Patrick Lam

Thoughts and travels of Patrick Lam

Bagotville

Getting lucky with IRROPS enroute to Bagotville.

Posted by Patrick Lam on Friday, February 9, 2018

Yotel: A Review

Capsule Review

Markets itself as “luxury”. The hard product is comparable to business class on a plane (which is much easier to provide since a Yotel doesn’t have to fly), but not comparable to 4* accommodation on land. Is fit for purpose. Comparable to a Hampton Inn with 10x less space. Beats a hostel or a, say, America’s Best Value Inn/Super8, by far.

More Words

A couple of days after arriving in Amsterdam, I realized that the first of my returning flights departed at 7AM. Working backwards, I’d need to leave the hotel before 5AM. Yikes! I looked at various hotels near the airport, but the required shuttle negated many of their advantages; it doesn’t take long at all to reach Schiphol from Centraal (but long enough, if aiming for a 7AM flight).

Posted by Patrick Lam on Thursday, November 3, 2016

Two Views of Columbia Crest Crater (Mount Rainier)

Shot above (July 8, 2009): at 14,400 ft (route to summit: Emmons-Winthrop Glacier) with David Wentzlaff and Aaron Yahr; shot below (May 1, 2013): at 36,000 ft, from AC 545 flying from LAS to YVR.

Posted by Patrick Lam on Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Engineering failures in real life

Save-on-Foods

So here I am staying in a hotel in Burnaby BC. Outside my window I can see a “Save-on-Foods”. Hmm. Let’s see. Save-on-Foods. Burnaby. Wait! I remember something from the Professional Practice Exam book! [edit 2020: This was well before the Algo Centre Mall collapse in Elliot Lake.]

OK, so is that the Save-on-Foods in question? Google Maps tells me that my hotel is 0.3km from the Save-on-Foods in Station Square, as described below.

Posted by Patrick Lam on Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Travel options from Waterloo

Travel options from Waterloo

I’ve tried to figure out various options for carless transportation from Waterloo. Here’s what I’ve discovered.

To Pearson Airport

  • Airways Transit option 1, door-to-door: 1.5hr, $80 for one direction. You have to wait for everyone to get on and off. They do tend to drive at reasonable highway speed.
  • Airways Transit option 2, Airporter: 2 hours from the UW Student Life Centre, limited schedules (departs 6am, 10:45am, 1:00pm, 3:30pm; returns 8:15am, 1:30pm, 3:15pm, 6:13pm) and even less on weekends. $46 per direction.
  • Greyhound to Toronto ($22, 1.5 hours) and Pearson airport express ($20). About the same cost as the Airporter, but more hassle and more schedules available. Cheaper if you have a student card.
  • Get to Mississauga Square One (works if you can take the FEDS bus) and then take the GO service to the airport ($3.50). Can be extremely cheap, if you can make it work for you, and probably isn’t all that slow either.

To Buffalo Airport

All reasonable options cost about $65.

Posted by Patrick Lam on Wednesday, August 6, 2008

How to bike to a workshop

Epic bike trip in Massachusetts.

Posted by Patrick Lam on Wednesday, May 5, 2004

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Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo; patrick.lam@uwaterloo.ca

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