A government agency I interact with has updated their web-based client software. The original application was a basic sequence of web forms. Its replacement? An approximately ~50MiB Silverlight-based application. In the process of the update, they discarded my original web account and password. The backend service that the application must communicate with is still slow, [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

Nathaniel and I, after reading most of the menus on Broadway in search of a hot dog, stopped at The Patty Shack [Yelp] on Main St. Having enjoyed Tijuana Dogs at Fremont’s now-defunct Juan More Taco, I was pretty excited to have a local source for bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Nathaniel enjoyed his corn dog; he’s [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

The number of sites asking me to take a brief survey has exploded in the past six months. I’m also seeing email and paper mail requests to participate in surveys creep up too. If this increase is an indicator of an improving economy—as we interpret the worsening traffic on US101—that’s great, but it doesn’t affect [...]

1 comment  » Read the rest

Kumquats, originally uploaded by schahn. When Dina and I moved to California, the first plant we bought was a dwarf kumquat. We planted it in an oak half-barrel, which, as an alleged byproduct of the wine industry, was another novelty. It survived years on our apartment’s porch, the move to our small house, and years [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

This morning, the pipe segments began to arrive for the section of Bay Division Pipeline No. 5 nearest us. The pipes are a distinct dark blue-green, with the ends capped with paper.

Comments Off  » Read the rest

They assembled this machine this week, but haven’t fired it up. The pipeline runs right behind our property, so I expect we’ll hear the crunching of treads and a large motor (or more than one) fire up early in the morning soon. When you’re digging a miles-long trench, there’s a clear axis of work. And [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

I’ve started uploading a subset of my photos to Flickr.  Here are four from 2009 I’m reasonably happy with, with some commentary. We took a short trip north to the coast in the spring, camping a few nights at the Bodega Dunes site in Sonoma Coast SP. This bird was interested in our activities, although [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

We went up to San Francisco to see the Peter Pan show at Ferry Park today. The kids were very excited by the human-powered ticking crocodile. There’s a large concession tent for use before the show and at intermission; this shot is of one of its peaks.

Comments Off  » Read the rest

There are a couple of major construction projects in Redwood City. On El Camino Real, the block between Broadway and Brewster is being updated, as part of the multi-county Grand Boulevard project. This excavator was standing sentry on the Broadway end. Closer to our house, a new high-pressure water line–part of the Hetch Hetchy system [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest

We got to this year’s Maker Faire fairly early, and saw the many cool things people have built. (It was our first Maker Faire, and we underestimated the event’s popularity.) Benjamin, who’s recently become an enthusiastic chess player, got to face off against the chess playing robot: Ben attempted a Scholar’s Mate, was stymied, and [...]

Comments Off  » Read the rest