Category: Technology

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Tuesday/ at the airport ✈️

My time in Tokyo was up on Tuesday, and that’s OK.
It is time for me to go home.

I made one last run, on the Yamanote Line to Shibuya station and Shibuya crossing (picture), just three stops down from Shinjuku.
I checked in on Tower Records and ended up buying a music CD.
(Yes— I still like to buy music now and then. I do rent my music nowadays as well, on Youtube Music).

Late afternoon I took an airport limousine bus runs from Kabukicho Tower to Haneda airport— super convenient and for all of ¥1,400 (US$8.93).
I took the picture of the control tower at Haneda airport just before I hopped off the bus. That might just be Mt Fuji in the distance, in the bottom right corner of the picture.

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Monday/ Kabukicho Tower and Ginza 🌇

On Monday I went up to the 17th-floor observation deck of the Kabukicho Tower. It offers a nice view of the trains running into and out of Shinjuku station.

The other photos are from Ginza shopping district around sunset.
Everything in Ginza is art— the buildings, the lamp posts, the manhole covers in the pavement, all the way down to the metro stations below ground.
The clocks are from inside the Wako Building, owned by Seiko watch corporation.

I took the Marounochi Line back to Shinjuku just before the onset of rush hour (rush hour starts at around 5.30 pm).

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Saturday/ hotel in Shinjuku 🏨

My hotel room in the Prince Hotel Shinjuku (brown brick building in second from last pic) is barely bigger than my stateroom on the Diamond Princess had been, but that’s OK. I knew that when I made the reservation.

I can see the Yamanote Line out of my hotel room window (the train with the green trim).
I made the obligatory run out to Yodobashi Camera, taking the Marounochi Line (red train) and the Chūō Line (yellow train) out to Akihabara station.

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Thursday/ in the Malacca Strait 🌊

The Diamond Princess is in the Malacca Strait tonight, across from the island Penang (part of Malaysia; I put an asterisk on the map that I found here on the ship).
She continues to make her way to Phuket.

This morning I spotted the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) tanker vessel called IDD AL SHARGI.
She is brand new (delivered in 2025), and sails under the flag of Singapore.
Idd El Shargi is one of Qatar’s largest and most significant offshore oil fields, located about 85 km / 53 miles east of Doha in the Arabian Gulf. 

Her gross tonnage* is 115,513, length 299 m / 981 ft and beam 46 m / 151 ft.
These numbers are very similar to those of the Diamond Princess:  tonnage 115,875, length 288 m/ 945 ft and beam 37.5 m / 123 ft.

*Gross tonnage is a volume measurement, not a weight measurement, expressed as a numerical value derived from cubic meters. 

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Thursday/ another day at sea 🌊

The Diamond Princess was still plying her way through the waters of the South China Sea towards the port of Cam Ranh today.
We are due in at 7 am in the morning.

The plaques with artwork on them are from the walls on the Promenade Deck. They commemorate the dates when the Diamond Princess called ports around the world.

The inaugural call for the Port of Seattle was May 29, 2004. This is the very year she was delivered from the shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Tokyo, Japan to the cruise line.

The other two plaques are from Nha Trang. (Passenger cruise ships stopped calling directly at Nha Trang’s main port starting around late September 2024. The pier was closed for urgent repairs and safety issues, forcing cancellations and rerouting to alternatives like Cam Ranh Port. Some ships are scheduled for returns for 2026 after the completion of the repairs.)

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Wednesday/ at sea 🌊

The Diamond Princess is making her way northwards across the South China Sea towards Cam Ranh Bay— the large and deep natural harbor on Vietnam’s south-central coast.

Cam Ranh is famous for its strategic military history as a major US naval and air base during the Vietnam War.
Fifty years on, it is now a developing tourism spot with beautiful beaches like Bai Dai and proximity to the city of Nha Trang.

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Tuesday/ anchors aweigh 🛳️

Early on Tuesday afternoon, it was time to run out to the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore to board the Diamond Princess for our 14-day cruise up and down and around the Malay Peninsula.

The view from the top deck of the Diamond Princess alongside Pier 1 at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, with the Singapore city skyline in the near distance.
The construction of the S$500 million terminal began in October 2009 and was completed in May 2012.
The tugboat helps a little to make sure the Diamond Princess pulls away from the pier securely.
In the mean time there is party music and Sail Away festivities happening on the top deck.
At about 4.35 pm we had moved away from the cruise terminal and we were on the way. That is Mein Schiff 6 at Pier 2, a cruise ship owned by TUI Cruises.
I was too late to make it to the top deck to catch a glimpse of the setting sun and will do better tomorrow. The Diamond Princess is making her way due east from Singapore and will soon turn northeast.
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Monday/ the Gardens by the Bay 🌴

The Gardens by the Bay is a futuristic nature park spanning 101 hectares of reclaimed land right in the center of the city.

The Flower Dome is the world’s largest glass greenhouse and features a spectacular ensemble of plants, trees and flowers from all over the world.

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Sunday night / the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade 🏙️

These pictures are all from the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade where the Marina Bay Sands Hotel is.

The hotel’s grand opening was in February 2011.
It was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects (Safdie Architects), and features three tilted hotel towers linked by a massive, surfboard-like SkyPark at the top, housing gardens, restaurants, and the famous infinity pool, inspired by a deck of cards.

The sphere in the water is an Apple store and the building with the petals of a flower is the ArtScience Museum.

After sunset, there was a laser and fountain show.

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Wednesday/ welcome home, sailors 🗺️

Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz* returned to her home port in Bremerton yesterday after a 9-month deployment— her very last one, after being in service for 50 years.

*Named after World War II Pacific fleet commander Chester W. Nimitz, USN, (1885–1966), who was the Navy’s third fleet admiral.

The stills below are from a video posted on kitsap.com.

From navytimes.com:
The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier docked in its homeport of Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, on Tuesday for what is scheduled to be its final visit there. The Nimitz returned from a nine-month deployment to the U.S. 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleets that began March 21 when it set sail from Kitsap.

“We have traveled more than two-thirds of this planet during this nine-month deployment, and I cannot overstate the positive impact Nimitz Strike Group has made as part of our mission to maintain peace through strength by sustaining credible deterrence alongside our allies and partners,” said Rear Adm. Fred Goldhammer, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, according to a release.

The world’s oldest aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1975 with a service lifespan of 50 years, is set to return to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, in 2026 and be decommissioned.

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Friday/ postage due stamps ✉️

Here’s another interesting envelope that I picked up on Ebay for a few dollars. It was dispatched in Johannesburg to Philadelphia, Pa. The franking on the stamp was done with a metering machine in 1951.
(Franking machines were first used in South Africa in 1926).

The franking of 9½ pennies fell woefully short of what was actually needed, though.
The US post office demanded 27 US cents more for delivery. The last ‘Postage Due’ stamps in the USA were issued in 1985.  They were rendered obsolete by tracking technology and the requirement of full prepayment of postage in most cases. 

Meter Stamp
Printed in South Africa for 9½ pennies, dated May 9, 1951, with Universal “Multi-Value” (MV) metering machine (first used 1933).

Postage Due Stamps
Issued by United States, 1931-1956.
Perf. 11×10½ | Engraving by American Bank Note Company | Rotary Press Printing
J81 D3 | 2c dull carmine
J83 D3 | 5c dull carmine
J84 D3 | 10c dull carmine
[Sources: Wikibooks.org, 2003 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue]

Taking a closer look at the engraving detail. The design of the stamp and the fonts resemble the design of a banknote.
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Sunday/ a little architecture tour 🏢

I braved the cold wind outside to do a little self-directed architecture tour on First Hill today.
I wanted to take a look at the The Graystone Seattle on Columbia Avenue and the Museum House complex with its twin towers.

The Graystone at 800 Columbia St was actually built in 2021 (how time flies). It has 31 stories and 271 units. This is the view from the parking lot on 8th Avenue, looking northeast. (On the right, just a block or so away, is the Museum House complex with its twin towers).
Now I am on Columbia Street, walking up hill. I should have taken a picture without the tree! but there is a waterfall feature on the right that obscures the street view into the condo’s gym somewhat. There are several other amenities of course, such as a rooftop deck and meeting rooms and all that.
Here’s the view of the downtown skyline, looking towards the west. Interstate 5 is close by, but at a much lower level which dampens any traffic noise one might hear.
Now walking to the Museum House complex on Terry Avenue.
This apartment building opened in March, and features a north tower and a south tower, each with 32 stories. It offers 506 rental units.
Looking up at the main facade of the building. The skybridge is all the way up on Floor 31.
First Hill has several hospitals and buildings with clinics and doctors’ offices inside. This is Cabrini Center on Boren Avenue, completed in 1973 with 18 towers.
St. James Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral located at 804 Ninth Avenue. It was dedicated in 1907.
All right. The sun is going to set soon and I am heading to the waterfront.
Here’s a look at the traffic on I-5 (looking south).
Beautiful colors reflected by the windows of the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown. The hotel was completed in 1980 and has 18 floors.
Seattle’s weird library with its faceted frames of glass and steel has 11 floors. It opened in May 2004 to the public.
Further south along 4th Avenue is the Columbia Tower, at 76 stories still the tallest structure in the state of Washington. (Getting squeezed out of view from here a little bit by the F5 Tower in front of it that opened in 2017).
Heading down to the waterfront now. It’s good that I snapped this picture of the sun behind the clouds, because it was gone for the day just a few minutes later.
Seattle has 33 fire stations and the one on the waterfront is No 5. The original Fire Station No. 5 building opened here at this location in 1902.
Here are the first cars rolling onto the Walla Walla ferry at Colman Dock (Seattle Ferry Terminal), for its departure to Bremerton.
Look at the windsock and choppy water: there is a strong breeze.
On my way back to the G-line bus stop. Here is “What Goes Up Must Come Down” — the giant paddle-ball sculpture by Catherine Mayer at 2nd Avenue and Spring St. It is about 42 feet tall and made of fiberglass and steel.
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Friday/ AI embellishments 🦍

Happy Friday.
I embellished some of my pictures from last Sunday with Google’s new Gemini 3 (“Nano Banana Pro”) image editor.

It is as easy as saying “Add Bigfoot (Sasquatch) crossing the street into this picture”.
(The Cybertruck in the last picture was real, and not added).

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Wednesday/ leaving the California sun ☀

It was time to go home today, and I took a flight on Alaska Airlines from Palm Springs airport to Seattle.

Pictures:
The (somewhat unusual) courtyard inside the secure area at Palm Springs airport;
Allegiant Air getting ready to fly out to Bellingham airport in Washington State;
Stepping on board my own flight— a Boeing 737-900 (twin-jet) from Alaska Airlines;
The Flighty app replaced the airplane with a flying turkey— a nod to Thanksgiving, of course;
Arrived at Seattle, got my checked bag, walked the half-mile to the light rail station, and here comes the train (look for the Mountain that is out, through one of the glass panes);
Utility poles and power cables on the way;
Views of the stations called SODO, Pioneer Square, Symphony and Westlake.

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Friday/ at the car show 🚘

Happy Friday.
I checked in at the Seattle International Auto Show today.
Here is a sample of the dream machines that were on display.

The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning, MSRP $72,905. There was a salesperson nearby with a mike, promoting it, but these EV trucks are not selling well at all. Ford has stopped production of these for now, with rumors that its production might be canceled altogether.
The 2026 Jeep Wrangler 4-door (there is a 2-door as well), outfitted with the Willys package (MSRP $45,305).
Another look at the 2026 Jeep Wrangler 4-door.
The largest of Volkswagen’s SUV offerings, the Atlas Cross Sport (MSRP starting at $38,300).
The Toyota LandCruiser’s storied history began in 1951 with the “Toyota BJ,” a military-style vehicle developed for the Korean War and the Japan’s National Police Reserve.
It was officially renamed the LandCruiser in 1954, inspired by the “Land Rover”.
[Source: Google AI Overview]
2026 Toyota Land Cruiser has an MSRP of $57,200 for the entry-level 1958 trim, and the premium trim starts at $63,275.
The 2026 Ford Bronco Raptor is a high-performance off-road SUV with an MSRP of around $80,000.
The 2026 Chevy Silverado EV truck in the new Trail Boss trim, with the Extended Range starting at $72,095 and the Max Range at $88,695 MSRP.
The 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrid is a new option from the Hyundai lineup, featuring a 2.5L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, two electric motors, and a 1.7 kWh battery to produce a combined 329 horsepower.
[Source: Google AI Overview]
The 2025 Mercedes-AMG GLS 63 is a luxury performance SUV that will blow a $150,000 hole in your bank account. It has a hybrid-assisted* 4.0L twin-turbo V8 engine producing 603 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque.
*With a small electric motor and a low-voltage battery to improve fuel efficiency and performance.
A close-up of the badge on the hood of the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63.
The 2026 Volkswagen ID. Buzz is an electric vehicle with a combination of retro style and modern technology, featuring an updated interior with enhanced materials and larger digital displays. MSRP around $60,000. 
[Source: Google AI Overview].
The 2026 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible (MSRP for this car and its trim about $91k).
And the grandest of all the vintage cars on display: a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr. The Lincoln-Zephyr is a line of luxury cars that was produced by the Lincoln division of Ford from 1936 until 1942.
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Wednesday/ NVDA crosses 5️⃣ trillion

“It’s incredible. Did you ever think in our lifetime we’d see a $5 trillion company?”
– David Faber, a host on the CNBC show “Squawk on the Street”, this morning

Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia (ticker symbol: NVDA) is now worth 5 trillion US dollars.
The company’s latest AI superchip (the Blackwell Ultra) carry 200 billion transistors. Nine out of ten AI chips that are sold in the world, are made by Nvidia.

Tripp Mickle, writing for the New York Times:
Nvidia’s milestone, making it the first publicly traded company to top $5 trillion in market value, is indicative not only of the astonishing levels of wealth consolidating among a handful of Silicon Valley companies but also the strategic importance of this company, which added $1 trillion in market value in just the past four months.

Meanwhile, President Trump indicated that he would discuss the sale of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips with China in the summit on Thursday. Some US officials say that would be “massive” national security mistake.

Nvidia now makes up more than 8% of the S&P 500. Apple and Microsoft themselves sit at $4 trillion. Combined with Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla (these are called the ‘Magnificent Seven’) they make up ONE THIRD of the S&P 500’s market valuation.
So there is the answer to the question as to why the stock market indexes keep going up while the economy is barely growing. It’s the tech companies that are pulling them up.
Jason Furman, a professor of economic policy at Harvard, calculates that spending on data center construction accounted for 92% of the GDP growth in the US in the first half of the year. Take all of that out, and the US economy would have grown at a measly 0.1%.
[Graphic and headlines from the New York Times]
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Saturday/ the cost for 100 miles ⚡🔌⛽

Here is a very interesting analysis that appeared in the New York Times recently.
(Whoah! Electricity is very expensive in the Golden State.)

How Much It Costs to Drive an E.V. and a Gas Car in Every State
Charging an electric car battery is usually cheaper than going to the gas pump. But it depends on where you live.

– Report by Francesca Paris in the New York Times of Oct. 8

The federal subsidy for electric cars has ended, which means E.V. sales will probably fall because of simple math: Electric cars are generally more expensive than comparable gas cars. (Some automakers are offering discounts to get around that.)

But there’s one place where E.V.s are usually cheaper: the cost of filling up.

Driving 100 miles in a typical gas car that gets 25 miles per gallon costs about $13 on average.

In an E.V. you’d pay just $5, if you recharged at the average home electricity rate. (Stopping at a fast-charging station — if you couldn’t charge at home, or had to travel far — would cost quite a bit more.)

There’s also a big difference between a standard gas car and a hybrid. A typical hybrid (not the plug-in kind) is essentially a highly efficient gas car — a Toyota Prius can get more than 50 miles per gallon — and so its fill-up costs can be roughly on par with an E.V. charged at home.

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Sunday/ at the Ballard locks ⛵

Three of us ran out to the Ballard locks* this morning.
Even though the salmon runs for the season are over (there were none to be seen in the windows by the fish ladder), there was still a lot of activity to look at.

*The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, or Ballard Locks, is a complex of locks at the west end of Salmon Bay in Seattle, Washington’s Lake Washington Ship Canal, between the neighborhoods of Ballard to the north and Magnolia to the south.
[Source: Wikipedia]

Here’s looking towards the waters of Puget Sound.
It looks like the Salmon Bay bridge (drawbridge) had to be opened just for the little sailboat with its tall mast! (in the middle of the picture). There are seagulls in the sky above the sailboat, and a speck that is a seaplane, as well.
This is the smaller of the two side-by-side locks.
The gates are just closing behind the two vessels. We chatted briefly with the owners (an elderly couple) of the larger vessel at the back that goes by De Anza III.
She was built in 1958, and this was the first summer they owned her.
A closet look at the woodwork on De Anza III, as she is lifted up by the water being pumped into the lock. The new owners have done some work this summer to sand the woodwork and give it a new coat of varnish, but they still have a lot to do.
This is the larger of the two locks, with two commercial vessels about to leave the lock and go on to Lake Union.
Hey! There’s a harbor seal that had just caught a salmon.
So even though the salmon runs for the season are over and done with, there are still a few of them in the water. I wonder if the fish are fatigued (from their swim upstream), and easy to catch.
A great blue heron (Ardea herodias) on the edge of the canal’s water is patiently waiting its turn for an opportunity to pounce.
The O-fish-al count (get it? official count) for 2025.
So there are distinct times for the peaks of the runs of the different species of salmon.
Q. And how do they count the fish?
A. Fish are counted at the Ballard Locks through daily visual counts by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Muckleshoot Indian Tribe staff using the fish ladder itself. Fish are observed passing through the ladder during specific periods, and these visual counts are converted into daily and weekly totals to estimate the overall fish run for the year.
[Google AI Overview]
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Thursday/ at the Japan Open 🇯🇵🎾

I should have stayed on in Tokyo for another week so that I could catch some of the action at the Japan Open ATP 500 men’s tennis tournament there.

World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz (🇪🇸, 22) made his debut in Japan there, today.
He scared everybody with an ankle injury in the first set of his match, but recovered to beat Argentinian Sebastian Baez (🇦🇷, 24) by 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.

Here is my picture from last Friday on the elevated Yurikamome Line.
The structures on the left of the track are in Ariake Tennis no Mori Park with its center court Ariake Coliseum.

The tennis park opened in 1983 with 32 hard courts. It was extensively renovated to serve as the tennis venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics and today houses a total of 49 tennis courts (33 hard courts and 16 artificial grass courts with sand infill).
Look for the elevated Yurikamome Line on the left of the picture. The Ariake Tennis no Mori Park train station is towards the top right of the picture. 
[Graphic from Olympic and Paralympic Games TOKYO2020 website]
Here’s Carlos at the start of his match against Sebastian Baez— his buzz cut from the US Open now grown out a little (and bleached silver, not blond, he says).
Carlos is doing a Japanese bow as he greets the representative from Kinoshita Group (I couldn’t get his name). The man in the middle is the umpire of the match, Fergus Murphy from Dublin, Ireland.
[Still from TennisTV coverage of the match]

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Tuesday/ autumn card 🍂

I deployed my 2 ½ -dimensional card that I had bought at a Japan Post Office in Tokyo, on my dining room table.

The cut-outs on the card was done with a laser.
Here is an explainer from Google AI Overview:
Lasers are very effective for cutting paper, offering high precision for intricate designs on various paper types, including cardstock and corrugated board. The laser beam vaporizes the paper along the path of the design, resulting in a clean, distortion-free edge without mechanical contact. While the laser’s heat can cause slight browning or charring on the edges, this can be minimized by using appropriate power and speed settings for the specific paper.