Random Brain Dump

Recently I started to setup my Vista desktop machine to double as our dvr, recording TV shows which we watch on our media center pc in our living room. These videos are DVR-MS files and they are MPEG-2 encoded. The files are huge– 1 hour of Monk eats up 3 gigs for best quality recoding! For the life of me I couldn’t find a configuration Windows Media Center to use more efficient codecs. Perhaps a reader of this blog can enlighten me.

Anyhow, the best workaround I’ve found is MCE Buddy: a windows service that automatically re-encodes the video files to other ideal formats like H.264 & DivX behind the scene. Added bonus: the program claims to be able to automatically removes comercials! Sweet!

This is jumping through a hoop, I wish the video codec was configurable in the first place to avoid this re-encoding business. I suspect copyright protection has something to do with the missing codec configuration. Annoying nevertheless.

This is one impressive robotic achievement if you ask me. The following link is a video showing Toyota showing off a robot playing violin! Incredible…

I spent parts of Saturday morning doing some macro shots in the back yard. I’m happy with the shot above, capturing the water droplet on a flower; I called it “Delicate”. I got to use Live View on the Canon 40D for the first time, and I came to appreciate the feature. I can’t imagine using the view finder for prolonged sessions of macro shooting– too much strain on the eyes otherwise..

Recent upgrade to a new version of WordPress involves database schema changes. This causes some of my plugins to break, particularly you’d see database error when leaving a comment! Good thing comments were saved okay though. I finally got around to fix it, so commenting now works perfectly.

Apologies from yours truly…

I got tired of the old skin, so I configured a new one. I am always partial to black background, but just haven’t found many skins I like. But I generally like this one with its blue dominated bold design. Don’t have time now, so more customization have to come later.

I’m finding myself shooting more flowers lately. So too bad, my camera lens collection is currently missing a macro lens. Well last week I decided to rent a Canon 100mm macro lens. Yesterday, it came via UPS and I finally had some free time to use it this afternoon to do some shooting. These are my first macros ever and am happy with the results. See if you concur.

I’m hoping to have some free time to do more shooting with it this week.

Last week, I arrived a few minutes early for a business meeting in Palo Alto. So I decided to take a walk to kill time. I got out of my new car and put on a jacket. The jacket felt comfortable and warm. I looked back to admire my new car, noting that it needed a wash.

I took a few deep breaths of the brisk cool morning air and started my walk. The parking lot was covered with fallen leaves– every step I made crackled with crumbling leaves under my feet. The orange sun peered through whatever red leaves were left on the the trees lining up the street. The whole scene seemed burst in orange. Absolutely a beautiful morning and a perfect time for some quick reflection. “Thanksgiving is coming” I reminded myself.

These are many things– big and small– that I am thankful for.

I have a beautiful family that I come home to every evening.

I have a lovely wife whom I love. A wonderful mother to our daughters, she’s forever fun-loving, always encouraging and supportive of me. I just wish she reads my blog. 🙂

I have 2 beautiful girls that I adore. They bring out the kid in me and brighten my everyday. Suzanne mentioned the other day that she felt that it is a privilege to be able to love them. I feel her take couldn’t be more appropriate.

The girls’ new school year is progressing well– they both enjoy their school and are doing well. They are fortunate to be taken care of by my aunt during the work week. I’m relieved of most worries when I leave them to her each morning.

My mom and my sister are in generally good health. We call each other more often now, which is good. I was looking forward to spending Thanksgiving them and my sister’ kids, who are coming up for a holiday visit.

I get to live in beautiful Silicon Valley with its wonderful weather. The Pacific ocean is half an hour away and the Sierra is 4 hours due east. Bustling with high-tech opportunities, it’s definitely the place to be at the moment.

I am able to help provide for my family, making good money doing something I love. Best of all, my work doesn’t prevent me from spending quality time with the family. Weekends had been family time this year.

I am working out regularly and with the exception of a few sport injuries, I am in general good health.

My thoughts turn to a few old friends of mine, who I still keep in touch with on a regular basis.They keep me feel connected and grounded.

After driving the Camry for almost 14 years, I got a new car and for the first time I am really enjoying my ride. And I’ve got a new camera that will serve as a vehicle for my creative outlet for years to come. I will get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of these.

UCLA starts the basketball season with #2 in the polls. I expect a good year from this year’s team.

I felt light in my steps and high in spirits. Just felt happy. Things are good at the moment! Nothing more to wish for… Well, I did only wished I had my camera with me to capture the picture-perfect morning.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody…

Every quarter, Yahoo! holds a hack day when engineers are given 24 hours to dream up an idea and build it out– it’s a way to promote innovation in the developer ranks. I’ve seen some very innovative stuffs in the past. So this past hack day, I worked with two of my co-workers David & Ahmed to build a chat or IM “robot”. Very geeky but also very cool…

A chat or IM bot is basically a piece of software that acts like a real chat buddy: you send it a message and it replies with a response to you. We called our bot Alfred, Batman’s confidante and assistant. The idea is that this is an all-knowing chat buddy. You send it a question like “How do I make a grilled cheese sandwich?” and it will return to you an answer by searching Yahoo! Answers database. In this case, the bot will send back a chat message with instructions on making the sandwich! You send it a command like “tell me about 2008 Olympics” and it will return you the popular links del.icio.us users have bookmarked about the 2008 Olympics.

I had a lot of fun hacking Alfred, probably the most satisfying piece of code I’ve written at Yahoo! Check out Sarah Bacon’s coverage of our hacks at the official Yahoo! Messenger blog, including a screen shot.

I took off a few hours yesterday to attend Allison’s Halloween celebration at her school. She was adorable in her Minnie Mouse costume– yet another hand-down item from her sister. Allison caught me sneaking in her class during story time; she excitedly waved to me and happily blew kisses at me. I motioned her to pay attention to her teacher, but it was obvious her concentration is now broken. Next, she lead the class in the parade which was actually sad for me since it means she’s the smallest child in the class.

Today, Suzanne took off work to attend Katelyn’s party & parade. Katelyn spent the afternoon after school visiting her friend Chalee. I picked Katelyn up and whisked the girls to their swimming class. Next, I went to a local Thai restaurant to pick up dinner. After bathing the girls and dinner, got the girls into their costumes and we headed out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with their cousin Malia.

Boy, I’m tired…

An analyst has recently concluded that Apple is making about $831 per iPhone! This includes $18 per month from AT&T. Sweet!

Apple is going to have a monster xmas season!