What'll Ya Have, What'll Ya Have?

Taking a break

2011-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

512 consecutive posts. I am worn out. Time to take a bit of a break; no daily posts for a while.

Thanks to those of you who read and comment. I'll be back.

Underwater atomic bomb test

2011-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

This video is pretty impressive:

The website offers the following description:

The Hardtack Umbrella event was a Los Alamos and Dept of Defense nuclear explosion shallow depth underwater shot (150 ft.), June 8, 1958, at Enewetak. The test was weapons effects related and the yield was 8 kilotons.

Hard to believe anyone would leave a ship there like that, though.

JFK's watch

2011-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

As the President prepares for his State of the Union speech, it is remarkable that John F. Kennedy gave his first State of the Union speech 50 years ago this week. He wore an Omega wristwatch; a few years back, Omega purchased the watch that JFK was wearing at that speech:

The company says it spent $350,000 to acquire it.

It has also created for sale a commemorative version, a copy of the one JFK was wearing at that speech:

This is so classic it seems almost too perfect.

Unfortunately, at $9,100, I am going to have to pass on this beauty.

Spring in January

2011-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sunny and almost 70 degrees here yesterday. I know it's fun to have snow in the winter (we don't really get too much in the way of seasons), but the the type of weather we are having here this weekend is one of the few remaining things that make me glad to live in California.

Spent much of yesterday working on outdoor yard and car sort of things, but it must be time for a round of golf.

I know this feeling

2011-01-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Goalie for a night

2011-01-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Sharks lost one of their goalies, Antero Nittymaki, before the game against Vancouver last night. They didn't have time to bring up a minor league player, so they signed Jordan White, a college goalie at the University of British Columbia, to a one-game amateur tryout. White is a star goalie with UBC:

He spent the entire night on the bench, ready to back up Anti Niemi, but never had to come in, as Niemi put up a brilliant game and the Sharks won 2-1 in a shootout.

What a dream night for White, though, and he leaped onto the ice to join the celebration at the end of the game. He may never play in the NHL, but he is going to remember that game for a very long time.

This is what an electric car should look like

2011-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Now I am not dissing my soon-to-be delivered Nissan Leaf, but take a look at the alpha version of the Tesla S:

Model S Alpha Hits the Road from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.

Sargent Shriver - a life of service

2011-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sargent Shriver died yesterday at the age of 95. He was one of the most influential people of his generation, having started the Peace Corps in 1961. He did so at the request of his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy, saying that JFK had told him that so many people viewed it as a likely fiasco that it would be easier to fire a relative than a friend.

Here he is at the ceremony creating the Peace Corps:

Shriver ran for vice-president on the George McGovern ticket in 1972; he also served as the U.S. ambassador to France, and he was in charge of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty. Shriver was married to JFK's sister Eunice for 56 years and their daughter Maria just finished serving as California's first lady.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps; it was well served by Sargent Shriver and he will be long remembered for his leading role in bringing it to fruition.

Watches - No. 4

2011-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Another watch in the series. This one is unique in my collection - it is my only Tourbillon watch:

It is made by WM of Switzerland, a company that uses Swiss traditions but lower-cost techniques. The result is an elegant watch without the high price tag.

The Tourbillon is special because it includes an addition to the traditional parts of the watch. It offsets the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and the balance wheel in a rotating cage. Like all Tourbillon watches, this model shows the effect via an window on the face:

Golden Globe moment

2011-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Highlight of the Golden Globes last night: Chris Colfer winning for his terrific role on Glee and saying:

"But mostly importantly to all the amazing kids that watch our show and that our show celebrates and are constantly told 'no' [by] people and environments and bullies at school, that they can't be who they are or can't have what they want because of who they are, screw that, kids."

His role on Glee provides a terrific role model for every kid who wants to be something and who faces bullies telling him that he can't. I'm very glad he won an award.

The Social Network

2011-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to seeing this movie. Not bad, interesting story, makes Mark Zuckerberg out to to be an unimaginable jerk.

But much like the website itself, I don't quite understand all the hoopla. This does not feel like an Academy-Award winning film to me.

Angry Panda

2011-01-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

There are 5 commercials here - watch all of them.

It's a product of Arab Dairy in Egypt. Great commercials.

Real time conversation translation

2011-01-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a great new feature from Google Translate for your phone. It's called Conversation Mode and it lets you use your phone to converse with someone in a different language.

In it's initial incarnation, you talk into the phone in English, and it reads back a translation in Spanish. The person you are trying to talk to can respond in Spanish and it will read the response back to you in English:

Can you imagine how useful this could be for travelers? It's only English/Spanish for now, but no doubt other languages will follow.

Very cool.

Pay what you wish

2011-01-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Panera Bread has announced that it is opening its third "pay-what-you-wish" restaurant, this one in Portland, Oregon. Under this fascinating business model, run by Panera's charitable organization, customers are invited to pay a suggested price for their food, but they can pay less or more. According to this article about the program, about 20% of customers pay more than the suggested amount, 20% pay less, and 60% pay what is suggested.

It is part of their "Community Cafe" program. I like this quote:

"In some ways it is a test for humanity," said Ron Shaich, founder of Panera who launched the concept for the company. "Will people step up and help each other or will they take advantage?"

Sausalito

2011-01-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Stopped for lunch in Sausalito this weekend while Karen was out of town. Here's the view I had while eating my hamburger:

Cloudy and cool, but very relaxing.

Wavejet surfboard

2011-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

I don't surf, but I have lots of friends who do. I've never quite understood the whole "paddling out to the wave" thing. But now there is a new surfboard with a battery-powered motor.

Watch this:

That seems pretty smart to me.

(And the report came from La Jolla, where Sarah goes to school when she is not traveling overseas. Must be nice to have waves like that.)

Smart parking

2011-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Spotted in San Francisco this weekend:

That is a good use of space.

Stunned

2011-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

I don't know why mass shootings, in the U.S. or elsewhere, surprise me anyway. But a premeditated attack on a U.S. Congresswoman at a constituent event, resulting in her being gravely wounded and many others (including a Federal judge) being killed or wounded, is just beyond imagination.

Gabrielle Giffords, by coincidence, happens to be my mother's representative in Congress. I am saying a prayer for her recovery and another for those killed or injured in this tragic event.

Profile Valet

2011-01-08T05:00:00.001-08:00

I need my phone to have different settings depending on where I am. At home, I want Wi-Fi on, Bluetooth off, and the ringer on. In meetings, same, except the ringer should be set to vibrate. In the car, I want Wi-Fi off, Bluetooth on, and the ring loud enough to hear.

So I have to constantly adjust the settings. Kind of a pain. But now I have a free app called "Profile Valet." It lets me set a number of different settings, with multiple items. So I can pick "car," and it sets the phone the way I want it. Plus, it can be triggered automatically by your location!

Here's a look:

Pretty simple. Pretty smart.

Starbucks logo

2011-01-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

This seems odd. Starbucks has decided to drop its name and the word "coffee" from its logo:

Does this herald some sort of major change? I am reminded of an article from a ways back: Starbucks To Begin Sinister 'Phase Two' Of Operation

On the other hand, I like this suggestion for the complete logo timeline:

Bad decision

2011-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

The California Supreme Court has ruled that if you are arrested, the police have the right to search the contents of your cellphone without a warrant. Not that I see any reason to keep anything illegal on my cell phone, but come on. This is going way too far. How can the contents of your phone be subject to disclosure just because you have been arrested (not even convicted)?

Back to work

2011-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

I went back to work yesterday, after what seemed like a lengthy holiday break. Lots of enthusiasm for the new year, though it was a bit hard getting started when I went out to my car at 6:30 am and it was covered with ice. It's not supposed to be so cold in California.

The second half of last year involved a lot of business travel. Not sure what is coming up, but I hope there is quite a bit less. It's funny how business travel sounds glamorous (planes, hotels, restaurants), but none of it turns out quite that way. Well, we will have to see.

In the meantime, it's a new year, with lots of new opportunities.

May the (up) force be with you

2011-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Our garage door opener has been working and not working intermittently, sometimes only raising the door partway and stopping. We called a repair shop today and they said it might be all the rain and the settling of the ground. Given all the cracks in our walls, that would not be a surprise.

But they also asked what kind of opener we have, and when we told them, they let us know that those openers have a control on the side that regulate the amount of "up" force. They suggested we increase it a bit. So far, all is well.

Who would have known?

(Note - the opener also allows you to regulate the "down" force, but I am leaving that alone. Don't want the door smashing through the ground.)

Recommended movie

2011-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

The King's Speech. Very well done. Brilliant acting by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, top-notch performances as well from Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi and Timothy Spall:

(Side note: I saw Derek Jacobi in person as Prospero, in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's production of the Tempest in London, back in 1983. He still has a strong presence.)

New Year's Eve Dinner

2011-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful evening out with our friends Theresa and Doug at Oliveto's in Oakland. The restaurant has been there a long time, since I lived in Oakland before Sarah was born, but it continues to impress.

Here was the special menu for this year:

And the two desserts, beautifully presented:

All in all, a very nice way to welcome the new year.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

Said best by one of my favorite cartoons:

P.S. - Did you notice the date today? 1/1/11. I like that.

Another year gone by

2010-12-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, they seem to go faster and faster. Sarah and Sam are far along in their college lives; Abby is getting closer to the end of high school, and is now starting to consider where she might head off for college. And Karen and I are contemplating places to retire, though we aren't quite ready for that.

Plus, today is post number 365 for the year. Yikes.

Best wishes to all for a very happy and prosperous 2011.

Who killed the Disneyland Dream?

2010-12-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am not sure I agree with everything in this commentary from Frank Rich of the NY Times, but I found it to be very thoughtful, and worth reading:

OF the many notable Americans we lost in 2010, three leap out as paragons of a certain optimistic American spirit that we also seemed to lose this year. Two you know: Theodore Sorensen, the speechwriter present at the creation of J.F.K.’s clarion call to “ask what you can do for your country,” and Richard Holbrooke, the diplomat who brought peace to the killing fields of Bosnia in the 1990s. Holbrooke, who was my friend, came of age in the Kennedy years and exemplified its can-do idealism. He gave his life to the proposition that there was nothing an American couldn’t accomplish if he marshaled his energy and talents. His premature death — while heroically bearing the crushing burdens of Afghanistan and Pakistan — is tragic in more ways than many Americans yet realize.

But a third representative American optimist who died this year, at age 91, is a Connecticut man who was not a player in great events and whom I’d never heard of until I read his Times obituary: Robbins Barstow, an amateur filmmaker who for decades recorded his family’s doings in home movies of such novelty and quality that one of them, the 30-minute “Disneyland Dream,” was admitted to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress two years ago. That rare honor elevates Barstow’s filmmaking to a pantheon otherwise restricted mostly to Hollywood classics, from “Citizen Kane” to “Star Wars.”

“Disneyland Dream” was made in the summer of 1956, shortly before the dawn of the Kennedy era. You can watch it on line at archive.org or on YouTube. Its narrative is simple. The young Barstow family of Wethersfield, Conn. — Robbins; his wife, Meg; and their three children aged 4 to 11 — enter a nationwide contest to win a free trip to Disneyland, then just a year old. The contest was sponsored by 3M, which asked contestants to submit imaginative encomiums to the wonders of its signature product. Danny, the 4-year-old, comes up with the winning testimonial, emblazoned on poster board: “I like ‘Scotch’ brand cellophane tape because when some things tear then I can just use it.”

Soon enough, the entire neighborhood is cheering the Barstows as they embark on their first visit to the golden land of Anaheim, Calif. As narrated by Robbins Barstow (he added his voiceover soundtrack to the silent Kodachrome film in 1995), every aspect of this pilgrimage is a joy, from the “giant TWA Super Constellation” propeller plane (seating 64) that crosses the country in a single day (with a refueling stop in St. Louis) to the home-made Davy Crockett jackets the family wears en route.

To watch “Disneyland Dream” now as a boomer inevitably sets off pangs of longing for a vanished childhood fantasyland: not just Walt Disney’s then-novel theme park but all the sunny idylls of 1950s pop culture. As it happens, Disney’s Davy Crockett, the actor Fess Parker, also died this year. So did Barbara Billingsley, matriarch of the sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” whose fictional family, the Cleavers, first appeared in 1957 and could have lived next door to the Barstows. But the real power of this film is more subtle and pertinent than nostalgia.

When the Barstows finally arrive at the gates of Disneyland itself and enter its replica of Main Street, U.S.A. — “reconstructed as it might have been half a century earlier,” as the narration says — we realize that the America of “Disneyland Dream” is as many years distant from us as that picture-postcard Main Street was from this Connecticut family. The almost laughably low-tech primitivism of the original Disneyland, the futuristic Tomorrowland included, looks as antique in 2010 as Main Street’s horse-drawn buggies and penny-candy emporium looked to the Barstows.

Many of America’s more sweeping changes since 1956 are for the better. You can’t spot a nonwhite face among the family’s neighbors back home or at Disneyland. Indeed, according to Neal Gabler’s epic biography of Disney, civil rights activists were still pressuring the park to hire black employees as late as 1963, the same year that Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington and Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” started upending the Wonder Bread homogeneity that suffuses the America of “Disneyland Dream.”

But, for all those inequities, economic equality seemed within reach in 1956, at least for the vast middle class. (Michael Harrington’s exposé of American poverty, “The Other America,” would not rock this complacency until 1962.) The sense that the American promise of social and economic mobility was attainable to anyone who sought it permeates “Disneyland Dream” from start to finish.

The Barstows exemplified that postwar middle class. Robbins Barstow’s day job was as a director of professional development for a state teachers’ union. His family wanted for nothing, but finances were tight. Once in California they cheerfully stretch their limited expense money ($300 for the week) by favoring picnics over restaurants. As they dive into the pool at the old Huntington Sheraton, the grand Pasadena hotel where they’re bivouacked, they marvel at its reminders of “bygone days of more leisurely and gentle upper-class style and elegance.”

The key word in that sentence is “bygone.” The Barstows accept as a birthright an egalitarian American capitalism where everyone has a crack at “upper class” luxury if they strive for it (or are clever enough to win it). It’s an America where great corporations like 3M can be counted upon to make innovative products, sustain an American work force, and reward their customers with a Cracker Jack prize now and then. The Barstows are delighted to discover that the restrooms in Fantasyland are marked “Prince” and “Princess.” In America, anyone can be royalty, even in the john.

“Disneyland Dream” is an irony-free zone. “For our particular family at that particular time, we agreed with Walt Disney that this was the happiest place on earth,” Barstow concludes at the film’s end, from his vantage point of 1995. He sees himself as part of “one of the most fortunate families in the world to have this marvelous dream actually come true” and is “forever grateful to Scotch brand cellophane tape for making all this possible for us.”

Only 15 months after the Barstows returned home, America’s faith in its own unbounded future, so palpable in “Disneyland Dream,” would be shaken by the Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first Earth-orbiting satellite. Could it be that America, for all its might, entrepreneurship and brainpower, was falling behind its cold war antagonist in the race to the future? It was in that shadow that John F. Kennedy promised a New Frontier that would reclaim America’s heroic destiny, and do so with shared sacrifice and a renewed commitment to the lower-case democratic values central to both the American and Disneyland dreams of families like the Barstows.

This month our own neo-Kennedy president — handed the torch by J.F.K.’s last brother and soon to face the first Congress without a Kennedy since 1947 — identified a new “Sputnik moment” for America. This time the jolt was provided by the mediocre performance of American high school students, who underperformed not just the Chinese but dozens of other countries in standardized tests of science, math and reading. In his speech on the subject, President Obama called for more spending on research and infrastructure, more educational reform and more clean energy technology. (All while reducing the deficit, mind you.) Worthy goals, but if you watch “Disneyland Dream,” you realize something more fundamental is missing from America now: the bedrock faith in the American way that J.F.K. could tap into during his era’s Sputnik moment.

How many middle-class Americans now believe that the sky is the limit if they work hard enough? How many trust capitalism to give them a fair shake? Middle-class income started to flatten in the 1970s and has stagnated ever since. While 3M has continued to prosper, many other companies that actually make things (and at times innovative things) have been devalued, looted or destroyed by a financial industry whose biggest innovation in 20 years, in the verdict of the former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, has been the cash machine.

It’s a measure of how rapidly our economic order has shifted that nearly a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people in America on this year’s Forbes list make their fortunes from financial services, more than three times as many as in the first Forbes 400 in 1982. Many of America’s best young minds now invent derivatives, not Disneylands, because that’s where the action has been, and still is, two years after the crash. In 2010, our system incentivizes high-stakes gambling — “this business of securitizing things that didn’t even exist in the first place,” as Calvin Trillin memorably wrote last year — rather than the rebooting and rebuilding of America.

In last week’s exultant preholiday press conference, Obama called for a “thriving, booming middle class, where everybody’s got a shot at the American dream.” But it will take much more than rhetorical Scotch tape to bring that back. The Barstows of 1956 could not have fathomed the outrageous gap between this country’s upper class and the rest of us. America can’t move forward until we once again believe, as they did, that everyone can enter Frontierland if they try hard enough, and that no one will be denied a dream because a private party has rented out Tomorrowland.

Awaiting the Nissan Leaf

2010-12-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

The electric car is not here yet, but it should not be too long now. I was originally told December; now it's been pushed to "January/February." Waiting patiently.

In the meantime, a nice cartoon forwarded by my mother:

What I am reading right now

2010-12-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Four (?!!?) different books:

2010-12-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to an end, it's a good time to look back on the things we for which we should be grateful. I was reminded of how much we have by the beginning of this story in the NY Times:

African Huts Far From the Grid Glow

With Renewable Power
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Published: December 24, 2010

KIPTUSURI, Kenya — For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market.

Every week, Ms. Ruto walked two miles to hire a motorcycle taxi for the three-hour ride to Mogotio, the nearest town with electricity. There, she dropped off her cellphone at a store that recharges phones for 30 cents. Yet the service was in such demand that she had to leave it behind for three full days before returning.

That wearying routine ended in February when the family sold some animals to buy a small Chinese-made solar power system for about $80. Now balanced precariously atop their tin roof, a lone solar panel provides enough electricity to charge the phone and run four bright overhead lights with switches.

“My main motivation was the phone, but this has changed so many other things,” Ms. Ruto said on a recent evening as she relaxed on a bench in the mud-walled shack she shares with her husband and six children.

Can you imagine living like this? Really, we have so much for which to be thankful. But it's nice to see that people living like this woman and her family are getting some small chance to improve their lives.

Quite a way to debut in the NHL

2010-12-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

On Dec. 10, Linus Omark of the Edmonton Oilers scored his first NHL goal ever, in his first NHL game ever, in a shootout, to win the game.

Watch this great shot, spin-o-rama and all:

(The announcer's passing reference to "Dean Youngblood" is to a goal scored by a crazy-young Rob Lowe in the hockey movie "Youngblood.")

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, one and all.

The Harrier - Up and Down Jet

2010-12-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

The British Harrier flew its final flight recently. It's a plane that I always found remarkable - able to lift off straight up, like a helicopter, but then fly like a fighter jet:

Now the flight manual has been declassified, and it shows how amazing the jet really is. Wired has put the flight manual online:

If you'd like your own copy, the entire manual can be downloaded here.

Very interesting.

Harsh justice

2010-12-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan is currently serving a 6 1/2 year prison sentence for corruption in office, and is not scheduled to be released until 2013. He recently sought to have his conviction set aside based on a Supreme Court decision involving former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. As part of that motion, he requested bail, asserting as a primary reason that he recently learned his wife of 50 years is dying of cancer.

The trial judge who had sentenced him denied the motion to set aside his conviction. She wrote a long, detailed ruling explaining why he was not entitled to have his conviction reversed based on the Supreme Court. Since she ruled on the merits of his motion, she also ruled that bail was not appropriate, and denied that request as well.

But her language in discussing the bail motion was pretty harsh:

Ryan has also moved to set bail pending the resolution of his § 2255 motion. (Mot. to Set Bail.) Ryan submits a number of factors for the court’s consideration on this motion, including, most recently, the sad news that his wife of more than fifty years is suffering from a terminal illness.

The Ryans’ advanced years and their obvious devotion to one another were significant to the court at sentencing and remain so, and the court recognizes that Mr. Ryan poses no risk of recidivism nor danger, were he to be released.

In deciding a motion for release of an individual who has been convicted and sentenced, however, the most relevant factor must not be his or her personal circumstances, but instead the likelihood his § 2255 motion will succeed. . . . .

This court takes no pleasure in depriving any defendant of his or her liberty. The court has had the painful duty to take such action in circumstances more compelling than these—where a young defendant with little education or resources is the sole support of small children, or is the only caregiver for a disabled relative, for example. Any sensitive judge realizes that a lengthy prison term effectively robs the convicted person of what we all value most: months and years with loved ones, some of whom will no longer be there when the sentence has been served.

Mr. Ryan, like other convicted persons, undoubtedly wishes it were otherwise. His conduct has exacted a stiff penalty not only for himself but also for his family.. . . .

Ryan’s motion to set bail is . . . denied.

Yikes. That is a serious judge.

200 countries, 200 years

2010-12-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Changes in health and wealth, shown across centuries and countries, in a remarkable way:

My newest gadget

2010-12-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

In a world of gadgets, this one stands out:

The Nexus S - the latest Android phone, designed by Google. Who would have thought I would get things like this by working for a software company?

Candied pecans

2010-12-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Alice gave us a beautiful bag of homemade candied pecans as a holiday gift:

According to her blog, she has been making these for four years straight (I got some last year, too).

I say, keep it up. Delicious!

The repeal of DADT

2010-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Congress yesterday repealed the idiotic "don't ask, don't tell" policy imposed on the U.S. military by none other than Bill Clinton. This is a historic, but overdue, step, and one that should be entirely unnecessary. It is 2010, for God's sake.

My daughter told me that she heard someone say, when Prop. 8 was passed in California, that those who voted for it were "living on the wrong side of history." Yesterday the Congress moved one step closer to the right side of history, though it appears most of the Senators from the south don't get it yet:

You can't handle the truth - in the geek world

2010-12-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

One of the great movie speeches in movie history is Jack Nicholson's courtroom tirade in "A Few Good Men:"

It turns out the geeks at Zappos made a pretty good imitation:

Very nicely done.

Under the weather

2010-12-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

To say that someone is "under the weather" is to say that they are not feeling very well. Example: "What's wrong?" Answer: "I'm a bit under the weather." They probably have a simple cold or flu which will go away quickly. Example: "It's nothing serious; I'm just a bit under the weather." Being "under the weather" reminds us that a quick change in the weather can affect our health and the way we feel.

An update about what I am working on

2010-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Posted yesterday to the Official Google Blog:

An update on Google Fiber
12/15/2010 09:04:00 AM
Earlier this year we announced an experiment we hope will help make Internet access better and faster for everyone: to provide a community with ultra high-speed broadband, 100 times faster than what most people have access to today.
This week I joined Google as vice president of Access Services to oversee the Google Fiber team. Over the past several months I’ve been following the progress the team has already made—from experimenting with new fiber deployment technologies here on Google’s campus, to announcing a “beta” network to 850 homes at Stanford—and I’m excited for us to bring our ultra high-speed network to a community.
We had planned to announce our selected community or communities by the end of this year, but the level of interest was incredible—nearly 1,100 communities across the countryresponded to our announcement—and exceeded our expectations. While we’re moving ahead full steam on this project, we’re not quite ready to make that announcement.
We’re sorry for this delay, but we want to make sure we get this right. To be clear, we’re not re-opening our selection process—we simply need more time to decide than we’d anticipated. Stay tuned for an announcement in early 2011.
Posted by Milo Medin, Vice President, Access Services

So we keep working, and we continue to be excited.

Jeopardy and computers

2010-12-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

IBM has a new computer to test against humans, this time on the tv game show Jeopardy. It's Watson computer will appear on Jeopardy for three shows in February, competing head to head against two of the most successful champions who have ever been on the show.

Jeopardy is a fascinating test for this, as the clues are tricky and require a lot of unusual thought. I find it hard to believe a computer can even solve them, much less do it in the reflexive way needed to beat other contestants. It will be interesting to watch.

Channeling Smokey Robinson

2010-12-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

While in Half Moon Bay, we walked by Ocean Books, a nice local store. The store had a great sign in the window:

That made me want to step right in. Good marketing.

Minnesota vs. California

2010-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law is a professor at the University of Minnesota. Saturday they had a huge blizzard there; here's a photo of people trying to get to a basketball game on her campus:

It was bad enough to cause the roof of the stadium where the Vikings play to collapse, and the temperature in Minneapolis yesterday hit a high of 3 degrees. Regina told me she was keeping her frozen food on the back porch since her freezer was not working.

By way of contrast, Karen and I spent yesterday in Half Moon Bay, on the California coast. It was sunny and in the mid-60's:

Here's Karen at the Ritz-Carlton:

I think we will take California for now.

The top gadgets - and two top companies

2010-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Time Magazine has put out its list of the top ten gadgets of 2010. No big surprise for the winner - the Apple iPad. It is a huge success and I love mine.

The surprise for me was that each of the first seven gadgets on the list was either a device made by Apple or a device running Google's Android operating system (Google doesn't really make physical products):

Top 10 Gadgets
iPad
Samsung Galaxy S (Android)
11-In. MacBook Air
Google TV Via Logitech Revue
Nexus One (Android)
iPhone 4
Apple TV

Not until number eight, a Toshiba laptop, did a non-Apple, non-Google product even crack the top ten list.

Where's all the innovation these days?

The Chrome OS notebook

2010-12-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

My company recently announced the Chrome OS notebook - a device that looks like a laptop computer, but actually is quite different. That's because it doesn't have a hard drive, doesn't store any programs, and doesn't run anything but a browser.

It's a very well thought out concept. In particular, because everyone who has a computer worries about it being damaged or lost or destroyed. That doesn't matter with the Chrome OS notebook:

Really, really close

2010-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Sharks played the Flyers the other night in a good game eventually won by the Sharks in a shoot-out. But they almost lost the game in overtime. The Flyers managed to get a shot by the Sharks' goalie as time ran out, but as you can see if you look closely, the puck was not quite across the goal line when the clock (counting in tenths of a second) ran down to 0.0:

In the NHL, it doesn't matter when you shoot - the puck must completely cross the goal line before time expires.

Good for the Sharks, bad for the Flyers.

Sleepy dog, multiple blankets

2010-12-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

That's right, Daisy is lying on three (or maybe four, or maybe even five) different blankets:

At 7 pm in the evening. Just like the princess and the pea.

Elizabeth Edwards

2010-12-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

I was saddened to learn of Elizabeth Edwards' passing yesterday after a hard battle with cancer. She seemed like a strong, well-centered woman who worked for good things and who suffered some very bad ones.

Two particular aspects of the news reports caught my attention. The first was a statement by the President:

In her life, Elizabeth Edwards knew tragedy and pain. Many others would have turned inward; many others in the face of such adversity would have given up. But through all that she endured, Elizabeth revealed a kind of fortitude and grace that will long remain a source of inspiration. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.

The second was her own words, released the day before she died:

The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human.

But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn't possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know.

Both comments were quite memorable.

The English Language

2010-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I once read a piece by William Safire in which he complained about the use of the phrase "from whence," which is wrong because "whence" means "from where," and about the phrase "it boggles the mind," which is wrong because "boggle is an intransitive verb, so the proper usage is "the mind boggles."

These have always stuck with, as have other examples of misuse of words. But this recent (unattributed) email I saw takes the criticism of the foibles of the English language to a whole new level:

You think English is easy???

Read to the end . . . a new twist

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) A buck does funny things when does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP'.

It's easy to understand 'UP', meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake 'UP'?
At a meeting, why does a topic come 'UP'?
Why do we speak 'UP' and why are the officers 'UP' for election and why is it 'UP' to the secretary to write 'UP' a report?
We call 'UP' our friends.
And we use it to brighten 'UP' a room, polish 'UP' the silver; we warm 'UP' the leftovers and clean 'UP' the kitchen.
We lock 'UP' the house and some guys fix 'UP' the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir 'UP' trouble, line 'UP' for tickets, work 'UP' an appetite, and think 'UP' excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed 'UP' is special.
A drain must be opened 'UP' because it is stopped 'UP'.
We open 'UP' a store in the morning but we close it 'UP' at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed 'UP' about 'UP'!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of 'UP', look the word 'UP' in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes 'UP' almost 1/4th of the page and you can come 'UP' to about thirty definitions, and, if you are 'UP' to it, you might try building 'UP' a list of the many ways 'UP' is used.
It will take 'UP' a lot of your time, but if you don't give 'UP', you may wind 'UP' with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding 'UP'.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing 'UP'.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things 'UP'.
When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry 'UP'.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it 'UP'.

For now my time is 'UP', so........it is time to shut 'UP'!

Now it's 'UP' to you what you do with this email.

Tiger Woods returns

2010-12-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am what you would call a "pure golfer." I really care about the substance of the sport, not the hoopla. So I have been a great fan of Tiger Woods, and so I was greatly disappointed when the man turned out to be less than the golfer.

But I am rooting for his return, because he simply is the best golfer that ever lived - and I say that as a lifelong fan of Jack Nicklaus.

Yesterday Tiger had a four-shot lead headed into the final round of the World Golf Challenge, and he let it slip away, and then he fought back. In the end, he lost in a playoff to Graeme McDowell not because he played badly, but because McDowell simply capped off a fabulous year with two pressure-filled birdie putts.

This was the best part for me, from a story at espn.com:

Without a trophy for the first time since he can remember, Woods appeared ready to embark on a new chapter after a year of personal turmoil and shocking scores. A four-shot lead turned into a two-shot deficit. He rallied to tie McDowell, then watched the U.S. Open champion deliver the winning shots.

It was the first time Woods has lost a tournament when leading by at least three shots going into the final round.

And it was the first time anyone could recall Woods feeling good after a loss.

That's right - he didn't complain or whine. He congratulated McDowell and he said that he felt good about how he had fought to win. That's a big change from the Tiger of old.

I had thought his career might be over, but now I think it might be starting up again.

12 - 0 !!!!!

2010-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

In all the years I have been a sports fan, I have never had one of my teams complete a perfect regular season run. But yesterday Sam's Oregon Ducks won the "Civil War" against Oregon State, by a final score of 37-20.

This win completed a 12-0 season for the Ducks, winning the Pac-10 crown and sending them to the BCS Championship game in January against similarly undefeated Auburn.

Go Ducks!!

The sign on my desk

2010-12-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

This card sits on my desk - I see it every day:

So I always keep it in mind.

An inspiring story

2010-12-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

So much of the news is bad; I like it when I come across good news. This story in the New York Times caught my attention because it has a touching story about a high-school coach suffering from a terrible illness and one of his athletes struggling mightily to reach a goal for him.

Runner Crawls to Finish to Win Title

for Her Ailing Coach

Robin Hauser Reynolds

Coach Jim Tracy with his University High cross-country team. Tracy's health has deteriorated visibly this season, but he kept coaching the team as it won its eighth state championship.

By KATIE HAFNER

Published: December 1, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — A top runner who hits the wall. A coach with a cruel illness. A state championship at stake.

Video: Holland Reynolds's State Championship Race

Robin Hauser Reynolds

Holland Reynolds’s teammates joined her in the ambulance after her effort won the state championship. Reynolds recovered within a few hours.

Such was the situation last Saturday when Holland Reynolds, a star runner from a small private high school in San Francisco, collapsed at the state cross-country meet and crawled across the finish line to clinch the championship for her team.

Reynolds, 16, a junior, has been a distance runner since she was in third grade. She arrived at San Francisco University High School as a fast freshman in 2008, ended her first season as the team’s top runner and has been the lead runner for the cross-country team ever since.

Her coach, Jim Tracy, 60, arrived at University High School in 1994 and built both the girls’ and boys’ teams into perennial state champions.

Reynolds said Tracy was the best coach she had ever had. “He always tells the truth,” she said. “If you ask him, ‘Well, how do you think I did today?’ he’ll tell you, ‘You had a bad race,’ ” she said. “It’s because of his honesty that when you receive a compliment from him, you know you’ve done really well, and it makes all the runners want to strive to please him.”

Until three years ago, Tracy, an accomplished runner, could keep pace with his fastest runners. Symptoms of his illness began nearly five years ago, he said, when a muscle in his thumb stopped functioning. And last June, he was found to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

But it is only in the past year that the disease has begun to debilitate him. A.L.S. patients, most of whom eventually lose the use of all but their eye muscles, typically live three and a half to four years after the onset of symptoms, but the range can vary widely.

At the beginning of this season, Jim Ketcham, the school’s athletic director, assembled the team and told the runners that Tracy was very sick. The news devastated the team. “Everybody was crying,” Reynolds said.

Since the start of the season, Tracy’s condition has grown visibly worse. “He’s been falling down sometimes at practice,” Reynolds said. “And he brings a chair to our workouts.”

Last weekend’s state meet in Fresno took place on a rainy, unseasonably cold morning. Reynolds, who was fighting a slight cold, was unaccustomed to such low temperatures, and said she might have misjudged how much she needed to drink.

Just before the 3.1-mile race, the team did its regular cheer, then Reynolds, who is the team captain, led a special cheer for Tracy. “I think that made the team really want to win it for Jim,” Reynolds said.

At the 2.5-mile mark, Reynolds was in third place, pushing for second, among the 169 runners. “I was going to make my move,” she said, “but for some reason my legs just gave out. I was confused, and I started to slow down.”

Tracy was at the team’s tent near the finish line, and he said he knew something was wrong when another University High runner finished before Reynolds. “I thought, ‘This isn’t right,’ ” he said. “ ‘Holland should be here already.’ ”

Tracy, who wears braces on his legs and his back and walks with difficulty, made his way to the course and found Reynolds, half a mile out, barely running and weaving across the course.

“She usually runs with a slightly bent upper torso,” Tracy said. “But this had twisted her over even more. It looked like she was barely able to keep herself stabilized. It was a grisly sight.”

Tracy said Reynolds looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

“But her vision was locked on her goal,” he said. “I’d never seen anything like it. It was like a mask of determination. I’ve seen that so many times when she’s in front, but this time she was getting buried. People were flying past her.”

Within two or three yards of the finish line, Reynolds collapsed, and a race official was at her side within seconds. He told her he could not touch her or help her, but to avoid disqualification, she would have to get over the finish line.

“I said, ‘Are you O.K., and do you want to finish?’ ” said Brian Weaver, the official. “She said ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘O.K., all you have to do is get your foot across the line, and you don’t have to get up, it’s O.K. if you crawl.’ ”

Reynolds started crawling.

“I was encouraging her,” Weaver said. “I said, ‘You can do this.’ She was nodding her head and crawling, and I was saying, ‘Nice and easy, don’t force it.’ ”

Tracy said, “It took over 20 seconds for her to crawl two yards.”

Reynolds said she did not remember collapsing but did remember crawling: “All I knew was that I had to cross the line.”

She finished in 37th place, with a time of 20 minutes 15 seconds, giving University the title it would not have won without her struggle over the line.

The instant Reynolds crossed the line, she was scooped up by Weaver, an assistant coach from the school and a trainer, who took her to an ambulance, where she was given intravenous fluids.

Weaver said that if Reynolds had appeared to be in immediate danger, he would not have let her continue. “I would have picked her up and carried her straight to the ambulance,” he said. “But she was able to make eye contact with me. Her body was tired, but she was mentally all there.”

Reynolds was still in the ambulance, unable to keep her eyes open, when she heard her mother tell her father they had won the championship. An hour later, her teammates were in the ambulance with her, and they gave Reynolds her medal. Within a few hours, she had recovered enough to go home. On Wednesday, she went for a 15-minute run.

Last Saturday’s race was the team’s eighth state championship, making it the most successful team in California cross-country history.

Quite the (mosaic) tribute

2010-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Mario Lemieux was to Pittsburgh NHL hockey what Michael Jordan was to Chicago NBA basketball. In an interesting tribute, the Penguins worked with the Mario Lemieux Foundation to create a tribute - a mosaic commemorating his great career:

The cool part is that this mosaic is made up of 21,000 individual photos submitted by Lemieux fans. And it is online, in fully zoomable form. Give it a try - the zoom feature is fascinating, as are the photos.

Not something you see every day.

What's wrong with this picture?

2010-12-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

When you do as much flying as I have recently, the oddest things can catch your attention.

I was stretching on a flight recently and noticed the following on the door of the lavatory:

That's right, there is a standard "no smoking" sign at the top, but at the bottom of the door, there is an ashtray! An ashtray!

Either that plane was built a long, long time ago, or somebody really fouled up.

Flamingos in formation

2010-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

A National Geographic photographer shooting pictures from an airplane in Mexico claims he captured a group of flamingos that had formed themselves into - the shape of a flamingo! Take a look for yourself:

This sounds like a total hoax to me, but some news outlets (though none of the major U.S. ones) are reporting it as a fact. I find it hard to believe.

Only one letter?

2010-11-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Years ago (many, actually), I vowed never to watch Wheel of Fortune again, after a contestant, confronted with a board that said "MICHAEL JACKSO__," guessed the letter P. Really.

But this news story got my attention. A woman on the show recently was given a seven-word blank clue. She guessed the letter L. It appeared in one space, in only one word, and she SOLVED THE PUZZLE! The answer was "I've Got A Good Feeling About This."

Part of the trick was that the first word, "__'__ __" could only be "I've" or "I'll." When she guessed L and it was not in the first word, she knew it started with "I've."

But even so. A follow-up in Esquire says she had even solved the puzzle before she had guessed the L.

That is kind of crazy.

Lots of MPG

2010-11-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

The EPA has approved an equivalent miles per gallon rating for the all-electric Nissan Leaf I am getting. I bet you've never seen a window sticker like this before:

I still have my doubts about the actual range on this car, but I am getting closer to finding out. Nissan let me know my car is in production, likely ready by January or February.

Goodbye Facebook

2010-11-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

All done with Facebook. It is pointless and a complete waste of time. And now the company is trying to copyright the word "face." Please.

A nice Thanksgiving dinner

2010-11-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sarah came home from college for the weekend, and I had a really nice day with her and Abby. Very traditional meal - turkey, stuffing, corn/peas/bacon, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. I added sweet potatoes with marshmallows and made-from-scratch cranberry-maple muffins. All very tasty.

Here's Sarah doing a little cooking:

And here's Abby enjoying her sparkling apple cider:

For dessert, not so traditional. Sarah made cream cheese chocolate brownies, plus homemade butterscotch sauce (served over vanilla ice cream). Delicious!

Quite a nice day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

What could Woodstock be thinking here?

Marshall

2010-11-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

We spent a weekend not too long ago at a really cute town on Tomales Bay, in Marin County, up near Pt. Reyes. It is a gorgeous area near the California coastline, but slightly inland on a large bay (famous for its oysters):

Marshall is a tiny place, with just a couple of restaurants, a few people, and really nothing else. We had lunch one day at the Marshall Store:

The best choice there - clam chowder in a paper cup:

Highly recommended. We are definitely going back.

Quantitative easing explained

2010-11-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is going to make you want to cry:

A new type of e-book

2010-11-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is kind of interesting. The Google Chrome team put together an e-book about the web and browsers. It looks like a book:

But it runs in your browser. And it is rendered in HTML5 (the replacement for Flash?).

Is this a new way to read? Not quite sure. But as I said, interesting.

Redone backyard

2010-11-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, the backyard turned into a big remodel, not just a new deck but all new landscaping. Everything is pretty small to start with, but if it fills in like the front, we will be pretty happy.

Here's a quick peek:

That's our peach tree on the far right. The apple tree is right in the middle, with the white trunk.

And all the rain we are getting is most welcome for these plants.

Airport scanners

2010-11-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

I've been traveling a lot recently, and I have yet to run across the full-body scanners everyone is so agitated about. But I don't see the issue here - the TSA screening process has already reduced everyone's dignity so far, how can these scanners be much worse? A perfect example of the government unable to get it right.

Under the weather

2010-11-19T07:21:00.001-08:00

No real post today. Too many airplanes/airports recently, and now I have too much coughing. So I am taking a day to slow down.

Susan

2010-11-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today I am just sending out my best wishes and prayers to my wonderful sister-in-law and to my brother. Our thoughts are with you. Be strong.

Irony (and getting older)

2010-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

I received a postcard from my eye doctor about making an appointment for my annual checkup. But when I went to call, I couldn't read the phone number until I found my reading glasses.

Yikes.

The passing of a great cartoonist

2010-11-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, it turns out, Alex Anderson passed away at the age of 90. We missed it here, despite the fact that he was from Berkeley and lived the last part of his life on the Monterey Peninsula, because the San Francisco Chronicle did not bother to mention his passing. Which is odd, since there were detailed obituaries in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and a number of other major publications.

Why was Alex Anderson memorable? Because he was the creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right, some of the greatest cartoons of history. The obituaries show that his early work on these characters were lost over time and claimed by other. But he fought back with a lawsuit in later years, which earned him the proper acknowledgment for his creativity.

The Rocky and Bullwinkle show was very funny - particularly via the two villains, Natsha Fatale and Boris Badenov. Witness this quote from Steven Spielberg, describing the Bullwinkle show:

It was the first time that I can recall my parents watching a cartoon show over my shoulder and laughing in places I couldn’t comprehend.

When I turned 30, I was given a birthday party that included a party quiz about events that occurred in the year I was born. One of the questions asked what was Rocky, of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The incorrect answer - a squirrel. The correct answer (which resulted in some arguing among the lawyers at the party) - a flying squirrel.

Dudley Do-Right, and his love interest, Nell, along with their own villain, Snidely Whiplash, were just as entertaining:

They came from an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, but eventually became separate characters. I have to admit happily watching that show as a child as well.

Alex Anderson will be long remembered for bringing a lot of joy to people.

Is there a future for email?

2010-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about email recently. We still use it all the time for work, but I've noticed that very little of my personal communications are via email. Facebook and Twitter and texting have taken over. If I want to reach my daughters, I send them a text. Same with Karen. Same with my friends. I suppose if I was younger I'd be doing it via Twitter.

So is email dying? Perhaps not: Facebook wants its own email to be a Gmail killer. Everyone wants their email to be more social. And I can't walk away from my corporate email for 10 minutes without the inbox filling up; in fact, when I get on an airplane and lose contact for some number of hours, it is almost frightening how many new emails await me when I turn on my smartphone.

I guess it's still here - but it will be fascinating to see how it evolves.

Maybe Dilbert understands it the best:

Still on the road to No. 1

2010-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was challenging, watching my long-suffering Golden Bears take on the No. 1 Oregon Ducks at Memorial Stadium. The chance for Cal to knock off a top-ranked team is both rare and highly anticipated, and ordinarily Karen and I would have been crazy excited to see how close they got. But of course we are huge Ducks fans now - Karen was even texting Sam during the game.

So Oregon holding on to win 15-13 was about as close as we could get to a double victory. Cal held Oregon to season low scoring and rushing, but Oregon managed to save the lead (and its ranking) at the end.

Now it's on to play Arizona and Oregon State. At least our allegiances won't be split.

The Little Giraffe

2010-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

So many commercials are bad ones. I really like ones that are clever.

This is a pretty funny commercial for DirecTV, but the best part is the little giraffe at the end. Watch for it - the giraffe appears before you realize it's there.

Sports transition

2010-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Now that the baseball season is over, Karen and I have switched over to watching Sharks games. We like hockey as much as baseball (go figure), but it is always jarring to switch from one of these sports to the other. Baseball is fairly slow; you can have the game on and be doing something else, and you never miss any of the action. Hockey is much different - it's important to watch at all times, as things change so quickly and goals happen so fast.

Plus they fight in hockey! When the spring comes around and we go back to baseball, we keep expecting to see the players take a swing at each other.

The Sharks have had some very good seasons, but no Stanley Cup yet. We'll keep watching and hoping.

Crunch 'n Munch is not Cracker Jack

2010-11-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Karen most decidedly does not have a sweet tooth. She rarely eats dessert, and when she does, it's usually only a bite.

But for some unexplained reason, she is a devotee of Cracker Jack. We bought some the other day when she spotted it at a pharmacy, which caused her to ask how old it was.

It turns out Cracker Jack was invented for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The name was chosen when a sampler said "That's crackerjack," which meant "of exceptional quality." It gained a fair amount of fame when it was mentioned in the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game, written in 1908. And it has been a staple of baseball games ever since.

In 2004, the New York Yankees replaced it at Yankee Stadium with a similar item, called Crunch 'n Munch. They quickly had to restore the Cracker Jack after their fans loudly complained

Dad Life (Father's Day Opening 2010)

2010-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's the wrong time of year to think about Father's Day, but this is too great to miss:

A very impressive donation

2010-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Ali Forney Center in New York is a shelter for homeless LGBT youth. This is a very important cause, as they are able to help a lot of young people struggling mightily with so many troubles. Like all charities these days, the Ali Forney Center doesn't have any strong sources of income, and it w/rks to stay open.

But when Bea Arthur died last year, she helped its cause. In her will, she left the Center a cash donation of $300,000. She had become aware of the Center and the issues facing LGBT kids through a friend, and over a number of years she had done a fair amount of work to raise consciousness about these issues. So when she passed away, she would not let them be forgotten:

[Executive Director Carl ] Siciliano said he knew of Arthur's plan to include the center in her will, but never knew the amount.

He had been struggling to keep the doors of the shelter open. The organization assists more than 1,000 people each year, providing shelter for those who had to leave home "for being who they are," Siciliano said.

"The last year and a half, since the economic crisis started, it's been really hard to keep this program going," Siciliano said. "A lot of the foundation and corporate money that we used to get has dried up, and we've been growing. Every day, we have about 125 kids a night waiting to get into our housing."

But on Tuesday morning, a FedEx carrier delivered a $300,000 check.

Siciliano said he immediately started to cry. Arthur's donation couldn't have come at a better time.

"For months, I've been really sweating to make each payroll, and we're usually a month or two behind on our rent, and there have been times when I was afraid that I wasn't going to hold it together," he said. "That kind of terror of [trying to] keep this thing going has come to an end for now with this extraordinary generosity."

What a great act of kindness on her part. She will be remembered for her acting, but there are a lot of people who will remember her for something more.

Spoils from the Giants' victories

2010-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

The playoffs and the World Series were not just satisfying from the standpoint of a baseball fan. I also managed to win a couple of nice bets.

My friend Megan is from Philadelphia, so she took her Phillies against the Giants in the NLCS. I put up a pound of Ghirardelli chocolate; she put up an assortment of TastyKakes. As you can see, she had to make a statement with the prize, sending along the Phillies tin:

But the inside was loaded with scrumptious TastyKakes, so I didn't mind:

The World Series called for a bit more of a bet, so my friend Kris and I decided to wager a bottle of scotch. Like a good Texan, she also had to pay up - which she did very nicely:

If only I had bet on the Giants in Las Vegas during spring training.

Prior to YouTube . . . .

2010-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so ironically it is on YouTube. But this is an amazing video - filmed by Thomas Edison, while riding a train across the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Mnahattan - in 1899!!

The Brooklyn Bridge is itself an engineering marvel, as beautifully explained in David McCullough's wonderful book "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge."

(note - thanks for the correction, Barry)

An interesting idea for selling DVDs

2010-11-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Warner Bros. has come up with an interesting idea for selling off their supply of Blu-Ray DVDs. They will take your existing DVDs in trade for Blu-Ray DVDs in their catalog. There are few exceptions to what they will take, and the trade requires a payment as well, but most of them are only $4.95:

Seems like an good way to improve a video collection (including getting rid of movies you don't want!).

Animal school

2010-11-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

As a parent, I found this video very interesting. It's long, but worth watching.

A wonderful idea for Paris

2010-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

The item below is reprinted from http://www.mylittleparis.com/en/. Sounds perfect - ready to go now.

A meal in the Paris sky

Sometimes, even the Parisian purist gets tired of eating entrecote and gratin at the corner brasserie and feels like, you know, a little creativity. Does a blissful culinary voyage on a glamorous Paris rooftop sound appealing?

The Palais de Tokyo is once again making it happen. ART-HOME is a new adventure all about culinary creativity featuring cooking classes, visits and the Nomiya dining room. This one-table restaurant is nested in an ultra-contemporary architectural setting perched on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo, offering a breathtaking panoramic view of Paris.

Every day, 12 privileged patrons can discover the surprise menu, prepared right in front of them by the inspired chef, Gilles Stassart. What will it be? Cotton candy à la langoustine, foie gras marshmallows or pea-and –carrot île flottante?
You are also invited to unveil the secrets of the chef by taking an experimental cooking class in the Atelier. Or just stroll about the vegetable garden on another rooftop.

Every day reservation for 12 new guests opens on the website at 10 am sharp. The booking is made for exactly one month later. If you’re having a hard time reserving this prized meal, you can still do the free daily visit of the exhibition between 3 and 5.30 pm (upon reservation).

Art-Home,
Palais de Tokyo, 13, Avenue du Président Wilson, 16th
Metro Iéna, Open Tuesday to Sunday
Lunch (60€) and dinner (80€), reservations for up to 12 guests
Free visits from 3 to 5.30pm (upon reservation on the website)
Reservations for meals and visits on the Art-Home website

Happy Anniversary Susan and Barry!

2010-11-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

Extra post today - it's the 20th anniversary for my brother Barry and my sister-in-law Susan.

Hope you two have a wonderful day today, and many, many more.

Congratulations!

Test-drive

2010-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Karen and I finally got to test-drive the Nissan Leaf:

Overall reaction - very positive. The car is a bit quirky looking, but the inside is comfortable and well-designed. The drive feeling is excellent. If you go in standard mode, it literally jumps from the start. In Eco mode, designed to get a longer range, the car is a bit more sluggish, but fine overall. And the dash is full of all sorts of geeky information:

Not bad at all.

World Champions!

2010-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have waited years and years for this:

8 years ago, the Giants had a 5-run lead in game 6 of the World Series. Karen and I were having our rehearsal dinner for our wedding the next day. It was the 7th inning, and somehow, the game unraveled, and the Angels won, and they won the Series the next day while we were getting married.

So last night, with a 3-run lead in the seventh, one could only hope. But Lincecum buckled down, and Wilson set the Rangers down 1-2-3 in the ninth, and the Giants won.

What a good feeling.

One game to go

2010-11-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Back in July or August, if you had told me that the Giants would be one win away from a World Series title come Halloween, I would have laughed it off. But it's true - just one more victory and the first championship for the Giants since 1954:

Lincecum and Cain scheduled next. Feeling good about that.

Happy (orange) Halloween!

2010-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

How fitting is it that Halloween colors are orange and black, same as the Giants!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

A first concert

2010-10-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have XM radio in my car, and one of the stations I listen to a lot is E Street Radio. It is a Bruce Springsteen channel, 24 hours a day of nothing but Bruce and the E Street Band. He has been performing so long, and so prolifically, that I am not surprised how often I hear a really good song that I have not heard before.

One of the features of the station is that they replay live concerts from all different time periods, so you get to hear Bruce live and you get to see how his performances have changed. The other day I turned it on and a live concert was playing; here is what it said on the radio:

Wow. That concert, at the Capitol Center in Maryland, was the first Bruce concert I ever attended - 32 years ago! It was really fun to listen to, and it simply amazes me he can still be going strong so many years later.

9 - 0 !!!!

2010-10-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Texas Rangers 0 - San Francisco Giants 9

Series standings: San Francisco Giants 2 - Texas Rangers 0

Oct 28	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Rangers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Giants	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	7	0	9	8	0

Ok, so the Giants got to the World Series on their pitching. Tim Lincecum pitched a good game 1, and Matt Cain pitched a gem for game 2.

But 11 runs in the first game, and 9 runs in the second? You've got to be kidding.

2 wins away.

Like being on a rollercoaster

2010-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, game 1 is in the books, with a Giants win - good start to this World Series. But they came from being down 2-0, went to a breakout 8-2 lead, took the lead to 11-4, and then gave 3 back in the 9th, finally winning 11-7.

There is no need for all this drama. Really.

Back to the Mac

2010-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs and Apple announced a brand new MacBook Air the other day. It's a pretty cool, slim, beautiful computer. But if you don't believe me, just listen to Apple:

Spotted in an airport the other day

2010-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time in airports recently, and you see a lot of interesting things there. Sometimes they are just plain cute:

Hard to remember when my girls were that small.

Nissan Leaf - 116 miles with the A/C on!!

2010-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

A new report from Engadget - very encouraging:

Nissan Leaf goes 116.1 miles in first anecdotal test, with the air conditioning on

By Sean Hollister posted Oct 23rd 2010 8:41PM

If there's one thing we've learned from years of toying with technology, it's never to believe a manufacturer's estimate regarding battery life, but it seems like the estimates Nissan provided for itsLeaf electric car may not be too far off the mark. Though the vehicle obviously isn't getting 367 miles to its non-existent gallon, PluginCars did manage to eke out a solid 116.1 miles in the car's first anecdotal test, and all they had to do to go the distance was drive casually and slightly below the speed limit -- "It wasn't like I was driving like an obsessed hypermiler," said the driver, who spent most of the trip with the A/C blasting cold. Nissan recently revised their range estimates for the Leaf to anywhere from 62 to 138 miles depending on speed and weather conditions, so 116.1 is a pretty solid run, but until those charging stations permeate the countryside, we're still going to take the ol' gas-guzzler on our road trips.

And from an interesting article in Popular Mechanics, 10 things you didn't know about the Leaf:

#10: It's Made From Recycled Water Bottles

In fact, 60 percent of the plastic on the Leaf's interior is already recycled material—much of it comes from used water bottles—and at the end of the Leaf's lifespan, 99 percent of the 3375-pound vehicle weight is recyclable and can be transformed back into water bottles or other Leafs.

#9: The Batteries Have a 100,000-Mile Warranty

Of course, all batteries degrade over time, but the Leaf's lithium-ion pack comes with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty. According to Nissan's estimates, even after a decade of use, the Leaf's batteries will likely maintain 70 to 80 percent of their capacity. The company also points out that since lithium doesn't chemically change over time, the batteries are completely recyclable.

#8: The Headlights Actually Make It Quieter

Even some of the Leaf's exterior components serve dual roles. The LED headlights not only illuminate the road using half the energy of halogens; their winged shape actually directs air away from the side mirrors (an innovation Nissan is currently attempting to patent) to reduce interior noise, which is whisper-quiet even at highway speeds. The Leaf is quieter than most luxury cars inside the cabin—so quiet, Nissan had to engineer new windshield-wiper motors. Apparently, the drone of internal combustion engines covers the noise made by normal wiper motors.

#7: It Gets an 80 Percent Charge in a Half-hour

Ten years ago, Nissan was selling a lithium-battery-powered car in Japan called the Hypermini. With lessons learned, the Leaf's batteries have twice the energy density (the battery power is rated at over 90 kw, with a capacity of 24 kilowatt-hours) and are less expensive to produce, thanks to the use of manganese electrodes. Using a single-phase 200-volt, 15-amp power supply, the batteries can be fully charged within eight hours using a 220-volt outlet, or about twice as long if you plug into 110. Using a three-phase, quick-charging station, the Leaf can attain an 80 percent charge in just 30 minutes.

#6: The Leaf Can Text You

The Leaf can communicate with the owner's cell phone using an e-mail-based system that manages the charging system. It will notify you when the batteries are charged, at which point you can control the air-conditioning system so the cabin reaches a specified temperature before you get in the car. It will also notify you by text message if charging is interrupted, which alleviates the need to physically baby-sit the charging station or stare at an extension cord for hours on end.

#5: The Nav System Displays Your Reachable Area in Real Time

The standard navigation system displays the range in graphic form, with a halo around the car's current location, which provides a visual estimate of how much farther you can go before recharging. The navigation system is in regular communication with Nissan's databases using satellite networks, and displays nearby charging stations on the screen.

#4: It Can Go 95 Miles per Hour

The instant we hit the highway, we throttled the Leaf up to its top speed, which is supposedly electronically limited to 90 mph. The digital speedometer read 95, at which speed the range estimate began dropping a mile every few seconds, which makes speed thrilling for an entirely different reason (this is why GM has coined the term range anxiety). We did not have enough time, or unpatrolled highway, to verify the Leaf's range under these conditions, but would guess that it might go 20 miles at full speed.

#3: The Leaf Tells You How to Drive

"Turn off Climate Control for +10 miles," the energy menu advised us. Heeding this suggestion (in part because the outside temperature wasn't uncomfortably warm), we canceled the air conditioning, switched on the vents, and watched the range estimate jump from 70 to 80 miles.

#2: Operating Cost Per Mile: $0.03

A car with an internal combustion engine that gets 25 mpg will require $1,800 in gasoline (at $3 per gallon) over a year of driving (15,000 miles), which works out to $0.12 per mile. The Leaf can be programmed to start charging in the wee hours, when off-peak electric rates apply—a feature that makes consumption economical. At $0.11 per kwh, the Leaf costs $0.026 per mile to operate, or $396 for 15,000 miles—a savings of about $1,400 (per year).

#1: The Bottom Bottom Line? $19,280

Starting at $25,280 (after a $7,500 federal rebate), the Leaf costs less than the average new car sold in America. In addition, some states offer extra incentives. For instance, California offers a $5,000 clean-vehicle rebate, and Colorado residents are eligible to receive an additional $6,000 tax credit, which brings the price tag down to $19,280. Even for $26,000, the Leaf is a lot of car. Try outfitting a Toyota Prius with a navigation system and satellite radio, and you're pushing $30,000. Lessees can cash in immediately with a government-subvented lease deal of $349 per month (in which case Nissan's financial subsidiary takes the refund).

Headed to the World Series!!!!

2010-10-24T05:00:00.001-07:00

SFGate

ERT | UPDATED 8:41 PM PDT

[ Sign up for breaking news alerts ]

The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!

8 years after losing the World Series in Game 7, on the day that Karen and I got married, the Giants are headed back to the Series again. And Game 1 will be played on Wednesday, our 8th wedding anniversary!

Sweet.

It Gets Better

2010-10-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

The series of "It Gets Better" videos offers a very encouraging message to LGBT teens. It's a really important message, one my company has embraced.

Two of them are particularly important, and worth watching. First, Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns, who spoke at a city council meeting:

And second, Tim Gunn, of Project Runway:

This is a really important message.

Bringing fiber to Stanford

2010-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

I continue to work on our Fiber for Communities project. It's actually taken me all over the country this summer and fall, meeting and talking to different communities about how fiber to the home would benefit their residents.

Yesterday we announced a beta fiber build, which will occur at the faculty residential subdivision on the campus of Stanford University. I got to work closely with Stanford on the agreement that led to this announcement and I'm very excited it is moving ahead.

As the blog post states, this fiber build is a test, and does not affect the selection of a city or cities as part of our Fiber for Communities process. But it's an important next step and we expect to learn a lot.

Shadow Teen Program

2010-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Abby is participating again in the "shadow teen" program at Town Hall Theatre. This time she has the lead in the teen cast of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

She was interviewed for the local paper - a very nice story starting on page 1, continued on page 5.

Here's her picture with some of her fellow actors:

The teens will do two performances this weekend - looking forward to it.

A nice tradition

2010-10-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

We live on a quiet little street and really like our neighbors. As there are lots of young children, Halloween is a very popular holiday. And we have a really nice tradition that involves the whole neighborhood.

Each year, we find a bowl out front wih Halloween treats. This year's bowl had Halloween socks, Halloween cake mix in black and orange colors (with decorations), candy corn and some other candies. There was also a Halloween poem and a little decorated sign that says "BOO."

Your role is to refill the bowl with treats and leave it for another neighbor. You also make a copy of the BOO sign and put it on your front door, to show you've gotten your treats. It ends up looking like this:

All in all, a very neighborly tradition.