Notable URLs on 2005-11-29

• Mac OS X 10.4 Orientation - Atomic Learning, Inc.: FREE orientation tutorials for Apple Mac OS X version 10.4 (Tiger). There are a ton of significant improvements in this release we think you're going to want to check out.
  ( MacOSX Training Tutorials )
• Chwang Yi - Factory Direct Original Design Technology Products: Macmice now produced here -- The Mouse, The Mouse BT, etc.
  ( Hardware MacOSX Mouse )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-25

• AutoHotkey - Free Mouse and Keyboard Macro Program with Hotkeys and AutoText: AutoHotkey unleashes the full potential of your keyboard, joystick, and mouse. For example, in addition to the typical Control, Alt, and Shift modifiers, you can use the Windows key and the Capslock key as modifiers.
  ( Programming Software Utility Win32 )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-21

• {style:phreak;} - ColorMatch Redux: Color pallette selection
  ( Color Design WebDev )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Day 4: Networking and futebol

On Saturday morning, we had an appointment at a large data center to discuss hosting options with a local partner company that may be able to take on the server support role locally. We met at the data center which was essentially unnamed so that companies like our partner could wholesale out the services. The facility was quite impressive and certainly held its own with any that I've toured in the US. The security was about normal, although they did take my camera. Most amusing was the little shoe covers we had to wear (like surgeons). After Daniel Amoto talked about his company's services and the services offered by the hosting company, we were able to tour the cages ourselves. All the normal things you'd expect, dual redundant power feeds to HVAC and servers (MGE brand PDUs, from Irvine!). Inert gas lines and plenty of below and above floor sensors for fires. Locked storage closets for spare parts. A few things I hadn't expected too: rather than a huge warehouse of cages and racks, the entire facility was compartmentalized with fire walls separating each area. Also, they had redundant stairwells! Their 'command and control' room could switch operations to another building somewhere in Sao Paulo. They had 14 people there on Saturday, including two firemen!

After the tour, we thanked Daniel and headed to a local mall. Even by US standards I would consider this a high-end shopping center. All the stores were upscale and there was a Lamborghini parked in one area. For the most part I don't think you would notice much of a difference, besides the armed guards at each entrance the only other thing that was odd was the number of lingerie shops -- I'd guess every third store was selling high-end "delicates". We also spied a pair of $2400 men's shoes. If you wore them everyday for 6.5 years, they would have only cost you a dollar a day to own (assuming you performed your own maintenance)! Most importantly Steve found an ice cream place (gelato!) and I found a national team jersey for Tedd.

After shopping we headed over to a Feijoada place to meet with Roberto one last time. In the taxi ride over, Sid was translating for us as we talked to the taxi driver. The driver explained that the three most important things to Brazilian men were: Women, Football and Samba. I asked him to prioritize that list and he replied: Football, Women and Samba! My kind of country! (Just kidding, Hol! )

The Feijoada restaurant was fairly upscale as well and was situated under a HUGE fig tree (at least the general consensus was that it was a fig tree). They had actually built the roof and supports around the tree. Pretty impressive stuff.

I was told that Feijoada was a traditional Brazilian stew using primarily black beans and leftovers. Besides the now ever present salad bar spread, the Feijoada buffet included a number of rice dishes, some corn flour and spices (to be spread on the stew), a huge pot of bean stew and various pots of meat (including, but not limited to: pig feet, pig ears and pig tail). Thankfully every label included an English translation so I could stick to the 'beef' end of the table. Another delicious, but massive meal. For dessert, wait for it... Papaya Creme! Well, that's not entirely true. Marv and I also hit the dessert bar for cheese cakes, pies, and something labeled "Death by Chocolate". We thanked Robert for his time and hospitality and headed back to the hotel.

Alcides and his son agreed to take us over to the Morumbi stadium to watch the Saturday afternoon football match (Sao Paulo FC vs. Figueirense). The stadium was massive and in the past had hosted audiences of over 100,000 fans. It had since been retrofitted for safety and could hold around 80,000 fans. Today's game was against a lower league club and was sparsely attended (maybe 4000 or 5000 fans). The game was decent and SPFC won pretty easily (4-2), fielding mostly reserve players. The die hard fans were on hand and their team could do no wrong -- even in clear cases their team was at fault, they tossed insults at the refs and opposing players alike. Steve found the seating comfortable enough to take a quick nap. Alcides said he and his family really only attended the smaller matches because it was just too much when the stadium was packed.

After the game, Alcides was kind enough to drive us through the downtown and financial districts. I snapped as many photos as I could before it was time to head back to the hotel, checkout and head for the airport.

Upon arriving at the airport to check in for our incredibly lame flight home (Sao Paulo -> New York -> LAX), the extremely nice ticket agent suggested that we might want to take a direct flight to LAX. Really!? She found a flight leaving less than an hour after our scheduled flight that was direct. Everyone was in good spirits now!

Next, Sid worked his magic with the nice lady working the counter of his 'Red Carpet' club. Us peasants (Steve, Marv and myself) could join him in the inner circle! Free food and drinks, plus cushy chairs! Extra bonus: no stranger, drooling and falling asleep on your shoulder! We relaxed for a couple hours before heading down to the terminal to board.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/2005_SaoPaulo/SP_Day4/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Day 3: Interfacing and BBQ

The hotel provided breakfast to guests. Brazilians have slightly different eating habits. Breakfast included some of the normal staples you'd find in the US, including fruit, eggs and cold cereal. There were a lot bread products (a kind of doughnut, pastries, cakes, rolls, flan), cold cuts and cheeses. The coffee at the hotel was stronger than you'd find in the US and served with warm milk instead of creme. I also found that the coffee served elsewhere was usually served even stronger and in espresso sized cups. More on that later.

After breakfast we broke into two groups. Marv was heading over to the hospital to spend more time w/ the pharmacy staff and complete his EA. Steve and I were to head over VIKAM to work with Jimmy. We needed to understand how we were going to interface OpenVista with SAGHOSP. Sid and Eneas were already there meeting with the executive team. We joined that meeting for only a few minutes. We had met Jimmy the day before so there was a familiar face in this meeting. Jimmy is incredibly friendly and the previous day had somehow associated me (my name plus US connection?) with "Obi Wan Kenobi" and Star Wars. When we were introduced to the executive team at VIKAM, I got similar greetings from them -- Jimmy mentioned "this is Ben Kenobi" and I got a lot of smiles and nods. Very amusing -- this continued the entire stay (and since I'm writing this travel log after the fact, even three weeks later, when VIKAM visited our offices in Aliso Viejo, Both Jimmy and Ronaldo were calling me "Obi Wan" and laughing.

After the meeting we spent the rest of the day working Jimmy and his staff. We talked through some of the interfacing specifications and he provided a good deal of detail on what SAGHOSP was capable of doing (HL7-wise). He also showed us the system that his team used to develop software. It was a system written by a Uruguayan company call GenXsys. Basically, an IDE used in developing data definitions (databases), forms (front-end) and business logic (rules engine). The application could then compile this into several languages (we saw Visual Fox Pro, Java and ASP.net). Pretty interesting stuff. A little too much 'magic' in the IDE for my taste, but the usefulness in their environment was readily apparent. The VIKAM staff was very friendly and eager and show off their stuff. Their work day, offices and staff looked like any medium sized business would in the US.

Oh yeah, the coffee! They offered me some coffee from their supply. No coffee maker or pot to be seen. Instead they had a thermos looking dispenser (you know, push the top and it comes out of a little spout) and tiny espresso sized disposable cups. Out came a strong, thick coffee. No creme, just sugar. It was delicious, but short lived (single gulp!) compared to the 20+ ounce cups we get in the US. Jimmy jokingly explained that Brazilians have a word for US coffee: tea.

At the end of the (work) day, Jimmy drove us back to the hospital to discuss findings with Roberto and show the translated application. Unfortunately, the work during the day had been so engaging that we did not complete the repair of the demo system. Steve was importing data and configuring OpenVista in the car ride over. Jimmy was telling us about the band he is a drummer in -- sounds like they do cover songs from 80/90's bands (Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Journey, Def Leopard, etc.). Of course, we also talked about football (soccer). Sid and Steve were always quick to point out the football connection. Jimmy and I talked shop quite a bit. I promised to bring him out to a game and not to forget his boots (he taught me what they are called in Portuguese: Chuteira) when he visited us.

At this point we were pretty hammered. Very little sleep the day before and it was taking its toll. As Steve was loading data, I could see him falling asleep in between prompts. I kept tapping him when each prompt completed. We made it to the hospital just before the meeting. We made a quick stop in the hallway to configure the network connection and test the client against the newly configured, local server. Walla! We had something to show! Our new cross platform, .net client running inside a VMWare Linux image connecting to the Windows host O/S running OpenVista -- in Portuguese, no less!

Roberto seemed satisfied with the progress and made it clear he was willing to make Hospital Santa Paula our pilot site. He even stated that he could see the hospital running Linux on the desktop for clinical workstations. He also seemed willing to discuss the possibility of running both the OpenVista laboratory and radiology modules, rather than attempting to interface with external systems. During all this, a hospital staff person brought in beverages for everyone: coconut water. Tasted like water that had just a bit of coconut milk mixed in. Interesting and tasty.

Another rally race across Sao Paulo to the hotel for a few hours of rest before dinner. Not only could Jimmy drive in the insanely aggressive traffic, he could hold down both a conversation in the car and talk on his mobile phone too!

We walk a few blocks up the street to a place called Barbacoa. There are restaurants like this in the US. I could not get a straight answer on the background here. I think it was Brazilian style barbeque with Argentinean meat beef.

In terms of pure decadence, those massive buffets in Las Vegas have got nothing on these joints. They start you out with these rich appetizers (cheese puffs, rolls and what appeared to be deep fried beef raviolis with seasoned meat inside). As soon as you finished half the plate of these, the waiters (the guest to waiter ratio must have approached 1:1) would drop a fresh plate off. The salad bar was massive and included many types of salads and toppings, including some items I was starting to recognize: hard boiled quail eggs, various pickled veggies and some types of slaw. There was a cheese bar as well! Alejandro warned me that all this was simply a way for the restaurant to stuff their guests before the main event. Next the waiters brought out little disks, one side red the other green. I was instructed that if the green side was up the waiters would bring meat -- red side up and they'd let me eat. Almost without warning waiters appeared on all side carrying big skewers full of various types of meat, knives and a wooden tray to catch the juices. There was beef (including the famous Brazilian cut of beef -- looks like a "C"), fillet, pork, lamb, buffalo, sausages and chicken -- all kinds of different styles. At the same time, they were bringing around various rice dishes with smoked meat, potatoes and other side dishes. I should have taken Alejandro seriously when he said 'main event'. It was an onslaught for a solid 25 minutes. More Papaya Cremes for dessert.

Thoroughly stuffed we stumbled back to the hotel.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day3/
Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Day 2: Hospital Santa Paula

A short and uneventful twelve hour flight later we arrived in Sao Paulo at around 7:30am local time (Marv had never traveled with Steve before and I cleverly allowed him to sit next to Steve -- Marv proved a worthy opponent though and called 'not it' on the flight home). On the taxi in from the runway, the starboard side passengers get a great view of rows upon rows of deserted airplanes. I mean places with engines and wings missing. Marv and I just looked at each other (Steve was trying to fix his laptop and didn't notice anything unusual).

Customs was remarkably fast and easy. We were told to expect the same treatment for Americans as the US offers to Brazilian citizens (photo taken, and double finger printed). They must have changed that policy. Nothing odd, although the customs agent grumpily pointed out that while Marv and I had business Visas, Steve was traveling as a tourist. Steve shrugged and continued to fiddle with his partition tables and MBR.

Sid was standing outside the gate and had gotten us a taxi for the ride back to the hotel. The ride into Sao Paulo was a good 30 minutes. The weather was tropical and the seasons are pretty much exactly opposite of ours -- it was Spring-ish. The drive proved a nice, easy introduction into the Sao Paulo driving style. Sid acted as tour guide.

Besides the shear size of the city, I had to shake my head at opposing economic classes. On the way in from the airport we passed (at least) three prisons. Square, mold-stained cement structures with razor wire topped walls and guard towers. Situated around these prisons were favelas (ghettos or shanty towns). Cardboard, plywood and corrugated metal roofs (if they were lucky). Stray dogs and all. Immediately above this scene were modern billboards advertising luxury goods. Visible from the yard of the prison was a sign pitching Paris Hilton's perfume. I wish I'd gotten my camera out fast enough as the view was absolutely surreal.

After a quick nap at the hotel (Sid also was kind enough to dial out with his credit card so I could speak with Holly and let her know I arrived okay.), we grabbed some lunch at the hotel and took a couple of taxis over to the hospital to meet the administrators and give a short presentation. The ride over proved to be our first true introduction to Sao Paulo drivers. Picture complete chaos and total aggression without a hint of hostility. No yelling, cursing and barely a horn was sounded. Drivers cutting each other off, making lanes against the curb to gain a single position advantage, making right hand turns from the second or third lane over or making left hand turns from the middle lanes (and cutting people off in the process). Lanes, if you could see them, were mere suggestions with most cars lining up as if it were a free-for-all race course. In the midst of all this, "motoboys" (motorcycle messengers -- more on these later) are darting in and out of lanes and speeding between lanes at close to double the actual speed of traffic. At one point I spotted a Porsche Cayenne Turbo (sure these things are all over 'the OC', but what do they cost? $120k US? How much would one of these cost in Brazil?!). Our driver was determined to get us to the hospital as quickly as possible and darted between lanes to get in front of the Porsche. I just closed my eyes, the space between the two cars had to have been under an inch. Our driver must have known that the Porsche driver would yield given the price difference in vehicles. He was right.

The presentation was so-so. Due to the disk drive issues that Steve was having we did not have a reasonable demo to show. Steve did his usual extraordinary "winging it" presentation, in Spanish no less, throwing Portuguese in here and there. We promised to show the Portuguese version of the application the following day once Steve had some time to download updates from our servers in the US.

After the presentation we met Carla, the on duty Pharmacist and briefly reviewed the Pharmacy processes. While "backward" in some ways, Brazil was also forward looking in other ways. After some discussion we concluded that Marv would require more one-on-one time the following day.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up. I quickly learned that my room did not have Internet access. Sid said he'd talk to the desk about getting a room that could. After briefly stopping in our rooms, we met in a conference room to discuss the data analysis that Alejandro had performed on the SAGHOSP billing product. After an hour or so, we were completely burnt and ready for dinner.

Everyone (except Fretas) walked over to an Italian place for dinner. The restaurant had one menu that had been translated into English. Marv and I shared. Eneas ordered us Maracujo's to drink. Basically raw passion fruit juice, which the drinker sweetens to taste. Very good. Brazil (South America?) also has their own version of the "energy drink": Guarana. Steve's favorite, of course. I ordered a pasta dish with red sauce, basil and spicy sausages. The pasta was extremely thick (1/4") and filling. Steve requested his favorite Brazilian dessert (from previous visit) and Sid ordered everyone the same: Papaya Cremes. It is exactly what it sounds like -- a creamy papaya pudding (with a liquor topping if desired -- I think it was cherry flavored). Dinner and dessert were delicious.

On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery. The space in Brazil is quite cramped w/ almost no parking lots, but the little store provided about 6 spots just in front so shoppers could load up their cars more conveniently. I bought a bottle of water (actually the cashier was annoyed w/ my 50 reais note -- didn't want to make change, so Alcides bailed me out). Steve found what he was looking for -- a 48oz Guarana to keep him at full speed.

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day2/
Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-16

• Open Source Enterprise Content Management from Alfresco
  ( CMS WebApps )
• ReadyNAS X6: The first NAS designed for your home media center.
  ( *ToBuy Hardware NAS RAID Storage )
• Five months from now, you may be richer if you read this today | csmonitor.com: The April 15th income-tax deadline is still five months away. But making some savvy tax moves before Dec. 31 can save you hard-earned cash at filing time. When you prepare your tax return after the close of the calendar year, it's usually too late to trim
  ( *ToRead Taxes Tutorials )
• Open Loops:: A Quick and Dirty Reading Strategy When Time is Short
  ( GTD Readings Tutorials )
• HOWTO Use Your Mac From Anywhere: This guide demonstrates using SSH tunnels and VNC screen-sharing software to use your Mac from any PC over the Internet. It’s fast, secure, cross-platform, and can be done entirely with open source software.
  ( MacOSX RemoteControl Tutorials VNC )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Day 1: I18n partition destruction

On Wednesday morning I stayed home to finish up some last minute paperwork and clean up my inbox before leaving for the airport. Steve and I were supposed to talk sometime around 10am to figure out transportation to the airport. I should have known the morning was going too smoothly. No word from the office, no word from Texas, no word from Steve.

The first words out of his mouth when I picked up the phone were, "Ben, it's gone non-linear." Crap. Apparently Steve discovered a subtle, yet deadly Windows UI bug and deleted his "e:" drive. Oh crap. I should have known on Tuesday something was wrong when nothing was going wrong. Alcides had sent an updated .po file containing the latest text strings for Kickstand translated into Portuguese. Todd was able to import them fine. Steve's laptop with his VMWare Linux image had loaded up fine and was all set with two shortcuts to Kickstand; one in English and one in Portuguese.

I should have known. You see, at Medsphere, no matter how much we try, things never seem to go right when they need to. We all should have seen that something was clearly not right because everything was right. Passports had arrived. Visas had been granted. Tickets were purchased and in hand. Demo laptop was up and running. And, no fires in Midland. In hindsight, it was perfectly clear that we all should have known we were living in a dream world.

So, Windows users pay attention. Steve has cleverly identified a fatal UI bug in the Windows XP disk management control panel. Say you have three partitions on your hard drive. Now, click the second one. Note it is now highlighted. Now, right click on the third one and select "delete" from the context menu. Now, which drive is highlighted? That's right, the second one -- not the one that you right clicked on. Sweet! Even better, the warning prompt that appears has conveniently used the 'Yes' answer as the default! Because questions like "Are you sure want to destroy every bit of data on this partition?" should always default to a resounding 'Yes' for efficiency!

So now, rather than lounging at home, waiting for Steve to grab me at 10:30 to head up to LAX, I'm driving into the office to pick-up Steve. He's spent all morning trying to fix his partition table and wants to give Christian and Jordan a chance to fix it. After fiddling around a bit, they run the Windows restore disk, whacking both the Grub partition and his Windows install. Non-linear indeed. Now we're almost 30 minutes late and not only don't have the demo partition/VMWare image, but Steve no longer has a functioning Windows install.

The next hour and half is like a stop action film with all the actors moving through the scenes as normal, except Steve, whose every action follows one theme: fix the laptop! Steve in the car running fdisk and partition magic. Steve in the LAX parking lot shuttle trying to fix the Grub boot loader. Steve at the check out counter running a search-and-repair utility. Steve in the security line watching the progress bar. Steve at the terminal trying to fix what damage the repair utility caused. Steve boarding the plane trying to boot from CD. You get the picture. In truth, the one deviation from the theme was when the nice ticket agent noticed that Steve's passport expired in twenty days. Thankfully, we were told (after she consulted several co-workers) Brazil does not care when your passport expires, so long as it hasn't expired. Obrigado, Brazilian customs law! (Travelers note: Apparently the US does care. Your passport must be at least six months from expiration or we send foreigners packing -- hopefully after a relaxing 12 hour flight! ).

Photo album from today: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/Travel/SaoPaulo_2005/SP_Day1/

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-14

• HD Beat: Top 5 HD Mistakes
  ( HDTV Home Television )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-13

• MapMyRun.com -- Run. Plot. Save.: To map your run, enter in a starting location below.
  ( Cartography Running Tools WebApps )
• Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes ♫ Welcome:
  ( AppleScript MacOSX Scripts )
• DNS Stuff:: DNS tools, DNS hosting tests, WHOIS, traceroute, ping, and other network and domain name tools.
  ( NetOps Services Utilities dns )
• Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload : The Leadership Workshop : HBS Working Knowledge: Over 100 real e-mails come in each day. At three minutes apiece, it will take five hours just to read and respond. Let's not even think about the messages that take six minutes of work to deal with. Shudder.
  ( Management Tutorials eMail )
• 2BrightSparks | SyncBackSE: SyncBackSE allows you to copy locked/open files (XP/2003), enjoy the benefits of a great FTP engine, and speed through backups using 'Fast Backup'.
  ( Backups FTP Software Utilities Win32 )
• uTorrent.com (microTorrent) - Powerful, efficient and small BitTorrent client: uTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients.
  ( Software Torrents Utilities Win32 )
• www.SizeMe - Automatic directory and filesize comparator!: SizeMe makes it possible to scan a directory and compare it to how many floppy/zip/CD-R/DVD-discs you need. It tries to fill each disc up as much as possible, and gives you the result on each disc.
  ( Backups Software Utilities Win32 )
• Download details: SyncToy v1.0: SyncToy v1.0 is available as a free download on the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.
  ( Backups Software Utilities Win32 )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-12

• Mozy Remote Backup: Free. Automatic. Secure.: Free remote backup is finally here. Download and install Mozy to ensure your data is safely backed up at a secure, remote location.
  ( Backups Services )
• Bluetooth handfree carkit/rear view mirror
  ( *ToBuy Autos Bluetooth Telephone )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-08

• MRE's, Military Meals Ready To Eat and more!: We carry the best selection of MRE full meal cases, MRE entree's, MRE sidedishes, MRE heaters, MRE peanut butter, jelly and crackers, MRE desserts,MRE beverage bases,� MRE cocoa, and other shelf stable food items.
  ( Food Survival )
• Mac OSX Tiger Command Keys [pdf]
  ( MacOSX Reference )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-07

• HandBrake: a GPL'd multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake was originally available on the BeOS, but now has been ported over to MacOS X and to GNU/Linux. There is no Windows version of HandBrake.
  ( DVD Encoding Linux MacOSX Software Video )
• HOWTO Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod Using Free Software
  ( DVD MacOSX Software Tutorials iPod )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM

Notable URLs on 2005-11-06

• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:Copy Plain Text - All Releases: Copies text without formatting
  ( FireFox Plugins )
• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:Tab X - All Releases: Adds a close button to each of the browser tabs, and removes the close button at the end of the tab bar.
  ( FireFox Plugins )
• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:Location Navigator - All Releases: Location Navigator is an extension that lets you grab a location, select a portion of the location that varies, and then navigate up or down from that starting spot.
  ( FireFox Plugins )
• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:LastTab - All Releases: Allows tab navigation in a most recently used manner. It modifies Ctrl-Tab to switch to recently selected tabs, rather than always go from left-to-right. It also focuses the most recently selected tab when a tab is closed.
  ( FireFox Plugins )
• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:PDF Download - All Releases: Allows to choose whether you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML) or you want to download it!
  ( FireFox Plugins Software co_Adobe )
• Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:IE Tab - All Releases: IE Tab, an extension from Taiwan, features embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This extension is derived from the famous extension IE View
  ( FireFox Plugins Software Win32 )

Posted by ben at 11:59 PM