Binary birthdays

My little sister will turn 30 next year on 10/10/10, which is pretty cool on a number (no pun intended) of levels, mainly 10 + 10 + 10 = 30. This got me to thinking that being born on the first day of October, I’ve never really had one of those cool birthdays like 01/02/03, 07/07/07, etc. When the first two numbers you have to work with are 10/01, what cool thing can you possibly come up with?

Being a programmer, the first thing that struck me is that my birthday is all binary digits (1001). I already missed 10/01/01 so looking ahead I determined I’ve got two more binaries birthdays coming up in 2010 and 2011. Check this out … I’m 37 now, so that means on my next two birthdays, the 8-bit binary representation of my birthday will match my age!

10/01/2010 = 00100110 = 38

10/01/2011 = 00100111 = 39

That’s some serious geek cred right there. 😀

What’s your favorite Wii game? Here’s how to check …

Hey kids, don’t show your parents this one! 😉

I came across this post on Kotaku that describes how to find your play/usage statistics on the Wii through the Nintendo Channel. Curious, I of course had to check my own:

Yikes! I think we may have left the Wii on accidentally a few times, which may account for that incredibly high usage time for Wii Fit. 😀 I noticed that not every game seems to be listed (but even virtual console games are channels present), but the top 10 seems to be accurate. It’s not surprising that Wii Sports is up there since it’s the number one selling video game of all time and still one of our multi-player family favorites.

WIJFR: Wizard’s Bane

It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivers is master hacker Walter “Wiz” Zumwalt. With the wizard who cast the spell dead, nobody can figure out what the shanghaied computer nerd is good for — because spells are not like computer programs.

“Wizard’s Bane” by Rick Cook was my latest iSilo/Treo e-read, which I downloaded for free from the Baen Library.

Computer programmer Walter “Wiz” Zimwalt is mysteriously transported from his job in California to a different world, summoned by a powerful spell cast by the wizard Patrius with the assistance of Moira the hedge witch. Patrius is killed during the summoning so no one knows why Wiz was chosen by Patrius. Stuck on a world with no computers, no technology, no pizza, caffeinated sodas, or even coffee, Wiz is completely out of his element. But the dark wizards of the South don’t realize Wiz is powerless and will stop at nothing to capture him and prevent him from helping out the League of the North.

As the story progresses, Wiz begins to learn that magic is similar to coding: anyone can really do it, but without proper training it can cause serious problems (or, in the case of a miscast spell, be deadly). Using his analytical and programming skills, Wiz begins to build a framework for writing spells as if he were writing code … a programming language for magic! Can he really use his spell-casting programs to take on the dark League? Or is he putting everyone, even the whole world, in danger by messing with a power he doesn’t completely understand?

Being a programmer myself, this book was a fun “fish out of water” story. I could relate to Wiz’s situation (what would I do if there were no computers?) and the programming, coding, and development references were cool. It’s not exactly Tolkien-level fantasy, but a good leisurely read.

Sports depression

It’s early October, that wonderful time of year when temperatures (supposedly) get cooler and we have that wonderful confluence of the baseball, football, basketball, and hockey seasons. Well, it’s usually wonderful, except:

I got a pair of free tickets to the Lightning home opener tonight so I took my daughter, hoping to get a lift from a hockey home ice win. The appearance Dwight Howard dropping the ceremonial puck was a not-so-nice reminder of how the Orlando Magic knocked the Cavs out of the playoffs last spring. 🙁

We left at 6 minutes to go in the third period with the Bolts holding the lead over the New Jersey Devils 3-2 (thanks to 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the period). As we listened to the last minute of the game on the radio driving out of downtown Tampa, we couldn’t believe our ears as the Devils tied the game with 0.3 seconds to go! The Lightning ended up losing the shootout, which gives them a disappointing 0-1-2 start. sigh

Maybe Lebron and Shaq will give me something to believe in …

P.S. Props to my new sister-in-law for pointing me to waitingfornextyear.com!

Toy Story double feature

What could be better on a Saturday afternoon than a family trip to the movie theater for the Toy Story double feature? Seeing these classic Pixar films on the big screen again (and in 3D!) was great. It was also a fun first-time experience for my daughter who wasn’t even born when the movies were originally released.

You get the same pair of polarized 3D glasses Disney used for “Up,” which got a little annoying after almost three hours, but the resulting visuals were great. Since the original films weren’t animated with 3D in mind, there are no in-your-face-make-you-jump-out-of-your-seat gimmicks, just enhancements to the original film which make it a joy to watch.

In between the two films there’s a 10 minute intermission during which they show some Toy Story trivia. A clock in the corner counts down the minutes so you know exactly how much time you have to go to the bathroom, grab some new refreshments, etc.

The one thing that surprised me was the lack of a new trailer for “Toy Story 3.” I had read that a new trailer would be shown in theaters only, but the place we went to only showed the teaser trailer we had already seen before “Up.” 🙁

If you get the chance in the next two weeks to see the double feature, do it! Both movies for the price of one? It’s a no-brainer.

WIJFR: Red Mars

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic “alchemists, ” Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life…and death.

While traveling last weekend I finally finished “Red Mars,” the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy. While first and foremost an SF novel (it is about Mars colonization after all, and even includes an incredible space elevator) it broaches some interesting scientific, technological, environmental, cultural, and political subjects. The novel follows the first colonists on Mars and over a span of 40 years tells the story of how the small scientific expedition becomes embroiled in a miasma of issues they did not expect.

The problems begin shortly after The First Hundred arrive on the red planet. It becomes quickly apparent that everyone did and said what they had to in order to pass through the rigorous process back on Earth to get selected for the expedition to Mars. Three different factions begin to emerge: those who think Mars should be left in its pristine state for study and research (the Reds), the terraformers who want to start transforming Mars into a human-habitable planet as quickly as possible (without regard for the current environment), and the “new Martians” who believe that a new culture, religion, and way of living in harmony with the planet needs to be established.

As the years pass, more and more people start arriving on the planet as conditions back on Earth continue to worsen. Most are sent by the huge transnational corporations back on Earth who want to exploit the planet (in blatant disregard of the international treaty set by the United Nations) for its wealth of natural resources that are running out back home. Mars becomes the new frontier with towns and cities being established all over, but due to the environmental constraints of having to live inside domes and tents, they quickly become overcrowded and start to exhibit the same problems as Terran cities. Shortly, whole groups of people start disappearing, supposedly joining a faction of the First Hundred known as the Areophany that are living somewhere in a hidden colony.

Will human history repeat itself on Mars, or can the First Hundred manage to keep the peace on their new home? Can a middle ground be found for all interests involved, or will revolution and war consume the red planet?

I really enjoyed this first book of the trilogy and have already started the second book, “Green Mars.”

Long(er than necessary) travel day

This morning we checked out of our hotel and then headed to the Holiday Inn next door to have breakfast with the happy new couple and the other wedding guests. We bade farewell to family and friends and then it was off to the airport for our flights back home.

We were slightly delayed leaving Cleveland due to some mechanical jetway issues, but we still had enough time once we got to Charlotte to hike from the E concourse to our connection in the B terminal. Other than that, both flights were uneventful, which is always good. Little did I know what I was in store for …

Looking out the window on our approach to the Tampa airport, my wife noticed a lot of traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge southbound. It looked like two lanes were closed and the backup was pretty bad. We made a mental note to take the Courtney Campbell Causeway home instead. Unfortunately my mental notepad didn’t work properly (too much partying over the weekend?) because by the time we got off the plane, gathered our luggage, and got out to the cars in the parking garage, I had totally forgotten about the traffic. My wife left the garage before me but was going to swing by the airport post office to drop off some mail. Thus, I ended up passing her and getting onto the ramp from the airport to I-275 South first.

stuck in traffic ... 7:30pmThe first indication that I was making a huge mistake was some guy driving backwards on the ramp towards me. Coming out of the airport to the split into the various highways and roads can get confusing to visitors (and even those of us who live here) so this backwards driver didn’t register as an omen of a larger problem ahead (again, my mental notepad breakdown). I figured he had just taken the wrong side of the split and was trying to correct his mistake (I gave him an angry honk on the way past anyway). A few seconds later, though, I realized why he was going backwards … the ramp was backed up with stopped traffic. At this point, I knew I was going to be stuck so I quickly called my wife and reminded her to take the other bridge … just in time. She was able to get onto the Courtney Campbell and she and my daughter got home at a normal time.

still stuck in traffic ... 8:10pm

For me, though, the only progress forward I made in the next 90 minutes was from other cars leaving the ramp by either driving in reverse (or turning around and driving backwards) back into the airport. I am not one of those drivers who will risk a moving violation (or accident!) and go the wrong way on a road even if it means being stuck in traffic. I saw more near-crashes take place as people were being stupid and impatient (at one point I heard a really loud squealing of brakes and was sure we were all going to domino crash forward into each other). I just sat in my car (turned off) and read on my Treo, watching the occasional tow truck zip by on the (now closed) southbound lanes of I-275. Finally, traffic started crawling forward but it took another 30 minutes to creep off the ramp and through the single lane on the bridge, surrounded by tow trucks and police cars. By this time (8:30pm) it was dark so I couldn’t see much but there were a lot of cars off to the side of the road. I was just happy to finally be moving again.

Watching the news that evening, I discovered I had been stuck in the aftermath of 19 separate crashes involving 64 different cars on the bridge, apparently caused by heavy traffic leaving the Bucs game in combination with some heavy rain. The first crash occurred around 4:53pm, almost a full hour before we landed! If they were closing the highway, why didn’t they (the FHP) also close the ramp from the airport!? What a crazy way to end a really fun weekend.

Preparations, rehearsal, the ceremony, and the party!

Whew, what a couple of days! It’s late Saturday evening and my little brother is now a married man. Congratulations, kids! 🙂

Friday morning started with a family breakfast, just the siblings and our parents … something we haven’t done for a very long time (years). The restaurant we had breakfast at was the location for the rehearsal dinner (as planned) so after eating we set up the back room for later that night. Then it was time for some random errands before heading over to the hall where the reception would take place and doing some more prep/setup there. It looked great:

We had a little down time after that, so I helped my brother replace the hard drive in his laptop and also install a new dual-DVI graphics card and wireless card in his PC. We ended up running a bit short on time so before we knew it, it was time to clean up, get dressed, and head to the church for the wedding rehearsal. After the “practice run” we all went back to the restaurant for the rehearsal dinner and a little socializing.

Saturday morning dawned gray and rainy. 🙁 I had breakfast with my brother and the rest of the groomsmen at IHOP (mmmm, pancakes!) and then went looking for orange umbrellas for the wedding party in case the rain continued (couldn’t find any, not even a Cleveland Browns one!). Once again, the morning flew by and suddenly I was rushing to get into my tux and get over to the church on time. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony.

(That’s me, second from the right). By the time the wedding was over, the rain had stopped! It was still overcast, but it was enough to be able to get some outdoor pictures of the bridal party at a local park and on the beach of Lake Erie. Right as we were finishing up it started raining again, but it was time for us to get over to the hall for the party anyway.

The reception was a blast! Great food, great music, the great company of friends and family, and a photo booth (which was a really cool idea)! When the party was over, we reluctantly cleared out, headed back to the hotel to change (my rented shoes were killing my feet by the end of the night!), and then grabbed a few beers with the happy couple in the hotel bar (just in time to see Notre Dame win a thriller over Purdue).

The weekend went too fast … time to head back to Florida. At least we’ll get to see everyone again for breakfast tomorrow before we leave.

Heading to Ohio

I’m flying home to Ohio today for my brother’s wedding on Saturday. Right now I’m in the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) waiting for my connection to Cleveland.

It’s been a long time since I’ve flown through Charlotte, so I had forgotten what a nice airport it is: rocking chairs, free WiFi, a nice center food court/shopping area. One weird thing I didn’t remember though: bathroom attendants. Ugh, I hate that.

Anyway, the two hours I have to spend here shouldn’t be hard at all. Looking forward to seeing the (entire) family this weekend …