Life goes on in washington

So, I guess I'll start with this video that I think is just great!  Although, I guess that due to the fowl language might not be best for the wee little ones.

Anyway, Jaani was happy to see me when I picked him up on Monday night.  Everything around the apartment was in order, although I could have sworn I turned the heat down lower than it was set to when I got back.  The past two days I took Jaani to the dog park.  Yesterday I did a ton of chores that I was putting off (like laundry and dishes...) then today I finally got around to going grocery shopping.  Other than that, I guess I've been playing video games a lot, which I like more than TV... and everything has been going smoothly around work.

So, that being said, I hope everyone enjoys the video, and I should get around to posting more pictures up on Picasa soon.

Later,

     SteveO

Airport Wifi!

So it looks like everything is working out just fine.  Google is awesome enough to give free wifi in exchange for statistical data to help map where people go on the web. 



I dropped Jaani off at the babysitters last night, and he should be good.  He will probably ...



anyway... time to start boarding, so I need to get ready for the plane.

later
     SteveO

The Search is on!

So... I know I haven't really been updating my blog this month, but I guess that's what happens when I stay busy...

As a recap, this month I:

• I finished my T-SQL class...
• Decided to learn how to use Microsoft One Note and Visio
• I ended up catching on really quickly... and everyone seems to think I'm the best guy to ask about using those two programs now... 
• We Redesigned the layout of our lab stations at work to fix an error...
• It also turns out I'm the only person confident about moving cables around on the back of the beches and on the server rack...
• I got a free copy of Forza 3
• Now, I just need to find an Xbox 360...
• I set up my desktop computer as a Boxee media player... it works great for things like watching Hulu, and Podcasts... plus I have a program that turns my iPod into a remote control...

I'm probably done a ton of other stuff... I think just about everything else I've done was a chore of some sort... or a favor for someone... or something.

Anyway... so... now the idea is to see where I can get a free Xbox 360.  I don't have money for one, but I have a really cool game I want to play.  So... anyway... here I go.  Searching more...

So.  That's about as much of an update as I'm really in the mood to write.

More will come sooner or later...

Later,
     SteveO

Updates... and numbers...

A quick post about something I just read about... Apparently, the NSA just put up a new datacenter, and the scale the NSA is using to measure the capacity of the datacenter's storage is in Yottabytes.  So, the order goes something like 1 Kilobyte is 1,000 bytes... then 1 Megabyte is 1,000 Kilobytes... then it goes Giga... Tera... Peta... Exa... Zetta... and now Yottabytes!

So, what can you store in a Yottabyte?  Well, the answer is somewhere along the lines of the capacity of every civilian hard drive ever purchased... and then some.  It's enough space to store about 166 Terabytes of information for every person on the planet...  or store about 2.38 Million hours of telephone conversations (at 128kbps... which phone could easily be recorded at 64kbps.) for every person on the planet.

And, now for a little speculation... I have a feeling the datacenter can store multiple Yottabytes of information.  Not to mention the datacenter is probably built to allow for expansion.

Here is a table to help visualize the size of a Yottabyte:

1,000 Bytes	= 1 KiloByte
1,000,000 Bytes	= 1 MegaByte
1,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 GigaByte
1,000,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 TeraByte
1,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 PetaByte
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 ExaByte
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 ZettaByte
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes	= 1 YottaByte

  Also take note that the milky way galaxy is approximately 95 Yottameters across...

  Anyway... other than just being freaked out by the size of the newest NSA datacenter, I'm doing pretty good.

I want one.

I know it's $200,000... I just really want one.  Guess it's time to start saving.

The Weather has been great in Seattle.  I went and took this picture Sunday evening of the Sunset (as I saw it from Renton.)  it was a great weekend.  Jaani and I went to both the Marrymoor dog park and the Renton dog park.  Plus, Jaani met a little French Bulldog to play with.. .as well as Otis, my friends Pitt Bull, was there too.  They had fun running around and getting tired.  It was fun.

Lately I've started my T-SQL class, and it's going well.  The instructor wrote the text book we are using, and that has proven useful in the class.

Other than that, I've been working pretty hard.  We lost a team member, because he found a full time job at another company, which means that myself and the only remaining member of our team are the only ones left to run the test passes.  I guess it's a lot of work, but at least it keeps me occupied.

I also noticed how everyone seems to be freaking out about the Swine Flu.  At least it's all over the news.  I looked at Google Trends, and found that everyone is searching for flu related web sites.  Looking for at home treatments and countermeasures.

This is a map of the Flu Trends that I got off of Google.org.  Historical data has shown that the past flu trends (lighter blue) are fairly accurate.  My question is if the media hype built around people who will or will not receive the vaccine has altered this data.  Google gets the data from searches related to flu sickness (when you search for flu symptoms, home remedies, ect... Google counts it, and adjusts it based on things they find.)

As you can see, both Michigan and Washington have recently started to spike with Flu related web activity recently, but I think most of this is going to be related to the new vaccines that were released.  So, people are trying to learn what they can.

This data is available before the CDC is able to come up with their own statistics, based on people who go to the doctor and are diagnosed, however it is usually within the acceptable error rate allowed by the CDC statistics.  In other words, the CDC usually comes up with about the same numbers as Google for these sorts of things.

Anyway... if this data is right, then I'm happy I'm not in Texas!  Although I am pretty close to Idaho...

World Flu Trends suggest that Flu related web traffic is highest in the US.  Google recently just began tracking these trends in other countries.  As you can see, all of North America is at Merderate to High risk for the flu.

The thing that worries me, is that normally the Flu risk isn't this high until January or February, and the risk in the past few years has been the highest recorded.  With the exception of 1919.

Anyway... I'm not sure that this means you need to worry about getting the flu any more than normal, but in general more people are getting sick.  This current spike may turn out to be just a media  frenzy influencing web traffic, but at the same time, we could be on the verge of a real pandemic.  Who knows.

Anyway... just some food for thought.

Later,

     SteveO

Improv Everywhere is awesome

I remember these "invisible dog" leashes...

It would be fun to walk around with a group of 2000 people doing the same thing.