I have just read some of the postings made by Emily on http://emintheusa.blogspot.com/ , and espeically about her bureaucratic fights in California. By the way, I recommend that my readers check Emily's accounts of living in the USA. They're very interesting and readable.
Anyway, it reminded me of the bureaucratic fight I've just been having trying to register and pay for a conference in June this year. The three-fold problem is that (a) the conference is in Korea, (b) the organisation running the meeting seems to be based in the USA, (c) and there are two complex alternative payment methods. This makes getting answers to questions a little difficult, and I certainly have a few beefs about the payment system.
Let me explain further. The first payment method wanted me to use Visa of Mastercard via a Korean site. Well, I have a Visa card, so entered the procedure confidently. And, encouragingly, the site had a fair amount of English, but the final act, after entering all my details, required me to click one of two buttons. Alas, the two buttons had Korean script which I do not understand. Even if I could read the script, I don't know the language! So, that proved abortive and I had to cancel out of the process despite the site telling me not to. I suppose there's a risk that I did pay and I'm trying to track that down via my first bank's e-banking web-sie.
Anyway, I assumed that I did not pay and tried the second advertised method - inter-bank transfer. Armed with a document full of account numbers and business addresses I spent half an hour at my second bank's premises in Armidale. I went to this bank because I knew from previous occasions that its transfer fees were cheaper than bank number one. According to them, some of the required information was not there, but they tried anyway and I'll know on Monday - two days from now - whether this approach was successful. What a mess!
On the plus side, I successfully paid for my conference in Galway and then contacted the organisers of the Winnipeg meeting asking how I should pay them. Their response was gratifying and unexpected - there is no registration fee! Wow, this is the equivalent of a free lunch.
AS
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Large Bright Moon
I quote from a web-site I have just visited:
"On the morning of March 19th, the Moon will be at perigee at 19:10UT (09:10HST), while Full Moon occurs at 18:11UT (08:11HST), about an hour apart. Thus viewers during the night will see the full Moon as about 14% larger than it would appear when the Moon is at apogee. This particular perigee will be a bit closer than average, with the Moon closing to 356,577km." See: http://darkerview.com/darkview/index.php?/archives/1848-Big-Bright-Moon-Reminder.html
Now I take this to be a US site and we were told in Australia that the full moon and the perigee would be on March 20th, so last night I went outside at photographed the moon with my rather clunky digital camera. I haven't worked out yet how much past or before the events described above my picture was taken, but it wouldn't be far off the mark. So you're looking at a rather large bright moon. It was very impressive, but the brightness made it impossible to see any surface detail with the naked eye.
The moon won’t come this close again until November 14, 2016. Put a note in your diaries about that.
AS
"On the morning of March 19th, the Moon will be at perigee at 19:10UT (09:10HST), while Full Moon occurs at 18:11UT (08:11HST), about an hour apart. Thus viewers during the night will see the full Moon as about 14% larger than it would appear when the Moon is at apogee. This particular perigee will be a bit closer than average, with the Moon closing to 356,577km." See: http://darkerview.com/darkview/index.php?/archives/1848-Big-Bright-Moon-Reminder.html
Now I take this to be a US site and we were told in Australia that the full moon and the perigee would be on March 20th, so last night I went outside at photographed the moon with my rather clunky digital camera. I haven't worked out yet how much past or before the events described above my picture was taken, but it wouldn't be far off the mark. So you're looking at a rather large bright moon. It was very impressive, but the brightness made it impossible to see any surface detail with the naked eye.
The moon won’t come this close again until November 14, 2016. Put a note in your diaries about that.
AS
Monday, 7 March 2011
R-Evolution
This will be my final post from this trip to the US, and it may be the most exciting for me. We took a trip to a very special museum today - one called R-Evolution, which records the first 2000 years of computing. It's located not far from the centre of Mountain View in the centre of Silicon Valley, and is truly excellent with lots of videos to watch, A-V explanation of mathematics and computing, and plenty of hands-on opportunities. For example, Emily and I played PONG, a game bearing the same name as the child in her womb! This is, of course, a nickname.
It took us 4 hours to go around the extensive exhibits and staff were at hand to explain things. Being Silicon Valley, the museum was also crowded. Exhibits included the Antikythera, a 2000 year old astronomical device designed by the Greeks to forecast eclipses and the dates of Olympic games. It could do the former accurately for 250 centuries ahead, no mean feat.
Then came some other extraordinary feats like Napier's bones and Babbage's computer, dating from 17th and 19th centuries respectively. Indeed, much of the early part of the exhibition recorded the slow 20th century evolution of computer hardware ... all the way up to the famous Cray of the 1970s, then the world's most powerful machine.
Thereafter, the exhibits covered every aspect of computing: the evolution of hard-drives, chip design, mother-boards, programming languages, devices like a kitchen computer for giving cooking instructions, robotics, the development of desk-tops, laptops, and net-books - all of which begin to converge with the mobile phone, use of computers for creative art and music, and the emergence of the Internet.
For me, the exhibits were a trip down memory lane. I programmed an English Electric KDF9 in the 1960s using the Algol language punched into paper tape. In retrospect, I deserve some sort of medal for getting the Double Poisson and Negative Binomial probability distributions up and running on what are now viewed as crude machines. It took an eternity with only one run a day, not real-time development as now. It also reminded me that I took part in the early stages of modern computing - in a user sense. I saw one of the first demonstrations of the Internet back in the 1980s, long before most people had heard of the idea.
I strongly urge my readers to give this museum a visit when you're next out this way and come to terms with the greatest drive of modernity. It truly documents a R-Evolution.
AS
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Around the Alamo
No, this not the famous battle in Texas. This report concerns the Alamo Park in San Francisco.
The city is high density by US standards and perhaps more dense than most Australian cities. And much of it dates from after 1906 when the great earthquake struck at about 8.0 on the Richter scale. It was rebuilt in a kind of 'Victorian' style and buildings of the period certainly have a lot of the ornamentation associated with the age.
Most of the older buildings are in good shape, but those around the Alamo are spectacular and we decided to top off our visit to SF with a trip to see them. Well, the park is a great facility, but many of the surrounding buildings are beautiful, as the pictures show. Of course, there weren't too many vehicles on the roads in 1906 and the lack of parking space makes the streets around very congested. Emily performed one rotation of the park before she found a small, but just usable, parking spot. The attached photos show what we saw nearby.
The city is high density by US standards and perhaps more dense than most Australian cities. And much of it dates from after 1906 when the great earthquake struck at about 8.0 on the Richter scale. It was rebuilt in a kind of 'Victorian' style and buildings of the period certainly have a lot of the ornamentation associated with the age.
Most of the older buildings are in good shape, but those around the Alamo are spectacular and we decided to top off our visit to SF with a trip to see them. Well, the park is a great facility, but many of the surrounding buildings are beautiful, as the pictures show. Of course, there weren't too many vehicles on the roads in 1906 and the lack of parking space makes the streets around very congested. Emily performed one rotation of the park before she found a small, but just usable, parking spot. The attached photos show what we saw nearby.
The final picture is from a later era and large apartment block looks possibly Art Deco (coming to the fore in the late 1920s). This view from the summit of the park shows how many good views SF's hilly sites offer visitors.
AS
Twin Peaks
En route to Haight-Ashbury, we made a detour via Twin Peaks to see the best views across San Francisco. This message simply shows the outstanding views to be had up there. The first photo shows the city centre, and the second shows the view north to the Golden Gate bridge, whose dimensions look foreshortened. Next comes the view east across the bay to Oakland on the far shore. The fourth shot takes, I think, Nob Hill in the middle distance, and certainly Alcatraz - the prison island out in the bay. The final offering is the view west to Ocean Beach and the Pacific Ocean. You can see the latter, but not the former.
It was nice weather in the morning when these pictures were taken, but it began to cloud over when we decended on Haight-Ashbury. I was wearing my usual gear of shorts and T-shirt, which made this turn of events unwelcome.
AS
It was nice weather in the morning when these pictures were taken, but it began to cloud over when we decended on Haight-Ashbury. I was wearing my usual gear of shorts and T-shirt, which made this turn of events unwelcome.
AS
Haight-Ashbury
Some of our generation may remember the events of 1968 - the student riots across Europe and the flower-power, peace-not-war, movement sprouting - excuse the pun - in San Francisco. The latter was centred around Haight-Ashbury and I persuaded Emily and Greg to head there today so that I could buy a psychedelic T-shirt, some beads and John Lennon type glasses. That was the theory, but practice turned out a little different.
We had no trouble funding the district and ambling along Haight, the main drag - excuse another pun. After a very nice lunch in a Puerto-Rican cafe - another first for me, we looked out for the above-mentioned items of attire. It soon became clear that Haight is somewhat the worse for wear. Well, I suppose that 43 years is a long time and hippiedom is in retreat. Some buildings were gloriously decorated and maintained as the pictures show, but the merchandise was either touristy and living on past glories, or recycled. Some of the latter was stylish, but not in my exalted league. Nor was I particularly interested, Dot will be glad to hear, in a tattoo or bongs! I ended up with yet another T-shirt, but a stylish one in modernist style and something of a work of art.
I'll certainly go back one day soon because we didn't manage to cover the whole district. Maybe I'll have Dot in tow next time to relive the late 1960s. Now have a look at the street-scape.
AS
We had no trouble funding the district and ambling along Haight, the main drag - excuse another pun. After a very nice lunch in a Puerto-Rican cafe - another first for me, we looked out for the above-mentioned items of attire. It soon became clear that Haight is somewhat the worse for wear. Well, I suppose that 43 years is a long time and hippiedom is in retreat. Some buildings were gloriously decorated and maintained as the pictures show, but the merchandise was either touristy and living on past glories, or recycled. Some of the latter was stylish, but not in my exalted league. Nor was I particularly interested, Dot will be glad to hear, in a tattoo or bongs! I ended up with yet another T-shirt, but a stylish one in modernist style and something of a work of art.
I'll certainly go back one day soon because we didn't manage to cover the whole district. Maybe I'll have Dot in tow next time to relive the late 1960s. Now have a look at the street-scape.
AS
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Warning: this post contains lots of photos and may take a while to download.
Well, today saw my long anticipated visit to the Googleplex close to the edge of San Francisco Bay in downtown Mountain View. It's the wackiest work-place you're ever likely to visit and, although I got to see some of the inside, I can only show you the outside. Oh well, we'll start there.
The Google complex (Googleplex) consists of lots of buildings spread across a campus maybe a kilometer in diameter. It has the feel of a university and most of the workers (?) looked like recent university graduates. The demographic is incredibly young ... and multinational. The campus is so spread out that the company provides hundreds of free bikes to get from A to B quickly. Just hop on and ride away. There's even a conference bike (CoBi) seating 7 in a circle, which might save a deal of time if you want a brief discussion and keep fit at the same time.
The campus seems to swarm with eating places, some indoors and others outdoors. Employees like Greg can have 3 free meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner, and even visitors like us were treated to a free feed. Nor was it any old food. There was a huge choice of hot and cold foods, fruit, and drinks, many imaginative and sourced from many cultures. Give that 6,000 people work on the campus, Google might have to serve up to 15,000 free meals a day. The cafes, large and small also run a perpetual coffee and tea service. We were walking around one of the visitor access areas and just grabbed bottles out of a fridge when we fancied them.
Emily and I saw quite a few people with dogs, which seemed odd. Not so. Employees can bring their dogs to work and I presume they lie next to their owners until taken for a run at lunch-time or whenever they want a break. Google pays for creativity, which is not the same as how long you're sitting at a desk. Taking this a little further, I saw graffiti walls and a volley-ball court, and we heard of one building with a bowling alley incorporated. There are other diversions also like a multiscreen facility reproducing 3-dimensional Google-Earth. We also creased with laughter when we saw a large mobile barber's truck parked in a prominent location.
Well, today saw my long anticipated visit to the Googleplex close to the edge of San Francisco Bay in downtown Mountain View. It's the wackiest work-place you're ever likely to visit and, although I got to see some of the inside, I can only show you the outside. Oh well, we'll start there.
The Google complex (Googleplex) consists of lots of buildings spread across a campus maybe a kilometer in diameter. It has the feel of a university and most of the workers (?) looked like recent university graduates. The demographic is incredibly young ... and multinational. The campus is so spread out that the company provides hundreds of free bikes to get from A to B quickly. Just hop on and ride away. There's even a conference bike (CoBi) seating 7 in a circle, which might save a deal of time if you want a brief discussion and keep fit at the same time.
The campus seems to swarm with eating places, some indoors and others outdoors. Employees like Greg can have 3 free meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner, and even visitors like us were treated to a free feed. Nor was it any old food. There was a huge choice of hot and cold foods, fruit, and drinks, many imaginative and sourced from many cultures. Give that 6,000 people work on the campus, Google might have to serve up to 15,000 free meals a day. The cafes, large and small also run a perpetual coffee and tea service. We were walking around one of the visitor access areas and just grabbed bottles out of a fridge when we fancied them.
Emily and I saw quite a few people with dogs, which seemed odd. Not so. Employees can bring their dogs to work and I presume they lie next to their owners until taken for a run at lunch-time or whenever they want a break. Google pays for creativity, which is not the same as how long you're sitting at a desk. Taking this a little further, I saw graffiti walls and a volley-ball court, and we heard of one building with a bowling alley incorporated. There are other diversions also like a multiscreen facility reproducing 3-dimensional Google-Earth. We also creased with laughter when we saw a large mobile barber's truck parked in a prominent location.
The grounds themselves had a variety of aesthetic interests like a sculpture park, a herb garden, and a T-Rex to scare the pants off slackers.
In one of the main buildings we even saw a full-side replica of Richard Bransom's space-craft chasing the prize for the first commercial vehicle taking passengers to the edge of space. The original is in the Smithsonian. Many of the buildings were also interesting pieces of architecture in a modernist style.
So there you have it. We were not allowed in most of the internal areas for security reasons, but could see large numbers of open-plan workstations and conference rooms amidst the coffee shops. The former were all shapes and size, with some looking like tents out of the Arabian Nights. And down in the basement I spied my dream car hitched to a power-point in the wall - a Tesla. Look that up on the web! Tomorrow is shaping up as fun!
AS
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Monterey Sea-Scapes
The hotel I've been staying at in Monterey was not just on the coast, but built out over the water and offered lovely views across the bay taking in some of the very tame wild-life. I kept looking over the railings in front of the hotel and seeing sea-otters, seals and diving cormorants. The pictures show parts of Monterey's waterfront (do you see the seals on the foreground rocks?), some sea otters in the harbour, and a lovely view across Monterey Bay to the East. The first photo also shows Monterey's answer to the Palace Pier in Brighton.
AS
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Point Lobos
Yesterday, Sunday on the west coast of the US, Emily and Greg drove me down to my conference at Monterey, but we left early and took a detour south of Monterey to Carmel (whose mayor is Clint Eastwood!) and Point Lobos. The former was a good place for a cup of hot chocolate and a lemon slice, and the latter is a State Marine Reserve. US national parks often have an entry charge and yesterday was no exception. However, the superb coastline and its creatures were worth every cent. Further south is Big Sur, but we had to leave this hugely popular stretch of coast to another day. The first three pictures show some of the coastal scenery along with the intrepid explorers.
The next pictures show something of the scenery and the wildlife we saw. Much of the water was crystal clear, but some had kelp beds which I presumed were natural and I gathered concealed sea otters, which remined invisible to us. However, we could observe California sea-lions, Harbor seals, Brandt's Cormorants, dolphins in a pod 50+ strong, and, out to sea a km or two, the blowing of whales. There was also an elaborately constructed timber home of the Dusky-footed Woodrat, made by the animal concerned, but we could not tell if it was occupied. The rat is vegetarian by the way.
The middle shows rocks covered in sea-lions barking vigourously,and the top one has seals and sea-lions asleep.
Finally, we walked through one of only two groves of Monterey Cypress left in the world - a lovely experience as shown by the remaining two photos.
AS
The next pictures show something of the scenery and the wildlife we saw. Much of the water was crystal clear, but some had kelp beds which I presumed were natural and I gathered concealed sea otters, which remined invisible to us. However, we could observe California sea-lions, Harbor seals, Brandt's Cormorants, dolphins in a pod 50+ strong, and, out to sea a km or two, the blowing of whales. There was also an elaborately constructed timber home of the Dusky-footed Woodrat, made by the animal concerned, but we could not tell if it was occupied. The rat is vegetarian by the way.
The middle shows rocks covered in sea-lions barking vigourously,and the top one has seals and sea-lions asleep.
Finally, we walked through one of only two groves of Monterey Cypress left in the world - a lovely experience as shown by the remaining two photos.
AS
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