It has been quite a busy summer. We have been the proud employers of 2 China interns and a minority partner in China, two summer programming interns, and one marketing intern. And earlier today we sent the last summer intern back home. We really enjoyed having Maksym and Oliver this summer, but goodness was it a lot of work! I have decided that contrary to previous estimations, being a boss is not all that great. Despite the fact that I get to talk to corporate, eat a bagel, turn into a jet, and bomb the russians, it's just a lot of work. I think I would rather be getting things done that constantly running around making sure that other people get their things done. It might be okay to be a boss if you don't have stuff you need to get done yourself. If your only responsibility is to make sure people are getting stuff done, that might be fun.
I have been investing more time in correspondences recently as well as part of my batched reading plan (talk to me sometime about it if you're curious). It's been nice to get back in touch with a lot of old friends. If you'd like to get back in touch via the snail mail of the internet (good old electronic mail) you should drop me a line.
That's it for now. Perhaps in the next week or so I'll write about my sweet new computer setup (2x 24" monitors baby!).
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Entering the Digital Age
About two weeks ago I left the stone age and got a Verizon Incredible with Android. My previous phone, fondly dubbed "that crappy black thing" was pitched, and I have been playing around with the new device slowly. It has so many features that I'm finding that it will take me a while to fully explore it which is a big change from my old brick of plastic.
It's got messaging, email, internet, a camera, access to the android store, turn-by-turn navigation, and it's FAST. I've been very impressed so far.
Because smart phones are so new, the pace of progress from one model to the next is absolutely blistering and it isn't at all uncommon for a phone no more than 6 months old to get bricked. I don't think smart phones have hit a plateau in terms of their sophistication, so I expect the next generation of Android phones to absolutely surpass this model and make it mind-blowingly obsolete. As such, I'm trying hard to enjoy being on the edge of tech innovation even if it only last for a few brief months.
One thing that is really impressive to me is how good the camera is. I can still remember buying a 4MP point-and-shoot back in high school and it cost $450. This little phone has a 8MP camera built in. And it actually seems to shoot pretty crisp photos provided enough light. The flash ain't that bad either. check out these few shots I've taken since getting it:
Clearly, I wouldn't throw out that point and shoot camera, but geez, this thing doesn't play around. It's got focus issues, the controls are a little wonky, and the image stabilization isn't great, but here I am critiquing little niggles. The thing has a camera that takes decent snapshots of everyday life, it's always in my pocket, and it's dead-simple to shoot.
I remember my mom telling me when I was in high school that when she could have a camera, computer, and phone in her pocket, she'd consider buying that device, well, it looks like that future is closer than she might have otherwise expected!
It's got messaging, email, internet, a camera, access to the android store, turn-by-turn navigation, and it's FAST. I've been very impressed so far.
Because smart phones are so new, the pace of progress from one model to the next is absolutely blistering and it isn't at all uncommon for a phone no more than 6 months old to get bricked. I don't think smart phones have hit a plateau in terms of their sophistication, so I expect the next generation of Android phones to absolutely surpass this model and make it mind-blowingly obsolete. As such, I'm trying hard to enjoy being on the edge of tech innovation even if it only last for a few brief months.
One thing that is really impressive to me is how good the camera is. I can still remember buying a 4MP point-and-shoot back in high school and it cost $450. This little phone has a 8MP camera built in. And it actually seems to shoot pretty crisp photos provided enough light. The flash ain't that bad either. check out these few shots I've taken since getting it:
Clearly, I wouldn't throw out that point and shoot camera, but geez, this thing doesn't play around. It's got focus issues, the controls are a little wonky, and the image stabilization isn't great, but here I am critiquing little niggles. The thing has a camera that takes decent snapshots of everyday life, it's always in my pocket, and it's dead-simple to shoot.
I remember my mom telling me when I was in high school that when she could have a camera, computer, and phone in her pocket, she'd consider buying that device, well, it looks like that future is closer than she might have otherwise expected!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A Trip, no dip, and a Successful Blog Post
So, since I split the two blogs, things have been going very well. The home of my old blog (A Separate Peace) received no less than 3,000 unique visitors from the last post about the referral system. Pretty good if I do say so myself.
I have just returned from a trip down to North CArolina to visit Becca. The trip went very well. It was supposed to be super-warm so that we could take advantage of her apartment complex's swimming pool, but the weather did not cooperate and we were actually a little chilly on Saturday. She says I brought the Ohio weather with me, but I think the weather in Raleigh is just regressing to the mean: if it's so nice all the other times I visit then surely it must get sucky sometimes.
While visiting Becca I got to reconnect with another good friend from Oberlin, Maria and her husband Brian. They both just got back from Japan and are soaking up the greatness of the good old US of A. I spoke with Maria for quite a bit about her trip, and she had a lot of interesting conclusions: Japanese people don't eat Sushi all the time (!!!), not all the students in Japan are crazily motivated to do well (!!!) and America cuisine (if there is such a thing) is better.
It's funny to me that they essentially became more Americanized as a result of their trip to Japan, but that's similar to what Ben Reitz says happened to his music tastes during his 2 years in China. According to Ben, the lack of violence in any of the Chinese media drove him to listen to hard core gangster rap.
Incidentally, I've just listened to Biggie Small's first album. I hate to be one of those retro come-late hipsters, but damn, he's got good flow.
I have just returned from a trip down to North CArolina to visit Becca. The trip went very well. It was supposed to be super-warm so that we could take advantage of her apartment complex's swimming pool, but the weather did not cooperate and we were actually a little chilly on Saturday. She says I brought the Ohio weather with me, but I think the weather in Raleigh is just regressing to the mean: if it's so nice all the other times I visit then surely it must get sucky sometimes.
While visiting Becca I got to reconnect with another good friend from Oberlin, Maria and her husband Brian. They both just got back from Japan and are soaking up the greatness of the good old US of A. I spoke with Maria for quite a bit about her trip, and she had a lot of interesting conclusions: Japanese people don't eat Sushi all the time (!!!), not all the students in Japan are crazily motivated to do well (!!!) and America cuisine (if there is such a thing) is better.
It's funny to me that they essentially became more Americanized as a result of their trip to Japan, but that's similar to what Ben Reitz says happened to his music tastes during his 2 years in China. According to Ben, the lack of violence in any of the Chinese media drove him to listen to hard core gangster rap.
Incidentally, I've just listened to Biggie Small's first album. I hate to be one of those retro come-late hipsters, but damn, he's got good flow.
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