Mike's Blog

About a week ago my new small project, little418.com, squeaked by my personal blog in traffic.  Since then it's traffic has continued to grow.  It's now a full 30% more popular than my personal blog.  Even more surprisingly, the little418 is very focused on Groovy on Grails, yet the most popular entry by a large margin is a short entry about tree conflicts in Subversion. 

Anyway, I've learned a few things from this experience.

• Tightly focused blogs will generate more repeat traffic. 
  
• Lots of people must be confused by the Subversion documentation.
  
• Technical entries are easy to write and generate lots of traffic, but no one clicks on ads.  I wasn't out to make it rich, but I am surprised that little418 probably won't make enough to pay for it's $6 domain name.  If you want to make money on a blog, engineers are not a good target audience.
  

Time to launch another blog and see how it works.  This time I'll try a business blog.

I'm going to be home in about 12 hours.  Actually in 12 hours I'll only be on the ground in San Francisco.  It'll be an additional couple of hours before I make it back to Palo Alto.   Anyway, time to continue the saga from where left off.  This time I'll use a time line format.

11:45 pm

I just got off the phone with my company in the United States.  I'm glad I was able to get a hold of everyone on a Sunday morning.  Thanks guys.  

The management at my company agreed that the situation was unacceptable and told me to take whatever action was necessary.  I decided that since it was almost midnight in India, I could wait until morning.

I took a quick shower.  This was when I realized that the hot water heater did not work.  This was not as tragic as it would be elsewhere, though, since an ice cold shower felt great in the hot and humid bathroom.  This was also when I saw the roaches.  I think the shower water had scared some of them out of the drains.

12:30 am to 4:30 am

Packing did not take very long at all.  It was so dirty that I was still living out of my bag.  It was finally time to attempt sleep.  Since my door did not lock properly I piled up some furniture by the door to wake me up in the event of a break in.  I retreated into the bedroom and bolted the bedroom door.  With the help of Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy I managed to fall asleep around 4:00am.  The stimulating effect of my asthma medication had given me plenty of time to read.

6:15

I awoke to the sound of my pets.  The pigeons that were nesting in the bedroom window were making a racket.  Sadly I did not think to get a picture of them.

I paced around for a few hours since I was still unable to sleep but felt too crappy to do anything productive.

9:40

My coworker who lives nearby showed up to walk me to his place for the morning meeting with the team in San Carlos.  This was when I told him I was leaving the apartment.   He was shocked.  He then helped me haul my gear to his place.  Few things feel more dangerous than hauling 70lbs of luggage around streets of Mumbai.  Even this two-block journey was very perilous.  I am no longer surprised that so many people die in traffic accidents each year in Mumbai (TODO: look up stats vs. US per capita).

10:10 am IST

The call morning meeting started 10 min late.  The whole team was supposed to be together for the call but no one else showed up to the apartment I was at.

I kept getting dropped from the call so I can only glean what was said based on activity afterwards.  My boss requested that they help me find a hotel.  They started pretty much right away.  They began to panic.

10:30 am IST

The call was over but I decided I had had enough.  This trip was not worth risk to my health.  I rescheduled my flight which took off about 5 hours from then.  The hotel search was called off.

10:45 am IST

In the time that I was changing my flight, Ambi had stepped out and secured me a cellular Internet device.  This surprised me since they misled me previously to believe that it was impossible to get one in less than 4 to 5 days.  Another lie joined the pile.

12:45 pm IST

The rest of the team arrived.  By now it was time for me to head to the airport.  They gave me a lift.  I witnessed two people get seriously injured in a motorcycle / bicycle collision.  I took some videos of the crazy driving.

This was my first time around town during daylight.  I witnessed the extent of the poverty for the first time.  It was my turn to be shocked.  Amid the sea of people running around on their daily business I saw at least a twenty emaciated figures.  These people were starving.  I have been to the slums of St. Louis, Tokyo, and Baja California.  None of them prepared me for what I saw on the car ride to the airport.

During this ride it was also revealed that the guys did not at all understand why I was leaving.  They kept apologizing for the lack of comfort.  I guess to them a near death experience combined with dangerously rapidly degenerating health is tantamount to discomfort, or maybe they were making fun of me.  I'm not sure... they mostly stuck to speaking Hindi.

1:30 pm IST

I made it to the airport at the correct time but the soldiers would not let me into the terminal.  They could not find my name on a dot matrix printed list and did not speak English.  The soldier asked me to wait in a room created for that purpose area about 500m away.

2:30 pm

I returned an hour later hoping for better luck.  I still had time to make my flight.  I failed to convince them to let me in.  They were getting frustrated.  They had machine guns.  I gave up.

I found a pay phone and changed my flight again.  This time the layover was much shorter.  The customer service rep had a thick accent and we had some difficulty communicating.  I misinterpreted the flight change to be 4:30 pm the next day.

3:00 pm

I asked around for the proper place to find a branded taxi.  Each time I asked I was pointed in a different direction.  None of them were correct.  I gave up and tried my luck with one of the cab drivers in departures.  I picked one that did not jump out of his cab to harass me.  I asked him to drive by the meter and told him I was not interested in any other stops on the way to my destination.  He agreed.  It seemed so promising.  I only needed to make it a couple of miles to the airport hotels.

Right away on the journey made what I thought was small talk, but he was sizing me up.  He asked about my job, where I was just before the airport, and so on.

He drove the wrong way on to the highway. I knew called him on it since I knew the freeway was not on the way to the hotel.  He parked in the middle of the freeway and demanded all of my American cash or he'd dump me there.  I had $60 USD in my wallet, which I turned over to him under the condition that he'd take me to the hotel.

He called me 'friend' every 30 seconds.  I suppressed my anger because I wanted to avoid a dangerous situation.  He continued to make small talk.  He finally took me to the hotel.

3:45 pm

I made it to the Hyatt.  This was my chance to nail the cab driver.  I was surrounded by hotel security and had my opportunity to take a photo of his cab to send to the authorities.  I did not act because I did not want to cause a scene.  Comfort seemed only feet away.

I checked in.  I almost aborted due to my brain failing to do math properly.  I incorrectly converted the currency and thought their cheapest room was $1400 a night.  I was off by a factor of 10.  I must have been starting to show a sign of panic.  The desk clerk quickly realized my error and told me the correct price of $140 USD.

I under-tipped the bellboy due to yet another failed conversion.  I tipped him the equivalence of $0.40.   I felt bad.  As I peered out of my room window in one of the hotels that was so recently bombed by terrorists who hate Americans and the fresh memories of starving people flashed back into my mind, I felt more like an Ugly American than I ever have.  I was no longer mad at the cab driver.  

4:30 pm

I chatted with some insomniacs in the United States.  I took a bath.  I decided to attempt a nap now in order to fix my jetlag.  I actually slept for the first time since I left the United States a few days earlier.

12:30 am

I awoke to the alarm clock.  Strange dreams quickly faded from my memory.  In my sleep my brain had apparently figured out that my flight was actually at 4:30 am.  I have no idea where this information came from, but upon checking the website it was correct.  I'm very glad that I took that nap.

My asthma symptoms were significantly improved.  The side effects of the asthma medicine were also starting to wear off.  I still could not eat, though.

1:00 am

I checked out of the hotel and took their limo service to the airport.  Even a limo is cheaper than getting robbed again.

1:30 am

I made it to the airport precisely at the time recommended by my airline.  This time the military let me in without even checking their list.   Somehow even though I had so much trouble entering the terminal, the swarm of people who wanted to carry my bags (after noticing me exit the limo) had no trouble passing the blockade.  They continued to harass me for almost half of an hour.  The armed guards stationed at the terminal entrance are apparently completely useless.

2:00 am

I went through immigration (which should be called emigration) and security.  I had many documents stamped over and over.  It's amazing how much stuff they can fit on to a boarding pass.  I also observed the most sensitive metal detector ever.  Every single person who went through, including myself, set it off.  I'm not sure if the 2 grams of metal in my glasses or the RFID chip in my passport set it off.  Since everyone set off the metal detector, everyone got secondary screening.  This took about 10 seconds and was, luckily, a complete farce.  If I had metal all over me, I would have been cleared anyway.

I went to reclaim my bag but it was stuck in the exit of the x-ray machine.  The security screeners ignored me until I reached for it.  They were not happy about that so I backed off and waited.  Finally someone else's carry on dislodged my bag and I was able to reclaim it.

2:45 am

I had about 90 minutes to burn before boarding and all of the seats in the waiting area were taken.  I found a lounge and was immediately kicked out for a reason that they would not tell me.

I found a restaurant that did not kick me out.  I relaxed, had a couple drinks, and some peanuts.  My apatite was starting to return.  Before those peanuts I had only had two very small meals since I landed in India.

3:45 am

I boarded my middle seat flight.  The guys on each side of me fit in the seats.  Yay!

9:00 am

I landed in Dubai.  The airport is interesting.  Rather than having a duty free store, the entire airport is one huge duty free store.  The tobacco store alone must have been 3000 square feet.  Also, the selection of goods spans the entire planet.  You can buy stuff from just about everywhere in the world and they accept so many currencies that each register has several huge cash drawers.  I bought some European candy.

Wandering about the airport was refreshing.  In India everything is amazingly inefficient at the airport.  Dubai, on the other hand, is efficient in innovative ways that I've never seen before.  For example, in the x-ray machine at security has a built in return mechanism for the trays.  This sure beats the manual carting around that they do in the US.  Also, each gate has a staging area.  This allows the crew to break the usual boarding process up into two steps.  This makes the actual boarding process much faster.

Many time zones

And now I'm all caught up.  This may be the longest blog entry I've ever written.

I'm flying over Moscow right now and I'm headed for the arctic.  I also flew over Tehran about an hour ago.  All that strife was only 33,000 feet away.  It's kind of weird seeing all these places that always seemed so far away.  I can't wait to get home.

Photos that accompany this entry.

10:23 am Sunday 21 June 21, 2009

This blog entry has been backdated since I lack an Internet connection right now and am posting after the fact.

I've been in India 19 hours now.  Ambi has been a great host taking me around to buy food and do some shopping, but even with his help I'm growing more and more pessimistic about the success of this trip.

Now I will complain.  I've waited to complain because I wanted to go with the flow and not be an ugly American, but even this does-not-want-to-be-an-Ugly-American has his limits.  I'm not one to demand 5 star hotel, first class seating and daily massages, but right now I'm getting nostalgic about my 20something hour economy flight.  The bathrooms were so clean and the airplane seat so comfortable...  

I digress.  I'm pretty sure I'm in the right to complain because I've found cheaper accommodations that were clean and comfortable in downtown Tokyo, so this place obviously fucking sucks.

I'm pretty sure my rental apartment violates some OSHA rule.  It's time for a bulleted list of issues.  Here I present them in order of increasing annoyance.
•    The window drapes conflict with the air conditioner so one must chose between slightly cooler air and privacy.  Being immodest, I've opted for cooler air.
•    Like Milton's basement desk in Office Space, I share the apartment with storage.  I've found about 300lbs of rice, lots of empty luggage, and some cardboard boxes currently occupied by a family of pigeons.
•    There was no toilet paper anywhere in the apartment.  There was not even a suitable substitute (facial tissue, paper towels, or newspaper).  I had to hold it in until I could buy some the morning after I arrived.
•    There is a leak of some kind above the ceiling in a few places causing the ceiling to crumble and the paint on the walls to peel.  I have no idea what is in the resulting dust, but it's everywhere.
•    Several of the windows are rusted open.  One of them is missing panes.  This obviously reduces the efficiency of the air conditioner window units significantly.
•    There is only one chair.  It's one of the dirtiest things in the apartment (making my clothes dark with dirt merely from sitting in it) and it's mysteriously missing the armrest padding.
•    I just noticed that there seems to be an ant infestation.  I've only found scouts, but I found 6 of them in 30 minutes.  I'll bet anyone 100 bucks that there will be an ant line tomorrow when I wake up.
•    I saw some tiny almost transparent roaches.  Maybe they're babies?  I'll sleep with ear plugs in tonight (we've all heard that urban legend)
•    It has a strong odor that's something between an ashtray and a Hong Kong alley.  It momentarily intensifies when you move the curtains or sit on any of the upholstery indicating that this place has been smelly for a very long time.
•    The door bolts are all broken so it cannot be locked in such a way to deny entry to someone else with a key, or a lock pick, or a bump key.  
•    It's filthy.  Here's a sub-bullet list for you to enjoy:
     o    There's a thick layer of dust everywhere.  It's not normal dust, though; it makes me cough a lot.  I can't tell if it's residue of chain smoking or diesel fumes from outside.   Maybe it's both.
     o    There's sticky hair in most of the corners.
     o    The trashcan was not emptied before the previous resident departed.  It's full of so-rotten-it-does-not-smell-any-more food.
     o    The mattress is uncomfortable, generally soiled, and bears a large blood stain.  I will burn the sheets I brought upon return.  Actually, maybe I'll just leave them here.
•    Finally, the top reason I'm whining: There's exposed live 220v wiring in almost every room.  The bathroom takes the cake, though.  In this room, which is constantly wet from the dripping ceiling, exposed electrical wiring is tied to a metal towel rack.  To boot, this towel rack of death is positioned precisely where I instinctively feel around for a light switch in the dark: right next to the door.   The worst part about this whole issue is that amid the huge fire hazard there are no sprinklers, fire escapes, or even a fire extinguisher.  

Next on my list of complaints: The air quality is awful.  I'm not sure if this is ambient Mumbai pollution, or something special about my apartment, but it is bad enough that I'm continuously taking the maximum dosage of my asthma rescue inhaler to stay alive.  Not only is this a shock to my system since I very rarely need it at all in the United States, but it's not meant to be taken at maximum dosage for many consecutive hours let alone two weeks.  Furthermore, it is a fairly powerful stimulant.  I feel like I just drank 4 Red Bulls all the time.  I've slept about 5 hours in the last 48.  Nausea is a symptom.  This is a problem because I have precisely the required amount of malaria pills, a new kind not readily available here, so I cannot afford to vomit one up.

I always try to look on the bright side.  There are some positive parts, and since bulleted lists have worked so well in this article so far, here's another one.
•    I'm going to stick the jerk slum lord with an amazing electric bill from my attempts to cool the apartment to a balmy 27 degrees C
•    Every hotel and hostel I ever stay in will seem awesome by comparison.  I will never take a clean room free of significant safety hazards for granted again.  I <3 you Super 8.
•    There are no bed bugs here.  I'm not sure if they're a problem in India anyway, but I can't find any signs.  I will probably not need to abandon my luggage and burn my clothes upon my return home.  I'm still keeping an eye out, though.
•    I have a souvenir.  I scored some pretty sweet shower sandals for Rs. 140 (about $3).  I'll remember the bathroom that encouraged me to buy them each
•    I haven't been here long, but I've already learned a lot about Indian and Mumbai culture.

Update from a few hours later: That does it.  I just got shocked pretty badly in the bathroom.  220v packs a lot more punch than American 110v.  I'm moving out tomorrow morning.

I rarely repost things that I see on digg.com, but this was just too cool. The International Year of Astronomy has inspired yet another awesome creation. Check out this time lapse video of the night sky over Texas which includes a great view of the galactic core coming up over the horizon.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman.

Even though it's not exactly what you'd see since William did use some filters and post processing, it still gives me a strong urge to find a star party or pick up a Galileoscope. Somehow I've managed to be into astronomy for this long and have not yet seen the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn.

In the United States, or at least on the west coast, everyone loves to recycle.  In fact San Francisco city recently surpassed 72% recycling.  That means that 72% of waste in San Francisco avoids the landfill.

This is indeed an amazing feat, but even something that seems so right has its critics.  Many of us have seen the 2004 Penn and Teller episode of Bullshit, but other critics exist too.  The core of their argument is typically about energy savings.  Landfill space is honestly not a huge problem, but climate change is.  While the energy savings in some cases, such as the recycling of aluminum cans, is great, in some other cases its marginal at best.

This may be a glib interpenetration, in my opinion, as we can only learn to recycle better by doing it.  For example, the development of single stream recycling which has improved efficiency, and hence energy gains, dramatically would probably not have happened had we not already faced the challenges of traditional recycling techniques.  Who knows what innovations the future will bring.

In the mean time the only people who can improve the efficiency of recycling is us, the recyclers.  So many people assume that the more they toss into the recycling bin, the better.  The recycling agency will figure it out. This is simply not true.  The greater the amount of unrecoverable materials in the recycling stream exist, the harder the recycling agency must work and the more useful materials get wasted.

To keep your recycling agency running smoothly, just follow a few easy steps:

1. Before you dump a box of Styrofoam peanuts into your recycling bin, check your local recycling code.  This is usually as easy as visiting Google.  Once you find it, do what it says.  In my case this meant not throwing frozen dinner boxes into my paper recycling.
   
2. Make it easier to recycle what you throw into the bin.  The more you're able to do, the better.  This includes removing labels, removing bottle caps, and wiping out food residue.
3. Prioritize your efforts.  Not all recycling is made equal.  That PVC container of axel grease may be really hard to clean.  In fact, you'll probably use a lot more energy worth of water to clean it out than will be recovered from recycling it.  Aluminum, on the other hand, recycles quite well.

If you'd like to learn more, there are tons of great resources all over the Internet.

Photo credit: kingdesmond1337