Agave Mountain

I can honestly say that it is good to be back home, especially after a tortuous eleven hour long-haul economy flight from Tokyo to Chicago.   The end result of my last trip: 16,905 miles, 4 cities, and two new passport stamps.  I now have banked a total of 213,207 frequent flier miles and am on track to earn gold elite status on American Airlines this year (the "hard" way).

This trip, I switched out my T-Mobile SIM for a foreign SIM and left the laptop at home.  For one week, I didn't even check my email and or voicemail.  It was relaxing to say the least.

My iPod saved my sanity.  I assumed that since the Japan Airlines flight segments were in a 747-400, that the video/entertainment system was going to be horrible and it was.  If I had to watch James Bond Quantum of Solace one more times I would poke my eyes out with chopsticks. 

Before I left, I purchased the first season of Stargate SG-1, a rental movie, and a book with the Amazon Kindle application.  I don't know if I would have made it without those distractions. 

Dead tired tired, I crashed early and woke up at 1 am.  I've been up ever since trying working through my inbox, paying bills and responding to emails (I've jumped on the GTD bandwagon).  My shredder has been noisily chewing up the never ending stream of credit card solicitations, and mail. 

I'm now ready to go back to work and will be in very early, a rarity for me. 

• My schedule was changed to include a stopover in Tokyo.  Next time, I'm going avoid a stop over in Tokyo and try to fly straight through.  Tokyo is just too expensive and too difficult to get around in without knowing some Japanese.
• The Hilton Narita (Tokyo) charges 11000 yen (online reservation) for a room.  Wait and reserve at the airport hotel desk, and the price is only 7900 yen.  Free shuttle to/from the airport.  A taxi to the local mall is expensive -- $20 each way. 
• American Airlines Double EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles).  Registration code: DBEQM.  Register and fly between March 18 through July 15, 2009 and elite qualifying miles are doubled.  Considering that I already have racked up 17k EQMs so far this year, this puts me on track to earn Gold elite status on American Airlines this year (without any mileage runs). 
• I bough an iPod tip for my iGo battery charger (consumes AA batteries).  The eleven hour flight required four AA batteries.  This is now part of my essential travel gear.

Labels: Announcements

Posted by Joe Turner at 6:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

Since I've discovered the screen utility, I've stopped using minicom to connect to attached embedded devices over serial.  This works under OS X and Linux. The real bonus is that I can disconnect from the remote workstation and reattach when I need to.

For example, to connect to a serial device (over a USB doggle) at 155200 baud:

$ screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Now if I disconnect from the workstation this is attached to I can reattach to the screen session:

$ screen -list

There is a screen on:
        9514.pts-0.twc-joe      (Dettached)
1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-root.

I can reattach to the session and resume where I left off:

$ screen -r 9514.pts-0.twc-joe

#/

Posted by Joe Turner at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments

I've started using the screen utility under Linux and Mac OS X.  Unfortunately, under Mac OS X, running the screen utility clobbers the path.  The quick fix is to edit ~/.screenrc and add the following code:

   1: shell -/bin/bash

Labels: Linux, Mac OS X

Posted by Joe Turner at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments

I've been relatively upbeat about the economy where my business is concerned -- I'm still getting calls from recruiters and I see that there are contracts out there.  However, lately I've been feeling uneasy with the future. 

Every time President Obama opens his mouth, I feel like the Democratic party is using the economic recession as an excuse to push through a slew of big government socialist programs that would otherwise never see the light of day.

Some of the things buried in these bills is simply scary.  The Wall Street Journal had an op-ed piece that nicely summarizes and captures my feelings.  Its nice to see that I'm not the only one who is nervous (Click HERE for the Wall Street Journal article).

Obama has yet to put forth a plan to address the credit crisis or economic malaise that is effecting our country, but instead is pushing to change the foundations of American capitalism. 

Just think about this:

New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.

I was stunned.  This is what stick it to the rich means -- more half the population will pay no tax at a time when Obama is rolling out massive new initiatives for health care, spending trillions on bailouts, while not seriously tackling the explosion in costs (or expected defects) associated with Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Under Obama the military will be drawn down to what it was before WWII.

Are they working on resolving these issues?  No, they seem to be putting most of their effort in attacking a radio talk show host -- Rush Limbaugh, because he isn't popular with focus groups.

Even Geitner, the Treasury Secretary is worried about Global warming during his recent testimony to congress on what the government is doing about the economic crisis.  If he things Global warming is what the Treasury Secretary should be focused on, them perhaps we need a new Treasury Secretary.

Posted by Joe Turner at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments