in an iPod World

no computers after 8pm in my house

Our family decided that we will all turn off our computers at 8pm each night. We have not decided what to do over the weekend. Although we may experience some energy saving, the primary purpose of this to have un-plugged time of reading books, listening music and conversations.

p.s. Then, I came across this and this postings by Bob Sutton.

good food

Candy's new look

He got a knot and a ribbon. Taken with Nikon D80.

Bye, Bye Verizon and Hello to Comcast

I have been waiting for Verizon's FIOS service to come to my house for some time. The idea of having 20Mbps service was very tempting. First, I called them last October, 2007 as I received a lot of unsolicited calls and mail to get FIOS at our home. They sent their engineer who found that there was no fiber cable in our neighbor. He was puzzled and frustrated, and said "someone head is going to roll tomorrow. You will trucks out here, digging and laying the cable in a day or two. You should really call and complain about it." Well, I decided not to. I have better things to do.

In late December, I noticed finally Verizon people digging our neighbor burying cable under the ground. When that work was done, I thought I would give them a call. I was told that "we would love to take your order now, but you will not get our HDTV service, since we are out of stock for HD receiver." When I asked them when I will receive HD receivers, they had no answer. So, I decided to wait further.

About a week ago, I finally decided that it is time to pull the trigger and called Verizon one more time. They gladly scheduled an appointment for installation and I received about 5-6 phone calls reminding me about the appointment. I decided that I would work at home, waiting for the Verizon engineer. Of course, I scheduled my Comcast Cable TV to be discontinued beginning today. The guy finally came and he was a very pleasant person. But, after an hour or so, and many phone calls, he told me the bad news. To my surprise, it was the same reason. There is no fiber in my neighbor yet. I asked him about the work that they did in front of my house -- they dug the ground and put the conduit, but did not put the cable through it. So, I was back to square one. The guy and his foreman apologized and said the same thing. Call Verizon and complain. So, I called this time and asked for an immediate action plus one-year free service. But, so far, nothing has happened yet.

Then, I had to call Comcast to cancel my cancel order. The guy that I spoke to persuaded me to completely switch over to Comcast, including our phone lines. So I did. No more waiting for Verizon to put the fiber in my front yard. No more cancelled appointment. No more waiting. I am getting Comcast Triple play. So, bye bye Verizon and hello to Comcast.

absent-minded professor --- almost there

I was in San Francisco earlier this week for the NSF project on distributed innovation that I am working on. My flight arrived late on Sunday night. I arrived at the Club Quarters almost around midnight. The following is what happened.

Me: Hi, I have a reservation.
CQ: Sure. What's your last name?
Me: Yoo. Y-o-o.
CQ: Well, you have TWO reservations. Do you need both rooms?
Me: (Surprised) Are you sure? I only made one reservation.
CQ: Well, let's see. You made one on August 15th and another one on the 24th. Both through Orbitz.

(At that point, I realized that I remember checking the price of hotel twice on Orbitz, but I really did not remember reserving it when I went there first. That was why I went there in the second place.)

CQ: Don't worry. The Orbitz people have become very flexible. I am sure they understand.

(Understand what?)

The problem is that Orbitz wants you to pre-pay the hotel fee ahead of time. So, I actually paid for two rooms. So, I had to call Orbitz customer service and had to explain my situation. Fortunately, I was able to work with very understanding person who was more than willing to take it with a sense of humor.

Next morning I shared this story with Dick Boland, who then responded by saying, "well, once you find yourself spending more than half of your time solving this type problem that you created (big laugh), you are ready to become a full professor." So I guess I am not that far off from it.

Mastercard moment

2 Tickets: $60.00
A hot dog and BBQ: $22.25
French fries: $4.75
A signed baseball: $14.00
A form finger: $9.00
Parking: $10.00

Time alone with Danny at the ball park: Priceless

mobile phone number portability

It has been few years since people are able to switch their mobile carrier without changing their mobile phone number. I recently got a Blackberry 8830 from Verizon Wireless. My old number was a part of a family plan. My new phone is a part of the Temple business account plan. And, I was told that I am not able to keep my old number. It seems really strange when they can let their customers who are switching over from another carrier keep their old number, while cannot let their own customers keep their old Verizon number. Something is not quite right in this picture.

Shrek the Third

Last night, I went out to see Shrek the Third. I was disappointed at the end. Daniel summed it up by saying, "I think they are running out of ideas."

Raleigh

I am visiting Raleigh, NC for data collection at Raleigh Convention Center project. My flight got delayed more than an hour and I arrived shortly after mid-night. Since I could not catch shuttle for my original rental company (Dollar), I had to cancel it and use the one that was still open, Hertz. This is the room that I am staying.

Link to May 9 Archive

In my short interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, I mentioned an archive of the e-mail messages that we exchanged on May 9, 2003. I learned that it was not just me who browsed through the archive when the news about Virginia Tech shooting broke out. The messages show solidarity, love and care more than anything else. One message that was not archived but should have been is the following one:

Dear All
I heard that Professor Yoo YoungJin is in the MBA building right now. I have no idea whether he is safe or not. I hope he is safe. If I have a new information about him, I will send email to you. Please All KGSA members, pray for him and his family.

Thanks,

P.S. if the hostage continues overnight, the soccer game will be cancelled. I will let you know

This message was from the president of Korean Graduate Student Association at Case Western Reserve University at that time. I laughed so hard when I received the message because of the reference to the cancellation of the soccer game.