Useless Conversation

[RhyssaFireheart]

You know, in the time the admin took to walk over to my desk and ask me if I knew what "maki" was, she could have simply googled it herself.  I even said she could probably google it to be sure since I thought it was a kind of fish maybe.

"Oh, but I have so many windows open on my desktop now and I have to leave for appointments in 7 minutes and the manager needs to call me back so I can place this order blahblahblahbityblah... "

This is what I hear over the cube wall every day.   

[WayAbvPar]

Damn, now I really want some sushi.

[Yegolev]

You know, in the time the admin took to walk over to my desk and ask me if I knew what "maki" was, she could have simply googled it herself.  I even said she could probably google it to be sure since I thought it was a kind of fish maybe.

"Oh, but I have so many windows open on my desktop now and I have to leave for appointments in 7 minutes and the manager needs to call me back so I can place this order blahblahblahbityblah... "

This is what I hear over the cube wall every day.   

She wants a friend!

[ghost]

Heading to San Francisco for the weekend.  Should be fun.  Any recommendations from the SF crowd?  My wife is from there, but we've never been before as a couple and I've never been at all.

[Minvaren]

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair?   

[Trippy]

Bring Winter clothes

Actually it's not that bad right now, the weekend should be okay, though possibly foggy.

[ghost]

Yeah, I made that mistake once when I went to Monterrey.   

Froze my ass off and came home with some god awful Puma jacket from the mall there because it was the cheapest thing I could find.

[Ingmar]

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair?   

If I had a GIF of someone getting punched in the face over and over, I would put it here.

My only recommendation is to eat at someplace new for every meal.

[ghost]

Give me a favorite restaurant or two for ideas.

[Ingmar]

Caveats: no idea what your dining budget usually it like, and my expertise in restaurants these days runs more towards the South Bay so some of these places may not be as good as I remember them these days:

http://www.rosepistolasf.com/
http://www.restaurantlulu.com/
http://www.yanksing.com/home.php (you might not be able to get in here, mind you)
http://www.suppenkuche.com/welcome.html
http://latrappecafe.com/
http://www.farmerbrownsf.com/

[ghost]

We tend towards nice places when we travel, but I'm up for just about anything that is good.  Thanks for the links.  We'll probably check one or two of them out.

[Evildrider]

Look for the episode of Anthony Bourdain and his San Fran show.

[Viin]

Being nice and putting the exploit details and workaround in my "thank you" email.  Guess it's karma, as I once got nailed by the same security hole 5 years ago...

Next time something like that happens, ask it as a question during the interview. "Your network architecture seems similar to one I've worked on before, did you guys also run into the XYZ security issue that surfaced a couple of years ago?" "You hadn't heard about that? Yeah, basically ...". Don't make it sound like you know everything about their architecture (you don't), but you can make it sound like you know what you are talking about.

[Salamok]

Look for the episode of Anthony Bourdain and his San Fran show.

Or go the Man v. Food route and chow down on one of those mission burritos.

[Samwise]

When someone says they're spending a weekend in SF and do I have any restaurant recommendations, I always kind of sputter helplessly and say "um, you wanna narrow that question down a little?"  I'll skip that this time and just give you a few of my favorites to add to Ingmar's:

http://www.frenchsoulfood.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/swan-oyster-depot-san-francisco
http://brokenrecordsanfrancisco.com/
http://balompiecafe.com/
http://easternbakery.com/
http://www.stellapastry.com/
http://www.humphryslocombe.com/
http://ilikeikesplace.com/
http://lacorneta.com/
http://outerlandssf.com/
http://www.fishandfarmsf.com/
http://www.albonarestaurant.com/
http://www.marneethaisf.com/
http://biritecreamery.com/
http://theoldclamhousesf.com/
http://www.tadichgrill.com/
http://www.pizzetta211.com/
http://www.tonyspizzanapoletana.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/saigon-sandwich-san-francisco
http://sfpanchovilla.com/
http://offthegridsf.com/

I was going to add something here about if your wife's a native she's a better source of information than random Internet jackasses, but then I realized that no true San Franciscan would have moved away in the first place, so skip that.  

[Strazos]

So...dropped about $3500 on flights to Cairo and Tel Aviv (Jerusalem) to finally take a vacation (only been here for 10 months now).

Will be my first vacation in 7 years. I'm not even sure I remember how to be a tourist in a place I don't speak the language, and this time I don't have silly study abroad classes in the way. 

[rattran]

Just speak loudly and slowly, making broad gestures and adding "o" to the end of words. If they still refuse to understand you it's because they're being intentionally unhelpful, so you should take offense.

[Hammond]

Sounds fun Strazos, where you flying from / through?  If you are traveling with a women Cairo could be interesting  I have heard / read a couple horror stories recently about tourists experiences.  If its just you or all male it should probably be fine.  As far as the language goes I know enough westerners that have gone to both places with very few issues.  Since Cairo is/was tourist orientated most people have a smattering of English skills.

My uncle lived in Egypt for about 3 years and his one comment was be careful when you drink beer / pop they often take half empties and combine them then recap them.  And do this over and over... the resulting "drink" can get quite ugly.

[ghost]

Good list.  Thanks Samwise.  

Also, my wife's dad moved the family to Lexington, Kentucky right before her senior year of high school.  You can imagine e culture shock.  She hasn't lived in SF for 21 years (god that makes us old  ).

So far having a great time.  Checked out the presidio and some of the views over the golden gate bridge. 

[Cheddar]

So...dropped about $3500 on flights to Cairo and Tel Aviv (Jerusalem) to finally take a vacation (only been here for 10 months now).

Will be my first vacation in 7 years. I'm not even sure I remember how to be a tourist in a place I don't speak the language, and this time I don't have silly study abroad classes in the way. 

You are American- it is accepted that they should speak American.  'tis the only civilized language!

For the Middle East (outside Israel- no experience there) do not be pressured.  It is ok NOT to make eye contact with random vendors- the moment you do they will swarm you and do pressure sales on their shitty goods.

Oh- and enjoy the absence of personal space.  Otherwise you are gonna have a blast.  And the food... God the food...

[Samwise]

Also, my wife's dad moved the family to Lexington, Kentucky right before her senior year of high school.  You can imagine e culture shock.

   She's probably mostly over it by now, but please offer her my condolences.

It's been alternating between really foggy and really sunny for the past couple of weeks, but it looks like you picked a good weekend to take in the scenery.  Hit up the Top of the Mark at some point so you can get the full panorama.

[Yegolev]

[Merusk]

So the boy's still doing that, eh.  My condolences.

It was worse at work than at home for me.  Thankfully the commercial is gone and so has the legion of 20-somethings who were doing it at work.

[Yegolev]

If you have a small one and SiriusXM, it plays regularly on 78.

[Murgos]

When someone says they're spending a weekend in SF and do I have any restaurant recommendations, I always kind of sputter helplessly and say "um, you wanna narrow that question down a little?"  I'll skip that this time and just give you a few of my favorites to add to Ingmar's:

No one mentioned dropping by Molinari's to get a sandwich. :(

[Ironwood]

Winner.

I love that.

[Samwise]

When someone says they're spending a weekend in SF and do I have any restaurant recommendations, I always kind of sputter helplessly and say "um, you wanna narrow that question down a little?"  I'll skip that this time and just give you a few of my favorites to add to Ingmar's:

No one mentioned dropping by Molinari's to get a sandwich. :(

I left a bunch of really awesome sandwich places off my list because if you're only going to one sandwich place in SF, you want to go to Ike's, no question.

I do, however, recommend going to Molinari and buying the largest salami they sell to take home as a souvenir.  I once got one of those as a Christmas present for a friend who was living with vegetarians and she said it was the best gift anyone had ever given her.

[Ironwood]

Oooooooohhhhh.

 

[Yegolev]

I do, however, recommend going to Molinari and buying the largest salami they sell to take home as a souvenir.  I once got one of those as a Christmas present for a friend who was living with vegetarians and she said it was the best gift anyone had ever given her.

[Yegolev]

The Windows Server 2012 release is "built from the cloud up."

WHARGARBL

[Ironwood]

Yeah, we've been hearing that for a while.  Believe it or not, it'd be good if it was true.  I've yet to decide.

[Lantyssa]

Except it's MS's first attempt...

[Ironwood]

365 and Azure were first attempts.

We're hoping for better.

You know.

Working.

[Yegolev]

Consternation due to buzzword.  The tech might be cool, no idea since I don't work in that field and the buzzword is so vague.

The thing that IBM is attaching "cloud" to is actually pretty cool, but it goes beyond whatever today's definition is for "cloud services".  I'd have called it an automation tool.  I loves me some automation.

[Signe]

If anyone wants to try that Ocado delivery service (mostly Waitrose food), they sent me a coupon code for £20 off your first order.  They won't bug you for a mobile phone number, either!  Of course, Waitrose delivery is free if you order over £50 and Ocado makes you order £75 or something.  But if you want it, it's good til Guy Fawkes Day.