Hermawan and Risman (above) from the local Microsoft office took me out to a place near the office for a real Indonesian lunch. This little cafe served Padang-style food where the servers bring out a bunch of dishes, and you only pay for the ones you eat. You can see the various plates stacked up in front of us. There was a great chicken curry, another chicken covered in curry and then roasted, some nice shrimp with potatoes, and a good dried beef. Almost everything was very nice.

With some glee, Hermawan put this crispy brown thing on my plate and wanted to see if I'd try it. Risman sat giggling. I asked what it was; Hermawan just said he'd tell me after I ate it. So I did. It tasted kind of like a pork rind, but beefy and a bit grainy. Not bad all in all. It's a dish called nasi padang -- fried beef lung. Well, that was a first for me. I think I earned some cred by eating it without flinching. As we left the table, I finished off the last bite just to show I wasn't scared of it. Somehow, I don't think it's going to ever make it big in the States.

 

We also had a tasty but slightly weird looking dessert. It was a bowl of coconut milk, tapioca noodles (I think), some bright pink fruit (like a cross between passionfruit and a pomegranate), jack fruit (yum), and avocado over ice. Frankly, the ice scared me the most as the water isn't great around here (I've been avoiding ice all week). It was yummy and refreshing, I must admit.

When it came time to tally the meal, the waitress pointed to a few dishes where we only ate part of the dish, like one of the two pieces of chicken; she only charged those as half a dish. A bit scared, I asked my hosts whether they re-served the uneaten food. They both smiled and said "I think you know the answer." As Michelle wrote to me when I told her this, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, ick, ick, ick"

Lack of American-style hygiene aside, it was a good meal. I'm glad to have had at least Indonesian meal outside the hotel ordered by locals in the know. It was very memorable...

(Pardon the poor photo quality; these are camera phone snaps. We left the office in a hurry since we were short on time so I forgot my real camera.)

I'm sitting at the Microsoft office in Jakarta right now getting ready for an interview and some more presentations. It's nice to be back on the corporate network at high speed. It's a nice office (all of the subsidiary offices seem nicer than ours in Redmond.)

Yesterday was kind of a lost day for me. I went back to the conference in the morning, but by lunch, I wasn't feeling well and went back to the hotel. Even after taking a nap, I still felt bad, so I skipped the closing dinner and party. I was up and down in a haze, watching bad TV.

Fortunately, I feel better now. OK, they've come to get me for my interview. Time to go.

I completed my talk at the Bellua Cyber Security conference here in Jakarta yesterday. It went OK, but I admit it wasn't my best presentation ever. It took some doing to get things going to begin with. I showed up early (since I was the first speaker) to get setup. For once, my machine was working perfectly, projecting on the big screen flawlessly (not always the case when running a pre-release operating system). I didn't need a network cable since we had prepped the machine run the whole thing offline (tip: don't run demos online at a security conference. Someone will try to hack you during the talk just for shits and grins). That turned out to be a good thing since there wasn't network connectivity at the little podium.

However, I did need electricity, of which there was none usable at the podium. I asked about getting an extension cord run to the podium; this seemed like a difficult request, compounded by my poor skills in Bahasa Indonesia (that's the language they speak here, if you didn't know). They suggested they run the slide and demo from the sound mixing table (not possible to teach them the demo in the few minutes I had) or that I do my talk from the mixing table (yeah, not going to happen). Fortunately, Subhan from the Microsoft subsidiary was with me and was able to help convey my desires.

Eventually, a staff dude shows up and starts taking apart a plug assembly, cutting wires, and trying to splice them into something under the stage. Fifteen minutes before my talk, he was doing the neatest possible job of taping over the wires on the stage, cutting off  the protruding edges with an x-acto knife and so on - but still no power. I started calculating if I could do my entire demo on battery power (never a good idea, especially as an unknown in front of an audience). Even when someone else showed up with a huge extension cord, he kept at his science project. Finally, he disappeared under the stage and then *poof* - there was power.

Once the talk started, I introduced myself and started into a self-deprecating joke about how we flew the Microsoft company jet to Jakarta and then showed a photo of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Crickets. Then I turned around and looked at the screen. A/V guys hadn't switched my laptop connection on, so I was standing in front of a bright blue screen. I asked the guys to show my content (since I was the speaker and all, it seemed like a reaonable request) and retried the joke, but it's a lot less funny the second time. I got a few courtesy giggles, but otherwise nothing. The energy from the audience went downhill from there. Thank goodness Jessie Burns from iSec Partners was in the front row nodding and reacting. I wouldn't have been able to tell if the mike was on otherwise. I shouldn't make excuses, but it's incredibly hard to do a high energy talk to a dead room. Anyway, the third party feedback afterwards seemed positive, so I guess it wasn't a total disaster.

Right after my talk, I did an interview with the Kompas, which I understand is the largest local paper. It was a bit awkward as the reporter's English was only OK and again, my two words of Bahasa (terima kasi - thank you) were insufficient to explain the benefits of IE7 and Windows Vista. Subhan came to my rescue again, bridging the interview. Hopefully, some of the key points will get across anyway.

Afterwards, we hung out at the Microsoft booth for a bit (where our local office had arranged for two guys in gladiator suits to march around to emphasize Microsoft's security work I guess. The Pax Microsoft?) and then I had lunch back at the hotel (crazy good and big Chinese meal) and then came back for some of the afternoon talks. They were pretty good; I thought Raffy Marty's talk on visualizing security data was especially interesting (showing graphical views of firewall log data to detect trends like port scanning quickly).

A bunch of the speakers and organizers went out for sushi together afterwards and then to a good vodka bar called Red Square. This is apparently only fun bar in Jarkarta since a bunch of the folks I was with had been there the night before and we're apparently going again tonight. Good times (as Dorian would say). I'm only sorry we missed the lounge band here at the hotel. We saw them the night before; they were surprisingly good (really). Maybe tonight or tomorrow...

OK, time to go to the conference again.

I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Jakarta getting ready for my talk in 3.5 hours about the Security Development Lifecycle and IE7 at the Bellua Cyber Security conference. I think my demos and deck are all set (knock on wood), so now it's up to me to deliver. I'm up first, right after the keynote speech by the Minister of Communications and Information of the Republic of Indonesia. I just got a text message though that due to the Minister's schedule, my talk got pushed back half an hour. Oh well.

Yesterday was my only free day in Jakarta. I slept OK well given the time change but was awoken just before 5:00am by the very loud call for morning prayers blaring outside the hotel. I was up anyway (sorta).

I had hoped to do some sightseeing and shopping, but we got a late start due to incredibly slow service at the hotel restaurant. Fortunately, the coffee was very good (not surprising since we're on the island of Java and next door to Sumatra) and the breeze on the deck at the restaurant was comfortable.

 We did eventually manage to get some shopping in at a big discount mall called Mangga Dua frequented by locals. This was seven floors of twisty passages, all alike, chock full of little clothing, purse, watch, electronics, and DVDs. The prices were slightly higher than Beijing for clothing but way, way less for DVDs and purses. It was kind of a weird place. There were these super creepy mannequins in many of the shops and the popular snack stand was D'Corn where you can get cups of sweet corn with your choice of toppings ranging from butter to caramel to tuna salad. Having just had my late breakfast, I skipped the D'Corn. Maybe next time.

        

Traffic in Jakarta is typical of my experience in developing nations, where the lane boundaries are merely widely ignored suggestions, scooters dive in and out of traffic, and vehicles are inches apart on all sides as they crawl through traffic. Add that to my normal dysfunction around driving on the left side of the road, and I died a thousand deaths in the car on the way to and from the shopping. they manage to do it somehow.

The food has been OK so far - nothing to blog about, although admittedly I've been lame and have only eaten the hotel (something I almost never do). I'll have to reach out and find some real local treats.

OK time to get dressed and head off to the conference.

Dorian and I made it to Jakarta safely, although getting out of the airport and to the hotel was an ordeal. First, there was the hour line to get a visa. Then, there was the hour line to have someone else check the visa they gave me in the previous line. Fortunately, after two hours, our bags were out already plus the customs line was short. We found our hotel driver easily and then proceeded to drive into a big traffic jam.

About 45 min later we got to the hotel. As the car entered the hotel drive, we passed through a security checkpoint where they used mirrors to check under the car and opened the trunk and passenger compartment doors. I was simultaneously relieved and worried by this security treat. I'm glad they're doing it (since they clearly think there's a risk) but concerned since there were a bit cursory about it (I guess they don't consider the hotel Mercedes a threat, but maybe that would be the strategy...)

When we pulled up to the hotel, we went through another security check where they wanded our bags (but they didn't really dig around much) and then went through a metal detector. I guess we'll have to do this every time we go in and out of the hotel. Wahoo.

Time to unpack and get a beer (yes, I'm blogging before I've even had a beer - can you believe it?)

I'm in the business class lounge at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport here in Taipei, waiting for my connection to Jakarta. The lounge isn't too bad as far as these things go. In particular the food in't too bad (Dorian Orr, my travel partner from Microsoft's security team, keeps going back for meat baozi - humbow for the Seattle folks).

The fun surprise was a game room filled with XBox 360s. Dorian proceeded to kick my ass at Dead or Alive 4 (he's vicious with Christie, the white haired snake-style fighter gal.) That was a nice way to kill some time during this four hour layover.

The Eva Airways flight from Seattle to Taipei was uneventful. I mostly just ate and slept (story of my life, I guess). It wasn't as lux as Air New Zealand or even Northwest, but the flight attendants were cute, so there's that.

I had hoped to post this from the lounge, but I am unable to connect to the wifi network. I tried it in both IE7 and Firefox, but their site fails. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to get another bao. Another hour or so and it'll be time to board.

I'm getting ready to leave the house for my 2:00am (!) flight to Jakarta. As I packed my bags, I noticed all the things I carry based on my experience travelling for work and thought I'd share the list.

For the flight

• The Economist and Scientific American: These are great travel reading because they are lightweight, content heavy, and disposable. It takes me a long time to get through these magazines, which is perfect. Once I'm done, I can recycle it vs. having to carry it home. I used to carry books, but I found they were way less convenient.
• Noise cancelling headphones: I usually bring Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones, but if I'm pressed for space, I'll bring the smaller Sennheiser PCX250's. I like them both, but the Bose just sound better and keep the noise down better. (I should have just bought the Bose first.) You don't realize how loud an airplane is until you wear noise-cancelling headphones. It's amazing what a difference it makes in how I feel at the end of the flight. The only downsides (esp. with the Bose) are that my ears get hot, and I look like every other person in business class (everyone has the Bose headphones.)
• Cashews: I like having a small bag of nuts to snack on in case I get a bit peckish. I never trust what I'll get on the flight. Plus I never eat nuts at home because the kids are allergic, so it's a bit of a treat. I used to carry water too, but I guess those days are over.
• Medicine bag: I keep a small baggie with Aleve, diarhea pills (because even a short flight would be disastrous in the event of a problem), cough drops, and Claritin.
• A pen: This is a good thing to always have anyway, but on international flights you need a pen to complete the immigration paperwork. I seem to always carry a rollerball pen, which I know is a disaster waiting to happen as the pressure changes, but I like them.
• A little flashlight: I usually have one of these anyway, but a flashlight is invaluable for finding stuff that rolled under the seats, invariably when the cabin lights are out.
• My computer: Of course. I'll also usually have a second battery or the power supply (or both). I've found that TabletPCs are great on the plane because you can work in tablet mode, even in domestic coach with the seat in front of you reclined. Normal laptops get squished.
• My clothes: Obviously, I'm wearing clothes, but I'm pretty deliberate about what I wear. I wear stuff that won't wrinkle much like wool or some of the wrinkle resistant stuff. My pants will have pockets big enough for the ticket (so no jeans). I'll almost always wear a dress shirt with a breast pocket for tickets, id, immigration paperwork, etc. I should wear slip-on shoes too, but I don't.

For the hotel room

• More cashews: I like to eat a little before I go run in the morning; a big room service breakfast isn't what I want. I also sometimes get a little hungry late at night. It's nice to be able to eat a bit.
• Wireless network router: If I'm travelling with other work colleagues or if I have more than one computer (like a work machine and a demo machine, I'll carry a Linksys Compact-G wireless router. It's very small and has four wired ports too. It lets me share the internet connection among the computers as well as transfer files between machines.
• A travel alarm clock: I never trust that I'll set the hotel alarm clock correctly or that the front desk will get the wakeup call right. I have this slick little analog clock I got when I visited Apple a zillion years ago. You rotate the face to increment or decrement the hour - very easy.
• The Squid: There are never enough power outlets near the desk, especially for someone carry two computers, a phone, two cameras, and a wireless router. The Squid is the perfect power strip. I also throw in a 3 prong-to-2 prong adapter just in case.

I like packing my stuff into little bags to keep things organized, but I'm too cheap to buy the fancy bags made for this. I use the bags they give you business class that have the socks and eye shades in them as well as the tons of ziplock baggies.

Oh, crap, time to leave for my flight. See you on the other side.

The class I took this week was a residential class where we stayed at a hotel for the three days. This week we were at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Washington (about 15-20 minutes north of Microsoft campus). I've been to the restaurants at Willows Lodge before (the excellent Barking Frog and the legendary Herb Farm), but I've never stayed at the hotel before.

It was great.

The rooms are swish and lovely; each has a fireplace, huge tub, high thread count sheets, a computer w/ flat panel, and super nice decor. It's like the Salish Lodge (where we held Strategy Conference) but more modern and hip -- a luxury NW resort.

I did, however, find some minor annoyances. While the lighting was very nice, there were switches all over the room and no master way to turn them off, so I had to run around the room turning off a dozen lights before I could leave. (I love the stick-the-card-in-the-switch thing that many hotels in other countries use to toggle room power). Also, the shower had a pretty cool faucet where you set the desired temperature using up and down buttons, watching the LCD display and then hit the on/off switch. While this satisfied my inner geek, it was just inconvenient. I don't need to know this level of precision (102 or 103 degrees?) nor do I want to press and hold anything. (There's probably a long blog post coming about the usability of water faucets.)

Still, these things were trivial and didn't diminish the experience much. If you're visiting the Seattle area and need to be near Microsoft or want to be in our local wine country (Woodinville has a bunch of good wineries), I highly recommend Willows Lodge.

I just got back from a quick weekend trip with the boys to Disneyland. A bunch of my fraternity brothers (I am a Kappa Alpha) and I got together with our families to play at Disneyland and California Adventure. We also met more So Cal brothers at a bbq hosted by one of the families. It was great to see these guys; they are truly special to me. It's amazing to see all the kids too; I think we had something like eighteen kids ranging from six months to fourteen years old. They all got along and played like they'd known each for years, even though we came from California, Texas, Oregon, and Washington for the event. I hope we all get together again soon.

As Michael (5) said, "Disneyland sucks. I like Disneyworld better." It's true. Disneyland was fun for a weekend, but it really doesn't compare to Disneyworld with the huge array of choices it offers. The guys did enjoy the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and some of the other stuff, but they're not really into thrill rides, so that limited our choices a bunch. Games, climbing stuff, and geeky hands-on stuff like Innoventions seem more their speed, although Andrew (8) did succomb to the desire to look cool in front of Derek, a new 10-11 year old friend, and rode the swinging/sliding gondolas on the Sun Wheel (a huge ferris wheel). These cars swing so much that the thrill riding parents didn't go on, and even I'll-ride-anything Derek said he didn't want to go on it again. Andrew toughed it out, although he looked a bit queasy when he got off.

I did notice that we got scolded a lot more at the park ("we ask the kids wear a shirt", "please don't let your children sit on the railing", etc.) In the zillion times I've been to Disney parks, I've never had so many "cast members" wag a finger at us. It was kind of a downer really.

To make the trip even more exciting, I was solo parenting. With my recent and upcoming travels and classes taking me out of the house a bunch, Michelle deserved a weekend sans kids and me plus this was mostly about my college buddies, so I offered to take the kids alone. By and large this was OK, especially since we almost always had other parents with us to help. The guys were pretty well behaved, so it turned out to be OK.

Finally, we stayed at the Anabella Hotel; I had planned to stay a the Grand Californian Hotel, a Disney hotel in the park that we've stayed at before, but I messed up and couldn't get reservations. The Anabella was located conveniently, about a half-mile walk to Downtown Disney. However, this "hotel" isn't exactly the Four Seasons. It's really a nice-ish motel, not the "luxury hotel" with "elegantly designed Anaheim deluxe accomodations" and "lavish features". I can't remember the last time I've stayed in a hotel anywhere in the world that didn't have broadband (I admit, I don't have a very representative sampling of hotels...); horrors -- I had to use dial-up to check in on some stupid issue at work. Anyway, the hotel got the job done, but I'm confident the Anabella won't make my short list of must-stay hotels.

Anyway, it was a nice boys weekend away. It was super great to see my old friends and their families. Back to the salt mines tomorrow...

I really like New Zealand. I thought it was a beautiful place with great sailing, super nice people, good wine, and good food -- all the things a man could want. Here are a few observations and learnings, some big, some trivial, in no particular order:

• New Zealanders call themselves kiwis. Before the trip I wasn't sure if this was considered offensive to New Zealanders. Apparently not all.
• Kiwis don't really salt their food. Both Grandhi and I found ourselves dumping salt on everything we ate. Since Grandhi lives in India, I'm confident this isn't just an American taste thing.
• Kiwis have a great "can do" attitude. My new friend Nigel described this as a national habit of "punching above our weight". They are extraordinarily proud (rightfully so) when they play on the world stage as an equal like in the Americas Cup or with Michael Campbell (US Open winner).
• The flip side to this Kiwi Attitude is a funny sense of being an underdog to Australia and the US. They are smaller for sure. It's kind of like being the little brother.
• Everyone was super friendly. I got numerous offers to go out, see rugby, etc. It was interesting though that Auckland seemed more friendly than Wellington. When I ran in Auckland, other joggers said hello. No one in Wellington did.
• There was almost no good whisky in the bars. This might be a deal breaker. I can't live on Glenlivet and Glenfiddich. Thank goodness for Highland Park.
• I like the Kiwi sense of humor. As everyone knows, their national rugby team is the "All Blacks". So, what's the nickname of the men's national basketball team? The "Tall Blacks". Naturally.
• Kiwis (the fruit) were named as a marketing ploy. They were originally called "Chinese gooseberries" in New Zealand. When NZ started to export them, they wanted a better name. Ironically, I did not eat any kiwifruit while in New Zealand. This was a huge oversight on my part.
• I also did not try a feijoa, a local fruit in the guava family. I did, however, have feijoa vodka from 42 Below (a local vodka), so that must count a little. It was pretty good.

I really can't wait to get back to NZ and see more of the country, hopefully with the family. It really is a special place.