Friday, July 30, 2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Two Seconds

.... know when you click on a button or a link on a webpage only to have it seemingly take an eon and a half to load? I've heard that the individual lags collectively swipe years off from your productive life. It's the blank screen that flashes in the interim that is the most annoying aspect of the wait. It's a good practice to blink your eyes on the up-stroke of your finger on the mouse after having clicked on a link to shield your sanity from the disorienting blast of the blank screen, the shutter on a camera in reverse might describe the motion, most obviously the objective being to synchronize the opening of your eyes with the new page fully loaded on your monitor screen, on the average, it takes a full two-seconds counting silently for the next page to debut, two seconds that you'll never get back, nonetheless, at least by this method,



I guess the problem should be identified as the transition from the present page on the monitor screen to a new page due to some sort of defective gene in the Internet protocol's DNA embedded by the same forces that make you wait in the shower for the water to get hot. That is to say, that uncouth page-to-page transitions only aggravates the unavoidable Internet delay. This isn't the same situation clicking on different pages on the same website because generally all the sub pages on a given website are fully loaded and transitions are instantaneous. Ditto with switching between different tabs on a browser. Again, this observation du jour is directed at the two seconds of blankness that occurs while switching between entirely different websites. Perhaps if you squint enough you can watch the photons decaying. Moving on, the "old page" should more properly remain on the screen until the "new page" is fully loaded because for the time being you won't be seeing anything new anyways.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Racing Today Under the Banner of the Prancing Horse

I was watching the Formula-1 race at Hockenheim, Germany, on tv this morning. I haven't watched F-1 regularly almost since back when F-1 races were only telecast on cable tv around 2am in the morning. Nowadays, the races are on network tv. Every Sunday or every other Sunday on Fox. Every other Sunday because F-1 has an international venue. Every race is in a different country. Then moving on to a different continent. The drivers and crew need the two weeks to acclimate themselves to the new race tracks and the region's food.

During today's race, Ferrari was leading one-two when team orders directed the leading Ferrari driver to relinquish his position to his Ferrari team mate behind him by letting the trailing driver pass him on the race track. As you probably would have guessed, this did not sit well with the lead driver, at all. After a lap or two, the Ferrari pit again radioed their reluctant driver, "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?" At this point, the lead driver, Massa, was at peril of insubordination if he did not take the hint and comply. So Massa let's his anointed team mate Fernando Alonso through. However, Massa did not simply move aside gracefully, instead, he feigned a driving error that no driver with F-1 stature would have made at that point in the race track as to set the record straight that he had not been outmaneuvered.

Fernando Alonso, the trailing driver, is a two-time F-1 world champion and was ahead in points than Massa for the individual driver's championship although not leading other F-1 drivers overall in that department. Little that mattered to Massa, the subject of the highway robbery in broad daylight. The Hockenheim race track in Germany is narrow by F-1 standards making it more difficult to safely execute a pass at 180-mph. And perhaps, Ferrari was simply trying to avoid repeating what happened to the Red Bull team earlier this season in the Turkey Grand Prix with Red Bull leading one-two when the trailing Red Bull driver attempted a pass only to crash into his team mate and deny Red Bull any team (constructor's) points in the final tally.

What makes F-1 viewer-friendly is the on-board cameras and occasionally the broadcast booth is even allowed to tap into the chatter between the pit boss and their drivers as it was so during this racing controversy on Lap 49 of 67. The tv announcers were starting to irritate me by condescending with the Ferrari orders on the basis that the fortunes of the racing team takes priority over the personal gains of individual drivers. How that particular rationale applies to this situation remains a mystery if for no other reason than when you're leading one-two, it doesn't matter which driver is ahead of whom, because the team still gets the same number of constructor's points irregardless of the order of finish. Hypothetically if two team mates were jockeying for position amidst heavy traffic further back in the pack I would understand the safety issue. However, in a one-two lead situation, the lead driver is being ordered to relinquish a win which he has an equal right to.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Hydroelectric Power

Tom Broadbent (industrial design graduate, Leicester De Montfort University, UK) has designed an electrical generator powered by falling water in the plumbing of high-rises. No shitting. Seriously. Broadbent explains: “.... the water goes down the pipe and hits four turbine blades [da sheet hits the fan] that drive one generator.”

via inhabitat

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tuesday's I Never Realized ....

Back at 11:40pm after taking a ride around town on my bike. The reason that I've not been mentioning about my bike is that I found myself a few months ago, or came to the realization, that I happened to be thinking of what to blog about while riding. Very unsafe. Only 10 percent of a bike ride is enjoyment, the other 90 percent is directed at keeping the focus. That's because any lapse in concentration may lead to dire consequences whether your thoughts have momentarily revolved around family matters or something intriguing or funny that you saw on tv the night before.


know something that I realized that I didn't realize until now. Walmart doesn't run advertisements in the local newspapers. I'm not sure if Walmart even bothers to stack flyers for weekly sales at the store front entrance. (more later, if I realize other things that I never realized)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Ala Wai Street Sweeping Days


Mondays and Friday mornings are street cleaning days on the Ala Wai. As you can see for yourself there's no cars parked in the tow away zone, or those that were, had been towed away already.


Then I saw these two rental mopeds. The mopeds weren't towed so I presumed that they got a pass while the street cleaning zamboni machine detoured around them. Ignorance is bliss? Well not quite so. As it turns out, the couple who rented the mopeds just moved into my apartment building. They were in the basement garage later in the day on their mopeds, and I asked them if it was their mopeds parked across the street this morning because it looked like the same mopeds. They said it was. I was telling them how fortunate they were not to have their mopeds towed. But then they mentioned they had gotten a double ticket.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

the 10 o'clock local news said that today's earthquake happened 15-miles offshore from Waikiki. That's getting too close for comfort. I'm only guessing, but probably the majority of Honolulu buildings aren't built earthquake proof. What I'm not guessing is that our minds aren't earthquake proof.


okay, it seemed to have fixed itself.


why are all the words on my site in bold now? It might go away by itself because I have no idea whatsoever of how to unbold it.

wow, did you just feel that earthquake tremor, too?? 3:28 pm.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

That Kind of a Weather

Steve Jobs was explaining on tv why the reception glitch on the new iPhone-4 isn't such a big deal. The glitch itself stems from the the design of the antenna, itself, on the iPhone-4 which is a metal band around the edges of the iPhone-4. Unfortunately nobody told Apple's design department that people actually hold a cellphone by the edges. Brilliant-simo. Just made up that word because that's what people who blog do when they can't seem to find the proper word to apply to a given situation while still reserving the right to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Or as Steve Jobs put it, "I'm not perfect." That explains why the iPhone-4's glitch isn't such a big deal. Imperfect people do not design perfect products. However when Steve Jobs announces publicly that he is not perfect, it's not an admission on the level of Chef Boyardee admitting that they do not fill their cans with perfect noodles. Rather, Jobs' kernel of wisdom assures iPhone 4-ners that the iPhone-4 is the still the next best thing to perfection in an imperfect world that most iPhone 4-ers are inhabitants of. It is a personal transporter .... *my stream of thought just disappeared into thin air. Night.

Friday, July 16, 2010

UH Regents approve $50 per Student per Semester Athletic Fee

I've been following the debate on the new $50 per semester athletic program fee just imposed on the students at the University of Hawaii over on the local newspaper forum. Here's two of the arguments in favor of the new $50 fee followed by the counter-arguments. (*Paraphrased)


"UH students who are so disgruntled with the new athletic fee should transfer to an out-of-state university that doesn't have an athletic fee. Most universities already impose an athletic fee in addition to tuition and have been doing so for years already."

"If the regents are so dissatisfied with the university not having a compulsory athletic fee, then they, the regents, should instead transfer to an out-of-state university that already has a student athletic fee."



"Wake up already, the cost of operating UH is not covered by tuition alone, but is subsidized by the taxpayer big time. In that light, asking university students to subsidize their own UH athletic program with a measly $50 per semester athletic fee is not such a big deal as students against the fee make it out to be."

"True, UH is not self-supporting through tuition alone, and indeed heavily dependent on state taxes. However, students actually are "taxpayers" who already do their part in subsidizing the cost of operating the university when they pay sales taxes to the state when they buy groceries, as well as, state income taxes deducted from paychecks for students who work a job after school."


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

Today's Tidbits


this mobile redemption truck was at the Times Super Market parking lot. I guess they have a set schedule where and when they're be on such and such a day of the week. They ought to station themselves at a park during a holiday. Picnic-ers would even bring them a plate lunch.


only a single Koa wood canoe plies the waters of the Ala Wai canal. The rest are all of fiberglass hulls.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Sunday at the Market

I finally realized that I've been buying rice in 15-lbs bags. I thought they were 20-lbs bags. At any rate, remember what seemed like only a few years ago, rice prices started escalating through the roof, so they soon stopped selling 25-lbs bags of rice, and downsized the bags to 20-lbs sizes to spare consumers the sticker shock of what is as much our island's staple as it's counterpart of spaghetti or potatoes or bread or pop corn in other regions of the US where starch is part of a meal. Well, now the 20-lbs bag of rice have gone the way of it's predecessor, the 25-lbs bag of rice, and in place of the 20-lbs bags, we now have a 15-lbs bag. I didn't realize that until today. Yeah, I know.







.... this ought to make people on the mainland grin, or laugh. An entire pound of fresh strawberries advertised on sale for $2.50.



Friday, July 9, 2010

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Friday, July 2, 2010

My Sister's Cat Died

pound-for-pound the best cat ever, all 28-lbs. of him. Jonathon Dangerous. 11-years old. Never went outside the house, until now.