Well, it's Monday night - I'm doing a little work for Company_A after my first day of Project Management boot camp. Lots of fun, it's not a tremendously fun class, there's only 7 people in it and 5 of them are techies like me who are trying to round out their skills. One is a PM for a bank (he hasn't said much) and one is this Australian guy (Paul) who is actually making it interesting (not that the instructor's bad). Paul's the director of PM for some big financial company and he's taking the course to get the credits for recertification. That guy is seriously sharp - some people are just able to make so much sense, and when they explain things it seems to obvious - my dad said a long time ago that people who are really masters of a difficult art make you say "that doesn't look so hard, I bet I could do that", until you try it.
Anyway, so obviously no Company_A stuff going on, except that the stock price looks to be healthy. We announce earnings etc tomorrow. I hope we did well (believe me, I'm in no position to even guess as to how well or poorly we did - such is life in the trrenches).
Went to CA last weekend, to Santa Barbara for a wedding between Terry and Harry, two men who have been together almost as long as I've been alive. It was really, really nice. I'd never been to a gay wedding before and I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I didn't expect it to seem so...normal. Nothing flashy or extravagant, just two people who I haven't seen look that happy together since my own wedding. It was also a Lutheran mass, which I'd never seen before and it was almost exactly like the Catholic wedding mass. They had a really nice reception and Harry made a particularly touching speech, and Terry invited us to the after party. I think Clau was really happy to see Terry and Nancy (her old bosses from the museum) again. I like Harry and Terry a lot, and I was really glad we got to go.
My only complaint about the weekend was that I felt rushed the whole time. We flew to CA in the morning on Friday and got there at about noon. We hauled ass to Ventura to have lunch with Joyce and John, and I got sucked into a phone meeting just as we got to the restaurant. I finished my meeting, then ate lunch with them, then dropped Clau and Joyce off for a movie, then went to go see Jimmy and the new QAD campus. Very nice place. I ended up seeing quite a few people there who I never got to say good-bye to, so it turned out to be really good. Then raced back to Ventura, picked up Clau, went to Sean's house, went out to dinner (Mexican - good Mexican! so good!) with Sean and Tess, then went back home and hung out and did stuff. Then on Saturday we had breakfast w/ Sean and Tess, then went to the wedding, then raced back to Ventura to have dinner with Sean and Tess again. Sean's quite the cook, although he's definitely not pepper-shy, so we were scorched but happy after the meal. We had breakfast with Al and Neva the next day. Really, the only person I didn't get to see was Ernest, because his phone no longer works (again!). And, in reading this, it looks like it was pretty relaxed, but we were running around the whole time. It was really good seeing Sean and Tess. We could tell Tess was having a hard time of it, but she put on a brave face.
I miss California. I was telling Sean "I know we made the right decision in moving to New York, but I really miss this place." I miss seeing stars at night. I miss sleeping in silence. I miss having a backyard. I miss cheap, delicious Mexican food. I miss the few good friends we left behind.
Anyway, we flew back last night, and we're still kind of recovering. I just finished my work for Company_A so I'm gonna go drink a beer and see if we've got anything to eat.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Funny stuff
A couple of things that were pointed out to me recently:
http://www.angryalien.com - 30-second Flash summaries of movies by bunnies. Pretty damn funny, and of course they don't take very long to watch. The Pulp Fiction one is awesome.
http://maddox.xmission.com - This guy is very funny.
Gotta run!
--Nate
http://www.angryalien.com - 30-second Flash summaries of movies by bunnies. Pretty damn funny, and of course they don't take very long to watch. The Pulp Fiction one is awesome.
http://maddox.xmission.com - This guy is very funny.
Gotta run!
--Nate
Quick BitTorrent / Azureus / etc explanation
OK, this stuff has all been written about to death by people who actually enjoy writing about this sort of thing, so I'm going to give the executive summary for people who don't know what this stuff is. For anyone who wants to learn more, there's a LOT more info out there.
Some definitions: BitTorrent is a method of transferring files, much like FTP. I'll try to give a quick explanation of what makes it so great by comparing it to other transfer methods:
FTP / HTTP - works great for what it is. However, in this case you have many clients downloading data from a single source. Both are reliant on getting the whole file in one shot, otherwise you have to start over again. Not very practical if you want to share your latest home video with the world.
Kazaa / eDonkey / etc - Break files into many small pieces, and work on downloading one piece at a time. This means that, first off, if your download gets botched, you've only lost one small piece of the file, which can be easily recovered. It also means that you can download many different pieces of the same file at the same time. As far as I can remember, Kazaa was the first program to do this (I don't think Napster did it, but now I can't remember - it was a long time ago). These programs also need some centralized servers to keep track of who has what. I won't get into how that works, but it's very clever. I know that Napster was the first program to do _that_, which is what made it so clever. Of course, by the time Napster got the axe, Kazaa was already around to take its place. Kazaa (as far as I know - I don't use it anymore) keeps its own servers, whereas eDonkey / Gnutella rely on people to set up their own servers, which then start keeping track of who has what. That means, if you're looking for something really obscure on one of those networks and can't find it by searching, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting to the network, and you'll reconnect to (hopefully) at least a few different servers.
Finally, BitTorrent - BitTorrent is the next evolution from eDonkey, Kazaa, etc. BitTorrent has all the same ideas as the above, but adds in a couple of key parts. For one thing, there are no centralized servers. Each file you want will have a "tracker", meaning a server that keeps track of who has what pieces of the file (remember, the file is broken into a lot of small pieces). The tracker (and you can have multiple trackers per file) tries to keep track of who is connected and what pieces they have, and instruct everyone accordingly. So, let's say, to make things easy, that a file is only broken into 5 pieces, and there's a lot of people trying to get it. Pieces 1-4 are all over the place, with hundreds of clients having each piece, but piece 5 is only on three or four clients. The tracker will immediately tell a bunch more clients to go get piece 5 (actually, I think the tracker just presents the information and the clients make that decision on their own, but you get the idea), so that it immediately becomes more common and can be downloaded by more clients. This gets rid of a common problem with other clients, where the file is 98-99% done, but you just can't get that last piece; man, I hate that.
BitTorrent also has an egalitarian quality, in that the more you upload, the more you can download. Truthfully you don't have to upload a lot to get a good download rate, but you do have to be able to upload something, otherwise your performance is going to suck. However, this means that whenever you use BitTorrent for anything illegal (i.e. movies, music, etc), you're not just receiving it, you're distributing it, in direct violation of that little warning screen they put at the beginning of the DVD and you can't get fast-forward through.
OK, that all took a lot longer than expected. So, I'll have to cut this short. Later I'll try to explain RSS and how it ties in. Actually, if you fo a google search for "bittorrent rss" then you ought to get a lot of other people's writings about it. I think these things are the wave of the future - they could be used so well to keep people informed and entertained if done properly. Anyway, more about that later.
Some definitions: BitTorrent is a method of transferring files, much like FTP. I'll try to give a quick explanation of what makes it so great by comparing it to other transfer methods:
FTP / HTTP - works great for what it is. However, in this case you have many clients downloading data from a single source. Both are reliant on getting the whole file in one shot, otherwise you have to start over again. Not very practical if you want to share your latest home video with the world.
Kazaa / eDonkey / etc - Break files into many small pieces, and work on downloading one piece at a time. This means that, first off, if your download gets botched, you've only lost one small piece of the file, which can be easily recovered. It also means that you can download many different pieces of the same file at the same time. As far as I can remember, Kazaa was the first program to do this (I don't think Napster did it, but now I can't remember - it was a long time ago). These programs also need some centralized servers to keep track of who has what. I won't get into how that works, but it's very clever. I know that Napster was the first program to do _that_, which is what made it so clever. Of course, by the time Napster got the axe, Kazaa was already around to take its place. Kazaa (as far as I know - I don't use it anymore) keeps its own servers, whereas eDonkey / Gnutella rely on people to set up their own servers, which then start keeping track of who has what. That means, if you're looking for something really obscure on one of those networks and can't find it by searching, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting to the network, and you'll reconnect to (hopefully) at least a few different servers.
Finally, BitTorrent - BitTorrent is the next evolution from eDonkey, Kazaa, etc. BitTorrent has all the same ideas as the above, but adds in a couple of key parts. For one thing, there are no centralized servers. Each file you want will have a "tracker", meaning a server that keeps track of who has what pieces of the file (remember, the file is broken into a lot of small pieces). The tracker (and you can have multiple trackers per file) tries to keep track of who is connected and what pieces they have, and instruct everyone accordingly. So, let's say, to make things easy, that a file is only broken into 5 pieces, and there's a lot of people trying to get it. Pieces 1-4 are all over the place, with hundreds of clients having each piece, but piece 5 is only on three or four clients. The tracker will immediately tell a bunch more clients to go get piece 5 (actually, I think the tracker just presents the information and the clients make that decision on their own, but you get the idea), so that it immediately becomes more common and can be downloaded by more clients. This gets rid of a common problem with other clients, where the file is 98-99% done, but you just can't get that last piece; man, I hate that.
BitTorrent also has an egalitarian quality, in that the more you upload, the more you can download. Truthfully you don't have to upload a lot to get a good download rate, but you do have to be able to upload something, otherwise your performance is going to suck. However, this means that whenever you use BitTorrent for anything illegal (i.e. movies, music, etc), you're not just receiving it, you're distributing it, in direct violation of that little warning screen they put at the beginning of the DVD and you can't get fast-forward through.
OK, that all took a lot longer than expected. So, I'll have to cut this short. Later I'll try to explain RSS and how it ties in. Actually, if you fo a google search for "bittorrent rss" then you ought to get a lot of other people's writings about it. I think these things are the wave of the future - they could be used so well to keep people informed and entertained if done properly. Anyway, more about that later.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Weekly update (maybe)
Well, here's an idea: let's try doing one update per week, maybe Monday mornings after I get my email / etc. settled. Now is such a time.
OK, what's going on:
Work (that I can talk about): I played around with a Sun Ray last week, got the server hoisted, it's such a great idea, too bad it didn't fly (although for all I know there are entire large companies running on these things). The hot-desking part is awesome, it's especially neat if you have to go the lab or something: just pop out your card, pop it in at the lab and it's like you never left. Totally kick-ass. I was thinking about taking one home so I could hot-desk into work from home, but then I remembered that we don't actually have a monitor at home, so that put an end to that. So, I think I'll put one in each of the labs and see how that works out. Also working on some other fun stuff that I don't want to write about here.
Home: Clau was sick last Saturday so we stayed inside the entire day, watching TV and eating soup. It was awesome. I played my video games until the wee hours and slept in a little on Sunday. On Sunday, we went to carve pumpkins with John and Nicole (the other couple from the Amazing Race picture). Clau hadn't done it since she was a little kid (honestly I couldn't remember the last time I did it), but we had a lot of fun, ate a lot of toasted pumpkin seeds, and the jack-o-lanterns actually came out pretty good (considering my absolute lack of artistic talent). Then we went home and Clau started working on setting up her PDA, which went late into the night. I just wanted to be grumpy and watch TV but she kept asking me to rescue her from some tech corner she'd painted herself into. Still, she got pretty handy with the Palm pretty fast; good to see there's a geek in there somewhere.
Also, I called my grandmother, and through a little phone-tag I found that she's doing the family Xmas party on Dec 10. That works out for us, but I think it may conflict with this year's Santacon: we didn't go last year (because we didn't know about it) but we're determined to go this year, unless something else conflicts with it (like my family's Xmas party).
I guess that about covers it: temps are definitely getting cold, and it's still pretty dim when I leave for work now. In a month I'll probably be forced to wear a hat. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Clau bought a bunch of pants on Sunday, too, so she's happy.
OK, what's going on:
Work (that I can talk about): I played around with a Sun Ray last week, got the server hoisted, it's such a great idea, too bad it didn't fly (although for all I know there are entire large companies running on these things). The hot-desking part is awesome, it's especially neat if you have to go the lab or something: just pop out your card, pop it in at the lab and it's like you never left. Totally kick-ass. I was thinking about taking one home so I could hot-desk into work from home, but then I remembered that we don't actually have a monitor at home, so that put an end to that. So, I think I'll put one in each of the labs and see how that works out. Also working on some other fun stuff that I don't want to write about here.
Home: Clau was sick last Saturday so we stayed inside the entire day, watching TV and eating soup. It was awesome. I played my video games until the wee hours and slept in a little on Sunday. On Sunday, we went to carve pumpkins with John and Nicole (the other couple from the Amazing Race picture). Clau hadn't done it since she was a little kid (honestly I couldn't remember the last time I did it), but we had a lot of fun, ate a lot of toasted pumpkin seeds, and the jack-o-lanterns actually came out pretty good (considering my absolute lack of artistic talent). Then we went home and Clau started working on setting up her PDA, which went late into the night. I just wanted to be grumpy and watch TV but she kept asking me to rescue her from some tech corner she'd painted herself into. Still, she got pretty handy with the Palm pretty fast; good to see there's a geek in there somewhere.
Also, I called my grandmother, and through a little phone-tag I found that she's doing the family Xmas party on Dec 10. That works out for us, but I think it may conflict with this year's Santacon: we didn't go last year (because we didn't know about it) but we're determined to go this year, unless something else conflicts with it (like my family's Xmas party).
I guess that about covers it: temps are definitely getting cold, and it's still pretty dim when I leave for work now. In a month I'll probably be forced to wear a hat. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Clau bought a bunch of pants on Sunday, too, so she's happy.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Speaking of HDTV
I use azureus, a popular BitTorrent client, for my BT transfers and getting my HDTV broadcast stuff. It has an RSSFeed plugin that just rocks. I've got pretty much all my favorite shows: Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives (for the, um, wife), Veronica Mars (don't knock it till you watch it!), CSI (original), all the Law and Orders, etc. The only tough part is CSI and LAO, since there's so many spinoffs. I don't like the CSI spinoffs, and I like to keep my TV organized, so have all the different Law and Order shows going into their own subdirectories.
This came about because I was talking with Matt (Sam's boyfriend - Sam's an English girl who volunteers with me at God's Love We Deliver, Matt's her boyfriend, both very cool people and they're going to Carnival next year with us). Matt said he wanted the "set it and forget it" kind of deal. Well, this isn't perfect but it's pretty close. Now I just need a frontend that can use the remote control and tell me what I haven't watched yet, and I'm set - it's like a Tivo without needing cable.
On another note, since I put up those posts, Apple (or is it ABC) started offerring $1.99 versions of their two most popular TV shows - for the video iPod. Not exactly what I had in mind but it's a start. Now all we need is high-quality HDTV rips for $1.99 and we're in business. In fact, you know what? A decent interim solution would be to just make a "legal" version of the show with only nationwide (or global) advertisements (i.e. McDonalds, Coke, H&R Block, etc), and throw it into the BT universe. I think that a lot of people, if given the choice between a "legal" and "illegal" download (I use quotes because there's no precedent, but let's face it - it's probably illegal to download - or at least to upload, which (with BitTorrent) is a part of the downloading process), would probably choose the legal option. I know I would.
But, of course, that's not going to happen. Or, if it does, it'll be some really crappy, half-assed version; a medium-quality version with lots of ads thrown in, that you have to download from some ad-ridden site and pay $5 per episode. Something that nobody will go for, and then the TV company can say "well, we tried that, but the consumers just don't want to work with us - they just want to pirate our material and get it for free".
OK, I sense my own bitterness approaching. Signing off now.
--Nate
--Nate
This came about because I was talking with Matt (Sam's boyfriend - Sam's an English girl who volunteers with me at God's Love We Deliver, Matt's her boyfriend, both very cool people and they're going to Carnival next year with us). Matt said he wanted the "set it and forget it" kind of deal. Well, this isn't perfect but it's pretty close. Now I just need a frontend that can use the remote control and tell me what I haven't watched yet, and I'm set - it's like a Tivo without needing cable.
On another note, since I put up those posts, Apple (or is it ABC) started offerring $1.99 versions of their two most popular TV shows - for the video iPod. Not exactly what I had in mind but it's a start. Now all we need is high-quality HDTV rips for $1.99 and we're in business. In fact, you know what? A decent interim solution would be to just make a "legal" version of the show with only nationwide (or global) advertisements (i.e. McDonalds, Coke, H&R Block, etc), and throw it into the BT universe. I think that a lot of people, if given the choice between a "legal" and "illegal" download (I use quotes because there's no precedent, but let's face it - it's probably illegal to download - or at least to upload, which (with BitTorrent) is a part of the downloading process), would probably choose the legal option. I know I would.
But, of course, that's not going to happen. Or, if it does, it'll be some really crappy, half-assed version; a medium-quality version with lots of ads thrown in, that you have to download from some ad-ridden site and pay $5 per episode. Something that nobody will go for, and then the TV company can say "well, we tried that, but the consumers just don't want to work with us - they just want to pirate our material and get it for free".
OK, I sense my own bitterness approaching. Signing off now.
--Nate
--Nate
My slashdot post
Here's a copy-and-paste of a post I did on slashdot. I'm never very popular with the slashdot community (I'm guessing it's because I'm usually a few days late to the party), but I had been wanting to write this stuff down for a while.
For context, the topic was "Universal going to offer movies online". Basically saying that Universal was looking into making their movies available online, but they were extremely worried and paranoid about anyone pirating / copying the movies. More than a few people said "just make me a decent product and let me buy it!". One fellow also talked about being able to buy TV shows rather than have to watch them w/ ads. He cited lots of various reasons you might want to download a show as opposed to Tivo / wait for a rerun / etc. Here was my reply:
--------
I feel the exact same way, although my situation is a bit different; I have a HDTV set from my days of living in a house (I live in a small 1br in Manhattan now) and there's no reasonable way for me to get OTA HDTV [note: OTA = over the air] broadcasts without upsetting the board or the wife [I should have specified in the post - in order to get a decent signal, you need a reasonably powerful antenna either mounted on the rooftop or - I think theoretically this would work - in the window]. Every show I like is OTA. So, my options are:
1) Bend over a chair for HDTV cable (very pricey in Manhattan), just so I can see the shows I like (which are all OTA)
2) Watch OTA analog broadcasts (I can get a signal by plugging in the cable, doesn't work for HDTV as a lot of you probably already know), reception's not too good but at least I'm _seeing_ it.
3) Download HDTV rips the next day.
Guess which one I go with?
I would be OK with paying a couple of bucks per show, or (even better), "subscribing" to the show for like $25 / season, with HDTV versions available online at the time of broadcast. But, here's another idea, and I think it's a good one: highly targeted ads. Have subscriptions to the show be free, but before you can sign up, you need to fill out a 15-minute survey with all the standard marketing data (age, gender, income, hobbies, neighborhood, do you have kids / do they watch the show with you, etc). After you fill out the survey, you get a login which can then be used to download any show that the network offers subscriptions to. Using your login, you can download a version of the show(s) you want with specifically targeted ads (ads for the Mexican restaurant two blocks from your place, ads for the local plumber, ads for stores / boutiques / games / etc all based on your survey). You're still watching ads, but they're ads that are really specifically targeted for you! A lot of people might not mind seeing that kind of ad, and even if you do, you can still FF or skip over it (it's a high-quality avi). Can you still share that? Sure, but if you can get it from the source just by filling out the survey (and hey, you might actually see an ad for something you _want_), why bother going the BitTorrent route?
Yes, I know there are all kinds of technical hurdles here; bandwidth for the servers with tons of people dl'ing high-bitrate video files, how to inject the ads properly in the first place, how to store all that stuff (since theoretically you've got a seperate file for each dl'er), and of course the algorithm to choose which ads go to which customers. Tech hurdles, to be sure, but how much harder is it than the rat race of copy protection?
Which brings me to the second point (probably echoing a lot of other people here) - why go through all this trouble to install copy protection on your downloadable / Internet-deliverable content? I mean, if I want a pirated copy of something, I can get it _now_ from someone who ripped a DVD. What exactly would Universal be trying to prevent? The worst-case scenario (people are taking the content and sharing it illegally) is already happening! Why not focus on giving people a good experience for a reasonable price? I think a good percentage of people who download something illegally would happily pay a reasonable fee for it, and the lower the price, the higher the percentage of people who would do it. Make a less-than-DVD-quality version available (particularly of movies that don't rely on special effects or other visuals) that's quick to download, charge $1 and see how many people purchase it. What's the risk? That people will illegally share and download the medium-quality version (as opposed to the high-quality versions that are already floating around the BT universe)?
Seriously, I often wonder if I'm missing something here. All this fuss about making content available online to prevent piracy. News flash: piracy is already here - you should know, you're the one putting those god-awful commercials at the beginning of movies. So what exactly are you trying to prevent?
---
And for the record, I have NetFlix - in the amount of time it takes to DL a rip, I can have the DVD itself in my hands, so I don't download movies.
--Nate
For context, the topic was "Universal going to offer movies online". Basically saying that Universal was looking into making their movies available online, but they were extremely worried and paranoid about anyone pirating / copying the movies. More than a few people said "just make me a decent product and let me buy it!". One fellow also talked about being able to buy TV shows rather than have to watch them w/ ads. He cited lots of various reasons you might want to download a show as opposed to Tivo / wait for a rerun / etc. Here was my reply:
--------
I feel the exact same way, although my situation is a bit different; I have a HDTV set from my days of living in a house (I live in a small 1br in Manhattan now) and there's no reasonable way for me to get OTA HDTV [note: OTA = over the air] broadcasts without upsetting the board or the wife [I should have specified in the post - in order to get a decent signal, you need a reasonably powerful antenna either mounted on the rooftop or - I think theoretically this would work - in the window]. Every show I like is OTA. So, my options are:
1) Bend over a chair for HDTV cable (very pricey in Manhattan), just so I can see the shows I like (which are all OTA)
2) Watch OTA analog broadcasts (I can get a signal by plugging in the cable, doesn't work for HDTV as a lot of you probably already know), reception's not too good but at least I'm _seeing_ it.
3) Download HDTV rips the next day.
Guess which one I go with?
I would be OK with paying a couple of bucks per show, or (even better), "subscribing" to the show for like $25 / season, with HDTV versions available online at the time of broadcast. But, here's another idea, and I think it's a good one: highly targeted ads. Have subscriptions to the show be free, but before you can sign up, you need to fill out a 15-minute survey with all the standard marketing data (age, gender, income, hobbies, neighborhood, do you have kids / do they watch the show with you, etc). After you fill out the survey, you get a login which can then be used to download any show that the network offers subscriptions to. Using your login, you can download a version of the show(s) you want with specifically targeted ads (ads for the Mexican restaurant two blocks from your place, ads for the local plumber, ads for stores / boutiques / games / etc all based on your survey). You're still watching ads, but they're ads that are really specifically targeted for you! A lot of people might not mind seeing that kind of ad, and even if you do, you can still FF or skip over it (it's a high-quality avi). Can you still share that? Sure, but if you can get it from the source just by filling out the survey (and hey, you might actually see an ad for something you _want_), why bother going the BitTorrent route?
Yes, I know there are all kinds of technical hurdles here; bandwidth for the servers with tons of people dl'ing high-bitrate video files, how to inject the ads properly in the first place, how to store all that stuff (since theoretically you've got a seperate file for each dl'er), and of course the algorithm to choose which ads go to which customers. Tech hurdles, to be sure, but how much harder is it than the rat race of copy protection?
Which brings me to the second point (probably echoing a lot of other people here) - why go through all this trouble to install copy protection on your downloadable / Internet-deliverable content? I mean, if I want a pirated copy of something, I can get it _now_ from someone who ripped a DVD. What exactly would Universal be trying to prevent? The worst-case scenario (people are taking the content and sharing it illegally) is already happening! Why not focus on giving people a good experience for a reasonable price? I think a good percentage of people who download something illegally would happily pay a reasonable fee for it, and the lower the price, the higher the percentage of people who would do it. Make a less-than-DVD-quality version available (particularly of movies that don't rely on special effects or other visuals) that's quick to download, charge $1 and see how many people purchase it. What's the risk? That people will illegally share and download the medium-quality version (as opposed to the high-quality versions that are already floating around the BT universe)?
Seriously, I often wonder if I'm missing something here. All this fuss about making content available online to prevent piracy. News flash: piracy is already here - you should know, you're the one putting those god-awful commercials at the beginning of movies. So what exactly are you trying to prevent?
---
And for the record, I have NetFlix - in the amount of time it takes to DL a rip, I can have the DVD itself in my hands, so I don't download movies.
--Nate
Getting a bit cold
It really feels like autumn now. We're waffling between nicely cool and "wow, it's getting cold" cold.
Events of note lately:
1) We had a big birthday party for Clau at the apartment. Got it done to the point where it looked good enough for the party. Oddly, though, everyone showed up within about a five minute window (like from 10:20-10:30pm), got hammered fast, and everyone was gone by 2am. I don't know if that's a successful party or not - it only lasted a few hours, but at least everyone had a good time for those few hours. Bindu was completely MIA at that time.
2) Bindu showed up about a week later, turned out that he had run off to Europe for his birthday. He had a belated brunch a few weeks after that which turned out to be a hoot. Since it was at Intermezzo (just a few blocks from our apartment), we invited everyone over for beer (left over from Clau's birthday) and chili (which we had decided to make that day in the crock pot). A spicy time was had by all.
3) Last weekend we participated in an NYC version of "The Amazing Race". We had a lot of fun and ran all around Manhattan. And, the best part is, we won! That's a picture of the victorious team looking all sweaty. Lots of fun.
I'll post more later about various stuff (yeah, yeah, I always say that, but hey, blogs take time and I like to spend my free time on video games, TV, stuff that matters)..
--Nate
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