Today was another in the series of amazing talks I’ve gotten the opportunity to attend here at LLNL. The topic today was LIFE, the Laser Inertial Fusion Engine, a project underway at the lab and somewhat of a successor to the NIF. At a high level, this will essentially make the concept demonstrated by NIF into a functioning power plant. It’s so much more than that though. For example, one of the many things that we will be able to do with it is to burn up / extract energy from the nuclear waste that is currently intended to be stored at Yucca mountain. It’s another of those grand engineering and science challenges, but very smart people are very confident that it can be done with the proper support. There’s some good videos related to NIF here, including this one that follows the path of the lasers from their origin to destination, explaining what’s happening along the way.
I was reading over some of my posts recently (iPhone saga and gay marriage comments come to mind) and I realize that some of my posts may come off as spit-flecked vitriol and it kind of seems that I’m in a bad mood or something. I think it’s mostly that it takes a pretty high level of emotional response in me to overcome my inherent staggering laziness so maybe that’s why. I’m actually really happy with my life right now. Life is great out here in CA and there’s a certain special someone who’s come back in my life and has been making me feel really good about myself lately.
IMG_3916.JPG - Originally uploaded by khobSome friends from work and I went to San Francisco to see the Pride parade. I have to admit, it wasn’t that much gayer than any other parade I’ve ever seen, but it was quite a spectacle. A pretty fun time. Afterwards Dave, Matt, and I went to Golden Gate park to the beach, a brewery, and random wanderings in the park. Good times. The only downside to the day was the later part of the street fair that followed the parade. There was garbage, broken glass, and drunk people everywhere. Pretty depressing and not what I was expecting. Anyway, it was a great show and one of the more interesting things I’ve seen. As far as my own opinions on the gay marriage “controversy” go, I think it’s kind of sad that we live in such a divisive “us and them” society where one group feels like they know what’s best for another group and therefore everybody should be forced to feel the same way as them. It’s pretty disgraceful to me that we exclude people in this way. If you don’t like gay marriage and think it’s wrong, then don’t get one and kindly shut the fuck up. This sounds to me to be exactly the same arguments people have used since time immemorial to exclude people that aren’t like themselves. I prefer to make up my mind about individuals rather than using semi-arbitrary distinctions to group people into “them” and deciding that on the whole I don’t like “them”. I posted some pictures to the flickr gallery if anyone is interested. It’s quite a sight.
It was a pretty epic saga, but I finally got my new iPhone. It’s quite a bit faster than my old one, though I haven’t noticed much in the way of battery life improvement. It was a hell of a ride though. I thought by buying it directly from AT&T that I’d be saving myself some trouble by eliminating one of the companies involved. Wrong! Wrong! I’m talking about AT&T here, man! Basically what happened is that The System decided to pre-authorize (i.e. block off the money in my account) me for the device 3 times, then cancelled my order. I tried calling AT&T customer service but of course they have no idea what’s going on, and in fact don’t even have any record of me placing an order, despite The System charging me 3 times for it. The lady I spoke to also couldn’t be bothered to look further into it. Sorry for calling you at home and bothering you while you were trying to eat dinner, lady. Her suggestion was to go back to the store because “nobody anywhere in the world (at AT&T) will be able to look this up for you”. Interesting. I’m pretty sure the store I walked into said AT&T on the front. Good thing I was still in CA and hadn’t gone back to CO yet, or I’d be pretty fucked I’m sure. So anyway, I called up the store itself and of course they had no idea but that the guy who I ordered it from would call me back. I tried back the next day but of course no call. Eventually I just went down there and did the whole indignant thing because the current status was that The System had charge me 3 times, cancelled my order, and nobody could tell me why, and the entire company of AT&T was powerless before the whims of The System. I’m pretty sure this is how SkyNet started. Anyway, after visiting the store and doing the whole indignant customer thing I finally got my phone, and all is well again in the land of the Cobb. I paid cash for it though, because I’ll be damned if they ever get my credit card information again. Aside from paying my bill, that is…
Some friends from work and I took off to see an Oakland A’s game the other day. We had really good seats and the stadium wasn’t too bad, so this was a pretty fun time overall. I posted some pictures to the flickr gallery.
Apple finally had wooed me enough, and one day I decided to take the plunge and buy an iPhone 3G. I’d have to say that after a couple of weeks of owning it that it could only be more awesome if it came from the future in a spaceship made of bacon. It’s not perfect, but then again nothing ever is (random lockups, etc). My honeymoon bliss was ruined though when Apple announced the iPhone 3G S, coming out this Friday. Bummer. There didn’t appear to be any upgrade option for me to get the newer model even though I *just* bought this a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, I was within the 30 day return period so that’s what I ended up doing today. I returned the phone, “reversed the contract”, and pre-ordered the new iPhone. I should be getting my new phone in 7-14 days so I’m looking forward to that. I’m back to my trusty Sony Ericsson for the time being.It’s interesting how my feelings about things have changed over time. I remember when I was a kid it would have killed me to wait 7-14 days for a toy I thought was so awesome (Mom, if you’re reading I’d love to hear if this is really true or not but that’s the way I remember it). These days though it’s really not that big a deal for me to wait for something like that. I still think about it, sure, but it doesn’t really consume me or anything and I really don’t think about it very much even though I know how much I like the phone. I hope this isn’t the “maturity” I’m told at a certain age I’ll possess.
So the weekend came once again, and Shannon, Joana, Matt, Dave, and I headed out for a day trip to Carmel by the sea (guess where that is) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Carmel has a nice touristy shopping area and the aquarium was pretty amazing. There are some pictures in the flickr gallery if anyone is interested.
Yesterday I went to the dedication for the National Ignition Facility at the lab. I have to say, I really hope this works. This would be such a huge deal for science and a major step towards carbon-free abundant energy. The science behind it is amazing, and the dedication was quite a ceremony. Several high-level officials in the DOE, congressmen, and the governator were there to give talks. I really hope this thing works, because it would be (as Diane Feinstein described it) a “holy cow game-changer” for science, public policy, energy, and a thousand other unforeseeable things. For folks that have no idea what I’m talking about, this is a major step in the quest to have a working nuclear fusion reactor, among other things. More information on what it is here.
Memorial day weekend rolled around and Matt, Joana, Shannon and I were planning on going out for a day trip to Yosemite before everyone we told our plan to said it would be a bad idea on Memorial Day weekend. We decided against that, and ended up heading to Muir Woods, which is a nice park to the north of San Francisco with a pretty expansive and amazing redwood forest is. If you’re ever around you should check it out. There are a bunch of pictures on the flickr page.
Afterwards, we headed down to Sausalito for some food and to wander around the downtown area there, which was also very nice. The bay area seems to have a lot of towns with really great pedestrian downtown areas, so I’m going to try to do a lot of exploring if I can.
I got together with some friends from work (Matt and Shannon) with the intention of going bowling, but after finding a really good bowling alley in Dublin CA (not too far away) it turns out there were leagues that night and no open lanes. We ended up heading down to Pleasanton CA, which I have to say was rather… pleasant. It’s got a nice little downtown area that we wandered around in for a while, stopping off at an english-style pub for dinner. If you’re ever in the area it’s worth stopping by and wandering around.