Israel to the (shopping) rescue... twice

So today I had my folks pick up a copy of Bakugan Helios Maxus 7 in 1 at a Toys'R'Us in Israel... because there is simply no way to get it here in the US anymore and for some odd reason it seems like it has become a collector's item. On the other hand, their local store had like a dozen copies on the shelf for the roughly $50 MSRP. So my son will have one in his hands in a couple weeks.

Coming on top of the Abbott Navigator - both products being American and made here - I find it rather amusing that they had to be acquired in Israel.

I'm embarrassed

Really.

Considering that this kind of stuff was the reason I was originally hired out of Israel and brought to the US, it's truly shameful that it took me a few weeks to get around to solving this problem. I suspected what it was but, I suppose, just never became irritated quite enough to punch through and get it done.

What am I talking about?

Well, we have Comcast broadband - which is really pretty awesome in terms of things like download speeds (download speeds usually at over 10mb/s, up to 22mb/s on a good day! uploads at 3-4mb/s quite consistently). Thing is... it has also been a pain in the royal behind in terms of browsing, because new pages could take ages to start loading.

I mean, sure, I knew it was a DNS problem. What else could it be? and... well... this is the embarrassing part. I just didn't reconfigure my home network to use a public server, instead trusting Comcast to solve their own problem at some point. Took me literally weeks to realize that they can't, or won't. Weeks!

*sigh*

To make a long story short, Google's public DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), like everything else they set their mind to doing when it comes to internet plumbing, work really well.

I wonder if there is some sort of cream to take the redness off my face?

Elections

I've been saying the same thing for months to friends in our political discussions, and someone challenged me to say it publicly too, so here goes: I predict that the republicans will NOT gain control of EITHER house in November. They'll get close in both, but not quite enough.

There. Challenge met.

I am...

... an atheist, agnostic, and skeptic.

There, just wanted to get that off my chest.

Please proceed to your normal programming.




p.s. what, still here? wonder why I had to say that? cause I'm sick and tired of "atheist" being the new bugaboo, the pariah, the unspeakable and untouchable. Are we truly going to become afraid of telling the world "I don't believe in god, can't tell if one exists, and honestly, couldn't care less"? yo, Russell, can we have some tea please?

5 things about Israel in summer

Things I forgot about Israel in summer (I have avoided the it on my last few trips, so it's been about a decade since my last summer trip). To make this readable, I am listing them below, one per comment:

1) It's friggin' humid. It gets comparably hot back home, but not so darn wet. I now remember why I used to shower twice a day in summer.

2) The Mediterranean waters are warm. I was walking along the beach gingerly avoiding the water when a big wave came ashore. I cringed expecting the chill of the ocean water, and was pleasantly surprised when the water lapped my feet. Salty yes, but oh so wonderful.

3) The women on those beaches - or at least the one in Haifa - are oh so pretty. But where did all the blondes come from?

4) People really don't expect you to be courteous. I was walking down the aisle in a drugstore and reached an intersection when two women were crossing perpendicular to me. Naturally, I stopped to let them through. They stopped too. For a couple seconds, we literally stared at each other - me in discomfort, they in puzzlement. And that's just one example.

5) Everybody's got a great tan.

Nav problem

So I am now going through my worst Navigator experience ever - excluding when they break down completely. I am not sure if this is something to do with the v1.5, or with the Nav in general, as I seem to find reports of similar issues with the v1.0 even if I never encountered them myself.

Basically, for the past 12 hours or so, my system is refusing to calibrate and is reporting terrifically low BG's ("lo" or 20-40 most of the time), even though my actual BG's are in the low to mid 100's.

I keep doing a calibration every hour, but while it isn't rejecting them, it is also not adjusting to the actual values.

What the heck? any ideas? is this a sensor problem? I am very frustrated with this, and I can't help but think it's something to do with the v1.5, although there is no causal connection (that is, even though this is the first time I've encountered this and it's the first time I use the v1.5, there is clear causation between the two).

Navigator 1.5 Discussion Thread

Since I'm running a thread discussing my experiences in a forum, I figured I'd link it here.

Abbott Navigator v1.5 - The Opening

Alright,

So I just landed in Israel, and have reached my parents' home, where the v1.5 Navigator was waiting for me. I wanted to share my first impressions with y'all together with some pictures.


First of all, one thing that is definitely more efficient is the packaging. I used a magazine next to the new box for illustrative purposes.







For those wondering where this one is manufactured, the label clearly shows that pretty much the entire thing is made in California.

This irritates me to a great degree; we have no availability of these units in the US even though they are made in the US! I had to fly to Israel to get one, for heaven's sake.









Here you go, proof positive of the version number.














The new calibration page, with the new intervals and 1-hour start time.














The new packaging on the inside. It's similar to v1.0, but packed more tightly.













And here they are, side by side. Completely identical externally.

I have already opened the battery compartment (I'll follow up with another side-by-side comparison later) and checked the quality of the build for the battery connectors. They are bigger and a much better fit inside the compartment than before, so hopefully no more soldering of loose connectors... although who knows. I wonder if there are other minor improvements in the design that are not immediately obvious.









On the back - see the difference? the new one says "rev B".





New sensor will go in about 3 hours from now. I will post more later.