and Rakesh's pursuit of her civilization. The two civilizations eventually do meet, but the time frames involved (because of the time it takes even light to travel the distances involved) are more murky.
Rakesh's chapters are interesting, providing what Egan's view of virtual travel combined with embodiment will be like, but doesn't explore any of the other deeper issues, such as if you've been virtualized, why not produce multiple copies of yourself and then merge them eventually --- those issues have been extensively explored in Greg Egan's short stories, so perhaps he felt it would be redundant to explore them here.
Roi's chapters, however, are a mess. While I can understand Egan's desire to provide an exposition of relativity and general physics in fiction, I'm not a big fan of the way he chose to do it --- the way the enlightenment happens just seems unbelievable to me, despite his attempts to use genetic engineering as a way to explore it.
And as is usual with a lot of hard science fiction, the characters are woodenly drawn, with no development whatsoever, and there's a sense of lack of fulfillment towards the end, as the narrative strands end rather abruptly.
If you're a Greg Egan fan, this novel will likely leave you disappointed, though perhaps reminding you why he's far better known for his short stories than his novels. If you're not a Greg Egan fan, start with one of his short story collections instead. They're significantly more rewarding with less frustration --- the issues that come up in his novels just don't show themselves in his short stories.
The novel takes place in the far future, in a universe where the Galaxy has been largely explored by sentient life, which has somehow built a network where digital citizens can interact with each other in virtual worlds, choose to become embodied or remain virtual, and travel as data between star systems at light-speed. The central part of the galaxy, however, is largely off-limits, held by mysterious beings known as the Aloof, though they seem to happily allow their network to be used by other beings as a short-cut across the galaxy.
When a being who has recently used this short-cut unencrypted passes on to Rakesh (the protagonist) her experience, in which the Aloof had none too subtly showed her evidence of DNA-life near the galaxy center, implicitly inviting explorations by non-Aloofs, Rakesh immediately launches an expedition to discover what kind of DNA life could live in that harsh environment.
From then on, we alternate between chapters involving Roi (who we understand to be one of those aliens) and Rakesh's pursuit of her civilization. The two civilizations eventually do meet, but the time frames involved (because of the time it takes even light to travel the distances involved) are more murky.
Rakesh's chapters are interesting, providing what Egan's view of virtual travel combined with embodiment will be like, but doesn't explore any of the other deeper issues, such as if you've been virtualized, why not produce multiple copies of yourself and then merge them eventually --- those issues have been extensively explored in Greg Egan's short stories, so perhaps he felt it would be redundant to explore them here.
Roi's chapters, however, are a mess. While I can understand Egan's desire to provide an exposition of relativity and general physics in fiction, I'm not a big fan of the way he chose to do it --- the way the enlightenment happens just seems unbelievable to me, despite his attempts to use genetic engineering as a way to explore it.
And as is usual with a lot of hard science fiction, the characters are woodenly drawn, with no development whatsoever, and there's a sense of lack of fulfillment towards the end, as the narrative strands end rather abruptly.
If you're a Greg Egan fan, this novel will likely leave you disappointed, though perhaps reminding you why he's far better known for his short stories than his novels. If you're not a Greg Egan fan, start with one of his short story collections instead. They're significantly more rewarding with less frustration --- the issues that come up in his novels just don't show themselves in his short stories.
LDT Shoreline
The first Western Wheelers long distance training ride of the year has begun. As is our wont, Lisa & I rode to the start, did the ride to shoreline with the club, and then after lunch rode home (this time via Performance Bikes to pick up some bike shorts for Lisa and a trunk bag for the tandem). The turnout wasn't as insane as previous years (maybe with gas being so cheap nobody wants to ride a bicycle any more?), but it was such a pretty day, I could not imagine not wanting to be outside.
For Lisa & I, it was also a time to catch up with people who hadn't seen for a while.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Health is a wonderful thing...
... and we tend to take it for granted when we have it. For the last 3-4 years I've been struggling with several health issues. Considering that I ride my bike 5000 miles or so a year and take long hiking trips, most people I meet think that I'm a picture of health, and indeed, my health issues (Sleep Apnea and Osteopenia) are by and large under control --- the latter through a change of lifestyle (I used to ride over 10000 miles a year, and had to cut back), and the former with the help of some brilliant doctors, including Dr. Tracy Kuo who managed to get me to adapt well to CPAP Therapy. The alternative would have been surgery, which was too horrible for me to contemplate, though others don't seem to have the same terror of surgery that I do.
So there I was at the start of the year feeling quite good about myself overall, and in general proud of over-coming what could have been serious illnesses and still in general enjoying life, but my first week back at work, and I have lunch with one person who tells me that the reason I didn't see her around (aside from me being in Germany) was because she was on leave for chemotherapy for cancer treatment. And then today I got news that an old classmate of mine from college is also undergoing cancer treatment. Compared to that, I had no health problems, and I'm really grateful to have what I have. These are just people I know. Add that to the deaths of Tanta and OldVet, people who post on blogs I read, and it's hard not to be overwhelmed (at least a little bit) by the sense that Cancer is everywhere.
But incidences like these make me want to go travel and see the world --- who knows how long each of us really have on this planet anyway? On the political front, while I've had to hold my nose to vote for Obama last year (mostly because of his healthcare positions), if he manages to pull off his health-care plan, then all is forgiven. I don't even care what else doesn't get done. I can stand increasing inequality, and I can stand nothing getting done on global warming (something I consider the most important problem mankind has to face), but from a personal point of view, the fact that I'm un-insurable (health-wise) as an individual (as explained by my earlier post on healthcare policy) is definitely something that has made me into a single issue voter.
So there I was at the start of the year feeling quite good about myself overall, and in general proud of over-coming what could have been serious illnesses and still in general enjoying life, but my first week back at work, and I have lunch with one person who tells me that the reason I didn't see her around (aside from me being in Germany) was because she was on leave for chemotherapy for cancer treatment. And then today I got news that an old classmate of mine from college is also undergoing cancer treatment. Compared to that, I had no health problems, and I'm really grateful to have what I have. These are just people I know. Add that to the deaths of Tanta and OldVet, people who post on blogs I read, and it's hard not to be overwhelmed (at least a little bit) by the sense that Cancer is everywhere.
But incidences like these make me want to go travel and see the world --- who knows how long each of us really have on this planet anyway? On the political front, while I've had to hold my nose to vote for Obama last year (mostly because of his healthcare positions), if he manages to pull off his health-care plan, then all is forgiven. I don't even care what else doesn't get done. I can stand increasing inequality, and I can stand nothing getting done on global warming (something I consider the most important problem mankind has to face), but from a personal point of view, the fact that I'm un-insurable (health-wise) as an individual (as explained by my earlier post on healthcare policy) is definitely something that has made me into a single issue voter.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
My digital conversion (part IV)
[This is a summary of the research and thoughts I've had over the last few days]
Let's go back to basics for a minute here. Let's start with what I consider the fundamental problem of photography. Our eyes and brains together create a dynamic visual imaging system that's capable of handling the real world contrast ratios of 1000:1 or so. That's why when you're watching a sunset, the sun doesn't blow out and become a big white spot in the middle of the field of view while the flower that's in shadow in front of you becomes completely black. This magic is accomplished by your eye, which moves continuously all the time, even when you think you're keeping it still. Your brain composites all those continuous inputs and gives you an illusion of a continuous whole. In addition, it automatically does white balancing for you, so even in the tungsten lamp of your house, white still looks white. All this was done because of evolutionary pressures, though some folks (mostly men) have deficient color sensors in their eyes (I'm red-green color blind myself).
Slide film, lacking the brain behind the eyes that is your window to the world, only has a dynamic range of 5:1 (5 stops --- hence your camera's exposure meter only covers about 5 stops or so). That's why there are many days in which you'll swear you pointed your camera at a scene with a blue sky but found that while your foreground is properly exposed, the sky was white! Or the sky was blue but your foreground was a silhouette. Professional photographers have many tricks with which to attack this problem, including fill-flash, and my favorite tool, the neutral density graduated filter. The late Galen Rowell once showed me a usable photograph using 2 ND grad. filters and fill-flash, demonstrating complete control over the medium.
Color negative film is a much more forgiving medium, with a dynamic range somewhere around 8:1 (i.e., you can be off by about 2 stops and still get a usable photo). However, prints generated from the color negative film have a much worse contrast ratio than even slide film, around 4:1. This is because light has to penetrate the upper layers of the print, bounce off the white paper at the bottom, and then enter the viewer's eyes, while a slide project passes through the film just once. So even though a color negative might have a lot of information stored in it, the printer has to perform a lot of interpretation in order to get that information down onto paper. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, since that also gives the printer a lot of leeway to cover issues with the exposure or emphasize something that wasn't the intention when the exposure was made. Most photographers don't get good enough at darkroom work to be able to make the interpretation themselves, so they have to work with a good lab or printer to make the right thing happen. It is this issue that caused many museum curators to consider only black and white film to be fine art, since black and white photographers (such as Ansel Adams) could and did make their own prints from negatives.
Enter digital. When I first signed up for the Mountain Light workshop with Galen Rowell, the way to get a photograph into digital form was mostly to use color slides or negatives (slides were preferred) scan them, and then manipulate them. If you had a lot of money, drum scans would generate a 75MB image from your Fuji Velvia slide and you could then play with it digitally before getting output from a $150,000 lightjet printer.
Today, we capture photographs directly from a digital camera. If the digital camera produces JPG files directly, that's like getting a slide out of it --- the amount of manipulation you can do is limited, and your exposure had better be perfect. Everything has to be done before you press the shutter release. That means all the old techniques have to be put into play --- fill-flash, ND grad. filters, the works.
Shooting RAW, however, is like getting color negatives --- you have lots of information stored from the camera sensor, and you can be as much as two stops off on your exposure and still be able to recover highlights or shadow details in Adobe Lightroom or other RAW processor. Obviously, it's still better to get the exposure right in the first place, but forgetting to check your camera settings before pushing the shutter release is no longer going to necessarily be a complete disaster (or even waste the 50 cents per slide). In fact, Lightroom even has a graduated filter among its tools, so you can apply a graduated filter after the fact (up to 4 stops). To me, that's just amazing. Obviously, for those 10:1 dynamic range photos, you still have to pull out your ND grad. filters, but that means you can shoot in more challenging situations, and your camera just became a heck of a lot more forgiving (unfortunately, it also makes it possible for you to be a lot more sloppy!).
With the advent of High Dynamic Range imaging, it's now even possible to compose shots and put them together in Photoshop in such a way that was impossible to do with mere filters before. The digital darkroom (for me anyway), is far less toxic than the chemical darkroom, and a lot more forgiving of mistakes as well --- screw ups no longer cost you in chemicals or hours of work when the undo button is available. Storage is cheap and getting cheaper, so backups are also easy to get.
All in all, I'm excited about the possibilities of digital photography --- it's taken a long time for the industry to come out with a digital camera that made me want to part with Fuji Velvia for serious landscape work, but now that I have one, there's clearly a lot of learning for me to do!
Let's go back to basics for a minute here. Let's start with what I consider the fundamental problem of photography. Our eyes and brains together create a dynamic visual imaging system that's capable of handling the real world contrast ratios of 1000:1 or so. That's why when you're watching a sunset, the sun doesn't blow out and become a big white spot in the middle of the field of view while the flower that's in shadow in front of you becomes completely black. This magic is accomplished by your eye, which moves continuously all the time, even when you think you're keeping it still. Your brain composites all those continuous inputs and gives you an illusion of a continuous whole. In addition, it automatically does white balancing for you, so even in the tungsten lamp of your house, white still looks white. All this was done because of evolutionary pressures, though some folks (mostly men) have deficient color sensors in their eyes (I'm red-green color blind myself).
Slide film, lacking the brain behind the eyes that is your window to the world, only has a dynamic range of 5:1 (5 stops --- hence your camera's exposure meter only covers about 5 stops or so). That's why there are many days in which you'll swear you pointed your camera at a scene with a blue sky but found that while your foreground is properly exposed, the sky was white! Or the sky was blue but your foreground was a silhouette. Professional photographers have many tricks with which to attack this problem, including fill-flash, and my favorite tool, the neutral density graduated filter. The late Galen Rowell once showed me a usable photograph using 2 ND grad. filters and fill-flash, demonstrating complete control over the medium.
Color negative film is a much more forgiving medium, with a dynamic range somewhere around 8:1 (i.e., you can be off by about 2 stops and still get a usable photo). However, prints generated from the color negative film have a much worse contrast ratio than even slide film, around 4:1. This is because light has to penetrate the upper layers of the print, bounce off the white paper at the bottom, and then enter the viewer's eyes, while a slide project passes through the film just once. So even though a color negative might have a lot of information stored in it, the printer has to perform a lot of interpretation in order to get that information down onto paper. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, since that also gives the printer a lot of leeway to cover issues with the exposure or emphasize something that wasn't the intention when the exposure was made. Most photographers don't get good enough at darkroom work to be able to make the interpretation themselves, so they have to work with a good lab or printer to make the right thing happen. It is this issue that caused many museum curators to consider only black and white film to be fine art, since black and white photographers (such as Ansel Adams) could and did make their own prints from negatives.
Enter digital. When I first signed up for the Mountain Light workshop with Galen Rowell, the way to get a photograph into digital form was mostly to use color slides or negatives (slides were preferred) scan them, and then manipulate them. If you had a lot of money, drum scans would generate a 75MB image from your Fuji Velvia slide and you could then play with it digitally before getting output from a $150,000 lightjet printer.
Today, we capture photographs directly from a digital camera. If the digital camera produces JPG files directly, that's like getting a slide out of it --- the amount of manipulation you can do is limited, and your exposure had better be perfect. Everything has to be done before you press the shutter release. That means all the old techniques have to be put into play --- fill-flash, ND grad. filters, the works.
Shooting RAW, however, is like getting color negatives --- you have lots of information stored from the camera sensor, and you can be as much as two stops off on your exposure and still be able to recover highlights or shadow details in Adobe Lightroom or other RAW processor. Obviously, it's still better to get the exposure right in the first place, but forgetting to check your camera settings before pushing the shutter release is no longer going to necessarily be a complete disaster (or even waste the 50 cents per slide). In fact, Lightroom even has a graduated filter among its tools, so you can apply a graduated filter after the fact (up to 4 stops). To me, that's just amazing. Obviously, for those 10:1 dynamic range photos, you still have to pull out your ND grad. filters, but that means you can shoot in more challenging situations, and your camera just became a heck of a lot more forgiving (unfortunately, it also makes it possible for you to be a lot more sloppy!).
With the advent of High Dynamic Range imaging, it's now even possible to compose shots and put them together in Photoshop in such a way that was impossible to do with mere filters before. The digital darkroom (for me anyway), is far less toxic than the chemical darkroom, and a lot more forgiving of mistakes as well --- screw ups no longer cost you in chemicals or hours of work when the undo button is available. Storage is cheap and getting cheaper, so backups are also easy to get.
All in all, I'm excited about the possibilities of digital photography --- it's taken a long time for the industry to come out with a digital camera that made me want to part with Fuji Velvia for serious landscape work, but now that I have one, there's clearly a lot of learning for me to do!
Black Mountain Hike
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| Black Mountain Hike |
The usual parking space was full up, so we went to the new alternate parking spot, which was quite a ways away since Los Altos had re-organized all the dirt parking since the last time I had started up Rhus Ridge. The weather was clear and gorgeous --- really pretty, but we made pretty slow time since I was lugging the 5D2 and was wearing hiking boots besides (to keep them broken in after last week's trip).
Up at the top, we could see all the way to San Francisco and the ocean. What a beautiful day!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
2009 Book Reviews Index
Note: The Books of the Year for 2009 have been picked.
- Thirteen
- Incandescence
- The Best of Michael Swanwick
- Stark's War, Stark's Command, and Stark's Crusade (3 reviews in 1)
- JAG in space (4 reviews in 1)
- Daemon
- The Talisman
- The Magic of Recluce
- The Towers of Sunset
- The Magic Engineer
- The Order War
- Fight Club
- Revelation Space
- Galactic North
- Chasm City
- Redemption Ark
- Absolution Gap
- The Steerswoman
- Soon I Will Be Invincible
- The Prefect
- Relentless
- The Steel Remains
- The Graveyard Book
- The Outskirter's Secret
- Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
- Zima Blue and Other Stories
- Century Rain
- Pushing Ice
- The Lost Steersman
- The Language of Power
- Wireless
- House of Suns
- Mercury Falls
- The Six Directions of Space
- Transition
- Passage At Arms
- Snake Agent
- Treason
- FDR
- The Promise of Sleep
- Almost Perfect
- My Life as a Quant
- The Science of Fear
- The Age of Entanglement
- After the Software Wars
- Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream
- Born to Run
- The Numerati
- More than you know
- The Luck Factor
- Enough
- Engineering Your Retirement
- Crazy for God
- Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide
- The Investor's Manifesto
- Stop Acting Rich
- Your Money & Your Brain
- How the Mighty Fall
- Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
- Better
- Stabilizing an Unstable Economy
Review: Thirteen
One always knows what to expect from a Richard Morgan novel: sex, violence, and super-soldiers. Thirteen (kindle edition) deviates slightly from this --- there's not a huge amount of sex, and the violence is interspersed with a lot of philosophy and ruminations of human history. I like it.
The theme here is human evolution, and genetic engineering. The world is ours, set in a near future in which the US has been split into Jesusland and annex portions of the Pacific Rim and Europe. Our anti-hero protagonist, Carl Marsalis, is a genetically engineered human, called thirteen, a genetic throwback to the days when human society wasn't as feminized. Such a soldier, of course, would be remorseless and single-minded, and almost completely impossible to control. When the authorities learn that a renegade thirteen has been released, they spring Marsalis out of his current predicament and set him to find the renegade.
The milieu is portrayed as dispassionately as only a foreigner can --- while Morgan's definitely done his research, he is definitely not attached to the idea that the US is anything special (at one point, there's a comparison between modern Turkey and the current USA, which wasn't a connection I would have made). Morgan uses this world as a vehicle to explore issues such as the role of masculinity in a world where it seems that the only thing left for men to do is to propagate violence.
The pacing of this book, however, isn't picture-perfect the way Morgan's previous novels are. The story drags in the first half, and towards the end, with all the violence piled in together, feels numbing to me. There are, however, several moving scenes all interspersed in between, which provide enough of a candy to keep me going.
All in all, a good start to the year, and recommended reading. Just make sure you read Altered Carbon first if you haven't read it yet, as that is still the best Richard Morgan book to start with.
The theme here is human evolution, and genetic engineering. The world is ours, set in a near future in which the US has been split into Jesusland and annex portions of the Pacific Rim and Europe. Our anti-hero protagonist, Carl Marsalis, is a genetically engineered human, called thirteen, a genetic throwback to the days when human society wasn't as feminized. Such a soldier, of course, would be remorseless and single-minded, and almost completely impossible to control. When the authorities learn that a renegade thirteen has been released, they spring Marsalis out of his current predicament and set him to find the renegade.
The milieu is portrayed as dispassionately as only a foreigner can --- while Morgan's definitely done his research, he is definitely not attached to the idea that the US is anything special (at one point, there's a comparison between modern Turkey and the current USA, which wasn't a connection I would have made). Morgan uses this world as a vehicle to explore issues such as the role of masculinity in a world where it seems that the only thing left for men to do is to propagate violence.
The pacing of this book, however, isn't picture-perfect the way Morgan's previous novels are. The story drags in the first half, and towards the end, with all the violence piled in together, feels numbing to me. There are, however, several moving scenes all interspersed in between, which provide enough of a candy to keep me going.
All in all, a good start to the year, and recommended reading. Just make sure you read Altered Carbon first if you haven't read it yet, as that is still the best Richard Morgan book to start with.
Arastedero Loop
It was a gorgeous day for a ride, so we went for a medium-length ride in the area, with the sun out, lots and lots of cyclists were found riding around, and we spotted no less than two tandems. Lunch was in downtown Los Altos, where there was no sign of a recession --- parking lots were full, and the restaurant lines were long.
All through the ride, Miyuki Nakajima's 永遠の嘘をついてくれkept repeating in my head. If they ever make a version of Rock Band with all her songs I'll have to buy it and see if familiarity with the song makes the game any easier.
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