Ho John Lee’s Weblog

 

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at the Davis World Cup with the Palo Alto AYSO spring U12 girls team, the Blue Bandits. There were over 120 teams, and each team in the tournament gets the flag of a FIFA World Cup country. This is fun, but can make it difficult to figure out who you’re playing, as the schedules are all published under the names of the countries, not the actual names of the teams. We were “Bermuda”, although I spent the first day thinking we were “Bahamas.” 

The girls had a lot of fun. The highlight of the series was a rematch with the Concord Chaos (Tanzania),  who we tied 2-2 at last week’s Concord Cup. This weekend we placed 3rd in Bracket A, while the Concord Chaos placed 2nd in Bracket B, which put us in an elimination match to get to the next round.

Every time we stay in Waikiki, I look forward to picking up Korean food to go from Choi’s Kitchen, one of the many interesting options at the food court hidden at the back of the International Marketplace. The first couple of years on vacation in Waikiki we mostly ended up either eating at a restaurant or at the snack bar. This can be both expensive and not so good for maintaining a healthy diet. For around the price of eating at McDonalds or Burger King, you can have a combination of teriyaki chicken, Korean BBQ beef, and a selection of Korean banchan (side dishes) including kimchee, sukju namul, seaweed salad, and many other choices, plus a generous serving of steamed rice. We usually get a couple of the chicken + beef, with 4 side dishes, and carry it back across the street to eat on the beach. There is also seating area at the International Marketplace, if you don’t want to go with take out. Many locals come through for lunch, while there are more tourists in the evening, some of whom come to see the live entertainment in the courtyard. Personally, I think the food is great, and the entertainment not so much. I’d rather be on the beach.

Returned to Palo Alto last night, which was the original plan, but also a little surprising. When we left home, I had been thinking we might end up stranded on vacation for an extra day or two. We booked our travel plans late, and weren’t able to get seats on a return flight from Hawaii to the Bay Area on Saturday, Sunday, or even Monday by the time we left. I’ve discovered that the flight booking sites don’t update availability regularly. So even though there were fares listed on various sites (United, American, Expedia, Orbitz), if you tried to book them, various warnings and errors appeared, encouraging you to call an agent, who told you there weren’t really any seats. I decided we’d just head out on vacation and sort it out after we got there.

A rainbow a day…

Back in Maui for spring break. Everything looks the same as last year, which is just the way we like it…

 

This is sad news - over the weekend, the Namdaemun gate at the center of Seoul was destroyed by fire. The Namdaemun gate is over 600 years old and is designated as the top item on the list of Korean National Treasures. For some perspective for non-Koreans, it’s kind of like hearing that the Statue of Liberty, London Bridge, or the Eiffel Tower burned down over the weekend.

Pictures from the BBC 

 

Singapore’s Changi Airport is one of my favorites for long haul travel, as they have everything you need within the security perimeter, including the equivalent of a shopping mall, two gyms, two hotels, assorted restaurants, and excellent, inexpensive internet and telephone service. I wrote about it a while back in Camping out at Singapore Airport, and it looks like there are a couple who have more or less taken up residence there, according to AsiaOne Travel.

SINGAPORE may have its own version of Tom Hanks in the 2004 Steven Spielberg-directed comedydrama, The Terminal. This time though, it’s an Asian-looking pair apparently living and camping out at Changi Airport Terminal 2.

Assorted comments in the AsiaOne forum.

The recent problems with spontaneously combusting lithium-ion batteries in Dell and Apple computers appears to have turned up in IBM Thinkpads now.

Engadget reports

the ThinkPad (which was quoted to be an IBM, not a Lenovo) apparently had a number of death throes as the fire went through various phases, until eventually a United employee busted out the fire extinguisher and laid the laptop to rest. Apparently the machine’s owner already checked its battery against the recalls and it was not listed — and why would it be? IBM and Lenovo aren’t flagged for bad batteries — yet.

I cleaned up the photo a bit to get a better look. Based on the battery placement and connectors it looks quite a lot like my T42P. It will be interesting to see whether that battery was an original IBM-supplied battery or from a 3rd party. My notebook has a Sanyo battery. The recent battery fires have all been in Sony-manufactured units. There are also a lot of low quality generic batteries available in Asia, but the Thinkpad is mostly purchased by corporate and consulting users, who are likely to stick with original equipment.

Dell is recalling several models of notebook batteries, due to several incidents of spontaneous combustion. The batteries in question were manufactured by Sony, which also supplies batteries to other notebook vendors. Lithium-ion batteries are widely used today, so I’m expecting to see additional recalls from other notebook vendors, or at least a raft of press releases verifying that they do not have a problem. Dell has already set up their own web site for battery recall information.

I haven’t heard of any episodes other than various spontaneously combusting Dell notebooks and exploding Powerbooks in recent weeks, but I’m keeping an eye out for news about my Thinkpad’s battery.

The battery issue is compounded by the recent changes to airline security screening. It would be unfortunate if this got all lithium-ion batteries banned from the cabin. On the other hand I don’t see any way to create a completely accident-/terrorist-proof high density energy storage device, which is going to make some people unhappy now that they’ve noticed the issue.

I’m quite pleased that the British authorities managed to foil the attempt to blow up multiple airliners last week. On the other hand, I’m probably not alone in wondering how long-haul business air travel is going to work out.

If a ban on all liquids, gels, and personal electronics stands, a lot of air carriers will need to start competing on in-flight service again. In recent years, I normally bring my own water, food, work, entertainment, and a change of clothes for air travel to China and India. On a trip to India, it’s about 30 hours in transit, which is a lot of time to watch the 6 movies that United usually rotates each month, along with putting in a full day or so of work. I usually fly United since their Asian routes are all based here, but I wouldn’t want to rely on them for food, water, and entertainment. Might be time to book on Singapore Airlines, which flies with a huge video- and audio-on-demand library and Nintendo video games, never seems to run out of food or water, and consistently provides attentive cabin service.

Overnight, British authorities arrested 21 suspected terrorists planning to blow up several airliners on Continental, United, and American by mixing liquid explosives carried onboard in hand luggage.

At the moment, all liquids are banned from hand luggage, except for baby formula and medicine.

All in all, it sounds like great work by the UK authorities, although this quote leaves me wondering a little (since they’ve only arrested 21 so far):

“A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people — possibly as many as 50 — were involved in the plot.”

More from Counterterrorism Blog here, here, and here

The West Coaster is a small roller coaster going around and above Pacific Park, a small amusement park at the Santa Monica Pier. The ride isn’t too scary, provides great views of the beach, and goes around twice each time you board. The mid-week lines are short, so we went around and around until we lost count.

Spent most of the past weekend on the beach in Malibu. Emily and I tried a little surfing, ocean kayaking, and also got a good look at some dolphins while we were paddling around.

I brought the Thinkpad, but left the charger at home, the idea being to limit my computer use while on vacation. We decided to stay a couple extra days, so I was effectively offline after running on batteries for 5 hours or so. Next time I’ll bring the charger anyway.

If you’ve been having trouble getting at this site while I’ve been away, Dreamhost posted a narrative of their recent adventures in data hosting, some of which have been power-related, and some not.

Travelling to Seattle for Gnomedex this morning. Didn’t find a free WiFi connection in Sea-Tac, although the AT&T Wayport service seems to have good coverage in the main atrium (for $7.95 per day).

On the way here, I’ve discovered I’m apparently on a TSA list of some sort. I wasn’t able to use Southwest’s online check in service last night, and the self-serve kiosk at the San Jose airport also wouldn’t let me check in this morning. The customer service agent said that my name hit a “match list” which requires that they check my ID. This is the first time I’ve been unable to use online or self-service check in, my last flight was a few weeks ago, so this seems to be something new.

I’ve been on flights through bumpy weather many times, but am happy to have missed this one. The nosecone (which houses the radar) came off, and there were cracks and holes in the wings and windshield.

‘’I could not see anything through the front windows because they were shattered. So I checked side windows when I tried to land the plane.'’

All 200 passengers, including 177 elementary school kids, were uninjured.
Link, with video. (Reuters)

This past weekend I ran the Big Sur Marathon, my 3rd time on the course. I’ve been posting on a separate running blog for a while, here’s a roundup of Big Sur posts:

• Signed up for Big Sur 2006
• Game plan for this year’s Big Sur Marathon
• Where we’re starting from this year (2006)
• How Long is a marathon, exactly?
• Some Photos from the 2006 Big Sur Marathon

Back in Palo Alto again. Appararently it rained nearly every day that we were away, but it’s been pleasantly sunny and around 80 degrees this afternoon. The Bay Area is a lot nicer now that the weather is working properly again.