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| November 30, 2005 - need sleep... |
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| November 25, 2005 - 24 hours at Casa Tyabji |
*This* is why it sucks to park outside...
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| November 21, 2005 - Some initial thoughts on Cingular |
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After much waffling I finally switched my cell phone from Verizon to Cingular...
Some thoughts. The main reason I switched is that Cingular's coverage on campus is *far* *far* better than Verizon's... I guess the deal was that AT&T laid all the fiber here so AT&T Wireless was the only company that got to set up cell towers. As a result, especially in the GSB buildings, all non-Cingular cell reception *SUCKS*. That being said, in my first week or so with Cingular I still experienced dead zones and I was missing tons of calls even though my phone showed 3-4 signal bars... but apparently the network was experiencing problems and these types of problems were very widespread. It's better now. Off campus is an improvement too... Cingular's coverage is insanely better than their coverage about 2 years back... in 95% of the cases, I think that Cingular's coverage is as good as Verizon. Other improvements from Verizon - my phone now picks up a signal faster, makes data connections faster and after it is turned on, tells me I have voicemail faster that it did on Verizon. However, in all three of these cases, I am more likely to attribute this to a newer, faster phone than the network. Verizon also carries the same phone so I wouldn't consider this an advantage. Also, since the school has an account with Cingular, I get to talk to the business account managers when speaking to customer service. Being able to bypass the uneducated sales droids that they get to staff the general consumer lines has been a *dream*!! The only mistake I made was to purchase my phone at the Cingular store. They offer higher rates than their own company's website, take the demographic information you give them and screw it up, put you on different plans than you asked for, give you wrong information on what specials they offer than lie to you when you ask them about it. I know better but was seduced by my desire for instant gratification... order off the web and avoid my mistake... |
| November 20, 2005 - Out of Africa |
| Ok, we've finally gotten around to posting the pictures from our trip to South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabewe and Botswana... |
| October 24, 2005 - The haunting part 2 |
| Ok, it happened again, about ten past eight the TV spontaneously turned itself on again. It was around quarter past 7 the last time... |
| October 24, 2005 - I am not a smart person |
| Considering my recent potential haunting... I think it was probably not the wisest move to stick my hand down into the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink to get some pieces of a plastic fork that got stuck down there. Luckily the disposal didn't spontaneously turn itself on and I still have a right hand and not a bloody stump. |
| October 23, 2005 - Ghost in the machine |
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Ok, I think our house may be haunted.
Twice now our TV has turned on for no apparent reason - once last week sometime and again this morning. Both Mumtaz and I could see the remote on the coffee table so we know that we didn't accidentally sit on it. Additionally, I spoke with my neighbor to see if maybe his TV remote's signal was leaking through the wall. Not only is his TV a different make from ours, he wasn't watching TV at all this morning. Secondly, my phone's built in alarm clock decided to go off at 7am this morning. I most certainly didn't set this (it's a Sunday for crying out loud!) and don't see where in the phone it is set. More details as we get them... |
| October 19, 2005 - takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin' |
Anyone remember using this? I can't believe that after lying around for a little less than 10 years that it still works! I think TI had discontinued the TI-81 not even 3 years later when my brother got his graphing calculator. I'm psyched... |
| August 15, 2005 - The last of the outages |
| Well, I have finally retired the sad little Windows 95 box that has been running this site for the last 5 years. After my DSL got knocked out (again!) two weeks back I have finally bit the bullet and moved the site to a real web hosting provider. Hopefully, the slow performance and massive downtime should be a thing of the past... |
| July 10, 2005 - Observations from recent travels |
It addition to it just being a funny sounding word, I think CHUM is a bad name for a radio station because (for me) it first invokes an image of a bucket of bloody meat...
This sign more reminds me of something that you would see on the marina of Amity Island where Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss would shove off to go kick some great white ass than in downtown Toronto. The only saving grace of the movie Sahara, was that it killed two hours of a cross-country flight without making me want to kill myself... barely. In a performance only slightly less gut-wrenching than Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist in The World Is Not Enough, Penelope Cruz made me want positively hurl as a doctor for the World Health Organization. And it only went downhill from there. The utterly non-sensical plot, uninspired vehicle chases and gut-wrenching dialog made me truly wonder how brain-dead you have to be before they will let you run a movie studio. Is it me, or does it look like the New York Department of Parks and Recreation was acquired by Air Canada? ...or is it the other way around...? 
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| July 6, 2005 - Random links |
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Even now, weeks after it was forwarded to me, this continues to crack me up. Even though this is a fake news story from the "BBC" I still can't resist posting this link: Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight (local copy).
Secondly, in the freaky device department (local copy), apparently brain-suckers are now available on the market for the low low price of $59.95. Ok, maybe not brain-suckers but vacuum powered haircut "system"... look at it! Who the hell would buy this thing??? 
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| April 29, 2005 - Some thoughts on Dubya's press conference yesterday |
| After hearing Dubya's views on the terrists, Slobakia, nucular policy, that fella John Bolton and his buddy Vladimer, I feel comforted knowing we have the right man for the job on the case. |
| April 18, 2005 - Located just outside Washington D.C. we have... |
The George Bush center for *intelligence*? What can I say about such a place...??
And now presenting, the most unused building in Washington D.C... ...or should I say... We have a big highway sign... *trust* us! ...or should I say... The biggest failed government project ever. ...or should I say... Where the sign on the front door says "why don't you make like a tree and get out of here!" ...or should I say...... |
| April 7, 2005 - I am an idiot |
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I have just spent a ridiculous amount of time cleaning up the underlying HTML on this page. I greatly simplified the code and got rid of all the annoying browser specific hacks and am now only using the W3C approved mechanisms for doing things.
Now I realize that there is not a person out there that gives a rat's ass about this... however, all this clean-up has enabled me to easily do this to the page, which was previously impossible... |
| April 2, 2005 - Comments from the Sting concert |
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Yesterday I saw the band that sings the theme song for the TV show The OC perform... you *know* you are jealous!
These guys reminded us of their name *repeatedly* throughout their show. Phantom Planet, that's their name, that name again is Phantom Planet. |
| March 22, 2005 - News of the bizarre |
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2 rather odd pieces of news...
Firstly, my little cousin Khuzema is in love... I have the proof here! The other is a link that Abizer forwarded to me. Apparently, the mayor of Las Vegas (where else?) told a bunch of 4th graders that if he could only have one thing on a desert island, it would be a bottle of gin and that drinking is one of his favorite hobbies. You got to respect the balls it takes to make a statement like that... to elementary school kids... then totally and completely stand by it, not backing down a whit. |
| March 21, 2004 - Social security and this country's ability to focus |
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Early this month, Dubya announced that he is going to make "60 stops in 60 days" to sell his plan on overhauling social security.
Now, as far as I can tell, Dubya hasn't presented anything more concrete than: social security, in trouble... private accounts, good. Never mind that the latter has nothing to do with solving the former. Is there really nothing more pressing going on in the world that the president has two months to kill selling a plan that does not exist? Nothing more pressing like say... the two wars that we've started recently... the two axis of evil countries claiming to have nuclear weapons... a massive growing federal deficit... a sliver of peace between Israel and Palestine (that we seem content to let the Egyptians handle)... Fine, fine... you're right... the only really important thing going on these days... Terri Schiavo. |
| March 20, 2005 - An 11 year old's perspective on us |
| A powerpoint presentation on Mumtaz and myself created by my little cousin Khuzema. |
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