Author: corey

Not one but two Ali-G mentions in the New York Times.

First is in an Op-Ed by Moureen Dowd who I dismissed inappropriately, but who I have since begun to like quite a bit. She then links to an interview with Sacha himself.

I’ve been a big fan of his from way back when I used to download the British version off Usenet.

!FB-aye!

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Our travel department booked me on Virgin Air from Hong Kong to London against my original instruction for an American Airline milage partner. I’m half glad they did.

The 777 is a great plane – quiet and smooth. They have the new super sleeper cabin on this particular flight. Each seat is its own little cocoon with all the accoutriments. There are three rows of seats facing diagnally. I haven’t figured out what all these buttons are for yet.

To convert to full sleep mode you have to get up and out of the seat, hit a special button and the seat folds down to reveal a 100% flat bed. The flight attendent brings over sheets and a duvet and practically tucks you in.

Maybe best of all a very hot flight attendent (think Kate Beckinsale at 35 (who’s 30 now)) came by to ask if I would like an in-flight massage and which treatment I wanted. Unfortunately my quest for continued sleep and my discomfort at receiving services from good looking women meant that I passed. 

While not quite Austin Powers level there is a full-on bar with stools and everything at the back of the first class cabin. I like how business and first class are merged into a singular “Upper Class”.

Co-worker whom I just met: “Where are you from? What accent is that?”

Me: “Uh, nowhere, but I grew up originally in southern California…”

Her: “Oh yeah, that explains it”

Me: “mkay”

Her: “Cause when I first met you I thought your voice sounded like you were holding in a bong hit”

Me:

Our upcoming project at work will have a clustered SQL Server for a backend. No current production systems currently use clustering and our vendor building the solution doesn’t really have the budget to buy cluster capable hardware just for testing.

Here’s where VM technology comes in. For this I chose Virtual Server 2005 because I could get a trial version and I only need this system to be running for a few months (the trial expires in Jan 2005).

On one physical server I build an Active Directory domain controller and two SQL Server 2000 servers attached to a virtual Shared disk subsystem – just a file on the host machine in active/passive clustering mode. This way we can test our application, test failover procedures without having to actually buy cluster hardware.

The beauty of all this was I was able to do it in just a few hours and didn’t encounter any trouble at any step along the way.

I’m getting better at taking pictures of the skyline. The trick is to use the infrared remote control, balance the camera on a railing somewhere, turn on landscape mode and turn off the flash.

Britney Spears’ loft at 14 East 4th Street is for sale ($6Million). The real estate agent included these interior shots which prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Britney has no taste where taste is concerned. Also check out the after un decorated version with floorplans here.

[via Curbed]
[realtor listing]

MetroNaps: “the premier provider of professional nap centers in the United States”

1. Check In. Call in advance for reservations or just walk in.
2. Order Lunch (Optional). MetroNaps offers everything from salad to sandwiches to sushi. Order before you nap; your food will be waiting for you when you wake!
3. Recharge. The MetroNaps Method is designed to let you recharge in just 20 minutes. You’ll feel refreshed without feeling groggy.
4. Refresh. Use the MetroNaps Wake Station’s lotion, facial spritz and lemon-scented hand towels to prepare yourself for work.
5. Return. Continue your day feeling completely renewed. The whole process takes less than 25 minutes.

Their first, just opened location is three blocks from my office – in the Empire State building.

Hong Kong Issues Typhoon Alert as Storm Nears City [Bloomberg]

Good timing for a flight to London right? The Typhoon scale goes 1,2,3,8,10. In about an hour they are moving to a level 8 which means everyone in the office gets to go home. Chinese Snow Day!

When we ask if they think we’ll still be able to get on our flights they just look at each other and laugh.

There are 25 channels in this hotel, 3 sports channels. These pictures were taken at the same time on two different channels. That’s 8% of available programming.

Also available virtually 24/7 is pool (9ball), snooker, or badminton .

Boing Boing points to the dancing almond optical illusion which I had seen before and refers secondarily to the checker shadow illusion which is actually a lot more interesting. You definitely need to check it out – your brain will fight your eyes. At first you’ll absolutely refuse to beleive that the squares are the same color. I validated the accurracy of the illusion with photoshop’s eye dropper tool and it’s 100% legit. Amazing.

Bonus Emo Phillips joke: I used to think the brain was the most fascination part of the human body… then I realized, well look who’s telling me that.