jorge's jome

Remind me not to invite this guy to my next LAN party. Uh...not like I really host LAN parties...that would make me a dork...yeah.

Posted by at 10:32 PM | Permalink

All the changes got pushed through, finally, so I'm running out of my box at home. Things will be a little slower, but I'm sure my 4 readers won't mind. :) Actually, I'm getting over 100 hits per day on my weather podcast, so I want to make sure I keep those people happy, whoever they are. Let me know if I broke anything along the way.

Posted by at 3:48 PM | Permalink

I'll be hosting my own site in a couple of days, once the DNS changes propogate. While Linux hosting is relatively cheap, hosting my own box will, of course, give me a lot more control over my site and allow me to do much more with it. I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way.

Posted by at 7:20 PM | Permalink

Nikon has a ton of rebates right now on many of their digital cameras, including a $100 rebate on the D70. So if you're looking to buy a camera then I suggest you take a look at their special offers.

Posted by at 5:29 PM | Permalink

I finally got around to downloading and posting the pictures from the last day of my trip. I got back on Thursday morning. I had a great time in NYC, I'd go back there in a heartbeat. I'd also like to recommend jetBlue, they're adding new destinations all the time and the fares are really hard to beat. Plus, you can watch DirecTV on your own little TV built into the chair back. The airfare was about $270 roundtrip, including taxes and TSA fees.

I started out my final day in NY by taking the Staten Island ferry. My friend Haim had recommended this ferry for a couple of reasons: 1) it's free, and 2) it gives you a good view of the skyline. And since you can no longer climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty, this seemed like a good choice. The ferry takes about 20 minutes to get to Staten Island and I was able to immediately jump on the return ferry, so the total roundtrip was under an hour. As mentioned earlier, it did give me a good view of the skyline and of the Statue of Liberty. The skyline image is also my new banner, for now.

From there, I took a walk downtown...after the mandatory hot dog purchase from a street vendor, of course. I finally located Broadway street and headed north, and soon came across Wall St.

This is the NW corner of the New York Stock Exchange which, I am told, no longer accepts visitors and is pretty well guarded.

I headed west to see the former site of the World Trade Center. Construction is in progress to build the World Trade Center Memorial. Here is a banner with an artist's rendition of what that will look like. More info here.

And here is what it looks like today, facing east.

Next, I hopped on the subway and headed toward north Manhattan. I took the A train, which is an expressway that runs the length of the island, and beyond. It took almost an hour to get to north Manhattan from downtown. I got off at 190th street and headed into Fort Tryon Park, where The Cloisters are located. This area is a set of buildings modeled in the medieval style of the Middle Ages, complete with sculptures, tapestries and paintings from that time. Unfortunately, I got there 45 minutes before closing, so rather than try to rush through the interior of the buildings I chose to walk around the outside. They are really quite remarkable to look at, although they are surrounded by many trees so it was difficult to get a good photograph. This is about the best I could do.

Here is another shot, a little closer up.

I jumped on the subway and headed back down to Central Park West. I was able to get back to the American Museum of Natural History with an hour left before closing, so I took advantage of the fact that they were letting people in for free at that time of day and checked out the space exhibit area, which I had missed the day before.

That was pretty much the end of my trip, I really enjoyed my time there and look forward to going back sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Posted by at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Earlier this week, Adobe released a new version of its DNG Converter and a new Camera Raw update. DNG (digital negative) is Adobe's proposal for a standard to the RAW camera files that are proprietary for each manufacturer. It is still unclear whether or not this standard will be adopted by camera makers, my personal feeling is that some will and some won't.

Posted by at 3:02 PM | Permalink

If you know me, then you know I love to eat. And after yesterday's steak at Smith & Wollensky, I knew I was going to have a hard time trying to match that. Well, I came pretty damn close. The Memphis Pork Ribs at Virgil's Real BBQ on 44th St. were absolutely phenomenal. New Yorkers also love to eat, apparently. I think I'd fit right in.

Let's see, what else did I do today...I started out by heading downtown. First, I took the Staten Island ferry and got a few shots of the downtown skyline and of the Statue of Liberty (will share those later). Next, I walked around downtown, visiting Wall Street, the NY Stock Exchange, Ground Zero and St. Paul's Chapel. Then I hopped on the subway all the way to the opposite end of Manhattan to see The Cloisters, at the recommendation of my friend, Haim. Finally, I stopped back at the American Museum of Natural History to visit the space exhibit.

Well, that's it for now. I've got some more pictures that I'll post tomorrow. Gotta get up early for the flight home. I'm going to miss NY.

Posted by at 5:57 PM | Permalink

Today was museum day. I first headed over to the American Museum of Natural History. I didn't get to spend too much time there because I was meeting a friend for lunch at Carnegie's Deli on 7th and 55th, but I am going to try to stop there again tomorrow.

After lunch I headed over to the subway station to get to the Guggenheim Museum. This being my first time on the NY subway system, I was bound to make a mistake. And sure enough, I did. I got off one exit too early and couldn't find the connecting train, so I ended up walking about 30 blocks to get to the museum. Tiring, but worth the walk. They are currently showing a very interesting exhibit of art from the Aztec Empire.

From there I took the subway back to my hotel. This time, something weird happened. When the train stopped, all the people that were waiting proceeded to board. Then we were all told to get off, and that the train was making no more stops. We all got off, and they backed the train up and it was gone. A few minutes later the next one showed up. Of course, by this time the number of people waiting to board had doubled, so it got crowded pretty quickly. Remember when you were a kid and someone had the bright idea of seeing how many people you could cram into a VW bug? You get the idea.

After a short nap, I headed out for dinner. Now, my boss Steve has been telling me about Smith and Wollensky so I had made a dinner reservation there for tonight. I have to say, all the rumors I have heard about this place are true. Quite possibly the best steak I have ever had.

Now, despite the reputation of this city, I had a hard time finding a Starbucks open after 10:00 p.m. You pretty much have to be mid-town Manhattan to see anything open late, so I had to walk about a half mile to get to 7th Avenue, which is where I am now. This one is open 'til 1 a.m., although I'm sure there must be a 24-hour one around here somewhere.

Well, that's it for today. More tomomorrow.

Posted by at 7:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)