Solar System

Our new solar system

48 BP Solar Panels, generating around 7 KWH during the day: Two Xantrex XW Inverters. The inverters are dual-mode, they’ll backfeed PG&E if power is up during the day (we use PG&E at night), or run from batteries if PG&E is down: 18 Batteries for backup: The panels and the inverter shed in front of the house:

Taj

Finally was able to go to Delhi over the weekend and travel to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Absolutely the most incredible man made structure I’ve ever seen, looks as just amazing from a mile away and 5 inches away. Two galleries here because we mixed cameras (which is a story itself, we lost one camera and one broke the viewfinder. Some of them are from a cheap disposable film camera) [smugmug url=“http://silverfiddle. [Read More]

Catching up - Feb India trip

A month behind in blogging. Some leftover pictures from my phone:

Coconuts anyone?

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Front of the office

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Typical Bangalore Traffic: A pedestrian, an ox, a van and a motorcycle. All that’s missing is one of the ever-present “Ashok Leyland” trucks.

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Palm Meadows: Just like San Jose.

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And my favorite place in the whole wide world, the scenic and comfortable Bangalore Airport lounge.

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Saturday Night at the Ritz

Saturday Night at the Ritz. Well, not really the Ritz, but the Bangalore equivalent: the Hotel Oberoi. My friend from work (also traveling from the US to India) and I decided to stay there on Saturday night (at the “reduced” weekend rate). In Bangalore there’s not much available in between two star and five star hotels. Since we were staying at the former during the week, we figured one night at the latter balanced everything out, expenses-wise. [Read More]

If this is January, this must be Bangalore

If this is January, this must be Bangalore. Actually Singapore right now. Flight was good as usual on Singapore Airlines. I slept about four hours going Seoul to Singapore. Just enough so I was good and tired when I got to the Singapore transit hotel at 1:00 AM local time, so I had no problem going to sleep. I tried some new ear plugs designed for airplanes. They have little baffles in them and they supposed to equalize pressure more gradually during descents. [Read More]

Quick week in Bangalore

Well, a quick week in Bangalore. Lots of work stuff. I’m in Singapore now, waiting for my San Francisco flight. Not much to highlight for the week, just a few things. Had lunch at Samarkand. But it was set up like a “northern borders” interior. The cups were wrought copper. We had some wonderful kabobs, best I’ve ever had. Ravi said the wait in the evening for dinner can be up to three hours. [Read More]

Singapore Again

Singapore 12dec05 5:40 PM (1:50 AM PST) I arrived in Singapore last night around 1:00 AM local time. I’ve been up for a while (this is 9:00 AM PST and I didn’t sleep for more than a couple of hours on the plane). I stumble into the transit hotel, but they don’t have my name. They suggest I get on a wait list for some other people waiting. But wait! Help arrives, it turns out I’m in the transit hotel in the other terminal. [Read More]