I'm Back!

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Apparently without updating my blog about my return some people think I'm still having fun at Thailand's sunny beaches...
So, I'm Back! In full strength and with plenty of new topics to write about.

Stay tuned...

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Time to Relax...

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482363200_835e727ded I've had an amazing time at TechEd Eilat. Probably the best time from all the TechEds I've been to so far...
Now its finally time for some vacation (haven't really had one in more than year) and I'm packing my bag and taking off to Thailand in a couple of hours.

So, I'm going to leave the blog quiet for a little while (unfortunately, no time for TechEd summary etc. posts) and will continue in full strength when I get back at the end of the month...  Don't unsubscribe from your readers! ;)

 

If you do want to check out some TechEd stuff do check out the Flixwagon broadcasts...

 

 

 


The Real Twin Peaks

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Last weekend (following this post) I drove to the great falls area to get some of that Twin Peaks atmosphere.
It just so happens that I went on a misty and sometimes rainy day which some would call bad luck but I kind of found the views more interesting on this weather (kind of the same gloomy weather they had when shooting the series).

I used the travel guide from the Twin Peaks Gazette which I found as kind of hard to follow at times and outdated (it was written at 1999...).

In any case, I started the trip by driving from Seattle to North Bend (~45 minutes drive) and stopping at the double-R, now known as Twede's for the obvious Coffee and Cherry Pie (and some french toasts) breakfast.

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From there I have to admit I kind of lost track of the guide and just drove around for a while to catch the scenery.
I really wanted to find the place where the Twin Peaks sign was shot at. The guide states as follows:

You might want to find a safe place to pull over because this intersection of Reining, Mill Pond and Meadowbrook is Sparkwood and 21.

...

Continue down and I can't promise that you will find the actual spot where the sign was placed because it's hard to find. It's about halfway from that intersection to the end of Reining. If you reach another intersection, you've gone too far.

Once you actually find the Reining, Mill Pond and Meadowbrrok intersection, it gets easier to locate yourself and get to the places the guide talks about.

To find the real location where the Twin Peaks sign was located, you have to picture down on Reining from the intersection and shortly after you'll see a crossroad where you need to take right to SE Reining Road. The location is a short ride from that right turn. Here is one of my shots compared to the real one:

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What do you think? Same spot huh? Looks like both shots were taken on the same season too...
I also took a shott of the pole number to help future travelers locate the exact spot:

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If you continue with Reining instead of taking the right to SE Reining Road you'll see on your left what seems to me like the mill, though I can't be sure:

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From there I continued to the falls to take a pictures of the falls and "The Great Northern"  which is actually Salish Lodge Dining Room:

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There's a very nice trail that leads to the bottom of the falls. You should take it if you're there...

From there I went Falls City to see some more stuff (The Bookhouse etc.). I could not find Big Ed's Gas Farm (I guess its not there anymore) and as it started getting dark and rainy I called it a day and went back to Seattle for dinner.

You can check out the rest of the photos on my Real Twin Peaks Flickr Set.

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Twin Peaks

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"... There are many stories in Twin Peaks--some of them are sad, some funny. Some of them are stories of madness, of violence. Some are ordinary. Yet they all have about them a sense of mystery--the mystery of life. Sometimes, the mystery of death. The mystery of the woods. The woods surrounding Twin Peaks."

- The Log Lady

If you don't know Twin Peaks then you're missing out on one of the best shows ever to air on TV.
I watched the Twin Peaks pilot episode on TV several years ago (the aired just the pilot episode  but not the whole series) and I quickly became a Twin Peaks (and more generally, a David Lynch) fan. I've been gathering whatever Twin Peaks episodes I could find via file sharing ever since...

Last week while browsing Amazon I saw an announcement for a new Twin Peaks DVD pack on the main page:
Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)

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I immediately threw the box to my cart (along with some other stuff) and got it today.

Filled with nostalgia, I  put the first DVD in the player and started watching the pilot episode.
And then it suddenly struck me!

Located "just 5 miles from the Canadian border and 12 miles west of the state line" lies the town of Twin Peaks, population 51, 201. A town where we find out exactly what goes on behind the white picket fences of small-town, middle-class America.

Twin Peek was filmed in the pacific-northwest. I'm currently in the pacific-northwest. Hmmmm....

A quick look in Google and Wikipedia turned out that the show was short at the towns of Snoqualmie, North Bend and at the great falls area. Less than an hour drive from Seattle...

So tomorrow, I'm going to Twin Peaks!

(Note to self, get some coffee and cherry pie on the way...)


Moving to Seattle (Redmond)

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I'm moving to Seattle for a couple of months to work with the team at Redmond on Duet related topics.
I've already taken care of most of the arrangements (still need to pack) and I'm anxiously anticipating my flight on Sunday morning.

Looking forward to a very interesting visit...

Anyone has some good tips on things to do in the Seattle area?


Back From Bangalore

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IMG_0845I'm finally back from my last (work) trip to Bangalore, India.
I've had a great time on my 3 weeks trip and hopefully I'll be visiting again soon...

We visited Kuchin on one of our weekends and you can check photos on my Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/ekampf/sets/72157601250228362/


Prepping a New Duet Release (Traveling to Bangalore)

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It seems like its that time of the year again. We're finalizing the next Duet release (1.5) and I'm traveling to Banglore to support the teams there. Last time I was supposed to stay therefor 10 days and ended up being there for almost a month and with another extra day in Bombay due to an airport strike in Israel.

The good thing this year is that the strike is already over so there's little chance of getting stuck again...

Since we've already been to the Taj Mahal last year, and due to bad weather conditions that prevent us from going to Goa etc. we plan on going to Sri Lanka for the weekend. I wodner how this will trun out...


Breaking the Silence

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Its been quite around here for a while but now I'm back!
India was great, California and New York were awesome and now I'm back at Israel with lots of new ideas and stuff to write about so expect some interesting posts on 2007 :-)

Red Hats Taking Over Times Squere

If anyone is interested in photos from my trip around the wold you can check out my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekampf/



New Years at New York

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79 Hours to go...
Originally uploaded by Eran Kampf.
Tommorow is new years eve and I'll be joining thousands at Times Squere atching the ball go down...
Happy new years everyone!

Back from India, Off to Palo Alto

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After a hectic, being stuck at Mumbai for a day, I came back to Israel a day later than I planned on Saturday.
Flying El-Al proved, again, to be a "fun" experience.

Anyway, I'm flying to Palo Alto in a few hours (On Lufthanza this time) for the SAP Developers Challenge and a short Duet workshop after which I plan to have a short vocation at New York (being at Times Squere on new years eve should be fun).

What is the SAP Developers Challenge?
Basically, SAP takes a bunch of developers from different groups all over the world and team them up with a mission to create something cool
which they later have to present to Shai Agassi and a panel of judges.
Its the second time ever SAP holds such an event and my first time as a participant so I dont really know what to expect but it sure does sounds exciting...

So, on to another month away from home...

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Weekend at India - Delhi, Agra and the Taj Mahal

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After a long week working at Bangalore we decided see the Taj Mahal on our weekend.
We took a 2 days trip through Delhi and Agra and got to see the Taj Mahal during sunrise which is pretty amazing...

(flickr pictures set is here)

We're planning to spend this weekend at Goa...


Traveling to Bangalore

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I'm currently at the Bombay domestic airport after a (very) long flight from Tel-Aviv.
I'll be working with the Duet team at Bangalore for the next 10 days and it should be an interesting
expiriencebecause I've been workin with these guys for almost 2 years without meeting them in person.
It's also my first time in India which also makes this a special expirience.

After Bangalore I have about a week in Israel before I go for a month to the US but thats a topic for another post...

 


Got a Flickr Pro Account

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I decided to move my entire photos archive to Flickr so I got a pro account account and started uploading.
After almost 3 days of continuous uploading I've got most of my stuff, including all the photos from my trip to New Zeland up there so check it out...


Back Home...

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Woke up this morning and I didn't find myself sharing a room with some european girls.
Looked up the window and could not see any mountains, not even a lake, just the building across the street.
The news headline were not about Tom taking Katie to a cruise, Paris's latest boyfriend or whatever...
While going to work I got the wipers working everytime I tried to give a signal (need to get used to driving on the right again)

Yep, I'm back home.... :-(

Update: I've posted some pictures from the trip at my Flickr page and I'll try to write a summary post soon...


Tight Schedule

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I have a flight to catch on the 24th and so much stuff to do so I'm currently on a real tight schedule.

Yesterday I swam with Dolphins at Kaikora and due to the winds I got a real bad sea sickness so I'm lucky I have a lifter who

was able to takeover the driving role and get us to Nelson.

Today we're going on a two days track on the Abel Tasman and on Sunday
morning I'm taking the fairy to the North Island where I have 3 days to
get to Auckland for my flight.

On those 3 days I plan to do the Tongariro day track and skydive at Taupo.

Hopefully the weather will not disturb these plans and I'll get the Hubermans to join me...



See you all in a week! :)

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Muller's Hut

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Muller's Hut
Originally uploaded by Eran Kampf.
This is a photo taken during the climb to Muller's Hut.
We had a great weather on the first day of the track. On the 2nd day it started raining and we had to get down of the mountain in rough conditions (rain, strong winds).

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The Road to Mt. Cook

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The Road to Mt. Cook #2
Originally uploaded by Eran Kampf.
From lake Tekapo I drove to Mount Cook to meet Eran & Tamar and do the Muller's Hut track which was pretty tough...

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Hello from NZ

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Its my 3rd day at New Zealand and I'm getting used to the wierd driving rules here.
My route so far has been Christchurch - Banks Penninsula (Akaora, Le Bons Bay) - Lake Tekapu.

I've spent my first night at Christchurch at Jonni&Ronnit's house (from the Lametayel forum) were I got a warm welcome to NZ and some great travelling tips from Jonni.
I've spent the next day doing some arrangements in own and picking up Vered from Beit Chabad (which proved to be a mistake, I'm much better off alone...).

We then took off to Akaora at the Banks Penninsula where we took a walk on the beach and I had a great Fish&Chips dinner.
We spent the night at Le Bons Bay backpackers which is an excelent place to stay at if you're in the area.
The place is ran by a family and the owner is also a chef who makes big dinner everynight at 18:00 (we missed the dinner but the menu and leftovers looked great) and also arranges boat trips in the penninsula every morning.
We took the boat trip on the next morning and saw some Hector Dolphins, Seals and Penguins.

From the Penninsula we went to Lake Tekapu where we spent the night. I found out I'll have to cook my own dinners in NZ, all the other backpackers are cooking some great looking meals so I had to do some shopping in order to be able to do some cooking too...

Tommorow I'm going to Mt. Cook where I'll be joining to Eran and Tamar on a track.


At Singapore

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Spending a lot of time bored at the Singapore airport so I have lots of time to write this post.

Getting here was hell... There was a one hour strike at the Ben Gurion tower so we had to wait a whole hour on the plane before taking off on a 4.5Hrs flight to Zurich.
I got to Zurich about 15 minutes before my flight to Singapore was supposed to leave and the crew rushed us through the airport so we won't miss our flight.
Then I took off on a 12Hrs flight to Singapore. I have to say that the flight at Singapore Airlines is much better than El Al (they have small personal LCDs with Nintendo! :-) .

After a total of 17.5 hours being stuck in a box with wings I finally got to the Singapore airport an decided to go out and see the city (I had 12Hrs untill my next flight to NZ).

I've only managed to spend about 6 hours wondering around the city before the heat and humidity forced me back to the airport.

I visted the Sim Lim Squere, which is an IT mall with 4 levels containing electronics store.
I have to say I was disappointed. The mall is like a big market for electronics with stores stocked up with electronics and the buying expirience fits the one you get when visting the market.
Anyway, I bought an FM transmitter for my iPod for about 250 NIS and although I got the dealer to take about 20 US dollars off his initial offer I still feel that somehow I got ripped off (Israeli instinct).

I'm currently at the Singapore airport wiaitng for my flight to Christchurch which should be in about 6 hours... (another 9-10 hours of flight, oh joy...)


Leaving for New Zealand

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After 5 years in which I've spent slaving for the army, finishing a CS degree (almost!) and working at SAP on Mendocino its time for me to take a break.

I am leaving for a month long vacation at New Zealand.

I'm going to try and use this blog as a travel log for my journey at New Zealand so if you're only interested in tech related posts you can ignore this blog for a month or so :-)

Anyway, this is New Zealand:

I'm landing a Christchurch on February 24th where I have to get a car, open a bank account and get some sleep after 2 days of traveling from airport to airport.
From there, the planned route is:

Banks Peninsula, Lake Tekapu, Wanaka, Queenstown, Te Anau and the Milford sounds, Matakate Forest, Westland National Park (and the two glaciers), Arthur’s Path (do the Devil’s Archball track), Kaikoura, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro Crossing, Aukland.


Hope it will all go well...


Got back from my vocation

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I was snowboarding for a week at Val Thorens, France.
We had a storm for the first few days but it was sunny afterwards.

The trip to the duty free included buying a new LG DVD+VCR player for my new apartment (160$ which is a very good price)
and ofcourse some alcohol :)

Check out some of the pictures from the trip in this gallery.

Snowboarding

About

Eran Kampf draws upon 8+ years of experience in software development and research. Eran served in the IDF's elite geospatial-intelligence as a senior software developer and is currently working at SAP as an R&D Engineer working on Duet which is jointly developed by SAP & Microsoft.
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