Been Busy 'Round Here

Lots going on at this end in the past few weeks, hence the Blog silence. Laura and I spent a long weekend in Sonoma relaxing at a great, historic Sonoma hotel and spa...and also discovered this great little restaurant (the ahi is out of this world!). This past weekend, we were in Portland attending the wedding of an old family friend from Oregon. Also found time to catch up with Stina, another good friend from Corvallis. Stina says my blog is boring and all about work stuff. Tomorrow we leave for Boston and New York. More from the road...

gmailwannabe@yahoo.com

Just received mail from this address!

"A Staff Reporter"

The WSJ pretends to be the Economist for a couple of days.

"DadWords"

Yes...similar to AdWords, but slightly different user experience for me when I spotted an AdWord ad promoting one of my Dad's books!

Speak Rico, Speak!

Rollover. Fetch. Sit. Shake. And now...speak!

600 Miles on a Bike?

Both my uncle and a fellow Googler have devoted this entire week to a cycle ride that takes place from San Francisco to LA. Riders average ~100 miles per day and travel an interesting route both down the coast and inland. Today was "wear your Google bike jersey" day! Congrats to both of you for making it this far...most impressive!

AirTunes?!

OK, this looks cool.

Weekend Update

Had an eventful and fun weekend. Dined at a new restaurant (for us), saw the SF production of "Hairspray," and watched the season finale of "The Sopranos" with friends. I wasn't blown away by the episode, but season six is sure to be a doozer. See what others are saying...

Is Plaxo Spam?

Sometimes I tend to think so. I'll never be able to trust an outside service with my contacts, so this steady stream of bothersome "invitations" is annoying. If you feel the same and are constantly troubled by the zillions of spammy Plaxo messages you receive in your in-box, you'll appreciate this opt-out form.

The Forecast Calls for Clouds Over Redmond

This is a very interesting read from a former MSFT engineer.

"Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to promise solutions for tomorrow that customers need today......My most memorable moment at Microsoft came during a technical review with Bill Gates. I will never forget the moment when I made an apparently obvious point to him. He responded, “What? Do you think I’m stupid?” Everyone was staring at me, and I felt it best not to answer......But Microsoft’s market share in desktop operating systems, servers, and productivity software can go no higher. Its core businesses face gradual erosion to competitive operating systems such as Linux and OS X. It faces challenges from new approaches like services offered by Google and the growth of dedicated consumer devices that make owning a traditional personal computer less necessary."