AG's Blog

Dilated Pupils - Revisited

As I type this entry, I'm wearing my special UV goggles. Now that most of my sight has been restored I can tell you that LASIK surgery was successful. Although, I spent more time waiting in the clinic than I would have preferrred, I do not have very many complaints about the experience. It was painless. The only weird aspect of the procedure is the method of which they hold your eyes open.
Obviously, you cannot move nor blink while the laser is burning away the cornea tissue. You can actually smell the burning. Pretty surreal, huh.

Before, going into the surgery suite, I thought running a LASIK clinic would probably be good money. It seems that the only real overhead is leasing the space. They really don't have permanent staff, as they fly in the surgeon and techs.
The resident ophthalmologist and support technicians are the only staff. Everyone else appears to be there on loan based upon the workload. So, I suppose you could minimize your expenses by maintaining a skeleton crew.

Additionally, most LASIK centers do not accept HMO, PPO provider coverage, so their costs are not regulated by health boards. Essentially, they get their cash immediately. The average client is paying $1000.00 for the procedure.
I quickly did the math and realized that they were making nice coin. They probably see 15-30 patients per day.
I dont know of the attrition rate, most likely there will always be people who decide to cancel and opt out of the surgery.

One of the interesting aspects of the procedure was the fact that they needed two different lasers to fulfill my prescription. I have a stygmatism in my left eye(it was my worse 20/40), so they used a laser designed to handle stigmatisms. Perhaps the apeture on the laser is different, not sure. I do know that the surgeon, constantly tells you not to move look straight at the orange light. Obviously, I adamantly assured him that I would not move and that I could see the orange light very clearly.

They numb the eyes with drops, and then apply a suction to remove any additional fluid. The suction causes a slight pinch, and then they place what appears to be spectrum filters on the eye, to remove all UV light. So, basically you cannot see anything until the laser begins to burn the cornea. The whole procedure takes roughly a minute per eye. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time waiting for the throng of patients to get prepped, verify prescriptions etc.
Actually, there was one lady who was removed from the line twice because they couldn't verify her prescription. The perscription amounts to a computer which does a general eye exam to discern near/far sightedness, stigmatisms, etc.
However, there must have been some uncertainty with the results so they gave here a manual eye examination.
Gosh, I could only imagine what would happen if they goofed on her prescription.

Anyway, I now have 20/20 vision in both eyes, some cool shades and goggles, and neat fanny pack with plenty of eye drops to keep my eyes moist. So, I feel like Steve Austin, and can spot cleavage from three miles.

PC Annoyances

I figured I'd share this one with you, as I do routinely get the random 'help me, my PC is sick phone calls', (btw: None of that time is billable yet).

Experts' Blog

Podcasting - revisited

What is the allure of podcasting anyway? The first misnomer is that it somehow is inextricably linked to the Ipod. Wrong. For whatever reason, the idea of timeshifting audio content using a mobile device, has been extended to that nearly ubiquitous Apple device. For the record, you don't need an Ipod to podcast. I'll probably never own an Ipod. I can't get with super hype.
Any portable device that plays mp3, .ogg formats will suffice. Heck, my Treo 600 fits the bill quite nicely.

So the article below describes I-Tunes launching its podcasting content service. Call me a nerd snob, but I always get that uneasy feeling when aspects of the blogosphere become public. Stuff just becomes very commercial and creativity takes a backseat. Hell look at the large number of people who call themselves bloggers. You can visit the huge proliferation of 'blogspot' blogs. It's like daytime soaps. Well, that's a rant for another time.

In One Stroke, Podcasting Hits Mainstream - New York Times

Clean Green

What if Ford decided to create a brand that only manufactured hybrid vehicles? Pretty aggressive concept.
However, it seems unlikely cosidering the prevailing culture within the auto industry. The OEMs design product which they consider to be profitable. At this point neither Ford or GM can afford to gamble on arguably speculative technology.
Nonetheless, considering the skyrocketing fuel costs, it is clear they cannot survive on the SUV market. There are hundreds of them sitting in dealer lots that will never be sold, regardless of the incentive laden packages.

Heck their are some who really don't consider hybrid technology to be innovative.
Actually, I believe that B-Series vehicles have a better chance of success than the pure hybrid play. Well, I suppose the fickle market will dictate the winners and losers. One thing is certain, we can't wait for China to begin dropping their low cost vehicles on our shores before we solve the dilemna.

The Green Machine That Could Be Detroit - New York Times

The Responsibility to Protect

Last week marked eleven years since the ending of the Rwanda Genocide and end of the 100 day civil war between the Hutsu and Tutsi people. Embarrassingly, I really never knew very much about the conflict and bloodshed b/c I was living in a vacuum called undergraduate school, desparately trying to make the grade to gain my freedom. In fact, my mind was pre-occupied with visions of Million-Man March, OJ Simpson trial, and NY Knicks NBA title run. I don't believe mainstream US media spent very much time covering the attrocities that were underway in the central-African nation. Hence, one of the reasons I don't care for mainstream media. That's another story.

Well, after watching the PBS Ghosts of Rwanda documentary, all of the faceless victims were brought to life and it was all too real. Quite a gruesome account indeed. People who looked like me, were butchered, while the global superpowers exercised neutrality. Particularly despicable was the behavior of former President Clinton and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Both men had the power to raise the level interest in the US and United Nations respectively, but did nothing. Granted Clinton would later state that he was not aware of the apocolypse, and hinted that he may have been asleep at the switch. The damage had alread been done on his watch, much too little too late. Annan defends his inactivity to the earlier failed attempts to intervene in Somalia. I'm sorry but I cannot afford him that excuse.

It's very apparent that the US only acts when there is some tangible gain. So, providing assistance to Germany, Sarevjo, Iran, Haiti, and Israel are no brainers because there are tangible gains(ie. oil, refugee repatriation, etc). The reality was that the US was not compelled to send approx 2000-5000 troops to supplement the paper thin and ill-equipped UN peacekeeping forces. The irony is that none of the UN forces were armed and some were able to deter the aggressive Hutus (armed with machetes) with harsh words. I venture to guess that hundreds of thousands of lives would've been saved if the US sent armed soldiers to Rwanda. After the killing spree, ended 100 days later, at least 800,000 Rwandans had perished.

I suppose the obvious question is why was there a civil war in Rwanda? Was it a struggle over land, resources, equality? Perhaps the answer is all of the above. I surmise that root of the conflict stems from the crippling effects of colonialism brought about by Beligian and French occupation. All of the answers are really unclear and probably will not be unearthed for quite awhile. Meanwhile, France, Belgium, and America has a great deal of blood on their hands. While I don't advocate terrorism, I can certainly understand the hatred and distrust that others have for the global powers.

If you're not familiar with this aspect of the African holocaust, I'd encourage you to peep the PBS documentary to gain a fundamental understanding, and also read the story of one of the fallen heroes, Senegalese officer, Capt. Mbaye Diagne.

Speech Recognition - Who cares?

I often wonder if vendors develop products in a vacuum. Voice recognition software has been available to the public for several years. To date, I do not know a single person who uses the software. Conceptually, it is very cool to be able to talk and have your PC/handheld or whatever device and have it understand and execute the construct as appropriate. However, is it practical for the mainstream, joe average or better yet M$ user? I'm not certain that it is. Consider that you must teach the machine to understand your dialect, intonations, inflections, etc. The computer is only as intelligent as the space between the monitor and keyboard.

Granted it would be nice if I could simply speak my SMS into my Treo600, but I could only use that feature for one or two applications. Clearly, I would not want to utter my passwd, to gain access to email or AIM.

I suppose the bigger issue is that vendors like IBM haven't figured out how to offer a compelling value proposition to the consumer. Clearly if there was a huge demand for the product, hordes of vendors proprietary and open source vendors would be running to develop the applications. Yes, I do know that there are niche markets (ie vision impaired and other physically challenged users), but unfortunately, they are not the majority of computer users. So obviously, there are technical solutions available (albeit various levels of success), but demand is moderate at best.

As the author states in the article below, Speech recognition takes a huge amount of clever programming to perform in a capable fashion. Hopefully, there will soon be some compelling value proposition to warrant widespread acceptance.

How Speech Recognition Works And Doesn't Work--ExtremeTech Feature

Piracy by necessity

Extremely hilarious cartoon which describes how our archaic 'push' broadcast television model forces Bob the millionaire to become a pirate. In the words of Cory Doctorow "Aargh"..

www.eirikso.com » Blog Archive » How Bob the Millionaire became a pirate

What is a diva?

This phrase seems to be used rather loosely these days. Apparently, all women cannot be divas, although, they might wish to adorn themselves with that moniker. Is a diva a female with great expectations, lots of attitude, and high maintenance? Someone please educate me. Perhaps more specifically, I should ask what a diva is not?
Case in point, I met random female at a gathering some weeks ago. After I had some grub and a few drinks, we had what I would classify, as a generic conversation.

For instance:

AG: Hi, how are you?
RF: I'm fine, is this your first time attending?
AG: No, I've been a few times earlier.
RF: Where are you from?
AG: BK..

You get the idea, later the inevitable "Where did you go to school ?" She mentioned that she was a graduate of an HBCU, I replied likewise, and we discovered that we had some synergies. The entire conversation lasted roughly 30-45min. I took her digits, and bounced as I had to finish writing a paper for class.

A few days later, we talked again to discuss some business possibilities, coupled with more generic conversation. Again this dialogue lasted for about 15-20min. So, that following weekend I called RF, to follow-up on the chat we had earlier in the week. I explained that I'm not much on phone conversations, as I preferred email or face-to-face discussion. She indicated the opposite, "I spend so much time looking at a computer at work..." You probably can figure out the rest. Actually, I wasn't really surprised by the response, as I've heard it all too often. Not a problem, I explained that I _must_ use computer as I enjoy it immensely, and it allows me to secure residual income. Because we did not know each other, I begin to rehash some of the idle chat that we began earlier in the week. Now this is when the conversation became shall we say, 'odd'. Unintentionally, I confused her industry (ie Mktg vs. Finance), and she really seemed pissed. Hell, in my mind I thought I was pretty close. Especially, considering the fact that we just met last week. I barely know the broad. She mentioned more than once that she couldn't understand why my memory was so poor. Initially, I dismissed it. However, she made it a point to repeat her displeasure. So, I realized that that I had two choices: a) Diffuse the tension with my off-color humor/sarcasm b) Ignore the complaints, derail the conversation, burn the bridge, retreat and run like hell.

I chose the former, and gosh the discussion took a turn for the worse. RF began to interview me with vigor. "What kind of man are you?" She asked.. My retort, I am all man, traditional man. I call the shots. In truth, I also stated that I understand that women help guide men in making the correct decisions. Somehow, we got into the conversation about expectations in relationships etc.. She indicated that she was prissy, high maintenance, and independent.
I thought 1 outta 3 ain't bad. Independence is a good thing. I joked w/her about prissy women in a short email. Later I learned that she found it offensive. In general, I avoid high maintencance females like the plague, as I find them to be very needy. Stress isn't something I need at this point. I vigorously seek to reduce unwanted aggravation, as it takes years off your life. Who knows how many years I've got left. Life is too damn short.

I'm usually quite blunt w/my honesty. Often I find that people simply aren't appreciative nor do they understand the intent. She then asked about my expectations when dating. I told her, that costs and expenses should be shared. Don't expect that the guy should dig deep at every venue, especially when both people make their own money.
Not a very unreasonable request. She added that I was contradictary, in that 'traditional' men seldom expect ladies to pay for anything. I told her that I was the exception. Now there was silence.. Apparently the interview was over.

At this point, I realized that there was no chance to extract anything meaningful from our interaction. I really don't expect to hear from RF anymore, and it's probably best for both of us.

Is that divalicious? Nah, not hardly. Nevertheless, I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

The Anti-Sam's Club

It appears that Sam's Club really has some competition. In fact, according to the article below, the Costco business model seems to be much more endearing to the Costco employee too. Happy employees are less likely to file lawsuits (ala Walmart), and more likely to provide better service.

While I have never shopped at Costco, I do believe that it does have a window of opportunity to steal business from the evil empire (aka Wal-Mart).

I think Walmart has become more interested in expansion and profit margins and less interested interested in customer satisfaction.

How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart - New York Times

Sistas in Technology

One of my news correspondents dropped this feel good piece on me last week, but due to numerous distractions, I was not able to share it with you until today.

Some of you may recall that I analyzed the remarks made by Harvard president, regarding the dearth of women in technical fields. While I disagreed with the ideas that were conveyed by the former Harvard president, it is an all too familiar discussion.

So the best method of debunking the myths is with real examples of women who display a fervor for technology.

Robotics is an area of great interest and amazement. In fact, one could argue that serious advancements in robotics and mechatronics, would be of huge benefit to society.

For those of you are not familiar with the Sony AIBO, it is perhaps the most interesting consumer robot on the market. It has the ability to adapt to its environment and learn various behaviors. Essentially, it can become a virtual pet without the mess.

Additionally, it appears that there is a very large AIBO
hacking community.

These very talented young ladies did very well in the US Robo Cup Open and have advanced to the international Robo Cup Competition. Their AIBO entry, is the only one controlled by an all female contingency. I wish them the best of luck. Do ya damn thing.

SpelBots @ Spelman College

Update: It seems that Spelman team is struggling with some technical difficulties as they were defeated by the Dutch AIBO team.

More Hybrid musings

Ford will be delighted to send the Hybrid Escape to NYC to replace the aging Crown Vic fleet. Regarding comfort., I am not certain what the impact will be on the riders. A ten inch reduction in legroom seems pretty substantial.

With hybrid cabs, Big Apple may be going green

Nerds go Prime Time

I must admit that I was an avid TechTV viewer, and after the Screen Saver cast was dismantled and the show became more sophomoric and less techie, I tuned out. Not to mention most cable providers did not include it as part of basic cable.

Alas, PBS is going to offer content which is in the same vain of the discontinued 'Great Thinkers' broadcast of TechTV fame. Since the show will be released under the Creative Commons License, I plan to get the legally distributed torrents, and nerd the fsck out ;)

PBS | I, Cringely . NerdTV

Original B-Boy

Continuing with my NY vibe. I came across this gem from Jamel Shabazz. Damn the pic below brings nuff memories to mind. Although, the Iron Horse, has a different look these days, the pic is no less authentic. I still remember rockin my clearwater Cazals (yeah, I fought for mine too) and shell top adidas with no shoelace. Oh yeah, my permanent creased Lee suit. I could go on for days. Can't forget my British Walkers... Later came the Clarks and Ballys. Circa 1980's street fashions were timeless.

Regarding underground hip-hop, break beats, etc.. Make sure you check out the following sites:

WeFunkRadio
Hip Hop Music

BTW: I also miss 88hiphop.com. They definitely were pioneers for streaming hip-hop culture.

Freemotion: random blog entry: sunday

Let's Get it On

I'm amped about the upcoming contest against the hated Bosox. My beloved Bombers are only 2.5 games out of first, and have a four-game set at Boston. Considering where we began the season (11-19), to still be in contention is an achievement. I suppose we'll know alot about this team going into the trade deadline 7/31. The Yankees have one of the toughest second-half schedules in all of baseball. Of the 12 teams that the Yankees will face in the second half, nine of those teams are not only above .500, but are within five games of a postseason berth. Additionally, the Yankees’ second-half opponents have a combined winning percentage of .508.
Nonetheless, if we close the gap, and the pitching holds up, we could be buyers instead of sellers.

I'm still very concerned about the much beleagured pitching staff. In particular, Randy Johnson, has not lived up to the hype. The Big Unit was supposed to be the ace of the staff, but has come up very short. He is pitching with such inconsistency, that you cannot rely on him to give the team a lift.
As expected, the offense is very potent and has resurrected itself at the best possible time, particularly Giambi and Matsui.

Update: Yanks grabbed game one (8-6) in an emphatic, heartbreaking fashion. Schilling wasn't worth a six-pence. Our pitching is still very inconsistent. I'll be happy for a split. After the Friday laugher, we're assured at least a split. Hell if the Sunday, starter Al Leiter is inspired by the pinstripes, we could take 3 of 4. Imagine that Sox Nation, to be defeated by patchwork starting rotation. The AL East is truly weak this year.

Here we go again..

I had heard about this incident last week, but reserved comment until I had read about the particulars. It appears that Howard Beach is again going to be red hot for awhile. Not sure if Sharpton and company will march through the area in solidarity, but it is certain that the streets will be watching this case with great interest.

Does anyone really know if the victim attacked with a baseball was indeed going to burglarize a parked car? Even if he was actually a thief, should local residents become vigilanties and beat down random black folks? What if the victim had a firearm, and sprayed the assailants and unlucky pedestrians? Not a good scenario.

It's Not '86, Residents Say, Seeing a River of Blame That Flows Two Ways - New York Times

System architecting musings

Well, I have to make up for lost time, I've busy as a Hebrew slave these several days. I have not had very much time to drop jewelz on your melon. Best news would be that Summer classes will be done next week. Couldn't come a day too soon. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the mental stimulation, but the program has been zapping all of my energy. In fact, this compressed Summer session really wasn't much fun at all. For instance, we were tasked with designing concept for a human powered dragster, the event is sponsored by Red Bull and others.

Sounds cool huh, well one should understand that I am also taking a Project Management course too. Clearly, the business course will always be the saving grace, but it still is complete with reading assignments, team projects and other deliverables. Suffice to say, designing the dragster would be a royal PITA. A quick review of the dragster requirements reveals that there really are not that many constraints. Essentially, you have an open ended assignment, which opens up pandora's box. It was a team assignment, (which also offers its own set of challenges), and we had to write a paper and deliver a presentation. I was responsible for the benchmarking data for five subsystems (chassis, propulsion, braking, steering, and suspension). Performing the research was not too difficult, as the net has plenty of information about recumbent bikes/trikes. The only problem I experienced was collecting real world bike riding data. Actually, I could only time myself riding at a leisurely speed for 1/8mile. Additionally, I had to play host to my brother and nephew, who paid me a visit during the holiday weekend. So, naturally I couldn't do very much uninterrupted work.

I finally finished my writing portion on Sunday, and submitted to team members for peer review. We gave the presentation yesterday. The outcome was less than desired to put it mildly. Our instructors grilled us on what I would call semantics. They were not happy with us establishing up front design constraints that were not set forth by the customer (RedBull). I found it particularly annoying that we were not permitted to use our engineering judgement or expound on our heuristics, and fill in the blanks on a very open ended assignment. Moreover, our group presenter did not take the instructor feedback very well. The exchange became heated and not very productive. The instructors could have defused the matter by simply making their points and allowing us to proceed with our discussion. Instead, they tried in vain to convince us that we were poor architects and missed key points of the assignment. I think the constructive criticism would have been better received by talking to us as a group afterwards. In fairness to the instructors, they grilled another team for similar weaknesses (ie. estimating the benefit of one vs four riders, energy transfer riders to dragster).

In a nutshell, systems architecture is an art and as such lends itself to subjective reasoning. Everyone has a different idea about what is artistic and what is not. I don't think one could become a great systems architect in ten weeks. You enroll in a grad course to learn more of the specifics relative to the fundamental concepts or first principles. Clearly it could take a lifetime master the art of architecting.

No comparison

I'm not sure if the author is at all knowledgeable about the technology differences between Bittorrent and Kazaa.
Basically, its like comparing apple and oranges. Let me get my cluebat out and get warmed up. First Kazaa is not a protocol, it is merely a piece of software that uses the Fast Track protocol. Fast Track protocol is vulnerable to spoofing of files, due to the fact that the checksum and encryption schemas are quite poor. I'm sure that anyone who has used Kazaa can attest that you it is not uncommon that the content of files could be very different than what is expected. Additionally, the payload of the software is complete with crappy adware/spyware.

In contrast, BitTorrent is a robust filesharing protocol, which was designed to share pieces of large files in a distributed network. It is vastly superior to P2P tool in many respects:

• Encryption algorithm
• Checksum scheme
• Distribution method

I recommend that anyone who wishes to learn more about BitTorrent, check out the protocol developer, Bram Cohen's talk.

Blogcritics.org: Bit Torrent vs. Kazaa

USB MP3 car stereo

Just what I need to add to my wish list ;)

Boing Boing: USB MP3 car-stereo with SD reader

NYC2012 - tale of bid (Revisited)

It's official, NYC lost the opporunity to host the 2012 Olympics and probably will not make an attempt to lobby for the 2016 games. London was awarded the 2012 Games, unfortunately, their glee has now changed to sorrow. It's unlikely that the IOC would reverse their decision, in the aftermath of the horror that took place in the London.

London team shocked as blasts rip city

Not sure why NY failed in its attempt to host the 2012 games; however, I still assert that it would have been great for the country and the city. Some people suggest that New Yorkers were rather subdued about the prospects of having the Olympics in their backyard. Others point the finger at the confusion surrounding the failed West Side Stadium.

I suppose that the truth will forever be hidden, but according to Rep. Anthony Weiner, ``We don't need the reassurance from the International Olympic Committee or anyone else that New York is a world-class city,'' said U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democratic mayoral candidate, after London was awarded the games. ``We don't need to put New York on the map. It's already the center of the universe.''

Well perhaps we don't need to be so arrogant, but it would be nice to take a crack at the 2016 games.

New York: Disappointed but not devastated

Forewards - OPE

Are you down with OPE? Yeah, I know what the hell is he talking about now. Well let me do some explaining. Recently I scolded(albeit lightly) one of my friends regarding her use of 'Other Peoples E-mail'. I suppose one could go back to days when e-mail was a novelty (circa 1994) and people who weren't computer saavy still spent most of their time putting their thoughts on paper and writing letters. So, when non-technical folks, first discovered email, it was a medium for sending out chain letters and other trash that had very little use to anyone. Well fast foreward to the new millenium, and we still have people that would rather send out thoughts of others than their own. Not sure why this is so common. Perhaps its the relative ease at which you can click a button and send out the junk to sprawling mailing list of people. Maybe it's simply due to the fact it is so much easier to _not_ write any of your own thoughts and use that of others. Employing this strategy one could say, "I didn't write it, don't shoot me, shoot the messenger." I have often run into situations where someone was let's say compelled to respond to the entire list of people which originated from OPE.

So you end up with e-mail from people you don't know and subject matter that you really don't care to read. Another scenario is that the 'payload' of the message is approx 5MB in size. Granted there is probably a 50/50 split of broadband users to dial-up users. I discussed this idea in an earlier post. However, server disk space is also a consideration, in that huge attachments tend to play havoc with your inbox. It's not cool to rec'v OPE in place of some more meaningful e-mail. Still there are people who use dial-up. These folks get it the worst, they simply can't download anything and wind-up simply shutting down their modem.

What is one to do? You could simply delete messages from said person. Blacklisting also works well. Because most of you know me to be one who chooses to educate rather than simply disregard folks. If I care for you at all, I'll ask you about your choice of material, and beg you for an original thought. Yes, my honesty usually gets me into trouble, but I can't fake it. I'm real like that. If I didn't love you, I'd simply ignore you.

These days I sometimes cringe at giving out my e-mail address to random headz, as I strongly resist spam of all dimensions. Oh well, it probably will never end, but I feel so much better now.

Sista writers

I've never been a fan of fictional books, especially those which deal with romance or lack thereof. Actually, I got tricked into reading one such book. I joined a local book club, which was full of women. They decided that everyone should read "In Search of Satisfaction" by J. California Cooper. Surprisingly, I read the entire book, albeit begrudgingly. What a weird book. It was mixture of human tradegy and soap opera. Certainly not my cup of tea at all. I would rather read facts and stats, or something distinctly technical.

So it is no surprise that I have not been particularly enamored with writers like Terri McMillan. I had always thought her material to be myopic and too critical of black men. However, I do applaud her for opening doors for other black female authors. Apparently, there are others who seek to share the their experiences with majority audiences.

Pioneers Are Taking Black Chick Lit Into Middle Age - New York Times