A Journey to the Levant
Don’t get it.
Why would people walk on the beach with a selfie stick, taking a video of themselves.
Doesn’t it seems to them too staged? What do they plan to with this video? A memory? Show their Friends?
I do take photos, but seldom of myself. A photo or a video is a good way to remind me of an encounter, a specific event. But I never considered documenting myself walking on the beach.
Generation gap, or generation vanity ?
Guam is great, but the food is American.
More than 8 years in Japan and it seems my tastes and stomach are not in favor of fat greasy food.
So, you can imagine what a great relief I found in Onigiri Seven, a Japanese food stand which serves tasty and reasonable Japanese food. From Onigiri to Udon, Gyudon and more.
Highly recommended.
When I was in university, many years ago, AI was a big hype. Or so it seemed to me back then.
I obviously took AI classes, implemented Backgammon heuristics in LISP and lost the competition we had.
One of the projects (or was it a seminar) i did was to implement Neural networks to identify text from a small pixelated images.
Quite certain I still have a print-out of the code at my parents house, but I doubt if it make me proud readying it now.
And why do I write about this?
As I am taking the Deep Learning Specialization in Coursera, I implement Neural Networks in Python and in one hour of coding I achieve more than several weeks of coding, trial and error more than 20 years ago.
Have a tiny pomegranate tree in a plant pot in my garden.
A very small tree with small leaf, small flowers and fruit. As we don’t really handle it correctly, it is just a tiny tree, not a Bonsai. Now I wish I knew how to do it right.
First time working with Cordovan leather, and what a fabulous leather it is.
Purchased online from Leathermania (payment via Amazon) and what a wonderful leather it is.
Made in Japan by Shinki Hikaku , in Himeji, Hyogo. An area that has many tanneries and good leather companies.
As it is rather small (and expensive), decided to make a business card holder. The Cordovan was used for the exterior and main pocket.
Result is quite good, I could improve the side and how it closes, but overall the result is great.
His new book AX is in the best selling list, so I thought I might as well try reading Japanese suspense books.
Started with Grasshopper (グラスホッパー） which tells the story of Suzuki, Semi (蝉, Cicada) and Kujira (鯨, Whale).
Kujira kills people by “convincing” them to commit suicide, Semi kills people with a knife and Suzuki entered this world to avenge the murder of his wife.
As expected, story and literary value is not satisfying, but I keep on reading. Partially to learn words and situations I am still not familiar with (crime and police), partially because I keep waiting for something to happen
A good article by the Economist 1843 Magazine on overthinking .
I think most of us experienced it in our lives and I often see it around me.
It does not mean that research and knowledge are not necessary, but at some point the load and amount of data make it difficult for us to make decisions. Contrary to Deep Learning/Machine Learning that more data can be helpful (usually), I guess the human brain has limitations on processing.
Can be as simple as deciding “Which coffee machine to use at the office”, researching all options, quality, pricing, or which hotel is the best for a family trip.
Today’s life and data on the internet provides us too much information. Some good, some bad, some intentionally manipulated by marketing companies and we need to find a way to make educated decision but not “overloaded, overthought” decisions .
Decided to have a notebook cover to my notebook cover.
Something that will carry my notebook, a pen and a few business cards.
Design is straight forward, the result is amazing (in my opinion).
The following headline from Network Computing is accurate but misleading:
“Ethernet Switch Market: Cisco Declines, Arista Gains”
From just the headline one can assume Arista is getting close to Cisco Market share and about to gain the lead, but reading the article reveals more information.
Cisco is indeed declining, Market share dropped to 55.1% from 59%. This goes inline with global trend of having an option and Open Ethernet.
While Arista is gaining, 5.1% from 3.9% . An impressive gain, but no where near Cisco.
A more important detail and maybe a catchier headline would have been Huawei. 6.3% from 3.9%. Yes, Huawei surpassed Arista in Market share, yet the headline discusses Arista.
Not Fake news, but interesting interpretation.
Finished making a new bag, this time a laptop bag.
Realized that my bag is heavy and if I could split the weight it would be much easier (although more cumbersome) and will also allow me to use my handmade leather bag.
Very proud of this one, as made the handles by myself and designed it from scratch.
Actually, design has changed in the middle as I decided to add a zipper, which destroyed the intended curves I planned, but overall happy with the results
