Monthly Archives: February 2011

Monday night – offline

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I woke this morning and , as always. one of the first things I did was roll over and check my email on my phone.. I hadn’t received a single email since midnight the night before. That’s odd, I thought.. even on a Sunday night I’d expect to get some email.. By about 8AM.. I was perplexed.. surly, someone wanted something from me today.. Monday’s are notoriously  bad for email.. especially Mondays after having been traveling.. but.. nothing, nada, bupkis… .. not even a line of junk mail.. By 9 I realized something must be wrong.. I average about 130 real emails a day.. that doesn’t include junk mail.. or email I send..

I called our help desk..a smiley voice from across the world answered me.. She walked me through the steps I already knew. about mail file full problems.. . I waited patiently for her to finish .. She was doing her job.. I then explained that somehow , my mailfile was full.. but at the same time it was telling me that it was only 15% used..

We both poked and prodded at my mail file .. then she agreed ‘something was wrong’.. She put in a repair ticket and told  me that my problem should be resolved within 8 hours.. 8 Hours ?!!> Nothing more she could do, she assured me. she was very nice, so I took her workd for it. I wnet to work … still emailless..

I had a hard day in the sense that i was on several tough calls… nothing seemed to be going well at work. .   Still.. my email was clogged.. I imagined a giant hairball somewhere in the either..   Pretty soon people started sending me instant messages….. I learned that email was getting returned with a ‘john’s email is full, try again later’ message.. not only was I not getting email… I was looking like an idiot ads I wasn’t getting it…

One more call to the help guys.. I told them my email database told me it was only 15% full.. they told me they were working on it.. and had sent the problem to ‘the server guys’ ..

midday.. still no email.. I was getting philosophical by that point.. based on the phone calls and instant messages I was gettign.. I suspected little of the email I was missing would be good news… ‘So what,” I wanondered.. if all that bad news went to the bit bucket..

By around 4 I realized I was enjoying the lack of interruption.. I no longer felt compelled to multitask..   My day wasn’t goig well.. but I knew that the email break only was helping…

by 6 I called the help folks again.. it had been 9 hours.. Once again I was told how to do what I’d already done.. again I waited.. Finally I was told that my request was still waiting with ‘the server guys’ .. and wouldn’t you know they’d gone home for the day..   I was told my problem would have to wait until tomorrow..

I’m sitting on the couch at the time I normally start my second work day.. and I have no frustrating emails to read, write .. or respond to..

bliss…..

I think I’ll go hang out with my wife 🙂

don’t try to email me…

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – foundation

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Blissful day at home.. getting used to the timezone again. I woke well rested at 10:30 to streaming sunlight.. and temp in th high teens.  Didn’t do much today.. Got out long enough too play in the glorious snow we have.. Diane, the dogs and I snowshoed up in Honey Hollow. There was about a foot of new snow over a think layer of ice that made for easy walking for both us and the dogs.. Stilll. My poles would poke through occasionally .. and then you realized there was about 3 feet of snow everywhere we walked..

One of our stops today was to explore the foundation for an old mill we saw while hiking on the other side of honey hollow creek a few weeks back. After living ere for 30 years, it’s unusual and fun to come across something ‘new’.   We’re pretty sure this was the foundation for a small mill sometime in the past 100 to 150 years. .. There’s a small sluice just down stream from here..  We don’t know what they might have been doing here.. it could have been a small lumber mill… or a grain mill.. or even an electric generator.. No way of knowing now.. All that is left is this well built rock skirt that would have been the basement built into the slop of a hill .

A perfect place for a samstone..

It felt so good to be out in nature after the last couple of days of travel..  The trip was good though.. it’ helped me rebuild my foundation a little. I got to do what I love which is meeting new people and getting them excited about science and engineering. Every time I do that, I’m reminded that that’s what I should be doing with my life..   I guess I am doing.. just need to do it more…

ah.. gotta sleep now.. more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday-ish – Electric city

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Greetings from Newark USA>. I landed here a few hours after 2 hours of subways, a 14 hour flight from Narita.. and now a 5 hour layover until the flight home..I’m SO looking forward to seeing everyone at home !

The day has been fun in a way that only a 23 hour travel day can be.. In some ways it’s a bonus day.. I left Tokyo about 6PM.. on the 25th .. and got to New Jersey   at 4:30 the same day.. not bad.. It would be a recipe for eternal youth if I didn’t have the opposite happen on the way out.. Though somehow.. I still think I came out a day ahead, since I traveled over the Atlantic to get there.. and over the pacific to get back..

Both topics  (going home, and going around the world this week) remind me of one of my favorite  roamntic geek cartoons from htttp://xkcd.com

ANYWAY.. i DIGRESS… PROBABLY BECAUSE i’VE BEEN AWAKE FOR 36 HOURS…
where was i ?  Oh.. In Japan..

I woke up on today number 1 in Sugnami-Ono.. I quickly packed .. then got on hour train ride to downtown Tokyo station.    I’ve been on subways all over the planet.. and Tokyo’s are among my fav’s.. clean. quiet. fast and full of polite and clean smelling people..    When I say polite.. I mean really polite.. as in the nice sleeping lady on the left actually offered me  her seat since I had luggage (can you believe that ?!?)

here’s me looking like the only-gaijin-white-guy-can’t-read-Japanese on the whole train… guy..
At least .. I brought no dangerous goods.. which I guess would be bad goods…

At Tokyo station I met up wiht my good friend Hiroshi-san .Hiroshi-san was at IBM for more than 20 years.. we got to kow oneanther well when we served on the same corporate committee… He’s a smart, funny and all around wonderful guy.  We hadn’t seen each other in about 2 years, so it was very good getting the time to catch up. Hiroshi helped me find a locker to store my bags.. then we headed north (I think ?) two stops to Akihabara.. or ‘electric town’.. the centre of electronics ‘otaku’ geekiness of Tokyo.. and therefore, arguably the world..

First stop was lunch in a Soba place overlooking the crowded market.. (Nintendo was making a major announce today.. which made it extra crowded, I heard)

Next stop was Otako (geek) heavan.. store after store of electronic components, chips. resistors, LED’s.. Just amazing stuff.. a

THe great thing about having a native guide is that Hiroshi-san took me to the absolute geekiest place in Akihabara…which.. by the chain rule.argument I made above . makes it the geekiest store on the face of the planet.. . What was even cooler is that the  store was full of people… actually looking at the stufff… flipping through the chips, sniffing the resistors, squeezing the capacitors.. . which means they still remembered how to make stuff.. My heart rejoiced !

we spent about 30 minutes going through packets of kanji covered parts, .. i greedily stuffed some into my basket..

then thoguht better of it.. and put most.. (not all ) back on the shelf..

a few minutes after we got to the store.. we were met by the Takemura’s. Takemura-san senior is an old work freind of Hiroshi-san.. Here’s his son   who’s a 3rd year design student.. he was san amzing kid.. he had this beutiful 1951 Leca camera .. ti was like a work of art…  They Takemura’s had come to meet me since they’d seen some the engineering paradise video…. how cool is that ?

together the four of us rifled through the components some more and compares currents, voltages, feeds and speeds.. I can think of no better use of a tokyo morning

After we checked out.. we went out for lunch number 2..It was great hanging out with the three of them Takamura-san gave me some cool anime figures and a tamborine that I need to work into a movie  soemhow.. (I’ll do it !)

Young master Takemura gave me a very cool Manga !.. They are such generous and kind folks !


Then it was time for me to head back to Tokyo to catch my train.. we all said Sayonara… and Hiroshi-san and I headed back to the station

We got to the station just in time for me to say goodbye to Hiroshi.. It had been so good catching up with him..

I caught the Narita express

and an hour later I was in that huge place..

I got myself organized for my flight, placed a SamStone .. (I think the 4h I’ve put in this airport)

and the next 13 hours were as unexciting as one can imagine..if it sayys anything.  the hilight were two completely inedible meals

OK.. enough for now.. I need to stand up and keep moving.. or I’ll fall asleep.. more tomorrow.. it’s almost nice to be almost home

nite folks, nite sam

-me

Friday (i think) – Yamato – tamato

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Day 2 at Yamato lab.. what a great place. I really enjoyed seeing the place, learning what they do.. and  above all, meeting the people.

Here’s a model of the site.. just waiting for Godzilla to stomp through it..

My first meeting was with Akiko-san.. she does natural language processing.. and everything else as far as I can tell

After that good conversation. I met with my old friends Cheiko-san and Hero-san.. Cheiko-san is the only IBM fellow in Japan. Cheikosan, who’s blind,  runs the research group here that works on accessibility.. I’ve known her and Hero for years… it was the first time I got to visit them at their home  site.. really nice catching up..

She let me play with her wireless braile thingy.. it’s very. very cool. It’a amazign to wath her use it..
she uses this to move around the internet. Her group creates tools to help make the interent more visible to site and hearing impared folks. We tlaked about ways to engage students in helping make webites more accessible by crowdsourcign.. a very cool idea.. been thinking about it all day since we talked..

Next stop was a meeting with  the new(ish)  all folks with less than 12 years experience with IBM.. good hearing their thoughts.. 

Then .. I gave  a talk to the entire lab.. and visitors form the nearby software lab.. it was really great getting a chance to talk with all these smart folks !  My original talk was going to be very boring.. luckily Miwa-san and Akiko-san did an intervention last night and prompted me to change my talk to a mix of fun (40%) and boring.(60%) . I’m really glad I changed it.

here is the entire lab as seen by pickle ligh

hey miwa-san stole my coat !

Here’s katayam-san.. .. he is my kind of nerd.. we had the *best* talk about mmwave radio.. I think the best word for nerd here is ‘otaku’.. it means a person with and unnaturally deep focus on something very spefic.. aka . a nerd like me.. !

then.. Miwa-san had organized a movie making exercise. It seems the lab here is doign a remake of ‘engineering paradise’ japanese style !

Here’s our remake of one of the scenes in the movie.. when all the non-old people surround the old guy..

Lab direcotor Noly-san even joined the dance !

next scence was at the Go table.. it’s a gam elike checkers only 10000000000000000 times more complex..

then a moment of levity ..

THen.. down to the Tatami room for a tea service.. . It was wonderfull.. Here’s Akiko-san.. in her.. very beutiful tea service outfit.. It was a wonderful expereince.. She made tea for all of us. I leanred how to turn my bowl just so.. and drink the dark green tea.. really interesting.. and relaxing.. (except for my knees !)

I felt so honored to be able to participate in this tea service.. The people here are such wonderful hosts. !!!!!


.. and they have such cool socks !!!!

then back upstairs in teh ‘must smile’ elevator..

then back out into town for dinner. it was rush hour.. so many people !!!
..

We went to a small sushi resturant near where we ate last night..   Tonight’s dinner started with kani miso…
(whihc I think translates ‘crab guts’) yum

then squid guts (I kid you not !).. very good !

then young yellowtale..


then ‘cousin of eel ‘ ? (maybe dogfish ?)


then…. .. ebi. ika, maguro, hamachi, toro


and.. we had 3 ebi.. where most people (I’m told) only get 2 !


the two otaku’s


another great dinner.. I relaize.. I have no pictures of everyone at dinner.. including gracious host Noly-san.. (sorry abotu that).. it was another memorable dinner.. I use the word ‘

memorable’ loosley.. because by course 6 I thin the saki had affected my memory !  We left around 9:30 since I had a work call at 10..

Katayam-san helped me find my stop

what a GREAT visit!. The people here are so gracious, smart and funny. This is the part of my job I love the best..

OK.. gotta pack now.. more tomorrow !

kumbawa folks.. kumbawa sam

-me