When I was in Pyongyang a few years ago and had access to a cell phone, I recorded a bunch of the prerecorded messages that you hear when dialing or mis-dialing numbers. I found them to be an interesting glimpse into the view of technology seen in that corner of the world, and helpfully they were translated into English for my edification. I’ve put them up here, and reconstructed the phone tree you get when dialing 999, so that the different messages can be heard in context.
Category: Media
media
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Biking the KKH
I’m getting back this week after spending most of the last month Bicycling from Pakistan to China on the Karakoram highway. It was a great trip, full of friendly people, breathtaking mountains, and delicious food.
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Graduation
I was fortunate enough to graduate from the University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering PhD program this spring. It has been an amazing five years, due in large part to an amazing group of colleagues.
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Cycling Ladakh
I spent the last couple weeks bicycling through northern India. It was a great trip with spectacular scenery, good food, and a fascinating culture.
With Ravi, a friend from the networks lab at UW, I arrived in Leh, a city at 11,500 feet in the far north of India. We chose the Himalayas to avoid the stifling heat that otherwise covers the region in the summer. After altitude adjustment, we took a 4 day bike ride over the 240km road to Kargil. The area was really cool – new, very ragged mountains and high plains. The shift in culture that we experienced on the ride, from a Buddhist dominant culture in Leh to a more Islamic influenced Kashmir / Central Asian culture in Kargil.
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Cascadia Fest
The video of my talk last month on scanning the Internet using Node.js has been published by Cascadia Fest.
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Turkey
Turkey today blocked access to Gezi Park. I’ve just returned from a trip to Turkey and Cyprus where I stayed near the park for a week, and had the opportunity to see the vibrant discussion and civic engagement occurring in the run-up to the election next week. It was an amazing adventure – each place I visit helps open my eyes to what a diverse world we live in.
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College Reunion
I spent last weekend at my 5 year college reunion. It was fantastic to see everyone again – and reminds me how incredibly lucky I was to find the community I did at college.
Also: What Drought? -
Southeast Asia
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks visiting Southeast Asia. It was my first trip south of the equator, and my first visit to several new countries. I was particularly impressed by Indonesia, which is an incredible place.
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Whistler
I got up to Whistler for the first (and likely last) skiing of the season this weekend. It’s been a low snow year – enough that the local areas have already started closing, and whistler had given up on their first lift worth of runs and had manmade snow from mid-mountain down.
The skiing was still lots of fun, and it was nice to take a couple days to step back from life at UW to do something for myself.
