She's back with a new album after a almost 1 year hiatus, and a great appearance at NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen.



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Envaulted is a startup that I’ve been a beta tester for a while. Envaulted’s main attraction is to provide additional rewards on your credit card: your 1% cash back credit card can now pay you back even more, up to 2.25% and occasionally even 101% – better than free! – on select purchases.

There was a Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of a mountain near a dark forest. It was lonely for him, so he devised a plan to get a little company. He rushed down towards the village calling out “Wolf, Wolf,” and the villagers came out to meet him. This pleased the boy so much that a few days after he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to his help. Shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the forest. The boy cried out “Wolf, Wolf,” still louder than before. But this time the villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again lying, and nobody came to his aid. So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy's flock.

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There was a young man who worked as IT support in a large skyscraper in New York. It was lonely for him, for being the junior guy, he frequently had to take the graveyard shift alone. Sarah, a cute market analyst who recently graduated from Harvard, worked on the 45th floor. Her job was to monitor the markets for any unexpected changes overnight. Once, he got so lonely that he devised a plan to get some company. One of his tasks was to ensure that full system updates were done overnight, save for these in use by employees. Of course, Sarah’s computer was accidentally included in that list. Shortly after, his phone rang. Sarah was in trouble, and he was called to her side.

Her company was so alluring that the young man tried a few days later. This time, he managed to insert a command in her computer, causing it to shut down at a certain time. Of course, he was called again.

This happened for a few more times. However, on the 10th occasion, he went up to the 45th floor and was shocked to see his boss with the NYPD. He was busted.

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So I poured some water over a certain device — which shall remain nameless — that is kinda essential to get on the internet with. Suffice to say, it began buzzing after 10 or so seconds and I observed a traffic blockade.

Oh shit.

15 minutes per side under the hvac vent (running at full heat), plus a 5 minute cooldown cycle later, the device was plugged in.

It worked.

P.S. Don't try this at home, and don't try this with an oven/hair dryer/dryer/heat gun/nuclear explosion.

I just heard that Ayaka's coming out with a new album. Amazing!

Depressing?

On the other hand, this depression reveals opportunities to buy into the market for the long haul. It would probably be a good deal for stuff like retirement savings.

Oil Prices Gush, Stock Market Slides - WSJ.com

Nice read. I just wish I found it earlier.

Going Nuclear

Why do I only write after flying?

A plane ride is as good as the sum of the entire experience. However, I've found that having a good seatmate really helps. For instance, my last flight was really good, mainly because I had a nice seatmate. We talked throughout the flight - mostly around mealtimes - and both discovered that the 16-plus hour flight felt really short. A good book helps too. Coincidentally, we were both reading the same book; She had a paper copy while I read it electronically. Of course, we probably wouldn't have felt this way if the underlying product, both the hardware and soft product weren't to par. Thankfully, while it wasn't absolutely out of this world, it was good.

Unfortunately, this ended rudely when it was time for our domestic connections. The domestic terminal was amazingly full; and the lines were atrocious. I spent perhaps a half hour for check-in, and another 45 minutes at the ridiculous “security” line. Check-in for my prior flight took perhaps 10 minutes, and that was in part due to me trying to get a seat reassignment. Security lines at both SIN and BKK took less than 5 minutes. It’s a rather sad state of affairs. After I was actually in the disappointing terminal (yuck-this terminal was really bad for a domestic terminal when compared to IAD or even DCA), I discovered that my seatmate’s flight to Chicago – at least if I remember her destination right – was delayed for a quite a few hours. I feel for her; it would be really boring in this dingy building. I half expected my flight to be delayed too. Thankfully, it wasn’t. Service on board: Let’s just say that thankfully, exhaustion kicked in and I slept through the whole thing, despite some irritating person shaking his leg non-stop.

Did I mention how long it took to offload some bags off when I finally got there? However, Brandon would tell me that it was a miracle that the bags arrived.

Wishing for a longer flight is not something you would usually hear. However, that's how I felt today! The reason is simple: I got into the J (Business) cabin for the San Francisco to Narita leg of my flight. Hurray for op-ups! I must say the service level is quite a bit more involved than what I am used to.

Moet upon boarding, two pages of wine and liquor to choose from — and the in flight meals were rather good too. What more can one ask for?

F, or first class, of course. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen anything soon. Maybe I'll enjoy such extravagence after I am on financially stable ground (ie. start working for a while). But considering a F ticket costs up to 10 times more than a regular cattle class Y seat, I'll probably be too cheap to spend such an amount, ever.

After my trip to ann arbor, the next stop is SFO. Will be in SFO for a couple of days before taking a flight back.

I'm staying at SFO Hyatt, which I found for the same price as some of the 2.5* places in south sf. Strange, this place is really nice. The bad thing is that there's no free internet.

Would this be a good addition to the sidebar? Seems interesting.

I just won a $50 amazon gift certificate for taking part in some survey. Will really come in useful this coming fall!



Congratulations, because of your participation in the NSSE survey, you’re a winner of a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com! In you next two days, you will receive an email from Amazon with your gift certificate and instructions for redeeming it. Thanks for completing the survey.

Interesting. May help if you have trouble understanding the concept, or otherwise fustrated.

Karnaugh Map Minimizer

Just heard that EMI is launching drm free downloads for all their songs. That's great!

Their first partner is, unsurprisingly, apple. They are rumored to be encoded as 256kbit AAC, double the bitrate of usual tracks. Full albums are said to stay at $9.99, while the price of individual tracks are set to increase to $1.29. Users with existing DRM'ed tracks can upgrade their tracks to the higher bitrate, DRM-free version by paying the difference. Coupled with their “Complete my Album” service, where users purchasing full albums will be given credit for tracks they already own, this seems like a nice idea.

By the way, EMI's press release mentions CD quality downloads, so we may see loseless downloads!

I think apple is being really smart with this, by choosing a higher bitrate. Many people have no idea what DRM is, but they may be tempted by marketing speak for twice the bitrate: “twice the quality”. Users buying full albums will undoubtly choose this option - it costs the same!

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

Apple - Complete My Album