Found it on sale at buy.com via bensbargains.net
Shipped and arrived within 2 days - free shipping too!
It's a nice upgrade from my Logitech VX Revolution (the notebook version). I found it pretty annoying to have to change batteries every month or so.
I never have and will always refuse to install any kind of firmware (unless I couldn't find a way around it). The mouse out of the package works but some of the cool buttons (the search button and the thumb wheel) are rendered useless.
Found two pages on the interweb for a better alternative than the Logitech software:
Logitech MX Revolution + OS X Leopard
Getting Logitech’s MX Revolution to Play Nice with Mac OSX
They both pointed at a driver called SteerMouse - which I promptly downloaded and installed.
After the restart I mapped the thumbwheel to activate Expose when I scroll down and show desktop when I scroll up (two things I use pretty often - saves me the energy of moving the mouse to the corners)
Pretty cool: clicking on the scroll wheel toggles the free flow scrolling and micro precision scrolling
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Egypt - Day 4: The Luxor Roundabout
It was pretty dark out and we didn't get to see where we were riding through until the sun came up:
The train arrived crazy early. We thought we were getting good at haggling - talked the taxi down to LE20 from LE40. "We wuz robbed" - the ride was about 4 minutes and probably should have been LE10. We got dropped off at the Old Winter Garden. The front desk at there sent us down to the New Winter Garden (down side stairs then long hall way). Our room was not ready yet (obviously) I asked the clerk to hook us up with a driver to tour around the west bank - he made a few calls and got us one at 8:00AM (it was about 7AM then).
Gim passed out in the lobby when I went to get coffee:
Driving through the countryside:
First stop: Valley of the Kings
Lots of kings were buried here in tombs within this huge valley. The most famous one is Tutankhamen (King Tut) - whose tomb we didn't go to because of the extra cost AND we already saw the content in the museum. The temperature is around 90s to 100 and the sun was blazing by the time we got here.
Entrances were built for tourism. All the tombs are accessed via stair ways like this. Inside the tomb: hot, humid; years and years of built up tourist body odor. Being down there made the outside 100 degree air feel cool.
Here's what it looks like inside:
Funny story: there's a "guardian" sitting inside each level of each tomb. They're there to make sure everything is OK and no one is taking pictures. Me being the rebel that I am took videos. At the second tomb we went to, one of the guardians crept up behind me and snatched my camera. I begged and pleaded to get my camera back. He kept telling me in that if he told the tourist police upstairs/outside, it'll cost LE1000 to get my camera back. After following him in circles walking around, I finally realized that he wanted some money. I slipped a folded LE100 bill in my palm, held it up so he can see it and shook his hand. He was avoiding my hand until the room was cleared. I got my camera back and learned two lessons: don't get caught and bribe your way out.
Second stop: Deir el-Bahri (Temple of Hatshepsut)
Giant temple, massive tourists, blazing sun
Third stop: Alabaster Factory
There are tons of these along the way. The tour guides / drivers get a cut of the sale somehow. The prices are OK and you get a little show of how everything is made. We didn't get much because we knew we can probably get it cheaper at the market in Cairo.
Fourth stop: Colossi of Memnon
Just two gigantic statues here. There's a platform kind of deal where most of the tourists take pictures. There are also stairs going down to where the statues are. Most people didn't bother going down and up to the statues. No I says George! It smelled like dog shit down there.
It was about 12:30-1PM. We got some food and went back to the hotel.
Our room was ready by then and they told us to go through the back door to get to where our room is. So... we got bumped from the poshy victorian style Old Winter Palace to the hotelish New Winter Palace to the motelish Winter Palace Pavillion.
BTW, the place insisted that they didn't get their money from Travelocity.com and didn't believe the printout I showed them saying I did. I reluctantly gave them my credit card and they charged it. The rate they charged me was cheaper than what I paid via Travelocity. I'm still trying to get my money back from Travelocity.
Check out my picture set on Luxor, Egypt
The train arrived crazy early. We thought we were getting good at haggling - talked the taxi down to LE20 from LE40. "We wuz robbed" - the ride was about 4 minutes and probably should have been LE10. We got dropped off at the Old Winter Garden. The front desk at there sent us down to the New Winter Garden (down side stairs then long hall way). Our room was not ready yet (obviously) I asked the clerk to hook us up with a driver to tour around the west bank - he made a few calls and got us one at 8:00AM (it was about 7AM then).
Gim passed out in the lobby when I went to get coffee:
Driving through the countryside:
First stop: Valley of the Kings
Lots of kings were buried here in tombs within this huge valley. The most famous one is Tutankhamen (King Tut) - whose tomb we didn't go to because of the extra cost AND we already saw the content in the museum. The temperature is around 90s to 100 and the sun was blazing by the time we got here.
Entrances were built for tourism. All the tombs are accessed via stair ways like this. Inside the tomb: hot, humid; years and years of built up tourist body odor. Being down there made the outside 100 degree air feel cool.
Here's what it looks like inside:
Funny story: there's a "guardian" sitting inside each level of each tomb. They're there to make sure everything is OK and no one is taking pictures. Me being the rebel that I am took videos. At the second tomb we went to, one of the guardians crept up behind me and snatched my camera. I begged and pleaded to get my camera back. He kept telling me in that if he told the tourist police upstairs/outside, it'll cost LE1000 to get my camera back. After following him in circles walking around, I finally realized that he wanted some money. I slipped a folded LE100 bill in my palm, held it up so he can see it and shook his hand. He was avoiding my hand until the room was cleared. I got my camera back and learned two lessons: don't get caught and bribe your way out.
Second stop: Deir el-Bahri (Temple of Hatshepsut)
Giant temple, massive tourists, blazing sun
Third stop: Alabaster Factory
There are tons of these along the way. The tour guides / drivers get a cut of the sale somehow. The prices are OK and you get a little show of how everything is made. We didn't get much because we knew we can probably get it cheaper at the market in Cairo.
Fourth stop: Colossi of Memnon
Just two gigantic statues here. There's a platform kind of deal where most of the tourists take pictures. There are also stairs going down to where the statues are. Most people didn't bother going down and up to the statues. No I says George! It smelled like dog shit down there.
It was about 12:30-1PM. We got some food and went back to the hotel.
Our room was ready by then and they told us to go through the back door to get to where our room is. So... we got bumped from the poshy victorian style Old Winter Palace to the hotelish New Winter Palace to the motelish Winter Palace Pavillion.
BTW, the place insisted that they didn't get their money from Travelocity.com and didn't believe the printout I showed them saying I did. I reluctantly gave them my credit card and they charged it. The rate they charged me was cheaper than what I paid via Travelocity. I'm still trying to get my money back from Travelocity.
Check out my picture set on Luxor, Egypt
Friday, May 16, 2008
Karma?
it's a known fact: parking in new york city is cutthroat.
it's gotten worst since gas prices have sky rocketed. it now cost more to drive around aimlessly looking for a spot that's not on the street cleaning side the next day. parking on the alternate day street cleaning side means car-sitting for 1.5 hours in the morning.
less know fact: people drive away mostly at the quarters of the hour. i've studied this (while waiting in the car for a spot).
yesterday: at around 10:01PM, after i sat around for 7 minutes, i decided to go around the block. when i made a circle around 23rd and got back to my block on 24th, i saw a car leaving. i put the pedal to the floor and raced up the block to each it. i saw a guy running to his car. i chuckled and said haha not fast enough. as i'm grabbing my bag from the trunk, after i parked, the trunk door comes down and chops me on my right tempo.
still hurts.
it's gotten worst since gas prices have sky rocketed. it now cost more to drive around aimlessly looking for a spot that's not on the street cleaning side the next day. parking on the alternate day street cleaning side means car-sitting for 1.5 hours in the morning.
less know fact: people drive away mostly at the quarters of the hour. i've studied this (while waiting in the car for a spot).
yesterday: at around 10:01PM, after i sat around for 7 minutes, i decided to go around the block. when i made a circle around 23rd and got back to my block on 24th, i saw a car leaving. i put the pedal to the floor and raced up the block to each it. i saw a guy running to his car. i chuckled and said haha not fast enough. as i'm grabbing my bag from the trunk, after i parked, the trunk door comes down and chops me on my right tempo.
still hurts.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Egypt - Day 3: Day at the Museum + Night on the Train
Egyptian Museum in Cairo - most of the stuff found in the tombs are in here.
Various statues outside. Chock full of tourists.
LE 50 to get in.
Candid shot of the inside. Like most of the sites - no photo.
Lots of statues, coffins, etc. from the various dynasties. It's pretty cool to see how things, especially the designs and material evolved throughout the years.
There were even some Roman inspired ones!
Royal Mummies Exhibit
LE 100 extra to see the mummies. We ran out of cash and had to go to the ATM at the Hilton near the museum to get money. There are about 10 mummies of various Pharaohs in glass cases in a dimly lit room. Most of them had only their heads to shoulders exposed. The rest of the body was wrapped. A few was totally wrapped.
The one I really wanted to see was the pharaoh that was mummified on the battlefield - with a gash on the head and a broken wrist (last in the video)
Sleeping train to Luxor
Train leaves from the Giza station at 8:10PM. After a crazy but fun taxi ride through the city of Giza (which is a lot more modern than Cairo), we arrived at the station. The train was 30 minutes late. A couple of second class train passed by, it looked horrible to be in it: no light, windows open.
The dinner they served us was horrible. Dried, over cooked, etc. They had a notice telling us that there's belly dancing at the Club Cart after dinner. We went after dinner - no dancer. Big surprise. Got myself a Johnny Black. The guy poured me 3 cap full. LE 50 for 3 caps. When I ordered a second one, the same guy insisted on pouring for me again, telling the bartender who came later to step aside. I think he made a mistake pouring so little the first time and had to continue the charade.
The steward woke us up around 4:30AM for a breakfast of bread, bread and bread (3 different kinds) with jam, butter and cheese.
The train arrived at Luxor at around 6:30AM.
Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt
Various statues outside. Chock full of tourists.
LE 50 to get in.
Candid shot of the inside. Like most of the sites - no photo.
Lots of statues, coffins, etc. from the various dynasties. It's pretty cool to see how things, especially the designs and material evolved throughout the years.
There were even some Roman inspired ones!
Royal Mummies Exhibit
LE 100 extra to see the mummies. We ran out of cash and had to go to the ATM at the Hilton near the museum to get money. There are about 10 mummies of various Pharaohs in glass cases in a dimly lit room. Most of them had only their heads to shoulders exposed. The rest of the body was wrapped. A few was totally wrapped.
The one I really wanted to see was the pharaoh that was mummified on the battlefield - with a gash on the head and a broken wrist (last in the video)
Sleeping train to Luxor
Train leaves from the Giza station at 8:10PM. After a crazy but fun taxi ride through the city of Giza (which is a lot more modern than Cairo), we arrived at the station. The train was 30 minutes late. A couple of second class train passed by, it looked horrible to be in it: no light, windows open.
The dinner they served us was horrible. Dried, over cooked, etc. They had a notice telling us that there's belly dancing at the Club Cart after dinner. We went after dinner - no dancer. Big surprise. Got myself a Johnny Black. The guy poured me 3 cap full. LE 50 for 3 caps. When I ordered a second one, the same guy insisted on pouring for me again, telling the bartender who came later to step aside. I think he made a mistake pouring so little the first time and had to continue the charade.
The steward woke us up around 4:30AM for a breakfast of bread, bread and bread (3 different kinds) with jam, butter and cheese.
The train arrived at Luxor at around 6:30AM.
Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Egypt - Food: Part 4: Street Food
Kushari
More at the food blog: Egypt - Food: Part 4: Street Food
I guess this could be called their fast food: kushari, fool, falafel and shawarma.
Egypt - Day 2: Part 2: Saqqara, Dashur, Memphis
These 3 cities illustrate the progression of pyramid building.
We ate at a place called Saqqara Nest before arriving at the Saqqara site. This place was extra special and a tourist / tour guide favorite because it is clean. There's a government health inspector in the kitchen (Maghdi kept telling us that.) More about it here:
Food In Egypt - Part 2: Standard Fare et al
Food In Egypt - Part 1: Bread and Salad
Saqqara - Large city of tombs. It's cool to see that they're still excavating.
Highlight: Step Pyramid
Dashur - Black Pyramid, Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid
Black Pyramid - we can only see this from a distance, not quite a pyramid yet.
Bent Pyramid - they deemed this unsafe and closed it to tourists a couple of years ago. they were still playing with the angles and decided they had to make it less steep half way.
Red Pyramid - the one that was built before the pyramids at giza. this is the one we went inside of. check out the path of stairs leading up to the tiny entrance in the middle.
Climbing the outside of the pyramid. I fast forwarded the first part because it's pretty boring, the 2nd half shows you how tiny the entrance to the inside is. Yes, that IS me running out of breath after climbing those stairs. Of course, the 'guardian' disregards the giant "No Photo" sign for some 'bakesh'
On the way down the long, dark and narrow pathway and the chambers inside the pyramid. Not much inside as I had expected due to grave robbers back in ancient times. Even if there were stuff in there, it'd probably be sitting in the museum.
Now we know why the locals gave us that reaction when we said we want to go in. Your knees AND back need to be bent the whole way down. I'm sure glad we didn't go in Giza, where there's a lot more people and you can't go at your own speed. We blazed down that hatch. Coming back up, not so much... my knees started to hurt and buckle.
It disgusted me to find garbage inside the pyramid. How hard is it to bring the empty water bottles back up with you!?
Memphis - bunch of statues. We had about 10 minutes to look at everything because they close at 4PM and we got there at 3:45PM.
The other Sphinx
Statue of Ramsis II and a 'guardian' looking for bakesh.
Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt
We ate at a place called Saqqara Nest before arriving at the Saqqara site. This place was extra special and a tourist / tour guide favorite because it is clean. There's a government health inspector in the kitchen (Maghdi kept telling us that.) More about it here:
Food In Egypt - Part 2: Standard Fare et al
Food In Egypt - Part 1: Bread and Salad
Saqqara - Large city of tombs. It's cool to see that they're still excavating.
Highlight: Step Pyramid
Dashur - Black Pyramid, Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid
Black Pyramid - we can only see this from a distance, not quite a pyramid yet.
Bent Pyramid - they deemed this unsafe and closed it to tourists a couple of years ago. they were still playing with the angles and decided they had to make it less steep half way.
Red Pyramid - the one that was built before the pyramids at giza. this is the one we went inside of. check out the path of stairs leading up to the tiny entrance in the middle.
Climbing the outside of the pyramid. I fast forwarded the first part because it's pretty boring, the 2nd half shows you how tiny the entrance to the inside is. Yes, that IS me running out of breath after climbing those stairs. Of course, the 'guardian' disregards the giant "No Photo" sign for some 'bakesh'
On the way down the long, dark and narrow pathway and the chambers inside the pyramid. Not much inside as I had expected due to grave robbers back in ancient times. Even if there were stuff in there, it'd probably be sitting in the museum.
Now we know why the locals gave us that reaction when we said we want to go in. Your knees AND back need to be bent the whole way down. I'm sure glad we didn't go in Giza, where there's a lot more people and you can't go at your own speed. We blazed down that hatch. Coming back up, not so much... my knees started to hurt and buckle.
It disgusted me to find garbage inside the pyramid. How hard is it to bring the empty water bottles back up with you!?
Memphis - bunch of statues. We had about 10 minutes to look at everything because they close at 4PM and we got there at 3:45PM.
The other Sphinx
Statue of Ramsis II and a 'guardian' looking for bakesh.
Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt
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