I Wander

the world as I see it…

Manager

Jun 30

Posted by kosh in usual

Having a great mentor/manager is definitely a bonus when you start working. Micrsoft Legal cleared me to start working earlier today based on my work permits, etc. My manager’s reponse to that made me feel important :)

—

“Woo hoo!  Looking forward to getting you back in the team!

How you been?  I haven’t chatted to you in a while.  We should grab another beer or a game of pool again soon.  How’s the schedule looking?”

—-

I guess thats what makes him a good manager, one that keeps his army of coders happy. I’m not complaining. I like the attention. Don’t be jealous.


Tags: , ,

1 Comment

Wars

Jun 19

Posted by kosh in usual

Religion+War

No Comments

Reply-All

Jun 16

Posted by kosh in usual

We have all done it when we didn’t really mean to. Here’s a great summary (stolen from my manager) of what happens when you accidentally reply-all in a large corporation (read Microsoft) -

- an announcement mail sent to a large alias
- someone reply all to ask a question, not knowing it is a large alias
- many people reply all with answers… Read More
- some people make a few jokes
- smartasses reply all to tell people not to reply all
- more smartasses reply all and agree with the smartasses
- some people reply-all to say stop it
- some people start replying all with DRM enabled, others reply all by BCC’ing the alias.
- more people reply all complaining they can’t read the DRM message or the BCC broke their precious rules.
- other people reply all to ask how to remove themselves from the alias
- people reply-all to tell people to use AutoGroup
- more people ask why they are on some random alias that they didn’t know they are on
- more people reply all to tell people not to reply all
- universe explodes

Tags: , , , ,

2 Comments

Speech

Jun 8

Posted by kosh in usual

My commencement ceremony is right around the corner. All that stands between me and a degree in Computer Engineering is a final exam in Database Systems. The UW has invited the Secretarty of Defense, Robert Gates, to be the guest speaker for the ceremony on Saturday. I just hope that he is as funny as the guy below.

Tags: , ,

1 Comment

Mint

Jun 3

Posted by kosh in usual

I manage all my money transactions and budget through Mint.com and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for money management tools on the web. I have a very interesting(at least to me) graph for my spending over 15 months.

mint

Tags: , , ,

1 Comment

Homestretch

May 27

Posted by kosh in usual

Its that time of the quarter again. I’ve been here 11 times before and yet it feels very different this time around. For those that have no idea what I am talking about, I’m graduating and its the last 2 weeks of my quarter. While everyone(non-graduating seniors, etc) else is freaking out about the work there is to do, I feel strange…even relaxed.

I still remember the day I took my SAT, the day I got my visa, the day I set foot in Seattle (greeted by an immigration cop with a tactical M4 and sunglasses). I remember the first day at the international orientation, my first class, my first four-point-oh, my first job on campus, the day I got into my major, the first day I stayed all night in the labs(and where I lived, 2 years after that) and many many other things that I want to remember.

Sadly, its time to turn the page.

Tags: , ,

No Comments

Zune HD

May 26

Posted by kosh in usual

Microsoft just announced their plans to release a Zune HD device later this fall and the hardware looks absolutely stunning.

zunehdzune-hd_hi-rez

black-zune-hd

The Specs:

  • HD Radio receiver
    • Find stations in your area at www.hdradio.com
    • Regular FM still works as well
  • OLED multi-touch screen
    • 3.3 inch screen, 16:9, 480×272 resolution
  • HD video out capabilities
    • Up to 720p using a HDMI A/V dock
  • Optimized internet browser for the device and touch
    • Tap to zoom technology,
    • Built-in accelerometer
    • Touch screen QWERTY keyboard
    • Significant browser customization based on IE
  • Wi-Fi enabled
    • Wireless streaming
    • Browse Zune Marketplace
    • Thanks to the web browser you can now connect to airport Wi-Fi and other sites that require a web page to login

The waiting game starts now….

Tags: , , ,

No Comments

Mt. Si

May 25

Posted by kosh in usual

Mt. Si was the second hike for me, this season. I clocked the best times that I have ever done for this mountain.

Uptime 1:45 hrs (non-stop hike to the top, 45mins to the creek)

Downtime  1:02hrs (this included some crazy downhill trail running)

I did make it up to the Haystack summit and it was quite a scramble. The scramble is definitely not for the weak of heart and quite dangerous. I think I might take up rock climbing pretty soon :)

haystack

Tags: , , , , ,

No Comments

Snow lakes

May 25

Posted by kosh in usual

This weekend kicked off my summer hiking adventures. The very first hike of the season was to Snow lakes in the Cascades, east of Seattle. You can get there by taking exit 52 on I-90 (from Seattle) and making a left at the stop sign onto Alpental road. You need to drive up to the parking lot where the trail starts. We had a pretty big group (13 people), mostly newbies to hiking. We were greeted by about 4-5 feet of snow from the very beginning and it showed no signs of letting up. You need to be careful this time of the year since a lot of the snow up top is melting, creating hundreds of streams under the snow which gives up pretty easily.

Most of us were wearing sneakers and didn’t really expect too much snow until we got to the summit. We crossed a couple of waterfalls on the way to the summit and this definitely needs some guts, given the current conditions. We never quite made it to the lake or the summit and turned around some 3 hours after we left, after one person on our team rolled his ankle. Here is what most of our hike looked like -

snow lakes

I would definitely not recommend this hike at this time of the year unless you have the right gear to tackle the snow and start out early. We started hiking at 1:15 in the afternoon and that was atleast a couple of hours later than we should have.

Tags: , ,

No Comments

I’m back!

May 21

Posted by kosh in usual

I switched to GoDaddy from HostMonster over the past week and I’m never going back! Standby while I bring the site back up to speed…

No Comments