Richard Frank-Huff's Seattle Social Blog

My main residence, while in Italy, will be a villa in Pieve a Nievole, Toscana. It's almost equidistant from Pisa and Florence (Firenze). I've been told that Pisa is about 20 minutes away, so I have to assume that Florence is roughly the same. Pieve a Nievole's population is a quaint 9,000. It's a good thing that Pisa (with a population of ~90,000) and Florence (with a population of ~500,000) are so close.

Besides e-mail, instant messanger, and my cellular phone, I will also have my VoIP phone. Once connected in Italy, both my Seattle (+1 206 2195793) and my Bologna (+39 051 0545004) numbers will ring at that location. It might take several weeks to get the necessary Internet service operational, so rely on my e-mail for now.

Keep in mind that Italy is 10 hours ahead of Seattle. 11:00 PM in Seattle would be 9:00 AM the next day in Pieve a Nievole. This means that participating in Confab while I'm away won't be too horrible from a time difference. I'll just need to be up and ready at 6:00 AM when the show starts at 8:00 PM in Seattle. That's much better than having to get up at 3:00 AM.

I found a nice desktop clock (VelaTerra) for my Powerbook, which displays the times for multiple cities (totally configurable). The same company also makes a MacOS X Dashboard Widget (VelaClock).

When planning on being abroad for more than a week, and traveling with electronics that require direct power or battery recharge, you'll have to address the issue of power adapters. Since most consumer electronics have auto-switching power supplies (i.e., support for 100-240 volts and 50-60 hertz), the biggest concern is the type of plug required for power outlets in the country or countries you will be visiting. I'm trying to eliminate any unnecessary equipment, so things like the iPod power adapter stays at home -- it can charge while connected to my Powerbook. As for the Powerbook's power supply, Apple sells a World Travel Adapter Kit with all of the plugs you might need. I expect to only need one type of adapter, which will be the only one I take on the trip.

You should always make sure and check whether the power supply supports auto-switching. Plugging a 110 volt power supply into a 220 volt source will destroy the power supply. Trust me on this. I once blew up a $2,000 laser printer by plugging it into a 220 volt outlet on a Norwegen-built ship that I worked on.

It's a good rule of thumb to assume that any non-portable consumer electronics lack auto-switching power supplies. In such cases, you'll need a step-down transformer, rated at the approprate wattage.

I'm leaving for Italy this next Friday (March 31, 2006). It's been a crazy couple of weeks since I found out that I'm going. We (Geckowerx, LLC) are doing a project with a company that is launching an urban lifestyle magazine in 46 cities, internationally. I'm spending the next month at their headquarters to get everything started. Looks like I'll be living the expatriate life for the next couple years. Viva! Italia.

I scanned the above Euros after exchanging some greenbacks this afternoon. When I opened the scanned image in Photoshop, I recieved the message, "This application does not support the printing of banknote images." The legal requirements for the digital reproduction of the Euro require that the image be 72 dpi (or less) and include the word "SPECIMEN" printed diagonally across the reproduction. It's incredible that Photoshop was able to recognize the scanned image as banknotes.

As of the last show (March 14, 2005), the local chapter of Drinking Liberally has its very own Web site for its weekly podcast (Podcasting Liberally). You can now subscribe to the weekly podcast, with iTunes, by pasting the RSS link for the "Podcasts" category into the "Subscribe to Podcast..." option in iTunes' "Advanced" menu. (A screen shot example is available on the site.) The podcast should be in the iTunes Podcast Directory in the near future.

I've been working through the process of moving my individual health insurance to a group plan provided through the business (since we now have a handful of employees to cover). How is it possible that we (meaning the people in this country) have allowed health care to get so completely out of control?

I'm not going to make the oft heard complaint that health insurance is too expensive -- we already know that. What shocked me during the process was the labyrinth of options. They unnecessarily drown you in them. The company’s Web site and their glossy marketing literature were all but worthless. When I finally reached somebody by phone, they actually told me that it would put them out of a job if the Web site or marketing literature provided the information I was requesting. I did not take this "joke" in the way it was obviously intended, nor do I believe that this was the first time said joke was made.

The above image is just one of three, similar brochures purporting to explain the different programs available to the business. Each program had eight separate plans to choose from. You do the math.

Isn’t this exactly the sort of "service" most anti-government pundits like to claim would be the outcome if we moved to single payer or socialized medicine? Poor service. High costs. Disenfranchised segments of the population. It seems to me that this is what we have today.

Winter in Seattle can put a serious damper on my running schedule. It "might" have something to do with the four hours of sunlight and incessant rain. Whatever the exact reason, Henry Weinhard's St. Patrick's Day Dash is almost always my first race of the year. It starts at the Seattle Center, and ends at Safeco Field (a short, 3.5 mile course). The crowning jewel of this race -- besides the great costumes worn by many of the runners -- is that we get to run down the upper level of the Seattle Viaduct. The Viaduct, itself, might be an ugly hangover from the 1950s car culture, but the view of Elliot Bay, the Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula during the race is worth every pounding step. (Don't take that statement as an endorsement for keeping the Viaduct -- it needs to be torn down.)