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Essays

Back in Business

    To follow up my earlier post about my Apple MacBook cracking, I visited the store and it took “5 to 6 business days” for them to replace the case of my MacBook. But voila, I’m back in business! Apple’s done a fantastic job of cultivating its clean image of virus-free dependability, but I’ve definitely had my fair annoyances this month with their products. Real information is few and far in between, but some old Gartner research suggests a standard 15–20% average failure rate for laptops and this press release from SquareTrade claims they did a study with Sony/HP as the… Read More »Back in Business

    Kindle vs. Used Bookstores for Students

      Amazon’s plan plan to tackle student textbooks has met with plenty of skepticism. Is tackling college students a successful strategy? I did some digging back in my old files to see whether or not the Kindle would have made sense when I was in college not so long ago. I kept fairly good records of how much money I spent each semester in college. Here’s what I spent in one year: Fall Textbooks$378.83 total spent on textbooks, $187.05 recouped (49%)Total cost: $191.78Spring Textbooks$322.64 spent on textbooks, $130.68 recouped (40.5%)Total cost: $191.96 While each semester’s textbooks typically would run $600–800 in… Read More »Kindle vs. Used Bookstores for Students

      Hit-list of my favorite Flash games

        I play a looooott of Flash games, and thought I’d show off a few of my recent favorites. Boombot KABOOM! Blow up bombs to get the guy to the door. Simple enough, right? Riveting, slightly random and sometimes downright frustrating puzzles are addicting with the perfect progression of difficulty. I will warn you that the moment I started to play this game, it quickly sucked up an epic proportion of my free time to beat it. For some reason although dissimilar in type, the appeal is reminiscent to the game Totem Destroyers which grabbed me in the same way. Congrats… Read More »Hit-list of my favorite Flash games

        My Love-Hate Relationship with Apple

          Not even a year out of the M$ campus, and I’ve adapted to a new life in SF accompanied by the usual mix of geeky accoutrements. Along with the Twitter account and flirtations with new technology, I’ve also managed to acquire an assortment of Apple products including a brand new MacBook (which I’ve affectionately named “AdaBook”) to replace the old faithful IBM ThinkPad T40 and an iPhone. A week into my new iPhone experience, all of my apps spontaneously stop working! Don’t get me wrong, I love the user experience of the iPhone — it’s unbeatable — but multiple hard reboots and logging in… Read More »My Love-Hate Relationship with Apple

          Hanging out at Flashforward

            This past week I was able to spend some time at the Flashforward conference, held here in San Francisco at the Nob Hill Masonic Center. Flashforward is a conference and showcase for the Flash design and development community. By my rough count, it brought together together a crowd of about 600–800 artists. Some thoughts on Flashforward: There was an inspiring keynote on the first day by Miha Pogacnik, a concert violinist whose talk focused on drawing the analogy of Bach’s Fugue in G Minor to life. He threw out a few interesting thoughts: normality is the worst thing for you,… Read More »Hanging out at Flashforward

            First Timer on Habbo Hotel

              Last night I checked out Habbo Hotel, a virtual world predominantly catering to the 13–16 year old set, and thought I’d share a troubling first user experience. My first move after setting up my character, downloading Shockwave and entering the world was going to the New Players Lobby. I entered the lobby, only to find the two-space entryway had been blocked off by two dancing avatars. (click the image to enlarge) Incidentally, I had a private chat with the guy in the afro, and apparently he’s one of a group called /b/ which specializes in terrorizing the virtual worlds. He… Read More »First Timer on Habbo Hotel

              Developing Presence and Power

                I attended an interesting training today put on by the company Skills To Success. The training was titled “Personal Power & Presence” and featured hands-on coaching on minor behavior adjustments each of us can do for more effective interactions. The class featured a predator-partner-prey model. A person can be all three in different interactions, but typically has clear tendencies to lean toward one or the other. It’s pretty easy to infer from the names what each of these is. Predator — powerful and dominant, but at the cost of eroding relationships. Prey — nervous, submissive, likable and often talked over. Partners are in a… Read More »Developing Presence and Power

                Roadtrip on Hwy 101

                  2 — Sonoma Coast (13) Originally uploaded by adavark. I’m driving up the California, Oregon and (part of) the Washington coast! Impressively, I am logging on fairly often to post photos. Check them out on my Flickr.

                  In Memoriam

                    01 31 07 GrantDog 021 Originally uploaded by adavark. Our family dog Grant passed away this weekend. He went peacefully in his sleep. He was a big fifty pound dog and lived to be 14 (like 80 in dog years), but it still hasn’t sunk in that the puppy from when I was in third grade is no longer here with us. Rest in peace.

                    Washington Scenic Drive: Cascade Loop

                      The Pacific Northwest has a lot more to it than just rain; it has amazing scenery and plenty of outdoorsy activities. I went on Cascade Loop last weekend on a drive with Sachin across the Cascade Mountains and into Eastern Washington. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and a great way to see the rest of Washington. The drive is approximately 440 miles long, and takes a winding route east through the Cascade Foothills, across Stevens Pass, into some little towns towns, along Lake Chelan, and back on the North Cascades Highway — highlighted by Ross Lake and Diablo Lake. It’s worth stopping… Read More »Washington Scenic Drive: Cascade Loop