Hashemian Blog Web Tools, Financial Markets, Technology Thursday, November 24, 2005 Tehran street  A nice picture from Enghelab square in Tehran (previously known as beest-o-chahar-esfand square). Too crowded and polluted? You bet. <Tehran street> // posted by rh 0 comments | Monday, November 21, 2005 Hello from Tehran  Hard to believe that I am writing this blog from an internet caf� in Iran. It�s been nearly 4 years since I visited Iran last and it�s good to be back in the native country.   Things haven�t changed much, Lots of traffic, pollution, and death defying stunts crossing the streets. Crossing streets in Tehran gets some getting used to. As a kid, growing up here, I as pretty adept at it. Then I moved away and lost the art. Now it takes me some time to regain the maneuvering.   I have some pictures, but the internet caf� here didn�t have a SD card reader. The guys here might have a reader for me by tomorrow. Then I can share some pics.   And to my family, back home in the good old USA, I miss you all. <Hello from Tehran> // posted by rh 0 comments | Thursday, November 17, 2005 Death is too easy  I wonder what goes on in the diabolical mind of a man who rapes and murders an innocent child. In this case the culprit was captured and a jury found him guilty. Insane or not, these parasites have no right to life, but there is plenty of good uses for them. Instead we waste perfect specimen by giving them an easy death at best. They can be studied by psychologists in an attempt to understand their sickness. Use all the electric shock that's necessary. They can be used in drug, cosmetic, or chemical testing, instead of the poor animals. Their organs can be given to patients desperately awaiting transplants. Use them as baits for terrorists. No problem if they get beheaded or blown up. I may sound cruel here, but put yourself in the place of the terrorized child being over-powered by this monster, and my ideas here might seem lenient. Here's the link to the news item. You might want to skip it if you are easily disturbed. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10083214/ <Death is too easy> // posted by rh 0 comments | Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Jogging in the rain  You've gotto love the Northeast weather. One minute it's warm and the next minute it gets cold with a heavy downpour.   Such was my jogging for tonight. While I knew the rain was on the way, I thought I might get lucky and beat it. No such luck. I jogged my entire 5-mile route in rainy and windy weather that seemed to get worse by the minute. My wind breaker was no match for the drenching force of nature. By the time I got back, I was watter-logged like a sponge dipped in a sink-full of water.   I am not a big fan of rain. Ice and snow, I can handle, but wet jogging isn't my idea my fun. It takes a tremendous amount of patience for me not to get flustered. Add to that the fact that it gets dark pretty early at this time of year, and I've got a double whammy. I did utter the F word once when I landed in a deep puddle of water. It was quite a splash.   I suppose the only upside to this misery is the extra weight you gain as your clothing soak up the rain. But the few extra burned calories is not worth the annoyance. Okay, enough complaining. No one forced me to go out there and pound the pavement. It's not the first time I got soaked running outside, and certainly it won't be the last. <Jogging in the rain> // posted by rh 0 comments | Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Canon PowerShot A620  As far I remember I have never owned a camera. Taking pictures is something I always relegated to others. That all changed when I bought my first camera a few weeks ago. A 7.1 megapixel Canon PowerShot A620. Welcome to the age of digital photography. Being a gadget luddite, I had resisted all things electronic. Suddenly I found myself immersed in the world of megapixels, SD cards, picture sharing, and digital prints. In some sense I am relieved that I leap-frogged all other cameras and settled on something that I can use for a long time without the urge to upgrade. At 7 megapixels, I think this camera offers more than enough detail and color depth that I would ever need. Add to that a couple of 1 Gig SD cards and rechargeable batteries, and that puts me well on the way of becoming an avid photographer. And avid I was in a recent trip to Disney World with my family. I took the camera everywhere and shot everything. This being my first ever camera, I don't really have a basis to judge it by, but I found it to be an excellent camera nevertheless. I toyed with its multitude of options, but finally settled on the Auto mode which allows one to just zoom and click. The camera takes vivid pictures under all conditions. The flip-out screen is a nice touch that collapses back onto the camera to protect it against scratches. It can also take movies, but naturally that could eat into quite a bit of storage if one is not careful. Reasonable usage can keep the batteries going for a long time. I shot lots of pictures and a number of movies for three days before I had to change batteries. It is small enough to be operated with one hand, and its various functions are pretty intuitive. I would give the Canon PowerShot A620 good marks for an amateur of my caliber. I am sure more experienced photographers would also find it to be a great camera. At below $400, it is a great product at a decent price. Finally, the user manual is well-written and easy to follow, but don't lose it. Oddly enough, it is not available online. These days most product manuals can be viewed online, so I was surprised that Canon does not have it on their Web site. digital camera,canon,powershot,megapixel,pictures <Canon PowerShot A620> // posted by rh 0 comments | Sunday, November 13, 2005 Leaves aplenty  Fall foliage in New England is to die for. And for those of us who have to clean out the mountain of leaves, we get pretty close to death. Raking, blowing, tarping, mulching, and dragging are all parts of the hapless soul's numerous weekend activities. I know, this sounds like a complaint and to be honest it is, but only slightly. It's the price to pay for the privilege of living in the woods. If only trees cleaned up after themselves, life would be so much rosier. But then again for eons nature has had its own way of cleaning up. Leaves fell, then turned into compost, then rain, snow and wind decomposed them and turn them into soil and the cycle repeated. Then humans appeared and built houses everywhere and complained about the cleanup. Can't blame nature for it; it had a good system going until we showed up. Some people use hired hands to clean up their yards but, while tempted many times to do the same, I have been doing the ritual for many years myself. Fall cleanup is a good chance to be outside and get a little exercise. This year I enlisted the help of my children to pick up the acorns that seem to be everywhere. At the rate of a penny an acorn, I think I've got a good bargain. Hopefully I'm not breaking any child labor laws. They seemed to be having a ton of fun filling their buckets with them. Soon they'll be asking for payment, and who has the time to verify their services rendered. They might bill me for a 100 or a 1,000 acorns. What the heck, I'm only giving them what's rightfully theirs after I pass on anyways, but I keep that little secret to myself for now. Soon the fall season will pass, and snow will be on the way. No sooner I clean up the brown stuff than the while stuff would arrive, and I'll find myself outside yet again, shovel in hand. new england,fall,foliage,leaves,raking,snow,acorn <Leaves aplenty> // posted by rh 0 comments | Thursday, November 10, 2005 Checkfree is now truly check-free  A couple of blog entries ago I had lamented about how I was invited to sign-up for Checkfree's electronic deposit, and I never heard back from them. Well, I finally did hear back. Last week I received an email asking me to fax them a voided check for verification. Of course as things go these days, you can't trust an email at its face value. For all know it could have been from a Russian gang trying to access my bank account. What else could be more perfect for them than receiving a copy of my check via fax? So it took me some time to verify the fax number indeed belonged to the Checkfree organization. Once confirmed, I faxed in a copy and followed it up with an email to make sure they had received the fax. I didn't receive a response to my email, but today I received a fax indicating that a Checkfree payment had been wired to my account. I surfed to my bank account and verified that the funds were indeed deposited. This is truly a time-saver. No more waiting for a check to arrive by mail, dealing with the hassles of lost or misdirected mail, standing in line to make a deposit, and waiting for the check to clear. Of course Checkfree is only one of a number of organizations that handle online payments. This system only works if the payer makes an online payment and the payment is handled by Checkfree. I'm sure if I change bank accounts, or if my address changes, or if a payment is made via another payment system, it's back to the mailbox for me. Still this is a step in the right direction. It has brought online banking another notch closer to a truly paper-free operation. What about the confirmation fax I received, you might ask? That is also paper-free, thanks to my fax service that forwards my faxes via email attachments. checkfree,online payment,online banking,fax,paper free,electronic deposit <Checkfree is now truly check-free> // posted by rh 0 comments | Wednesday, November 02, 2005 German cars, Japanese cars  I have to admit that unlike many of my male counterparts, I am not fussy about the kind of car I drive. If the vehicle can get me from point A to B in relative safety, that's my kind of car. New cars? forget it; fast cars? who needs it; flashy cars? don't have the money. My approach to buying a car is pretty simple. We have a distant relative is in the used car wholesale business. When I need a new car, I call him up, get some quotes on low-priced models he has on his list, and choose one quickly. My last pick was a used red Subaru Impreza wagon, nicely priced. It's a girlish car, but I have no problems with it. It drives well, and it's a good winter car being an all-wheeler. Cheap to operate, cheap to maintain, cheap to insure, and cheap for taxes. Lest you think I have no male ego, when the urge to show a little manhood comes around, I just rev up my Ninja 750 (which of course I bought used) and go for a ride. A few rides a year on the rice rocket validates my man-ness and I can get back in my little car, feeling confident in my masculinity. Since I drive a girlie car, what else would my wife drive but a manly car? A large, high-octane guzzling, 6-cylinder dark green Audi is her ride. The problem is that when this car needs work, it creates a considerable dent in my pocket. I have always admired Germans for their ingenuity and engineering prowess. German cars are great to drive and look great too, but I have finally decided that they are for the super rich with large disposable incomes. When it comes to quality, they don't even come close to Japanese cars. They're probably more on par with the American cars, save one big difference, the repair bill. It's not just the Audi. Many years ago I had a VW Golf that gave me more headaches than I care to remember, and I had purchased this one new (well, actually it was a demo car and it remains the only new car I have ever bought). So if you have lots of money, buy German. If you want quality and value, it's hard to beat the Japanese brands. American brand? My first and only American car was a used Chevy Chevette. That was probably all the American I would ever put up with, although I have flirted with the idea of owning a Mustang, a used one, of course. german cars,japanese cars,cars,subaru,audi,vw <German cars, Japanese cars> // posted by rh 0 comments |

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