Sep 052004
 

Here are a couple of fun bathroom facts:

  • In Greece, every bathroom has a small garbage can. Instead of flushing used toilet paper, you are expected to throw it out in the garbage can. This helps protect the Greek sewage system. When I talked about this with an Olympic volunteer, he was shocked to learn that this was not the practice everywhere in the world.
  • In Italy, many public restrooms do not have toilet seats. This isn’t to say that they are eastern-style toilets. No, most of the restrooms are western-style toilets with the proper holes to attach a toilet seat, but they just don’t have toilet seats.
 Posted by at 10:45 am
Sep 052004
 
  1. Where can I upload my vacation photos to my website in Rome or Florence? I have a CF card adapter; the Internet cafes I have found do not allow image uploads or necessarily have USB connections. I have a CF USB adapter.
  2. It seems that attaching my CF card to a Windows XP machine makes my CF card unusable in my camera for around an hour. I have a Canon S400. Has anyone else seen this problem? Is this the excuse I need to buy a new camera?

Give me a good answer to either question, and I’ll buy you dinner in New York.

 Posted by at 10:28 am
Sep 052004
 

Courtesy of Lawrence Lessig’s blog, a link to a really interesting report regarding Diebold’s vote tabulation system. The more I read about the Diebold systems, the less I like them. I should probably write a note to my elected officials when I get back to NYC; I’ll probably also give the authors of the report, Black Box Voting, some cash. The report is really interesting. The Diebold systems read as if they were implemented by someone as a weekly homework assignment in college.

 Posted by at 10:21 am
Sep 032004
 

The last week or so has been very hectic. I have a bunch of amazing photos to upload, but I don’t have the facilities right now. In hindsight, maybe I should have brought my laptop.

The packing for the Olympics went very well. After we were done, I checked into the Electra Palace Hotel in downtown Athens. It was a great hotel. I was in a room with a balcony and a view of the Parthenon.

The day after the pack, I went to the Greek island of Aegina, 45 minutes by boat off the coast of Athens. I’m very glad I did. It was very calm and relaxing. The food was fresh and cheap, and swimming in the ocean was relaxing. I could easily see renting an apartment on the island for a month, and doing nothing but swim every day.

Yesterday, I arrived in Rome. I am staying in a pretty hotel called the Hotel Lancelot. I’m enjoying myself so far. I am hoping to explore the city a bit today, even though it is already the afternoon.

My friend Phil refuses to take vacation directly after working a big event, and I am beginning to understand why a bit more. Because of the hours I was working, my sleep schedule is all screwed up, and I am still a bit tightly wound. Phil points out that you want to be able to enjoy vacation as much as possible. On the flip side, it is nice that I’m not at work.

My only current frustration right now is that I seem to have lost my RSA fob and one of my compact flash cards. I had already copied the contents of the compact flash card, but the RSA fob was attached to a nice keychain bottle opener from Carnegie Mellon. I can replace the fob, but the keychain might be lost forever. I think I left it in Athens, but the hotel didn’t find anything. It also means I can’t easily check my mail, but that’s not a big deal–I’m on vacation. :-)

 Posted by at 7:06 am
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