Category: Technology

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Sunday/ three departures 🚢

The newly built Star Princess made its maiden port of call in Seattle this weekend.  She was constructed in 2025 by Fincantieri in Monfalcone, Italy, with a capacity for 4,300 passengers and a gross tonnage of 175,500. The Star Princess is the second Sphere-class vessel for Princess Cruises, a sister ship to the Sun Princess.

The Star Princess was at Pier 91 with MS Noordam on the opposite side of the pier, and was scheduled to depart this afternoon at 3 pm.
Instead, it was MS Noordam that sounded her horn three times, and departed shortly after 3 pm.

I waited until after 4 pm for Star Princess to depart, and then gave up.  (Later, at home, I saw online that the Star Princess had departed at 5.25 pm).
I walked up to the Magnolia Bridge to take another picture or two, and right then the Norwegian Encore came by in the distance.  She was at Pier 66.

Port of Seattle’s Pier 91 this afternoon at 3 pm.
From left to right: the Star Princess, the Arctic Fjord (a state-of-the-art, 325.8-foot/ 99-meter U.S.-built factory trawler designed for harvesting and processing Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea) and the MS Noordam.
A closer look at the Star Princess. The dome at the top is a multi-level, glass-enclosed top-deck venue. The structure directly in front of the dome is a relaxing, forward-facing outdoor area known as the Sea View. The bridge is located at the very front of the ship, situated on Deck 15 (the Sun Deck).
The MS Noordam, bound for Juneau, Alaska.
The MS Noordam had sounded her horn three times, backed away from the pier, and turned north. In the foreground in Elliot Bay Marina.
So now all of Star Princess is visible from my vantage point at Elliott Bay Marina.
I am not 100% sure, but I believe this tugboat is using its water cannon to produce a ‘water salute’ to the Star Princess prior to her departure.
Look at the Mountain looming in the distance, magnified by my telefoto lens.
By about 4.20 pm at Elliott Bay Marina, I gave up to see Star Princess depart. Her mooring lines were still in place. I walked up the Magnolia Bridge to get this view of Pier 91 for a final picture or two.  
The vessel to the left of Star Princess is Seaspan Baker, a bunkering tanker. These are specialized vessels designed to supply fuel (bunker) directly to other ships for propulsion and energy.
While I was on the Magnolia Bridge, the Norwegian Encore came by.
She was at Pier 66 and had a scheduled 4 pm departure. She was a little late departing as well (this picture taken at 4.35 pm).
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Friday/ the splashdown 💦

Happy Friday.
It was great to watch the live feed of the splashdown of the Orion spacecraft.

A visualization by NASA of the Orion spacecraft after it had entered Earth’s atmosphere, here still some 30 miles from Earth.
(The Orion spacecraft seems to be kind of upside down, or— it seems an odd angle to present to the viewer for the visualization). 
Look at the Orion’s speed: 25,127 mph (7 miles per second). 
Superheated plasma (ionized atoms from atmospheric gases) builds up all around the capsule, not just at the bottom, creating a “fireball” effect. The ionized gas enveloping the craft caused a 6-minute data and communication blackout.
The first parachutes (drogue chutes) for the Orion capsule deploy at an altitude of 20,000 to 25,000 feet (about 6 to 7.6 km, 4 to 5 miles) above Earth.
The final three main parachutes for the Orion capsule deploy at an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet (about 1,800 meters, about 1.1 mile).
NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026.
NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth.
Following a splashdown at 8:07 p.m. EDT, NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha.
[Photo and caption by NASA/Bill Ingalls, posted on NASA HQ photostream on flickr.com] 
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Wednesday/ a ride on the 2 Line 🚉

I walked down to the Capitol Hill light rail station this morning, and took the new 2 Line extension to Judkins Park station (it opened on Saturday March 28).

At Judkins Park station, my two amigos joined me, and we went on to Bellevue Downtown station to go to a movie theater there. (I will report about the movie later).

The map and the drone picture below it are from the Seattle Times.
The rest of the images are my snapshots from the roundtrip on the 2 Line from Capitol Hill Station to Bellevue Downtown, and back.

The Judkins Park station and Mercer Island station were the ‘missing link’ between the 1 Line and 2 Line.
These were the two that opened on Mar. 28, and now commuters can go from Lynnwood City Center all the way up north to Downtown Redmond, or to Federal Way.
A light rail train crosses the I-90 floating bridge during testing this month.
[Photo by Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times]
Here’s a new view of downtown from the light rail, from the 2 Line after it left the International District station. That’s Lumen Field stadium on the left, home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer (MLS), and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League.
Going under Interstate 5 along South Dearborn Street and the steel truss bridge called the Jose Rizal Bridge (constructed in 1911).
The platform at the new Judkins Park Station, looking where I came from, from Seattle downtown. Trains on this side go through Seattle downtown and up north to Lynnwood City Center.
Artwork at Judkins Park station.
My amigos arrived on foot at Judkins Park station, and here comes our train that will take us to Bellevue Downtown station.
We arrived at Bellevue Downtown station, and walked up to the little plaza above it. Here comes a train that started out at Downtown Redmond station.
The City Hall plaza by the Bellevue Downtown station has a new reflection pool. That’s the City Center Plaza building on the left.
The building with the orange accents is brand new and called Bellevue 600: a 43-story high-rise office building developed by Amazon.
We’re making our way on foot to Bellevue Square.
I am stopping to turn around and admire the vanishing edge of the Symetra Center: a 25-story office building built in 1986.
We went to the movie theatre to see Project Hail Mary, and went for a beer and a bite, and made our way back to Bellevue Downtown station.
Here comes our Lynnwood-bound 2 Line train that will take us back to Judkins Park station and Capitol Hill Station.
It’s nice to see people already lining up to take the train, even though it is still early (4 pm).
Inside the train.
A view of the intersection of Interstate 90 and Interstate 405, from the train.
The marina with its boat slips on the shore of Lake Washington that is called the Newport Yacht Basin.
Going through a tunnel on the way to Mercer Island station.
Arriving at Mercer Island station.
Going over the floating bridge on Interstate 90 that take us over Lake Washington. The Mountain was out today.
Almost across Lake Washington, and Judkins Park station.
I am spotting a Cybertruck on Interstate 90 (in the middle of the picture).
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Friday/ our blue planet 🌍

NASA posted this image of Earth on X, taken yesterday from the Orion spacecraft by Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman.

The picture was taken with a Nikon D5 with a wide-angle zoom lens (14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8) at ƒ/4.0 with focal length 22.0 mm at 1/4 s and ISO 51,200*.
*This is an extremely high ISO, necessary for the very low level of light. At this moment, this side of Earth is dark with the sun behind it. With the naked eye none of these colors would be visible, but the extreme sensitivity of the camera sensor produces this image.

The large brown mass visible on the left side is Africa (the Sahara Desert), with the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and the Mediterranean Sea in the lower-left quadrant of Earth’s disk.

The South Pole is oriented toward the top of the frame, so the prominent green glow at the top of the atmosphere is aurora australis (the southern lights). A second, fainter aurora (aurora borealis, the northern lights) is visible near the bottom-left edge of the planet’s image.

The image also captures zodiacal light (a faint glow from sunlight scattering off interplanetary dust) in the bottom-right corner, appearing as Earth partially eclipses the Sun from the perspective of the Orion spacecraft.

The bright rectangular cluster of spots in the middle of the image is probably a reflection of something from inside the Orion spacecraft.

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Thursday/ Day 2 of the Artemis II mission 🚀

From Google AI Overview:
The main event on Day 2 of the Artemis II* mission (April 2, 2026) was the successful Translunar Injection (TLI) burn, which sent the Orion spacecraft and its four-person crew out of Earth orbit and onto a trajectory toward the Moon.

*In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo.
Artemis I was launched on November 16, 2022, at 1:47:44 a.m. EST. The uncrewed mission lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft.

Key Details of Day 2:
The Burn: The Orion spacecraft ignited its main engine for 5 minutes and 50 seconds, beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, 25 hours after launch.
Significance: This maneuver marked the first time humans have left Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Trajectory: The burn placed Orion on a free-return trajectory, ensuring the spacecraft would loop around the Moon and return to Earth.
Other Activities: The crew also worked on preparing the spacecraft, initiated early space-to-ground video communication, and began adapting to the space environment.

The Artemis II crew during a video-conference call today. 
The crew consists of four astronauts (from left to right)—NASA’s Reid Wiseman (Commander), the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and Victor Glover (Pilot). 
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Wednesday/ will we all be vibe coding? 😎

vibe code

verb
writing code, making web pages, or creating apps, by just telling an AI program what you want, and letting it create the product for you. In vibe coding the coder does not need to understand how or why the code works, and often will have to accept that a certain number of bugs and glitches will be present.
– Merriam Webster online

From the New York Times online

November was, for me and many others in tech, a great surprise.
Before, A.I. coding tools were often useful, but halting and clumsy.
Now, the bot can run for a full hour and make whole, designed websites and apps that may be flawed, but credible.
I spent an entire session of therapy talking about it.

The tech industry is a global culture — an identity based on craft and skill. Software development has been a solid middle-class job for a long time.
But that may be slipping away.
What might the future look like if 100 million, or a billion, people can make any software they desire?
Could this be a moment of unparalleled growth and opportunity as people gain access to tech industry power for themselves?
– Paul Ford writing in a guest essay for the New York Times

Off the top of my head I can think of a few things I would like to vibe code:
A bot that can search Ebay and the half dozen online stores for me to find postage stamps that I am looking for (Ebay’s new terms ban the use of AI bots for searches— but my bot will outsmart Ebay and elude detection);
A bot that can teach me to speak a little bit of a foreign language before I travel to that country (Duolingo and AI chat bots can just about do that already);
A PC housekeeping app that can learn how I use the directories on my computer and organize my files accordingly, especially ones I download and have to forever —aargh— retrieve from the Download folder and move elsewhere, or remember to go and delete them;
An all-in-one weather app that will tell me at the end of the day what the day’s high and low was (in both the international standard unit of measure called Celsius and Fahrenheit), what the precipitation was (if any), high wind speed & direction, UV index, atmospheric pressure, sky conditions (cloud cover) and hey, throw in phase of the moon, so that I have a heads-up for when the full moon is coming;
A sports app that will track where and exactly when Carlos Alcaraz (world No 1 tennis player) is scheduled to be playing next, and alert me.

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Friday/ finals weekend at the AO 🎾

Happy Friday.
It’s finals weekend at the 2026 Australian Open.

World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz (22, 🇪🇸) survived his marathon 5½ hour 5-setter semifinal match against Alexander Zverev (28, 🇩🇪) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 6-7 (4-7), 7-5.
He will meet Novak Djokovic (38, 🇷🇸) in the final.
Djokovic was not supposed to beat world No 2 Jannik Sinner (24, 🇮🇹) in the semis, but he did: 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

In the women’s final Aryna Sabalenka (27) will meet Elena Rybakina (26, 🇰🇿).

P.S. There are AI-animated versions of the matches posted on espn.com in addition to the real ones. Why? Just for fun, I guess. Alcaraz is in green.
The animated players play with an oversized tennis ball. The AI engine is still a work-in-progress when it comes to the finer detail, though— such as showing the hands of the players gripping the racquets.

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Thursday/ Amazon is making waves 🌊

Amazon is laying off 16,000 employees. That’s on top of 14,000 that were let go in October.
The company is America’s second-largest private employer, behind Walmart. It has over 350,000 corporate employees, so these recent rounds of cuts represent about 9% of the company’s overall office staff.

Amazon also announced just this week that they are closing all of their Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores. (The Whole Foods franchise stays put and will be expanded. Grocery delivery for orders placed online will continue as usual).

Finally, there is the troublesome matter of Amazon foisting a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump on America.
Oy, Amazon. What the hell?

Here is what Nicole Sperling and Brooks Barnes write for the New York Times about it:
The film’s rollout is huge — a $35 million marketing campaign that includes television commercials during N.F.L. playoff games and a premiere simulcast in 25 theaters in the United States.
Starting Friday, the film hits 3,300 theaters worldwide.
Amazon’s all-hands-on-deck handling of “Melania,” follows Melania Trump, the first lady, in the days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration.
Ms. Trump produced the film, which was directed by Brett Ratner, who has not made a movie since 2017, when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. He has denied those accusations.
Amazon paid Ms. Trump’s production company $40 million for the rights to “Melania,” about $26 million more than the next closest bidder, Disney.

The front page of today’s Seattle Times.
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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.