Toronto pics

Nothing too remarkable here - and not much of a story to tell - however, I did want to get these pictures posted at some point. Basically, they're from Photonics North, albeit not the show itself. Ferry ride over, really, which was great! The boat runs smooth as can be, and it's FAST. Or, at least it feels really fast when you try to stand on the rear deck with the boat in motion. I can see how people might lose all sorts of things off the back of that boat (glasses, wallets, keys, friends...)

Here they are - inside the boat, outside the deck, through the front observation lounge, and a nice view of Toronto as we arrived:

M&Ms

I still need to post my fast ferry pics - which I'll do later - but in the mean time, just a quick observation. We have a "large" jar of M&Ms at our office for Javelin, Infotonics, and other folks to enjoy. I put large in quotes because I don't think there's a size large enough to satisfy everyone! I just took a small handful of them and realized I hate orange M&Ms. It's not that they don't taste exactly the same as all other M&Ms, I just don't like that color. They're the first ones I eat, too, so I don't have to look at them. I guess I can see why weirdo muscians demand bowl's of single colors before and after a show. Granted, that's absolutely insane, but they're musicians, and apparently allowed to be crazy-go-nuts.

Anywho, that also got me to thinking about the worst experience from my Vegas trip - the M&Ms Store. Holy shit, what a pain in the ass THAT was. I like M&Ms, but to have a whole store dedicated to them? Filled with plush dolls, games, shot glasses and other crap? Yeah, yeah, yeah.... I collect COINS, for cryin' out loud, so how's that any different. I guess it's the FRENZIED INSANITY of the store. There are four or five floors (I forget the exact number) and each floor is filled with FRENZIED PEOPLE. Kids and adults going crazy - like all this shit is going to disappear into the ether if they don't get their hands on it NOW. Not too mention, the over priced "special" colors of M&Ms you can only get THERE. Lines of people demanding their special colored M&Ms (is that politically correct? can I call M&Ms 'colored'?). I was waiting for Rob to buy his stuff and it was nearly impossible to even find one place to stand and not totally be in the way of other folks desperately trying to buy their M&M memorabilia.

I might be going a little overboard here, but the experience was so unpleasant, I'm thinking of only buying Reece's Pieces from now on. Is there a Reece's Store somewhere that can ruin that for me too? Perhaps I should stick with Neco Waffers - everybody hates those.

Ignore that last post... except for the calendar part

Well, as of today, Jason is no longer at R-Surplus. I won't really go into it, as the guy who runs it is a friend, but needless to say, it wasn't working out for Jason. So, you can pretty much ignore that piece of the below post. On the other hand, be SURE to go to Fybush.com to check out the North East Radio Watch and buy your own copy of the 2006 Tower Site Calendar. It's the perfect present for someone, um, who, um..... yeah.... Well, buy one anyway!

Ok.... now, what else to talk about? Going to Toronto on the fast ferry on Monday morning! We're going up for Photonics North which will be held at the Toronto Congress Centre. It'll also be the official launch of a new group that Javelin is managing called the International Photonics Commercialization Alliance. What is the IPCA? Well, it's essentially an alliance of clusters and other industry groups, as well as researchers in the area of photonics and optics. The purpose of the group is really to encourse the commercialization of new photonics technologies. That means finding industry partners, assisting in patents, licensing, venture capital, SBIRs/STTRs, etc. Should be an interesting endeavor.

While we're talking about SBIRs, just submitted my first one for Javelin with a lot of help from some great folks at Infotonics. It's a USDA sponsored SBIR to do a feasibility study in developing a "MEMS-Safe" brand for organic foods utilizing microsystems technologies to track and trace these organic goods. It's kindof unlikely that we'll win on our first try, but it's definately good practice. I'm now working on our second one - it's through the Department of Energy and has to do with managing data and facilitating the decision making process for businesses, not-for-profits, and research institutions. The primary focus of these SBIRs, however, is that the technology proposed can be commercialized in three years or less. As it's a software solution, that's no problem.

That's about it for now. I'll post some pics from our ferry ride and Photonics North.

New Tower Site Calendar - 2006!!!

For all of you radio fanatics out there - not the kind who just like to LISTEN to radio, but also love radio towers - good buddy Scott Fybush has released the 2006 Tower Site Calendar. Go to THIS PAGE to purchase your own copy. I have all of them from past years - and you should too!

And, while we're pimping out friends, be sure to go to R-Surplus to either buy company surplus, or, if you ARE a business with a ton of stuff just lying around and you're looking to get rid of it, use their service!

Hmmmm... let's see... who else? Well, there's Javelin Associates, but we're too hip for a website of our own.

New Digital Cameras

Cameras and printers, that is. I'm on the brink of buying a Kodak camera and printer after the announcements from the last couple days from Kodak. Yesterday, Kodak announced the launch date that you can buy the new EASYSHARE-ONE. Here are the specs:

4.0 MP and KODAK Color Science Chip

SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH C-VARIOGON 3X Optical Zoom Lens

256 MB internal memory* stores up to 1500 favorite pictures

3.0 in. (7.6 cm) share-friendly, rotating touch screen and stylus

Wireless for instant sharing

Controls to create pictures and video just the way you want

PRICE: $599

(A little pricey for only 4.0MP, why does Kodak always get something wrong? 5.0 is like the damn STANDARD these days, and that 1MP might make the difference between someone buying it or something else!)

And, here are the pictures:





For me, I love the idea of being able to wirelessly transmit my pics from the camera to my computer from anywhere that's got WiFi. Possible applications? Well, I have a wireless network in my house which also covers my whole yard - I'm outside, snapping pictures, send them up to the computer from there and I don't have to bother doing it manually. Seems like a good idea to me.

But what I like even more are the new EASYSHARE printers that have universal compatibility and have WiFi capability. Right now, whenever I print pictures, it's kindof a crapshoot as to what the output is going to be. Usually what happens is I get my settings fucked up, and I end up with terrible quality images printed out. Personally, I like the idea of being able to print my pictures and put them in a damn PHOTO ALBUM (I know, what a concept!). A photo album is easy to show to people, the images themselves don't degrade for quite some time, and it's a nice backup to having your pictures all on your hard drive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all supposed to back up our drives, but how many people actually do it? (Except maybe Benesch - got to have a reason to have all those terrabytes of storage space, right?)

To help me expedite the process of having high quality images, which I can show to grandma, who, quite frankly, has no interest seeing these images on my laptop, Kodak came out with the EASYSHARE Photo Printer 500. Here's the picture:



Looks pretty cool to me.... here are the specs:

Large 3.5 in. (8.9 cm) LCD screen

Print from digital media cards and USB devices

Features KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology

Red eye reduction

Wireless capability (Wi-Fi ready*, BLUETOOTH® wireless technology enabled)

Compatible with PictBridge-enabled digital cameras

Four print sizes and four color modes

PRICE: $249.00

Yeah, I know, printers are cheap these days, but I'd rather pay more to be sure that I get images that are any good! Anyway, just my thoughts for now... I'm sure they'll change later. I'd just like to actually buy something make by Kodak. Is there something inherently wrong with that?!

The NFL COULD be the stupidest organization in the world

DATELINE SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - The Saints will head to San Antonio after their preseason game against the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 1 because most of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Tens of thousands of refugees from the storm have been staying at the Superdome, but officials said they would have to evacuate as flood water continues to rise. The storm ripped two holes in the curved roof of the building. The team is still uncertain whether the Superdome will be ready for its home opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 18.

WHAT THE FUCK?! The team is STILL UNCERTAIN?! Let's see.... hundreds, maybe thousands are dead. Around five million people were without power. Eighty-percent of the city was flooded. The levees are broken and the water levels are rising. Thousands upon thousands of people are without homes, cars, supplies, water, food and the like. And the fucking NFL won't say today that the team won't play at the Superdome? Do they have a problem with oxygen reaching their brain? OF COURSE THEY'RE NOT PLAYING AT THE SUPERDOME IN TWO WEEKS!!!

Is the NFL so stupid, or conceited, or both, to think that they will be playing football there? This is like if the NFL had their main offices in the World Trade Centers and on September 11th, say, 20 minutes after the attack, the NFL makes a statement that the office might have to relocate tomorrow. If the Superdome sunk into the ocean, would they try to play under water? These guys are so self important that it makes me sick.

D&C Troubles

UPDATE: This is as good as it gets! http://www.rbj.net/fullarticle.cfm?sdid=56591.... this was just published a few minutes ago.


Does anyone else in Rochester think this is nuts? http://rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS01/508250328

I've heard about the rift between the union and the D&C for years, but it must have just really hit me that they've now gone 13 years without a contract. THIRTEEN YEARS???? Doesn't this harken back to a time when US Presidents inserted themselves into these kinds of labor disputes? Reagan and the air traffic controllers? Or Clinton and the MLB? There must be some way to resolve this labor dispute. Clearly negotiations are not "in good faith" as Thomas Flynn suggests. If they were, perhaps there'd have been some conclusion to this, oh, say, a decade ago!

I have a buddy who's a local and national news nut - yup Scott, that's you - who's been keeping me informed on this for years, but I've only paid coursery attention to it at the most. But I think the D&C, by running the story in the first place, has finally caught my attention. There are no labor disputes that cannot be resolved. There is some give and take in every negotiation. Scott suggests that it's up to the subscriber base of the D&C to cancel their subscriptions and write to the paper letting them know that it's because of the labor dispute that they're cancelling. That may be a good solution, but would enough people actually care to do it?

Would a resolution of the labor dispute lead to higher quality reporting in the pages of the D&C? I tell you what, that's something that would grab MY attention. Most Sundays for me are spent first reading the D&C Sunday paper and realizing how mediocre it is. I then usually hop in the car, head over to Wegmans and pick up a bagel and a copy of the New York Times. I spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon sitting outside with my coffee, bagel, and NY Times and read it almost from front to back! I then think to myself, "Why is the D&C such a crappy paper in comparison?! Why do they even get the comics section wrong!? We're a good sized city with lots of stuff going on... maybe if they raised the price a nickel?"

I've also gotten into the habit of reading The Buffalo News on occasion, and their local news coverage is far superior. Their editoral section is better, and I'd say it's more broadly based in terms of opions expressed. Now granted, their a far more independent organizations, but shouldn't the D&C - founded by Frank Gannett - the former headquarters of one of the biggest newspaper companies in the world - be one of the best small market papers in the world? With our educated workforce, and with the proliferation of the internet and information, isn't there more that could be written that isn't included in the D&C already? I ask you!

Vegas trip, et al

Well, right after I posted that last weblog entry we got an announcement that the flight was delayed because of "bad weather in Chicago." Riiiiight.... let's see... thanks to the WiFi at the airport, and weather.com, I immediately checked the weather which was basically nice. So, immediately I knew United was lying to me. Oh well... perhaps I'd be spending the night in Chicago? We did get back on track about and hour-and-a-half late, and once on the place got the straight story. Apparently there were air traffic control problems. The captain added that is was windy in Chicago (imagine that!) and that they were only using two runways. But the real problems were technical. Add to that they had issues with an airshow that was being held over the weekend with a couple jets accidentally touching wings, and some pieces falling off, and that couldn't have helped.

Just one more comment about the flight, before I post the pics, but I decided to listen to the flightdeck through the headsets they give you. Very interested stuff. I don't know what many of the acronyms mean, but as we were flying over Buffalo, control said something wasn't working and the response from the plane was "Oh God!" Yeah. That's really what you want to hear!

Anyway, here's the photos!

First off... if you ever get the chance to drive from Rochester to Tucson a word of advice: DON'T. Granted, I guess it's better than being at work, but 15 hours of driving per day, stops for gas and generally mediocre food, and an aching back sure don't make for a fun time. I tried listening to local radio shows throughout the trip and ironically, some of the funniest stuff was heard as we were driving through BUFFALO. The rest of the country has something in common... here's a picture to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:



Yes people, that's purportedly the world's largest CROSS. The farther away from civilization you get, the more religion you drive by. There was one stretch where Rob and I counted a half dozen churches in probably only 30 miles. Not small churches, but these enormous houses of God. When we didn't see churches, we saw the following:




Yup, lots of billboards. I thought this one was particularly interesting. Fireworks and pancakes. How can you go wrong? The other picture came out really nice, and I think was taken while driving through New Mexico. Actually, that pic is much better than most of the rest of the ride. We had overcast skys from Rochester to just about New Mexico. It's just that the land was very bare.

Now, onto the more fun stuff. For instance, here's a couple pics of the strip from around New York, New York, and the Star Trek Experience:







That Star Trek Experience is amazing! Anyone who's a, um, nerd like me, will love it. If you're not a ST fan, you'll find this whole thing ridiculous. When you're standing in line to enter and a Ferengi pushes his way through the line to cut to the front, and think this is perfectly normal, you know you're a ST fan. I also got the obligatory picture of myself sitting in the captain's chair which I'll scan and post later. Also got to go into the Borg assimilation chamber, though I didn't get my picture taken in it. Oh yeah, and the Klingon ride is great, unless you get motion sickness easily. I do. Hell, I get sick reading in the car! But it was still really amazing. The Borg 4D thing was cool, but it seemed too short, or was generally lacking something. But I still highly recommend it. Even had a drink at "Quarks," though nothing with alcohol as it was AFTER the Klingon ride and I was still feeling like making my own gagh right on the bar.

More to come later!

Vegas Trip Nearly Over

Well, I'm sitting here in the airport waiting to board my flight back to Rochester (via Chicago) watching folks get off the plane. I know this is a bass-ackwards way of posting about my Vegas trip, but unfortunately, I stayed at a, um, classic Vegas hotel which apparently hasn't figured out wi-fi for all the hotel rooms yet. Ironically, in the middle of nowhere in Missouri, I had BETTER access to wireless. But the Vegas airport seems to be doing quite well.

Anyway, as soon as I'm back in town and have a moment to reflect on this whole trip - including such exciting times as driving from Rochester to Tucson - something EVERYONE should do at least once - to driving from Tucson to Vegas, and then all the nifty stuff we saw, did, and ate. I wish I had carried my camera more, but it's a little too large to comfortably carry with me all the time. Guess it's time to pick up a new pocket-sized digital camera.

Anyway, we're boarding soon, so I'll post this and get some pics up later. Cheers!

Here's some pics from our big night, albeit without it going until like 4am (if you're a fan of foodie movies, you'll know the reference). Pics of Julie, myself, Chris, Rob and Chastity. This was the big fancy meal before our trip to Arizona. See how nice Rob and Chastity look together? And WHY exactly is he moving? Oh well... gotta get it out of his system I guess! Anyway, enjoy the photos below... and be sure to look for pics from our across country drive. I'm waiting to see if we have any interesting chase pics... running away from locals who want to lynch us, or local police who want to throw us in jail in return for massive bribes, and I'm sure the many beautiful places that make up America!

Jason as Arbiter Bibendi, last quiz for Rob (at least for a while)

Below are pics from this past Monday's quiz over at the Old Toad. We did pretty well, something like 12 out of 20. We always think we should have more, but it's usually a crapshoot. If we're lucky, we guess right from time to time. Anyway, the pics below show Jason reading, Jason with the Toad's manager, Jules, Jason with the winner of the quiz, and a couple pics of the group... including a none too flattering pic of Rob and Chris which I think Rob will be demanding I take down! Of course, if he hadn't kicked my ass in poker during my bachelor party, I might consider it. But at this time, he's SOL. Then again, he did get me a bunch of really nice cigars... and we're going to Vegas next week (after driving to Arizona) so maybe he'll get crushed in REAL gambling.

Jason's link fixed...

Hmmmm.... well, i left off a "t" in Jason's blog address.... it should work now, if anyone's interested!

Insert Title Here

First off, you HAVE to read my brothers first weblog entry. It's at jasongott666.blogspot.com. Really funny stuff. It's a run down of a recent interchange of emails between himself and this weird'o girl on Friendster. I think I started to create a Friendster page, but frankly, it requires a little more effort than I'm willing to put in these days. I think just doing occasional weblog entries is remarkable.

It's Sunday, around 12:45pm as I'm writing this. I just spent the last couple hours sitting in my backyard reading The New York Times as well as various pieces of the D&C. Joining me, my papers, and coffee, was a neighborhood mystery cat who hopped up on my lap for about an hour and purred. She was very friendly, and maybe I'll get a picture if she ever comes back. I think she's a Mainecoon cat, as she is very large, but looks like she could stand to eat a bit more. Then again, that's hard to judge as my own cat is so, um, mildly overweight!

I have to say, on days like this, it's nice to just sit outside and enjoy the outdoors - even if I'm just sitting on my ass reading the paper. Julie and I are thinking that next year's project will be having a stone patio installed in the backyard. Then, I'll extend the garden to be right up against the patio. We're also looking to add some privacy back there, particularly as our neighbor's house on the other side (not the new house next door) is kindof an eyesore. Big leafy bushes should take care of that, so long as I can thin out the trees hanging over the yard enough to let in at least two hours of light daily.

I'm sure there'll be plenty of progress photos as that project progresses. In the meantime, I think I'll head back out and get some photos. Of what? I'm not sure. But I haven't really gotten a lot of use of my digital camera. Of course, my bachelor party was last night, so I MIGHT have taken some pictues then, but of course not! Oh well... All I can say is, thank god we've hired a professional photographer for the wedding, or we might miss out on documenting it as well.

Wedding registry

Well, lo-and-behold! Our wedding is now less than three months away and we're sooooooo organized that we even have our wedding registry basically done. In fact, here's a link to them!

The first is at: www.crateandbarrel.com

The second is at: www.bedbathandbeyond.com

Feel more than free to go to either one of them and buy us something! Hey! I'm not against begging! I figure most people, however, are as lazy as me and will wait till the last possible second to even THINK about getting anything. Here's a friendly reminder that your friends Julie and Dave are getting married! And what better way to celebrate that than with a coffee maker? Or some nice China, perhaps?

New desk, nice garden, new house next door

Well, I can finally post the pics I wanted to. It only took about two weeks to figure it out. First of all, much to the delight of Julie - as my shit is no longer all over the floor - I have a desk! In fact, here's a picture of it:

Isn't it great? Well, maybe not great, but at least it's a lot better than what I WAS using - a two foot high side table that just barely held my monitor.

Additionally, I wanted to upload a few pics of our garden! These pics were taken a couple weeks ago, when the lillies still had flowers on them. They're in much sadder shape today, but that's why we take pictures!




So, without further ado, here's a couple images from the garden. I think the fact that merely one year ago there was only dead shit here, this is a HUGE improvement:











There are a few more images, but they're not as interesting. Unless you'd like to see pictures of my tomato plants, but I think if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Of course, the first are brandywine variety, which is a little esoteric as tomatoes go, so maybe once some of them start to ripen, I'll post those images here.







Last but not least, the new house next door. As you may know, when we bought our house, there was an empty lot next door. Everyone we knew said, "There's no way someone will build a house there! That lot is tiny! They'd be CRAZY to build a $120,000 house on a street of $85,000 houses!" Well, aparently, someone was out there who wanted to go against common sense, and built a house. Personally, I would have really liked to have grown all sorts of vegitables on the lot. I had planned to grow lots of vine plants there - zucchini and pumpkins mostly. Oh well... I just hope the neighbor is a reasonable person, or else up goes the 25 foot fence! Here's the house:


That's it for me for a little while.... gotta enjoy seeing all these lovely pictures posted online! Woo-hoo!

Fat cat

See my cat? Isn't she fat?

Actually, I don't want to pick on my cat, here, but I finally figured out what the problem was with uploading pics to blogger.... you need to have file extensions in the names so blogger KNOWS what you're trying to upload!

So, with that... let me try and do the weblog entry I WANTED to do in the FIRST PLACE!

Blogger is annoying me

Well, this post WAS going to be titled: "New Desk, Nice Garden, New House Next Door" because I *thought* I was going to be able to upload picture via the new blogger images tool. However, each time I tried to upload images the thing would fail. I thought it might have been a problem was Safari, so I tried Explorer. Explorer sucks so bad that I didn't even see the icon for the image upload. Then I tried Foxfire. Foxfire got me the furthest without either crashing or just not letting me even have the option of uploading images, but the system still refused to take pics. I tried big file sizes, small file sizes and neither worked. UGH.

Yeah yeah, I know, I could just upload my pics to one of my regular websites, like, for instance, www.TrainingRochester.com, but then I have to take up my own space for pics that are supposed to be hosted for FREE on Blogger!!! I'd use my coin club website, but the folks who host it don't reply to emails anymore, so I can even access the server right now. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Oh well... guess I'll just have to wait and try this again later when I'm less annoyed. I DO in fact have some very nice pics of my new desk, garden, and neighbors' house, but you'll just have to imagine them for now.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ah! Gotta get a scream out now and then. Things are sooooooo busy that I shouldn't even be writing this right now, but if I don't take a break my brain will explode. Granted, I just did the math on my training program and I'm feeling MUCH better as I wasn't sure how many course offerings we were going to have, but it looks like right now I have about 20 trainers offering about 130 courses. There might be more, or fewer than that, but it's about right.

Addendum

http://rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050708/BUSINESS/307080001

Harris RF/Communications to add 150 jobs in Rochester. Must say, this is all really good stuff. Now, hopefully, Infotonics will get some major projects we've been working on and we can add some additional good news to the local economic outlook.

Disappointment

This past weekend was full of disappointment and, um, appointment? I had a great time this weekend at Conesus Lake. Julie's friend Don's parents have a lake house down there and we went for Ring Of Fire and fireworks. Spent most of the day there and had a great time! This was just before Don and Julie left for Arizona where Don is moving to take a job. Interestingly enough, I'm also going to do practically the same roadtrip with Rob Labowitz when he moves to Arizona.

Anyway, the lake was great. Also, the 4th of July was fantastic... other than a little rain. Went to Tim and Darlene Corio's place in the early afternoon, then spent the evening down at George's house. We ended up going to Highfalls to watch the laser lightshow and the downtown fireworks. Saw those from the roof of the Highfalls parking garage which was excellent!

And, prior to all this, had a fun night over at Rob and Chris' apartment for a little cookout on Friday night. Just your traditional hot dogs, hamburgers, et al. I also make an giant fruit salad and some jambalya. Everything got eaten, so it must have been good.

Now onto the disappointments of the past week. I think it all started at Schaller's, which I mentioned in the last post. Well, it extended into Saturday when I went to my 10-year highschool reunion. I have a bunch of issues with it. First, it cost $40 per person. Now, that's not terrible, but that's only when you think you're getting a buffet dinner. Um, well, they didn't make their numbers (in fact, weren't even close) so they cancelled the dinner portion. Oh, but no refunds! In fact, I got pulled into buy $10 worth of 50/50 tickets which they were selling to cover even more of the cost. UGH!!!! The food was pretty good, but not as advertised. They had a DJ who was TERRIBLE. He played all this music from the 70s and 80s... apparently confused that this was the class of 1995, not 1985.

The other thing that got to me was the people that were there. Other than about 5 guys (who all happen to still be in town, and I run into from time to time) the rest were folks I had little interest in speaking to. I would have hoped that some of the people I really enjoyed would have been there, but alas, they apparently had more important things to do. (Read that as: Jeff, Andy, Chris P., Karl, Larry, Ian, Chris N., Chen-Lin, Craig, etc., etc., etc.)

So, that was really a disappointment. Not to mention, the planning of the thing was marginal at best. I've done dozens of events in Rochester and I KNOW I could have done better. Granted, we're all busy, and working, but for $50 a person, I could have had an AMAZING party!

I think I'm going to plan a 13 year reunion... just for the hell of it. Very impromtu and with little overhead. If people want to come, they should come, but I'm not going to force them to send a check. Of course, an RSVP would be good, but nothing else. Guess I'd better start building a database of contact information soon. I'd bet I can collect a pretty accurate database of all the 1995 alumni even if that means doing individual searchs for folks on Google, or Anywho, or whatever.

Oh yeah, but before then, perhaps I'd better get cracking on getting my wedding invite list finalized! If Julie gets home from Arizona and I've done nothing, she will probably KILL ME!