
AKA welcome to the new place - http://tnlr.wordpress.comThis journal will be closed for friending and comments permanently after this message. This is for various reasons - technical, subjective, objective, etc. One of the reason is is that I hope that after some time I will have a new beginning. If that happen I will write about it. Meanwhile, welcome to the new place. Have a really good day.
Share | Flag | Link
Got an email with the fascinating subject line today: We want you to come back to IndiaThe best part is word back. Seems my cover has blown. Damn.
Share | Flag | Link
Last month I spent more on Starbucks than on groceries... go figure.
P.S. Starbucks expenses were $23.32 and groceries - $20.79
Share | Flag | Link
The Cole's Axiom from the Murphy's Laws states the following: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing.
An Axiom is defined as ' a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be self-evident' thus does not require any proof. And yes, the consequences of Cole's Axiom are self evident, both globally and locally. Consider a global example first: MTBE. First it was required to be added to gas for faster burning and lead to introduction of a new gas tax. However, several years later it was discovered that MTBE contaminated groundwater and soil and requires its removal. Which obviously required introduction of another gas tax. Needless to say that that the first gas tax stayed in effect. A smaller, but still considerable example I personally witnessed last week and I've already written about this in past. In the second example, one quite a large company decided to 'be green': eliminated all paper cups from its cafeteria and replaced them by reusable ugly plastic cups. Well, after several month of operation it was discovered that: a) despite requests to bring used cups back they continued to disappear in large quantities. Because: b) despite warnings and notes that cups are not disposable number of them ended up in trash. And c) because they are made from non-destructible plastic they (surprise!) will not disintegrate and will poison the environment. Which d) caused the company be fined by landfill management. Last, it was discovered that washing these new cups over period of several month generated more expenses in utility bills then it would cost entire year of supply of paper cups. So, last Friday entire population of ugly plastic cups have disappeared (еo the joy of everyone who had unfortunate luck to drink coffee from them) and paper cups appeared back in cafeteria. But that had not happened before cafeteria management managed to place an order for 1200 plastic cups to replace disappearing ones.... Hey, do you wanna have 2000 plastic cups?
Share | Flag | Link
On the stretch of US-101 from Sunnyvale to San Francisco's last exit I've counted no less then seven billboards with word ' cloud' in it. Surprisingly, on the way back there are only three cloud billboards. P.S. In addition to that there are four billboards with itunes/Beatles, three car billboards, three with wireless providers/cell phones, two banks, two computer/electronics manufacturers, two beer and one each airline and insurance companies. This is a striking difference from the scenery I've seen in Vegas where alongside of I-15 I've counted five billboards offering lawyers/traffic school/bail bond bond services and in Houston where there are plenty of advertisements offering to sell your home in less then six month or promising to keep your home from foreclosure. Apparently they target the same recipients of such services because they are next to each other on billboards in most cases.... Well, the place where one lives defines mentality...One more proof of it....
Share | Flag | Link
There is decades-old question formulated as Fermi Paradox. That question become even more actual since NASA released their Cosmic Census estimations - where the hell are those damn aliens? Well, I always had a suspicion that aliens existed ('suspicion' - because I could not be sure). Now I am, after getting knew a little bit SAP NetWeaver software and its internals. That's because this software, its architecture and management defies any type human IT engineering concepts and logic. See, aliens do exist. They simply disguise themselves as Germans.
Share | Flag | Link
Got following email today, which I'm publishing whole except the contact information at the bottom: ---- This is a 1 year contract to hire position in Seaside at one of our client sites. Skills required include: Senior Administrator Cisco PIX, Cisco firewalls, F5 Load Balancers, Cisco VPN, Wireless devices. Must possess an extensive knowledge of Cisco network equipment, with recent experience designing and deploying enterprise level routing and switched networks. Architect, design, and implement Citrix XenApp, NetApp, VMware VSphere. This position is only open to US Citizens. You must pass a Department of Defense security clearance-- includes criminal background check, drug test, FBI fingerprinting, and credit check (collections, charge offs, past due/negative accounts all count towards the credit check pass/fail). -----
Hmmm... Hmmm once again... Is this how three-letter-agencies recruit people nowadays? If yes, seems they also jumped on the train of outsourcing and happily delegated recruiting tasks to these I've already mentioned several posts earlier. Yes, I've seen plenty of weird email messages addressed to me. Some of them were from recruiters which were weird enough to be directly published here. But no job description (apparently, if you want to know what you'll be doing they have to kill you first) citizenship requirements (OK, I've seen that plenty in other messages) with the combination of credit check (I'm surprised that there is no requirement for 750 FICO score) - I think this one tops all previous ones. I was really eager to write her a reply that I'm hesitant to consider this position because my gut feeling is that one of background checks most likely would require proctorial and prostate exams and GPS chip implanted in a ...
Share | Flag | Link
I'd say that watching TRON Legacy midnight at IMAX (it started at 10:30PM), was quite an interesting ending of the Christmas Eve...
Share | Flag | Link
My trust in human race's intelligence abilities (or, at least in abilities of some recruiters to run spell-check of an email before sending it) in the Digital Age is constantly diminishing.
Today I got a following email:
---------------------- I noticed your background and profile on Linked In. We have an opening for a Technical Support Engineer Level 3 (Escalations) in both our San Frankcsio and Sunyvale offices. Do you know of anyone who might have an interest? Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you! ----------------------
I did write an email to her and asked where these (above highlighted) places are located. Have not received an answer...
Share | Flag | Link
Today we got an electricity equipment (somehow related to DC/AC conversion) with a marvelous name - 'E-rectifier'.
Share | Flag | Link
Since Monday I drive over a speed bump when I’m entering parking lot at my office. There would be nothing unusual in this fact if not the history of appearance and consequent disappearance of this particular speed bump.
Fist time the speed bump appeared last summer and by its appearance terrorized most of drivers who had unfortunate fate to be driving their cars over it to the parking lot. That’s because of height of the bump – it was at least 8” tall and unless one is driving Hummer or full-size SUV (popularly known as ‘D-extenders’), driving over it was not a trivial task. Apparently one of the founders of the company (who’s Bentley I’ve noticed one day on the parking lot) had the same opinion – at the very evening of Bentley first appearance the bump was gone.
However, Bentley was gone week after and two days after that the bump materialized again. This time it was not as brutal, but sill was a serious inconvenience. Well, we got used to the fact until the founder came back. To my joy, this time he came back driving Porsche and apparently its suspension did not take reincarnation of speed bump well enough. Once again speed bump evaporated and shiny asphalt on its place was bringing pleasure to my heart.
I enjoyed uphill/downhill driving to/from the parking lot for about several months until, as I said this Monday, speed bump appeared again. On its third incarnation it changed shape again and now it is long and flat rather being narrow and tall. Most cars can drive over it OK, however I really hope that third time the founder will come back he will be driving Tesla and once again clean surface will greet us on the same day.
But one thing I wanted to touch is the financial aspect of all this activity. AFAIK each of this construction/demolition had a price tag of several thousand $, which means that constructing, demolishing and reconstructing that poor speed bump five times cost company $25K minimum. Well, for $60 billion Company such expense is not even noticeable in the balance sheet, but out division at the same time can’t get funds to buy backup equipment to run the demos/presentations hosted by executives, watched by tens of thousands of business people and having direct impact on financial markets.
Share | Flag | Link
While looking at October statement from my investment account I've noticed very noticeable fact - one of my investment almost after 10 years from the day of purchase broke even. More specifically, Oracle stock I bought Dec 13th in 2000 at $29.50 reached the same price on Nov 1st 2010. But I have a serious doubt that CSCO I bought at $52.12 will reach the same price during my lifetime...
On other note one car I bought for $8900 (the single most expensive item I've ever bought) I sold after two years for $9500. Oh yaah - before selling I drive 15000 miles on it and got into accident which cost my insurance $7500 on repairs.
Much better ROI with with another car: bought it for $2800, got rear-ended at intersection by 17 years-old, his dad's insurance paid retail value of $4700 for the total loss of my vehicle, I bought back my car for $500 from the insurance - the car was perfectly drivable, drove after that accident nearly two years and finally sold the car for $2000.
Probably universe it trying give me some hint... let me see how much I can sell my current car which I bough for $6700. Now it has 199300 miles on it.
Share | Flag | Link
While sitting in office in Palo Alto got a call from London from one of our vendor customer support dep notifying that equipment in our Tokyo office has failed. I called our San Paulo office telling them that workload will be switched to their site and sent an email to Bangalore asking them to give ETA for bringing stuff back online. Finally I notified mangement in Waldorff about the situation.
Share | Flag | Link
I never though that a scheenshot of a page from an English coursebook (created and published in one small country somewhere between Europe and Asia) could be such motivating and inspirational. ( Here is the proofCollapse )
Share | Flag | Link
I'm dealing with recruiters regularly. Well, they are dealing with me –I'm getting at least several messages per week, (mostly via LinkedIn) asking if I am interested in a new project. Sometimes these conversations are quite entertaining. Out of curiosity and to see if anything has changed in my perception of humanity's intelligence I've decided to run a social experiment to find out how many of recruiters DO actually read my profile/resume _before_ sending an email/message. So I've changed my Professional "Headline" section from boring five word 'I'm-expert-in-my-field-no-one-is-better-then-me-whatever-BS' to just one word – Ninja. Please remember, my first and last name are in my profile and are displayed to everyone, here is the proof: Now, one thing to mention – recruiters who send email via LinkedIn are quite good to craft these messages according to today's business communication standards. All the emails I've received thru LinkedIn have my first name in greeting section and have short but elaborate body text describing who the author of the message is, what position they have available and how my background fits their position. All good, contrary to emails I'm getting from Indian recruits who start their messages with 'hi' or ‘this is (17-letter name follows)’ or ‘we have following position (BS follows)’ and so on. I have a simple rule – if an introductory business email does not have my name in greeting section then the message automatically goes to trash without further reading and the author is added to the spam list. Rule works perfectly well to eliminate people who have problems with education and business etiquette. Back to the situation - two days have passed since I've updated my profile and I got the following email yesterday (first two lines): ---------------------------------------- Hi Ninja, I am a Recruiter with Cisco Systems and saw your profile in LinkedIn. ---------------------------------------- Nice… Today I got another email with the subject line: -------------------------- Linux Ninja wanted! --------------------------
Seems my experiment will have quite interesting results…
Share | Flag | Link
I wrote about American efficiency and approach towards doing business generally better, faster and more innovative then rest of the world. Here is one more example:
Share | Flag | Link
Let me state from the beginning - I like STUFF. When I say 'stuff' I mean the stuff - the term understandable by every engineer with work experience at least half of mine (and no it is not necessary to be an engineer in IT, BTW). One of the stuff I like is pneumatics, or in other words all the weird (and sometimes useful) things one can do with a compressed gas. For example: - Air Gun was very useful to prevent pigeons from entering into the airspace of our apartment's balcony.
- During childhood one of my favorite entertainments was to watch how road workers used jackhammer to break up asphalt. The most entertaining part was to see how their body was shaking during such an operation.
- In my credit union's branch office pneumatic mail is used - the only financial institution I've seen using such a technology and that is used in one place only. Again, the most entertaining part of the process is to see how the capsule with bunch of $$$ is sucked into wall's hole once I press 'Send' button and hear WHOOSHOOPSSSHHH!
And many more examples, including (again, from sweet childhood memories) low-tech, mouth operated spud gun (using pen refill cartridge as a barrel) to fire chunks of potato to my classmates in the middle of a lesson while teacher is not watching. So, when I see and hear 'Pneumatics' I'm really eager to see the stuff in action. Except today. Because today in Reno I saw Pneumatic Diner, here it is:  I did not go inside because my imagination could not cope with co-existence of words 'Pneumatic' and 'Diner'. I have quite vivid (or in other words – sick) imagination and the picture what was happening with the food (or a customer) in conjunction to pneumatics was not quite pleasurable for me. One more reason not to visit Reno.
Share | Flag | Link
The story below was told to me by the guy who was one of the founders of very well known startup in IT/Networking industry. So the story goes following:
One Chinese company started selling a firewall in China using the stolen old code of above mentioned startup. There was one problem which they were not aware - HA (High Availability) in that code was not quite working. So when this Chinese company started to deploy their (stolen) firewall, problems started to immediately show up.
What this Chinese company did? Once they released that there was a problem with HA they figured out that fixing the code which they did not know on a product which they’ve already being selling would be a little bit problematic. So they’ve staffed their datacenter with a peasant hired from the nearby village. That peasant was sitting next to the firewall and there was a phone next to him. His sole responsibility was to turn the firewall off and on when such an order was coming on that phone.
It was called ‘remotely operated organic switch’ solution.
Share | Flag | Link
Two things have happened in last couple of days which (again) have direct relationship with money and human stupidity. First is a story in SF Gate about a guy who stole $5 from IRS on fraudulent tax refund. Three things are fascinating in this story: 1. IRS actually wrote him a check for $5m - the biggest check in history for this type of fraud. 2. They caught him only after someone overheard how one inmate in a federal prison was convincing another to use this guy's 'services'. 3. (here is where stupidity comes) after cashing the check the guy deposited money in banks accounts and stayed in US, continuing providing 'services'. I think you'd agree that $5m would be enough not only for a plastic surgery but for sex change operation and nice villa in Amazon jungles for the rest of life. Gordon Gekko might be right that 'greed is good', but it also proves all over the course of history that greed makes people stupid. And if people are already stupid, greed makes situation worse. Here comes second, very personal story: Last week someone got hands on my wife's checking account. Basically they got account number and routing number (any person who saw/received check from my wife would have it) and using that started to printing checks on different names and cashing them on different places in Southern California. Totally more than ten checks were written on a total amount exceeding $1000. First check they cashed in Wal-Mart (sic!) just for $77, second one was in Dollar Store for appx $120 (WHAT could one buy in a dollar store for that amount I have no idea), third one was written for Luxor casino in Vegas for ... $50. Imagine that: someone had actually traveled to Vegas from LA to write a check to Luxor for $50 - fifty bucks! Not five thousand, not five hundred - $50. But stupidity started to come into action (as expected), well in line to the first Global Law of Murphy - 'amount of intelligence on planet Earth is constant, but population keeps increasing'. They decided to hit a jackpot and catch big fish: they wrote a check to COX communication for whole $477. Now, ladies and gentlemen, majority of COX's business is from digital cable, internet and phone services. TV/Phone/Internet in this country has an address where the service is installed and the person’s name/SSN the service is registered to. So these geniuses decided to pay their (or their neighbor’s or pal's) TV bill using forged check (felony #1), from someone else's account (grand Larceny and felony #2) on multiple occasions (aggravated felony #3). Honestly, I really try to understand what would motivate one to risk >15 years in prison (separate jail time for each felony) for just $1000. No need to say that as soon as bank saw the first check written from the name which was not on the account they put stop payment on all of them, called my wife and refunded money back. So nothing was stolen from her. It was stolen from COX, Wal-Mart, Dollar Store, Luxor and other places. And something tells me that these businesses are not going to do nothing.
Share | Flag | Link
Ladies and gentlemen,
If for some strange reason I develop supernatural powers please do not expect that I will start flying around and fight crime.
Share | Flag | Link
Today (Jul 2nd) my Brazilian friend sent me an empty email with this picture:  ...but apparently it did not help Brazil, they've got eaten... I feel blue... UPD: He was right...
Share | Flag | Link
The email below was sent in one of the biggest IT companies in States where my wife works. ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------- -----Original Message----- Subject: [Lost-mind] World Cup Ettiquette The 2010 World Cup (soccer) starts next Friday, on June 11th. It goes on for about a month. This is the most popular sporting event in the world and it takes place just once every 4 years. Anywhere in the world but here in the US, the World Cup is everywhere and people are bursting with anticipation. There are three games a day during the group phase and at most 2 games on selected days during the elimination round. The whole calendar can be found here: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/calendar.htmlYou may be wondering if there's any point to this message at all. There is. During the World Cup, the soccer fanatic that has a full time job has two options: take the month off or keep coming to work while also managing to watch a large percentage of games. I assume most of us intend to continue working during this tumultuous month and we face a real problem: in order to come to work we must record games that happen during work hours and we must get home at night without knowing the results of these games. We set games to record, come to work and avoid all external media for the whole day (no looking at web sites, social networks, etc). But the one thing we cannot control is our coworkers who already know the results of games. So, in order to maintain your soccer fanatic colleagues' fragile little minds intact during this period I propose the following rule: * DO NOT, under any circumstances, discuss any games that happen during the current work day. And it's more subtle than that, because you don't need to say anything. Just approaching your favorite Nigerian coworker after a Nigeria game and smiling (or making any sort of gesture) will drive him insane for the rest of the day. Why was that person smiling at me? Is it because we lost and they're enjoying our misfortune? Or maybe it is it because we won, scoring a pile of goals. Maybe they're smiling because nothing exciting happened. Or maybe a bunch of people got red carded. Argh! And so on... :-) It's ok to discuss yesterday's games. There's no excuse for not being able to watch yesterday's games before coming to work. That's all. Just one easy rule. Good luck to us all. Hernan. ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -------
Share | Flag | Link
It is May 22nd, 9:45PM, Sunnyvale, CA. It is 50F outside.
I had to turn on heater. On MAY 22ND! In Bay Area!
Who was the one telling us about global warming? Please call him and keep him around while I bring my shotgun.
Share | Flag | Link
...is quite unusual. I mean - from the prospective of all flying things I encounter around. One of them I've already shown. Here is another one: 
In addition to pigeons (hate them) in that cage and the mallard duck sitting outside of the cage (still wandering what that duck was smoking doing there...) we've got doves, crows, ravens, finches and I've even seen a hummingbird once. And today I saw an American Kestrel sitting on a roof just within 15 feet from me and that made me happy. Because it means that pigeons and doves soon will be terminated from my balcony.
Share | Flag | Link
Today half of my day was wasted playing Pac-Man. First time after 22 years...
Thank you Google.
Share | Flag | Link
As a follow-up of my previous post, here is a question – have you ever thought about how much weight electronic communications play in everyday life in US?
Think about it, but before going to my point here are some thoughts:
After living in US for more than 12 years I so got used to the principle ‘how things are suppose to work according my expectations and based on my experience’, that when I encounter something different or opposite to it, it is either very exotic and unbelievable (like a panda walking on parking lot of my apartment complex), weird and funny at the same time (like a chimp giving Nazi salute) or looks quite irritating (could not thought out an example right now, you can put your own).
One of such expectations is following:
When I send an email, I expect an answer on it after some reasonable time. Especially when there is a request in that email to reply back.
To my surprise I found that above rule is not applicable when I send emails outside of US and particularly when recipient lives in non-Western country. I found that great majority of my emails sent overseas (even those sent to people I know for years) are not answered on timely manner if answered at all. In most cases I had to pick up a phone after second unanswered email and call. After one such a call I asked my friend why he did not replied. His answer was quite interesting: ‘I thought that if you wanted to hear answer you’d call and not send an email’. He never thought that being 8000 miles and 11 time zones away might present a little problem, especially when they do not use voicemails.
Which gives us very interesting conclusion: for large part of this planet email is not considered as a reliable and trustworthy form of communications.
Above conclusion is applicable greatly to Eastern Europe in general and former Soviet Union in particular. I’ve seen the same behavior from people living in far-east Asia too. In these part of the world to make something happen you need to make at least a phone call but in most cases it is not enough – you have to meet someone personally.
I thought how many times in last 12 years I had to personally appear somewhere to make something happen. And came with following list:
1. Getting a driver’s license in DMV. 2. Getting a Social Security Card in SSA. 3. Have my fingerprints and photo taken for Green Card's background check. 4. Checking my Green Card case status in USCIS office.
As you can easily see, all cases above have one thing in common – all of them are related to government agencies. For everything else I’m using Internet and email (95% of cases) and phone call (for the rest, if something is really urgent and needs to be done right now). And I got used to the fact that my emails are not sent to a black hole and I will get my answers back, promptly.
Once I saw a poster in a post office next to the window where people applied for US Passport. It said ‘Remember, when you leave United States you leave our freedom and protection by our laws behind you’.
I do not know what message the author of that poster wanted to communicate to US citizens, but he/she was right in one thing: leave your expectations behind when you leave US.
Certainly above rule applicable to electronic communications too.
Even in 21st century.
Share | Flag | Link
http://tanelorn.livejournal.com/1611.htmlI NEVER though that this might come true. But... Today morning (when I was on my way to work) in very dense fog a small plane crashed in residential neighborhood of East Palo Alto, hitting high voltage power transmission lines. Currently, all buildings (7 of them) in the company where I do consulting (it is nearby Stanford) are without power, including the data center I run. The same situation also is in East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Menlo park and large part of Peninsula. Stanford, including Stanford Hospital is without power and running on emergency generators. I need to be be more careful... this is one more case what my words materialiseUPD: Three Tesla guys died in the crash. Really sad story... Fortunately, there were no kids in the day care center where plane crashed.
Share | Flag | Link
One 'bird' flew over my house recently, so I've decided to take some pictures:

Other pictures are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iraklin/sets/72157623375155308/
Pictures are taken by hand held Canon 40D with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM
P.S. BTW, That 'bird' is DAMN LOUD when it flies 200m above your head.
Share | Flag | Link
Two cornerstones of my life philosophy are following: I do believe that people in general mostly love themselves or, images of themselves in their own eyes (subconsciously). And overwhelming majorly of them does not have any guts admitting it. Secondly, I do believe that most people in general are not good or kind. And if they have an option to do something bad knowing (believing) that they won’t be caught – they will do it. So, why such a long introduction? Well, I’m writing this article from a Starbucks (particularly – the Starbucks @ Matilda @ El Camino, next to Borders) where quite an interesting accident has happened about 20 minutes ago. I’ve ordered my favorite drink (Grande Breve Chai, Extra Hot), left my Starbucks Card on the counter and went to a restroom; there was nobody in the line before or after me. I came back, saw my card on the same place and saw that one ‘gentleman’ – about age 55-60 was standing there. I stepped for 15 seconds – to take a napkin and when I came back the card was gone. See, that guy stole my card in front of me and Starbucks gal when we turned away. And when I asked him directly – ‘sir did you take the card which was on counter’? He without blinking said ‘no’. Obviously I did not make any fuss from it – the $15 balance on the card did not worth calling police or starting free show (AKA fighting) in front of appx 20 people. So I paid for the drink, sat down in a comfortable armchair and started enjoying my evening. But one again I had a proof that my philosophy is right. I’ve stopped counting how many times it happened before, BTW. That’s it. P.S. Oh yes, forgot to mention that the very first thing I did before writing this message was to log on to Starbucks web site and mark the card as stolen. Starbucks canceled old card and will send me replacement with the same balance. So that ‘gentleman’ can stick my stolen card to his rear end. P.P.S the third cornerstone of my philosophy is following: to afford to be kind towards other people one needs to be healthy, wealthy and most importantly, well armed. Otherwise he (she) will be eaten. Alive.
Share | Flag | Link
Have not had an entry in my journal for a while – as my hear gets thinner I’ve decided to employ a policy to listen more and write (speak) less so more people would consider me a wise person.
However while sitting on a comfortable couch and starring at a fireplace (which BTW was never used for its primary purpose while I was living in this place) on Dec 31 of 2009 I looked back one year and two decades to see what has happened in my life, what I’ve accomplished and failed.
Interestingly enough I’d consider my primary accomplishment to becoming well informed realist (or cynical optimist) by acknowledging the fact that World Will Not End Tomorrow.
I’d say that my own existence is a proof of above mentioned statement because in last two decades I’ve managed to get into:
Number of armed conflicts
Four economic crises each of them taking huge chunks of my own net worth, or simply resetting it to zero
Three emigrations
Living on a income less than a poverty level
Working for number of years in a place which I hated
And so on and so on…
So… I’m sure that everything will be fine. Because the worst might happen to you is to find one perfect day that you are dead, right?
Share | Flag | Link
This week I had a personal proof that something is very seriously broken in healthcare in US.
Me and my wife are quite healthy - I personally go to see my doctor once a year, for checkup, so does my wife. During such a checkup she was diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency several month ago.
We currently both are consultants working on 1099. We decided to get a catastrophic health insurance coverage until better option appears and to ensure that we do not have a gap in coverage. My wife called Blue Cross to get such a policy - we already had the same policy from them for several month when we had a similar situation in past.
She (being hopelessly honest person) filled application forms and on question 'have you being diagnosed with anything' put that Vitamin D deficiency. This Wednesday we got a message from the agent that our policy had being denied. Reason - vitamin D deficiency.
No, I'm not kidding.
Moreover, the agent from Blue Cross said that there is NO insurance available for her – even if we are willing to pay more and get 'normal' policy, Blue Cross is not going to sell us any.
The worst part of all this is to deal with the question 'have you ever being denied health insurance' in application forms of any type health insurance we are going to apply in future. I have examples when people in our situation answered 'yes' on question above and being denied because some other company denied them health insurance in past. I also know people who answered 'no' and being denied for lying in application - checking patient's records are quite easy with computers and SSN.
Share | Flag | Link
I’ve heard this question several times while being overseas – tell us what do you think is most unique feature in America. After some thinking I’d say that it is efficiency and customer service.
The overall combination of how many things in everyday life you can do in America with just a phone call is amazing. The realization is striking when you compare how business is done in some other places (I've seen enough). Here is my very personal example:
On Sunday, Sep 13th (shit has tendency to happen that day) around 9PM I spilled half cup of coffee on (actually in) my notebook. Lenovo’s notebooks are still OK, but unfortunately they are not the legendary IBM’s Thinkpads. So, my T61 did not like how I treated it, said ‘yook’ and shutdown itself. All my emergency CPR procedures did not bring any positive results.
So I called Customer Support at 10PM on Sunday night. Just after two rings and several steps through IVR my call was picked by a customer support rep, who listened to the problem description (heeeeelp, my notebook does not power up!) without asking a single question what actually caused the problem (I shared my coffee with my best friend, my ever loyal notebook). He also gave me case number and said that they will ship an empty box to my address with instructions how to ship the notebook back to them.
The box arrived on Tuesday, Sep 15th at 9AM – even before I left for office. I took the box and notebook with me, put one inside the other and dropped at UPS location around 4PM.
This morning, Thursday, Sep 17th UPS rang my doorbell at 8:30AM and delivered repaired notebook back to me. In the attached receipt with the list of services performed it was shown that Lenovo’s support received my notebook on Sep 16th, replaced motherboard, keyboard and palmrest, tested the repaired notebook and shipped it back on the same day. I got it the next day, i.e. today and writing this message now.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, look at the following: I’m in California, close to San Francisco, Lenovo’s (IBM’s) customer service phone center is in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lenovo’s repair center is in Memphis, Tennessee. As you can see this triangle is larger than whole freaking Europe or China. But things here work and in other places do not.
Another example, in much bigger scale: a week ago Bay Bridge – the busiest bridge in US (crossed by 300 thousand cars daily) was closed for several days because they’ve being replacing 70 year old section with another, earthquake proof. During the inspection (which was done in parallel to the repairs), a big crack was discovered in one steel link. The crack was big enough to justify closing of the whole bridge until it is fixed.
So what do you do in other parts of the world in the case lake this? They damn close the whole bridge until the crack is fixed first and after that continue the scheduled work, which likely to manifest in closure for a month, if not more (not counting repair crews' strike and vacation times).
Not here. The bridge was opened a day ahead of schedule with both crack fixed and old section replaced. Replacement parts and crew were airlifted from Arkansas. Welcome to America!
Share | Flag | Link
UPDATE: On World's Worst Cubicle contest voting is open. So, I'm counting that my fans will vote for #22 or #23 so I can get my well deserved place in history.
Share | Flag | Link
I'm probably one of the luckiest (or condemned, read below) person that ever existed: not the first time I'm noticing that what I wish for after some time really comes true. The problem is the following: the realization of that wish comes not the exactly the way I envisioned. Nor does it come in a way to be proud of. There has been more than enough evidence in the past to suggest that everything happening to me is not just coincidence. Or, metaphorically speaking, with my own existence I'm proving someone's theory... For instance: When I was in high school I got a camera as my birthday present. I was extremely proud of it and really wanted to take some great photos. Sure enough the opportunity soon came - I was on a day trip in the countryside with my class when suddenly our bus plunged from the highway about 20 ft when going 60mhp. Your truly flew across several rows, landed next to the driver's seat, quickly got out (unhurt, w/o any scratches, camera intact) and started taking photos of the wrecked bus and screaming passengers. These photos were really great, BTW. Then, when I first came to the States I really wanted to see a lot of people, drive around neighbourhoods and understand how they live here. So within five months I was working as a pizza delivery boy. Trust me - after nine months on this job I've seen enough. My experience with the fast food industry is also one of the reasons why I never order pizza delivery at home. Let me stop elaborating here or you'll never order it again, either. Then I really wanted to get a job in IT industry in Silicon Valley. I ended up working in an Indian bodyshop for 5 years. These years arguably were the worst 5 years of my life - I was paid 25% less than the minimum required Prevailing Wage for my position, plus being constantly told lies by the owner that my Green Card was in process. I did get my Green Card eventually - 9 years since starting the process... Than I really wanted to get a good job and make good money so I can invest in something. Soon enough I was working on two jobs, 7 days a week, sleeping 4 hours a day. I did make some savings and invested them in real estate in Las Vegas. I do not think I should tell what was the outcome of this excellent strategy of mine. Well... finally I joked that I really want to be world famous. I should be more careful... In 2007 when my wife Connie and I were in my home town (Tbilisi), we stopped by my brother's friend's 'office' - he was running a digital photo print shop there. So Connie took couple of photos. Long story short - these photos now have great chance to win ' world's worst cubicle' contest. Make sure that you click on 'view slideshow' and see all of them. On #22 is my brother on right. On #23... well... yes, it is your truly. About the above mentioned curse... the worst from three old Chinese curses is ' may you find what you are looking for'... I've already made a mental rule for myself to stop making wishes... But I'm not sure that it will help. Wish me good luck...I am afraid to wish it for myself!
Share | Flag | Link
I had clear manifestation that something is really wrong with economy when I've released that I was the only person at Saks Fifth Avenue outlet store (see previous entry below).
Granted, it was 6PM on Tuesday afternoon but I really doubt that even if I visit them 1PM on Saturday I'd be bumping happy shoppers one every my step...
Share | Flag | Link
There are number of similarities between above mentioned two places: 1. Both of them can be described as ‘social Siberia’. 2. Despite #1, both of them are very close to major metro area – Castle Rock is approx 20 miles from Denver, Gilroy is 30 miles from San Jose 3. Both of these places smell – Castle Rock smells like cows, Gilroy offers garlic smell in addition to cows. 4. Both places are almost undetectable from the freeway and at the same time are much larger from inside than are observed from outside. 5. And finally – both places have huge outlet malls with stores of all upscale (and not so upscale) and easily recognizable brands – Saks Fifth, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Gap, Banana republic, etc… Go figure… P.S. However, there is one difference between these two malls - in Castle Rock there is a Christian Outlet Store where you can buy not only Bibles of all forms, languages and dimensions, but many other things with the purpose to demonstrate to the society your religious beliefs - from bumper sticker 'Jesus Loves You' (yahh, everyone else thinks that you are an asshole) to smiling plastic Jesus (to hang it on your truck's mirror next to furry, 2" dice), ALL at deep discounts!
Share | Flag | Link
I’ve said in past (in this journal too) that SF bay area is not America and America starts app. 50 miles from each coast towards the continent. Here is another proof of this statement: can you imagine a review in Bay Area about Thai restaurant with following quote? ‘Affordable, exotic eats close to home’ Exotic, my ass… Well, that statement is from Colorado and is said about a great little place – Chef Noodle House which is located Aurora, CO. This place I discovered via Yelp and it was not the only case when Yelp helped me to something good (restaurants, places, etc) when I’m not familiar with the neighborhood. So, if my schedule permits I try always to stop-by at Chef Noodle House on my way to Denver’s airport to grab something to eat. I have no idea how many hours I’ll be stuck in the terminal or (worst case) in Greyhound’s bus with wings (read – sitting in Economy class of any plane on any airline) and having something to eat is quite reassuring.
Share | Flag | Link
According to the recent article ‘ February could be worst month yet for jobless claims’. Yet I’ve received 5 emails and two phone calls over the last two days from various recruiters about vacant Solution Architect positions. I would not say that all of these positions are outstanding, but at least they sound solid on paper...
Share | Flag | Link
From today's email from one of my colleague (network/wireless solutions architect)
Hi Folks,
You may have heard that I'm leaving The Company. My last day is Tuesday, February 24th.
I wouldn't normally write, "for green pastures" but, this time it's true. I'm moving to Baraboo, WI to become a vegetable/mushroom/barley/hops farmer, using horses instead of tractors.
No, today is not April 1st.
Share | Flag | Link
I use to make a remark from time to time - if an ordinary person would know in which condition is some (if not majority) of this country's IT infrastructure of vital service providers (telecommunications, emergency) they'd never touch a phone. I'm not talking about what is happening in datacenters of some big-name corporations and numerous other smaller companies... Well, no surprise that in the main office of this country apparently situation is not better by any means: One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos. One White House official, who arrived breathless yesterday after being held up at the exterior gate, found he had no computer or telephone number. Recently called back from overseas duty, he ended up using his foreign cellphone. Another White House official whose transition cellphone was disconnected left a message temporarily referring callers to his wife's phone. Several people tried to route their e-mails through personal accounts.
Share | Flag | Link
There was an old anecdote (in Russian) – a drunk husband complains that the TV shows only one program and his wife replies that the TV is actually broken and he has being watching fireplace all evening. It’s said that there are three things that you can watch with endless fascination: how fire burns, how water flows and how other people work. Well in America you can also enjoy watching a fire burning without having a fireplace at all. Because only here was someone was smart enough to invent a TV channel which shows nothing except a log burning in a fireplace. BTW, contrary to wiki, this TV channel is permanent, not just for Christmas time only. Obviously you can buy a DVD and tape with the same 'program' too. If you have no TV at home ithere is no problem, you can enjoy watching fire online using your computer. Obviously when a log is burnt, someone comes and replaces it. I won’t be surprised if I find out that there are other TV channels broadcasting the other two pillars of endless fascination….
Share | Flag | Link
Granted, I do admit that I’m not a typical consumer who fits into that standard American definition of the term – I do not carry any credit card debt, do not have kids, do not work 9-5, I do not go to office to work, do not talk about sports with my colleagues, I do not watch any sport events (except FIFA world cup once every 4 years) and so many other things which I ‘do not’, associating me with general population. Despite that still there are plenty of other people in these above mentioned categories. But there is one category which breaks almost any attempt to associate me with other general (when I say ‘general’ I mean that winning the Nobel Prize is definitely not a property of an ordinary person) population groups and pretty much unique by itself – I do not have a TV, any TV, at home.
Not having a TV at home brings quite some interesting results and observations. First of all – according to US Census it will get you into 0.1% of US population under the same characteristics – households who do not have any TV set at home. Interestingly enough – almost all of those households (me included) do it by choice, rather than not being able to afford it. Also what those households have in common (and again, this excludes me) is that most of them are religious ultraconservatives. I never thought that one day I can be somehow associated with this fringe group…
Secondly, you can enjoy people’s reactions when you announce this fact in a social event/gathering and/or asking people questions like ‘what is American Idol’? The "Moose in Headlights" look is guaranteed almost every time.
As I said, I do not have TV at home by choice. I do believe that 99% delivered via cable/broadcast is analogue of junk mail and one actually even has to pay to watch it. Amazing, isn’t it? Plus you have to watch commercials in between of that junk food for brain.
Furthermore, with no TV at home there is no need to "keeping up with the Joneses", no more hearing about stuff you don't really need to buy, no more constant barrage of information resulting in brain and senses overload. Were we really designed to have constant info input with no down time? I think not.
Why do I need to have TV at home? I get the information I need from Internet. Also, thanks to MvGroup I can download and watch only those programs I’m interested in – documentaries. I still have no idea why cable/satellite companies do not allow you to select and subscribe to only those channels you are interested in.
However, from time to time there are some quality shows on TV networks. One of these types of exception is House M.D. with my favorite Hugh Laurie. If you’ve seen Jeeves and Wooster I do not think that you can forget Bertie. Hugh is great in both these roles and remarkably has no British accent in House.
So, I've downloaded first two seasons (thanks to torrents) and am going to enjoy it next few weeks.
My suggestion? Try turning off your TV for a week, and turning on your imagination, creativity and your BRAIN instead! You might be surprised at the results!
Share | Flag | Link
It seems that I've being living in US long enough. Well, really long enough (I'm on other side of Mike's Clause rule – which states that people living in US less than 2 years or more than 10 years should not claim to have unbiased observations about life in US) so when I hear on my favorite radio (AM 810) Bad Holiday Songs Contest, I can understand why they are so bad. Well, even titles of those songs are bad enough:
Santa, Duck Those Missiles Christmas in Jail Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk on Christmas
I'm not talking about lyrics...
Share | Flag | Link
Subj. We are living to way too interesting times and it would be unreasonable not to comment it from time to time.
Share | Flag | Link
There are many topics on which we, Georgian citizens, disagree with each other, but there is very important characteristic which unites us all – being born and raised in Georgia. We speak the Georgian language and we treat this state as our motherland. We are proud that in today’s world one can count only handful of nations who have a history and culture as long and as rich as ours. We are proud that we speak the same language used to write "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik" and "The Knight in the Tiger's Skin". We pray in thousand year old churches and monasteries and we walk and live on the same land where every inch is soaked with the blood of our ancestors who defended it. We, the citizens of today’s Georgia, should say ‘thank you’ to our ancestors who gave up their lives in huge numbers. Their sacrifice saved our land, our language and our faith for over twenty five centuries. We should say ‘thank you’ to our parents and teachers who sung to us lullabies in our own language, teaching us the grammar of the same language in addition to the history and literature of our country. But we, Georgian citizens, need to understand that citizenship has duties. It is clear now that two centuries without our statehood have left serious marks on our mentality. And when 17 years ago Georgia once again appeared on world’s political map its citizens did not fully realize that from now on they are living in an independent country. Our independence was restored in 1991 as suddenly as in 1918 and mostly due to events which happened outside of Georgia. However we, the citizens of the country, did not release what obligations we have for our society, state and future. The result of this is that right now foreign occupants on our land are threatening the very existence of our beloved nation. But this real threat should not break us but unite us! A united Georgia must handle not only this current crises but future crises too. To make this happen everyone of us should answer to the following questions: What makes and justifies our existence as a nation and a state? What obligations do we have for our conscience, state and future? Over the last 100 years Georgia has experienced so many disasters, enough for centuries. Most of us are eyewitnesses of the events of last 20 years. We are very emotional people and because of this a lot of us show signs of despair and fatalism. But today, when aggressors are on our land, history is turning a page for the Georgian state. The page on which we must once and for forever leave our doubts about our sovereignty and future in the past. On this new page there is one idea, understood and realized by every citizen of Republic of Georgia: Georgia Starts With Me! Irakli Natsvlishvili Aug 21st, 2008
Share | Flag | Link
საქართველოს მოქალაქეებს ბევრი რამ გვთიშავს, მაგრამ ამასთანავე არის ის რაც ყველას გვაერთიანებს - ჩვენ დავიბადეთ, გავიზარდეთ საქართველოში, ვლაპარაკობთ ქართულად და მიგვაჩნია მიგვაჩია ეს მიწა ჩვენ სამშობლოდ. ჩვენ საამაყოდ მიგვაჩია ის ფაქტი რომ ცალი ხელის თითებზეა დასათვლელი დღევანდელ მსოფლიოში ჩვენნაირი გრძელი და მდიდარი ისტორიის მატარებელი სახელმწიფოები. რომ ვლაპარკობთ იგივე ენაზე, რომელზედაც შუშანიკის წამება და ვეფხისტყაოსანი დაიწერა, ვლოცულობთ ათასი წლის წინათ აშენებულ ეკლესია-მონასტრებში და ჯერ კიდევ ვცხოვრობთ და დავდივართ იგივე მიწაზე რომლის თითოეული გოჯი ჩვენი წინაპრების სისხლით არის გაჟღენთილი. დღევადელ საქართველოს მოქალაქეებმა უნდა ვუთხრათ მადლობა ჩვენ წინაპრებს რომლებმაც თავი შეაკლეს ურიცხვ მტრებს, მაგრამ შეგვინარჩუნეს ეს მიწა-წყალი, ენა და სარწმუნოება ოცდახუთი საუკუნის განმალობაში. ჩვენ უნდა ვუთხრათ მადლობა ჩვენს მშობლებს და მასწავლებლებს ვინც იავნანას გვიმღეროდა და 'სადაც ვშობილვარ, გავზრდილვარ და მისროლია ისარი' გვასწავლა.
მაგრამ მადლობის თქმასთან ერთად უნდა შევიგრძნოთ, რომ მოქალაქეობას პასუხისმგებლობაც მოსდევს და ეს პასუხისმგებლობის გრძნობა ჩვენ ჯერ კიდევ გერ გაგვიაზრებია. ჩანს, რომ ორსაუკუნიანმა უსახელწიფოებრიობამ სერიოზული კვალი დაამჩნია დღევანდელი საქართველოს მოსახლეობის აზროვნებას. ამიტომაც, როდესაც 17 წლის წინ მსოფლიოს პოლიტიკურ რუკაზე ისევ გამოჩნდა საქართველო, მისი მოქალაქეები არ იყვნენ მზად გაეცნობიერებიბათ, რომ ისინი დამოუკიდებელ სახელმწიფოში ცხოვრებენ.
სახემწიფოებრიობა ჩვენ 1991 წელს აღვიდგინეთ ისევე მოულოდნელად, როგორც 1918 წელს და ამის მიზეზი მეტწილად საქართველოს გარეთ მომხდარი მოვლენები იყო. მაგრამ ჩვენ, როგორც ქვეყნის მოქალაქეებმა ვერ გავაცნობიერეთ, რა პასუხისმგებლობა გვაქვს ერთმანეთის, სახელმწიფოს და მომავლის წინაშე. ამის რეალური შედეგი არის, რომ დღეს ჩვენი სამშობლოს მიწაზე უცხო ქვეყნის ოკუპანტები სახელმწიფოს არსებობას ემუქრებიან.
მაგრამ ამ რეალურმა საფრთხემ კი არ უნდა გაგვტეხოს, არამედ უნდა გაგვაერთიანოს და გაერთიანებულმა საქართველომ უნდა გადაიტანოს ეს და მომავალი გასაჭირებიც. ამისთვის დღეს თითოეულმა ჩვენთაგანმა უნდა ვუპასუხოთ კითხვებს:
რა ვართ და რა ამართლებს ჩვენს არსებობას, როგორც ერს და სახემწიფოს და რა პასუხისმგებლობა გვაქვს თითოეულ ჩვენგანს საკუთარი სინდისის, სახელმწიფოს და მომავლის წინაშე?
ბოლო 100 წლის განამლობაში საქართველომ იმდენი უბედურება გადატანა რომელიც საუკუნეებს ეყოფოდა და ბოლო 20 წელიწადის ამბები უმეტესობამ საკუთარ თავზე გადავიტანეთ. ჩვენი ემოციურობის გამო ბევრ ჩვენგანში ფატალიზმი და სასოწარკვეთილება არის და ესეც რეალობაა.
მაგრამ დღეს, როდესაც აგრესორები არიან ჩვენ ქვეყანაში, საქართველოს ისტორიის კიდევ ერთი ფურცელი იშლება - ფურცელი რომელზეც ეჭები ჩვენი სახელმწიფოობრიობის და მომავლის გამო ერთხელ და დამუდამოდ უნდა ჩავაბაროთ ისტორიას.
ამ ახალ ფურცელზე, არის ერთადერთი ფრაზა გაცნობიერებული ყოველი მოქალაქის მიერ: საქართველო იწყება ჩემგან!
ირაკლი ნაცვლიშვილი 21 აგვისტო, 2008 წელი
Share | Flag | Link
Dear friends:
I'm sorry, but I won't be sarcastic and write humorous messages this time.
My home country, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA currently battles invasion forces of Russian Federation.
I might disappear for some time. My country is under aggression from the neighbor which is 200 times larger and has 30 times bigger population and armed forces.
Wish us good luck. We REALLY need it.
Share | Flag | Link
Everyone has list of things in life they hate. I’m not an exception, but I try to minimize number of events which leads to membership in my list, because longer is the list, more miserable your life is. Right now it is 6:15AM local time and the reason why I’m writing this blog is the one of events from my list. Particularly – broken sleep for the rest of the night because some kind of buzzing alarm which went off twice during last night. Once it was around 3:15AM in the morning and secondly – about an hour ago. I’ve tried to sleep since I woke up second times but without any success. I’m staying just for one night (thank mighty gods of universe!) at Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Englewood. Generally I do not have an issue with hotels from Intercontinental Hotel Group. They are clean, have free wireless access and staff is very friendly and responsive. The same I can tell about this hotel too. However in no other places I’ve being woken up during the night TWICE by screaming BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ coming from the corridor. That damn alarm was going off for at least 15 seconds (yes, I can measure time while I’m asleep, don’t argue with me, I know myself better) and I’m positively sure that I’m not the only person being awoken by this unwanted alarm clock. Every person in my floor should be hearing it. But I partially should blame myself for my problems. If I’ve being smart enough and red reviews about this particular hotel on Tripadvisor and on Travelpost, I’d think three times before staying here. When the hotel appears on 21st place in the ‘recommended’ list of all 30 hotels Englewood it is called ‘a clue’. Never again!
Share | Flag | Link
|
 |
|
 |
 |