On Google

Why is it that Google bothers me so?

It used to be that any time I came up with a potential reason, I'd realize it wasn't valid a minute later. Is it because they own an entire segment of the applications market? Can't be; I don't mind VMware owning the virtualization segment (but maybe that's just because I work for them). Is it because their success is completely unmitigated, and they seemingly can do no wrong? Can't be; Apple seems to be like that nowadays (product-wise anyway, options backdating scandal aside) and I don't mind that (of course some will claim that that's because I'm a fanboy — think what you want, I don't even care anymore). Is it because they're so successful through doing no evil? Don't think so. Is it because they've gotten so massively successful and rich off of nothing but advertising? Maybe, but that's not quite it. Is it just because of how insanely pervasive they are in my use of the Internet? Not really.

You know what I now think the real reason is? The free food.

To elaborate: Google bothers me because I know that if I had applied for an internship and gotten one, I would have chosen it over any other, just because of the free lunch and dinner. Never mind that I am not even remotely interested in working on anything Google's working on; I would have turned down what I have now (an internship in my particular area of expertise, working on a product that will be sold in boxes, in stores) just because Google feeds its employees for free.

And that in turn bothers me because I know that that means I would have succumbed in exactly the way Google intended. That's exactly why they feed their employees for free. They would have gotten me. They wouldn't even have put me in a dilemma. I would have relegated myself to a summer working on a project that I cared not a whit about, all for free meals and the right to put "Google" on my résumé.

Irrational and stupid this reason may be, but it's the truth.

Maybe the reason is better stated like this: Google bothers me because they could have me for such an idiotic reason. They would have made me cheapen myself to a disgusting degree.

The final blow is that I would know it all along, and be powerless to change it, all because of free food.

On Caltrain

I rode Caltrain today. As an exacting connoisseur of train systems, I feel the need to hold forth on how terrible it is.

First of all, I fail to understand how it can be that trains run so late on a network that is completely linear. There are not separate lines on Caltrain. The track just runs from one end to the other, without branching. Yet trains regularly run so late that they arrive at stations at the times when the trains after them are supposed to arrive.

I can understand that delays develop in transit. There are crowds waiting to get on and off trains, and they end up sitting around at stations for too long. Then what Caltrain should do in response to this is change the fucking schedule. If they find they can't keep to the schedule they set, adjust the schedule to match reality, not the other way around. It's more important to have a schedule that people can actually trust to be truthful than to have service exactly every half-hour. Besides, it's completely absurd that a train should be 20 minutes late by the time it's five stops away from its point of origin.

The California Avenue station is a complete travesty. That's where I got off. I was on a northbound train, and when I got off I found myself standing on the ground between the northbound and southbound tracks. People were scrambling over the southbound tracks to get to and from the train. I lifted my bike up and started to cross. I looked to the right and got a slightly unpleasant shock as there was a southbound train approaching, uncomfortably close. There was absolutely no warning that a train was approaching on the same tracks that a bunch of people were standing on. That's just insane. You can't have people crossing live, unguarded rails, in a station, to get to their train. And what if both trains enter the station at the same time? You can't get between the northbound train and the platform?

(Side note: it's acceptable, as in the Sunnyvale station, to have to cross the tracks on foot to get to the opposite platform. At Sunnyvale, there are barriers that lower across the pedestrian crossing, and a warning bell, when trains are passing. So you have to cross rails that are live, but guarded. Besides, there are bona fide platforms on both sides, so there's never a specific, narrow window of time when you must cross live rails.)

It also seems absurd to me to use such giant rolling stock for urban commuter rail. Caltrains are some seriously heavy metal. For a commuter rail system, you want lighter trains that can accelerate and decelerate quickly (this may be one of the root causes of Caltrain's shitty punctuality). Electric trains would be just the ticket. It also seems really silly to have such massive, lumbering trains serving such small, unassuming stations that are more appropriately called "stops" than "stations" (and in some cases, cough cough, don't have real platforms). They're like bus stops except with longer platforms. One feels like one is somewhere one shouldn't be when one is standing next to an enormous, roaring beast of a train, on a very small platform, with the train's wheels coming up to one's waist. However, one is supposed to be getting on the train.

The good part of my Caltrain experience was the actual ride. I was in a train using the newer Bombardier cars, and those were pretty nice. Quiet, smooth, clean, etc.

Seriously...I can't imagine regularly commuting on Caltrain. It's just too unreliable. And this being the country that it is, even in California, I don't think it'll get significantly better.

HGLBAHBUGBHL

Dude I just ordered tickets to see Dream Theater in Berkeley. The concert's like 4 days before Rush. I think my head might explode. My ears won't even have a chance to recover.

Oh bejebus

StarCraft II. Tagline: "Hell, it's about time".

I must confess to a bit of disappointment. I expected to be shitting my pants in excitement when they announced it. What is it really, though? StarCraft with a new graphics engine and some new units. Not even a new race.

Admittedly, SC is a hard act to follow. And of course I'm judging on the basis of the preview site and some screenshots. The cinematic trailer is incredible, BTW. If they put cinematics like that in the game, I will be a happy camper. The graphics do look quite flashy.

The storyline had better be good. To me, that's one of the things that makes the original SC immortal, even though almost nobody plays SC for the story anymore. I'll definitely play SC2 for the story.

It is indeed about time.

Scrubs Finale

Oh Scrubs, you are such an asshat, you have no idea.

Oh the drama. Oh the cliffhangers. Oh the disasters.

I'm not even going to talk about the first part. It's not interesting.

The second part is one of the most amazing specimens of directing in Scrubs that I can remember. I had to search a while to find out who directed it, incidentally, since there's no title sequence at the beginning of the second part. For a few minutes, I was afraid that for some reason they were axing the normal title sequence, and that it might be a different one next season. I would have to shit on someone if that were the case.

Usually, good directing isn't something that I notice; that's the whole point. I only notice it if it's bad. But in this episode, it was so spectacular that I explicitly noticed it. The writing was also brilliant. The most important scene in the episode, the talk between JD and Elliot, couldn't possibly have been done better in any respect. It completely makes up for the lack of greatness elsewhere in this season — that one shining moment of untethered brilliance, coming at the most important moment in the whole season. The dynamic between JD and Elliot is so complex and difficult to grasp, but that scene captured everything. It was like a sudden throwback to very old Scrubs. Elliot was back in scrubs, and the two were hiding from the world in the on-call room, back to being very close friends.

They've also picked out what probably really is their fatal flaw: fear of commitment. I can't figure out if that strongly favors or disfavors them ending up together in the end (the ultimate end of Scrubs, which will be the end of season 7).

The rest of this episode is stellar also. The Janitor and his Brain Trust are hilarious, except they really need to get rid of Lloyd the delivery man. He is a writer, not an actor. I was quite disappointed that JD didn't end up being Cox's daughter's godfather.

So remember how last time I said that this would be the Evil Plot Development of Death? Well, I'm revising my opinion. The way it was done, it is entirely realistic and believable — up to the point where it currently is. There is still the possibility that it could be Evil, but up until now it's been right.

Besides, in the back of my mind I can't help but hope neither JD's nor Elliot's relationships work out. I haven't liked either of their significant others since S3. I actually enjoyed seeing JD and Danni, and Elliot and Sean, together. I think part of it is probably just because those episodes are among the first I ever saw, and also because I liked the general style of S3 ("old" Scrubs).

Well, what now? We'll have to wait till September to see. I think, unless they're interrupted, JD and Elliot will kiss, at least briefly. However, I also think they'll be interrupted. How, I have no idea. But I don't think the show would let it happen. However, the damage may already have been done. They are very, very close to, but not necessarily past, the (ha! what a great title) point of no return.

If either of their relationships gets messed up as a result of their actions in the present Scrubs-world moment, then they'll be pretty much forced into being together forever (i.e. till Scrubs ends). If they get together, ruining a marriage and a fatherhood in the process, and then break up, then I think that will be it for them. It's already happened once (end of S3), it can't happen again. It just can't. As a result, I think S7 could end up being quite a suck. But at least S6 made an absolutely perfect exit.

Rush + coherence

I have bought my tickets to the Rush show in California this summer, so that can be checked off my list of things to do, which includes a lot of important things like packing up all my stuff so I can GO to California. I'm sorry; I managed to lose my attention span in the middle of that sentence. There are now two bands left that I want to see before they die of old age: Dream Theater and Metallica. Metallica is a definite possibility, since they're supposed to be coming out with a new album sometime this year. I have no idea about Dream Theater.

In any case, I've now listened to some of Rush's new album, Snakes & Arrows. From what I've heard, the opener, "Far Cry", is definitely the best. It has the signature Rush bizarre time signatures and melodies that are catchy without being annoying. The lyrics are a bit uninspired but still OK. Geddy's singing is the same as it was on Vapor Trails (that is: good), except they've indulged themselves a bit more in vocal arrangements on S&A. The bass sounds a bit like it did on Feedback, which isn't a bad thing at all. Neil has not slowed with age. In general, Snakes & Arrows sounds like Vapor Trails, but Vapor Trails was all DARK ANGSTY ANGST! and Snakes & Arrows' lyrics are more similar to those of Roll The Bones. The music itself is sort of a mix of the structure of really old Rush (Fly By Night-era) and the style of 2000s rock. It almost seems like they've been inspired, at least a little bit, by the style of Tool and such bands.

One thing I can't really figure out is how it is that Rush's style changes so drastically over time, yet they still manage to sound unmistakably "like Rush". Part of it is Geddy's voice, I'm sure, but it's not just that. I suppose it's a mark of their skill. Or my ignorance with regard to all matters musical. Or both.

RUSH

Holy shit Rush is going on tour this summer! They will be in San Francisco on August 1. I am going to see them. This is non-negotiable.

Scrubs 619

Oh Scrubs, how you love to jerk your fans around.

Within the space of 20 minutes, it went from seeming like the fate of Elliot's love life is finally decided, after six years of screwing around, to all the angsty angsty angst of the end of season 3. While this was a good episode (one of the best of S6), Scrubs is once again in danger of putting too much weight on the foot that's already on the slippery slope towards Sitcom Cliché Hell.

Before I get into that, what was good about this episode? Lots of fantasies, for a change. I'm not sure if I'm OK with characters other than JD having fantasies, but here it worked. Turk's one was especially good. The end of the episode was awesome, modulo Evil Plot Development foreshadowing. I suppose this sort of thing is the upside of the indie music scene.

Could the Devil's Plotline end well? Admittedly, both JD and Elliot have grown significantly, as people, since they last attempted to be together forever. However, now that Elliot has accepted Keith's proposal, breaking up with him to be with JD would be a massive shit. If on the other hand that does not happen, JD will be angsty with angst for ages, after going so far towards ridding himself of his ridiculous emotional neediness.

Basically — once again it seems like there's no good road to go down. Then again, I thought that back at the beginning of this season, and the writers found a way out. The end of the season's coming up. My prediction is that the finale will involve Keith and Elliot's wedding, and there lots of dramatic things will go down.

Spam is amazing

So I just got this spam:

Dear Customer, [my Google account name].

You are receiving this message, due to you protection, Our Online Technical Security Service Foreign IP Spy recently detected that your online account was recently logged on from am 84.96.65.166[formerly a link] without am International Access Code (I.A.C) and from an unregistered computer, which was not verified by the Our Online Service Department.

If you last logged in you online account on Thursday April 5th 2007, by the time 6:45 pm from an Foreign Ip their is no need for you to panic, but if you did log in your account on the above Date and Time, kindly take 2-3 minute of your online banking experince to verify and register your computer now to avoid identity theft, your protection is our future medal.

Verification Link[formerly a link]

Notice: You can acess your account from a foreign IP or country by getting am (I.A.C) International Access Code, by contacting our local brances close to you.

First, there's no particular reason for me to identify myself to any bank using the same account name as I use with Google. Like...why would I do that?

Secondly, the IP address they give is actually a server owned by the same outfit that owns the SMTP server that this message came from. They're both in France, registered to some bloke named Thierry Jamet. So yes, someone logged in to my account on their server in France from a machine in France, without an International Access Code (whatever the hell that is). So wait, why would I need an International Access Code for that? And why would I be logging into a French bank account from France? I haven't been to France for ages.

Thirdly, if they really want to make me think they're a bank, they could at least spell-check their spam. It takes only marginal effort compared to setting up the scam in the first place. Maybe spending two minutes spell-checking would give them more hits.

But what really galls me is not how stupid the spammers are ("your protection is our future medal"? What the bejesus?), it's knowing that there are people even more stupid --- people who will actually fall for this.

Sigh.