A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

When I first got an IBM clone in the mid-1980's I had many 'gee-whiz' moments. Over the last several decades they have continued to come my way, even if a little less frequently.

Today, I had another one. A few minutes ago I got all 'gee-whiz' over something that Microsoft is doing. Initially, they were the source of these times but since the advent of the Internet, many more of my moments have come from others.

I stumbled upon Microsoft's Popfly.

It's so un-Microsoft-like. It's an open concept, web-programming, online interface, sort of thingy. I suppose if the recipient user doesn't have Silverlight loaded on their machine, it won't work. I'm curious about that, so please leave a comment if the situation merits. I mashed up a pre-made photo viewing app with data from my Flickr photostream to come up with this. The amazing thing is I did it in about three minutes. Unfortunately, it takes about that long to load. This makes it useless.

Load a Popfly page.

Labels: Flickr, Internet, Popfly, Q2_2008

Okay, it's a little weird that I can sit at my computer and conveniently watch forty-year old television. I am not so sure that in 1968, when I was nine, I would've been keen on watching the pilot episode of Ironside. I'm not even sure we had a colour TV that year in Wendell, New Hampshire.



Strangely, I'm now living in the Canadian city which is the birthplace of actor, Raymond Burr. I can view on-demand episodes of Ironside on my 19 inch monitor right here. Just as interestingly, I can blog about these facts and the result is, in theory, visible from any location on the planet which has the Internet. I can even let you see it too.



If you're not in the US, try loading Hotspot Shield first. The program allows you to VPN to a US-based IP. It is easy to start and stop and a whole lot easier than messing around with permanent configuration on your computer. You only need to run it when you need to appear to be in the United States.

Labels: Hulu, Internet, New Westminster, Q2_2008, stars, television

I sent the link for a larger version of yesterday's blog photo to an ex-colleague who is in Bahrain now. Actually, he's been there since the time I took that photo, making it neigh onto twenty years. In retrospect, I probably had a better life in the UAE, but Bahrain still remains dearer to my heart. I always said the people there were nicer due to the fact they were poorer. Don did send along this comment when I asked if the Adhari Hotel was still there.

Yes it is there along with 88 other hotels, half of them in the new Juffair. The area around Adhari is real run down and trashy nowadays.

You would not recognize Bahrain. High rises all over the island. Your old building there is dwarfed by other, bigger buildings beside and behind. There's not a sqaure inch of empty land any where in Juffair AND the area has doubled in size.

There are several 20, 30 and 40 story towers in downtown Manama, and in the Seef District, there are even more with a 75 story building being planned. Juffair looks like Diplomat area but 5 times the size. Not a place to park anymore and the road to the base is busier than Exhibition Road was; supermarkets, every chain restaurant, coffee shop and pizza place you can think of and some you can't.

All the roundabouts all over Bahrain are being done away with and flyovers are being built in their place. No more roundabouts at all in Manama and they are putting flyovers in at the Manama end of the Sitra Causeway, which will tie in with the new causeway. Also Isa Town, Salmabad and A'ali roundabouts are gone. BTW, they are building a causeway to Qatar.

There's a whole new city being built off the southern tip and a new series of islands were created east of the southern end of Muharraq and already they are built up and all the villas and condos (were talking thousands of 'em) are being sold from 200,000 to 1,000,000 dollars. There are about 25 condos in the Manama, Juffair, Hoora areas built and most of the apartments are sold, starting at $100,000. Just beside Pearl (Lulu) Roundabout, there are three 25-floor towers all sold out. Prices started at $250,000. There are several new universities with entire campuses dotted over the island, too, and 4 or five huge new private hospitals. Dubai might be where it's at, but Bahrain isn't far behind considering its size and resources.

Labels: Bahrain, Don, Q2_2008

When I first tried a hand at blogging, I didn't consider I'd include a photo or image most every day. In September of 2003, I am not sure if I knew I'd still be adding daily posts in June of 2008! Eventually, I did realize that a graphic of some sort could be featured with most entries. Over the years, the images have often become the entries.

Once entered in my eJournal and images, they create part of my historic record. My initial idea that I'd only be able to go forward with present-day images has proved incorrect too. Because of a scanner, I am able to, quite often, dip into the past.

The picture above represents what I didn't do often enough; namely, take everyday shots of my surroundings. There was no reason to take this photograph of the Adhari Hotel in Bahrain twenty years ago. Yet, seeing the details is interesting to me due to the passage of time. For example, I would not be able, in my mind's eye, to put together such simple elements for the feeling of an ordinary street then and there.

It is a real shame I didn't take more pictures of nothing during my lifetime.

Labels: Bahrain, blogging, feelings, Q2_2008, scanned

The taxes on alcohol here make imbibing very costly. Liquor is strictly controlled for sale at provincially-run stores and at those licensed to sell off-site.

When we were in California last month, I'd forgotten about the variety of beer and wine available in most supermarkets. I was also surprised by how cheap it was. A can of beer could be had for the price of cola. Surely, it was about half what we pay here.

This may be one reason that British Columbia allows u-brew stores. They are stores that make wine from kits. It's much easier than trying to become a brew master oneself for they do all the hard work. The customer must throw the yeast into the batch to start off the process and return after a month or two to help bottle the liquid. Before the fermentation process begins, one is simply buying foodstuffs so there's no tax at all. I've mentioned these facts here in the past.

What I've not mentioned is this new product which was introduced to me by friends last weekend. Click the link below to load a PDF file from the company's website.

The Big & Easy Bottle Brew

I brought the three varieties home yesterday and started a Premium Pilsner. It's such a simple process, quite literally one -- two -- three. Imagine, it's a more natural product at 2/3's the price of cheapest brew found at a BC Liquor store.

Labels: beer and wine, Q2_2008

I'm free this month.

I should paint the inside the bedroom closets. I should also paint the living room with the paint that's sitting in the can on the balcony. I should get out the carpet cleaner and use it. I should do the annual waxing on the pickup truck. I should check about replacing the counter top on the bathroom vanity. I should do all these things.

Although it's not really raining, it's still cold and dreary.

I guess I won't.

Labels: errands, maintenance, Q2_2008

I continue to be frustrated by the news coming out of Sri Lanka. The country is well educated, has a strong work ethic, and sits in an excellent geographic location. Unfortunately it continues to be stalled on brink of terrific expansion. Actually, a huge amount of development has and continues to occur. It's just sad to consider how much has been missed due to 25 years of a continuing civil war.

We had long visits in 2004 and 2006. I love being there.

Like many Canadians, I often think of a retirement that includes five or six months in a warm location. Back east the Quebecois head to Florida. Out here, people winter in locations such as Arizona or Mexico.

I cannot help but consider how great it'd be to head to Sri Lanka in November of each year. We don't have to shovel snow in Vancouver but still more sun during the winters would be welcome. Unfortunately, I found real estate prices in the capital region of Sri Lanka to be very expensive. Seriously, property prices can be much higher than in many places in North America. Considering average families on the island have less money, I don't know what fuels such extravagant prices. Click the screen capture to the right to read a May article from the International Herald Tribune.

Labels: money, Q2_2008, Sri Lanka

On Saturday evening I brought the new camcorder to a get-together with friends. So, far I'm pretty impressed with the Panasonic HDC-SD9. The video quality can be quite stunning in bright light; however, it doesn't so very well in low-light conditions. Unfortunately that's a very common type of family-style video. I think our very first Sony camcorder in the 1980's did the best job of any subsequent cameras of being able to shoot excellent night scenes.

The ability to just pop out the SD card and directly insert into the PS3 is useful. The software that copies to a computer is also fairly easy to use even if it lacks a lot of necessary features. Over all, giving up tape has been a pleasant experience.

Its small size and ease of use means that this camera will probably get a lot more exercise than anything I've owned in the past. I have to be aware of this and think in terms of small video clips nowadays too. To help reflect this change in thinking, I have introduced the term camcorder as a blogging label. Viola, I get an instant new page to reflect current and past entries.



Even a clip which is less than 20 seconds can be interesting. This is simply a SkyTrain entering the east end of the tunnel into Columbia Station in downtown New Westminster.

Labels: camcorder, New Westminster, Q2_2008, review, SkyTrain