Nationals honor other teams' players

I went to a Washington Nationals game in early August and brought my cousin along, who was in town for a conference. It was a typical summer night in DC, hot and muggy. The kind of night where a person tries to move as little as possible. We had a fun time. My cousin enjoyed the new Nationals ballpark. I could tell he secretly wished Fenway Park had the same nice amenities as the Nationals ballpark. We took a impromptu tour of the new ballpark as we headed to the exit. We made almost a full circle around the field, going along the walkway under the upper deck. Along the way, we encountered this:



It was a sign honoring Red Sox Hall of Famer, Ted Williams. I was really surprised. A professional sports team, no matter what league they're in, hardly ever honors a player from a different team. The only example I can think of that is acceptable is Frankie Robinson, who is honored in every major league ballpark with a display of his uniform number '42'. How sad is it that the Nationals don't have a sufficient number of former great players to honor, they have to put up signs that honor players from other teams. I say if you have a shortage of Hall of Famers on your team, don't try to fill the void by honoring other teams' Hall of Famers.

Verizon will no longer be the only cellphone carrier with coverage in the DC Metro

Verizon Wireless' distinction of being the only cellphone carrier to operate inside the DC Metro system will be over soon. The networks of AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, and T-Mobile will be available in the twenty most busiest stations later this year; with the remaining stations getting the wireless network overhaul next year, according to DCist.

I don't understand why Metro didn't invite the other major cellphone carriers to provide service inside the train stations sooner. I can only guess the annual fee Verizon Wireless paid to DC Metro over the years enabled the cellphone carrier to have exclusive rights to operate inside the train stations and tunnels. I think DC Metro realized they could make more money by having the top four cellphone carriers make a combined payment to them that would be much larger than an exclusive rights fee from a single cellphone carrier.

Something is going on in Alaska

If you were to build a secret military research facility you would want to locate far away from curiosity-seekers and civilization in general, like say Alaska? Hidden in the Alaskan wilderness is an Air Force research facility dubbed the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or Haarp for short. Wired reporter Noah Shachtman visited the military facility and took some interesting photographs. In the article, the Air Force claim Haarp is strictly for research that doesn't have any military applications, which I find hard to believe. What they are doing there is creating man-made northern lights using radio waves. Very interesting. I think there is another dimension to this.

Pictures from the United4Iran DC rally

I've been following what's going on in Iran since the disputed June 12th election. I have some hope that this country will finally turn the corner and get rid of their current dictatorship. I want to help the protesters in some way because I know dictatorships will not just step aside quietly. Rallies held in different world cities were held on Saturday, July 25th to give support to those who are opposing the corrupt, illegitimate government in Iran. I of course went to the rally held in Washington, DC. The DC rally was organized by United4Iran and Where's My Vote DC.

The rally began in front of the United Nations office on 18th and K St NW. I arrived a few minutes after its scheduled start of 4 o'clock. There was already a small group of approximately a hundred people:



The protest had swelled to a crowd that covered the entire block. It was exciting to see. We marched towards the National Mall at about 5:30:





The rally had grown so big it was stopping traffic:



We ended up on the National Mall. A stage was erected for some speakers and a musical performance. I sat through four speakers, three of them were Nobel Peace Prize laureates. It was nearing 7:30, I was tired, sweaty and feeling gross, so I decided to head home and get something to eat.

Here are some pictures from near the end of the rally:

My pictures of the Real World DC cast so far

My first encounter with the Real World DC cast was at the Washington Sports Club and naturally didn't have my camera ready. Ever since then I made sure to keep my small camera with me just in case I need to take a picture of something at the Real World house on my way to or from work.

Well I got lucky this week. On Monday, July 13th as I walked by the side of the Real World house I looked over at their patio area that faces 20th street and one of the cast members is sitting at the table appearing to be writing something. I don't know his name but he's the one that wears the bandana headband. I call him the "rico suave" guy. I have a feeling he's the loner of the group:



On my way home from work today at around 4:30 as I'm crossing S street towards the Real World house, I see practically the whole cast come filing out with camera crew filming right in front of them. I walked down to the end of the next block and waited to see where they were headed. They headed down Connecticut Ave and appeared to be in a good mood. I snapped this picture directly across the street:

See how much those meetings really cost

Ah meetings. Some organizations just love to have them. The thinking goes, if there's a problem, just have a meeting. If the problem still isn't solved then just have more meetings. Meetings on top of meetings. Sure you would like to put a stop to this right away, yet still keep up the appearance of being a 'team player'. Well now you can win the argument by showing exactly how much sitting around at a meeting costs in real-time with the super-handy Meeting Ticker. Just type in the number of attendees, approximate hourly salary, and the meeting start time and the Meeting Ticker does the rest.

Free TV on the web may soon not be free

You thought you were pretty smart. You got rid of your cable tv service and now watch your shows online on Hulu for free. The cable television providers were not going to take this lying down. Time Warner and Comcast will start a pilot service called TV Everywhere that will allow cable subscribers to watch shows online according to Wired's Epicenter blog. The shows offered on TV Everywhere will likely feature shows from Time Warner-owned networks, TNT and TBS among others.

Basic cable shows now found on Hulu will migrate to TV Everywhere. If cable television providers think by offering a online television service for current subscribers will prevent customers from leaving they may be in for a rude awakening. iTunes offers a host of shows from both broadcast and cable networks, though not offered for free, are reasonably priced for a whole season. Instead of buying access to shows you don't want, iTunes allows you to buy just the shows you want to watch when you want. It is cheaper to buy season passes for a handful of shows on iTunes than to subscribe to basic cable for an entire broadcast season.

Introducing the Google Chrome operating system

It was only a matter of time before Google developed their own computer operating system as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows. Despite the newfound popularity of Apple's iMacs and Macbooks represent slightly under 8 percent of the American PC market. Customer friendly versions of Linux, like Red Hat and Ubuntu never posed a serious challenge to Windows.

I think Google might have a chance because they are introducing their Chrome operating system at the right time. The need to have a host of programs installed on your computer accompanied with large amounts of disk space is much lower now than it was just a few years ago. Much of the regular tasks performed by installed programs on the computer can now be done using internet-based applications. Storing photos, editing documents, listening to music can now be done in the "cloud" or by basically employing large servers. Rather than keep offering more and more features in an operating system, the trend will likely be in the opposite direction of offering just basic features with more emphasis on speed and security. I'm a Windows Vista user and I wish I could uninstall Windows programs I never use like MovieMaker.

Andy Warhol uses a Commodore Amiga

This is a video of Andy Warhol during early 80's using a Commodore Amiga computer to paint a portrait of Blondie's lead singer, Debbie Harry. At that time, Commodore Amiga was cutting edge when it came to creating digital art.