Back to China

Today is a travel day. I am heading to Chengdu via Hong Kong to spend time at the Sichuan University. Unfortunately Cathay did not bump me up to Business Class for this leg of the trip. That's O.K., sometimes it is more comfortable in coach sitting in the exit row aisle seat. I've noticed in the last few months that Cathay has downgraded the food in Business Class. I don't know if that was just for that flight or whether it is a new trend to save money.

The Sichuan University has invited me to come and teach on he subject of iconography in Tibetan art. It is not an easy subject and even more difficult to try and teach. Up until now there have been no systems, course curriculum or publications that teach a systematic and intelligible method of learning Tibetan iconography. I have spent many years thinking about a system and worked through many course models. Some failed miserably and others had moderate success. Through trial and error I believe I now have a model that will work - it just has to be proven in the field - a classroom with interested students. The graduate students at Sichuan University will be the test case.

Hong Kong Airport

Here again, relaxing in the Cathay lounge known as the 'Wing' listening to Louis B. Armstrong piped through the wall speakers. Just finished my first Dan Dan Noodle of the season. I don't know if Dan Dan Noodles have a season, but when I am traveling in China then that is the season. The first thing I did when I arrived was have a hot shower to freshen up, then eat, check e-mail and telephone. Yes, it is a routine.

The food on the flight out of NY was good and the staff wonderful as usual. However, one of my fears was realized. I had seen most of the movies that were offered. I found some things to watch and was pleasantly surprised by some and had to turn off others. All in all it worked out. I am still not used to the new business class seats and didn't really sleep much at all. The coffin space is really confining and completely unforgiving if you are not of a certain body size range. Outside of that range and you are screwed.

As of tomorrow I will be using the alternate Travel Blog while in China. You know, because of those Google issues: Jeff on the Road.

P.S. So far I have not had any bites from bed bugs. What a refreshing change in quality of life.

Vancouver Bound for American Thanksgiving

Well here it is again, the American Thanksgiving Holiday. I have spent the previous 10 years in New York City and enough is enough. My boss invited me once to his home for Thanksgiving and then I spent several years going out with Gene Smith to I Coppi, a restaurant in the East Village, for Thanksgiving dinner. But, aside from these highlights it is dead boring here with everything closed on the THURSDAY and me just working everyday all the way through the weekend. Why not go home? What a thought. So here I am about to get on a Cathay Pacific flight out of New York, bumped to Business Class. They are very nice at Cathay. The best airline in the world. On my recent marathon trip to Beijing China in October they also bumped me to Business Class on the NY to Hong Kong portion of the flight. They are truly old fashion and professional. My favourite airline. But enough about them.......

Today the HAR website has moved to a new hosting server that is faster and more secure. It is also more Apple friendly. Although 6% of the computer world that claims to be better than all the rest of us has never been high on my priority list. I have been using a personal computer since 1984 and I have never had a rash of computer crashes due to software, Windows, DOS or otherwise. In the last fifteen years any serious crashes have been due to incompatibility between hardware components because I have built the computer or had someone else build it based on my specs. Obviously wrong.

It is likely that the entire notion of PCs crashing all the time is a marketing creation of Apple. I cannot count the number of times I have sat through a business meeting where an Apple is being used to give a presentation and the user tells me "I don't know what happened it has never done this before". Apples crash, they crash a lot, but the users have been brain washed into saying "OMG this has never happened before." Hogwash, Grow Up, Apple is only in business today because Microsoft bought a huge interest in their stocks so they wouldn't go out of business. The day Apple goes out of business is the day the US Government steps in and divides up Microsoft for being a monopoly. It is in Microsoft's interest, not marginally, but totally, to keep Apple alive and viable. Enough about Apple. Apple is BIG BROTHER technology. With PC technology free thinking computer users can create and work within a free environment.

HAR has changed serves and the upgrade should be marginally noticeable in speed and performance. I say marginally because most people don't pay too much attention to those things. If we went back to the early 90s with the real consumer beginnings of the Internet then YES, we noticed changes in performance. Dial-up modems, what were we thinking. Come on now, what were we thinking? Were we cutting edge? What about cable modems? Wi-fi? Things have changed.

The HAR site for some people will be faster, it might produce results slightly quicker. What is important is that it is a more stable server, not that HAR has had a lot of down time in the last year. The Coldfusion platform is newer and we will be taking advantage of the best that Adobe Software has to offer. Sure, why buy into Coldfusion if you can use Php, free, no charge, open source. Well, can you say crap shoot, maybe you didn't hear me CRAP SHOOT. Php is great, open source and all that - whatever it really means. But, who do you have setting standards? If you build a site then how easy is it to have someone else, after the initial developer, come in and figure out what is going on? What modules and libraries have been used? What are the shortcuts, back doors? All I can say is crap shoot.

Some might call this a rant. Some might call this a rave. I call it a positive release of stress from New York in anticipation of a weeks rest in a civilized part of the world - Vancouver.