Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
Posted on January 26, 2011 - by Venik
Kodak Learns the Art of Patent Trolling
Just read in Bloomberg that Kodak is looking at a possible loss in its ITC patent infringement case against Apple and RIM. Kodak says that the low-resolution preview feature found in most digital cameras is infringing on a Kodak patent. The ITC judge said that patent should be invalidated, because the low-res preview technology is [...]
Posted on December 7, 2010 - by Venik
PayPal dumps Wikileaks
As you already know, PayPal stopped accepting charitable donations for Wikileaks. The Guardian reported that PayPal froze about eighty thousand dollars donated to Wikileaks via PayPal Donations service. So far PayPal has refused to release the funds, nor has it issued refunds to its customers who donated the money. I know this because I donated [...]
Posted on October 16, 2010 - by Venik
Hotels for Business Travel
So, I am coming back from a quick trip and I was staying at Marriott. At times of economic uncertainty many hotel chains (airlines, car rentals, and even restaurants) try targeting the business customer. The newly designed rooms at Marriott look like my office filled with Ikea furniture. Smells like one too. It’s not a [...]
Posted on October 7, 2009 - by Venik
Your Savings and the Decline of the Dollar
About a year ago I wrote about the plans Russia and other oil-producing nations have for breaking the tie between the price of oil and the value of the dollar. For years Russia and OPEC countries have been tiptoeing around this issue until the recent massive collapse of the US banking industry forced their plans [...]
Posted on June 13, 2009 - by Venik
Bluehost.com Web Hosting Problems
Bluehost.com is a large Web hosting provider based in Provo, Utah. It advertises “professional Web hosting” and claims to be “specializing in customer satisfaction”. Yesterday I learned neither of these claims is true. Originally, I selected Bluehost.com over my other top picks – Site5.com, Hostway.com, and my own old Sun E3000 server sitting in the [...]
Posted on December 29, 2008 - by Venik
Happy New Year!
I wish all of you a happy New Year. Thanks for reading my blog. My wish for the new year is the same as always. No surprises. And I wish the same to you. May only those things happen that you planned for, or at least saw coming. What would life be without surprises? Just [...]
Posted on November 20, 2008 - by Venik
New Interface for Xbox 360
As of last night Microsoft went in and changed one of the best things about its Xbox 360 gaming console – its graphical user interface. Instead of a functional, neatly-organized folder view, now you get a childish design with avatar selection reminiscent of Sierra’s vintage Leisure Suit Larry characters. Microsoft succeeded in creating an interface [...]
Posted on October 14, 2008 - by Venik
Standard & Poor’s Role in the Credit Crash
Russia’s Interfax news agency published a short article by Sergei Vybornov, president of the ALROSA corporation, touching on the subject of S&P’s responsibility for the global lending industry crisis. ALROSA is Russia’s largest diamond mining company handling a quarter of the world’s natural diamond production. Sergei Vybornov – a diplomat in the past – is [...]
Posted on August 17, 2008 - by Venik
Verizon FiOS is still too green. I am back with Comcast.
A quick update on my Verizon saga: I had to cancel my new Verizon Business FiOS and went back to my Comcast Business connection. There are just too many issues with Verizon’s service. The primary problems are Verizon’s impossible-to-reach customer service and its inept technical support, but there are also issues with quality of signal [...]
Posted on August 9, 2008 - by Venik
My Verizon FiOS Experience
The Motivation I had Comcast as my ISP since 1998, when their broadband service was still known as Network. I had a few complaints about Comcast’s Internet service, but it wasn’t anything major – perhaps a brief network outage now and then or an occasional slowdown. Still, for about a year now I’ve been [...]
Posted on January 2, 2008 - by Venik
Getting organized
NY Times ran a piece A Clutter Too Deep for Mere Bins and Shelves about potential impact of clutter around the house on your mental and physical health. I don’t know about your house, but for me the biggest source of clutter always has been the mailbox. Every time I would clean up, the crap [...]
Posted on December 22, 2007 - by Venik
Back from New York
I am back from New York and getting ready for the holidays. If you never worked in IT, the pre-holiday time is the worst. Every lazy user, who was sitting on his ass for months doing nothing, suddenly realizes that its the end of the year and nothing has been done. So he submits a [...]
Posted on December 10, 2007 - by Venik
Grand Hyatt New York, Part II
To continue where I left off: the expectation of the fifty-dollar breakfast. The previous night I requested the breakfast to be delivered to my room between 6:30 and 7am. It arrived fashionably late at 7:10am, wrapped in cellophane like a TV dinner. It was supposed to be a Japanese breakfast with miso soup, grilled salmon, [...]
Posted on December 10, 2007 - by Venik
Grand Hyatt New York, Part I
So here I am, sitting in my overpriced room on the 23-rd floor of the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. The problem is not with the room – the room is not bad. A little dusty, but OK. I am not a picky person. I’ve seen worse. There was something gelatinous floating in the toilet, so [...]
