jhjessup

Update MAC Address<-->Manufacturer Tables

2010-04-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

If you've ever used nmap or arpwatch, you've probably experienced the forensic benefit of correlating a MAC broadcast address to the manufacturer of the broadcasting NIC. If you've even encountered a manufacturer labeled "Unknown" with either of the above sniffers, this post is for you.

We installed arpwatch on our network late last week and discovered that the MAC<->Manufacturer table was a few years out of date. We were able to convert nmap's table to arpwatch's format, but still ended up with a slightly-out-of-date table.

The following script gets the current data from IEEE and formats it for nmap and arpwatch:

#!/bin/bash
# update_mac_addresses.sh
# This script downloads the currect mac address data from the IEEE and parses it for nmap and arpwatch.
# nmap-mac-prefixes is for nmap.
# ethercodes.dat is arpwatch.

# Download the current data

wget http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt

# Divide the data into Manufacturer and Address files
cat oui.txt | grep '(base 16)' | cut -f3 > mac.manufacturer
cat oui.txt | grep '(base 16)' | cut -f1 -d' ' > mac.address

# Paste them back together for nmap data
paste mac.address mac.manufacturer > nmap-mac-prefixes

# Parse the address data for arpwatch
cat mac.address | perl -pe 's/^(([^0].)|0(.))(([^0].)|0(.))(([^0].)|0(.))/\2\3:\5\6:\8\9/' > tmp.address
cat tmp.address | tr [A-Z] [a-z] > mac.address

# Paste the parsed data into the arpwatch file
paste mac.address mac.manufacturer > ethercodes.dat

# Clean up intermediary files
rm tmp.address
rm mac.address
rm mac.manufacturer
rm oui.txt

Credit to Jonathan C. for the perl regex.

UPDATE!!!

If the resulting nmap file (nmap-mac-prefixes) is installed, nmap will not run successfully. If you've already copied the nmap data file, you'll have to roll back to the data file installed with nmap.

Firewall Fun Fact

2009-06-14T01:49:00.001-07:00

The internet filtering we experience here is sometimes odd and unpredictable. There are two primary filtering mechanisms: a "blacklist" of specifically prohibited sites (such as www.youtube.com, *.blogspot.com, *.wordpress.com, etc); and a "URL filter" - any web address that contains a prohibited term, such as (for the sake of illustration) "pen". The party in charge doesn't make either of their lists public, and both lists are subject to unannounced change. One recent change, for example, was the addition of *.blogspot.com to the blacklist.

From what I can tell, the affect of trying to visit site on the "blacklist" results in nothing more than the site failing to load.The effect of trying to visit a web address that contains a prohibited term, though, is that your internet access is suspended for one or two minutes. You can tell which filter you've run into by the affect it has on your browsing experience.

That's the background for this afternoon's google search.

When you type a term into the google search box and hit enter, google loads the "search results" page- which contains in its address the term searched for. The search results page (and www.google.com) is not on the "blacklist," but because of the way Google dynamically generates search results, any terms you search for will still be subject to the URL filter. Consequently, you can occasionally discern what hot-button terms you're not allowed to google for.

Today's secret word is "triangle."

Joke of the Day

2009-06-10T01:16:00.001-07:00

Question: "What happens when a Chinese person turns around in circle many many times?"

Answer: "They become disoriented!"

Wally's Answer: "That's stupid."

Wally's great. He has a good sense of humor.

Chinese Haircut

2009-06-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

In many Asian countries, getting one's hair cut is more than just a trim with scissors or a clippers. It almost always begins with getting your hair washed, and frequently includes a head and neck massage, an arm massage, and sometimes also an upper-back massage and/or an ear cleaning.

I experienced this Saturday night. Shannon and I went out to a different part of the city (the Xia Li Pu district, for future travelers) for dinner and to look at shops, and we went to a typical Chinese hair care shop. It seems more similar to an American salon then to a traditional barbershop, probably because of the washing and styling equipment. Shannon had been there earlier in the week with some friends, so the staff recognized us when we walked in. Talking through a telephone translator, we told them that I wanted a hair cut with "the works."

I got my hair washed, a scalp/neck/arm/upper back massage, my ears cleaning, my hair cut, and my hair washed again. I think the whole process took about 45 minutes, for a total cost of 40 RMB.*

It's going to be hard to go back to SuperCuts.

* The current exchange rate is about 6.85 RMB per USD, so 40 RMB works out to about $5.84.

Quick Notes

2009-06-03T20:07:00.001-07:00

1. My blog is blocked! Due to the significance of today's date in Chinese history, internet filtering has been increasing for the past week or so. Many sites have been added to the "blocked" category, primarily those sites which host user-gerenated content, such as youtube, wordpress, and blogspot. I usually post to this blog via email so I think this update will show up, but since I can't view it directly I won't know for sure.

2. Our water got fixed! In a recent post (The most recent one, I think) I mentioned that we were without water. It's back now. We don't really know why it was out.

3. It's been raining! The past three days have been very wet. I think it's seasonal.

4. Our time here is drawing to a close. We plan on leaving in just under two months. :-(

5. The school and CTI China are both recruiting new teachers so if you're interested in teaching English, working with children, seeing a new culture, or getting first-hand information about life in China, let me know!

Our water is out!

2009-05-29T16:35:00.001-07:00

Last night, as Shannon was leaving for work, we found out that the faucet in our bathroom sink wasn't giving us any water. And neither was the faucet in the Kitchen sink. And the toilet wasn't flushing.

This was a bit disconcerting.

Evidently, the column that our apartment is in is having problems with water supply. The maintenance man worked on it last night, but as of this morning it's still out.

We can't wash dishes until the water comes back*, so this means takeout for lunch!

* Depending on how long the water is out, we'll figure out a way to wash dishes.

A Funny Thing

2009-05-23T00:49:00.001-07:00

I'm not seeing as many Asians here as I used to.

NOW HIRING

2009-05-06T07:35:00.001-07:00

The school we're teaching at is actively recruiting English teachers for the 2009-2010 school year.

Spring in Wenzhou

2009-04-22T18:09:00.001-07:00

Spring has come to Wenzhou!

Winter clothes are boxed up in preparation for shipping them home, long-sleeve shirts are on hangers in the back of the closet, and a sweatshirt (for emergencies) is hanging by the door. It's Springtime!

It's been getting steadily warmer for the past few weeks, with last week finally being consistently warm enough to feel "springy". It's nice.

Flowers are blooming, the trees are bright green, and we can frequently hear birds while we're out and about.

It's nice.

Pizza Night!

2009-04-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last night was Pizza Night. The four of us got together at Jessica's apartment and made pizza. We each provided part of the ingredients, chipped in with the assembly and baking process, and had a blast.

We ended up with 9 9" pizzas at a total cost of about 65 RMB- everything (but the cheese) was from scratch, and all the ingredients (except the cheese) were cheap. We had fresh pizza dough, fresh pineapple, fresh onion, fresh mushrooms, fresh bell pepper, fresh tomato, fresh broccoli, fresh pizza sauce, recently-fresh chicken fingers, and fresh corn (it's a Chinese thing, apparently).

Jessica and Shannon made a fruit pizza for dessert. It had fresh cookie crust, vanilla pudding, fresh apples, fresh bananas, fresh strawberries, raisins, dried kiwi, and almonds.

:-)

It's Cold Here!

2009-01-09T23:18:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting at my desk at the language center, looking out a deceptively sunny cityscape. Unlike the past week, the sun is shining brightly and warming everything in it's path. Just like the past week, however, the temperature is somewhere between the mid 30's and the mid 40's with a stiff cold wind.

When I asked my middle school students two weeks ago what time of year it gets cold in Wenzhou, every one of them said (emphatically) "It doesn't get cold in Wenzhou! It's warm all year!"

According to my research, the students are mistaken- it gets cold in Wenzhou at the beginning of January.

Our Neighborhood

2009-01-05T18:26:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks, I've taken a few panoramic pictures of our neighborhood.

To complement the view from our front door, this is the view of our front door- it's on the top floor, in the middle along the far wall.

This is looking east at night from the window in the 8th floor by our elevator.

This is what we see when we look out our dining room window during the morning. The dining room shares the same exterior wall as the kitchen, so this is also the view we have when we're washing dishes.

This is the street that runs past the west side of our apartment- our dining room window is located in the middle of the picture, underneath the horizontal red neon characters - it's the top floor on this side of the building. This picture was taken from an overhead "pedestrian circle/crosswalk" at a traffic intersection. Moving from left to right, the first few buildings are apartments, the building with the vertical neon characters is a restaurant, next is an apartment building, then the vertical green lights (I don't remember what that building is), then there is a building with stair-step dark windows on a light tile exterior- that's our apartment building. Next to that is a nondescript light-colored building (another set of apartments), then a building with a diagonal grid of lights-a kareoke bar-followed by a building with a row of round lights, which is another kareoke bar.
You can't see the street level very well in the picture, but there are three bread shops, a music store, two electric appliace stores, a few small restaurants, and many small clothing shops on this section of street. We live in a busy neighborhood.

This intersection is a short (5-7 minute) walk from our apartment. If you zoom in far enough, you might make out on the left-hand side of the opposite corner (the North-West corner) the emblem of an internationally-acclaimed American tourist rendezvous point- a solid red circle emblazoned with two golden arches. It's our neighborhood McDonald's! On the right-hand (North-East) corner is a mid-to-upscale clothing store (Kai Tai), with a drugstore in the basement. Farther to the right, out of the picture, is the South-East corner with a typical small shop/Apartment building. Behind me on the South-West corner is the International Hotel, a upper-end clothing mall, and an underground Pizza Hut.

This is the Pizza Hut. The fact that it's in a basement is surprisingly non-evident.

A bit farther east (Another 20-25 minutes by foot) is Europe City. Europe City is home to an upscale clothing mall, a mid-scale clothing mall, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Trust-Mart,* several other restaurants, and an import grocery store.

This is a picture at Europe City from outside the mid-scale shopping mall. You can see the Pizza Hut in the lower left-hand corner. The towers in the center are on the up-scale shopping mall. Directly behind me is the new Papa John's. It's delicious.

- Jonathan

* Trust-Mart is a Chinese affiliate of Wal-Mart. They carry a few of the Wal-Mart house brands, such as GreatValue and Mainstays.

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-24T10:37:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Jessup Family!

Christmas in Asia

2008-12-24T05:23:00.000-08:00

Working Video!

2008-12-12T03:57:00.001-08:00

I just discovered that the video Jeremiah took at Wenzhou Wonderland is working now! It's at the end of the Wenzhou Wonderland blog post.

The Thanksgiving Presentation

2008-12-12T03:09:00.000-08:00

After much hand wringing and hair pulling and last-minute changes, the Thanksgiving Presentation took place on Friday, the Day After Thanksgiving.

Three weeks before Thanksgiving, it was determined that the School would put on a Thanksgiving Presentation for marketing purposes, that it would consist (approximately) of a series of song-and-dance routines featuring the students, and that the English Teachers would plan, prepare for, and present it. After a few preliminary planning sessions during that first week, we decided that the Presentation would consist of a few festive songs and a Thanksgiving Play. We didn't know how many students would participate, how many people would attend, or really any of the logistical details.

In the last half of the first week, we put a play together, re-writing a thanksgiving school play we found online, and chose several songs of varying difficulties ("10 Little Indians," "Skip to my Lou," "Over the River and Through the Woods," and "Shenandoah"), and started asking our students who would be willing and able to participate in either the play or the singing.

We held our first rehearsal two weeks before the play, and got an estimate of how many students we would be able to work with. It didn't look good. The number of students that were able to participate was about 30% less than the number we needed. Fortunately, we still had a week left before casting was closed, so we took advantage of it.

During the second week before the Presentation, we honed the script, asked more students to participate, and practiced the singing with each of the classes. We scheduled two more rehearsals for the Play, to take place Saturday and Sunday afternoon before the (Friday) Presentation. Then things started to get hectic.

About this time, I became the de-facto casting manager. My assignment was to oversee and coordinate the rehearsals. assign roles to each participating student, to make sure each role was cast, and figure out a way for each actor to rehearse their role at least twice before the Presentation. This would have been simpler if we had had enough preparation time to hold a few full rehearsals, but as things were, that just wasn't possible.

We found out a week before the Presentation that teachers were also supposed to have a spot during the Presentation, that it would be a specific song (popularized during the SARS epidemic), that it would have hand motions, and that it would be in Chinese and (poorly translated) English. The reason for this, they told us, was because the Parents would expect it. This lead to a rather stressful afternoon and the we ended up singing "Shenandoah" instead of the SARS song.

Friday afternoon we found out that our plan for the rehearsals had been changed by the Marketing Department, and now was supposed to include rehearsing the songs as well as the play. Saturday afternoon, as the students were arriving for rehearsal, we found out that the students were told to only come to one of the rehearsals- if they were going to sing, on Saturday; if they were going to be in the play, on Sunday.

We ended up rehearsing everything on both days, and planning two more rehearsals for the final 5 days- one on Wednesday afternoon, one on Friday afternoon. Some of the students came on Wednesday, some of them came on Friday, and most of them showed up Friday night for the Presentation.

We had, I think, 5 partial rehearsals for the Play, with the final one being held in a hallway outside the auditorium as the students were preparing to go on-stage. The songs all worked out well, and aparently everyone was very happy with the result.

We learned a lot about what not to do the next time- which, as it turns out, is a Christmas Presentation. In two weeks.

This one'll be a bit smaller in scope- the School's not renting an auditorium for it, there won't be a full buffet, there won't be a TV crew, and the tickets will be much lower cost, and the Marketing department is responsible for planning it!

We're cautiously optimistic.

View from our New Apartment

2008-12-12T03:02:00.001-08:00

Shannon and I went out on a date this morning. On our way out, I took this picture from the walk outside our front door.

It was chilly and foggy- perfect weather for Coffee and Pastry!

Squanto

2008-12-05T00:07:00.001-08:00

In the days leading up the Thanksgiving Play, we noticed that every student participating in the play had an aversion to being cast as "Squanto." We wrote this off as being induced by role assignment, in the same way that none of the students wanted to be cast as "Pilgrim Mother," until one of the Chinese Teachers knocked over a bit of the language barrier. Apparently, "Squanto" sounds like the chinese "si kuan tou," which means "Dead Bald Person."

Language Barrier

2008-11-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

"A Polar bear is a Cartesian bear after a coordinate transform."

Some of my jokes aren't translating very well.

Busy, Stressed, Tired, Doing Well

2008-11-28T00:29:00.001-08:00

After posting the last entry, I've discovered that it's tone could be construed in a much more negative manner than I intended.

We have been very busy with work--especially with the Thanksgiving Presentation--but there aren't any insurmountable issues. This whole "Teaching English" process is new for everybody, including the school. Consequently, many of the (stressful) issues that have come up will presumably be resolved next time 'round.

The issues leading up to vacating our apartment are still being sorted out- we're moved now, and all things considered, it went very well. We're excited about the new apartment, and I'll post pictures soon.

In short, we've been coping with a few rapidly shifting scenarios. From my perspective, we've all been coping well.

- Jonathan

PS: We had a really good Thanksgiving Day yesterday. Everyone chipped in, and the food was amazing.

:-)

Quick Update - Thanksgiving Play, Bricks Without Straw, Moving Day

2008-11-26T08:57:00.001-08:00

We've been incredibly busy the past two weeks. On Friday, the School is putting on a big presentation which will be Thanksgiving themed. In the past two weeks, we've outlined and scheduled the presentation, written a script for a Thanksgiving play, taught several festive songs to our students, and even (this afternoon) begun the casting process.

Putting on a the type of presentation we've been asked to do would normally require quite a bit of juggling, and all in all, I think we've been doing pretty good. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have more than two and a half weeks between initial planning and TV presentation (it'll be filmed), but we have what we have.

During this time we've also had our full complement of teaching duties, kind of like making bricks without straw. An effective implementation of this will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Oh, and we (Shannon and I) found out yesterday that we will soon have to move out of our apartment, and learned today that we will have to be completely out by 6:00pm Friday (Note: This is when the Thanksgiving Presentation is scheduled to start). Apparently, we've been sub-leasing the apartment, and the sub-leasor failed to notify the owner (leassor) of the sub-lease. The lease expired three weeks ago, and the owner doesn't want to rent it to us anymore, so we need to move, and fast.

I think I'm going bald.

Bar Results

2008-11-23T18:15:00.001-08:00

I was able to get my Bar results, and they were depressing. I didn't pass.

14 Hours

2008-11-21T03:03:00.001-08:00

It is 7:00 PM here in Wenzhou, and I'm sitting at my desk working on next week's Thanksgiving Play.

Fourteen hours from now, I'll be sitting in our apartment, and with some 7,500-odd law school graduates, trying to log in the California Bar Association's website to see if I passed July's Bar Exam.

I think it's going to be a long night.

- Jonathan

Future Blog Posts

2008-11-07T06:07:00.000-08:00

Due to Scheduling Issues, the following blog posts have been delayed:

~~Europe City~~
Bonus Post!!!! Flowers!
Traditional Chinese Dinner
Traditional Jessup Dinner
Blue Mountain Coffee
Breakfast at BreadTalk
Jessica's Birthday

Sincerely, The Management

Europe City

2008-11-07T05:55:00.001-08:00

We found Europe City!

After an all-day excursion on foot (and in the rain) a few weeks ago, which completely failed to determine the precise location of Europe City, we set out early last week on a second excursion, armed with fresh information and a slightly improved sense of direction.

The second trip was successful- we found Europe City! It's not so much a neighborhood as it is a Shopping Center with western goods- high-end name brands, "exotic" foods like frozen pizza, butter, spaghetti, and the like, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and many other semblances of modern civilization wrapped in a circular Romanesque plaza.

It's located about a mile and a half from our apartment, so it takes us about 30-35 minutes to get there. Did I mention they sell cheese and butter? We're kind of excited about that.

Surprisingly, the potentially odd juxtaposition between Greco-Roman architecture and Asian patrons was, well, not so odd. I think we're acclimating.

Flowers!

2008-11-07T05:47:00.000-08:00

This isn't on my "Future Post" list, but I don't want to wait until I catch up with everything else to post it.

Shannon and I went out on a Breakfast Date this week (Details in "Breakfast at Breadtalk"), and bought flowers. I'm not sure if they're expensive or cheap by local standards, but we were able to get this bouquet for about $7 USD.

We're very happy with them.

Tuesday, October 14th

2008-10-14T18:10:00.001-07:00

Today was, I think, a rather typical day. I'm typing this from the Language Center- my work responsibilities here are to prepare lesson plans for the upcoming classes, and they're all prepared. Consequently, work is s-l-o-w right now. It'll speed up tomorrow, when I have more classes to teach.

Our working hours are structured so that our 37.5 working hours are spread over six days, with the idea that even though the work-week will be longer, the individual days will be shorter. I'm not sure that it's playing out precisely in that way, but that's the theory.

Shannon had a class this morning at a Guang Chang Primary school, so she had to be out the door at 8:35. We got up a bit earlier this morning, so we were able to have coffee/tea together and have devotions before she left.

My plan for the morning was to go grocery shopping and fix lunch- this is not unusual, as Shannon has more mornings working than I do. We haven't quite figured out what groceries to buy in advance yet, so we frequently end up going grocery shopping for one meal at a time. Fortunately, the grocery store is only about a two-minute walk from the entrance of our building.

Jessica came up to fix breakfast, so before I went out she and Jeremiah and I were able to have breakfast together. It's really nice that we're all very close to each other- even after we're all in our own apartments, it's easy to see each other.

The grocery store is one block immediately to the east of us- it has everything we need on an ongoing basis- with the exception of popcorn, cheese, butter, ice cream, and most spices. When we eat "chinese food," we buy eggs, cup noodles (ramen in a cup), onions, green peppers, garlic, and sometimes ginger and mushrooms. Rice is cheap enough to keep a big bag on hand, as is soy sauce and frying oil. Eggs are cheap protien- about 6 RMB for a dozen. Chicken is inexpensive, about 20 RMB for a kilogram, and beef is a bit high, at 48 RMB per kilo. Most non-prepacked grocery store things (fruits, vegetables, etc.) are priced and sold by the half-kilo, so customers bag up however much they want, then get it weighed, priced, and stickered.

I was trying to make sweetish/sourish Chicken Cashew stirfry over rice for lunch, so I needed to buy chicken, red pepper, green pepper, cashews, and lemon juice. To this would be added onion, garlic, ginger, and sugar, which we already had. For the sake of posterity, the chicken was 5.1, the cashews were 10.3, one lemon was 4.2, a jar a pickeled red pepper was 4.2, and the green pepper was approx. 1. Onions, garlic and ginger are all very cheap- probably about 1 for the onion, and .1 for the garlic, and .0-something for the ginger. The topping probably cost about 22 RMB altogether, with maybe 3 RMB for the rice. It served the four of us one serving each, so it would be a good sized meal for three.

Shannon got back fromschool at noon, and the four of us had lunch together at 12:45.

Jeremiah, Jessica and I started work at 2:00 this afternoon (our normal work time). Shannon's schedule is a bit more fragmented than ours, so she didn't have to be at the language center until 3:00. She didn't miss much today- there was a meeting for the Chinese TA's that Jessica attended, and a meeting for the Foreign Teachers that the rest of us attended.

(Back at home now, Wednesday morning)

Work was slow. I had two 40-minute classes at the Primary School last night, at 6:20 and 7:20, and the lesson consists of assigning English names to each of the students and giving them a Cambridge curriculum book. It takes a lot longer then you'd think, so with 18-23 students per class, we really have to be moving quickly to get to everybody in the time we have.

I took dinner break 15 minutes early, from 4:45 to 5:45, then left for the school at 5:50. The school is about one kilometer from the office, so we usually use a taxi/tricycle to get there, and walk back.

Class went as planned. The students are from 1st grade, class 3. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the standard class size in China public schools is 45- the classes tonight were for one class, split in two segments for manageability. The split was VERY necessary. The students are young, are apparently used to getting their own way, have a short attention span, and don't understand enough English to stay focused on any particular bit of English instruction. Consequently, they make a lot of noise and don't sit still.

My TA and I got back to the language center at 8:20, and I was on my way home at 8:25.

We had a short evening at home, and went to bed sometime in the vicinity of 10:00.

Chinese Lesson #1

2008-10-09T23:39:00.001-07:00

This afternoon we will have our first Chinese Language lesson!

We are at the language center, going over our lesson plans for tonight and tomorrow. Since I don't have any classes tonight or tomorrow, I can send in a quick blog post!

Well-Worded pork summary

2008-10-04T00:13:00.001-07:00

A well-worded summary of the pork-barrel provisions of H.R. 1424 can be found here, on the OpenCongress blog.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

2008-10-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1424, a.k.a. the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008," a.k.a. "The Bailout Bill."

According to Wikipedia, H.R. 1424 was introduced in March 2008 as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, prohibiting insurance companies (and private employers) from discriminating against healthy individuals solely on the basis of a genetic predisposition to future ailments. It was selected on September 30 to be the vehicle by which the Senate could introduce it's own version of the failed House Measure intended to accomplish the same objective. [1]

The provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, as summarized by Wikipedia, are as follows:

A temporary increase in FDIC deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000 until December 2009
Tax breaks for businesses
Tax credits for the use of alternative energy
Tax credits for research and development
Expansion of the child tax credit
Protection from the Alternative Minimum Tax
Tax reductions for victims of severe weather (e.g. tornadoes, floods, hurricanes)
Extension of unemployment insurance
A USD $1,000 tax credit for low income homeowners
Tax breaks and credit extensions for the following:
- "Certain wooden arrows designed for use by children" (Sec 503)
- Wool research (Sec. 325)
- Film and television productions (Sec. 502)
- Litigants in the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill (Sec. 504)
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine rescue teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine safety equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic production activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto racing tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)

Wooden Arrows? Rum Imports? Mine Safety Equipement? Film and television productions? Litigants from an oil spill 19 years ago? Wool Research? What do these have to do with a "Economic De-stabilization" brought about by bad lending practices?

Oh- here it is, from the New York Times "live blog" of the bill's passage:

9:43 a.m. | Earmark criticisms: Representative Steve LaTourette, a Republican from Ohio, chastises lawmakers for "larding up" the bill with earmarks, specifically mocking the wooden arrows subsidy in the bill.

11:20 a.m. | Democratic convert: Representative Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from New Jersey, also says he's changing his vote from a nay to a yea. "I know that the enemy of the good is the perfect," he says. He says the bill has improved since Monday, and that while there is "some junk in this bill," there's junk in almost every bill.

11:50 a.m. | Auto industry: Representative John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, asks Barney Frank whether the bill will help the automotive industry in his state. Mr. Frank responds with an enthusiastic yes.

11:53 a.m. | And farmers?: Now other representatives are asking Mr. Frank about the impact of the bailout package on their own constituents' industries. Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado, wants to know how the bill will affect farmers.

12:07 p.m. | Twenty traitors: Representative Steven LaTourette, a Republican from Ohio, berated "20 Republicans" for their votes on a recent procedural rule that he says prevented the House from removing pork from the bailout bill. (He also noted that a $192 million subsidy for rum had thankfully ensured politicians "the pirate vote" for November.)

12:27 p.m. | Save Mom: Representative Dan Lungren, a Republican from California, says Congress should pass the bailout bill to save his 91-year-old mother's finances. "She has no pension; she has what my dad left her," he says, and essentially he wants to protect her investments from market volatility.

1:03 p.m. | Praising gravy: While other representatives who have spoken so far have criticized the bits of unrelated legislation added onto this bailout bill, Representative Pelosi is praising some relatively unrelated legislation she's proud of — language affecting energy policy and health insurance for the mentally ill, for example.

Pork. This bill owes its passage not to a specific national crisis, but to the personal pork-barral projects of our Congressmen-- projects which, it appears, wouldn't pass without being attached to a high-profile issue relatively certain to fly through the process.

It's worth noting that H.R. 1424 contained more than one act- in addition to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, it also contained the Energy Improvement and Extension Act with renewable energy tax breaks and conbon dioxide sequestration credits, credits for new qualified plug-in electric vehicles, transportation fringe benefits for bicycle commuters; the Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act with (among other things) a provision for accellerated depreciation for business property located on Indian Reservations; the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, requiring that insurance payments for mental health and drug addictions treatments not be more restrictive than payments for other health issues; the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Program; the Heartland Disaster Tax Relief Act to provide "temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 midwestern severe storms, tornados, and flooding"; and finally, tax relief for "Losses attributable to Federally-declared disasters."

Without going in to the legitimacy of the other "Acts of 2008" contained in H.R. 1424, why are they all lumped together? Why wasn't the House able (or willing) to separate them out into separate bills? Why isn't anyone being called on the carpet about the COMPLETE lack of germane-ness of the titles in this bill?

Apparently, sometimes pigs CAN fly.

Is this sort of grouping and lumping of topics into one pass/fail bill unusual and nobody's commenting on it, or am I just seeing it with an unaccustomed perspective?

[1] The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was passed as H.R. 493 in April 2008, but H.R. 1424 lived on, as a House Resolution passed to the Senate, I think. The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders chose the (slightly defunct) formal body of H.R. 1424 to propose its own version of the Bailout Bill after the House failed to pass its version on September 29. Article 1, Section 7, of the U.S. Constitution states that "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills." Because the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is a revenue-raising measure, the Senate is not able to introduce a bill in order to effectuate it directly. However, they are by the letter-of-the-law able to propose an amendment to an existing bill to carry out the same thing. Some States' legislatures have a requirement that any amendment to a bill be germane to the title of the bill-- The U.S. House has such a rule, but the U.S. Senate does not. Consequently, the resurrection of the defunct Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (H.R. 1424) as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was techinically valid.

Trust-Mart

2008-09-29T00:34:00.001-07:00

Last night, Lounes took us to Trust-Mart.

We arrived in Wenzhou a few days prior to Mid-Autumn Festival. In honor of the Festival, the Language Center gave each of its employees a bonus- ours was 100-Yuan gift cards to Trust-Mart.

Trust-Mart is, apparently, the name Wal-Mart uses in China. They sell several unfamiliar brands of housewares and groceries alongside the "Great Value" and "LifeStyle" brands. Like many large stores in China, the main store was a few stories high, with floors one and two for housewares, and the third floor for groceries.

Shannon and I took the perspective that the gift cards were like a bonus, and that consequently, we could in good conscience spend them entirely on junk food. Which we did.

:-)

We got Snickers bars, M&M's, Butter-flavored non-sweetened popcorn, Pringles, Coffee, 100% Juice, Dove Chocolate, Wafer Cookies, and a few other things. We're pretty happy about it.

It turnes out that Trust-Mart is within walking distance, just a little over a kilometer away from here. It's good to know where we can buy American junk food- for emergencies.

Wenzhou Wonderland

2008-09-28T22:56:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Mr. Jiang took all the Language Center staff to "Wenzhou Wonderland" for the day.

Saturday marked the first day of the National Day festivities, for which we have an entire week off. To kick things off, the Language Center all went to Wenzhou Wonderland, a popular amusement/theme park in the South Wenzhou region. The general style of the park was clearly inspired by Disney World, and the rides/attractions bore a strong resemblance to rides found at the County Fair.

We left Wenzhou City at 10:00, got to the amusement park at about 11, did a few rides, had lunch at an on-site eatery offering Chicked Sandwhiches and Fries (much like Chick-Fillet. Oddly enough, though, in China everything served on a bun is called "Hamburger"). After lunch, we continued through the park.

There was everything from a Tilt-a-Whirl, Bumber Cars, and inversion rides to Bungee Jumping, a Haunted House, and a shooting gallery. Mr. Jiang rode on almost every ride, while a significant portion of the rest of us took a slightly more cautious approach. You might notice there are a few pictures of Shannon and Jeremiah hanging upside-down while spinning in circles- I'm on the other side of the camera.

I'm not sure whose legs are whose, but one pair belongs to Jeremiah.
Here's Shannon, spinning upside-down while the whole thing rotates:
And a zoomed-out look:

Sherry's Fiance took the camera for me so Shannon and I could ride the roller coaster together:

We're in the first car, the second row (behind Jeremiah):

The Carousel:
The Kiddie-Coaster:
The Tilt-A-Whirl (a.k.a. "The UFO"):

I think Jeremiah, Jessica, and Shannon are seated at the lower-most portion of the circle.

The Water Ride! Shannon and Jeremiah coming down the flume:

The weather was very nice- although it was overcast, it was pleasantly cool, not hot or humid.

There was a parade with Clowns on Stilts. Clowns are scary.

There was a tall swirly slide which I neglected to take pictures of. It was probably 25 feet tall. This is me, coming out of the short (15 feet?) swirly side:

The sign coming in to this area was very clear: The Sand is for safety, not for throwing.

It's not a very good picture, but this is Sherry and her Fiance. They're getting married in February in their home-town, about an hour and a half west of Wenzhou. Sherry is the executive assistant at the Language Center, responsible for the Chinese Teaching Assistants and Schedules. She's VERY busy.

The last ride. We're getting ready to go forwards and backwards in a circle, all the way around. It was neat.

Jeremiah took his camera. This picture is correctly oriented for North American audiences.

Jeremiah was able to take a video! I need a pocket-sized camera.

All in all, it was a good day. It was nice to spend some time with the Language Center staff outside of the normal work environment.

Afterwards, Wally took us to the Wenzhou Electronics Mall, where we were able to get D-Link wireless router for about $35 USD. We're pumped.

Wireless Internet

2008-09-27T03:18:00.001-07:00

We have a wireless router! We can now all connect to the internet FROM OUR OWN LAPTOPS!

Shared Internet

2008-09-23T08:20:00.001-07:00

Our apartment comes with a high-speed internet connection. One high-speed internet connection.

We've all been sharing, at first by passing the cable back and forth, and then by enabling "internet sharing" on Jeremiah's Macbook, but lately we've been back to the cable thing. For reasons unknown, Jeremiah's laptop is no longer ebale to consistently share the wired network connection via the integrated Wi-Fi adapter. This doesn't impact Jeremiah much, but the rest of us are just a bit stranded- frequently.

We're going shopping tomorrow for a wireless router.

Oh- classes are going well. I found out tonight that my teaching assistants both quit. The fact that they were assigned to work with me is, as far as I can tell, coincidental.

We all went out to one of the schools this morning to watch a class. Shannon taught, with Lounes assisting. It was good to see what an English lesson in the public school was supposed to look like. I took some pictures, and will post them when I can get my laptop connected to the internet.

- Jonathan

I have a tentative schedule!

2008-09-19T06:41:00.001-07:00

But it's not in front of me right now.

This afternoon, we got our schedules from the Language Center. They're not very well laid out, and it took quite a while to transcribe them into a format that each of us could understand. The result, though, is a relatively good idea of when we'll be working, where we'll be working at, and what sort of lessons we need to prepare for.

I haven't looked at any of the other schedules yet, but I'm teaching three or four classes at the Language Center, four or five classes at one local school, and a few classes at a second local school. I don't start until Sunday, so tomorrow I'm going to observe a few classes.

- Jonathan

Week in Review

2008-09-18T22:47:00.001-07:00

The intensive training period is over, I think, and we're starting on what will be our regular schedule.

The lack of updates for the past few days was caused in part by the sudden onset of a head cold, which has had me in bed for most of the time we're not actually at the school. I think I'm almost over it, as the headache and congestion are giving way to runny nose and a general lack of strength. I've been getting a lot of rest and eating lots of fruit (and chicken soup!)- I should be back to normal soon.

The training was very good- we had some instruction on presentation techniques and classroom management, and did practice presentations. Our training was facilitated by Lounes and Hakan, who also gave voluminous feedback on our practice presentations. We were joined on the first day of training (Tuesday, I think) by Tara, and yesterday by Laura. There are eight English teachers with the Language Center that I'm aware of, and we've now met them all. I intend to post pictures soon, so you'll be able to connect faces to names.

Yesterday when our schedules were worked out, I was assigned to assist Hakan in teaching older students. I'm not sure what all this will entail, but Hakan says it's very straightforward. In addition to assiting Hakan, I'll be teaching a few classes at one of the public schools in here in Wenzhou, and (I think) one regular class at the Language Center.

I think we're starting to adjust to life in China- Jenny returned to Shanghai yesterday morning, so we're as much on our own as we will be for the duration of our stay here. The staff at the Language Center is doing very well in making sure we have everything we need, and there's even a full-time employee as our English-speaking contact person.

And ... it's time to go to work.

- Jonathan

First day of training!

2008-09-15T17:06:00.001-07:00

Today we're starting at the Language Center. We're going to have three full days of training, then (I think) two weeks of working with one of the established teachers before teaching classes by ourselves.

We're also planning on signing our employment contracts today- everything has looked very good so far, but we haven't yet seen our weekly schedule (What day, what time, where) beyond a specified number of hours at the Language Center and a specified number of hours teaching.

The Language Center has been very accommodating- they've even scheduled a mandarin class for us every Friday, to take place during our working hours. I've also heard talk of a calligraphy class...

I'll update tonight after we get back.

Sunset in Wenzhou

2008-09-15T16:59:00.001-07:00

Last night the rain cleared up, and we were treated to the foregoing view out our bedroom window.

Mid-Autumn Festival, Jiangxin Island

2008-09-14T09:28:00.001-07:00

2008-09-14 Sunday

Today is the Mid Autumn Festival! It is a time of much rejoicing all over China. With the moon reaching its fullest size tonight, people return home to celebrate and spend time with their family and enjoy traditional foods--especially Moon Cake. This is one of the biggest festivals of the year, so most businesses will be closed tomorrow.

We woke up a bit late this morning, and while we planning out our day, we received a call from Mr. Jiang, the director of the Language Center. In honor of Mid Autumn Festival, he wanted to take us out for the afternoon, starting at 11:00 for lunch. The hospitality shown us by Mr. Jiang has really been quite unexpected- Mid Autumn Festival is traditionally a day to spend with family, and he chose to take the opportunity to invest in us. He and his son, Jerry (I think he's about 5 years old), and a friend, Mr. Guo, took us out to the Beefsteak Restaurant for lunch, then took us to Jiangxin Island for the afternoon.

Jiangxin island sits in the river separating the north edge of Wenzhou city from the south edge of Yongjia city. In the middle of the river is an medium sized island, on which sit two ancient towers--one a lighthouse--dating back to 860 and 960 A.D. The island also contains an amusement park with a roller coaster and a ferris wheel, but we focused instead on the old portion. I coudn't find wikipedia page about the island, but was able to locate a short write-up here.

The weather today was rainy- there's a typhoon heading slowly towards us, and it should hit Wenzhou sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. We're expecting heavy rains, maybe strong winds, but it shouldn't affect us too much. Jenny says we should be prepared for temporary power outages- probably the same sort of preparation we would have in Oklahoma during tornado season. We're not expecting to be a really big deal, but it would be good if everything went smoothly. Thanks!

Some pictures:

This is the view out the window of the Restaurant. It's on the second floor of a building situated near the Language Center, the center of Wenzhou, and the downtown shopping district. The black car is a Mazeratti (There really is a lot of money flowing around Wenzhou).

Jessica and Jerry at the restaurant:

Our group at Jiangxin Island. The man in the white shirt standing behind Jessica is Mr. Guo, who works with Mr. Jiang. He accompanied us for the afternoon. In the background is Wenzhou city:

The south-east coast of the Island. Mr. Jiang said that the entire east end of the island (verdant lawn and palm trees included) was artificially built up a few hundred years ago:

The Island is a bit unusual in that it has an interior lake with streams- this end of it, behind the photographer, is connected to the river via a sluice gate:

It's me!

Shannon and Me:
The East Tower. This is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world, and has been selected as significant enough to warrant preservation. It was built around 860 A.D.

The east end of the island contained a lot of colonial architecture. The walks, gardens, buildings, and lampposts looked like they could have come right out of the carribean.

This seems to be a popular flower in China. In addition to spotting it all over the east end of the island, it is prevalent between the divided highway on the road from Shanghai to Wenzhou.

It's a really good color for Shannon!

One of the walkways circling the island:
The was a bonsai garden in the middle of the island, but it was closed. This was taken through a side gate:

The west tower. This was built in 960 A.D.

Mr. Guo:
Jeremiah!
There were signs like this everywhere. Each one was different, but they all had a bit of humor. I'm not sure, but I suspect they are intentionally humorous.
Jessica, Mr. Jiang, and Mr. Guo at a well:
A loghthouse in the channel between Jiangxin Island and Wenzhou:

Tomorrow will probably a very quiet day, with most businesses closed, typhoon rains arriving, and not too much else.

- Jonathan

Quick Update

2008-09-14T08:14:00.001-07:00

We found a third apartment in our building! We're not going to all be off by ourselves! Update to follow...

- Jonathan

The Joy of Soap

2008-09-13T07:51:00.001-07:00

We got up late this morning- I woke up at 9:00, Shannon woke up at 10:00, and we got started on the day at 11:00.

We were all up late last night cleaning, and didn't get to bed until about 2:00 in the morning- but the bathroom ended up basically clean! It's really nice to be sharing the apartment with three people who like things clean. I'm not sure if Jeremiah or I would have gotten around to deep cleaning for several months.

This morning we did more cleaning, the girls did the bathroom again, Jeremiah cleaned the TV, stand, and accessories, I washed walls, and we all worked on the living room. We took a break at 1:00 for pizza[1]- it was really good! It wasn't quite the same as American pizza, but it was remarkably close, and very good. We'll probably do it again sometime.

We had a cleaning lady come this afternoon for several hours and work on cleaning the kitchen. It's completely cleaned by any stretch of the imagination, but it looks so much better, we can visualize actually preparing food in it on a regular basis. It really is that much better.

After the cleaning lady left, Jessica went to observe an English lesson taught by Lounes[2], one of the teacher/administrators of the language center. They got back to the apartment at about 5:30, at which time Lounes invited us to go out to the Chinese market with him. Aparently, he goes there several times a week to buy fresh food, and really likes seeing "real" China. It was quite an experience. We're going to go back in a few days (after our refrigerator is up and running) to do some grocery shopping. The market runs along a "river" (one of the wide algae covered canals seen frequently in Chinese photographs) and through a few alleyways, and consists primarily of food stalls- fruits, vegetables, fish, seafood, chickens, pork, breads, a few barber shops, and a few tiny restaurants. Almost everything was fresh, especially the seafood. It was a bit unsettling to see a lady picking raw shrimp out of a bowl, then seeing that the shrimp were still crawling. We're going to go back.

Lounes bought chicken, fish, and potatoes for about 15 yuan, then invited us all up to his apartment for dinner an hour later. It was delicious! The chicken was cooked, the fish was splayed and baked, and the potatoes were sliced and cooked with ginger and garlic. We stayed and visited for a while, and talked about his background with the language school. It is encouraging to hear from him what the school is trying to accomplish in Wenzhou- there are several English schools, but only two of them are properly registered, and only one of them is investing in its teachers and giving them ongoing training.

From talking with Lounes tonight and Mr. Jiang on Thursday, it seems that the David Cambridge English Language Center is striving to create a language center which is good for its students (teaching them English, not teaching them how to pass an exam), good for its teachers (investing in their ongoing training, providing integrity throughout their business relationship), and good for its investors (a well-run business that provides a quality service and takes care of its employees is well situated to be financially successful). It sounds like it will be a good company to be associated with. We're going to meet the staff and begin our on-site training on Tuesday, as most of the teachers have Mondays off.

While Jessica was out watching the English lesson, Jenny and Shannon went for a massage. Shannon told me all about it when they got back, and it sounds amazing! Jeremiah and I are going to go next month when we have more local cash.

- Jonathan

[1] Pizza Hut. It cost 150 Yuan--$23 USD--to get one 12 inch double cheese and one 9 inch peperoni delivered to our apartment. Apparently, pizza is one of the very few American foods that is popular in Asia. We saw several Papa John's in Shanghai.

[2] Lounes is one of the investors in the language center. He is from Algeria, with Spanish and French parents. He speaks five languages, including Mandarin, has a few years experience teaching English, and has been working with the Language Center since its inception last year. He is very hospitable- when he found out we had gotten to our apartment two nights ago, he came right down to meet us and welcome us to Wenzhou.

Trip to Wenzhou

2008-09-12T08:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we traveled to Wenzhou from Shanghai. The trip went very well, and we are now in our apartment.

We got up relatively early, had a traditional Chinese breakfast, took a soft sleeper bus to Wenzhou, checked out our apartment, went out for dinner, checked out the other apartment, and are now outlining our plan for tomorrow.

We ate breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet, with the traditional Chinese breakfast trappings. The buffet started with watermelon, went on to porridge toppings (mix-ins?), steamed dumplings (baoxi), hard boiled eggs, rice porridge, fried eggs, and soy sauce. The porridge mix-in options included tofu noodles, brown sugar, some sort of spam, seaweed, picked cabbage, and a few other things. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures.

I did take quite a few pictures on our bus trip. We left Shanghai at 10:10am on a sleeper bus. There were about 36 berths, outfitted with a slightly inclined "head" end, a pillow, and a blanket. The trip was very comfortable. The Chinese countryside was rather uniform, with rice paddies, road traffic, white houses with green and orange roofs, and construction. After about an hour, we went over the longest bridge in the world of a certain type- I think it was 26 miles long, and connects Shanghai with the northeastern quadrant of the Zhejiang province.

There are taxis everywhere in Shanghai!

Some pictures from inside the bus:

This is Jenny- she's staying with us in Wenzhou for a few days until we get settled in.

A typical non-sleeper bus:
The Countryside:

We stopped for lunch after about two hours, and had a rice something. It was a small ball of cooked/steamed rice, with a few pieces of meat stuffed in the middle. I'm not sure, but I think the meat was some sort of pig organ. The rice tasted unusual, not unpleasant. On the other hand, the meat was just a bit too unusual.

The second portion of the trip went by very quickly- I slept. It was good. By the time I woke up, we were in the mountainous regions north of Wenzhou. The road was relatively flat, so we ended up going through many tunnels- some of them quite long (1km+).

More Countryside:

There is a surprising amount of construction. It seems like everywhere we turn, there's a new building going up, or extensive remodeling, or road expansion, or train tracks, or something. Lots and lots of construction.

One interesting thing I noticed on the drive to Wenzhou was the subject matter of billboards- they have a very industrial bent, advertising everything from plastic injection moulding machines to fireproof cables. Apparently, the demographic that travels to Wenzhou is comprised of entrepreneurs in search of manufacturing.

In spite of all that, I'm not sure what exactly this sign advertised:
There is also a surprising number of churches in the Wenzhou area. I'll probably touch on this a bit more in the future, but Wenzhou is unique in all of China in that the population here has a high concentration of Christians - about 30%. It is also an area high in businesses, and the Christian businessmen tithe 10%. Consequently, the Christian population has a mucher degree of influence here than it does anywhere else in China.

We got into Wenzhou at about 4:30pm. We met Mr. Jiang at the bus station, and he took us all to the first apartment. There are only two apartments rented at this point, with the third apartment due to be available in about ten days. In the meantime, Shannon and I will have guests!

The first apartment is relatively large. I think it's almost twice the size of our apartment in Oklahoma, with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a large livingroom/dining room/entryway area. I think it will work out fine. The kitchen is fully equipped, with a refridgerator, a microwave, a stovetop, a toaster over, a sink, pots and pans, etc. The bedrooms all have beds--two queen size, one twin size--with bedding. It is located about two blocks from the language center in a relatively upscale quarter of downtown.

A few pictures of the apartment:

The second apartment is located in a different building, about 8 blocks past the language center. It is located in the old quarter of downtown, where the buildings are a bit more dated. The condition of the neighborhood appears to be a bit rougher, definitely noisier, and quite a bit more interesting than that of the first neighborhood. The building is also not as secure, with a small entryway, a lazy looking watchman, and switches on the hall lights. The interior of the second apartment, though, is much nicer. I think it was cleaned more thoroughly by the previous occupant, and the furniture quality is much higher- it's both more elegant and better kept-up. Everything is smaller, but it has much more character.

The third apartment is located in the same building as the first apartment- it's just not available yet. It's supposed to open up in ten days.

After we dropped our things off at the first apartment, Mr. Jiang took us out for dinner a fancy chinese buffet. It was very nice, located in an incredible-looking hotel, and had a well stocked buffet. Most of the meats were seafood, with everything from escargot to shark fin soup. There was also a fair amount of fruit, Chinese dates, plums, grapes, melon, and dragonfruit. I was gratified to learn during the course of the meal that the Chinese name for "Dragonfruit" is almost exactly what I had called it when I asked for it at the Asian Market in Oklahoma City. Dinner was very good. Shannon and I ended up seated with Mr. Hsu and Mr. Jiang, and we chatted about the BCOC conference, Mr. Jiang's background with CTI China, and a few other small-talk topics. It was very pleasant.

Mr. Jiang at the restaurant:

After dinner, we checked out the second apartment and then all returned to Apartment #1. For the next week or two, all four of us will probably stay in Apartment #1, and Jenny Hsu will stay with us. There are just enough beds to go around. So far, it is going very well- it's been really very nice to have other people around as we get settled. The space constraints haven't yet been much of a factor. We'll see how things go over the weekend.

:-)

- Jonathan

Shanghai Shopping and The Bund

2008-09-10T07:59:00.001-07:00

Today we finished our brief introduction to living in China. We learned a bit about Chinese history, culture, some conversational do's and don'ts, and a bit about the difference between house churches and registered churches. We also had an opportunity to review a draft of our employment contract- so far, everything looks very good.

After lunch, we went in to the shopping district of Shanghai, over by the river between Puxing and Pudong (East of the river/West of the river). We were looking for cell phones and a digital camera, so Jenny took us to an electronics mall. It was a large four-story indoor mall, with each floor dedicated to a particular type of electronic device. The 1st floor contained primarily laptops and cameras, the 2nd and 3rd floors were computer components, media players, and GPS units, and the 4th floor was predominantly cell phones.

In China, the cell phone carriers rarely sell cell phone handsets, so there is very little incentive for cell manufacturers to lock the handsets to one particular cellular provider. Consequently, most handsets are sold by themselves, unlocked, and work with any of the Chinese carriers. We ended up getting 4 basic, minimum featured motorola handsets for 250 RMB[1] each (This was a really good price.)(It was a really REALLY good price). We'll add cell phone service after we get to Wenzhou.

[1] There are approx. 6.8 RMB per US Dollar.

While we were out, we got dinner at a nice sit-down restaurant for about 40 RMB each, then went out and saw the Bund. The Bund is a section of Shanghai along the river that was built in the late colonial era of Shanghai, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I've attached some pictures below.

We got back to our hotel rooms at about 10:15 this evening, and need to be down in the hotel lobby by 7:45 tomorrow. It's going to be a shorter night tonight than it was last night, but we'll be able to sleep on the bus.

Our hotel:

The Electronics Mall:

Silk cocoons in a tailor shop:

The Bund, looking south:

The Bund, looking north:

The Customs House on the Bund:

The four of us at the Bund- from left to right, Jessica, Jonathan, Jeremiah, and Shannon:

Across the river from the Bund is the commercial district of Shanghai:

There were a lot of people out tonight!

- Jonathan

We're in China!

2008-09-09T06:39:00.001-07:00

2008-09-09, Tuesday

At 12:10pm, our flight arrived at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. The process for getting into the country was smooth and very straightforward- much less hassle than this morning, when we went through the security screening at O'Hare. Basically, they looked at our passports, stamped them, and waved us on through. Our luggage was scanned by some sort of machine on our way out, which took all of 3 minutes in line and 30 seconds on a conveyor belt.

We were met at the airport by Jenny Hsu and Jenny Yeong, both members of the CTI China team. They took us (via taxi) to our hotel in Puxing (Western Shanghai), where we checked in and had a few (ten) minutes before leaving for the CTI China office. The hotel we're at is only a few blocks from the office, so we walked there[1]. A quick note about the hotel- it is a Chinese hotel and seems quite noce, but since I've not stayed at any Chinese hotels prior to today, I don't have much of a local standard to compare it too. The room is small, the bed is hard, and we need to lock the luggage if we leave it in the room while we're out, but it has internet access, so it kind of balances out. I guess by this metric, we should be quite content to camp out for a week on the floor behind the counter of a Starbuck's Coffee at the Phoenix International Airport. Anyway, it's really nice to be able to communicate, regardless of the confort level of the accomodations.

The office is located in the top floor of a three story building owned by a hotel[2]. The hotel uses the lower two floors for its laundry facility, and make a bit extra on the side from CTI China's rental of an otherwise vacant property. It works out well for both parties, since the hotel wasn't using that floor anyway, and since it is located in a rather nice part of town.

After a brief tour of the offices and a quick snack, the director here (Peter Hsu) gave a brief introduction of the office personnel and the mision and vision of CTI China. Following that was our first Chinese meal in China, at a local eating establishment by the name of OK PIE. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a sentence, a sentance, or an acronym, but the food was delicious and the atmosphere was pleasent.

Following dinner, we were taken to a shopping center, whose name eludes me at the moment. It was a capacious 4-story mall with an interior courtyard, containing restaurants of the like of Papa Johns, KFC, Dairy Queen, and several Chinese shops who shall for the time being, out of necessity, remain nameless[3]. The mall was very impressive. We're looking forward to tomorrow's shopping trip in downtown Shanghai.

Our day tomorrow is scheduled to begin at 9:10, when we meet Jenny H. downstairs in the hotel lobby. We're going to go over some logistics stuff relating to our time in China with CTI China, and go shopping in the afternoon. We're going to get cell phones! I don't know about international calling yet, but we will at least be able to keep in touch with each other. On a parallel track, we found out today that the apartments that have been reserved for us in Wenzhou have internet all ready to go. We're kind of excited by that.

All in all, things are getting off to a really great start.

[1] I think the itinerary prepared for our first day in China was intentionally packed in order to prevent us from sleeping before evening- apparently, if we're dog tired (American idiom), we'll get over jet-lag in a matter of a few days at most. This idea seems technically sound, but the implementation, so far, leaves a bit to be desired.

[2] the hotel is the one utilized by China's President and Premier when they are in Shanghai. It bears a lofty name, which escapes me at the moment.

[3] I woke up for the day 28.5 hours ago. I'm mostly, but not quite entirely, all here.

Written during the Flight

2008-09-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

The following entry was drafted on my Palm Pilot during the flight west today:

It is 9:35 Oklahoma time, and we're now almost past Japan. We have been in the air for a little over 13 hours, after a 8:30 departure from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Our ground speed has been a bit over 510 miles per hour--a hair better than a mile every seven seconds--which is good because the route from Chicago to Shanghai is about 7,400 miles long. A bit of arithmetic (and the overhead screen) shows that our flight should be about 14 hours and 45 minutes in duration.

The flight has gone quite well- dinner was served about an hour ago, and consisted of a roll, salad, an "oatmeal chew" dessert, and an entre choice of either beef brisket with mashed potatoes or chicken curry with white rice. They both tasted great.

- Jonathan

Pre-Departure Update

2008-09-02T20:02:00.001-07:00

I'm planning on documenting in this blog the experiences of my wife and I as we teach conversational English in China. While we're not in China yet, several people have asked me what's going on- when are we leaving, what are we doing with our car while we're gone, do we have an apartment, what will the weather be like, how much luggage will we take, etc., etc. Consequently, this pre-departure update.

On Sunday, September 7, we are flying to China to teach English for twelve months at the David Cambridge English Language Center in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. We will fly in to Shanghai and travel (by train? bus?) a few hundred kilometers south to Wenzhou. Wenzhou is located on the east coast of China, and I understand that on a clear day, Taiwan is visible at it's approximately-60-mile distance.

At the English Language Center, we will be teaching conversational english to chinese children between the ages of three and twelve, five and a half days a week. Our work schedule will be daily from 2:30 in the afternoon to 9:30 in the evening for five days during the week, and Sunday afternoon.

We will be living in a "fairly new" apartment building about a quarter mile from the school, well within walking distance. In the event of rain, I'm told that taxis are very inexpensive (umbrella and rickshaw, perhaps?). The apartment is furnished (by whatever standards are appropriate), has a cooktop, microwave oven, washing machine, air conditioning, and water purifier. I think there are a few other accoutrements, but I don't recall off the top of my head what they are.

Close to the apartment building (a quarter mile?) is a shopping center which has "everything you'd need." We'll find out soon what exactly that is. In the meantime, we need to finish packing.

:-)

T minus 7

2008-08-31T07:31:00.001-07:00

The paperwork to go with our visa applications has been finalized on the Chinese end. We leave in 7 days.

T minus 12

2008-08-27T13:45:00.001-07:00

Our new target departure date is September 7. The breathing room is kind of nice.

T minus 13

2008-08-13T06:27:00.001-07:00

Less than two weeks remaining before we leave. Wow!

Today we need to find luggage, go grocery shopping, make pens, schedule a few dinners, find a hotel for my parent's visit this weekend, maybe go out for pizza with my classmates, potentially hear a talk on the past year of Supreme Court cases, clean the apartment, find a glucagon emergency kit, make a list of things to pack, and ... maybe eat breakfast.

Status Report

2008-08-12T07:05:00.001-07:00

Oh yeah, I took the California Bar Exam two weeks ago. The process went very well. The results will be out in three and a half months, on November 21st.

DefCon's Network

2008-08-11T18:40:00.001-07:00

The most actively hostile network in the world is set up each year at DefCon in Las Vegas. The level of hostility is summarized in this post on Slashdot very well.

T minus 15

2008-08-11T09:02:00.001-07:00

We're moving to China in 15 days.

In the mean time, we need to pack clothes, fill a year's worth of prescriptions, find out how to buy insulin and pump supplies in China, put our cars in storage, get traveler's insurance, pack up our apartment, graduate from Law School, finish filling an order for pens, get TESL training, take one final session of marriage counseling, plan a graduation/going away party, spend time with my parents, meet with a seamstress about reconstructing our wedding dress (it got ruined by the dry cleaner), register to vote absentee, figure out what to do with our mail while we're gone, and a bunch of other miscellany.

The days are just packed.

A UK perspective on American Energy Conservation

2008-06-28T10:06:00.001-07:00

From Slashdot.

Speculative Schemers, a.k.a. Patent Trolls

2008-02-12T18:24:00.001-08:00

"The design of the patent laws is to regard those who make some substantial discovery or invention, which adds to our knowledge and make a step in advance in the useful arts. Such inventors are worthy of all favor. It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rather to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the courtry, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities to lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith."

Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States
Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. 192 at 200, 1883

Sunrise in Oklahoma City

2008-01-09T07:45:00.001-08:00

This morning I tried out a few new photography techniques - specifically, adjusting the Color Saturation, A/V sensitivity (?), White Balance, and ... timing.

Quantum Computing

2007-12-15T14:32:00.001-08:00

ZDNET Australia reported yesterday that

"Researchers from the University of Queensland have taken a significant step in the quest to build a quantum computer, creating a light-based quantum circuit capable of basic calculations and moving quantum computing closer to a becoming a reality."

(link to original article)

This big stuff. A "quantum computer" can factor numbers linearly. What does this mean? Consider the following Slashdot post, written by "swilver":

"What a lot of people fail to realise is that encryption can be made unbreakable even by brute force by simply choosing a large enough encryption key. What people also fail to realise is that 256 bit encryption doesn't take twice as long to crack as 128 bit encryption. It in fact takes 2^128 times as long to crack.

Let's for a second assume that 128 bit encryption is crackable by your own personal home computer in a period of 1 hour.

136 bit encryption would take 2^8 times as long (250 times as long)... so we use 250 computers, and crack it in 1 hour still.

144 bit encryption takes again 250 times as long, so instead we use 250 superpowerful server computers and crack it in 1 hour.

156 bit encryption takes another 250 times longer, so we use a top-secret government super computer the size of the Pentagon and still crack it in 1 hour.

164 bit encryption takes.. you guess it, 250 times longer to crack. All the governments in the world pool their top-secret super computers and crack your content in.. 1 hour.

172 bit encryption takes 250 times longer to crack. We use all the computers on the entire planet and manage to crack it in 1 hour.

180 bit encryption takes 250 times longer to crack. We use all those computers, but let them run 250 hours (10 days) instead.

188 bit encryption takes 250 times longer to crack. We let those computers run 6 years to crack your password.

192 bit encryption takes 250 times longer to crack... never mind, we're not THAT interested in your personal photo album.

( Link to original post)

Very well said. The linear addition of bits to a cipher causes an exponential increase in processing time - if your processing power is running on a traditional bit of computer hardware. If you're using a quantum- based computer, however, a linear increase in bits only results in a linear increase in processing time.

So if it takes you 1 hour to crack a 128 bit cipher with your quantum home PC, a doubling of the nuimber of bits would only double the time it takes to crack.

Big stuff, indeed.

Crunch Time!!!

2007-11-16T14:42:00.001-08:00

I've noticed a rather alarming trend in my scholastic life. Crunch time (invariable related to writing assignments) leads to great epiphanies in visionary concepts. Unfortunately for me, the concepts are far afield from what I'm supposed to be studying.

This week crunch time has hit in a big way. My Senior Paper is many month behind schedule, and is going to be due very soon. Consequently, I'm experiencing amazing visions of how currently available technology has the potential to generate a massive paradigm shift.

In past semesters, I've grasped the concepts of automated (computer assisted) legal research, global news reporting that's customizable for your particular bias, and something vaguely internet related. This time around, though, it's a bit more disruptive:

Software Defined Radio

I've been reading bits and peices about SDR for a few years, but never really undrstood it - the radio spectrum is completely analog, and methods of tuning (that I could understand) require an analog adjustment to a resonance cycle. I didn't understand how you could replace the analog method for tuning to a particular frequency until I came across the GNU Radio Project - http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio.

A "conventional" radio tuner works by taking the electrical current induced in an antenna and selectively filtering out that particular frequency, and amplifying it. The amplified signal is then fed into a signal processor. For AM/FM radio, this converts the analog signal to sound, for TV it converts the analog signal to a CRT scanning signal, for HDTV it processes the digital signal as an MPEG stream.

An SDR does the same thing. Intead of selectively filtering out right frequency via an analog amplifier, it converts the entire spectrum to a digital stream with a (relatively) basic Analog-to-Digital converter, then separates out the desired analog frequency from the digital stream.

There's a couple of pretty heady implications with this. First of all, because the entire spectrum has already been digitized, multiple analog signals can be separated simultaneously with the same set of hardware (Just like TiVo!). Secondly (this is where it gets really cool), since the digital stream covers the entire spectrum, you could theoretically use one radio reciever to access any radio signal. With one device, you could recieve and transmit AM, FM, Shortwave, Ham, TV, HDTV, Satellite TV/Radio, Walkie Talkies, Cell phone, cordless phone, Emergency Services, Police/Fire bands, GPS, and wifi. And garage door openers, car remotes, and that wireless thermometer thingamabob.

With one unit, you could recieve and transmit on multiple channels. Simultaneously. In any portion of the spectrum. This is NCC 1701-D deflector dish type stuff, in real life.

I'm picturing a universal communications transceiver card that I could put in my laptop to get access 802.11a/b/g wireless networks, watch TV, place and recieve phone calls, and get GPS info. When a new wireless standard comes out (WiMAX?), I can already access it without needing any new hardware - all I need to do is get the frequency/format data (publically available) and plug it into the SDR, and I'm connected. Without even missing a commercial break.

Oh, did I mention that the whole shebang, start to finish, from the software source code to the hardware schematics to the PCB layouts, are available for free under an open-source license?

Aaaaaand.... back to the crunch.

Dickens on Patents

2007-10-10T20:31:00.001-07:00

In 1850, Charles Dickens wrote "A Poor Man's Tale of a Patent," outlining the expense and difficulty of the English patent system. A choice quote:

'John, if the laws of this country were as honest as they ought to be, you would have come to London — registered an exact description and drawing of your invention — paid half-a-crown or so for doing of it — and therein and thereby have got your Patent.'

The full text can be read on the Patent Law Blog.

I'm Engaged!

2007-09-08T12:54:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, August 29, I asked Shannon Hodges if she would marry me.

SHE SAID YES!!!

We didn't take pictures of the actual engagement, but we did get several from the surrounding events. I've pulled out the best of the crop:

(Jeremiah's camera is amazing!)

Rappelling off the Training Center

2007-08-31T17:38:00.001-07:00

Thursday evening we had the opportunity to go rappelling off the top of a 10-story building in downtown Oklahoma City. Pictures can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jhjessup/JumpingOffTheTrainingCenter

It was fun.

- Jonathan

Trial Ad '07

2007-08-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

I'm just finishing up a 16 week Trial Advocacy course - it's been occasionally intensive preparation and review, culminating in a mock trial.

This afternoon I was the Defense Attorney for Officer Edward Waldman of the Chicago Police Department. It went quickly.

Westminster Bus

2007-07-24T11:51:00.001-07:00

I ran across this picture today -

It was on a linux developer's blog. ( Full Post)

I pretty certain it's been color-altered, but it just looks amazing.

The Weaker Brother

2007-06-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

To what extent should one go to avoid causing a weaker brother to stumble?

Is this merely rhetorical, or is it a valid question?

(Oh - I'm planning on researching this as I have time. Check back in two years)

Complete Online Integration

2007-05-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

I'm at a friend's house, and I'm trying to make the most use of my time by working on a school paper via Google Docs. I don't often use Google Docs for document authoring, but it's convenient and accessible.

I'm discovering new features like "email as attachment", "Publish to web", and "Publish to Blog". Oh, and I noticed a few months ago that I have the option in gmail of opening attached documents in Google Docs.

I could do (almost) all my document management via google. It's a bit of a paradigm shift. For example:

Prof. emails me an assignment as a word document, I open it in google docs. I now have a copy of the document in google docs, and never again need to open the attachment from the email. I view the assignment in one tab of the browser, work on the text of the assignment in google docs open in a second tab. Changes are saved automatically, and I can roll backwards and forwards version-wise if I make any mistakes. After the assignment is completed, I email it to the professor as an email attachment (doc, rtf, odf, or pdf), and I'm done. All online.

I don't have to keep a local copy of the instruction document, I don't have to use a local word processor to create write the assignment, I don't have to keep a local (versioned!) backup of the document. All I need is an internet connection and a web browser. And Google Docs.

I'm kinda pumped about this. The primary "missing piece" for me is headers and footers. And maybe footnotes.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

My Next Phone

2007-05-15T07:39:00.001-07:00

OpenMoko Neo1973 (or better)

It only needs integrated 802.11(something), which is planned for the next model.

Three Options

2007-04-13T18:06:00.001-07:00

Education

Family

Pick any two. Postpone the other one.

Life Report

2007-04-09T20:37:00.001-07:00

Still Present.

Aside from that, I've been putting forth a great deal of effort into keeping/catching up with law school, attempting to maintain a full-time work schedule, and trying to find a job that pays 50% more than what I'm currently earning.

I've been pretty busy.

For the past six weeks as I've been job searching, I've noticed that companies like to categorize candidates - this person has these specific skills, this specific prior job title, is looking for this salary range, etc.

What's really been standing out, though, is that virtually every job listing I've seen has a stated degree requirement. This has been standing out particularly harshly because I don't have one.

For many years (20?) I've been hearing that a degree is completely unnecesary, that it never gets used, it's a waste of time, money, etc., that colleges are evil places, and any income requirement that we ever have will be met.

I don't doubt that God will meet our needs, and that God doesn't require a degree, but still...

...I keep seeing that getting a degree seems to be a good investment. A really good investment. That I wish I had made 8 years ago.

Next stop, CLEP tests!

Parapalegic Cockroach

2007-03-10T23:55:00.001-08:00

Once a scientist conducted an experiment on cockroaches. First he caught a cockroach and put on a table. Then he cut off one of its legs and commanded it to walk. The poor cockroach tried to escape, but didn't get very far.

The scientist continued his experiment. He cut one more leg off the cockroach and again commanded it to walk. The cockroach again tried to escape, but couldn't get away.The scientist continued his experiment, cutting one leg at a time off the cockroach, commanding the cockroach to walk after each amputation.

The cockroach was able to propel itself forward after each amputation, right up until it became legless. After the last leg was amputated, the scientist again commanded the roach to walk. This time, it didn't move.

The scientist's conclusion?

WHEN COCKROACHES LOSE THEIR LEGS THEY BECOME DEAF!!!!

Trip Time!

2007-02-13T15:28:00.001-08:00

I'm leaving for New Jersey tomorrow!

Details to follow.

It's Friday!!!

2007-02-09T14:59:00.001-08:00

And it sure feels like it.

(Wooo!!!! 17 minutes left!)

It's really not a negative feeling, just kind of... unproductively goofy. It feels like a Friday.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

2007-01-24T15:18:00.001-08:00

What an awesome one-word sentence.

I took my Wills and Trusts exam this afternoon! It's done!

Two down, one to go.

I should celebrate or something.

Business Organizations is Finished!

2007-01-22T18:09:00.001-08:00

For the time being, anyway.

I took the final exam for Business Organizations this afternoon. It was supposed to be a three hour test, so I was a bit surprised when the computer came up with a 2 hour time limit - it turned out the exam file I got from the college was slightly erroneous. But we got that straigtened out.

I'm sitting in Panera Bread right now, enjoying a (short) evening out.

It's nice.

I Like Money

2006-11-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

I just finished thumbing through a stack of 30 sequentially numbered $100 bills.

It was fun.

Status Upgrade

2006-10-30T13:09:00.000-08:00

I'm Courting!

Details to follow...

Oh, yeah- detail #1:

It's Shannon Hodges.

She's amazing and phenominal and funny and intelligent and beautiful and bold and personable and well-grounded and lovely and incredible and gorgeous. She is sincere and truthful and gentle and loyal and joyful and attentive and sensitive and enthusiastic and very very supportive.

She is an extraordinarily woman.

Edit:
Here we are in Colorado!

I'm an Investor!

2006-10-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (2006-10-05) I bought stock in ASVI, a company that manufactures treads for treaded vehicles. I paid $15.00 per share, and expect it to go up to $40-$50 range.

Update:
I sold all my shares of ASVI this afternoon (2006-10-30) at $15.51 per share. Gross increase was 3.4%

Coffee Dan

2006-09-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

We're having a conference here this week!

I have been charged with the honor/distinction of managing the audio equipment for the conference, which includes two translator stations and appropriate broadcasters and recievers for a group of spanish speaking attendees and a group of Romanian attendees. This has involved a lot of running around, obtaining and configuring all manner of cables and adaptors. And radios for the recievers.

I was up until 5:45 yesterday morning (Tuesday) getting things ready, got six hours of sleep (yeah, I know- that's plenty. Yeah, right.), then continued running around all afternoon getting everything ready to go for the opening session at 7:00 pm last night (Wednesday).

I was pretty zonked all afternoon.

Until I went to Coffee Dan's.

About two years ago, a friend of mine told me about the most wonderful coffee store right down the street from us. At the time (yea verily, until this evening) I was not a coffee drinker, so I never bothered to check it out. This afternoon, zonked that I was, I went to see what I could find at the coffee place.

Coffee Dan's is a side business of West End Roastery, a manufacturer of coffee roasting equipment which is reputed to be some of the best in the world. They sell a variety of coffee beans (whole or fresh-ground) from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Hawaii, and probably several other places I didn't notice. They also sell coffee beverages- coffee, esspresso, cappucino, latte, etc. I ordered a latte with macadamia nut syrup and was astounded. It was amazing. It was just incredible.

I also bought a pound of fresh roasted (1 or 3 days) fresh ground (on the spot!) Costa Rican coffee. I tried it out this evening (Wednesday), and I think I'm now a coffee drinker.

Quinton would be proud.

Politics in action

2006-09-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Wow.

What more can I say?

Online Spreadsheet

2006-09-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

If you get a chance, you really should check out EditGrid, an online spreadsheet 'application.'

It's really slick.

Oh yeah- school's going ok. Everything is really busy, but it's all going well.

Quick Update

2006-08-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

The last several weeks have been very busy for me. They've gone by really fast.

To recap: I had final exams in the third week of July, so most of that
month was taken up by studying and reviewing for Evidence and Criminal
Procedure. I don't think I did too well on either test, but I'm pretty
certain that I did well enough that I won't have to do them again.

After finals, I went home for a week. It was a quick week.

The next week (first week of August) I started the second semester of
third year, and was involved in a wedding.

The week after that was trying to get ahead a few days in studies for...

Last week.

Last week I took an Appellate Advocacy course. It was intense.
Basically, our assignment was to prepare oral arguments for a Supreme
Court appeal concerning the Newdow Pledge of Allegiance case.

This week I'm catching up on the 'normal' study schedule.

2006-08-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

mjessup
said...

Dear brother, you have now gone more than 4 weeks without a post...

Hint, hint

---

I discovered this past month that I get more comments per post by
posting less frequently.

Life is Good

2006-07-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Life is good.

Hectic, scrambled, nervous and packed, but good.

No, wait- that should read:

God is good.

Orderly, staightforwardly, confidently and timely. Very good.

Fwd: Remote Posting!

2006-06-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

The following was sent to my blogspot account. It was returned to me because blogger doesn't accept .jpeg pictures. We'll see if this comes through...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jhjessup@characterfirst.com <jhjessup@characterfirst.com>
Date: Jun 30, 2006 5:14 PM
Subject: Remote Posting!
To: jhjessup@gmail.com

PSA

2006-06-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

My older brother is engaged! AND it's been officially announced!

All you who pass by here with a xanga account should leave a congratulatory message on his blog.

(oh yeah- you should leave a comment on my future sister's blog, too.)

Thanks! They'll appreciate it.

A Quandary

2006-06-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

What do you do when two people you know are so in love that they agree to marry each other, and then they don't say anything about it on either of their blogs?!?!?

Linux on a Mac

2006-06-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

My tech project of the week: Installing some sort of POSIX compliant operating system on a Beige G3 Power Macintosh.

Normally, I'd try linux right off the bat, and go from there, but this particular Mac boots from OpenFirmware 2.0.f1, which is really finniky about what it will and will not boot from. Of course, I learned this the hard way.

I tried booting from the current Debian-PPC installation cd (sarge), but that didn't work. Then I tried the boot floppies. Those didn't work. Then I tried some other flavor boot floppies; they didn't work either.

Then I tried NetBSD. They had reams of documentation about getting your OldWorld mac booted up and running NetBSD. Their documentation on OpenFirmware was such that every other linux distro I saw that 'supported' that model referenced it. And they had boot floppies. That booted.

The NetBSD installation boot floppies would boot, just like they were supposed to; they would read the initial ram disk, just like they were supposed to; and then they would completely freeze, just like they WEREN'T supposed to. Fortunately, the NetBSD install guide had a troubleshooting section which included symptoms, causes, and cures. The symptom of freezing right after hardware detection was documented, but the cause(s) listed were "multiple and varied". There was no cure.

So, back to Linux.

After much reading and digesting, it appeared that the easiest way to boot linux on a mac was to use BootX, the Mac equivalent of loadlin, to boot the linux kernel from a running instance of MacOS. Once we got that figured out, it was very easy to load a kernel and start the install process (debian sarge).

I found an installation guide here (http://mfdh.ca/apple/debian_on_oldworld_mac.html) that was very helpful.

The installation went very smoothly- I used the default partitioning scheme, which was to use the entire disk. It created a small partition at the beginning of the drive, type Apple Something, then the / folder, then a 211ish meg partition at the end for swap. It downloaded the base system, install the Quik bootloader, and prompted for a reboot.

The instructions I was following said that before rebooting, I needed to manually edit the quik.conf file and point it at the correct kernel location. Since the instructions were from 2002 (four years ago!), I figured that that step was probably outdated, and that the new debian-installer would configure everything correctly.

I was wrong, apparently. I followed the installer's directions and rebooted, but it wouldn't boot. All it did was sit there at the grey screen with the little disk icon in the middle that would flash "?" repeatedly. I understand that's symptomatic of an inability of OpenFirmware to locate a bootable device.

So now I've got an installed debian system with no way to boot it. The debian boot floppies didn't work, virtually all the installation guides said the only to boot linux on those machines was to use BootX, and BootX requires some sort of MacOS to be installed on the system. Note that I had reformatted the hard drive during the installation, and MacOS jus' didn' exist there anymore.

So, the search for boot floppies commenced.

Today I was able to locate a repository of install floppies from a debian developer that are supposed to work on OldWorld macs. I think they use some sort of modified miBoot to effectuate the boot process, but at any rate, some of them work.

I've been able to boot the system with this disk, and load a debian-current ramdisk from a floppy, but so far I haven't been able to find a module floppy (net-drivers, cd-drivers) that is compatible. The ones from the debian-current set don't work (different kernel, I suspect) I'm still searching.

I'm going to try these disks next.

Edit:

I just found another repository. I'm going to give these a shot.
It's referenced in this thread.

Edit:

It's working! It's Working! It's Really Working!

To outline the basic install process:
Disk 1: Boot floppy. This is used to load the linux kernel and a very small set of modules. Typically, this will boot, then ask for a ramdisk.
Disk 2: Initrd.gz Initial Ramdisk. This could be either a basic shell, or the next stage of an installer. For Debian, it's a very basic install setup.
Disks 3/4: Drivers. Debian uses 2 disks for this, one for network drivers and one for cdrom drivers.

The installer takes over after that, and installs the system either directly from the internet or from a cd-rom.

I was able to use this file for disk 1, this file for disk 2, and this file for the network drivers. You'll notice that Disk2 is from a different set- this was necessitated by the root disk from the 2006-04-04 set being too large for a floppy.

The installation should be finished sometime later this evening- I'll update when I know how it goes.

Edit:
I'm having trouble with Quik- the ppc bootloader. I can't seem to get in installed and configured properly.

Edit:
2006-06-15 I'm giving it another shot with Debian Etch. After the initial setup, I can run the installer over an ssh connection!

Hm. It didn't work. The system install, it had an error when it attempted to install quik, I installed quik manually, it said everything was good, but when I rebooted it, it wouldn't load. So, back to square 2.

Edit
Well, after much consternation, the project is on hold. I found additional instructions on this page concerning OpenFirmware configuration, but it requires you (me) to create floppy disks from disk images that are exclusively MacOS compatible. Meaning I need to have a running MacOS system with a floppy drive!

I've got access to several MacOS X systems, but none of them have floppy drives. So, the project is on hold pending the availability of a USB floppy drive.

Current Status:
I've successfully installed Debian Etch (as of 2006-06-15) on the machine. Quik reports that it is correctly installed. OpenFirmware reports that it cannot open the boot device (ata-int/disk@:,).

Updates will be appended to this blog entry as they occur.

- jhj

Saturday Afternoon

2006-06-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon here, bright and sunny, about 95 degrees, slight breeze-

And here I sit, manning the Front Desk. There's a wedding tomorrow, and a pre-wedding picnic this afternoon. My schedule didn't leave time for the picnic, and I was on site, so... I'm here at the Front Desk, outlining Criminal Procedure.

Blogging Habits

2006-05-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am a sporadic blogger.

Just thought you should all know that.

;-)

GovRel Closing Ceremony

2006-05-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Government Relations 2006 ends today with the adjournement 'Sine Die' of the Second Session of the Fiftieth Legislature of the Oklahoma Legislature.

Last night we celebrated the conclusion of the session with a close down ceremony conducted by ... me. There's a lot more that goes into a closedown ceremony than I originally thought.

Something Fresh and New

2006-05-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

"Louie, this could be the beginning of a beautiful freindship..."

Saturday night (OK, it was Sunday morning at 1:15ish) I was in bed. All the little Saturday projects were finished, my school assignments were done, my desk was (more or less) clear, and I was ready to go to sleep.

Then it hit me- an organizational outline that would allow me to have an overview of exactly what I needed to do (school-wise), organized by topic, on a bi-weekly basis. I have a hard time grasping when things need to be done (Many of my professors can probably confim this), and for a few weeks I've been thinking about how I can rectify this.

I've looked at online organization/project workflow/collaboration sites (basecamp, backpack, et al) and a common theme that's stood out has been the Project Overview pages.

The Project Overview is essentially a timeline/project/todo list, with everything arranged in one central location. There could be links to project pages, specific deadlines, etc., but the key factor was that it was all condensed into an easily graspable overview page.

Saturday night, it clicked.

I could create a "project overview" page for my school assignments! Each topic could be a department, with a column for the assignments related to it. Each assignment would be a "primary entry" in the topical column, with explanatory/related assignments in a tree structure below it. It would all fit on a landscaped 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, which would be clipped to a 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardboard. It would be sturdy and rigid (physically, anyway) and would 'float' above the scattered papers. And it would work.

In theory, at least. We'll see how it goes.

Assignments and Deadlines

2006-05-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Saturday), was a big day. There were people (classmates) in town that I hadn't seen in more than a year and a half, there was an OBCL graduation that a friend was in (She graduated Magna Cum Laude), and I had an assignment due by midnight.

Everything fit together. The graduation went well, I went out to dinner with the friends, and turned in the assignment at 23:59.

All in all, it worked out very well.

OBCL Graduation

2006-05-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Graduation.

The OBCL graduation ceremony for the 01A and B classes just finished. It was moderately inspiring - in two years, my family will be here with me attending my graduation.

In the meantime, there's banquet dishes to wash.

Desk Organization

2006-05-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just had an idea- Since my desk has been cleared off (See entry re: Laptop Operation) I've been enjoying increased workspace. If I find a new location to set my laptop (which works now! Hooray!), I can reclaim even more space.

I currently have a (largely unused) monitor on my desk that's back and out of the way. If I add an external keyboard and mouse to the laptop, I can set the laptop on edge between the monitor and the wall, and enjoy the increased flexibility of a lightweight and portable set of input devices.

Details to follow.

Google Adsense

2006-05-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

This morning I took the plunge and joined the world of marketing. I have a Google AdSense account linked to my blog.

So, if you happen to see an interesting add off to one side of the page, do us both a favor and check it out.

It's Fixed!

2006-04-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this post on my freshly-restored Thinkpad T23 laptop. On Tuesday, the backlight on my laptop ceased its merry operation.

It was not unexpected- for several months the screen had been progressively drifting farther and farther into the red end of the spectrum, and lately had been given to flickering wildly at random intervals.

Saturday, though, was the last straw. The flickering had gotten so bad that I had to connect it to an external display device (A beautiful 17" LCD monitor- magnificent!) because of the flickering.

Late Saturday night, I researched the problem and found that the symptoms my laptop had been showing were consistent with either a burned out power inverter for the backlight, or a burned out Cold Cathode Flourescent Lamp (the backlight). Between the two options, the power inverter would be the cheapest and easiest to replace, so early Monday morning I went to ebay and bought a replacement power inverter.

I didn't get around to installing the new inverter until last night, when I started the journey to the center of the machine. I learned quickly that when a laptop is the machine, the center is protected by an inordinate number of layered components, and the journey is very circuitous.

To get to the power inverter, you first need to detatch the front bezel of the screen;
To detatch the front bezel of the screen, you must remove the screen from the laptop;
To detatch the screen from the laptop, you must remove the fan from the processor;
To remove the fan from the processor, you must separate the keyboard bezel from the laptop;
To separate the keyboard bezel from the laptop, you must remove the keyboard;
To remove the keyboard, well, you get the idea.

Thus, to replace the power inverter residing on the interior of the screen, you must take off virtually every removeable component of the laptop.

The trip was made possible through the excellent documentation IBM makes available on their website, the Hardware Maintenance Manual series. There's one for just about all the hardware IBM/Lenovo manufactures. It would have been very difficult, if at all possible, to replace the appropriate component without the Manual.

All that to say, at about 4:05 this afternoon I successfully replaced the power inverter. And then found out that the power inverter wasn't problem. The CCFL (backlight) was burned out, and I wouldn't be able to get a replacement bulb probably until the end of next week.

And then it hit me:
I have a non-functioning thinkpad somewhere in my room. The thinkpad has a screen. The screens are the same size. The bulbs are the same length. They're interchangable.

So I took the second laptop apart and removed the bulb. It took about an hour or so, I think. Mabe an hour and a half.

The "new" bulb matched the dead bulb almost exactly. The length was the same, the connector was identical. The only real difference was the connector wires- the "new" bulb's were about an inch and a half longer than the dead bulb's. Fortunately, there was enough extra space in the screen bezel that everything fit.

So, after spending another hour or so reversing the disassembly process, it's fixed!

Total dollar cost: $8.99
Remaining parts: 1 Power inverter, slighly used; most of an i1400 laptop, sans backlight.

The experience: Priceless.

2006-04-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Shocking
Desperate
Heartsick
Stupid
Boys
Feverishly
Longingly
Desire
Enormous
Girlfriends

Increased Traffic

2006-04-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

This morning I posted a link to my blogspot page from my xanga "blog."

This could introduce a whole new demographic to the wonder of non-social blogging. I wonder.

And the extra link should give my blogspot a higher pagerank. This could be interesting. I'll to look into it.

Tornado wrapup

2006-04-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a run/walk - parking garages are a lot taller than they look.

The cloudy region of the weather has passed - it's generally clear now, with the remaining storm clouds to the south east, accompanied by sporadic lightning.

From the statewide weather radar, it looks like most of the severe weather has moved to the north east, and is now over Tulsa. The tornado warnings are all gone now, replaced by a few scattered severe weather patches.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Tornado, still

2006-04-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

The tornado that's on the ground in Yukon is reputedly winding down, and from the radio reports, it sounds like the front is starting to break up.

The tornado warning has been extended to 2:00 this morning.

The only tornadic activity in the state is located towards the south - looks like about halfway between the City and Texas border.

There's reports of large hailstones in various places (Yukon? Skiatook?), but there's nothing like that here yet.

It's raining now, and the power just blipped. I'm glad I'm running on batteries. :-)

Tornado update, continued

2006-04-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it looks like the tornado warning was lifted, but the tornado watch is still on.

And Stephen's family just arrived!

And the TV just left. Back to the web for news...

Immediate Warning Lifted

2006-04-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

The building's tornado watch was just lifted, so people are returning to their various locations. Out hall is clearing out, slowly.

I really need to find a streaming weather video/audio site.
Or get a radio.