Michael J. Radwin's blog

Hella dope Slang Flashcards

Ariella and Avital gave me a set of Slang Flashcards last night.

Here's the marketing pitch:

"Do you want to be able to communicate with America's youth? Does your proper English make you feel stuffy? Then you'll be thrilled to see this set of 60 double-sided laminated slang flashcards. Combining the staid style of student primers with contemporary slang, these flashcards reverse to a pronunciation guide, full definition and sample sentence. Study up and you'll be talking slang like 'I can assure you that the Tupperware party will be mad (quite) crunk (entertaining).'"

One of my favorites is "Yo, lil' dawg, daddy's got to bounce."

Bike to Work Day redux

It rained yesterday. I wimped out on biking.

But I did ride in this morning. Absolutely beautiful weather today.

Bike to Work Day

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day. I hope it doesn't rain.

Ping

I'm still here.

Stickin' it to da man

I voted early, but I didn't use one of those creepy touchscreen voting machines. I got a paper ballot instead.

Yes, I know that California isn't using the Diebold machines (my county is using AVC Edge). But I still think we need a better electronic voting system. I am biased towards David Chaum's Votegrity system, probably because I think using blinded signatures is a slick technique for an e-voting system.

If you want to learn more about David Chaum's scheme but don't have a PhD in math, check out "Tilting at the Ballot Box" from the September issue of Business 2.0 (local mirror).

Until we get a real electronic voting system, I'm going to stick to the paper ballots.

Santa Clara County Voter's Guide

There are a bunch of initiatives on the ballot for the upcoming California and Santa Clara County election. Here is my slate:

1A - yes
59 - yes
60 - no
60a - no
61 - yes
62 - no
63 - yes
64 - no
65 - no
66 - yes
67 - yes
68 - no
69 - no
70 - no
71 - yes
72 - yes
A - no
B - no
C - yes
I - yes

Whatever you do, be sure to vote no on Prop 62. It would screw over the smaller political parties.

Biking to work

I rode my bike to work today for the first time in 4 years. It felt pretty good. I really love that Italian steel frame.

After staring at the Santa Clara Valley Bikeways Map for several hours, I decided to take Middlefield Road for most of the way, and then hop on the VTA Light Rail for the last mile. Total trip time was just under one hour (versus about 20 minutes by car).

I had considered biking the whole distance, but Mathilda Ave isn't very bike-friendly. Then again, the Light Rail wasn't the most convenient option either. I probably could've made it here in 45 mins if I didn't have to wait for a train. I'll have to find a different route.

SB 1160: driver's licenses for undocumented residents

Gov. Schwarzenegger is taking a phone poll to assess support for SB 1160, the new Calif. legislation that would grant driver's licenses to undocumented residents.

Please call 1-916-445-2841
Press #5 for "Hot Issues."
Press #2 for Drivers License (for Undocumented) bill
Press #1 to support the Drivers License bill (SB 1160)

**Remember a lot of people are calling this number. If you get a busy signal please call back or try and call over the weekend. It is essential that your voice be heard. [via United Farm Workers]

Hybrid SUVs

We're thinking about buying a hybrid SUV.

Sometime this year we're planning to replace our 1992 Ford Taurus with another vehicle. I'd like something that's safe (ABS, front and side airbags) and a little bigger than our other car (a 1998 Toyota Camry). A compact SUV seems like the right thing for us, but the mileage is typically only about 22-24 mpg. Luckily, three car manufacturers have announced hybrid SUVs.

Our options seem to be to get the Ford Escape Hybrid which comes out this summer, or wait for the Toyota Highlander Hybrid or the Lexus RX 400h, both due out later this year or early next year.

We test drove a regular gas (non-Hybrid) 2005 Escape yesterday, and much to my chagrin we both really liked it. Even though Ford hasn't been the most reliable car manufacturer historically, the Escape has good enough reliability so Consumer Reports actually recommends it (subscription required). Based on my past experience with the Taurus, I'm very hesitant to buy a Ford. But we both liked the Escape more than the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V.

My gut says to wait for the hybrid Higlander, since Toyota has been making hybrid cars for a few years now, Toyota is #1 overall for reliability, and the fact that we've been so satisfied with our Camry. But if the 9-month waitlist for the Prius is any indication, we might not be able to get our hands on a Highlander for quite some time. Do I really want to keep pumping money into the Taurus for another year?

T-mobile SIM unlock, part 2

I successfully completed the T-mobile SIM unlock process that I started yesterday.

T-mobile sent the following instructions:

T-Mobile Sim Unlock Request
Sim Unlock Reference: xxxxxxxx
IMEI: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unlock Code: xxxxxxxx

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile. Below you will see the Instructions for unlocking your Motorola device.

NOTE: Before you start you must have a foreign (non-T Mobile) sim card entered into the handset.

NOTE: If the phone displays, "Please wait to enter special code" or "Contact service provider," you will have to wait for it to change back. Please be aware that the phone must stay powered on to do this. If the battery is low, be sure to plug it in. It could take 15 minutes to an hour to change back. If the phone does not change back, the handset will need to be replaced.

If the display reads "Enter Special Code", enter the unlock code and press "OK"

If the display does not read "Enter Special code":
1. Press and hold the * key until an entry box is displayed, then let go
2. Enter *, #, 3, 2, # and press "OK"
3. Enter the unlock code and press "OK." The display should read "Completed" or
"Deleted"

Thank You,

Sim Unlock Department
T-Mobile USA, Inc.

I dropped by Andrei's cube this morning and borrowed his AT&T card, popped it into my Motorola v60g phone and it said "Enter Subsidy Password." The above instructions were supposed to be specific to my phone model, but of course they didn't mention Subsidy Passwords at all.

Ignoring the instructions, I entered the 8-digit Unlock Code at the top of the message and hit OK. Worked like a charm! The phone displayed Andrei's phone number and the network carrier info indicated "AT&T Wireless."

Mission accomplished.

T-mobile SIM unlock, part 1

I'm travelling to India next month for work, and while there I plan to use a foreign SIM card with my tri-band GSM handset to make and receive calls. Apparently you can go to the local equivalent of the 7-11 there and purchase both a SIM card and prepaid airtime. It ends up being much cheaper than simply using T-Mobile's WorldClass international service which costs $2.99/min for calls initiated or received in India.

Most GSM phone vendors in the USA sell simlocked handsets, which means that they won't accept SIM cards from another vendor. I tried swapping cards with Ryan today and his Cingular card wouldn't work in my phone (and my T-mobile card wouldn't work in his).

I called T-mobile Customer Service to ask them to unlock my phone. It was a surprisingly pleasant 7-minute phone call. The rep asked me to verify name, mobile number, home number, and the last 4 digits of my SSN. She then asked me for the exact phone model number, my email address, and why I wanted to unlock my phone. She entered all of the info into a request form and told me that I'd be notified via phone or email within the next 24 hours with my unlock instructions.

So now I simply need to wait. I'll post more once I complete the process.

[Update 28 April: see part 2]

Got nothin' to say

Kinda busy these days.

Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake

Minutes ago, there was a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in California -- 11 km NE of San Simeon.

That was one big quake. The building shook for over a minute.

UC Teaching Assistants Strike

Ariella and 10,999 other University of California teaching assistants will strike on Thursday.

Although Los Angeles has had its share of labor disputes recently (the MTA bus strike was settled a couple of weeks ago and the Ralph's/Vons/Albertson's strike/lockout has been going on for 8 weeks now), this thing is gonna be statewide. TAs from all eight UC campuses will stop grading papers and exams. Just in time for finals!

[Update 03 December: the union has reached a tentative agreement with the UC so the strike has been called off.]

Thanksgiving travel preview

I flew back from SJC to LAX tonight and got a taste of what air travel is going to look like tomorrow, the busiest air travel day of the year.

• It was busy. Very busy. Two years after 9/11 it appears that Americans are no longer afraid of airplanes.

• Instead of the usual business traveller crowd, my plane was filled with college students. Every single one of them had an iPod. I simultaneously felt very part of American pop culture (I've had one for almost 6 months now) and also a little bit old. No Nomad or Dell Jukeboxes to be found. The hot peroxide blonde sitting in the middle seat to me was talking to the guy next to her (an Amerasian with acne) about what he was majoring in. Both had iPods. And apparently both think the quarter system is better than the semester system.

• TSA and the airport rent-a-cop security screeners seemed ready for the deluge of travellers. There were many more metal detectors and X-ray machines open than there usually are. Throughput was very good.
  

If you're travelling on Wednesday, get there early and don't forget your iPod.

Whoa, Theo looks like George

Theo cut his hair and now looks a helluva lot like his bro. Add some glasses and they're twins.

Wait a minute, they're not really twins, are they?

(via Zak)

SWA drops online double-credit bonus

My brother forwarded me this unfortunate news about Southwest Airlines' frequent flier program:

"After seven years of double credit for online flight bookings, Southwest is calling the promotion quits. Southwest loyalists have until December 31 to book tickets online and earn four credits per round-trip flight." [Smarter Living]

This means that I'll be earning only 6 free Southwest tickets per year. And unless they lower the present 100 credit threshold, I'm going to lose my Companion Pass next year. Oh well. All good things must come to an end.

On the plus side, Southwest has recently started to follow the example set by American Airlines in allowing the use of cell phones during taxi-in.

Happy Birthday, Shachar!

Camejo for Govenor

Although I didn't vote for Davis in the last election, I will be voting "no" on the recall this October. He may not be the most charismatic guy in the world, but we Californians elected him.

In case the recall succeeds (which it looks like it probably will), I will once again be voting for the Green party candidate. Camejo is pro-choice, pro-gun control, against the death penalty, and pro-workers' rights.

The rest of the world may be having a jolly good time with the Arnold vs. Arnold campaign, but I'm not laughing.

American Airlines allows cell phones during taxi-in

A couple of weeks ago, American Airlines began allowing the use of cell phones during taxi-in (after landing but before reaching the gate).

It's a very smart move (and one that will be sure to make John Dvorak happy). As a business traveller for the past 3 years, it's always driven me crazy that the airlines wouldn't let you use your phone or Crackberry after touching down. On the flights I've taken, many folks simply ignored the rule and just spoke quietly enough so the flight attendants wouldn't hear them or simply listened to voicemail without calling people back.

I hope Southwest follows suit.

More headhunter email

I got pinged by a headhunter again today. This happened last month for the first time in a couple of years, but I guess the job market is heating up again.

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 08:48:51 -0400
From: Krista B... <krista@...>
To: Michael Radwin <michael@...>
Subject: Confidential to Michael Radwin

Dear Michael:

I apologize for dropping into your inbox unannounced.
I prefer a proper introduction as I am a consultant based
in Westport, CT and wonder whether you might entertain
a role as a development lead on Microsoft's new next-gen
search engine team. Of course, this would involve a move
to Redmond . . .(Are you based in Santa Monica?)

If you are interested in learning more, simply forward an
updated resume and detail a window or two of availability
for a brief phone conference.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Sincerely,

Krista B...
Wesport, CT
203.xxx.xxxx

PS -Should you like to learn more about our practice,
I invite you to check our credentials at our website at
http://www....

Another well-written cold call message (aside from the "Westport" typo in the signature). I'm not really interested in relocating to Seattle, but it's sure interesting to hear about our competitor's strategy, however. :-)

The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

Whoa, Sam. Those are some nice-looking teeth you've got there.

This reminds me of a couple of dental-related puns.

Q: Why do dentists have the highest suicide rate?

A: Because they're always down in the mouth.

And of course, the best Tom Swifty of them all:

"Oops, I dropped my toothpaste," said Tom crestfallen.

Rhinospray® to the rescue!

We spent last weekend in the Bay Area for Gil and Becky's wedding. On Sunday, I started coming down with a cold and was feeling miserable. It was late at night and I didn't feel like going out to the drugstore to get a decongestant.

My mom remembered that during a trip to Europe last year she started getting a cold and picked up a nasal spray in the airport just before her flight home. The medicine had probably expired, but I was welcome to try it:

I tried to read the label, but everything was in German. Rhinospray sensitiv bei Schnupfen. Wirkstoff: Tramazolinhydrochlorid... I needed to know: how many times should I spray? How often? Are there any dangerous side-effects?

Alas, I don't speak German, yet I really needed to clear my nose. So I gave it a shot. And viola! Like magic, I was breathing clear again. I no longer cared what the active ingredient was; it could've been arsenic and I'd still use it again.

Today, I learned from netdoktor.de that the Wirksamer Bestandteil (active ingredient?) is Tramazolin.

Whatever that is.

Wesley K. Clark for President

So I've been granted the lovely honor of being a guest author on my brother-in-law Michael's blog. I'm so excited, and there are so very many things that I could talk about. But I think I'm going to talk about what was on my mind this morning at work (I work at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, which is just boring enough to provide me with plenty of opportunity for thought problems...).

Draft Wesley K. Clark for President in 2004!!

Why? OK, well, the Democrats don't really have anyone. Let's be honest. We've got Dennis Kucinich, who looks like a character actor from a terrible B movie. We've got John Edwards--TV psychic or South Carolinian Senator? John Kerry--looks like a bloodhound. Carol Moseley Braun--let's get serious. Howard Dean--flash in the pan, soup du jour, flavor of the month. He won't last. Joe Lieberman--right, because everyone wants a President who puts them to sleep with the very sound of his voice. Anyway, you get the point. It's been belabored by others, so I don't really need to elaborate any more...

And then you have Wesley Clark. Let's see...Rhodes Scholar, graduated number one in his class at West Point, winner of the Purple Heart and the Medal of Freedom, Supreme Commander of NATO forces Europe, serious about national security, pro-choice, pro-environment, distinguished, brilliant, an Ike for the aughts. But truth be told, he's got no money, no name recognition, and no organization, so in all likelihood Clark on the ballot will be as VP (Dean and Clark? ugh. Kerry and Clark? has a nice ring to it...).

But he's my man for '04. He can give to the Democratic Party the moral vision and clarity of purpose to raise the party out of its ideological quagmire. He isn't a dove, and isn't a hawk. He wasn't opposed to the war in Iraq, but was opposed to our brazen hegemonic stupidity in acting outside of NATO and the UN(Check out his article in the Washington Monthly from September 2002).

Sadly, he could run in '08, but Hillary's got that one all sewn up...though Bill Frist will spank her in a general election. She's the kind of candidate for whom the party faithful will love to vote. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Anyway, that's my thought for the morning.

Oh, one other, actually. This is a book recommendation: Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen by Samantha Power. She's brilliant, insightful, thoughtful, and brazen. Witness one of my favorite quotes from the book..."We have a foreign policy based on our amoral economic interests run by amateurs who want to stand for something—hence the agony—but ultimately don't want to exercise any leadership that has a cost."

The book is a landmark in the costs and perils of a US foreign policy devoid of moral vision, decisive leadership, and a internationalist perspective. It's not a light, Sunday afternoon kind of read, but well worth the time.

Banzai on FOX

Last night I saw the premiere of Banzai, a mock Japanese game show of sorts where the contestants do a bunch of wacky things and the audience is supposed to bet on the outcome.

I imagine that if you're drunk it makes for a very entertaining experience.

Kudos to Dennis the Headhunter

I got this "cold call" email today:

Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 12:19:09 -0700
From: Dennis R...
To: Michael Radwin <michael@...>
Subject: Could you/your family be interested in moving to Seattle
    area to do Browser and/or algorithm work for AMAZON?

Hello Michael,

I know this is out of the blue.  No, we've never 
communicated before, to my knowledge.  

Please let me know if you're at all interested.

Thanks,
Dennis R...  -  Principal Account Manager
425-xxx-xxxx   or   800-xxx-xxxx

I told him "Thanks, but no thanks," since I'm happy with my job right now and we're going to be in LA for the forseeable future.

He did several things right that recruiters usually get wrong:

• He was honest and direct, and admitted that he didn't know me. Aside from jobs (often with companies you've never heard of), headhunters don't have much to offer. The best they can do is show you courtesy and respect.
• He thought about my family. That's imprortant; I'm not some 22-year-old kid who can just pack up and move to a new city without affecting other people.
• He called me Michael, not Mike. Unless you know someone personally (or they say otherwise), I think it's professional courtesy to address someone by their full name. It's the closest thing English has to Usted.

So, although I'm not interested in the job, maybe some of my readers are. Drop me a private email and I'll forward Dennis' contact info to you.

Bill Nye at UCLA on Sunday

Bill Nye the Science Guy will be speaking at UCLA on Sunday June 1st at 3pm in the Ackerman Grand Ballroom.

T-mobile customer service finally comes through

After a few weeks of pleading with my cell phone carrier, they have finally resolved a billing error. This is a good thing for both of us. Good for me, because I generally like my calling plan and would hate to give it up, and good for them, because they will continue to get my business.

Back in March, we traveled to Italy, Hungary, and Israel for a couple of weeks. Since I have a GSM phone, I called T-mobile from the airport to find out if I could use it overseas.

The customer service rep told me that yes, in fact I could use the phone in Europe and Israel. When I asked about rates, she said that it was basically 29 cents a minute. I asked several follow-up questions -- 29 cents a minute from Europe to the US? Yes. How about from Europe to Europe or from Europe to Israel? Yes, same 29 cents a minute rate applies. From Israel to US? Also 29 cents. Same per-minute rate for incoming and outgoing calls? Yes. Any service charge or monthly fee? Nope.

This seemed like a pretty good deal. So sure enough, we used the phone quite a bit to make hotel reservations, reconfirm our flights, and call our friends and family. In total, we made 166 minutes of calls while we were overseas.

When we got back to the US, I got the bill. Instead of the $48 in roaming charges I was expecting, somehow we managed to rack up a total of $313. Simply put, the rates were totally different from what the rep quoted me. I was billed 99 cents a minute for calls made within Italy and Hungary, and $2.99 a minute for calls made within Israel.

So I called T-mobile customer service and explained the situation calmly and patiently to the rep who answered. Laura seemed very friendly and sympathetic, but ultimately was unable to help me. She explained that the other rep must've been confused, since the 29 cent rate is for the opposite calling direction.

Laura even put in a request for a $265 credit, but she said wasn't sure it was going to go through. The fact that the original rep never mentioned the 29 cent rate explicitly in my file meant that the billing folks would likely reject my credit request. I explained that I would be happy to talk to her supervisor or anyone in billing if they wanted more details.

A couple of weeks passed and no contact from T-mobile. The auto-pay thing kicked in and my credit card was charged for the $313 amount. I guess they rejected the $265 credit request.

I called back today and got a hold of another rep. I explained the whole situation to John, and he put me on hold so he could read up on all of the notes in my file to see what happened. When John came back from hold, he apologized for the overbilling problem, but explain that the billing department rejected the claim because there was no evidence in the file that the rep in March said anything about the 29 cent rate.

I told John, "I'm really frustrated because I think T-mobile should honor the rate that I was quoted back in March." I even explained that I understand now that the actual rates are $0.99 and $2.99 and that the original rep was wrong to quote me 29 cents back in March, but that I feel that I shouldn't be penalized for her error. He apologized and empathized, but admitted that he was powerless to help me. He offered to put in another credit request for $265, but was pretty sure it would just get rejected again.

I told him that I guess I'm going to need to cancel my account if they can't honor the rate that they quoted me.

Those must have been the magic words, because John said, "Well, before we go down that road, let me see if I can find someone in a different department to help you." He put me on hold for a while longer, and Susan got on the phone. She had already read my file, but asked me to explain what happened in my own words. We talked for a while, and she said she needed to talk to her supervisor, so could I please hold.

Susan finally came back from hold with the greeting, "Good news. We're going to honor the rate you were quoted, so we're going to credit your account for $265."

Apparently I found the right person to talk to. Thanks, Susan. You've restored my faith in T-mobile.

Using passive voice for moral neutrality

It drives me crazy when I read a headline that says "3 die in bombing" and it turns out that one of the three people was the suicide bomber himself.

Instead, how about "2 killed," or better yet, "2 murdered?"

The press often writes headlines in a way that imply that the suicide bomber just happened to be there and accidentally got killed like everyone else. But his death is not morally equivalent to the victims of the bombing. He is a murderer.

Murderers don't deserve to get counted. They're not victims; they're criminals.

By using the passive voice, newspapers claim that they're being objective. But really, what's so subjective about condeming murder? There are moral absolutes in this world.

mvhs93.com

I registered the domain name mvhs93.com today for my 10-year high school reunion.

I'm not a web design expert, so we've hired classmate German Fabella's design firm Launchpad Studio to make it look prettier than my lame save the date web page.

Photos of Jerusalem Snow

Laura sent a couple of photos from last week's snowstorm in Jerusalem.

Diamond Engagement Ring

Becky called yesterday to share the news.

Whoo-hoo! Congratulations, Gil & Becky! I wish you both a lifetime of happiness together.

$95,000 Adventure

Anil sent me a link to Patrick Combs' $95,093.35 Adventure yesterday. Hilarious. I didn't see it when it first came out almost 8 years ago.

Ray Sun has a blog

My friend Ray Sun, longtime MSFT employee and all-around kewl guy, now has a blog.

I set him up with my tool of choice: MovableType. I didn't even bother to run uname -a or perl -v. I just unpacked it, tweaked mt.cfg, and the thing just worked.

Ray used to be a program manager for MSIE and MSN Search, but these days he's working on getting MS technology in next-generation cell phones.

Mmm.... Catherine Zeta-Jones...

Permission-based burglary

Former co-worker Derek Balling writes, "You know you've made it in the world when NPR quotes ya..."

Derek, sign me up! To make it a little easier for you, I've reset our the combination to our safe to 9-24-66 (YAHOO). :-)

Daring to Rebuild

Here's something stunning: Nine New Visions: Architects Propose Soaring Buildings, Somber Parks For WTC Site. Check out the video.

(From YudelLine)

Stripping: it's a living

I was having an IM conversation with a co-worker this evening and somehow we managed to get a little off-topic.

In talking about my my alma mater, I was reminded of the book Ivy League Stripper by Heidi Mattson, who started stripping to pay her college tuition.

Brown University -- the ultimate small-town girl's dream come true... until she got the bill.

My co-worker mentioned another amusing story about a mother was stripping to help make ends meet and the church that kicked her child out of the religious school she was attending.

"Silvas said Cole told her that not only would her 5-year-old daughter be expelled, but also that as long as she strips, neither can attend the church."

Ah, the irony.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's raining again in LA.

A significant storm system is forecast to move into southwestern California today. This system will bring rain to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties thi morning...Then the precipitation should spread quickly South through Los Angeles county in the afternoon. gusty South winds will also accompany the storm system as it sweeps through the region. The rain will last into the night and then taper to showers for Tuesday. [National Weather Service via Yahoo! Weather]

Yucko. My sister-in-law is coming to visit tomorrow. I hope the weather clears up so we can actually do something fun.

Jury Duty: Day 2

It was over before it even had a chance to begin.

The judge dismissed the jury today with the thanks of the court. He gathered us all around, explained to us that the case had been resolved without the need for a trial, so we were all free to go.

He didn't say it explicitly, but my inference is that a plea bargain was reached between the defense and prosecution. Apparently this happens quite a bit; the prosecutor needs to look tough, like they're actually going to go through with a trial, and finally the defense attorney caves in and cops a plea, rather than risking a trial.

I'm disappointed. I really wanted to serve my country. In some way, I suppose I did get that opportunity; the presence of a jury panel helped the criminal justice system work. But I didn't get to see the actual courtroom drama (or lack thereof) unfold. I guess I really wanted to be involved in more of the process, to decide whether the guy was innocent or guilty. You know, all that good Law & Order kinda stuff.

So I've got the rest of the day off, courtesy of the U.S. Government. Ariella just finished the rest of her term papers, so we're going to enjoy a mini half-day vacation. We'll either go to Malibu to visit Cousin Diana at the yogurt store, or we'll head down to The Happiest Place On Earth for some mindless entertainment.

Jury Duty: Day 1

I showed up for Jury Duty today at the criminal courthouse in Downtown LA. I'm completely filled with a sense of civic pride and good old-fashioned patriotism. As I mentioned yesterday, I think that serving on a jury is one of the major duties of a citizen, right up there with paying taxes. (Pop quiz: can you name 3 rights and 3 duties as a citizen? Something we do every November is both a right and a duty.)

Juror Waiting Room

After going through some airport-like metal detectors, I rode a packed elevator up to the 11th floor and reported to room 302. When I walked in, José (the Juror Waiting Room Guy) was in the middle of giving instructions to people who would like to get postponed from serving due to some upcoming vacation. About 50 people flooded out of the room, so I took one of the empty seats.

A judge came into the room and told us what an important job we were about to do, thanked all of us for being such devoted citizens, about how the system relied on our participation, etcetera.

The Juror Waiting Room Guy then showed the 200 or so of us a couple of videos which explained what Jury Duty was all about, described what happens in a criminal case, and even covered some administrative stuff. I learned that we'll get paid a whopping $15 a day + 15 cents a mile (one way) for transportation. I also learned that they need something like 1,000 jurors each day for duty, but the term of service is usually less than 7 days. I think my employer pays for 10 days.

José took about 15 minutes of questions. People asked everything from "What happens if I run my own business and it's a financial hardship?" to "Do we need permission to use the restroom?" to "Do you know if there are any phone jacks in this room so we can dial out for Internet access?"

We got a 20-minute break. I got a cup of coffee, an egg salad sandwich, and a pack of cinnamon hard candies. I read a little bit of my PC Magazine, then headed back to the room. They called a bunch of names for Panel 1, but mine wasn't on the list. Then they called a bunch more names (I don't know what for, maybe those folks had some hardship so they were excused?) and again I didn't hear my name. Ariella called my cellphone and we had a brief chat. She mentioned that United Airlines filed for Chapter 11.

Assigned to Courtroom

About halfway through the list of names for Panel 2, I heard "Michael Radwin". Whoo-hoo! I wasn't going to have to wait around in the mind-numbing Jury Waiting Room all day! We were told to report to Floor 9, room 105. I seemed to recall from José's instructions that this was the maximum security floor and that we'd need to go through a second set of metal detectors.

Sure enough, Floor 9 was for the Accused Really Bad Guys. We went through the metal detectors, and then waited in front of room 105 (lots of waiting when you're serving jury duty). The court clerk took another roll call. We filed into the courtroom, the judge and attorneys introduced themselves, and then they started putting people in the jury box by calling out the last 4 digits of our juror id numbers (printed on our big red juror badges). I was assigned to seat number 15. About 25 of a total of about 45 prospective jurors were seated in the box. Once we were seated in the box, the judge read the charges out loud: felony kidnapping and something to do with discharging a firearm. He also noted that the case was expected to last until December 20th (but could finish as early as Tuesday or Wednesday of next week).

Lunch

It was almost noon at this point, so the judge declared a lunch recess until 1:30pm. I haven't been on foot in Downtown since the LA Marathon a couple of years ago, so this was an opportunity for a 90-minute tourist trip. I went a couple of blocks away to the food court at the Los Angeles Mall and got a veggie burrito and a medium Horchata. I haven't had Horchata in 2 years. Delicious! After lunch, I walked over to the recently-built Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and took a look around inside. They were doing Mass, so I tiptoed around the perimeter. I heard somewhere that this church was built to last 500 years. Sure looks it. It's a pretty plain concrete exterior and interior, but the thing looks totally solid.

Jury Selection

I returned to room 9-105 (after a couple of more trips through metal detectors, another crowded elevator, and roll call) and took seat number 15. The judge spent the next hour asking jurors various questions about close relatives who work in the legal profession (civil & criminal attorneys, judges, police officers, corrections officers, etc.) and if they thought that if those relationships (or whatever we know about the penal system from them) would cause any bias in this particular case. He also asked about any prior experiences with the law ("Have you ever been a victim of a crime?" or "Have you ever been arrested?") Of the 25 of of us in the jury box, about 15 answered yes to one or more of the questions, and the judge asked some follow-up questions. Up to this point, I didn't have anything to say, so I kept quiet.

Next, each of the 25 potential-jurors were asked to state:

1. Occupation


2. City of Residence (and neighborhood if you live in LA proper)


3. Marital Status (plus Spouse or ex-Spouse's Occupation)


4. Number of Adult Children (and their Occupations, and their Spouses' Occupations, if any)


5. Prior Experience Serving on a Jury (Civil or Criminal)

Finally, I got a chance to speak. My answers:

1. Software Engineer


2. Beverly Hills


3. Married (Graduate Student)


4. No Children


5. No Prior Experience Serving on a Jury

The judge only asked me one question: "What is your wife's field of study?" I answered "Near Eastern Languages and Cultures." I should've answered "Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Your Honor," but I didn't remember to throw that in there. Nobody seemed to notice.

After all 25 folks answered these five basic questions, the prosecutor and defense attorney then got an opportunity to ask prospective jurors some more questions about potential bias. I didn't get asked any questions. Both attorneys waived their rights to excuse for cause. The attorneys then took turns issuing peremptory challenges, reducing the jury pool to 12. I moved into seat number 4.

The clerk called out another thirteen juror id numbers, bringing the number of folks in the box back up to 25 (and reducing the number of potential jurors in the "audience" section of the courtroom down to about 7). At this point, the judge dismissed us for the day, and we're supposed to be back in court at 10am.

That was it. No opening arguments, no evidence, no testimony. Just jury selection. Apparently this part often takes more than one day.

Tomorrow, I plan to take the MTA Bus instead of driving.

Jury Duty

I got a notice in the mail saying that I was summoned for jury duty at the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. So I called this weekend to see if they actually wanted group number 2 for court location 11, and sure enough, I'm actually scheduled to report at 7:45am tomorrow morning.

So it looks like I'll be missing work tomorrow to go to the courtroom and wait around with the rest of the prospective jurors. We'll see if I actually get selected for duty; I've heard that they often call a bunch of people to show up, but then dismiss you because the lawyers call for a continuance or something.

I really hope that I'll actually get to serve. Aside from voting and paying taxes, I see this as one of my fundamental duties as a citizen.

My friend Scott is lazy

My friend Scott Kirkland said I should feature him in my blog. He's too lazy to write his own blog.

He works for Apple. Call him up and ask him all about Mac OS X (but be sure to pronounce it "Oh Ess Ex" and not "Oh Ess Ten").

OS X
OS X.II

har har har.

My friend Gabriel has a blog

I set my friend Gabriel up with a blog today. Naturally, he's using the same toolset I've got: MovableType hosted on NetSpace. Setting him up took me about 15 minutes, including a workaround for NetSpace's broken copy of Digest::MD5.

Gabriel was my college roommate and is the co-founder of DoTheGood, which provides philanthropy management solutions to financial institutions.

I look forward to seeing what he writes about.

What a long day!

I'm exhausted. I just got back home from a very long day in Sunnyvale. LAX to SJC to LAX. 16 hours of travel, caffeine, meetings, a bunch of phone calls, a ton of email, and some more meetings. I don't think I wrote a single line of code today.

A few quickies before I light Chanukah candles with Ariella:

• Is it kosher to sell 'kosher' oysters? My brother-in-law forwarded me a link about a story on CNN about a guy in Louisiana selling "Certified Kosher" oysters. Hilarious.

• For the first time in a long time, a spam email message slipped through my SpamAssassin filter. "Create Professional 3D eBooks" got a score of 4.0. Just one more point and it would've been neatly procmailed into my ~/mail/possible-spam folder. Oh well. Can't win all the time.

• I spent about 45 minutes chatting with one of my co-workers late this afternoon about the world of search engines (Google, AltaVista, Inktomi). Great technical discussion.

• I met my folks for dinner at a Mexican restaurant off Castro St. in Mountain View. They got us a Chanukah present from Crate & Barrel. I can't wait to open it!

• Returned the stupid mini-van I rented from Dollar this morning. I won't be renting from them at SJC ever again for two reasons. First, I'm sick and tired of reserving an Economy, Compact, or Mid-Size car and getting stuck with a minivan. Second, our travel policy indicates that our preferred vendor is Avis. Even though I'm saving the company money (getting the $32.99/day rate from Dollar vs. $50-something even with the Avis corporate discount), apparently I'm not being a good corporate citizen. Next time I'm going to just take taxis to/from SJC.
  

I'm off to light some candles!

International Abolition of Slavery Day

Today (December 2nd) is International Abolition of Slavery Day. According to the iAbolish Freedom Action Network,

This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the international community's decision to abolish slavery everywhere, through the adoption of the Slavery Convention in 1927. Though the legal argument against slavery has been won, slavery persists and even thrives in some parts of the world. By conservative estimates, 30 million people are enslaved today -- more than any time in history.

To do your part to help to end slavery, visit iAbolish.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is today.

I'm doing my part to link to articles about AIDS. I read about the Link and Think campaign last week in Wired News.

Here comes the rain again

It has been raining in LA the past 24 hours. This is fantastic. I can hardly even remember the last time it rained. Certainly not this summer. This has lots of great side-effects:

1. I don't need to water the lawn this week.
2. The streets are going to get nice 'n' clean.
3. All of that gross LA smog goes away (and when the rain stops, the visibility will be superb).
4. I can go outside and splash in some puddles if I need a break!

Of course, there are a bunch of drawbacks, too:

1. LA drivers don't really know what to do in the rain, so there might be some more traffic accidents today. God willing, nobody will get hurt.
2. Our new house has a flat roof, and I'm a wee bit worried about whether it's going to leak or not. So far, we're drip-free! (my grandma would add "Kin-a hura poo-poo-poo")
3. My brother-in-law, who is in town this weekend from New York, happened to visit LA in some of the worst weather we've had in a year.

Ariella and I were musing about writing blogs this morning, and about how it's stimulating a healthy flow of creative energy. Even if nobody is actually reading this, it's fantastic exercise to organize my thoughts and put them into words. Although I don't have anything profound to say this morning (the weather isn't exactly what I would call the makings of an intellectual conversation), it's still such a thrill to be able to do some writing. I sure missed that.

I'm going to muse about something more profound than the weather next time. Look for an upcoming blog in the Intellectual Property category on micropayments, PayPal, and online music.