The Dailey Grind

Nationals honor other teams' players

2009-08-23T17:27:00.003-04:00

I went to a Washington Nationals game in early August and brought my cousin along, who was in town for a conference. It was a typical summer night in DC, hot and muggy. The kind of night where a person tries to move as little as possible. We had a fun time. My cousin enjoyed the new Nationals ballpark. I could tell he secretly wished Fenway Park had the same nice amenities as the Nationals ballpark. We took a impromptu tour of the new ballpark as we headed to the exit. We made almost a full circle around the field, going along the walkway under the upper deck. Along the way, we encountered this:

It was a sign honoring Red Sox Hall of Famer, Ted Williams. I was really surprised. A professional sports team, no matter what league they're in, hardly ever honors a player from a different team. The only example I can think of that is acceptable is Frankie Robinson, who is honored in every major league ballpark with a display of his uniform number '42'. How sad is it that the Nationals don't have a sufficient number of former great players to honor, they have to put up signs that honor players from other teams. I say if you have a shortage of Hall of Famers on your team, don't try to fill the void by honoring other teams' Hall of Famers.

Verizon will no longer be the only cellphone carrier with coverage in the DC Metro

2009-08-19T21:28:00.004-04:00

Verizon Wireless' distinction of being the only cellphone carrier to operate inside the DC Metro system will be over soon. The networks of AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, and T-Mobile will be available in the twenty most busiest stations later this year; with the remaining stations getting the wireless network overhaul next year, according to DCist.

I don't understand why Metro didn't invite the other major cellphone carriers to provide service inside the train stations sooner. I can only guess the annual fee Verizon Wireless paid to DC Metro over the years enabled the cellphone carrier to have exclusive rights to operate inside the train stations and tunnels. I think DC Metro realized they could make more money by having the top four cellphone carriers make a combined payment to them that would be much larger than an exclusive rights fee from a single cellphone carrier.

Something is going on in Alaska

2009-08-05T13:23:00.004-04:00

If you were to build a secret military research facility you would want to locate far away from curiosity-seekers and civilization in general, like say Alaska? Hidden in the Alaskan wilderness is an Air Force research facility dubbed the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or Haarp for short. Wired reporter Noah Shachtman visited the military facility and took some interesting photographs. In the article, the Air Force claim Haarp is strictly for research that doesn't have any military applications, which I find hard to believe. What they are doing there is creating man-made northern lights using radio waves. Very interesting. I think there is another dimension to this.

Pictures from the United4Iran DC rally

2009-07-28T09:05:00.008-04:00

I've been following what's going on in Iran since the disputed June 12th election. I have some hope that this country will finally turn the corner and get rid of their current dictatorship. I want to help the protesters in some way because I know dictatorships will not just step aside quietly. Rallies held in different world cities were held on Saturday, July 25th to give support to those who are opposing the corrupt, illegitimate government in Iran. I of course went to the rally held in Washington, DC. The DC rally was organized by United4Iran and Where's My Vote DC.

The rally began in front of the United Nations office on 18th and K St NW. I arrived a few minutes after its scheduled start of 4 o'clock. There was already a small group of approximately a hundred people:

The protest had swelled to a crowd that covered the entire block. It was exciting to see. We marched towards the National Mall at about 5:30:

The rally had grown so big it was stopping traffic:

We ended up on the National Mall. A stage was erected for some speakers and a musical performance. I sat through four speakers, three of them were Nobel Peace Prize laureates. It was nearing 7:30, I was tired, sweaty and feeling gross, so I decided to head home and get something to eat.

Here are some pictures from near the end of the rally:

My pictures of the Real World DC cast so far

2009-07-15T21:09:00.004-04:00

My first encounter with the Real World DC cast was at the Washington Sports Club and naturally didn't have my camera ready. Ever since then I made sure to keep my small camera with me just in case I need to take a picture of something at the Real World house on my way to or from work.

Well I got lucky this week. On Monday, July 13th as I walked by the side of the Real World house I looked over at their patio area that faces 20th street and one of the cast members is sitting at the table appearing to be writing something. I don't know his name but he's the one that wears the bandana headband. I call him the "rico suave" guy. I have a feeling he's the loner of the group:

On my way home from work today at around 4:30 as I'm crossing S street towards the Real World house, I see practically the whole cast come filing out with camera crew filming right in front of them. I walked down to the end of the next block and waited to see where they were headed. They headed down Connecticut Ave and appeared to be in a good mood. I snapped this picture directly across the street:

See how much those meetings really cost

2009-07-14T21:13:00.003-04:00

Ah meetings. Some organizations just love to have them. The thinking goes, if there's a problem, just have a meeting. If the problem still isn't solved then just have more meetings. Meetings on top of meetings. Sure you would like to put a stop to this right away, yet still keep up the appearance of being a 'team player'. Well now you can win the argument by showing exactly how much sitting around at a meeting costs in real-time with the super-handy Meeting Ticker. Just type in the number of attendees, approximate hourly salary, and the meeting start time and the Meeting Ticker does the rest.

Free TV on the web may soon not be free

2009-07-11T20:14:00.006-04:00

You thought you were pretty smart. You got rid of your cable tv service and now watch your shows online on Hulu for free. The cable television providers were not going to take this lying down. Time Warner and Comcast will start a pilot service called TV Everywhere that will allow cable subscribers to watch shows online according to Wired's Epicenter blog. The shows offered on TV Everywhere will likely feature shows from Time Warner-owned networks, TNT and TBS among others.

Basic cable shows now found on Hulu will migrate to TV Everywhere. If cable television providers think by offering a online television service for current subscribers will prevent customers from leaving they may be in for a rude awakening. iTunes offers a host of shows from both broadcast and cable networks, though not offered for free, are reasonably priced for a whole season. Instead of buying access to shows you don't want, iTunes allows you to buy just the shows you want to watch when you want. It is cheaper to buy season passes for a handful of shows on iTunes than to subscribe to basic cable for an entire broadcast season.

Introducing the Google Chrome operating system

2009-07-11T16:11:00.003-04:00

It was only a matter of time before Google developed their own computer operating system as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows. Despite the newfound popularity of Apple's iMacs and Macbooks represent slightly under 8 percent of the American PC market. Customer friendly versions of Linux, like Red Hat and Ubuntu never posed a serious challenge to Windows.

I think Google might have a chance because they are introducing their Chrome operating system at the right time. The need to have a host of programs installed on your computer accompanied with large amounts of disk space is much lower now than it was just a few years ago. Much of the regular tasks performed by installed programs on the computer can now be done using internet-based applications. Storing photos, editing documents, listening to music can now be done in the "cloud" or by basically employing large servers. Rather than keep offering more and more features in an operating system, the trend will likely be in the opposite direction of offering just basic features with more emphasis on speed and security. I'm a Windows Vista user and I wish I could uninstall Windows programs I never use like MovieMaker.

Andy Warhol uses a Commodore Amiga

2009-07-11T14:33:00.002-04:00

This is a video of Andy Warhol during early 80's using a Commodore Amiga computer to paint a portrait of Blondie's lead singer, Debbie Harry. At that time, Commodore Amiga was cutting edge when it came to creating digital art.

Encountered Real World DC cast at my gym

2009-07-07T18:52:00.004-04:00

I knew it was only a matter of time before I ran into the cast members of the MTV reality show, Real World DC. I work right across the street from the house where they are filming the show. Reports online said the cast moved in this past weekend. Tuesday I headed to the Washington Sports Club right after work located one block up from my building. I didn't notice anything odd when I checked in at my gym's front desk. It wasn't until I was about to start running on the treadmill when I noticed the Real World DC was filming. A small film crew was filming this brunette running on the treadmill in the row in front of me. She was trying to act like a camera was not positioned right next to her face. For a brief moment, I almost felt bad for her, but then I remembered she signed up for this.

I thought it was just this one cast member at my gym but I was wrong. I was doing some push-ups where most of the machines and free weights are located when I slowly realized that half of the cast was here. I recognized one cast member from pictures posted on the Anti-Real World DC blog, a blond guy with a N'Sync haircut. They didn't do any filming in the main exercise area. The film crew was off to the side, watching tv, looking almost bored. I noticed the brunette, the blonde guy and a tall black guy all left together and head to the locker rooms. I didn't see any of them on my way out. This likely will not be the last time I encounter the Real Worlders around where I work.

First look at the "Alice in Wonderland" movie

2009-06-23T20:33:00.003-04:00

I'm generally a fan of Tim Burton's movies, ever since his version of Batman. I was intrigued to see he is directing a big-screen adaption of the classic children's book, "Alice in Wonderland". It's not scheduled to come out until March 2010 but you can view some of the production stills here.

steampunk animated short

2009-06-23T19:59:00.004-04:00

I came across the beautiful-looking short animated film, "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello" on YouTube:

It employs a rare silhouette style of animation that depicts a retro-future steampunk world.

PETA doesn't want dead fish to be thrown around

2009-06-16T11:19:00.006-04:00

PETA is at it again with another absurd press release. The animal rights group is offended by the famous Seattle fishmongers' ritual of tossing fish to each other over customers' heads, reported the LA Times. PETA just recently got worked up about this decades-old practice because the fishmongers will be doing a demonstration of it during an upcoming veterinarians conference in Seattle. Here's the absurdity straight from PETA's mouth, "Killing animals so you can toss their bodies around for amusement is just twisted", stated Ashley Byrne, a senior PETA campaigner. Any reasonable person would say the fish-tossing practice is not twisted. First, the fish are already dead. Second, it is not done for amusement but for necessity, it's just the quickest way for the fishmongers to get the fish to the sales counter. PETA is so out-of-touch they don't even realize that publicly criticizing Seattle fishmongers is not the way to attract support. The majority of Americans just laugh at them and then proceed to order another hamburger.

My second video project

2009-06-06T11:57:00.013-04:00

I've been teaching myself how to use Adobe Premiere, a video editing program the last few weeks. I've been wanting to try video editing for awhile now and now I have finally gotten my hands on the software capable of doing it. The first video I made consisted of scenes from the movie 'Citizen Kane' with Blur's 'Sing'. I uploaded it to YouTube with no problem. The second video I made consisted of scenes from the movie 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' with the song 'Columbia' by Oasis. Immediately after I uploaded the video to YouTube it was flagged as containing content from NBC Universal. I didn't want to get into a fight with YouTube, so I deleted the video off the site and looked to other means of sharing it online. Here it is in low-resolution glory:

I also made a better-quality download of it in flash format here.

For those who enjoy beer living in the DC area

2009-05-15T14:49:00.003-04:00

Some helpful individual has undertaken a very worthwhile project where all the places to obtain beer in DC area are noted in a Google Map interface. This beer mapping project includes brewpubs, home brew stores, bars, breweries, and beer stores.

The White House on Flickr

2009-04-29T10:56:00.003-04:00

Flickr's Official Blog featured some photos from the White House's official Flickr photostream to celebrate the president's first 100 days. These photos are not just your usual boring photo-ops that accompany press releases, but instead give a more behind-the-scenes look into the daily business of being president. I get a sense from the Flickr photos that when President Obama is not meeting with staff or various dignitaries he's on the phone.

Here's a photo where Obama is showing his common man appeal, moving a couch just like the rest of us:

Where to get your Girl Scout cookie fix

2009-03-14T09:27:00.004-04:00

This is the time of year when I look forward to baseball season and the warmer weather that goes along with it. It's the lull right before the start of spring, when you become restless counting down the days till March 20th. There are some things that help me get through this period: St. Patrick's Day, March Madness, and Girl Scout cookies.

Even the sale of Girl Scout cookies is down due to the recession. I was willing to do my part to help out the Girl Scouts and purchase a few boxes of Thin Mints. A local Girl Scout troop set up a table next to the Virginia Square metro stop to catch people coming home on their evening commute. There I bought two boxes of Thin Mints, but then realized a few days later this was too little of a supply. I assumed the local troop would be back either at Virginia Square metro or at the Giant across the street from my apartment where they usually sell their cookies. Two weeks have passed and still no sign of them. Maybe they stayed away because of the unusually chilly weather Arlington has been experiencing the last few weeks. Fortunately, a local news blog, DCist provided a link to the Girl Scout Cookie Locator. Just input your zip code and it will provide a handy calendar displaying when and where local troops are selling cookies.

A real life Ocean's Eleven

2009-03-13T20:30:00.002-04:00

If you ever though the heist that occured in the movie Ocean's Eleven would never happen in real life, think again. Leonardo Notarbartolo was convicted of stealing $100 million in diamonds from a place that was previously thought to be virtually impossible to break into - the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium. Wired.com gives an interesting and detailed account of what was dubbed, "the heist of the century".

Micro-volunteer in your spare time

2009-03-13T19:59:00.003-04:00

Imagine being able to volunteer for a good cause while waiting in the doctor's office or on the train ride home. Well, an ingenious group of technology-savvy people called the Extraordinaries have developed a smartphone application to do just that. Their thinking goes, alot of people are extremely busy, but over the course of a week have a great deal of idle time, either during a commute, waiting for a meeting, etc. According to the Extraordinaries website, their iPhone application is scheduled to be released sometime this summer. The environmental website, Worldchanging.com has a post about the microvolunteer-promoting group, along with a short video featuring the Extraordinaries' co-founder Jacob Colker.

Even judge is getting tired of Obama citizenship lawsuits

2009-03-09T12:46:00.005-04:00

I can't believe there are still people out there who are convinced President Obama is not an American citizen, that his Hawaiian birth certificate was forged. Then again, I'm a normal, reasonable person.

These irrational people have continued to file lawsuits that began during the campaign and still continue. As fast as judges dismiss the cases, new ones spring up. Politico reports that one federal judge, D.C. District Judge James Robertson is getting tired of having to deal with these morons.

What is really going with this Obama birth certificate controversy is there are people out there, many of them conservatives, who just can accept having a black man as their president. They feel the need to conjure up a conspiracy theory to help explain Obama getting elected.

Turntables using a touchscreen

2009-03-09T11:53:00.003-04:00

Coolhunter.net has a very interesting post about finally bringing turntables into the 21st century. Hard drives replace the need for actual records, while a computer touchscreen is where the cutting and scratching takes place.

Protecting yourself from Big Brother while surfing the web

2009-03-03T14:43:00.007-05:00

The lack of privacy on the Internet has been reported countless of times. The secret electronic surveillance culture of the Bush administration has brought more attention to the issue of how authorities can easily obtain information about your web-surfing habits. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a very useful guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance including data stored on your computer, data transmitted by wire and information stored by third parties. There has been many groups like the ACLU that have talked about the loss of privacy in general terms but do not give any practical advice on how to protect yourself. Its great to see EFF fill this void.

Southwest is finally coming to Boston

2009-02-19T10:20:00.005-05:00

The bargain airline, Southwest is finally making plans to fly out of Boston's Logan Airport this year. In a Boston.com article, Southwest said it will it only fly to a few destinations at first, starting in the fall. I've been praying for this move for years now. It will make my visits home so much easier. It's slowly becoming more convenient for me to fly Southwest. A few years ago, they began to fly out of Dulles Airport which is within my travel radius and now this fall they will start flying out of Logan Airport. I will finally have a lower-cost alternative to my usual airline when going home, American Airlines' shuttle service, American Eagle. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed for Southwest to have a direct flight from Dulles to Logan when they start to unveil their new routes out of Logan.

Trouble in China

2009-02-18T20:46:00.002-05:00

With the U.S. economy in its worst recession since 1982, Americans’ thoughts have turned inward. Understandably the focus should be on fixing the economy and coming up with a recovery plan, but the effects of the worldwide economic crisis on other countries shouldn’t be ignored.

Close attention should be paid to countries like China, where the ranks of the employed are getting restless and have staged numerous protests around the country. USA Today reported that there is an estimated 26 million unemployed Chinese and has continued to grow. Many of the unemployed are poor migrants from the countryside who came to work in the urban factories during China's tremendous boom times. Now a vast majority of these poor migrants haven't been paid their full back wages, thereby becoming even angry and resentful. If you have a large group in a society that is unemployed, poor, and angry, it's a recipe for disaster.

Look who's calling

2009-02-18T20:34:00.004-05:00

Those aggravating anonymous calls that come in occasionally to a person's cellphone will soon be exposed. This is a boon for us who despise getting calls from telemarketers or anyone else who enjoys harassing people over the phone. A New Jersey-based tech company, TelTech systems developed a new service, TrapCall, that will reveal the Caller ID for incoming blocked calls, reported Wired.com

The basic level of service, named MouseTrap, is free and currently offered to AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers. TelTech systems stated they will introduce the service to additional cellphone carriers very soon.

I am looking forward to this new Caller ID unmasking service coming to my cellphone carrier, Verizon. In addition to revealing anonymous callers, it will also allow you to block calls by telephone number. The less calls I receive from political fundraisers the better.