Second trip to India... this time flew KLM through Amsterdam. Still takes a very long time to get to Pune, but I think that route (Houston - Amsterdam - Delhi - Spend the night - Pune) is much better (KLM planes were much nicer than Continental).

As I sit eating my late breakfast Sunday morning I was visited by a large mosquito having its own breakfast on my hand (or is that my hand was its breakfast?). Glad I am taking my anti-malaria pills... ugh (the pills effectiveness is more peace of mind than practical). And to think, I actually considered playing golf today

Astronomers have announced the discovery of the lightest planet ever detected outside our Solar System

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8008683.stm

 This articl links the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) project to be completed in 2016 which would be capable of actually visibly seeing a planet instead of just watching the behavior of the planet circling a star. Too bad they didn't get funding for the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope which would have been able to have seen details down to earth sized planets outside our solar system. When you think that a country can spend 700 billion dollars for the economy, 1.6 billion Euros doesn't sound so much anymore.

Two interesting technologies:

Personal wind power - Augment your power needs at home. Just plug it in...

Jellyfish Wind Appliance: Plug-In Wind Power

Transparent Solar Panels - Make a window out of them!

World’s First Power Generating Glass Window  OR http://www.solar.tm

 I'll take both if my HOA lets me!

When I first bought my very first Pentium computer it was a Pentium 60 with a whopping 8 MB of RAM. I was doing development, so I wanted to fill my brand new Packard Bell with 16 MB of RAM, so I went out and bought 2 4MB sticks. Each one was “cheap” at $195+tax.

Two weeks ago, I decided to upgrade my 2GB (667s) to 4GB (800s) desktop to breathe a little life into it and it cost me around $50 out of pocket with a $20 mail in rebate.

Today, I needed to pick up a new micro SD card and 2GB set me back $9.99+tax (including both mini and regular adapters).

Makes me think that nowadays I can pick up a laptop for as much as I paid for RAM way back when… so I guess 5 years from now, when I am buying a 1 TB solid state HD for $100, I will not complain.

So, after many years of development and figuring out the manufacturing world, my "older" sister has created her first board game and has a shipping product! I am not personally into fairies, I can say I am impressed with the quality of what she has built.

 Check it out over at:

Watched Kung Fu Panda last night on blue-ray. http://www.kungfupanda.com/

I actually really enjoyed the movie, and it really does look spectacular on blue-ray. I almost need to watch it again instead of looking at how sharp and crisp animation details such as ear hair on the red panda (master blah, blah or whatever his name was). Absolutely recommend this movie to watch if you haven't seen it. I did find it odd that it was released on Sunday the 9th instead of the usual Tuesday release schedule. I guess just an atypical marketing ploy...

We were fine. Little scary on Saturday morning, especially around 4AM with the west eye wall passing us. Just got internet access back. I cant complain, some people will be without electricity for weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXriZIvzlMU

After flying for however many hours, we stopped in New Delhi for the weekend on my way to Pune, India (business trip). The group decided to do a day trip to the Taj Mahal. The 120 mile (each way) trip took 7 hours to get there and almost as many hours back. I think I saw almost everything in one day including [sadly] someone being struck by a car in front of us and died on the road. This wasn't refreshing pit stop at all to get used to the 12 hour time difference, but I was completely exhausted after the trip (you can see it in my face) . And yes, it was a once in a lifetime trip... I will never do that again.