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As reported by a colleague in Japan:

An experience at the supermarket

Yesterday, at the cash register of my local supermarket, I was asked by the cashier if I would purchase only one of the two packs of noodles I had intended to purchase. The unspoken implication was, in that way, someone else could have noodles too. Now, from the point-of-view of the supermarket’s profit, it makes no difference whether those two packs were sold to me as an individual, or sold separately. Yen is yen. But as an example of a society sharing its burden (even in this small way), it spoke volumes. I had my hand gently slapped, and was humbled.

I recall a story I heard on the radio, from I think it was Denmark, where a lady needed a medical procedure and was informed that there would be a two-month wait for the service. She explained this to her son, a Doctor, who offered to pull some strings to get her in sooner, and she shamed him because the right thing to do is follow the rules like everyone else: fairness before favoritism.

This sort of thinking in anathema in much of the world, but it is a way of thinking that I really like. I guess its because as a child I was indoctrinated with Socialist ideology at the water fountain, where we were taught to queue and each take an equal share.

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Taken from a scenic turn-off along US 160, Colorado, August 2011.

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Transportation Enthusiasts and Experts discuss one of many issues at Transportation Camp West, an un-conference held this weekend in San Francisco.

I waffled over whether to trek up to San Francisco this weekend to attend Transportation Camp so I signed up late and was wait-listed. They had room on Sunday so I dragged myself out of a cozy warm bed in to the cold and rain, for a two hour trek North via Caltrain and BART.

I’m glad I went. I had a lot of fun talking and learning and meeting new people. I even signed up to present the San Francisco transit map that I made a couple years ago. I got a handsome amount of helpful feedback and food-for-thought on that, and I’m thinking to actually dive in and revise / improve that puppy, despite the fact that I lost interest after moving away from San Francisco.

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Sign up to receive SMS alerts containing information in the event of a local disaster.

Earthquake and other emergency preparation is more on our minds these days. Residents of Santa Clara County can sign up to receive disaster-related information on their mobile devices at http://www.alertscc.com/.

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As seen amid a collection of bunny books at Books, Inc.

As previously seen but not identified on a chalk board honoring Chinese New Year.

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Coworkers have dropped off various snacks at the cafe area I set up in front of my desk, including delicious home made baby cupcakes.

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Temptations Indian-Chinese Fusion Restaurant, Mountain View, CA

When I pass a certain restaurant in the morning, I am tempted to look in the window, to see if they’re still leaving food out on the front table. It looks like they got the message I sent them last month that leaving half-eaten food out on the front table while they’re closed shows poor hygiene and business practice. Now they leave the half-eaten food a little farther from the front windows.

For consistency I tried running this image through the Retinex filter and I am pleasantly surprised with the above result.

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I’ll give Amazon.com credit for making their mp3 downloader available to Linux users:

I clicked on Ubuntu, and Chrome downloaded amazonmp3.deb and the Ubuntu Software Center fired up and told me:

Wrong architecture ‘i386’

That was frustrating. I sent a note to Amazon.com thanking them for their Linux support and asking them to please consider rolling some x86_64 packages. Then I asked Google for advice, and got this fine post:

http://www.ensode.net/roller/dheffelfinger/entry/installing_amazon_mp3_downloader_under

Works fine except the download link to getlibs is old and broken, so I figured I can recapitulate the recipe here:

1) Download amazonmp3.deb and then install it manually:

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture Downloads/amazonmp3.deb

2) Download and install getlibs: (Thanks for the corrected link, bobxnc!)

http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb

(Your browser should hand the package off to an installer, else you’ll just do something like sudo dpkg -i Downloads/getlibs-all.deb.)

3) Run getlibs!

Looks something like this:

0-13:08 ~$ sudo getlibs /usr/bin/amazonmp3
libglademm-2.4.so.1: libglademm-2.4-1c2a
libgtkmm-2.4.so.1: libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libgiomm-2.4.so.1: libglibmm-2.4-1c2a
libgdkmm-2.4.so.1: libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libatkmm-1.6.so.1: libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libpangomm-1.4.so.1: libpangomm-1.4-1
libcairomm-1.0.so.1: libcairomm-1.0-1
libglibmm-2.4.so.1: libglibmm-2.4-1c2a
No match for libboost_filesystem-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
No match for libboost_regex-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
No match for libboost_date_time-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
No match for libboost_signals-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
No match for libboost_iostreams-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
No match for libboost_thread-gcc42-mt-1_34_1.so.1.34.1
The following i386 packages will be installed:
libcairomm-1.0-1
libglademm-2.4-1c2a
libglibmm-2.4-1c2a
libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libpangomm-1.4-1
Continue [Y/n]? 
Downloading ...
Installing libraries ...

3.1) If, like me, you got “no match for libboost” as above, or you get “amazonmp3: error while loading shared libraries: libboost_filesystem-gcc42-1_34_1.so.1.34.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory” then do this bit:

sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-date-time1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-filesystem1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-iostreams1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-regex1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-signals1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/universe/b/boost/libboost-thread1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo getlibs -w http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/ubuntu/pool/main/i/icu/libicu40_4.0.1-2ubuntu2_i386.deb

sudo ldconfig

4) Let the music play!

. . .

Q: What is getlibs?
A: “Copyright: 2007; Downloads 32-bit libraries on 32-bit and 64-bit systems. For use with Debian and Ubuntu.”

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These California flowers always blow my grew-up-in-Illinois mind.

See Also: http://www.kgarner.com/blog/archives/2011/11/11/photo-315-bird-of-paradise/

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Governor Brown suggests that he doesn't have time to debate Grover Norquist, but his Corgi may be available for the job.

<3 Jerry Brown!

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A puny rental truck towing a Saturn sits next to one of the big boys.

I like the matching lines and colors here, as if the rental truck is the semi’s kid or something.

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