Sam I am

City Opera at the River to River festival

2009-06-29T00:44:00.004-04:00

The New York City Opera performed at South Street Seaport on Saturday as part of the River to River festival. The weather was perfect and the opera was fantastic.

[Linked to larger version]

Photos of a man and a tank

2009-06-04T15:46:00.002-04:00

This year, to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, the New York Times has coverage of the photographers who took the photos of the man confronting a tank. Four different photographers captured the iconic confrontation. They also have coverage of a fifth photographer, Terril Jones, who recently released his photos taken at ground level.

Sam Calagione talk at Google

2009-05-21T13:37:00.002-04:00

Last month, I wrote about seeing Sam Calagione talk at Google. His talk has been posted on YouTube. I quite enjoyed the talk: Authors@Google: Sam Calagione.

You can hear my question and his response at 46:06.

Sunset on the promenade

2009-04-18T21:43:00.002-04:00

Spring sprung into action today in Brooklyn and high 70s were an invitation to relax. I strolled down to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and was stunned by the colors of sunset.

Electric sky

2009-03-29T21:24:00.004-04:00

A thunderstorm buffeted the New York City region this evening and lightning flashed across the sky.

Hour of Darkness

2009-03-29T21:20:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday, New York City dimmed the lights of many buildings as a statement towards conserving energy. It was very strange to see the Brooklyn Bridge unlit.

Sarah and I were hanging out in DUMBO. For some reason, it was like I was seeing double.

Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head

2009-03-29T21:02:00.002-04:00

I recently went to a talk by Sam Calagione, the president and founder of Dogfish Head. Dogfish Head is a small craft brewery based in Delaware. It was accompanied by a small selection of some of their beers; I had tastes of their 60-Minute IPA, Midas Touch, Palo Santo Marron, and Raison D'Etre. These were all well-balanced beers; my favorite was the Midas Touch. I've enjoyed Dogfish Head beers for years, I still remember tasting their Punkin Ale years ago in a mid-Atlantic brewing festival in Northern Virginia.

The lecture did not disappoint: Sam Calagione touched on all aspects of his business, including going through the background of several of his beers, discussing the business of craft breweries, and speculating on the future of his business. He was the subject of a profile in the New Yorker in late November of 2008. In the article, Garret Oliver, the brewer at Brooklyn Brewery was quoted as saying of Dogfish Head's 120-Minute IPA, "I don’t find it pleasant to drink [...] I find it unbalanced and shrieking." During the Q&A portion of the talk, I asked about the quote, and Sam was nothing but gracious. Sam noted that he felt craft brewers should generally support each other, and that part of the craft brewing movement is drinking what you like and not dictating what others should like. He also noted that he and Garrett were on good terms and regularly exchanged beer.

Hopefully the talk will be posted on YouTube, and I'll be able to share a link.

I am proud to say I am a beer geek, and here is a geeky photo of me with Sam Calagione.

Sign of the times

2009-03-26T13:31:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's New York Times Dining In/Dining Out section, aka the food section, had eight pages. Excluding advertisements by and for the New York Times, there was a single full page display advertisement and two small display classified advertisements. If that doesn't make the Times management a little nervous, I don't know what does.

In other New York Times Dining News, Kim Severson and Julia Moskin had dueling dinner parties to see who could cook the best meal. Frank Bruni, the restaurant critic for the Times was the judge. Unfortunately, in a non-critical piece, he ultimately weaseled. Unsurprisingly, it's more difficult to criticize people you know and work with than it is to visit restaurants anonymously and potentially destroy their livelihoods with your critiques.

Visiting Mystery Point

2009-03-22T22:39:00.002-04:00

When I visit my friends Phil and Karen in Garrison, New York, one of my favorite places to hike is Mystery Point. It's a small piece of land the juts out into the Hudson around 10 minutes north of Bear Mountain Bridge.

I've visited Mystery Point in the past few months. One of my visits was December 27 of last year. The tide at Mystery Point was very low, and the water level was very low. December 27 was relatively warm, but the ground was still covered with snow.

A light haze covered the water, and you could see it accumulate as you looked into the distance.

Every now and then you see odd artifacts; this hook was embedded into a large boulder at Mystery Point. Was it used to dock small boats? Was it part of a larger structure? Around 100-200 yards north of Mystery Point is a loading dock; perhaps this was part of that infrastructure.

Even in the middle of winter, there are splashes of bright colors all around Mystery Point. The bright red flowers seemingly pop out of the middle of boulders. Mushrooms and other fungi abound.

My friend Anne frequently hikes up to Phil and Karen's house.

Phil has been doing quite a bit of hiking--I think he wants to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in New York.

Karen, Anne and Phil on the goat trail next to Mystery Point.

Tilt-shift effects can sometimes be fun....

I went back up to Mystery Point last weekend. Spring has already arrived at Mystery Point, yet it was a bit surprising how much the weather, water, and land resembled the weather of late December.

Wildlife abounds at Mystery Point. My friend Kathy took a fantastic photo of an immature bald eagle on the Hudson next to our friends' house. She was also kind enough to lend me her camera for this most recent trip since I had left mine at home. One of the signs that Spring was arriving were the large number of red-winged blackbirds migrating back. They had a distinctive call and a stunningly sharp and bright swatch of red and yellow on a black body.

Metro North and Amtrak share a train line that runs parallel to the Hudson. Near Mystery Point is a bridge where you can see the train motoring North and South. I created two stop-motion images of both trains: Stop motion #1 of train next to the Hudson Stop motion #2 of train next to the Hudson. Of course, I also have the individual photos that made each video.

Foie Gras, San Francisco eats, and me

2009-03-07T23:42:00.002-05:00

I returned from San Francisco last week. I've been to the Bay Area almost four of the past eight weeks; I'm getting to know my new coworkers at Google. While Google is based in Mountain View, I prefer to stay in San Francisco. It's reminiscent of home.

One of the places I ate in San Francisco the first time I visited this year was Incanto, Chris Cosentino's shrine to offal meats. My friends and I had a fine time at his Noe Valley restaurant. This past visit I stopped by Boccalone, Cosentino's meat shop in the San Francisco Ferry Building. I purchased a brown sugar and fennel salame. While I had some of it in San Francisco, I brought the rest of it to my friend Phil and Karen's house. (Happy Birthday Karen!) The salame is chewy and has a strong fennel flavor. The sugar helps balance the strong flavors of the cure and fennel.

Today, I was reading Chris Cosentino's blog post about receiving a letter from anti-foie gras folks. He and his business partner, Mark Pastore, discussed the letter, and Mark wrote a thoughtful note on the foie gras debate on the Incanto web site. It's well written, and I agree with the gist of the letter.

If you get out to San Francisco, I recommend checking out Incanto and Boccalone. The folks that work at both restaurants are passionate about the food they make and serve, and it shines in the flavor of the food and experience of dining and shopping.

Children love chocolate and so do I

2009-03-05T00:42:00.004-05:00

When I visited Seattle in December, I was lucky to be able to take a tour of Theo Chocolate, an artisanal chocolate maker in the Fremont neighborhood. The previous time I visited Seattle, I had tried to go with my godson and his family, but we were unable to get tickets.

There is a waiting room and retail area in the front of the chocolate factory. In this image, Samuel, my godson, and Jen, my godson's mother hang out in the front of the store.

The front room offers samples of all of their chocolate bars. Samuel enjoyed having chocolate as we waited for the tour to start. Everyone must wear a hairnet on the factory floor.

There are frequently people who reserve a space on the tour and don't show up; Dan, Roan, and Audryn were able to join us at the last second.

Theo uses fair-trade and organic chocolate beans to make their chocolate. They produce confections from the bean to the bar. It's fairly uncommon for a confectioner to make chocolate from the beginning to the end--most vendors focus either on making chocolate or on making confections. My understanding is that even Jacques Torres, perhaps the best confectioner in New York City, uses couverture for his bon-bons despite producing his own chocolate bars from beans.

Theo regularly visits their cacao manufacturers to make sure that they are adhering to fair-trade and organic standards.

The staff at Theo take quality control seriously. While it's always important to have strong quality control, it's especially important at Theo since they produce such small batches of chocolate. In the photo, you can see the device that is used to split the cacao beans in half and inspect the contents. Beans that do not make the cut for Theo but are still good enough to be used for larger production lines may be sold to other chocolate manufacturers.

What was striking to me about the factory floor at Theo was that it was actually a factory with heavy manufacturing equipment. While roasting the cacao bean may seem similar to roasting a coffee bean, the process is very different. As distinct from coffee beans, the cacao bean will be processed much more than just a simple roast and grind. Impressively, the factory floor and equipment were spotless. I almost thought there would be a secret door where the "real" grimy, noisy factory was kept. But the one I saw was clearly not for show.

While bars are produced using another machine, the individual bon-bons (or truffles) may be produced by hand. There is another room beyond the factory store where people work to temper the chocolate and create bon-bons.

Everyone had a great time at Theo Chocolates. This photo of Andrew, Samuel's father; Jen; and Samuel was taken just outside of the factory.

I left Seattle the day after the chocolate factory tour; I had a great time there. It gets damp in Seattle, and the dew clings to the leaves of a sage plant in front of Samuel's house in the morning.

Public relations in action

2009-03-05T00:20:00.005-05:00

I read quite a few food blogs (see the list next to my blog on the right). Recently, I noted that one blog I was reading was plugging Anthony Bourdain's show, No Reservations, on a regular basis. The descriptions were always written in the first person, but then I noticed in the comments that the author stated he was simply publishing exactly what he received from the producers of the show. I had a hunch and decided to do a quick search for some key phrases, like "rides in a tri-shaw."

Some of the bloggers I noticed quoted the blurb from the producers as a true quote, others ran the blurb as their own post, and others created their own copy but used supplied phrases. If you have time, check out some of the posts to see what I mean:

I think finding posts like this illustrates how carefully one needs to read what people write. You never know if someone is merely republishing a press release, or even worse, regurgitating a press release without citing the original sources. I would be more inclined to watch the show if I thought people were giving passionate, true opinions.

Ironically, I'm pushing up the search rankings and readership of these blogs by linking to them.

Email down

2009-03-02T00:32:00.005-05:00

My website and email provider, Dreamhost, is having issues delivering email; I haven't received anything in the last 12 hours. If you need to reach me, you can contact me at <first initial><lastname>@gmail.com or via Facebook instead. If it isn't fixed at Dreamhost within 24 hours, I'll be switching email providers. Don't throw away that unhinged.org or samgreenfield.com address!

UPDATE: of course immediately after making this post, my email started working again. Please continue to use my standard email addresses.

Alpha Geek

2009-02-28T16:09:00.004-05:00

I just watched last week's episode of Battlestar Galactica on hulu.com on my San Francisco to JFK flight on Virgin America using wireless ethernet from Gogo Inflight Internet at 37,000 feet.

Zig Zag World Spice Salumi Sunset Seattle

2009-02-28T13:47:00.000-05:00

I try to travel to Seattle at least once per year. There are at least a dozen or more friends of mine who ended up in Seattle for one reason or another, and it's always a pleasure to see them. I'm always amazed by how quickly time passes--until I just did the math right now, I didn't realize that I've known many of my Seattle friends for almost twenty years!

I flew to Seattle from Las Vegas for $80 on Virgin America. It's unclear to me how Virgin America is making money. The flight was terrific, but it was also only half full. I had to switch planes in San Francisco, but I didn't mind. I enjoy Virgin America's flights.

I visited Seattle well before their terrible winter storms that shut down most of the city--if anything, it was unseasonably warm, pleasant, and dry. Seattle rarely has the torrential downpours of the northeast, but it frequently is covered by a gray, steady misty drizzle of rain that manages to float underneath any rain coat or umbrella. Which is why many Seattle residents never carry an umbrella.

One of the places I visited in Seattle was the Zig Zag Café. Several folks had recommended I go there, including Jim Meehan from PDT and Eryn Reece formerly with Bar Milano. The Zig Zag Café is located on the hill between the Public Market and Elliott Bay, just next door to a taqueria and downstairs from where the Spanish Table used to be. (Hey, if you know the shops near Pike Place Market, it's a perfectly good description.) Jim specifically told me to be on the look out for Murray Stenson, an award-winning friendly and talented bartender. He wasn't there the first evening I visited, so I spent some time chatting with one of the other bartenders who worked there and Kacy Fitch, one of the owners. It's an elegant dimly lit bar with a tremendous selection of liquors, beers, and cocktails. There are many tables, but it's a popular spot and fills up quickly. The staff is warm, friendly, and unpretentious.

Of course, I had to visit the Zig Zag Café a second time to see Murray. It was worth the second trip out there. Even though the place was packed, Murray took the time to say hello and recommend some other good restaurants in the area. I was walking around the waterfront area before going to Zig Zag, and I saw one of the most spectacular sunsets I had ever seen in Seattle. Friends of mine who were out agreed that it was a rare sight.

While I was in the Pike Place Market, I stopped by World Spice Merchants. World Spice Merchants has been featured on television shows like Alton Brown's Good Eats. They have a very large selection of teas and spices; in addition to their retail and mail-order businesses, they also supply restaurants around the Seattle area. I feel that the folks there are more knowledgeable and passionate than the folks who work at a typical Penzey's retail outfit. And that's saying a lot: the folks at Penzey's are smart and dedicated.

From a food perspective, no trip to Seattle would be complete without a trip to Salumi next to Pioneer Square. Salumi is a salumeria, a place where meats are cured and salamis are made. The store is divided into several parts: in the front of the store is a very small seating area, followed by a sandwich line and cashier, then a small seating area and a small kitchen. Beyond that there is another intimate dining room. Finally, the curing rooms are beyond the final door.

Salumi was opened by Armandino Batali after retiring from Boeing where he was an engineer. Last year, Armandino turned over the shop to his daughter, Gina Batali, and son-in-law, Brian D'Amato.

One of the best features of visiting Salumi is purchasing sandwiches from the counter. Most of the sandwiches are served on a nice white rich and not-overly tough sandwich roll with a variety of spreads and sauces. The tongue sandwich is one of the best sandwiches there: it's served with slow-cooked soft onions and two spreads. (I believe one was a garlic spread, and one was a pesto spread.) I also had sliced fresh mozzarella. It was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.

There's more photos to come from my trip to Seattle.

Economic explosion explained

2009-02-25T19:15:00.002-05:00

A coworker noted this video explaining how we came to the current economic crisis. It's worth watching, especially if you have some confusion regarding the different acronyms and terms being thrown around.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis.

Livin' La Vida Vegas

2009-02-17T18:24:00.006-05:00

Before joining in Google in December, I decided to do a bit of traveling. One of the places I visited was Las Vegas. I had heard a lot about Vegas from many friends; it seems to be a love-it/hate-it type place. One friend described it as a "cultural wasteland." Another friend described the ideal trip as no more than two nights--fly in one evening, spending one full day there, and leaving on the third day. I decided to stay four days.

Las Vegas reminds me of a theatrical set; there is a flashy, shiny veneer on top of rough poured cement and two-by-fours. The decorations are reminiscent of famous places, but they simply don't match. For example, consider this fountain which is clearly influenced by Trevi Fountain in Rome:

I've been to the real Trevi Fountain. The real Trevi Fountain is elegant versus kitschy and made of stone versus poured cement. It is also twice the side of the Las Vegas knockoff.

The kitschy theme continues along the strip. Consider this image of New York, New York:

As someone who lives in New York City, this casino hurt me. The Brooklyn Bridge is reduced to a flashy venue for advertisements; instead of dazzling people with its majesty and grandeur, the version in Vegas is nothing more than a scale model with neon. What is supposed to be the Chrysler Building is unrecognizable. The real building is a elegant and stunning example of Art Deco architecture. The Vegas version is a joke.

And don't get me started on the Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower:

I stayed at the Planet Hollywood, which was perfectly acceptable as a hotel. It was $100 per night, but then they gave me $40 for "gas money." Vegas has some issues with occupancy right now; the city felt empty.

On the way up to the hotel room one night, a woman walked up to me near the elevators and said, "How about $700 for 30 minutes?" Of course, I answered, "I think I'm worth more than that," and walked away laughing. Incidentally, don't stay through the time share presentation at the Hotel. It's boring, too long, a hard sell, and most importantly, not worth $250 in chips.

The great parts of Las Vegas happened when the locations did not try to mimic another city or location. For example, the Bellagio was beautiful and elegant. I loved the water show in front of the casino.

I also loved the Chihuly installation in the lobby.

The Bellagio is home to a Cirque De Soleil show, O. A couple of friends recommended that I go to one of their shows, and I'm so glad I took their advice. (Thanks, Kristen; thanks, Todd!) This show was a spectacle on so many levels: it was artistic, athletic, funny, and surprising. The show has a stage that acts like a Trivial Pursuit piece; as each of the slices lower, they dip into water. The performers fly above the stage and plunge into the water; they dance with fire, and they throw each other across room. It was an amazing show, and if I had just seen that show it would have made the trip to Las Vegas worthwhile.

Another place where Las Vegas shines is in the food. On the low end of the scale in price but not enjoyment was In-N-Out Burger. There are no In-N-Out burgers in the Northeast, so I don't generally have an opportunity to visit them. There burgers were some of the best fast-food burgers I have ever had. The most notable part of the burgers was the freshness of the lettuce and tomato. For most fast food joints, the lettuce and tomato are generally worth ignoring. But for In-N-Out burger, the lettuce was crisp and the tomatoes were bursting with flavor. I had a great time.

I have a couple of friends who work in the Batali/Bastianch restaurants in Las Vegas, and their food was kick-ass as well. Zack Allen is the Executive Chef of their restaurants there; he had previously worked at Otto in New York City. He is a brilliant chef whose talent for food is only matched by his organizational and management skills. The one dish I had at B&B that rocked my work was a single large ravioli filled with liquid egg yolk. It was rich and decadent. I believe Chris Crocetti's title is General Manager. He is also a warm and terrific person who hails from New York, and he works hard to make sure that his customers have a enjoyable meal. I had drinks one night at the bar and ate at the bar another night. The bartenders were friendly and knowledgeable. (I was not surprised; the bartender I chatted with had come from working at Babbo in New York City.)

I also ate at L'Atelier De Joël Robuchon. Joël Robuchon is a famous French chef; this restaurant is his "causal" cozy dining establishment in Las Vegas with a 36-seat bar and an open kitchen. The staff here was the epitome of French service: friendly yet reserved and knowledgeable without pretension. It was a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach; the open design allowed me to witness the calm, quiet ballet of the kitchen. The dish I remember most was a sous-vide poached langoustine that was then flash fried in a light pastry with sage and a dollop of basil pesto. It had a rich flavor that managed to complement, not overwhelm, the delicacy of the shellfish. (I found a photo of the dish on flickr; the poster enjoyed the langoustine, but was not as impressed with the restaurant as I was.)

Low points of Las Vegas:

Kitchy
Fake buildings

High points of Las Vegas:

Traditional casinos
Dining
Shows

I'm not sure I would want to go back to Las Vegas, but if I do, my friend's advice about only staying for three days is worth taking.

"I feel the need for speed"

2009-02-17T17:21:00.003-05:00

I'm on another flight from New York City to San Francisco on Virgin flight 25. Like my American Airlines flight a few weeks ago, this flight has Internet service from Gogo. The speed is still fairly respectable:

Shortly after I returned from my last trip to San Francisco, my Verizon Fios installation was finally completed. The installer was prompt and professional. Interestingly, it turns out that the last installer who visited my apartment could have done the installation; he did not realized that fiber was already pulled to my apartment. The setup for Fios is interesting. There are direct pre-terminated fiber pulls from the basement of my apartment building to just outside of each apartment. The installer drilled a small hole into my coat closet in the apartment from the hallway cable run.

The fiber was plugged into an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which acts as a bridge between the fiber media and a choice of 100Base-T Ethernet, MOCA, or plain old telephone service (POTS). The ONT comes packaged with a battery backup. I was a bit surprised to see that only a single strand of fiber was pulled into my apartment--most of the networking I have worked with uses two strands of fiber. I am using the 100Base-T Ethernet connection to a wireless router; hopefully I will later use the coax connection for television. Verizon plans on introducing TV service to my building in the third quarter of 2009.

Here was the network performance with Time Warner Cable Roadrunner:

Here was the network performance with Verizon Fios:

I have had no outages with Verizon Fios, and despite the pain of scheduling installation, I'm very happy with the performance so far. Now I need to make sure that the sites I use to store files have sufficient incoming bandwidth. For a well-connected site, the performance is very good. I was able to download a 145 MB trailer for Watchmen with no noticeable delay.

Panama canal (or in time-lapse: Pnmcnl)

2009-02-13T15:50:00.004-05:00

Telstar Logistics found a time-lapse video of a ship navigating through the Panama Canal. The entire video is captivating. For whatever reason, I'm fascinated that locks actually work.

A good friend of mine is coming back from Panama this weekend. If the photos on Facebook are any indication, I think she had a good time. Welcome back, APJ!

Tripit saves me

2009-02-12T11:24:00.004-05:00

I use Tripit to manage my travel. It's a service to consolidate all of your travel plans. Whenever you receive mail from an airline, hotel, or other travel service, you simply forward the mail to plans@tripit.com. Tripit will automatically read all of the information from your mail and create an itinerary for you. It also allows your to share your plans with other people, and you can add the plans to iCal or Google calendar automatically.

Today, Tripit really saved me. I booked a trip to San Francisco last week for next Tuesday through the end of the month. Or so I thought. When I went on Tripit to view my plans, I saw that there were two itineraries: one for the hotel and one for the flight. This was odd, since Tripit will combine locations that occur on the same dates. On closer inspection, I was dismayed to find out that I had booked the flights for March instead of February; I hadn't noticed earlier since the days and dates of February and March are identical!

I was able to rebook by tickets on Virgin America without paying any change fees. I only had to play a higher rate for the outgoing flight.

I would say that I was lucky to catch the mis-booked flights, but it wasn't luck at all. It was the design of Tripit that alerted me to my mistake.

Blogging from the plane

2009-01-19T15:06:00.004-05:00

I'm currently on American Airline flight #15 en route from New York City (JFK) to San Francisco. The plane is wired with wifi from Gogo inflight internet. It's a good connection. Speedtest.net reported a ping latency of 144 ms, download speeds of almost 2 Mbps and upload speeds of over 300 kbps. Both SSH and VPN worked without a problem, and there was no issue with typical web usage or instant messaging. I fired up Skype, and while I was able to connect to the Skype services, voice service was not usable. Video from YouTube was great, but I was unable to find any sites where live streaming video worked well. (However, that might be an issue with my computer in general.)


samg@flywithme:~$ ping samgreenfield.com
PING samgreenfield.com (208.113.245.235) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=644 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=389 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=270 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=4 ttl=44 time=170 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=5 ttl=44 time=264 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=6 ttl=44 time=560 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=7 ttl=44 time=564 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=8 ttl=44 time=323 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=9 ttl=44 time=533 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=10 ttl=44 time=508 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=11 ttl=44 time=950 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=12 ttl=44 time=765 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=13 ttl=44 time=934 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=14 ttl=44 time=704 ms
64 bytes from apache2-grog.nexus.dreamhost.com (208.113.245.235): icmp_seq=15 ttl=44 time=883 ms

--- samgreenfield.com ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 15 received, 6% packet loss, time 15101ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 170.832/564.688/950.614/241.978 ms

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail

2009-01-18T23:04:00.005-05:00

My friend Phil Jache's is very close to the Appalachian Trail. I went to his house for Thanksgiving this past November, and we hiked a couple of small segments. Hiking through the forest is relaxing and energizing.

Phil, Anne, Kathy, and myself

The flora and fauna on the trail are amazing. I could probably spend hour just documenting an area of land less than ten square feet.

The trail winds up and down mountains of all sizes, from hills to high peaks. It also dips into valleys and wetlands. Across many of the swamps, people have build walkways across the mud and water. Since it was November, this land was semi-firm mud.

Hiking trails are marked with blazes at irregular intervals attached to features like trees and rocks. The Appalachian trail is uses one white paint blaze most of the time. When the trail turns, you will sometimes see two blazes pointing the way.

If you walk the trail quickly, you sometimes miss odd features. I found the skull just to the side of the path.

The views from the peaks can be fairly spectacular, even if they aren't actually that high. The second photo is a self-portrait. It was back-lit, and it wasn't possible to get a perfect exposure on my small camera.

Anne, Phil, and I hiked two sections of the trail, while Kathy left after one. The trail goes by a lot of houses; a man was walking dogs along the trail.

A video of one minute of the hike.

If you live on the East coast, it's definitely worth taking a day trip along the Appalachian Trail. And it's arguably a good reason to visit the East coast.

Don't shout at your hard-drives

2009-01-18T23:01:00.002-05:00

I guess it is a bad idea to yell at your servers: "Brendan Gregg from Sun's Fishworks team makes an interesting discovery about inducing disk latency."

Check out the high resolution version at YouTube if you want to see the charts on the screen.
In essence: yelling => vibration => disk latency

Worst comic ever

2009-01-18T22:57:00.004-05:00

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog has a write-up of perhaps the worst comic book ever. All you really need to know about it is the ultimate line of the issue, "You have to get out of here! Your vagina is haunted!"

I'm tempted to but the comic book, Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #53, just so I can own a copy of those words.

Verizon: fun with FiOS

2009-01-17T13:01:00.005-05:00

Last week I decided to order Verizon Fios. I've been tired of Time Warner Cable's anti-competitive practices, their poor customer service, and their flaky appointments. In addition, Verizon Fios offers high-speed Internet for the home; I decided to order their 20 Mbps upload and 20 Mbps download package. (Compared with TWC, this is quite a different; my maximum download speed has been 10 Mbps and my maximum upload speed has been 1 Mbps.)

Signing up with Verizon should have been easy. On Monday, I went to their website, picked the correct package, chatted with the online service rep. and scheduled my installation. I confirmed with my manager that I could work from home on Friday to accommodate Verizon's very large installation window of 8 am through 5 pm.

A few hours after signing up, I received a phone call from Verizon: they did not have the CSC code from my credit card. I know I entered my credit card information correctly, and I am not in the habit of giving out private credit card information to random incoming calls. So I let them know I would call back. When I called back, it turned out that Verizon had no record of my order at all. Apparently, when I did not give them my CSC code the order was canceled completely.

This wasn't a huge problem, I thought and we were able to create a new order and reschedule the installation for the same date. The only minor snafus were when the Verizon representative attempted to get additional personal identifying information from me, such as my birth date and social security number. When I asked why they wanted that information, I was told it was totally unnecessary.

After the phone order was completed, I received email from Verizon confirming my order. Then, I received a phone call confirming my appointment. And finally, a few hours later, I received another phone call from the New York dispatcher's office confirming my appointment. The next day, I also confirmed the appointment online.

Yesterday, I sat around my house trying to do work. Unfortunately, I found out that my company's VPN solution does not play nicely with my cable modem, so I was only able to read email. Around 2 pm, I decided to check with Verizon to make sure they were still coming. And after navigating their phone tree and waiting on hold, at 2:30 pm I was told that I would get a call back within two hours.

At 4:30, my phone rang. It was Verizon telling me that my appointment had been scheduled and then canceled at 7:57 am. Needless to say, I was a big annoyed by this revelation. There was no explanation for the missed appointment, nor any guarantee of credit. (For what it's worth, New York City has regulations where if a cable company misses an installation appointment, they must perform free installation and give one free month of service. Verizon was trying to get this provision waived for Fios.)

I scheduled another appointment for Saturday from 8 am through noon. At 12:05 pm, since no one from Verizon had shown up, I gave them a call again. I got through to a rep around 12:15 pm and was told I would get a call back by 1. At 1 pm, I called again--I was told that they were running two hours late.

And now we get to 2 pm. A Verizon tech just arrived at my apartment. He has never wired a large co-op apartment before and does not know where to put the ONT or the power supply. His current proposal is to drill a large hold in my closet wall to access the apartment power supply. At best, that would look terrible, so he is going to make a few calls to see what he should be doing.

I'm going to file complaints with New York City DoITT, my council member, and probably the FCC--this kind of service is absurd. I'm curious to see if I'm going to get anywhere near of a good resolution.

Update 2:41 pm: I've spoken with the technician who has come to install Fios. Like all of the people I've dealt with at Verizon, he is smart and enthusiastic. Unfortunately, the Verizon management has over-scheduled the techs and not given them the equipment they need. In this case, the tech was sent out without the equipment to thread the fiber from the main distribution point on my floor to my apartment. We're waiting to see if he can get the equipment needed.

I'm not sure what's so hard with this installation. Everyone I've dealt with is professional and pleasant, and it's unfortunate that the employees seem hobbled by poor management. Verizon, you seem to have good product and good people! Why is this experience so unpleasant?

Update 4:30 pm: The technician from Verizon did not have the equipment he needed to perform the installation in my apartment. (He needed a tool to thread the fiber from the floor wire closet to my apartment.) His manager did not call him back, and he had to leave at 3:30 pm. (Verizon is not authorizing overtime.) I spoke with Verizon after he left for a bit, and I now have an appointment for February 1st. Who knows if they will be showing up. As I wrote before, I filed complaints with DoITT, the FCC, and my city council member. It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get. Hopefully, the official complaints will prompt change from the senior management of Verizon to run a tighter ship and bring some better management to their dispatcher teams. Also, note to Verizon: don't overbook appointment slots.

Ironically, I would be a much happier customer if Verizon had proactively called me to cancel or reschedule the appointment. I know it's a shocking idea for a phone company.