3 hrs before leaving apartment; 6 hrs before departure.
It is time to say Good Bye to US, Seattle, and Redmond. I love the 5 months’ time during my stay in US.
Today is my last working day in US. It has been almost 5 months. Great! The day before departure. I will be on the flight home tomorrow morning.
Thanks for everyone’s help during my trip in US.
Amazing, only 5 days left for home. I’m so excited.
It’s terrible that w/o any power, the storm.
Ready to say good bye to Redmond, Seattle, and USA.
本次飓风是1993年以来Inauguration Day Storm以来，最强烈的一次。
来自Seattle Times的消息：
Fierce windstorm headed our way
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter
Hang onto your garbage cans and stock up on batteries.While many folks are still mopping up from Wednesday’s big blow, an even stronger windstorm is headed for Western Washington tonight.
Or as University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass puts it, we’re about to be stung by the “poisonous tail” of a nasty low-pressure system.
“There’s absolutely no doubt this storm will happen,” he said. “The only question is how strong will it get.”
For the Puget Sound region, the National Weather Service (NWS) is forecasting sustained winds up to 40 mph, and gusts up to 65 mph. For the Strait of Juan de Fuca, winds will average 50 to 60 mph and gust up to 90 mph.
The highest gusts in Seattle on Wednesday were 47 mph, according to the NWS.
“It has the potential to be a memorable storm,” said NWS meteorologist Dennis D’Amico.
Inauguration Day storm
On Jan. 20, 1993, the day Bill Clinton was sworn in as president, one of the strongest storms in recent years lashed Western Washington.• Winds reached 88 mph in Seattle and 95 mph in Hood Canal.
• Six people were killed.
• 700,000 utility customers were left without power.
• Damage was estimated at more than $100 million.
Source: Seattle Times archives
The winds should start picking up this afternoon, and peak overnight.
The winds will be significantly stronger than those that swept through the region Wednesday, disrupting power to thousands, uprooting trees and slowing the morning commute.
In fact, the low-pressure system approaching the coast is forecast to be more intense than the one that triggered 1993′s Inauguration Day windstorm, which left six people dead, knocked out power to 700,000 homes and did more than $100 million in damage throughout the region. But this time the storm’s path is slightly different, which might weaken the winds, Mass said.
It all depends on where that tail hits.
It’s not the center of the low-pressure system that really kicks up the air, but the long tail that drags after it, Mass explained. Pressure changes rapidly in the tail, which creates the most powerful winds.
With the center of the approaching low projected to pass slightly to the north, the tail is well-positioned to lash the Puget Sound region.
“The path is crucial,” Mass said. “It has to go north of us to get the strong winds.”
While any forecast comes with uncertainty, all the computer models agree that winds are coming, D’Amico said. “But there’s still a little leeway on the timing and position of the storm.”
Though 40-mph winds are sufficient to cause considerable damage, this week’s winds have already knocked most of the remaining leaves off the trees, Mass said. Bare trees are less likely to be uprooted. Weak branches have also been “pruned” by previous storms.
Tree branches downed by high winds on Wednesday were responsible for numerous power outages, mostly in North Seattle, said Seattle City Light spokesman Peter Clarke. As of 5 p.m., only about 200 City Light customers were still without power, down from the 13,000 customers affected by outages earlier in the day.
Northgate Mall and several Seattle schools were without power for at least part of the day.
About 22,000 Puget Sound Energy electrical customers were without power in scattered areas throughout King County at the peak of the winds, but the number had been halved by the afternoon, said Dennis Smedsrud, Puget Sound Energy spokesman.
In Snohomish County, about 6,000 utility customers were without power at the height of the winds, mainly in parts of Bothell, Maltby and parts of Monroe and Clearwater, said Snohomish County Public Utility spokesman Neil Neroutsos. The number was down to about 200 by 6 p.m. Wednesday, he said.
In the Rose Hill area of Kirkland, a fallen power line ignited natural gas in an underground pipe, pushing flames about 10 feet out of a utility-access cover. The Kirkland Fire Department had to be called to control the blaze, said Smedsrud.
Also on the Eastside, at least two homes were damaged by falling trees, one in the Juanita area and one in Sammamish.
In Tukwila, a 70-foot evergreen tree fell onto a school bus on Highway 99 south of Highway 509. No children were on the bus. The driver, a 31-year-old Renton man, swerved to miss the tree and lost control of the vehicle before coming to rest in a ditch, he said. He suffered minor injuries and was taken to Swedish Medical Center, said State Patrol Trooper Jeff Merrill. The driver was cited for driving with a suspended license and for failing to have the proper license for driving a school bus, Merrill said.
In downtown Seattle, a chain hooked to a tower crane at a construction site spun in high winds, smashing glass panels on the adjacent Bank of California building, said Scott Holbrook, operations manager for Turner Construction. The crane is designed to spin in the wind to lessen wind resistance, Holbrook said, explaining that the brakes were intentionally left off Tuesday night. But the chain should have been removed, he said.
“I saw it actually whack the building … and I could see debris fly off,” said Frank Cordell, an attorney whose office is on the 40th floor of a building at 1001 Fourth Ave.
Harbor Patrol officers rescued a windsurfer from Lake Washington after heavy winds snapped the mast on his sailboard, according to Seattle police. The man, who was windsurfing east of Magnuson Park, was pushed about a half-mile north by the wind just after 1 p.m., said police spokesman Jeff Kappel. The man was swimming toward Kirkland when he was pulled from the water by police, Kappel said. The man was not injured.
来自CNN.com的消息：
Unrelenting wind, cold whip Pacific Northwest
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) — Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.
Nearly 700,000 customers in Washington and Oregon still had no power Saturday, and utilities said some might have to wait into next week for their lights to go back on.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, and with temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, officials warned people not to use outdoor grills, propane heaters or other carbon monoxide-producing equipment indoors.
Firefighters in Kent found 33 people from four families suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday night, fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said. They had taken their barbecues inside to cook or heat their apartments as temperatures dipped into the 30s.
All were expected to survive, Ohashi said.
In Oregon, a family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage in Gresham, police said. Three children were hospitalized in critical condition late Friday, while one child and both parents were listed in good condition.
Wind gusted to a record 69 mph early Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Wind was clocked at 113 mph near Mount Rainier.
Power was knocked out at one of the airport’s concourses, canceling dozens of flights. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland because downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.
Two people were killed in Washington in traffic accidents involving windblown trees, while one died after getting trapped in her flooded basement. A fourth person was killed in his sleep by a tree that fell on his home. On the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a fire caused by candles they were using for light.
Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s largest private utility, had restored power to about 260,000 customers by Saturday afternoon but 440,000 others were still without power, according to the company.
It would be “several days — definitely through the weekend,” before everyone was restored, PSE spokeswoman Martha Monfried said. The utility had lost more than half of its transmission system, and crews struggled in the mountains to reach downed lines that carry the electricity from Columbia River dams.
More than 57,100 customers of Seattle City Light remained without power at midday Saturday, down from a peak of 175,000, and 15,000 were still blacked out in the Snohomish County Public Utility District north of Seattle.
In Oregon, Portland General Electric said it had about 82,000 customers without power Saturday morning, and Pacific Power said about 32,500 of its customers still had no service.
The storm was the most intense to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of January 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
在度过了一个漆黑的夜晚后，周六的早上，依然是没电。
我们决定尽早去SafeWay买点吃的，本想顺路去Leasing Office问问是否有来电的消息之类的，刚到门口，却看到一张通知：Puget Sound Energy does not know when the power could be resume. Over 700,000 people without power。完，也不用进去了；看来不止我们关心什么时候来电阿。
在SafeWay买了几瓶罐头，然后回来就无聊的待着，因为天冷，我早在昨晚，就把同事（他们已经回国了）的被子也盖上了。回来也只能在被子里面待着，因为即便是在屋子里面，也是很冷的。
回来的路上，经过银行，居然里面的店员说，Redmond Downtown已经来电了。真是幸福。
直到晚上5点，天已经黑了，我在即将想进入梦乡的时候，突然，来电了。 欣喜若狂阿~~~
今天是停电的第二天，风和雨都停止了。一早起来看到还没有来电，也没当回事，就准备上班去了。
看到小区里面的景象，真是惊人。满地的松枝，树被连根拔起，车被砸坏，小区围挡坏了好几块，地下的柏油路面也被树给掀了起来。小区里不少工人在忙着清扫大块的树枝和树干。
半路上，碰到一个开车回来的美国人，问我：
- Are you going to Microsoft?
- Yes.
- You don’t need to. The campus is close.
- Really?
- Yes, because there is no power.
我这才注意到， 连公路上的红绿灯都已经不工作的。
扭头回来，去楼上找同事。才意识到，没电对于我们这样地区的人，以为着什么：
看着小区里面的人，他们都去SafeWay买了不少薯片之类的。我们也决定去采购一点儿，总不能饿死。
本以为SafeWay开门，Top和QFC也应该开门。结果Top门口写着“Due to the power outage, we are closed”；人家QFC更简单，就一个“Closed”。
没辙，跑去SafeWay买东西吧。人家还好，虽然店里的照明不是很好，人也不少（看起来这是附近唯一一家开门的超市了）。买了点儿饼干、罐头之类的，先凑合吧。
很强的是，即便是没电的情况下，人家居然还能用电脑收款，还能刷卡。
今天晚上的雨格外的大，风也格外的大，是我在美国生活的半年里最大的一次。似乎预示着什么不好的事情的发生。
晚上吃完饭，在电脑前看着电影，突然觉得屋子里面的灯一明一暗的。开始以为是眼睛有问题了，后来听楼上的同时说他也是如此，就放心自己的健康问题了。
接下来在一个居住在西雅图的华人的Blog（Andy的西雅图垃圾堆）里面，看到说即将到来的Storm的消息，说：
今天傍晚至明天早上的 Storm 將是自 1993 年 1 月 20 日 (Inauguration Day Storm) 以來最強的 Storm.
郊區要有可能斷電的準備. 要注意安全哦!!!
在接下来的时间里面，我先后两次看到瞬间断电的情况，第1次是1秒，第2次大约是5秒左右。问题在于，这个时候，我正在看《咒怨》（啥叫一个恐怖啊）。
后来想，早点儿睡，即便停电，也和我没关系了。就在11点多的时候早早的睡觉了。
我的习惯是不关Restroom的灯，所以会有灯光从Restroom里面照出来。但……我半夜醒来的时候，却没有发现这个灯光。意味着……停电了。Okay，既然停电了，就老老实实地睡觉吧。
有个挺有意思的题目：
1000瓶葡萄酒里知道有一瓶是有毒的，你可以用10只老鼠测试，老鼠喝到毒酒2小时后会有中毒反应。请在5分钟内给出最佳方案（就是2小时后最多能确认多少瓶酒是安全的）
是道逻辑题；你知道答案吗？ Read more…
今天从下午开始，就是持续的雨，很大的风。在我这次的美国行之中，还是第一次碰到。
据称，今天傍晚到明天早上的Storm将是1993 年 1 月 20 日 (Inauguration Day Storm) 以来，最强的一次Storm。
另据从RPIN（Regional Public Information Network）上得知，SR-520高速公路Evergreen Point bridge段封路。
在美国的这半年里，感受了西雅图至少最近4年最坏的天气（提早的雨季、11月的大雪、10多年一见的Storm）。
招商银行以前一直是我最喜欢的中国的银行。因为他们网上银行一直做的非常好，而且也是中国第一家提供网上银行和电话银行服务的。可最近招行逐渐在网上银行的“安全”方面加大了力度，而且是“形式的”安全。
先说他的财富账户专业版，取消了以前的文件证书登录。这倒是无可厚非，毕竟财富账户只支持移动证书登录。
接 下来，专业版退出的时候，必须把Key拔掉，否则无法退出。说他是安全吧，总觉得很怪异。虽然表面上看上去帮助用户增加安全了，但是考虑一个特殊情况：我 这样的用户很熟悉电脑操作，一般不怎么看提示。那么在我点“退出”之后，按个Yes，然后就闪人了。这是安全了，还是不安全了？（Key还在机器上，专业 版并没有真正退出）。
也许有点儿强词夺理。但我觉得，虽然招行这种操作是为了用户着想。是不是改个方法更好呢？先把专业版退出来，然后弹 出个提示，说用户还没有拔出Key，为了更安全，应该把Key拔掉。这样是不是更好些呢？因为目前的设计，不拔Key就不能退出，实际上是降低了用户安全 度的（因为你退出的操作都没做，拔不拔Key如何是增加安全呢？好歹你得先退出吧？）
再说安全，密码是账户的保证。可招行证书的密码却只能使用6到16的字母和数字，为什么不能用符号呢？这个可以非常简单却极大程度的增加安全度。
最近又听说招行专业版的几个措施：
不太清楚招行现在是什么角色。但可以明白招行的用意：Windows密码是为了防止别人访问机器从而安装什么不好的软件；Remote Desktop也是如此。
但是，能否访问自己的机器，不应该是招行说了算的。这样的限制未免太过于形式化了。招行毕竟做的是网银，毕竟是软件。
我 们夸张的想象一样，按照招行目前的思路，以后还是自己开发一套操作系统，该系统仅能运行专业版软件，这样不仅不能安全其他软件，还能限制他人访问。要不， 干脆做个硬件机器，像电话或者POS机似的，岂不是更安全？再来，单独开辟一条网络线路，还能限制数据不被其他人截获。
可能上面说的偏激 了。我不是反对安全，但安全本身就是相对的，你不能因为安全就限制用户的功能，限制用户按照他的习惯使用计算机。另外，招行在业务、软件上的差的还不是一 星半点（最起码专业版的Crash还是经常能够出现的，很多业务做的还是不够），与其这样形式地增加安全，不如多提高一下产品质量、功能和业务。
Update 2007/1/4：最新发现，软件主页面上有“退出”和“重登录”两个选项。点“退出”要拔出Key，Okay，我认了。问题在于，我要重登录，居然也要我拔出Key？！什么逻辑？
Recent Comments