Logical Eccentricity

I took the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) home yesterday afternoon after I had lunch, and it was one of the worst trips I’ve taken on it in a long time. The train was supposed to get to Westbury at 2:24, we didn’t get there until 3:00. The biggest problem was that we only had eight cars, when the typical train has ten. This combined with the holiday rush meant that the train was jam packed. All seats were taken, and people were standing in the aisles. Some people were leaning up against the train doors… as a result that door wasn’t registering as closed… we had to spend a good fifteen minutes waiting for the door to “close” before we could even leave Penn Station.

The next problem, people are going to laugh over this one… There was a bike on the tracks… so the conductor had to get off the train, walk up to it, and move the bike off the track, and then get back on the train. That’s were we wasted the rest of the time. The good part of all this, the train was so packed, that the conductor never came around to collect tickets, so I can go and return my ticket later and my money back

I was in California for about 24 hours, and ended up taking the red eye flight back to New York on Monday night/Tuesday morning. All I can say at this point is that red eye flights are not fun… I tried sleeping the entire way, listened to music, went all out trying the sleep the entire flight. The thing is, I was sleeping most of the way, but I’ve been so tired the entire day. I’ve been walking around in a daze most of the day. Not fun at all. I’ll post an overview of the Google trip soon, once I catch up on some sleep.

I am off to California later today to interview with Google. I got through the first round of interviews here on campus, and the second round is taking place at Google’s headquarters, the Googleplex. So, they are flying me out there tonight, I interview with them tomorrow, get a tour of the Googleplex, get lunch there as well, and then I fly back on Monday night (red eye) and get back here Tuesday morning, just in time for my photo midterm project, and FIS midterm.

Hopefully the Google people will let me take pictures during the tour, so I can put some online, otherwise, I’ll try to describe what I see that best I can.

On November 9th, Microsoft sent their long awaited Windows Vista to manufactures to start producing cds. Consumers won’t be able to buy a copy until January sometime, but businesses should get a head start be able to buy it in a couple of weeks or so. However, on November 10th, Microsoft Windows Vista (RTM) was released onto the P2P network… Meaning if people want, they can get a copy of Vista today, and not have to pay anything for it. They won’t have to pay for it because, not only was Vista released, but soon after, an activation crack was released as well. This activation crack makes it possible to install Vista on your computer without paying Microsoft for Product Key.

The speed at which Vista was released on the P2P networks is astonishing to me. Someone must have taken one of the first few copies of the disc, kept it, and the uploaded it onto “the scene” in order for this happen to rapidly. While the speed at which this file has proliferated the internet is astonishing, what I find even more incredible is that there is crack available for it already. It took Microsoft five years to create Vista, and even before it begins to legally sold, people are able to download it, install it and fully activate it. Craziness I say.

As a final note, I haven’t downloaded Vista, I don’t know if it works or not, and I don’t have links to where to find it. This post is based on information that I saw in message boards around the internet. It is not from my own personal experience.

Thank you.

Today was a great day for food. Sometimes Stern treats us like kings, and feeds us amazing food. For lunch I went to the Torch Club. The Torch Club is a private “club” for faculty, administrators and alumni. Typically, current students are not allowed to go to the Torch Club. But Stern held a faculty adviser event in the Torch Club today. It was a chance for students to meet the faculty advisers for the various majors in Stern, and ask them questions that they might have. The event was supposed to be targeted to underclassmen… but IAG helped get the word out, so I went as the IAG representative. As a result of this Faculty Adviser event, I was allowed into the Torch Club. The food was mediocre… I expected a lot better. All they had were normal catered sandwiches. The best part was the desert, amazing apple pie, and amazing brownies. Had a great time at lunch.

Dinner was just flat out amazing. Stern invited the Seniors to Carmine’s Restaurant in Times Square for the Senior Legacy Kick-off event, and for the first First Thursdays event. Senior Legacy tries to convince seniors to donate back to Stern, our class legacy is going to go towards getting better furniture for the new 3rd floor Student Lounge. Carmine’s Restaurant is a really good Italian place, and the food there is amazing. We had a four course meal. The food just kept coming and didn’t end. I ate so much food it was ridiculous. The food included Baked Clams, Stuffed Mushrooms, Mixed Greens, Shrimp Linguine, Rigatoni Giardiniera, Chicken Marsala, Shrimp Scampi, and Salmon Oreganato. Plus, you can’t forget about dessert! So much good food, it was a chore to take the subway back to my room. Hmm… Stern should give us this type of food all the time.