Even more pictures of Jinx, at eight weeks old, for your enjoyment:

Well, the puppy, Jinx, has arrived at my mother’s home and is managing to wear out three adults every day running around and playing continually. My brother was kind enough to send another photo of her on the sofa next to an Eeyore toy:

Finally got fed up with all my calls being dropped by AT&T as I drive around the bay area (they are getting worse by the month here at the moment in terms of the number of places that have full signal strength but still drop you as you drive by). And that is on their old TDMA network; the GSM service in the bay area is supposed to be even worse at the moment (they are transitioning from one to the other at the moment).

So, we signed up for a family plan on T-Mobile. Seems that we can only transfer one number to the family plan (because our original plans were in different names, and the family plan is in just one name). Apart from that though, the plan was better than AT&T and they were willing to give us new phones that were not just the cheapest (AT&T’s best offer was a no-name phone or a $30 credit to the account – less than one month’s service).

Then we discovered that AT&T’s contract end dates are not 12 months from the date they show the contract starting on their web page – they back-date the start date when you call to change plans, but make the contract term then somewhere between 12 & 13 months.

Overall though, the change has been good so far. The only complaint I really have, and this affects all the GSM providers (as well as some of the non-GSM ones), coverage here in Alameda is nowhere near as good as their map would suggest. In my apartment it is impossible for me to get any signal at all, and it doesn’t get much better until I am almost back at the Oakland side of the island. With AT&T’s TDMA service I could at least get a couple of bars of signal, and usually make & receive calls successfully.

A trip to my old university city of Canterbury, in Kent, today to see a new cocker spaniel puppy that my mother will be bringing home early next year. She won’t be home until after I’m back in the U.S. We did snap a photo though (as always, click the image for a larger version):

Saturday December 20, 2003 found me in Horsham, West Sussex for the wedding of long time friend David to Lucy. The wedding ceremony was held in the main hall at Christ’s Hospital School which was freezing cold since the heating on the campus had failed a few weeks earlier and was still not fixed.

The reception was held at another school in the area, Tandridge School. The bride and groom then headed for a hotel for the night, and a flight the next day to St. Lucia in the Caribbean for a Christmas honeymoon.

Driving home last night all the lights dimmed. Not the ones outside, the ones on the dash. The little gauge that measures the charging level dipped well into its red zone and it was looking touch and go for a while on the getting home front.

This morning I dropped by the car dealer, Good Chevrolet here in Alameda, and they checked it out and concluded that the alternator needs to be replaced. So, I am here in Starbucks online and working. Thank goodness for wireless technology, eh?

While I’m writing, check out the old postcards of Alameda. And, no, the car dealer doesn’t look quite the same now as it did in that old postcard.

Was hoping for a wet night so that I could get some nice shots of the Christmas lights in my neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the rain and my schedule did not coincide so the photos were taken on a cool dry night, with crystal clear skies – tonight.

Here’s four of the best in the area:

If I find any more (or it happens to be a nice wet night and I have the camera with me), I’ll add some additional shots.

Photography, as opposed to just taking snapshots, is something that I’ve been dabbling in for a while, especially since getting my digital camera. Some of those photos have appeared here in my weblog, others have been shared with family and friends, one or two hang on my walls.

But this entry is not about me. It is about a photographer who lives here in the San Francisco bay area called Jesse Kalisher. His website contains a number of black and white shots from all over the world (there are also a few colour shots in there if you look hard enough for them).

My favourite, and perhaps it is biased by the fact that I live here, is this shot of the Golden Gate bridge in the dawn fog. Which is your favourite? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Well, not to be outdone by the high-tech toilets from the far east, it would seem that students at MIT here in the US have created a high-tech urinal. Called You’re In Control (say it to yourself and you’ll get it), the thing is basically a computer game coupled with a urinal.

The demo unit seems to have been used in conjunction with some water bottles and a hose, allowing public use by both male and female parties. If you have the bandwidth for it on your internet connection, be sure to check out the video of one of these public demo sessions.

I promise that’s it for toilets. No more.

Well, it seems that I was behind the curve so to speak. Wired magazine had an article all about something far more advanced than the toilet I encountered in the hotel room.

Seems that this one comes with a remote control and also automatically raises the seat when somebody approaches. My favourite quote from the article though has to be this:

“Things are spraying, sloshing, squirting and swooshing. The theme from Jaws suddenly starts playing in my head, and I tell you I retracted my personal parts from that toilet very quickly,” Cohen said.

I have to say, I understand exactly what he means, only I wasn’t brave enough to press the buttons while sitting on the thing (well, other than the STOP button which I pressed the second I sat down to stop what the status panel described as Preparation).

Even TechTV is getting in on the act with a segment on Fresh Gear, their technology review program, all about Toto’s Neorest toilet. You can read their reporter’s reactions too on the show’s web pages.