On a fresh install of 64-bit, Ubuntu 11.04 on a Linux Thinkstation S20, I found that the window management went awry - no window borders and hence no ability to move/resize/close windows.
Found this useful post: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/ubuntu-11-04-lunch-bar-and-menu-bar-gone-873245/
I did a “$ unity –reset” and that seems to do the trick.
The route from Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna (Arenal volcanic area) requires coming back close to Alajuela (San Jose airport) and then taking switching to the Pan American highway.
We should have started earlier during the day for our long trip. We missed that one important exit close to Alajuela that was supposed to take us to Arenal. We ended up driving down all the way to San Jose downtown and in the confusion lost almost 2-3 hours of precious day time. By the time we hit the winding roads of the Arenal region it was pitch dark, there were no people to ask directions of. Luckily for us there was cargo truck with bright reflectors ahead of us that was navigating the curves pretty well. We made sure we stuck close to that truck so we had more visibility. We also got lucky that the only unpaved road was the final 3.5 kilometers to our hotel and that it was a clear day with no rains.
On the way, we observed that several people were parked at the end of a bridge over a river and some of them had set up their cameras. We had to stop and peep into what was going on. Sure enough, we caught a bunch of crocs sun-bathing.
The entire Arenal region is banking on the “The Arenal Volcano” for tourism. Every hotel and restaurant in Arenal is built with views of the volcano. A few good ones like The Springs, Tabacon and Baldi resorts have natural springs. The volcano is active and is spewing out smoke continuously. Apparently, on a clear night, it is possible to see the glow of the embers at the peak.
We had booked two nights at The Springs Resort and Spa as recommended by our good friend Janna and one night Montana De Fuego resort. We learned from other people we met at the hotel and from the staff that it is quite common for people to stay at other less-expensive places and splurge at The Springs for one night.
The Springs is a pretty pricey place to stay at. But, is well-worth it. The resort is *really* nice with several natural springs (about 12) within the facility, a fully-equipped gym, a heated swimming pool and a bar attached to the pool - the kind where people sit on chairs in water at the well. We had all the springs pretty much to ourselves most of the time. There is free WiFi in every room and the service is excellent. Highly recommended. We heard from people who had visited all the three resorts that Baldi and Tabacon run pretty crowded. On the contrary, we had all the springs to ourselves most of the times at the Springs resort. The day after our arrival was cloudy with showers. We had a hearty brunch and spent the entire day in the springs and the water slide at the resort. We only stepped out for brief periods to grab something to eat.
The next day was rain-free and that is when we actually got our first glimpse at the Arenal volcano. We were quite surprised to notice from our hotel window how close the volcano was. We head out to the Arenal National Park and hiked up the Heliconias trail and the Las Coladas trail to the the closest but safe viewing area to take a closer look at the peak. On the hike back we took a detour to visit the giant Ceibo tree. The trails were washed out and we had to hop across patches of mud to get by.
The suites at Montana De Fuego are decent and WiFi is free at the reception and the restaurant. The service is excellent. On our walks to the restaurant and back we saw some of the most colorful birds. Sitting quietly in the patio, gazing at the volcano and listening to the chirping of the various birds on the lush green gardens was quite therapeutic except for the occasional traffic on the adjacent road.
A less-expensive trip to Arenal would be to stay at the Montana De Fuego resort which is next doors to The Springs but at a third of the cost. A two-day pass to the Springs costs $40 and includes unlimited usage of the natural springs, the swimming pool area and towels and showers are accessible. With this trick, one can enjoy the natural springs of the Springs Resort but save money by lodging at the Montana De Fuego. Wish we had known before.
We were lured by the advertisements to the “Eco zoo” which was supposed to be a combination of butterfly park, insectarium, serpentarium and was open until 8pm! We paid about $15 USD per person and were guided through the facility by Juan who was very informative. 
The fa
cility had a lot of reptiles and frogs in a bunch of glass cages. The rooms were somewhat smelly and not well-lit. Due to the cloudy weather the butterfly park was pretty dormant with only a couple of alcoholic butterflies that kept going back to some fermented fruits. The insectarium contained a whole lot of them pinned to small glass showcases. I am not sure if there is a better zoo or a park but, we did not like this place very much although we learned a lot from the guide.
A representative from the Thrifty car rental company delivered our 4WD Suzuki Jimny to our hotel. We signed the papers, purchased the mandatory Costa Rican liability insurance, denied the comprehensive insurance from the car rental company (since we used the American Express Premium Rental Car protection plan) and we were on our way from San Jose to Manuel Antonio.
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The ride was pretty fun - tuned in to FM 102.7 and stayed within speed limits.
We made a stop at the small town of Orotina known for its fruits. We ate at a local “soda” (diner) the typical meal of rice, beans, fried plantain and salad. Also tried their “tamarinda” fresca.
Our home at Manuel Antonio was a fantastic bungalow at the Byblos Casino and Resort. The bungalow was sitting atop a mountain and overlooked the entire resort tucked away in the tropical rain forest.
Manuel Antonio is full of the capuchin (white-faced) monkeys and they occasionally visit this resort as well. The casino itself has a few pool tables (<5), a few slot machines (<6) and a sports bar. The service was excellent. Highly recommended.
December is a month when Costa Rica transitions from the wet-season to the dry season. Our ride from San Jose to Manuel Antonio was hot and sunny but, once we were in Manuel Antonio it was raining heavily and the clouds covered the skies. But, we thoroughly enjoyed the sights of the tropical rain forest from our balcony and the sounds of the rain pounding our roof.
Manuel Antonio’s top tourist spot is the Manuel Antonio National Park which was about a kilometer from our hotel. This park is surrounded by 4 pristine beaches that have been marked with the flags indicating that no contaminants are emptied into them. We had sort of assumed that would be true with all beaches. But, we got wiser now and started looking for those flags. We paid $10 USD a person for entry into the park. We also bargained a guide at $15 USD a person for the tour. We got some good snapshots of capuchin monkeys, sloths, ocean crab, birds on the tour. The tour is well-worth it. Make sure you pack your beach-wear and sandals for the hike.
Another cool thing to do in Manuel Antonio is to canoe through the mangroves and back water ecosystem. Due to the rains we missed out on this activity.
We also drove down to the town of Quepos to check out some souvenir shops and get a feeling for the internal small towns of Costa Rica. We felt like everything was over-priced. The local CostPlus world markets in the US seem to have better pricing than any Costa Rican souvenir shops. The only thing worth buying would be the colorful hammocks which are priced around $30-$60 for the different variations.
Manuel Antonio is a pretty popular destination and hence is pretty crowded with tourists, tourist-guides, tourism-agencies and a few crooks. On the way to the park, the real cops with identity cards were stopping every vehicle to warn about the fake cops down the road. As we got closer to the beach we saw these fake cops wearing orange waist coats and blowing whistles and trying to direct us into their parking lots. There are many ATV-tour companies, canopy-tour offerings, butterfly parks, frog and reptile zoos in this area and they are all over-priced. It is better to do these activities in the Monteverde region (the cloud forest area) where the prices are reasonable and the forests are much more beautiful.
The preparation for this trip was a quick one. Supa and I had been busy for a while, the bay area weather was getting chilly and getting worse. We both felt like taking a tropical vacation. We looked up on Kayak for some places and based on the cost of air tickets finalized on Costa Rica. We spoke to our good friend Janna who got married there and she gave us some awesome tips on the places to visit, the ticos, the colones and driving in the “Centro American” country. Our good friend Kiran who had toured Costa Rica in 2008 also recommended a few great places.
We got some great deals for hotels and rental car on Expedia (via Kayak). The itinerary was:
Our flight was mostly uneventful except for the two rude hostesses on the connecting Continental flight from Houston to San Jose. Our co-passenger was a frequent visitor to Costa Rica and gave us some great advise on a few useful phrases (Si, No, Por Favor, Para <destination>, etc.), some interesting small towns to visit (Orotina, Dominical) and some to avoid (Jaco) and tips to deal with fake cops in Manuel Antonio.
Immigration was simple (took about 30 minutes) and we were out of the airport after customs checking in 45 minutes.
Our decision to not to pick up our rental car on the night of arrival was a GOOD one, since it was pretty dark and it would be difficult to navigate the streets of San Jose. Besides, some rental car companies (Thrifty) close at 10pm local time and we were not sure that we would get out of the airport in time to pick up the car. Another interesting detail about car rental companies in Costa Rica is that their representative will bring over your reserved vehicle to the hotel of your stay, get your paper work done and get you going.
Our decision to exchange money at the airport was a BAD one - we got far few colones than what we would get on the streets. Besides, every body in Costa rica including the taxi drivers and local shops accept dollars at a more favorable exchange rate to us than the airport vendors.
We stayed at Hotel Luisiana in the Santa Ana area of San Jose. The hotel is decent and the reception was very hospitable. It was a tad farther (8500 colones by taxi) than their description on Expedia. But, there are a lot of shops within a mile’s radius of the hotel including Mc Donalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s.
We made copies of our passport bio page and the visa stamp after we checked in. We were told that if a cop stopped us we would be asked for those details and we did not want to hand over the originals.
Every hotel we booked has WiFi. It was awesome to turn my iPhone into “Airplane mode” and hook up to the WiFi.
Costa Rican electrical hookups are similar to the US and no adapters are needed.
We ate our first Costa Rican meal at a local joint which had a karaoke bar and restaurant. It was hard to explain that we wanted vegetarian food but, “No carnes, no pescado, no pollo” left the waitress with a few options for us. We had a meal of pinto beans with rice, salad and fried plantains.
We bought a couple of water bottles as well but, then we learned later on that tap water from the hotel was good enough.
Walking up and down the streets from the hotel to the restaurant and back was very nostalgic - the warm breeze, narrow winding streets and the lush tropical flora reminded us of Mangalore.
Problem
Networking the TiVo box to provide to enable Netflix streaming and access program guide information
Possible solutions
1. Buy a TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter Cost: $59.99
2. Run an Ethernet cable between rooms. Cost: $0
3. Use a Powerline network. Cost: $40
The Winning Alternative
As the CTO of my house, I was not willing to get tied down to a proprietary solution highlighted in #1. As much as I love TiVO, I do not want to pay $60 for a USB adapter that is not useful for anything else. As the COO of my house, Suparna would not let me go with #2.
#3 was the best alternative. I am now running a 200Mbps secure (128 bits encryption) Ethernet over my power lines. The ZyXel HomePlug doubles as a 802.11g WiFi router and a HomePlug AV connection provider to the ZyXel HomePlug Ethernet adapter. The Ethernet adapter provides the Ethernet connection to my TiVo.
I have had this network set up for more than a month now and I am pretty happy with the results.
I am demoing Sensor.Network at the First International Workshop on the Web of Things (WoT 2010) at PerCom 2010 in Mannheim, Germany. This dynamic map trace liveplot is set up to show live data from my travels in Germany at the conference.
I am out and about using an application developed by Vodafone and Sun Labs on my cell phone that pinpoints my location at anytime. My location gets updated every 30 seconds whenever I have the Android app running. You can visualize that using the LivePlots from Sensor.Network!
My colleague Vipul.Gupta has putback a cool feature to visualize dynamic map traces of location tracking data. Here is a dynamic map trace of my evening walk around Sunnyvale generated using Sensor.Network
Live plots up to the last minute, of temperature and active power plotted as measured by an EtherWatt device from a conference room on the Sun campus in Menlo Park, California. The first two are simple line charts for temperature and active power and the third one is a combined annotated line chart (all provided by Google javascript API).
Visualization powered by sensor.network.com
Visualization powered by sensor.network.com
Here is a live plot of temperature plotted against pressure for a Nortek Aquadopp sensor. You are NOT looking at a static image file but, visualizing AN UP TO THE LAST SAMPLE data from the sensor using LivePlots from Sensor.Network
