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August 18, 2006

I'm a Winner!

Coming back to my apartment tonight, I noticed that a package had been left for me during my absence. I opened it up to discover that I was one of the winners at Universal's drawing at Comic-Con (I didn't need to be present to win). The thing is, I never would have entered into the raffle if I hadn't seen littlestar's glow-in-the-dark Hulk stick -- so I guess that promotional swag does work as an advertisement, because here I am, promoting Universal Pictures and their box of swag that they sent me:
  • Black T-Shirt which reads: Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (front) and "When you got'em hangin' on the meathook... they tell you everything." (back)
  • A small King Kong movie poster
  • Kong Movie Camera Bubble Gum Rolls Candy Container
  • Kong: Mighty Chew Bubble Gum
  • DVD of Joss Whedon's Serenity
  • DVD of The Incredible Hulk: The Complete First Season (starring Lou Ferrigno), and featuring a lenticular hologram that changes him from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk.
Anyone got any DVDs they want to trade for the Complete First Season of the Incredible Hulk? And it comes with a lenticular hologram too! (oooh, aahhh)

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:11 AM | | Comments (1)

July 11, 2006

I Keep Everything...

I'm a huge packrat. I keep things that I ought to have thrown out long ago. The current state of my bedroom with its boxes filled with "stuff" should be evidence enough of that. While attempting to clean some clutter, I stumbled across an item I thought I'd share with you all. The ticket stub to Toy Story on November 24th, 1995. (I always thought I had seen it on opening night, but I guess not). Yeah, it's an eleven-year old ticket stub.

ToyStory112495.jpg

Posted by Michael Huang at 04:41 PM | | Comments (0)

July 03, 2006

Two of my favorite superheroes got married this weekend...

In many of my friends, I see qualities and talents that are so amazing, they seem like superpowers. The first time I met Bryan and Joy, we talked about the worms they had in the backyard composting their garbage for them, and I thought "wow, this couple is really considerate about the environment". Then they started riding around on electric scooters and started growing their own herbs and vegetables, and the more I got to know them, the more I admired them for who they were. How many people do you know who would ask for donations to their favorite charities instead of receiving wedding gifts? Or decide on the officiant of the wedding through a random drawing amongst friends and family?

Today they allowed their friends and family to share in the happiness and love that they have for each other as we watched two become one:

IMG_3599

Congratulations and Best Wishes, Joylette and Bryan!

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:52 AM | | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Parking lot sale

Akihabara is small area in Tokyo which is geek central, a place that otakus (fanboys) of anime, video games, toys, electronics or maid cafes seem to congregate at. There are alleys which sell the latest GPS systems, and alleys in which one can find nothing but resistors and miscellaneous electronics. It's not unheard for storefronts in Akihabara to just have containers outside of random bargain-priced electronics -- whether it's hard drives or weird USB devices or PCI cards. And it's always a feeding frenzy, no matter what day or time of day, you will see men and women of all ages picking through the containers looking for a bargain.

The closest thing that I've been to that resembles that kind of frenzy is the 4 day sale at SurplusComputers in Santa Clara -- they order pallettes of electronics set them out in their parking lot for 4 days and let people pick through them. Most of the electronics are really cheap -- prices start at $1 and climb slowly from there. I went early this morning and bought the following:

    9 LED Flashlight (Red) $3
    LED Flashlight Mount for a Bicycle $1
    Digital Multimeter $5
    Engraver ($5) Soldering Iron ($5) IDE to USB 2.0 Cable ($14) PCI Firewire card ($10) Leather Carrying Case ($2)
They had other things too, cordless drills, screwdrivers, etc, but this stuff should keep me plenty busy for a while.

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:54 AM | | Comments (0)

June 12, 2006

The Cappucino Amortization Metric

I should point out that I don't normally use the word "amortize" unless I'm trying to prove that something I can't really afford is not just a bargain but practically free. This usually involves dividing the cost of the item I can't afford by the number of years I'm planning to use it, or, if that doesn't work, by the number of days or hours or minutes, until I get a number that is less than the cost of a cappucino.
-- Nora Ephron, The New Yorker June 5, 2006

When I was growing up, G.I. Joe figures were like three dollars a piece, and that was my metric for money. Comics were sixty cents in those days, so a G.I. Joe was worth five comics, and a Transformer (depending on the type) was anywhere from one and a half to thirteen (one and a half being the Autobot mini cars or Decepticon two-pack tapes, while thirteen would be the $40 re-branded Macross Super Valkyrie Autobot Jetfire).

My uncle, when he was visiting from Taiwan bought me thirteen G.I. Joes once, and I have to say, as expensive as Jetfire was, he was worth it in the amount of playtime. The thirteen G.I. Joes didn't even come close to Jetfire, which was one of the few toys that despite the brokeness (he lost his stickers, some of his armor was lost or broken, and his left arm would fall off) that I still kept around. It's because of Jetfire and other toys like him that I take several factors into consideration of purchases -- the evaluation of the whole rather than the sum of its parts.

Now that I'm an adult, I find that I can't really count in G.I. Joes anymore. They've gotten more expensive (9.99 for two) and their play quality has dropped substantially. Add to those factors that I'm just not as interested in toys as I used to be at twelve, and the system of purchasing metrics just breaks down. As an adult, new metrics need to be set -- while I was in college, meals were evaluated into Fat Slice equivalents (3.00 for a cheese slice, 3.50 for the special), and entertainment was counted in CDs (at a rough $15 per) or movies.

Just like the purchase of Jetfire, I needed to figure out some way of justifying purchases which used large sums of money. The answer was simple -- amortize the sum of money into smaller sums over a long period of time. For example, I bought my home theater system in college consiting of 27 inch Sony TV, VCR and Dolby speakers for $600, and it came with a 3 year warranty. At the very worst, if it broke down on year 3 plus one day, I'll have paid $200 a year, or 55 cents a day for the privelege of owning a Sony Trinitron 27 inch TV. 55 cents a day was mere pocket change, the amount that is tossed mindlessly into the change jar -- as far as I was concerned I was practically stealing it from the store for that amount. Surely I could afford 55 cents a day. I'd get cheese instead of toppings on my pizza, or skip the coke machine at work. I'd walk to the next BART station in SF instead of getting on the closest one. I'd cook instead of eating out or I'd buy one less comic book at Comics Relief. 55 cents a day would be no problem at all. 12 years later, those things are all still working -- at least as far as I know. My sister took the TV for her apartment last year, the VCR is gathering dust in my garage, and the huge speakers I sold on eBay. The TV exceeded my expectations fourfold, costing me 14 cents a day instead of 55 cents, which leaves me with an extra 41 cents over 12 years, which amounts to a good $1795 -- almost enough for a new HD Plasma TV, and you know what? It's practically free.

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:01 AM | | Comments (1)

May 29, 2006

On Sleep and Jet Lag

Last week, after returning from Japan, I had such a hard time falling asleep that I'd shift into a 48-hour day pattern, where I was essentially only sleeping once every two nights, but this week, that trend seems to have reversed itself, forcing me to sleep 12 hours a day. I thought about trying to maintain the 48-hour day cycle, but after seeing that this lack of sleep made me more susceptible to colds, I've decided to shift back to the normal 24-hour day. It's probably better for my health anyway, but I keep thinking that it would have been interesting to have those additional 8 hours of awake time.

Recent sleep research has shown that 8 hours of sleep is a myth, and that the amount necessary varies from individual to individual. I find my natural sleep space to be about 6 hours, which is likely why I'm sleeping 12 hours to catch up for the 6 that I missed earlier. The sleep deficit seems like a real enough effect.

I need to readjust my internal clock -- I'm so used to getting up at 6am that getting up at noon makes me feel as if I've lost most of the day. One day last week, I woke up at 3pm, and I really did lose that day completely.

Posted by Michael Huang at 10:34 PM | | Comments (0)

May 09, 2006

Destination: Hakodate

The first 5 hours involved a switch from the San Jose to LAX to Tokyo flight to one direct from San Jose to Tokyo. The flight agent at the check in counter was kind enough to reroute me directly, and while I could have gone home and returned to the airport hours later, I decided to kill time in SJC by checking to see if I had everything, then worrying about whether or not I had remembered to bring my camera charger along. I arrived at the airport at 7, the rescheduled plane didn't take off until 1, the flight took 9 hours, which didn't set down until 4pm Saturday Tokyo time. Getting my railpass and booking passage for an overnight train took 15 minutes, and from Narita Airport to Tokyo station took an hour, and less than 10 minutes to go from Tokyo to Ueno, Where I would catch an 11 hour night train to take me from Ueno to Hakodate, putting our arrival time at 6:30am on Sunday morning. We would spend the rest of the day touring Hakodate (Hakodate isn't that big), and climbing up Mount Hakodate for the magnificent view. By the time we went to sleep, 39 hours had elapsed since leaving my house. In those 39 hours, I had taken the opportunity to sneak in hour long naps to make it possible to survive the very long travel times.

Tomorrow, while my friends attend the conference in Hakodate, I will set out for the northwest corner of Hokkaido, to visit the city of Wakkanai, which is apparently the location of the best uni in Japan, as well as home to some spectacular views. If all goes to plan, I should be back in Hakodate by Friday to continue our trip down to Honshuu.

Posted by Michael Huang at 03:43 AM | | Comments (0)

April 17, 2006

Pilot G2 Pens

I'm a big fan of Pilot G2 Pens. They don't seem to dry out as quick as other pens, they're refillable, and they're commonly available for $4-5 for a pack of 4 or 5 or 6 (depending on what their promotion is at the time). The G2 Pilot Pens are made of plastic, retractable, and includes a nice chunky rubber grip. The G2 Pros are little more professional looking, using a slightly heavier plastic, and chromed pieces to give it more of a upscale appearance.

Mont Blanc is one of the brands of very expensive pens that you always see located behind glass cases. There's some renown in them in having some of the finest writing instruments in the world,

Now instructables has put together a tutorial on how to transform a G2 Pilot Pen into a $200 Mont Blanc Pen (they claim $200, I've seen Mont Blancs be available for less than $90) by replacing the Pilot G2 Refill with a Mont Blanc refill ($10 for a package of 2) and snipping off the end of the plastic cap.

Since G2s are pretty much all I use, I've got plenty of empty shells of pens lying around waiting to be refilled, so I gave it a try. It works. You don't even need to cut the end of the tip off if you're happy with not retracting the tip back in. This also works with other Pilot pens that can use the G2 gel ink refill cartridge -- such as the G6.

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:52 AM | | Comments (2)

April 10, 2006

Taxes in a Game Paradigm

It occurs to me that doing taxes is a lot like playing a game. There's a lot of different types of players in the tax game -- there's those that play the game themselves (by reading the tax book and filling it out the old fashioned way), there's those that use helper programs (like TurboTax and Taxcut), and then there are those that pay others to play the game for them (by hiring an accountant or tax preparer).

A large part of the game is spent hunting down special items that will allow you to beat the game: things like W-2s and bank statements, and receipts. Sometimes purchasing special items like hybrid vehicles or alternative energy sources can give a big boost to your chances of winning.

How much you get back can be considered your score, and there's two bosses: the irs and the state tax board, and even if you manage to 'beat' them, they might come back for a rematch later in the form of an audit. That's one bonus round you don't want to enter into.

Victory against the fed, but a loss against the state. I really need a strategy guide against california.

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:44 PM | | Comments (1)

February 21, 2006

It's here!

I got my MacBook today. Hooray!

Flickr: MacBook Pro Opening Pictures

Today feels like Christmas. I was about ready to give up waiting for the delivery when the MacBook Pro arrived. The thing you notice right away is how thin and square the box is -- it's not more than a couple of inches thick. The MacBook inside is even thinner -- thinner than my old TiBook even.

One of the things that I've liked about this process so far is that Mac OS X makes it really easy to switch computers -- in the start up process, the Mac asks you if you want to move your old data to your new computer. Just plug in the Firewire cable, and you're done. All your applications, all your documents, all ready to go.

Update: Preliminary Photoshop CS1 tests: Liquify 8.2 Megapixel image. 800 mhz G4 TiBook: 3:29, 2.0 Ghz MBP: 0:57

The new screen is really bright, compared to my TiBook -- I run it at about 3 notches up, whereas on the TiBook, it is up to max all the time. The new built in camera is kind of surprising at first -- you see, the first time I remembered that a camera was there, was when I was asked to choose my user icon -- and one of the selections was to take a photograph, and there I was, on the screen of my computer.

I need a name for this new MacBook Pro...

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:35 PM | | Comments (4)

February 20, 2006

Doing the Right Thing

After we had left Steinhart Aquarium yesterday, my friends and I were talking about the bad parents at the aquarium -- the ones who didn't know how to scold their children for bad behavior or who insisted on condescendingly calling every fish in sight "Nemo" or jabbering on about adult matters as if children really cared, such as this one that I overheard:

Parent: "Oh, look, it's a flounder! Jim's dad goes fishing for those every year."
Child: "Did he put it in his aquarium at home?"
Parent: "No, he cooked it and ate it."

This latest story has nothing to do with aquariums or fish, but rather, about a camera and a trip to Hawaii. Judith is a blogger who went on a trip to Hawaii and lost her digital camera, so she started a blog to recreate her photos from pictures of Hawaii taken by other people on Flickr. She wrote on Saturday:

"I hadn't posted here in a while, because just after the last post, I got a call from an excited park ranger in Hawaii that "a nice Canadian couple reported that they found your camera!" She gave me their name and number, and I eagerly called to reclaim my camera.
"Hello," I said, when I reached the woman who had reported the camera found, "I got your number from the park ranger, it seems you have my camera?"
We discussed the specifics of the camera, the brown pouch it was in, the spare battery and memory card, the yellow rubberband around the camera. It was clear it was my camera, and I was thrilled.
"Well," she said, "we have a bit of a situation. You see, my nine year old son found your camera, and we wanted to show him to do the right thing, so we called, but now he's been using it for a week and he really loves it and we can't bear to take it from him."
I listened, not sure where she was going with this.
"And he was recently diagnosed with diabetes, and he's now convinced he has bad luck, and finding the camera was good luck, and so we can't tell him that he has to give it up. Also we had to spend a lot of money to get a charger and a memory card."
It started to dawn on me that she had no intention of returning the camera.

Judith doesn't get her camera or her memory cards back from them. Instead she gets some CDs in the mail of her photos.

Contrast this with what I witnessed yesterday at the aquarium with an 8-year old boy at the aquarium gift shop, a boy finds a ten dollar bill and asks the people around him if they dropped it. Everyone says it's not theirs, and the Mom says "Let's take it to lost and found". It renewed my faith in humanity if only for a short while -- not just because the child "did the right thing" but everyone else around did as well.

And then I wake up, I find this story on the net, and I am cynical once again about the future of society.

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:38 AM | | Comments (2)

February 14, 2006

Valentine's Day

I had to do some grocery shopping today, considering that I'm pretty much out of food that I can eat in my home, so I went to Costco and Safeway. At Costco, the first thing you see when you walk in (besides the TVs) is a gigantic display of assorted flower bouquets. Nothing too exciting, but what surprised me was the sheer number of men pushing around shopping carts with a couple of bouquets in them. At first I thought, "Aw, how sweet, instead of just one dozen assorted random flowers, he's giving her two dozen assorted random flowers". And then I thought, "wait, maybe those aren't two dozen assorted flowers are for two different people, one for his signifigant other, and the other for his mother. That's nice." And then a darker side of me wondered if the other bouquet might not be for his mother at all, but rather for his mistress. But then I thought, who would give a random assortment of flowers for their mistress? But then who else goes shopping at 11am for flowers?

At Safeway, I saw a Valentines display as soon as I walked in as well. Heart shaped chocolate containers and stuffed animals bearing exclamations of emotional attachment and sentimentality. Not too many looking at these things, but I turned the corner and lo and behold, it's a line. But not the line to checkout, but the line for the florist. There was easily two dozen men there, all being serviced by one florist, who was putting together bouquets, attaching baby's breath and helium baloons.

In an empty display case near the frozen foods stood two lonely bouquets of red roses, not the prettiest or most beautifully arranged, but serviceable. One could make up a story about how they had been dropped into the car in the morning and left to wilt or how their heater must have been on too high at work. I mean, if you're going to Safeway for your roses past 6pm, you're probably already in trouble with the missus -- roses, even partially damaged ones are so much better than a random dozen flowers.

On Valentine's Day, it seems like all the men work pretty damn hard. Either that, or the men seen today are all horrific procrastinators, waiting until the very last minute to get things done. I give these guys a pat on the back though, because we all know it's the thought that counts. Flowers require alot of effort, even if they are the Costco variety.

There is one unforgivable sin that I did notice today though, an old man, probably in his mid-60s was at the checkout line behind me with one item. That one item was a Whitman's Sampler box. It wasn't even in good shape -- it was beaten and tattered, as if it had fallen off a high shelf and run over with a shopping cart. All I could think about as the cashier rang me up, is how disappointed the old man's wife was going to be, after being married to the man for decades, to have given birth and raised his children to be receiving a sampler box of Whitman's. There had better be some nostalgia value to the box of chocolates, because she deserves much better than that.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:00 PM | | Comments (6)

February 04, 2006

Recovered Materials...

I had a accident last night after coming back from the Exploratorium. Not a big one mind you, just a little one. With my camera. I had been taking pictures all night at the Reconsidered Materials exhibit, so I had left the camera on. When I got home, the first thing I wanted to see was all the pictures that I captured on film, so I opened the compartment for the memory card... and guess what? The camera was still on.

Don't ask me why, but Canon cameras have this thing where if you do this, you lose any images still in the buffer.

As soon as I remembered this just as i was opening the compartment, and quickly turned off the camera. Then I popped it into my Flash Card Reader. The Flash Card reader showed that the images were there, sort of. They were in a state of limbo really, the data was there, but I couldn't do anything with that data -- couldn't copy it, and mac os wouldn't let me view the pictures. So I inserted it back into the camera.

Big mistake.

The camera, seeing no image data, made a new directory to store images in. Viewing through the camera showed no images. Re-inserting it into the computer showed that the card was blank.

All my pictures of Jell-O, gone. Lost to user error. Or so I thought. I remembered that my memory card had come included with it a program called ImageRescue, which purportedly could undelete images on a memory card. So I installed it and fired it up. No go. It couldn't even find the card, even though both the reader and the card were Lexar.

So, enter PhotoRescue. This image recovery program is what I term mercenaryware. The trial version will do all the work, but will refuse to output files until it is paid for. This is not bad for data recovery -- it at least shows that it's capable of doing the task at hand. It even comes with a money back guarantee.

My verdict? One of the best $29 I've ever spent. It recovered every single shot I took that night (as well as shots I had taken months ago). While I don't intend on making this mistake again, it's good to know that it's there if it does happen again.

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:32 AM | | Comments (0)

The Superbowl without the Football Game

Spoilers for the best part of the Super Bowl: the ads Superbowl-Ads.Com

Not all the ads are there yet, but a pretty large number of them are.

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:17 AM | | Comments (0)

Sometimes You Just Want Jell-O.

Tonight I went to the Exploratorium with kwc and d to check out the Reconsidered Materials Exhibit. The line and the wait to get in was long, unexpected to both the attendees and the admissions people, and as a result, the performances were pushed back an hour, and the Exploratorium was open a little later. We hit Liz Hickok's San Francisco in Jell-O first before seeing the rest of the Exploratorium. The fruity scent of the Jell-O could be detected as we stood in line, but it was worth the wait to see the replica of San Francisco's Twin Peaks Area.

jello.jpg

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:34 AM | | Comments (0)

February 03, 2006

New Algorithm, new Google Ranking

Google recently changed their search algorithm, so I'm happy to report that finally after years of being the number 7 search result for mike huang, mikehuang.com is finally the number 1 search result again. Now if I can only get Michael Huang up there...

My suspicion is that the new algorithm weighs a little more on the domain name in order to prevent misdirection to other sources that contain irrelevant info but plenty of keywords.

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:02 PM | | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

Project: The Real TiVo to Go

IMG_6707.JPG

This project sort of happened as a result of needing a S-Video to Composite Video (for my Project: Apple PowerBook in a Car). In the United States, the current trend is to make the car more like a living room. With that in mind, what living room can be considered complete without a TiVo?

I want to point out that while this does work, it could have been any device that I could have chosen to plug in, I just happened to choose the TiVo because it has S-Video in and it allowed me to evaluate my PowerBook's performance and utility in the car. This could have easily have been a PS2 or Xbox360 or any other piece of electronic goodness one can find hooked up to a living room television.

For more thoughts and pictures about this project read on.

Continue reading "Project: The Real TiVo to Go" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:43 PM | | Comments (0)

Project: Apple PowerBook in a Car

IMG_6713.JPG

I've never really understood why people make such a big fuss everytime someone installs a Mac mini in a car. It's really not that hard, and it shouldn't cost $5,000 for a custom Mac mini install (and trust me, any Mac mini install in a car is a custom job). My best guess estimate for a do-it-yourself job would range from $1,300 to $2,500, which would include the Mac mini. If you happen to have a lot of parts lying around, or have done previous car stereo installations, the cost may even be less -- like maybe just the cost of the mini.

I don't have a Mac mini, but I have a PowerBook, so as a proof of concept, I attached my Powerbook to my car. After seeing how the PowerBook did in the car, it made me realize that I will never spend the kind of money people do on Mac mini'ing their vehicle -- a laptop is much more cost effective (and you can take your computing area anywhere).

For those curious about how to install a computer in the car, read on.

Continue reading "Project: Apple PowerBook in a Car" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:22 PM | | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Faxing in OS X

I often use the ability to print to PDF on Mac OS X, however up until today, I didn't realize that Mac OS X has functions for Fax built into the OS. It can turn the Mac into a Fax Machine, capable of receiving and sending faxes, which definitely comes in handy for those blue moon occasions when you need to fax something rather than e-mail.

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:42 PM | | Comments (0)

January 20, 2006

Everything the Media Thinks about Piracy is Wrong

The re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica is making a lot of waves in television. In an interesting story, Mark Pesce gives a talk on hyperdistribution, in which he talks about how BSG's popularity may be partially the result of piracy.

The British aficionados of the series provided torrents for each episode within a few hours of each broadcast. Many fans in the US picked them up and watched them; so did many people in Australia.

While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for "word-of-mouth" to spread about Battlestar Galactica.

Source: Mindjack: Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:49 PM | | Comments (1)

CD Burn, Rot and Lost.

A few years ago at Christmastime, I was looking for a CD to burn some data onto. So I dug up an old CD-R package that must have been sitting in my room for the last decade or so, and it looked like it had seen better days. This year, when my sister went home, she found some CDs she had burned while she was attending UCLA. On most of them, the data was inaccessible. I kept everything on Zip Drive when I was in college. After the last move, I managed to get the Zip disks and move them onto my external harddrives. It was fun looking at the old things that I had worked on and designed, but at the same time, it was one of those works that while I might have been proud of doing during my college years, certainly didn't stand the test of time well.

Sometimes data is better off lost.

Burned CDs don't last forever

Posted by Michael Huang at 10:56 AM | | Comments (0)

January 18, 2006

The Pile

The Pile isn't a new book or movie. It's not a new tv show show magazine. It's a habit of mine that has to stop. The Pile is a barrier to my workflow, which prevents me from getting things done. Horizontal surfaces, no matter the size have become places for me to pile up. If it's not papers, it's books, if not books, it is whatever other object can be found in arm's reach and be arranged in a vertical fashion. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when your desk begins to resemble a three dimensional version of the Towers of Hanoi.

Posted by Michael Huang at 05:49 PM | | Comments (3)

January 10, 2006

Core Duo Goodness

by Apple Computer
Happiness is a Apple MacBook Pro 15.4" 1.83Ghz.

Coming in February March (according to Amazon).

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:31 PM | | Comments (0)

January 05, 2006

Carcassonne!

Carcassonne!

Because one can never have too much Carcassonne...

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:47 PM | | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

All is Quiet on New Year's Day

I drove back to the Bay Area yesterday in record time -- just a little over 5 hours from Cerritos to Mountain View. While most of the journey was wet, and visibility was low, there were surprisingly few accidents given the volume of cars on the 5.

My route up was 605 North to 105 West to 405 North to 5 North to 152 West to 85 North.

Afterwards, I watched the first episode of Joss Wheedon's Firefly and the miniseries of Battlestar Galactica, both of which were really compelling television.

I saw parakkum organizing his writing files yesterday, and was struck by how meticulously his records over the past years have been kept. This blog is so many things to me --scrapbook, journal, bookmarks, photo album, notebook, a collection of thoughts and reviews, and yet because of this diversity of subject material, I find it very disjointed. This is something that I want to change in the coming year ahead, and this will likely mean that the website will undergo further transformations. Additional information is available in the extended entry.

Continue reading "All is Quiet on New Year's Day" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:32 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!

A new year, a new blog. I've found that I've been increasingly posting about digital photography, so I've begun to set up a Digital Photography Blog, concentrating on digital photography and all the various news I pick up about the subject.

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:02 AM | | Comments (0)

December 24, 2005

I'm home for Christmas

This has been my day:

10:30 am: Depart Mountain View, Drive towards LA
4:00pm: Arrive Home
4:05pm: Sit down at the dining table and begin eating
11:00pm: eating finally ends

I'm exhausted, tired and about to crash. maybe I'll update this entry later when I'm more coherent.

Happy holidays/Merry Christmas/Season's Greetings!

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:57 PM | | Comments (1)

December 21, 2005

Gone Gold!

In software manufacturing, "going gold" is the stage in which the program is placed on a gold master and is ready to go into production. In this case, it means that movabletypo.net and mikehuang.com are now Gold Sponsors in Child's Play.

Didn't I just get laid off from my job? Yes, I did. I haven't found a new job yet, but I cannot afford to not donate to a worthwhile cause such as Child's Play. I'd like to see them break half a million this year -- I know our contribution will help them head towards that goal. I'm also hoping that our donation will encourage others, that regardless of their financial situation they can do good things this holiday season. I know some of you think that games and toys are expensive, but there are items on these wishlists that fit any budget. Take a look at the Wishlists for Child's Play (San Diego Children's Hospital). $100 can buy a Gamecube, $50 can buy a game or a couple of dvds, $20 can buy a DVD, toys or a good quality discount game. $10 can buy some great toys and children's books. These little things can make a big difference in the children's happiness and well-being while they stay at the hospital.

Posted by Michael Huang at 01:08 AM | | Comments (0)

December 18, 2005

Reason to Hate Best Buy #360

Earlier I wrote about how Best Buy sold XBox360s packaged with hundreds of dollars worth of accessories. Well, I gotta hand it to Best Buy, but they've outdone themselves by pulling a bait and switch on a denied XBox 360 customer selling a $449 Compaq laptop for $1,750! I think the person who made that unwise purchase needs to read my holiday tips, particularly regarding sunk costs and spending yourself into financial ruin.

Posted by Michael Huang at 04:49 PM | | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

Case Study: Costco

I went to Costco today, thinking about another lesson from The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less. In the book, Barry Schwartz talks about a study called "When Choice is Demotivating", which sets up an experiment with a line of exotic high-quality jams. In one condition of the experiment, there were 6 varieties available for tasting, in the other condition all 24 varieties were available. The table with 24 varieties attracted more people than the 6 variety table, but on average, the number of jams that people tasted was about the same. However, the interesting result is this: 30 percent of the people who tasted at the 6-variety table bought a jar of jam, while only 3 percent of those who tasted at the 24 variety table bought a jar of jam. The researchers speculate that having more options may discourage consumers because it forces the amount of effort needed in making a decision. So the consumers decide not to decide and end up not buying the product.

Costco is a very interesting store -- they have a very limited item selection, often only stocking only a few brands of a given type of product, and everything only comes in one size (the exception being clothing, which I won't get into here). By going into Costco, a lot of the choice process is taken away from the customer. Rather than comparing brands, sizes, varieties and cost, the consumer's decision-making process in Costco becomes whether or not they wish to buy the product. The sample tables at Costco are designed to introduce customers to new products which Costco only stocks one brand of. For instance, today at Costco, I noticed them pushing Progresso Soup in the Clam Chowder variety -- They have other varieties of soups (Campbell's Chunky Chicken Noodle and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom), but no other brand of Clam Chowder. This makes it very simple for the customer who is looking to buy Clam Chowder to make a decision. They don't have to choose a size, nor do they have to choose a brand. They merely need to decide whether or not they liked the sample they tried enough to purchase a 12 can package of Progresso Clam Chowder.

Compare this to the experience of shopping at a supermarket. You walk into the canned soup aisle and you are bombarded with a plethora of choices - a dozen or so brands, each with a dozen different varieties and at least two sizes of cans, with 3 varieties of packaging -- pull-tab, can opener, and microwave-safe. Costco makes the decision-making process easy by removing choices.

One of the items that Costco has more than one variety of (but is still selection limited) are Plasma TVs. Whereas stores like Best Buy and Circuit City stock over 50 varieties of Plasma TVs, Costco has 6. I'd guess that Costco sells just as many Plasma TVs at the Electronics stores do, perhaps even more because people feel they have a more limited selection to choose from. You can see all 6 Plasmas at the same time and decide which has the size you want, and which has the best color. Go to an electronics store and try that, and I'll find you in a couple of days still trying to figure out whether Set #23, the 3rd TV in the 3rd row or Set #76 (the 6th TV in the 8th row) has better color.

Long story short, the more choices we have, the more effort it takes to make a decision, and less likely we are to purchase the product. If we give people less choices, they are more likely to buy.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:46 PM | | Comments (0)

Holiday Tips

I spent yesterday afternoon watching a friend, who is normally a very calm and rational individual go into full-scale panic mode as she tried to find a gift for her boyfriend who "doesn't need anything and has everything". The normal suggestions of cookware and the like were very quickly dismissed. People would say things like "he's got a ton of hobbies, he's easy to shop for", which didn't seem to help the matter any.

I've been reading a book called The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less which seems to point out that excessive choice leads to choice overload. It also points to a lot of other things which I think would be wise to keep in mind as we move into the final shopping weekend before Christmas.

Some advice for holiday shoppers:

  1. There's no such thing as the perfect gift.
    Be a person who says "it's not perfect, and it may not be the best, but it's good enough". Be satisfied and happy with your purchases. If you fail to get what they most want, the world will not end, your signifigant other will not desert you, and your children will not hate you forever.
  2. Beware the fallacy of "sunk cost".
    This is good to keep in mind, especially because of high demand items (like Xbox 360s or white iPod nanos). Let's say you've driven to the store, and when you get to the store, they are selling it in a bundle for $1500, rather than the base price of $500. You've got three choices -- either pay up (losing another $1000 dollars) or go home (losing the time spend on the trip). My advice? Go home, lose the time. Just because you're already there doesn't mean you have to buy anything, especially if it's more than you thought it would be. This lesson can be applied in other ways as well -- just because you buy them an item doesn't mean you need to attach every accessory under the sun to the purchase.
  3. You don't have to spend a lot.
    Plan a realistic budget on how much you want to spend per person and stick to it. Driving yourself into financial ruin for a holiday is unwise and foolish.
  4. Use wishlists.
    People have wishlists for a reason -- it helps them get what they want, and it helps those who don't know what someone wants some choices. That being said, a person may leave things off their wishlist if they've been dropping hints that they want something in particular.
  5. Don't underestimate the value of quality time.
    Being able to spend time with the person is sometimes the best gift of all.
  6. If all else fails, a bottle of nice wine and/or a box of good chocolates is an excellent gift.
    If they have kids, buy chocolates. If they drink, buy wine. Be mindful of food alergies (nuts is the big one).
  7. It really is the thought that matters.

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:46 PM | | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

Gingerbread House of Horror

In celebration of the holiday season, we purchased a couple of Gingerbread House Kits from Trader Joe's. They are essentially pre-fab gingerbread houses, which include walls and decorations, and even come with Hansel and Gretel and the Gingerbread House Witch.

One of them turned out like the one pictured on the box, while the other one became a Gingerbread House that Jack Skellington would be proud of.

One of the pieces for the witch broke in the box, so the attempt was made to reattach the cane to the witch, which quickly became Hansel's head attached to the cane, and from there kwc quickly created a rather grim ending for Hansel and Gretel (and the Gretel next door).

Flickr Photoset: Gingerbread House of Horror

Posted by Michael Huang at 01:20 AM | | Comments (1)

December 09, 2005

Chinese Lucky Numbers Decoded

I'm the kind of person that notices license plate numbers, especially vanity plates. If you're like me, you may notice some strange plates floating about, like one I spotted this morning which read "ANDY968". Now, there's a couple of ways to read this plate -- 968 could mean that Andy was born in September of 1968, but more likely use of the number combination of 968 is as a Chinese Lucky Number. The number 9 implies everlasting, the number 6 means 'easy' or 'smoothly', while the number 8 is taken to mean 'fortune'. So basically, Andy wants everlasting easy money. Not a bad wish.

Because the Chinese language has a lot of homonyms, a number can mean several things because they may sound alike to more than one word. Numbers can be combined into phrases, with each number having a different meaning, such as 1666 -- "has easy smooth road".

1 - "will", "has/have" 2 - "guaranteed"
3 - "prosperity" or "life"
4 - a homonym for death. Not Lucky.
5 - can mean 'I' or 'me'. When used in front of another number, it can also mean 'no' or 'not'.
6 - means 'easy' or 'smoothly' or 'road'
7 - "gone"
8 - "fortune" or "money"
9 - "everlasting", "long"
13 - "must be alive"
14 - can mean "I will die" (when read as 1-4) or "accident" (when read as 14). Unlucky

Some number combinations are unlucky due to the way they combine. For example, the number 626 you would think means "easy guaranteed easy", but 6+2+6 = 14 = accident or guaranteed death.

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:59 PM | | Comments (1)

November 27, 2005

From the Land of Smog to the Land of Fog...

Returning from L.A. always takes a little more time than going down on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. On the way up, we counted 14 cars involved in 4 accidents -- 3 of the accidents involved 4 cars each, while the other was a minor fender bender. The drivetime wasn't too bad, 7 hours including one refueling stop. It's nice to be home.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:50 PM | | Comments (0)

November 25, 2005

Thanksgiving Feasting

Driving home on Thanksgiving Day my sister and I made fabulous time -- arriving in a scant 6 and a half hours. There was one six-mile stretch where traffic crawled, but the rest of the way was quick and smooth. It was eerie driving in empty parts of LA that I've only ever observed as a parking lot -- it was as if I was seeing the place for the first time.

From the moment we stepped into the door until the time when we retired for the evening, my sister and I were besieged with wonderful, delicious food. The following list will likely torture anyone counting calories and food nutritionists.

(in order of appearance):
fruits (strawberries, grapes, watermelon)
soup (chicken herb and vegetables)
salad (lettuce, grape tomatoes, thousand island dressing)
chicken and bacon hotpockets
cand