Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2015

It’s the opening weekend of the 20th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival so we spent some time today eating and drinking our way around the world.

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It was only the second day so the park was very crowded and there were very long lines at all of the food stations, as we expected. We worked our way clockwise (starting with Mexico) around the World Showcase, sampling the amazing food and drinks available at each country for lunch. Then we took a break in Future World, using our FastPass+ reservations and waiting in standby lines since we were in no rush.

We did have a surprise FP+ experience this time. When we went to check the My Disney Experience app, we found that one of our FastPass+ reservations had changed to a “Choice of Experience.” Apparently the attraction we had a FastPass for (Journey into Imagination with Figment) had an issue so we were able to use the FastPass+ at a selection of rides at any time until 10pm. Unfortunately none of the popular rides (Test Track, Soarin’, etc.) were listed, but it was a nice surprise.

Around dinnertime we took another pass around the World Showcase, counterclockwise this time, to sample more food for dinner. We don’t normally go to the festival on the first weekend, so it had been a while since we had seen it so crowded. I also had the uncomfortable experience of being in line for beer in front of a group of people who had had way too much to drink already and were determined to talk to me, get fist bumps, high fives, etc. (you know the type). That was unfortunately, but luckily I was by myself and not with the family so it didn’t really sully our day’s experience at the festival.

I suspect we’ll be back here at Epcot more over the next few weeks … the Food & Wine Festival is one of our favorite times here.

Building the PiDP-8

my finished PiDP-8 kitI’m a computer guy, and while I’m not quite old enough to have first-hand experience with classic golden age hardware like the PDP-8, I spent a good deal of time in college working on the VAX, still own my first computer, and have an appreciation for those forefathers of the amazing PCs and servers we use today.

Back in 2009 (episode #177 of the Security Now! podcast), Steve Gibson mentioned Bob Armstrong’s PDP-8/E-like front panel for his SBC1620 single-board computer. Watch any episode of Security Now! since then and you can see three of those units with their blinking lights over Steve’s left shoulder. The kit was expensive, though, and I couldn’t justify the cost or effort necessary to procure the necessary parts for a system I could really only use for eye candy.

Fast forward 8 years or so to this past April, where in episode #505 of Security Now!, Steve mentioned Oscar Vermeulen’s PDP-8/I kit, based on the Raspberry Pi, available for under $200. After just a few minutes of browsing the pages on Obsolescence Guaranteed, I immediately joined the mailing list …

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Labor Day Weekend 2015 at Disney: Day 3

Normally, when we’re at Disney for Labor Day, we spend Monday morning at the hotel, then do a little shopping at Downtown Disney before heading home. This year, however, we decided to skip Downtown Disney (still in the throes of its transformation into Disney Springs) and spend more time at the Magic Kingdom instead. And today, the FastPass+ system really worked well.

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Labor Day Weekend 2015 at Disney: Day 2

There aren’t any early Extra Magic Hours on Sunday so we slept in a bit before taking the bus from the Wilderness Lodge over to Hollywood Studios this morning. We didn’t make it in time, unfortunately, for our Tower of Terror FastPass+ reservation, but did see the Frozen Summer Fun parade (complete with “snow”) as we were entering the park.

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Windows 10

It’s Windows 10 release day! The free upgrade for qualified devices is now available to the general public.

I’ve been using Microsoft’s latest desktop OS since the first Technical Preview was released for Windows Insiders last October, mainly on my old original Surface Pro 1 just to get a jump on learning the new software and seeing how it progressed. For the past two weeks I’ve been running the final builds on my new main home PC and the transition from Windows 7 has been pretty smooth. It’s definitely grown on me since that first tech preview.

We won’t be upgrading our Windows 7/8.1 PCs at work to Windows 10 anytime soon, but now that it’s officially released I’m sure we’ll start seeing new PCs with it pre-installed showing up soon. Luckily, so far it seems like Windows 10 will be an easy transition. Time, as always, will tell.

Intel NUCs

Since getting my standing desk at home last last year I’ve been thinking about getting a new, smaller PC that would fit on top of my desk instead of under it (like my old Dell Inspiron from 2008), eliminating cable clutter.  With the upcoming release of Windows 10 I had been thinking more about this and also replacing my Aspire Revo Linux server with a newer box. The nettop had the benefit of being small and quiet, although slightly underpowered, which made it a decent “server” to hide away in my networking closet. Using size, features, and cost as my guides, I decided to go with Intel NUCs for both replacements.

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West Coast Road Trip: Day 10

Our West Coast vacation is over.

This morning my sister drove us to Sea-Tac on her way to work so we could catch our flight back to Tampa. It was a little weird tagging our own luggage for Alaska Airlines but again our TSA PreCheck status made the overall process of getting to our gate relatively smooth. The flight was fine too … until we were waiting for our luggage. One of our suitcases came out right away, but there was no sign of the second. And of course, that one had our wine in it that we got four days ago. There were a lot of people also missing their bags but for some reason Alaska Airlines knew our bag was missing. Why they couldn’t have had someone at bag claim to tell us this I don’t know and the baggage agent was unfriendly and unhelpful. All he could tell us was our bag would be delivered to our house and gave us a $20 voucher. Ouch. And as of tonight, our bag hasn’t arrived.

At any rate, other than that slight downer at the end, our West Coast road trip vacation was a success! We had a great time, saw family and friends, did a ton of stuff, saw amazing sights, and visited 5 states (Nevada, Arizona (crossed the border at the Hoover Dam), California, Oregon, and Washington) over the past 10 days. Even so, it’s good to be home (even if I have to go back to work tomorrow).

West Coast Road Trip: Day 9

It’s our last day in Seattle … hard to believe we fly back east tomorrow.

What better way to kick off the last day of our west coast road trip than with brunch at Sky City in the iconic Space Needle? The rotating restaurant gave us a fantastic 360-degree view of Seattle, although Mount Rainier was hiding in the haze, barely visible on the horizon.

After brunch my sister drove us out to Everett, WA to see the Boeing Factory. The tour (which has extremely tight security: no bags, cameras, phones, etc. allowed!) takes you through the largest building in the world by volume where they manufacture and assemble the 747, 767, 777, and 787 (Dreamliner) airplanes. It was Sunday, so the factory wasn’t in operation but it was still damn impressive. We even caught sight of a Dreamlifter parked on the field (a plane to carry plane fuselage parts).

After the tour we drove back to my sister’s apartment in Seattle and started packing up for our return home tomorrow. For dinner we drove out to Ballard and ate at Hi-Life, a cool restaurant inside an old firehouse. Walking back to the car we decided we wanted some ice cream and stumbled upon Full Tilt, an ice cream place with pinball and arcade games … perfect!

Early bedtime tonight … we have to get up early to get to the airport. 🙁

 

West Coast Road Trip: Day 8

So far on this trip we’ve been tourists-for-a-day in LA and San Francisco. Now it’s time for Seattle and it’s the Fourth of July!

The morning started off with an early drive down to Pike Place Market so my wife could complete her pilgrimage to the first Starbucks. While at the market we picked up some fresh Rainier cherries for later, some hot and fresh mini doughnuts for breakfast, and showed my daughter the gum wall (eww). My sister then drove us out to Snoqualmie Falls to do a little hiking. Unfortunately the parks service had locked down the trail leading down to the base of the falls so we had to settle with walking along the river instead (still very scenic). We also drove up to the top to check out the view from there.

On the way back to my sister’s place she swung us past the Fremont Troll for a photo opp. After cleaning up at her apartment, we walked to Seattle Center and had lunch at the Armory so everyone could pick their own meal. Since it was July 4th, it was crowded like we expected but there was also a very large group of people who had just taken the oath of citizenship and were registering to vote (congratulations to them!). After lunch we went to the Chihuly Garden (amazing glass sculptures) and EMP Musem (Star Wars costumes, indie games, and Chuck Jones special exhibits).

We weren’t about to try and brave the crowds at Gas Works Park for the evening’s fireworks so instead we went grocery shopping and grilled dinner up on the roof of my sister’s apartment building (with sunset views of Elliott Bay and the Space Needle). We weren’t able to see the Lake Union fireworks from her roof, unfortunately (though we could obviously hear them) so we ended up watching on TV with the windows open.

Happy Independence Day!