Tuesday, January 31, 2006
The big RHCA EX333 exam
Which I have very likely failed was on friday. For one I did not get any chance to prepare sufficiently, and overnight cramming was not enough to remember everything required. It is a simple exam to clear, you only got to know everything in the book.
Mountain View
is where Red Hat's office is located. Its quite little city about 36 miles out from San Francisco. There is a mountain range right next to it, (smaller then the western ghats) that you can see from nearly everywhere. The office is located on Castro street, which is also the center of Mountain View. Castro street has several restaurants, an Irish pub, a few shopping joints, the Mountain View center for Performing arts, the city hall and several offices. The trees here are lit up with decorative lights every evening to give the whole place a very festive atmosphere. Whats missing? a few street musicians, street performers, painters, and it would be a grand party.
Hummers
The Humvees are everywhere. Monstrous SUVs that guzzle gas by the gallon. I even have a picture of a hummer stretched into a limo which will be posted the day I get the film developed and the pictures scanned.
Plugs and sockets
For one, I have realised that Americans are clueless about the rest of the world. I had been running my laptop on battery ever since I left home on Tue, and it became obvious that I will need to plug it in soon. Now my laptop has a UK plug, which is about twice as big as your typical american socket, and so I needed a
Universal socket adapter to do this. I was thinking it would be a simple matter of walking into one of the departmental stores and picking it up. After all, similar adapters are available at every street corner in India. And I recall that it was quite easy to find one in Sri Lanka and Australia as well. so I thought no big deal of it. In the end, I had visited 4 supermarkets and go over 15 miles before I found one in Fry's. And that too is an international adapter which just happens to work in the US. Oh well.
Universal socket adapter to do this. I was thinking it would be a simple matter of walking into one of the departmental stores and picking it up. After all, similar adapters are available at every street corner in India. And I recall that it was quite easy to find one in Sri Lanka and Australia as well. so I thought no big deal of it. In the end, I had visited 4 supermarkets and go over 15 miles before I found one in Fry's. And that too is an international adapter which just happens to work in the US. Oh well.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Landing in SFO
So I took the plane from NY to SFO. Six hours and 2600 miles later I am in SFO, looking forward to collecting my bags and get to the hotel and crash. It has been smooth sailing so far. But then something has to go wrong right? It does. While I have landed in SFO, my baggage has not :( I just knew it was all too good to be true. So I walk into the baggage claims dept of Delta. Turns out that I had to claim my bags in NY and walk them thru customs, and I didn't do that. Daftest thing I ever did. I was fooled because the baggage tags had said SFO, and I thought that the baggage would come straight here.
So here I am typing this out in an airport shuttle heading to the hotel without any change of clothes hoping that the bags will come in the next flight.
Update 26.01.06:
I received my bags today morning at 3 am. Unfortunately US customs decided that the bags were a threat to US national security and broke into both of them. So now I have one suitcase that is totally useless although the other is fixable.
Another thing: remember I mentioned that something is wrong with cabin pressure on Delta flights? There definitely is, the flight to SFO was a 757 operated by song airlines (www.flysong.com) and I did not get any headaches.
Song plays Jazz music on board :), cabin crew is friendly, food is ok (you gotta buy it, but then at least it is there), and there are entertainment panels for every seat. Recommendable.
Also recommended is singapore airlines which I had taken to .au. I saw their planes in NY so they sure do fly to the US.
So here I am typing this out in an airport shuttle heading to the hotel without any change of clothes hoping that the bags will come in the next flight.
Update 26.01.06:
I received my bags today morning at 3 am. Unfortunately US customs decided that the bags were a threat to US national security and broke into both of them. So now I have one suitcase that is totally useless although the other is fixable.
Another thing: remember I mentioned that something is wrong with cabin pressure on Delta flights? There definitely is, the flight to SFO was a 757 operated by song airlines (www.flysong.com) and I did not get any headaches.
Song plays Jazz music on board :), cabin crew is friendly, food is ok (you gotta buy it, but then at least it is there), and there are entertainment panels for every seat. Recommendable.
Also recommended is singapore airlines which I had taken to .au. I saw their planes in NY so they sure do fly to the US.
Delta Airlines sucks
If you are coming to the US, I would recommend you take another airlines. Delta sucks bigtime. Here's why:
1. They don't serve free beer! You gotta pay for a drink. Only the fruit juice is free.
2. The planes are old, creaky and are badly laid out.
- There is a first class seat in the middle of economy with curtains around it.
- I am sitting next to the loo :(
3. The attendants do not respond to bell calls. I finally heard one chap press the bell eight times in eight seconds before someone responded.
4. They do not pay attention to cabin pressure while landing. The cabin pressure is supposed to be increased gradually inside the aircraft as it lands. Instead it went from low to high in a flash while landing, which gave me a severe headache. I still have it 9 hours later.
5. There are not enough meals. In the 22 hours so far, I have had 1 big meal (lunch) and two snacks. I am really hungry now.
This classifies the most tiresome journey I have ever undertaken. Worse then the 36 hour train journey I took once from Mumbai to Calcutta.
1. They don't serve free beer! You gotta pay for a drink. Only the fruit juice is free.
2. The planes are old, creaky and are badly laid out.
- There is a first class seat in the middle of economy with curtains around it.
- I am sitting next to the loo :(
3. The attendants do not respond to bell calls. I finally heard one chap press the bell eight times in eight seconds before someone responded.
4. They do not pay attention to cabin pressure while landing. The cabin pressure is supposed to be increased gradually inside the aircraft as it lands. Instead it went from low to high in a flash while landing, which gave me a severe headache. I still have it 9 hours later.
5. There are not enough meals. In the 22 hours so far, I have had 1 big meal (lunch) and two snacks. I am really hungry now.
This classifies the most tiresome journey I have ever undertaken. Worse then the 36 hour train journey I took once from Mumbai to Calcutta.
The longest night and day
A day and night that stretch for over 36 hours. Going from .in to .us is a frustrating experience. I am cooped inside a tinny little 767 wedged tightly in an economy class seat for nearly 22 hours now.
I started from Mumbai this morning at 2 am. to go to San Francisco. I am doing this in three hops. First stop was at Paris; where I landed at Charles de Gaule airport. The airport is massive. There must be nearly 10 - 12 runways. Wherever you look outside the window, you see a plane landing or taking off. Its massive. There are even regular roads and railway passing under the airport. I was supposed to take the same plane to NY, so I just had a brief look at the terminal in and around gate 86. I also got my first experience of 0 deg C weather. Good thing I got along my woolens.
SF update
I just had another three hours added to my day. It is now 1930 hrs and its still 25th of Jan. This day is not over yet. I still have got to get my baggage back.
I started from Mumbai this morning at 2 am. to go to San Francisco. I am doing this in three hops. First stop was at Paris; where I landed at Charles de Gaule airport. The airport is massive. There must be nearly 10 - 12 runways. Wherever you look outside the window, you see a plane landing or taking off. Its massive. There are even regular roads and railway passing under the airport. I was supposed to take the same plane to NY, so I just had a brief look at the terminal in and around gate 86. I also got my first experience of 0 deg C weather. Good thing I got along my woolens.
SF update
I just had another three hours added to my day. It is now 1930 hrs and its still 25th of Jan. This day is not over yet. I still have got to get my baggage back.
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