Music for working on a thursday night

A big music post today of the playlists I've listened to in the order I played them. It's actually a really nice arc

Garbage- when I grow up

Len- Steal my Sunshine

Madonna - Beautiful Stranger

Cardigans- Lovefool

Garbage- Cherry lips

Sprung Monkey- get em outta here

Citizen King- Better days

New Radicals-You get What you Give

Smash Mouth- Allstar

Adam Ant- Wonderful

BNL- One Week

Proclaimers- 500 Miles

REM-Stand

Chris LeDoux- Life is  Highway

-

Republica-Ready to Go

Imperial Tean- Yoo Hoo

Blur- Song 2

Smash Mouth- Walkin on the Sun

Lenny Kravitz- Fly Away

Better than Ezra- Good

U2- Desire

Cowboy Mouth- Jenny Says

Spin Doctors- Little Miss Can't be Wrong

Eve6- Inside Out

Dave Mathews- What would you say

Fountains of Wayne- Radiation Vibe

Elvis Costello- Pump it up

Meat Puppets- Backwater

-

Franz Ferdinand- Take Me Out 

Killers- Somebody Told Me

Jet- Rollover DJ 

The Hives-  A get together to tear it apart

The White Stripes- Fell in Love with a Girl 

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Date with the Night

Jet- Are you gonna be my girl

The Strokes- The Modern Age

The Kinks- You Really Got Me

The Ramones- Blitzkrieg Bop

The Clash- London Calling

The Sex Pistols- Anarchy in the UK

New York Dolls- Trash

-

WiseGuys- Start the Commotion

Fatboy slim- gangsta trippin

Elvis vs JXL- a little less conversation

Fatboy Slim vs Cornershop- Brim Full of Asha

Organic Audio -this could really happen

Propellerheads- Velvet Pants

Dirty Vegas- Days Go by

Chemical Hank- Alex Cortiz

Fatboy Slim- Weapon of choice

Chemical Brothers-Block Rockin Beats

Propellerheads- Take California

Crystal Method- Get Busy Child

Moby- Bodyrock

Basement Jaxx- Red Alert

Fatboy Slim- Satisfaction Skank

Propellerheads- Crash (full)

Penny Arcade-ipods

Penny Arcade :)

4th night out in Rome

So today we decided to take the evening out in Rome after work and it was a brilliant idea. We had 2 glasses of wine at an enoteca in trastevere( think library equivalent only with wine instead of books), gelato , and a few drinks at a bar with live jazz. The bar had unbvelievable prices, for 6.50 euros each glass I had a talisker, a lagavulin 16, and an oban. Oddly enough at the same bar a pour of JD was the same price. That's right for the price of a jack and coke, you could get a fairly stiff pour of an excellent single malt. Bless those lacking in taste, for their ignorance funds my endeavors into inebriation. Of course after comming back I spent a solid couple hours working, but the break was great.

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow:

This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow: September 26, 2004 - October 02, 2004 Archives So more than a little over the top, but point well made (CoDvG)

Crazy connectivity

So while I was working on the project this morning I got to thinking about how ridiculously connected things are now. Over the course of this trip I have moved data on an off my machine through the following methods: Wired LAN(no big surprise here), WI-FI to access point, direct ethernet connection to another computer (without a crossover cable, thanks to my sweet ibm laptop), bluetooth to gprs phone, bluetooth to another computer, IR to another computer, memory stick to anohter computer, dialup (to access vpn from customer site). Also used bluetooth, or direct ethernet connection to another computer to share internet access through wifi, bluetooth to gprs phone, UMTS card (this 3g stuff is amazingly fast), and dialup(one jack we both needed vpn access). This technology stuff is getting out of hand, we've probably swapped about a gig of stuff back and forth, and the previous list only covers the hardware and transports, it doesn't even begin to cover the types of protocols we've used (everything from ftp, to JMS, to direct sockets). Just about the only thing we haven't used is serial. The thng that amazes me is that people have been able to function without this stuff for so long. So many last minute patches or file syncs, or crucial emails have been possible because of all of this. What did people do 10 years ago if they needed a driver update, if the were missing documentation for an API, or just if they needed to email a stack trace to someone for help? It just boggles my mind, and leads me to believe I would have a hard time working in another industry, I dig this stuff. I dig this stuff a lot. If you guys have any interesting stories of connection derring do or clever uses of technology I'd love to see something in the comments.

Rome, halfway done

So I'm at just about the halfway point for my rome trip and I've gotten pretty settled. Thanks to my mom I have some locals to hang out with, and I've started making plans during the week night for dinner so I don't go nuts. Things are moving a long smoothly and my plans for eventual settlement in Rome are fleshed out a little more. I think I will try and open my tapas bar in Trastevere, and also get an apartment over there. Aside from crawling with Americans, Trastevere is a great area to hang out in. It's got a really nice vibe and lots of young people. If I end up being able to live out here for any length of time, this is where I'd try to get a place. The comedy of the haircut has worn of and I have leveled it out a bit with a pair of scissors, not much, just enough that I could go into work today and not feel ridiculous. For those of you that hate mondays I have a little bit of a humor link ( keep the sound on but turned down a little, audio NSFW).

side note>> Today I just remembered that the charger to my ipod has the standard 2 prong input found on many laptop powersupplies. Once again apple, you've made my life better. My international adapter for my laptop slides right into the plug on apple's ac adapter for worry free charging. Damn those guys in cupertino are smart.

Bad haircut

So today I did something risky, I got a haircut in a country where I don't speak the language. I had the hotel book me an appointment( aparantly this reduced the charge by 60 euros to a measly 19 euros for the head stylist), and I intrepidly jumped in a cab to see what the damage could be. When I got there, to my relief, there was a (very attractive)british shampoo girl who says she will give my request to the stylist. What I did not even consider at this point was that her italian might be as bad as mine is. Instead of my hair being a little longer in the front, it's a little longer in the middle. That's right boys and girls, Harsh is now sporting the silliest of haircuts since the mullet, the faux-hawk. This is not a full fledged faux hawk either, this is sort of a toned-down-for-the-office version that would inspire disdain from any buddy holly bespectacled barrista even in Palo Alto.

haircut angle 3

moblog

haircut angle 2

All work and no play...

Yes once again it's an all nighter. bit of a time crunch for tomorrow, but I've got a good solid 8 hours so I thought I'd give myself a ten minute bresaola and bloggin break(anyone appreciate accidental alliteration?) for sanity. For a latenight room service snack, the food's damn good: tasty bresaola topped with excellent parmigiano on a bed of arugula (rucola, or rocket depending on your preference).

tangent>> Is it just me or has arugula once again become popular since it was rebranded to the french "rocket" , it seems we've also made the fish loop(salmon, swordfish/shark, seared ahi, chilean seabass, loup du mer {often semi-correctly applied to seabass}) all the way back to wild salmon. My prediction is that radicchio and shitake mushrooms will make a come back, cilantro's got way too much mainstream penetration to rejoin the ranks. I also feel that italian parsley and purple basil have potential but don't quote me on this. I've been gunning for safron and lemon grass, with a return to accepting coconut and palm oils lemon grass has a definite shot, but only time will tell cause the restaurant mafia is a tough nut to crack.

Given all the time I spent on this rant, and my 3AM dinner, I should probably get back to work, but all I can think about is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Afterall:
my bed is comfy, soft and deep,
but I've got deadlines to keep.
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.

This Morning

I awoke looking forward to a hard day full of work this late september morning, we're under the gun and there's tons of pressure, once again I won't make it downtown. I put on the TV as I got ready and heard kelis-trick me, luca diriso- calma e sangue freddo, and the black eyed peas- let's get it started; MTV here has maybe a total of 20 songs, and most times they play about 5 of them. The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day, probably about 24 degrees outside. I have a routine now, the week could take place anywhere at this point as I basically hit the hotel, the office, and sometimes a local restaurant. But then again, on the weekends I am in Rome. At some point I will move here and live in Trastevere, I'll get every where on a scooter, and it'll be paradise. If it's at the right point in my life ($) I'll open a fusion tapas bar and introduce more Romans to sushi and other worldly delights(my big plan is to have chefs come in like big name DJs for one night: imagine Nozawa on a 3 dish rotation. You pay your 30 euro cover, you get what he gives you, and a week later you argue who's set was better, his or Matsuhisa's).

del.icio.us

del.icio.us "Social Bookmarks" another CoDvG

Hey floridians, want to avoid more harsh-karma?

GODvsBUSH.gif The powers that be deal out justice with the tip of the boot to those counties that voted for bush in 2k. This is really a scary coincidence, but I haven't verfied the paths myself so it could be nicely put together bunk. Another one courtesey of Dougy via my aunt Geeta(referred to as CoDvG from here on out in the blog)

Creepiest blog ever

I Found Some Of Your Life: September 2004 This blog is unbelievable, a guy found a memory card in a taxi and he is posting one pic a day and making up a story to go along with the pictures pretending to be the original owner of the camera. This thing is hilarious (somewhat unethical, but worth it)


NOOOO It's been taken down :(

La Notte Bianca

La Notte Bianca (the white night) is when the streets of Rome are filled with live music, poetry readings, street performers, pannino stands, and the wine flows like water. All of the museums and many shops are open all night and the streets are packed with tens of thousands of people. My consumption of the evening consisted of too much wine, too much beer, and too many pannini with fillings ranging from porchetta (the real deal), to grilled sausage, to eggplant. Suffice to say by the end of the evening my wallet was empty and my stomach full. I basically walked the streets listening to music and eating food. Feeling social I started talking to people and I ended up spending most of the evening with a group of dutch tourists, one of whom was wearing a cal sweatshirt (GO BEARS!). By the time I met up with them their english was as good as mine. We walked through the city with me acting as their guide. Hilarity ensued since I don't speak italian, and I don't know the city, but I led us to where we needed to go with much gesticulation, a few words in italian and a lot of angelino spanglish. All in all the night was a total success except that I forgot to take enough pictures. But I did come away from the evening with a fantastic shot of the colloseo worth looking for in the web album.
One random thing I noticed was that there must have been thousands of women in spike heels walking quickly over irregular cobblestones drunk out of their minds, but I only saw a few stumble, and none (that I saw) fell. By all indicators, the streets should have been littered with beautifull well dressed women with broken and sprained ankles, but I guess Italian women're hardcore. These Romans in general take their fashion seriously, regardless of age everyone seemed to be dressed stylishly, this doesn't imply universal taste or judgement, just the effort involved; of course I'm used to palo alto where the uniform is khakis, a company polo shirt, and the badge still on.

Friday Lunch Series

Friday Lunch Series A brilliant blog from a friend who understands the power and beauty of pork slow cooked in tomatillos y chiles (verdes).

Old News- U- Lock hacked by a Bic pen

Kryptonite Evolution 2000 U- Lock hacked by a Bic pen - Misc. Gadgets - gadgets.engadget.com So this has been out in the blogsphere for a few days now, but it's also made it into the mainstream press. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot you can do about this one except get an older u-lock ( harder to pick), or to get a lock without a cylindrical lock system. I think at this point it's safe to say that there's gonna be a lot of bay area redistribution of bikes. Interestingly enough this hack has been around for a long time, it just got out into the blogsphere recently, and there are plenty of theives who surf the internet.

Best motto ever

So I was talking to my longtime compadre brian and he told me of his friend's motto. This may be one of the most brilliant things ever put into print and i thought i'd share it with all of you:

"Be polite, be courteous, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet."
2nd Lt Kenneth H. Javes, USMC.

I like the way this guy thinks

Position Offered: Pirate

Position Offered: Pirate It may be time to rise from the shackes of my corporate position and become a pirate. Signs are all around me, between Sunday being national talk like a pirate day and this craigslist posting, it's clear that forces are inexorably drawing me towards a life of crime on the high seas ala The Crimson Permanent Assurance in monty python's holy grail. Arrrrr! Avast, and prepare to be boarded!

horkulated - Proposed Bush Cheney 2004 Bumper Stickers

horkulated - Proposed Bush Cheney 2004 Bumper Stickers Support Kerry, and put something funny on someone's car. The best thing to do would be to find someone with a legitimate sticker and cover it in a guerilla style.

That's right simpsons lovers, it's the map of Springfield

Map of springfield, someone with too much time decided to watch a lot of Simpsons and piece together a map of springfield fron clues on the show. I haven't cross checked it for validity, but either way it's cool

Time wasting on a wed night/afternoon

Noteboard This is a pretty sweet collaborative time-wasting app, worth taking a look at. It's under BSD so use it, and spread it. BTW if you post please keep it reasonable. Here's a link from a rediscovered acquaintance's friendster posting 20 questions, you think of the item, it asks. Would that it were in wap

Things to Say When You're Losing a Technical Argument (Software design decisions)

Pigdog Journal (Mr. Bad's List) -- Things to Say When You're Losing a Technical Argument Another great link from my aunt, I think a few of these have been used on me in hte past.

Random wisdom from bash.org

1f j00 (4n 1234d 7|-|15, j00 n33d 70 937 |41d

HOW-TO stolen from Engadget - www.engadget.com

HOW-TO: Enable web based viewing and remote control over your TiVo - Engadget - www.engadget.com Every once in a while I realize I'm not hardcore enough about my gadgets, I gotta start mucking around with this kind of stuff more, remote tivo access is sweet!.

Rome Web Album

The album  from my big day out. Today I got out to see the city, and Rome has rapidly climbed the list of my favorite cities in the world. It's got fantastic weather, reasonable food prices, great people, and unbelievable scenery all around ( see pictures), some day I may try to learn italian and move here. Today I walked around downtown and waded my way through all the tourists. Apparantly on weekends with weather this fantastic romans tend to flee the city to beaches, so there was a really bad local to tourist ratio today. I started my day in the city at about 1pm with a large prosciutto e mozzarella pannino and a glass of wine, the bill was only 5 euros, that's 6 bucks for a big sandwich and a glass of wine, is this paradise? I walked around alone for a couple hours and took some pictures of a couple key spots (see album), and then met up with a friend of my mom's in the evening. We did more of the touristy thing, ate gelato, and grabbed a delicious dinner. Now I love LA, it's by far my favorite city in the states, but LA ain't got nothing on rome. This place has unbelievable history and culture, beautifull people, fantastic weather, great food, and it's even got palm trees. I think I'm home.

The X-Windows Disaster

The X-Windows Disaster a great little historical article about why X blows.

Drinks to annoy your date with

The Exorcist brilliant comic drink, worth checking out. My personal favorite drink to annoy a date with is the "Blood of the proletariat" (I invented this drink on a date with a girl who had clear socialist leanings). It's just a cocktail glass full of vodka that you carefully pour cassis into. The cassis, being denser and more viscous, stays mostly at the bottom and slowly diffuses into the drink, looking like blood in water. The punchline comes when the date asks you about the name, you replay and say "it's just like exploiting the working masses," "it gets sweeter as you go." If any of you have some good comical drinks to annoy your date with please post them

Rome (extended remix)

So I still haven't gotten out to see any of the city yet, but it seems like that's gonna be okay since they've got me staying out here till the 3rd week of october. That's a long time to be away (6 weeks total) espescially since I still haven't completely moved into my new Foster City apt yet. But hey, it's Rome, I'll think I'll deal. When I gt back I will throw quite the housewarming party

Roman Work-iday

Spent my first day in Rome yesterday. The Holiday Inn was crap, so I have since shifted to the sheraton, a nicer cheaper(thanks to my new gold status) hotel where I earn rewards points. I haven't gotten to see any of rome except for the two hotels, the airport, the customer site, and the TIBCO office. Our office here is spectacular. We are in a real Roman Villa complete with the cyprus lined garden, courtyards, and fountains (pictures to follow). Apparantly the family that owns the villa stilll lives somewhere on the massive grounds, but they rent out some of the buildings to a couple companies. Afterall, if you have to go into the office everyday, you might as well do it in style. When I get out this weekend I'll have more interesting stuff to post, now it's back to the grindstone

InfoPr0n

Great graphical view of buzzwords and the frequency of their use at the DNC and RNC. It's been a while since I've had an infoporn posting, so if you guys find any out there, post a comment so I can link to em.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Dive! Dive! Dive! Yes, another key link from my aunt. This is a listing of a bunch of valley ( silicon, not the silicone SFV) dives for lunch. It has a very San Jo focus, but it lists a few good ones around the rest of the valley as well. Definitely worth taking a look if you want some cheap eats.

Romeward Bound

Once again I am traveling to lands afar for work. This time they're sending me to Rome which is going to be sweet. I've never been before and I'm looking forward to getting out a little and seeing the sites. I'm bringing a hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals and black socks, I make a badass tourist. I'll use the blog as a travel journal like I did in Melbourne.