I finally got a chance to get some more videos uploaded. The first is some shots from around Warsaw and Turon, Poland before the wedding. Poland is such a beautiful country.
The Second is some video of the wedding itself. Congrats again Amy and Pito.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
A story
As I haven't had much excitement in the last few weeks and I have yet to find a reliable internet connection where I can upload another of my videos, I thought that I would tell one of the many stories that I have accrued.
My roommate and I had gotten in the habit of using the same group of taxi drivers for rides home. These guys post up at the top a hill next to a metro station, so it is a bit of a walk, but they understand that each time they will get 5 manat and we get a ride home without having to barter over the price. We've had several interesting run ins with cabbies since we've been here, so having working out a mutual understanding makes the walk worth it.
So after a long, hot day I made the trip up the hill alone, as my roommate was currently on vacation back in the states and hailed one of the cabbies while offering the other drivers in the group (people here hang out in groups of four most everywhere you go, haven't quite figured out why yet) a "Salam". The cab was actually one of the better ones in the group so I slouched down into the rather comfortable back seat grateful to be sitting down again and on my way to my apartment.
Before I go any further I need to explain something about the cabs here. None of the cabs work for actual cab companies. They don't have yellow cabs. They don't even have cab meters (hence the bartering over the cost of the cab ride). Any person with a car can run his own cab service, and from what I gather, they so quite well for themselves. The only way to tell a cab is the magnetic light on top the car that says "taksi" which is connected to the battery by a wire that runs through the firewall and up to the roof.
Back to the cab. We started to pull away from the front of the metro station and I turned to look into the on coming traffic. When I turned back, the car was completely filled with the most foul smelling, thick black smoke. I didn't panic, but I didn't really know what to do either. Should I jump out? I opened the door so I could breathe a began to furiously waft the smoke out. Steadily things began to clear and that is when I caught sight of the flame along the A pillar of the cab (the A pillar is the part of the car where the windshield and the front doors meet) and the panicked cabbie batting at it with his open palms. He patted the flame out and turned to me with a smile on his face to say "problem no, problem no". He drove me the rest of the way home without incident and I got out and laughed al the way up the elevator.
I couldn't help but laugh. I know this is like joke you tell where you say "I guess you just had to be there", but stuff like this tends to happen here quite regularly. How many people can say that they were in a cab when it caught fire?
My roommate and I had gotten in the habit of using the same group of taxi drivers for rides home. These guys post up at the top a hill next to a metro station, so it is a bit of a walk, but they understand that each time they will get 5 manat and we get a ride home without having to barter over the price. We've had several interesting run ins with cabbies since we've been here, so having working out a mutual understanding makes the walk worth it.
So after a long, hot day I made the trip up the hill alone, as my roommate was currently on vacation back in the states and hailed one of the cabbies while offering the other drivers in the group (people here hang out in groups of four most everywhere you go, haven't quite figured out why yet) a "Salam". The cab was actually one of the better ones in the group so I slouched down into the rather comfortable back seat grateful to be sitting down again and on my way to my apartment.
Before I go any further I need to explain something about the cabs here. None of the cabs work for actual cab companies. They don't have yellow cabs. They don't even have cab meters (hence the bartering over the cost of the cab ride). Any person with a car can run his own cab service, and from what I gather, they so quite well for themselves. The only way to tell a cab is the magnetic light on top the car that says "taksi" which is connected to the battery by a wire that runs through the firewall and up to the roof.
Back to the cab. We started to pull away from the front of the metro station and I turned to look into the on coming traffic. When I turned back, the car was completely filled with the most foul smelling, thick black smoke. I didn't panic, but I didn't really know what to do either. Should I jump out? I opened the door so I could breathe a began to furiously waft the smoke out. Steadily things began to clear and that is when I caught sight of the flame along the A pillar of the cab (the A pillar is the part of the car where the windshield and the front doors meet) and the panicked cabbie batting at it with his open palms. He patted the flame out and turned to me with a smile on his face to say "problem no, problem no". He drove me the rest of the way home without incident and I got out and laughed al the way up the elevator.
I couldn't help but laugh. I know this is like joke you tell where you say "I guess you just had to be there", but stuff like this tends to happen here quite regularly. How many people can say that they were in a cab when it caught fire?
Thursday, June 4, 2009
In the midde of nowhere
Technology is awesome. Right now I am sitting in a car in the middle of Azerbaijan, writing this on my laptop which is hooked up to the internet through a cellphone. Why am I here? Why am I taking the time during my workday to write a blog post about technology? All valid questions.
You see, today ended up not being like very other day. Our company is looking at a new project here in Azerbaijan so we decided to take a field trip out to scout locations for our road. Seems simple enough. Drive out to the middle of nowhere take some pictures and some GPS coordinates and drive back home. At least that was what was supposed to happen.
We drove out to the first location we had planned and took our pictures, got harassed by the local police, and took our GPS locations. Nothing too exciting (except for the police harassment, trying to explain to a cop that you are just taking pictures of the land and power lines for a road that doesn't exist when he doesn't speak your language is not easy). We got back into the car, flipped it into gear, and...went nowhere.
Upon investigation we discovered that not only was the transmission low on fluid, but there wasn't any fluid in the transmission to begin with. So we checked underneath and sure enough we had left a long trail of red fluid behind us. We weren't going anywhere.
So here I sit, and have been for the last hour and a half, waiting for another car to come and pick us up. Our driver keeps telling us 5 minutes and has been for the last half hour. I'm starting to not trust these people, they're all a bunch of con-men. But as I type this a white Toyota is pulling up. Looks like we are saved after all.
You see, today ended up not being like very other day. Our company is looking at a new project here in Azerbaijan so we decided to take a field trip out to scout locations for our road. Seems simple enough. Drive out to the middle of nowhere take some pictures and some GPS coordinates and drive back home. At least that was what was supposed to happen.
We drove out to the first location we had planned and took our pictures, got harassed by the local police, and took our GPS locations. Nothing too exciting (except for the police harassment, trying to explain to a cop that you are just taking pictures of the land and power lines for a road that doesn't exist when he doesn't speak your language is not easy). We got back into the car, flipped it into gear, and...went nowhere.
Upon investigation we discovered that not only was the transmission low on fluid, but there wasn't any fluid in the transmission to begin with. So we checked underneath and sure enough we had left a long trail of red fluid behind us. We weren't going anywhere.
So here I sit, and have been for the last hour and a half, waiting for another car to come and pick us up. Our driver keeps telling us 5 minutes and has been for the last half hour. I'm starting to not trust these people, they're all a bunch of con-men. But as I type this a white Toyota is pulling up. Looks like we are saved after all.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Google Wave
Seeing as I have a lot of time on my hands and limited resources as to the projects I can undertake, I spend a lot of time surfing the internet. I have a blog, a facebook page, a website, but the one thing that I had wanted was a better way to stay in touch with friends and family.
Right before I left home a friend of mine mentioned that he thought it would be an awesome idea to start a blog and give all our friends the password to it so that we could tell each other stories without having to check 50 blogs or deal with app requests in facebook that offer the incredible ability to send all the people you're not really friends with a smiling face. It was a great idea.
The main problem I have with facebook is that it has become so bloated. It's no longer a website for people to stay in touch with friends. It's become a way for people a world away to pester people they've never met. But this, this could be cool. Something streamlined. Most importantly this would be private. We could restrict the people who could add to it.
Back to me having too much time on my hands. I started to develop an idea of what this could look like as a new social networking site. One that doesn't allow apps or any of that other crap. Almost like a private forum. I thought and thought and thought. And just as I was about to contact a friend of mine who is very into venture capitalism...Google unveiled Wave.
This is the next big thing. Mark my words. You heard it here first. This is going to revolutionize not only the way people communicate on the internet, but also the way that businesses are run. There is no limit to the possibilities.
Wave is a real time email/chat/document editor web service. You start a wave (similar to an email) send it to your friends and they can respond by simply clicking reply when they receive it (just like email). If it happens that two people are on at the same time they can chat inside of that wave in real time. You literally see the words as the person types instead of seeing "suchandsuch is typing". You can upload rich text documents (similar to word or excel) and each person that you allow to see the wave can edit the page simultaneously. In the demo that I saw, eight people were editing a business document at the same time. What would take days to get done now only takes as long as you need to type.
Ok, so this sounds cool. Yeah! I can do my email and chat just like gmail, but with a little document editing thrown in. But this is where the kicker comes in. It's open source protocol, which means that you can host it on any server. You don't have to log into google to use it. Any website with a server can host there own private version, allowing those they want to participate to participate and being invisible to people outside of the group.
So I'm a little disappointed that my friends idea and my additions to said idea didn't make us millions, but I can't wait to get my hands on Wave. And you better believe it's coming to thisisthacarter.com
Right before I left home a friend of mine mentioned that he thought it would be an awesome idea to start a blog and give all our friends the password to it so that we could tell each other stories without having to check 50 blogs or deal with app requests in facebook that offer the incredible ability to send all the people you're not really friends with a smiling face. It was a great idea.
The main problem I have with facebook is that it has become so bloated. It's no longer a website for people to stay in touch with friends. It's become a way for people a world away to pester people they've never met. But this, this could be cool. Something streamlined. Most importantly this would be private. We could restrict the people who could add to it.
Back to me having too much time on my hands. I started to develop an idea of what this could look like as a new social networking site. One that doesn't allow apps or any of that other crap. Almost like a private forum. I thought and thought and thought. And just as I was about to contact a friend of mine who is very into venture capitalism...Google unveiled Wave.
This is the next big thing. Mark my words. You heard it here first. This is going to revolutionize not only the way people communicate on the internet, but also the way that businesses are run. There is no limit to the possibilities.
Wave is a real time email/chat/document editor web service. You start a wave (similar to an email) send it to your friends and they can respond by simply clicking reply when they receive it (just like email). If it happens that two people are on at the same time they can chat inside of that wave in real time. You literally see the words as the person types instead of seeing "suchandsuch is typing". You can upload rich text documents (similar to word or excel) and each person that you allow to see the wave can edit the page simultaneously. In the demo that I saw, eight people were editing a business document at the same time. What would take days to get done now only takes as long as you need to type.
Ok, so this sounds cool. Yeah! I can do my email and chat just like gmail, but with a little document editing thrown in. But this is where the kicker comes in. It's open source protocol, which means that you can host it on any server. You don't have to log into google to use it. Any website with a server can host there own private version, allowing those they want to participate to participate and being invisible to people outside of the group.
So I'm a little disappointed that my friends idea and my additions to said idea didn't make us millions, but I can't wait to get my hands on Wave. And you better believe it's coming to thisisthacarter.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Abu Dhabi & Dubai
I've already talked about my trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai a little. Now you can see what it's like. Enjoy.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
On possibly biting off more than you can chew
In my last post I talked about my difficulty learning to write html code. It was a fun and simple project to undertake, but I tend to be excitable about things I get interested in. Sometimes this is not a good thing. Other times it leads to me see things through that I normally wouldn't. I think it's a fair trade.
What does this have to do with my last post? Simple, I took the next logical step. I started my own website. I researched how difficult and expensive it is to host a website through a webhosting provider. I finally decided, through a friend's recommendation, on dreamhost.com. I paid my $90 for the year and I was off and running. Or so I thought.
Immedidately there was a problem. Somehow Dreamhost had charges me for two accounts. So what should have been an expensive, but doable, $90 turned into an outrageous $180. A quick email and and hour later and the problem was fixed. I pieced together a little code and through it up on the website (after another little bit of trouble, which was again resolved quickly). Boy was I proud. I couldn't believe it. I had my own website.
Imagine then my shock and heartbreak when I discovered the next morning that it had disapeared. I checked my panel at dreamhost and could no longer see my website. I didn't feel heartbreak in that moment, but it must have something like it. Thankfully another quick email resolved the problem (if you ever commit to owning your own website, I highly recomend dreamhost.com, their support is outstanding). Apparently they had erased both accounts instead of only the extra one.
Now the real fun began. My friend who recomended dreamhost also told me about worpress templates and how I could use them to quicly throw up a website. "Nah," I said, "I want to design one from screatch." That was the point, I think, where I went from enjoying my project to completely choking on it. I'm pretty capable with computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but designing a working webpage was much more complicated than I intitially thought. I spent the past week designing, troubleshooting, getting so frustrated that I contemplated throwing my computer against the wall, and then eventually, finally, finding a way to make it work.
If you had asked me two hours ago. I probally would have said that I wanted my money back (dreamhost actually has a 30 day warranty where you can get a full refund if you're not satisfied with your account). But I really wouldn't have. That would have been quitting. I'm glad I saw it through to the end, and hopefully, as I spend more time with it, it will grow and become something I am really proud of. Now I am simply content to have it exist for the time being.
Oh, and you can check it out at www.thisisthacarter.com.
What does this have to do with my last post? Simple, I took the next logical step. I started my own website. I researched how difficult and expensive it is to host a website through a webhosting provider. I finally decided, through a friend's recommendation, on dreamhost.com. I paid my $90 for the year and I was off and running. Or so I thought.
Immedidately there was a problem. Somehow Dreamhost had charges me for two accounts. So what should have been an expensive, but doable, $90 turned into an outrageous $180. A quick email and and hour later and the problem was fixed. I pieced together a little code and through it up on the website (after another little bit of trouble, which was again resolved quickly). Boy was I proud. I couldn't believe it. I had my own website.
Imagine then my shock and heartbreak when I discovered the next morning that it had disapeared. I checked my panel at dreamhost and could no longer see my website. I didn't feel heartbreak in that moment, but it must have something like it. Thankfully another quick email resolved the problem (if you ever commit to owning your own website, I highly recomend dreamhost.com, their support is outstanding). Apparently they had erased both accounts instead of only the extra one.
Now the real fun began. My friend who recomended dreamhost also told me about worpress templates and how I could use them to quicly throw up a website. "Nah," I said, "I want to design one from screatch." That was the point, I think, where I went from enjoying my project to completely choking on it. I'm pretty capable with computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but designing a working webpage was much more complicated than I intitially thought. I spent the past week designing, troubleshooting, getting so frustrated that I contemplated throwing my computer against the wall, and then eventually, finally, finding a way to make it work.
If you had asked me two hours ago. I probally would have said that I wanted my money back (dreamhost actually has a 30 day warranty where you can get a full refund if you're not satisfied with your account). But I really wouldn't have. That would have been quitting. I'm glad I saw it through to the end, and hopefully, as I spend more time with it, it will grow and become something I am really proud of. Now I am simply content to have it exist for the time being.
Oh, and you can check it out at www.thisisthacarter.com.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Custom email signature
This is going to seem like a weird post. That's because it is. I got the idea to create my own email signature from scratch for use with gmail. The problem is, I don't know how to write html code (html code is the computer language that comprises about 99% percent of the internet). So with plenty of free time at work I got started learning what I could. I got pretty far, but eventually ran into a snag in finding the images I wanted to include in the signature on the internet. I wanted to include a symbol for my google profile:
A symbol for my blog:
and A symbol for my youtube channel:
I didn't want to start a flickr page or something along those lines, because really I don't take that many pictures. How to find the exact images I wanted without uploading them to some strange website? Simple, upload them here. From now on, hopefully, the images you have just seen above will be referenced in my email signature. Problem solved.
A symbol for my blog:
and A symbol for my youtube channel:
I didn't want to start a flickr page or something along those lines, because really I don't take that many pictures. How to find the exact images I wanted without uploading them to some strange website? Simple, upload them here. From now on, hopefully, the images you have just seen above will be referenced in my email signature. Problem solved.
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