John W. Williams II: Journal

The In and Yo of being a know-it-all

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 20:00:22 GMT

"To see with eyes, unclouded by hate" - Ashitaka, in Princess Mononoke

Cambria, CA

Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:27:08 GMT

I'm in Cambria, California. A small town about 6 miles south of Hearst Castle. We arrived here yesterday evening after a drive down the coast on Highway 1. Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, so the whole town was shut down by 6pm, with the exception of the Hotel and a few gas stations. Lucky for us, we brought our own "Sushi Netta". We made rice with our rice cooker, mixed in vinegar and sugar, and then made sushi hand rolls. This morning, we'll have the hotel breakfast snacks, and then head off for the Experience Tour at Hearst Castle.

update 1 Now we're in Santa Barbara, CA. About 2 hours drive farther south from Cambria. Hearst Castle was pretty cool. Definitely worth it for a short few days trip down the coast. Weather got a bit wet by the end of the tour, mostly drizzle, but cold enough to make you want to be inside. We had lunch at Robin's restaurant which was pretty good with some Asian style dishes to keep the wife happy. I suppose you'd call it a "fusion cuisine" style place. update 2 Great weather in Santa Barbara! Despite heavy clouds and drizzle on the way down, the next day was sunny and warm for Fall. We ate dinner at Fat Burger on State Street - a 7 mile long street filled with shops reminiscent of Palo Alto or Mountain View, but longer and better! Lots of college kids were enjoying their time at the many bars, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, and assorted stores. We had only one day to see Santa Barbara. It is a very nice coastal town. The downtown is clean and well kept, and the whole town is circled by high hills in the background. It has a European feel to it. We drove down to the beach where our 2 daughters collected many good quality sea shells, and then we walked onto the Stearns pier which was just ok. Like Santa Cruz or Monterey, you might think the pier would be a good place to see authentic fishermen bringing in the day's catch, but in reality they are always tourist sites full of gift stores and restaurants. The views are nice looking out on the ocean and back toward the town. Next we went to the "Santa Barbara Botanical Garden" - situated up in the hills a few miles from the coast. The garden was pleasant, but I was expecting something like San Francisco's botanical garden. Instead this was a large area of trails through the hills, dedicated to native California plant species in their natural habitat (i.e. outdoors.) There were oak trees, cacti, and various other Chapparal type native plant species along the trail, but you can see similar things just walking around the trails in the San Francisco Bay Area. If I lived in Santa Barbara I would go frequently to the "Botanical Gardens" to enjoy a nice quiet nature walk, but I'm not so sure it's worth it for a tourist visit. One interesting part there was the small dam and aqueduct built 200 years ago to supply water to Mission Santa Barbara. At least that appealed to the engineer in me. After the Botanical Garden we dropped in at Mission Santa Barbara. I've been to many Missions before so while it was worth seeing, not much new was found there. Hopefully it was educational for the kids, and even the wife. It is important to understand the Mission system as part of California history. By the time we finished looking through the Mission, the sun was low in the sky so we drove around some of the super wealthy districts near the coast to get a final feel for Santa Barbara, and then started our long drive home. Overall, I'd say Santa Barbara is best experienced as a place to drive around and soak up the atmosphere, rather that a place with any specific points of interest. We drove home via highway 101, which is much faster than the Pacific Coast highway. We got home around 11pm Saturday night.

Checking in on Alternate Reality Part 2

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:22:27 GMT

This one is definitely confirmed. According to a highly placed confidential source, whose identity must remain secret, but his initials are Ronnie Kwong, this photo shows direct evidence that the United States did obtain alien technology from a crashed space ship back in 1942.

Cupertino Festival Photo

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:17:41 GMT

Just a crappy Cell phone photo (Sony Ericsson T767). My younger daughter Sasha danced the "Chicken Dance" with her classmates at the Cupertino 50 year founding anniversary. It was just another city festival, with art booths, and food vendors etc. The tickets for children's rides (like inflatable jumping house, etc.) were outrageously priced. $1 per ticket, 2 or 3 tickets required per ride. (So 2 kids on the inflatable slide cost $6! for 3 minutes!) I guess they think people in Cupertino are rich, but as one of my neighbors once said to a contractor who was asking for more money because he was rich: "I got rich because I don't give away my money carelessly to people like you!" I had more fun on Sunday driving to Big Basin in our new SUV, and except for the gas, it was free...

Honda Pilot 2005

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 03:07:53 GMT

My wife and I went half and half and bought a 2005 Honda Pilot SUV this last weekend. We bought a "Desert Rock" (metallic gold) colored EX-L with DVD for the kids. We plan to keep it for weekend and holiday trips mostly. I already have an itch to go buy a tent and take the kids camping, but it will have to wait til next Spring.

So what's so great about Computers anyway?

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:04:40 GMT

Yesterday, I pondered the danger of too much virtuality, and not enough reality. Today, a different point: What's so great about computers, besides the obvious? Obvious: email, instant message, web, games - all great. Less Obvious: The computer is an extension of you. Your computer can remember things you don't. It does the math you can't or don't want to do (making you equal to precomputer mathematicians.) With a little savvy statistical analysis over time, the computer can tell us things about ourself and the world that were not apparent. It is nothing new to recognize that computers are doing something like thinking. In Chinese, the word for computer translates as "electric brain." It is also not my original idea that the computer is an extension of self, or that computers make us smarter. I'm just relaying the meme. When I say computer, I mean more than computer - I mean your cell phone, your digital camera, in fact almost any tool is an extension of self. These things are not separate from us. Rather they are detachable pieces of something that is made when we combine them and us. Another Less Obvious: Computers allow us to accumulate resources, and build on previous accomplishments. Every message sent, every note typed in, every weblog entry, every picture saved - these are resources. It is easy to lose these things in a crash, or an upgrade. If you are careful, and you save and manage them, you will be richer for it. (But you have to be a good picker and discarder so you don't get buried in trash.)

Time Enough To Start Again

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:31:50 GMT

It's time to weblog. Easy not to, a shame not to be creative. Don't waste time locked in a personal bubble of obsessions... The weather turned from days of cool perfection to a sudden sense of forboding. Clouds moved in, drops dribbled from the sky, a thunderous barrage boomed, and a wash of rain fell outside my office window. The weather is world, its change of temper changes me. Fall weather brings strange feelings of comfortable nostalgia. I look forward to them again. Terry Teague, passed away last week. He was only 50. He looked and played the role of Merlin. He had long white hair and beard, and possessed an infinite resource of knowledge about computers. At times he was arrogant, and not to be bothered, but in casual meeting, he was friendly and talkative. He came from New Zealand and he had that great New Zealand accent, which sounds slightly Scottish, and often is confused for Australian (an observation which offends New Zealanders...) Terry worked at Apple Computer, Inc. In Cupertino, California, U.S. and lived in the hills on the east side of San Jose, CA. I didn't know Terry very well. I feel some sadness that he passed alone, with few close friends, having spent a life obsessed with computers. He did much in the software realm, and was well known in his circles on the internet, so I don't mean to suggest he didn't live a full and successful life. Yet, I imagine a lesson to be learned from his early passing: I too love computers, and I take from Terry the lesson: don't let the obsession kill your health. We are mind, and we are body. Computers appeal to our mind. They trick us into forgetting about body. The needs of the mind are now met effortlessly by computers, games, movies, and improving virtual reality. But we are bodies non virtual. We must go out in the real world and make an effort slightly more costly in time and strength, to keep ourselves in good health, to make and be good friends, and to live in the real here and now. So arriving at the start of the circle again. It's time to use my computer, to be active and write in my weblog, and to be real and feel the weather, and reaffirm old friendships, and new ones.

Sanmitsu

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 02:05:13 GMT

Of course, talking is not doing. However, I once read in a Stephen K. Hayes book on Ninjutsu, that there was a philosophical term in Japanese called Sanmitsu, which I believe is translated as "three secrets." The three secrets are: Thought, Word, Deed.

Random Thoughts on Development

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 02:01:04 GMT

I want to start a new production group. I will call it something like this: "Creative Resources Exploration And Development." I would recruit people with creative and leadership skills. They would have to be able to commit to producing results. I would seek out people who had the seeds of ideas for projects they wanted to work on, and try to hook them up with other contributors, and with good production managers who could drive progress on a project. As soon as possible, I would set up a target product. The product would have to be something to distribute to the public, probably for free. A website distribution would be easiest, but printed material or CD/DVD could be another option. I would like to see the following works produced out of this effort: 1) stories, 2) artwork (illustrations, comics), 3) animations, 4) films, 5) games. This is not an order of priority. I would seek to develop resources for the studio like: 1) a work place, 2) production facilities (audio/video), 3) distribution network, 4) profit model. Wouldn't that be cool?

New Toy: Edirol Keyboard + GarageBand

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 09:15:26 GMT

Check it out!!!

I bought an Edirol keyboard through a promo at my employer, for 1/2 price. Since the discount was good, I went for the best one, with 61 keys. The thing is like 1 meter wide.

So, why would I buy a midi keyboard, when I'm not a musician?

About 2 years ago, I asked my mom if we could have the Grand Piano which was sitting in the same place in the living room of her house ever since I was a little kid. My mom knows how to play piano, but she never enrolled me in lessons, although I did take about 1 year of guitar. Basically, I have absolutely no musical training of any kind, much less piano.

After the piano was moved to our house, I began to play around with it, and I taught myself how to play "Oh Susanna", and I also composed a tune based on a little sequence I used to play on the same piano since I was in elementary school. I can now play both of these things fairly well, with a few mistakes.

Also, about 2 years ago, Apple Computer introduced its "GarageBand" software, and quite a few people I know ran out and bought keyboards to play with it, but not I... I wanted one, but I try to restrain myself from dubious purchases - meaning, things that I don't think I will end up using very much.

I discovered the Edirol discount available through my work about 1 year ago. From that time I began to consider taking advantage of it. Finally, I did. I felt a little guilty unpacking this huge keyboard, as I always do when I indulge in a large expenditure. My rationalization of this purchase, aside from the fact that I made a nice amount on a sale of 100 shares of my company's stock, is that my daughter Leigh will be taking piano lessons, and I think the midi/garageband combo will be a great intro to learning about music in general (way more useful than just the Grand Piano we have.) However, even just for my own entertainment it turns out to be a lot of fun to goof around with this midi keyboard, especially together with Apple Computer's GarageBand software. I can see that I will be killing a lot of time learning to play the keyboard better and composing some tunes. So, I feel confident that this was a good buy...

Here's a little bluesy riff I composed today. I played all the parts, including all the miskeys.

Feeding, Chambering, Locking...

Mon, 08 Nov 2004 08:05:31 GMT

I posted this as a comment on Eric's Random Musings but thought I'd save it as a journal entry, since I seem so lazy to write anything for myself. - - -

The last item in your list reminds me of similar off color humor we had in the Precision Drill Unit of my ROTC detatchment at the University of Southern California.

I sometimes wonder if it is a peculiar American trait to play so many pranks, and pull so many stunts, especially to break the monotony or seriousness of a situation.

One of the things I remember well, was the firing sequence of the M1 rifle - it is one of an endless series of facts we had to memorize on the odd chance an onery Marine Drill Sergeant would ask us about it. The M1 rifle is no longer used of course, but it is the staple of Drill Teams around the country.

We would practice our own inpections every thursday morning at "O-Dark-Thirty", where our own PDU commander and the element leaders would perform the inspections. Once, when asked to recite the firing sequence, a particularly mischievious member of the team recited the order with progressively more sexually suggestive intonation of each word - giving an entirely new meaning to it.

Here's the sequence;

"Sir, the firing sequence of the M1 rifle is as follows!:

Feeding Chambering Locking Firing Unlocking Extraction Ejection

...Sir!"

Skunk Train - Journal

Tue, 27 Jul 2004 09:01:42 GMT

Starting on Friday 23 July 2004, we set out on a drive to Fort Bragg, CA, a rather unremarkable town on the coast of California in Mendocino County Fort Bragg was formerly a fort for the U.S. Army to control Native American tribes in the area, and also a lumber town. Georgia Pacific corporation appears to have a large installation there, and according to local news - is probably polluting up the area pretty good. There were quite a few restaurants in Fort Bragg, but they were all very overpriced. Tourism is the growth industry in the area, but the prices seemed unusually inflated, so much that we wondered if they give a special "tourist" menu to tourists, and a real, normal menu to the locals with reasonable prices on it. The primary goal of our trip was to ride the Skunk Train - a steam engine train that travels between Fort Bragg and Willits, CA. When I was around 8 years old, my father bought a 28ft Motorhome, and took the family up to Willits to ride the Skunk train over the mountain to Fort Bragg. I can't remember much about that trip except that we took our (at the time) brand new dog "Rusty" up there (she was a great dog - lived with the family 13 years.) On this trip with MY family, I found the Skunk train to be a little disappointing. First of all, the morning run with the Steam Train was sold out. We went to collect shells on the beach, and then returned in the afternoon and rode a train pulled by a Diesel engine. The train run was mundane. We sat in the front of the frontmost car, so the view was limited, but there really weren't any impressive views anyway. I had the idea that the trip through the coastal mountains and redwood forests would be better than it actually turned out to be. Part of the problem was that we've already ridden the train at Roaring Camp in Felton, CA. a few times, and the views on that ride are equal if not better than the Skunk train. The Roaring Camp train is a much shorter ride, however (lasts about 40 mins.) while the Skunk train goes for about 3 hours round trip. The redeeming portion of our Mendocino vacation was our Sunday return travel route. We took highway 1 down the coast all the way to Bodega Bay. One lesson learned: If you are going to visit Mendocino County, don't stay in Fort Bragg. Stay in any of the small coastal towns south of Fort Bragg and you'll have a better overall experience. (Might cost more though.) The coastline is as beautiful as you might expect, and the small towns and pine tree lined highway make for an enchanting drive. One notable site to see along the Mendocino coast was the Point Arena Lighthouse - it was nice that you could take a paid tour up to the top of the lighthouse. It was nice to have a 3 day get away from home, but Fort Bragg won't be high on my list of recommended vacation spots in the future.

A Tale of Two IPs

Mon, 19 Jul 2004 03:21:36 GMT

Starting in the late hours of Thursday night, and most of Friday (I was on vacation) I struggled to get the Darwin Streaming Server to work on my LinuxPPC server. It was painful to build - not due to any problem with the source code, but the build scripts are full of errors. I found most of the solution on a Japanese Linux discussion board. Years of Japanese study finally pays off in finding Linux technical support solutions! Even with the suggestion from Japan, there were still a few installation bugs to overcome. After I installed the DSS, and formatted my movie for streaming, I had a nice streaming movie working on my local net. Later, I discovered that outside my firewall the movie could not be seen. Trying to solve that problem was what took most of Friday, and led me through a lot of info on Linux Firewalls. I've played with Linux Firewall configs before, but the syntax of the iptables tool can be pretty obscure, not to mention that a thorough familiarity with TCP/IP, UDP, ICMP, etc would have helped greatly. Nevertheless I configured and reconfigured my Firewall, and roped in various friends lurking on iChat to help test. Finally, in frustration, I turned my firewall off completely, and still the streaming would not work. It was quite mysterious. The solution to the problem was a silly mistake in an uxpected place. When I hacked up my html file that would contain the streaming movie, I used the static IP of my server on the interface to the local network (the LAN). That's why it worked fine when testing inside my LAN. But the IP numbers I use on my LAN are in the reserved range that are not for use on the internet. The actual IP of my server on the internet interface is completely different number (assigned by my Internet Service Provider.) - and on the net, one is supposed to use a domain name. So, I put the server's domain name in the html source link for the movie and now it works. Hours of research and experimentation were all spent attempting to resolve a firewall issue that did not exist. Simple HTML was the only problem. Time wasted? Maybe. I learned a lot more about Firewalls, I feel the satisfaction of overcoming an obstacle, and I can now stream any videos I care to put up on my server (and I've got the camera to shoot them.)

No Training Wheels Video

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 05:49:51 GMT

Interesting Online Video 4 click to view video (23MB) Journal Entry: No Training Wheels

No Training Wheels

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 02:52:39 GMT

Yesterday, Saturday 10 July 2004, on the third attempt, Leigh began to ride her bicycle with no training wheels, and no Daddy to keep her balanced. On the second attempt, she whined endlessly, and declared "I can't do it..." Dad scolded her "I don't hear the word 'can't', I only hear 'I can', 'I will', and 'I did'" So, on try #3, she had a great optimistic attitude, and she did it. Which is good, because Dad was getting a lot of exercise on try #1 and #2. While Leigh worried about balancing her bike, Dad was running along side the whole time, holding on to the back of the seat, or the handlebars, or grabbing her shoulder, and sweating like a marathon runner. Now, Dad can walk more slowly and watch Leigh ride by herself. Today, 11 July 2004 was my Mom's birthday. I'm not sure how hold she is because she always claims to be 39 (that would make her 1 year older than me...). We went to Todai restaurant for lunch to celebrate. In the evening, we went for another bicycle trip around the block. This time I took some video.

Tue, 06 Jul 2004 06:36:27 GMT

One thing I need to do ASAP is fix the crappy theme template of this Journal page. I like to hand tweak the templates and add custom graphics, but it can be a time consuming trial and error process. Wouldn't it be great if I used CSS and no tables on all my pages? I rely on tables for layout WAY too much. I'm not a HTML expert, but I know enough to make my way, and I frequently refer to here for reference to HTML. If you need some help on html stuff, let me know

Starting a journal category

Sun, 04 Jul 2004 21:04:55 GMT

I'm starting a new category on my weblog, called Journal. Although I write what's going on in my life that relates to some of the other categories, in those areas, I'd like to have a place where I can write more mundane entries. I'm a pretty restrained person when it comes to public performance. I don't like to waste people's time or diminish their interest with stuff not worth looking at. On the other hand, being too restrained keeps me from updating my weblog much (not to mention I get distracted by other things easily, or I'm just too lazy.) So anyway, this area will be a place to make more regular entries about what I've been doing lately. Maybe someone will actually be interested in reading it. If I actually come up with something less than mundane, I will try to float it up to the more topical categories.