NOW They Cut the iPhone Price

iPhone Price Cut less than 2 Months After Purchase.

Gaaaah!

The curse of being an early adopter strikes again.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Apple Cuts iPhone Price Ahead of Holidays SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Apple unexpectedly cut the price of its iPhone Wednesday, claiming that it was seeking to broaden the market for the popular but expensive phone for the Christmas season. The iPhone was first sold on June 29. A number of recent analysts’ reports have noted that it is selling well and is, indeed, outselling its smartphone competitors. But Mr. Jobs said that if the company had waited past the Christmas buying season to reduce prices it would have been forced to delay for another year reaching a broader consumer market. “We’re feeling like being more aggressive,” he said. Chetan Sharma, a telecommunications industry analyst based in Issaquah, Wash., said, “They’re trying to get the next demographic to bite into it.” “My suspicion is that they got to 750,000 really quickly, and then it started to slow down,” said Van Baker, an industry analyst at Gartner Group.

Today, at the One Brick picnic, there was a great, only in Silicon Valley moment.

We had "picnic" games like 3 legged race, sack race, hula hoop contest, water gun fights, etc. One of the games was tug-o-war, over a kiddie pool of ice water. After one of the tug-o-war sessions, the losing team all fell or got dragged a few feet on the grass. After everyone got up and went to talk to the other side there were two things left on the losing side. The rope and a Treo.

The organizers spent the next 10 minutes going around the picnic yelling "Who's phone is this? Someone lost their phone at the tug-o-war." Where else on the planet, would someone lose their smartphone, in a tug-o-war competition and not notice for over 10 minutes?

OK, I guess you had to be there. It was funny at the time.

Logical Reason Pretty Boys Look Good

This article talks about how women are programmed or hard wired to consider some men more attractive than others. It's interesting how the theory holds true, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the man.

clipped from news.yahoo.com

Study: Chick Magnets Today Look Like Cavemen

A recent study of the skulls of human ancestors and modern humans finds that women, and thereby, evolution, selected for males with relatively short upper faces. The region between the brow and the upper-lip is scrunched proportionately to the overall size of their heads.

Masculine appeal

"A shorter upper face does serve to exaggerate the size of other face features such as the flare of the cheeks and the size of the jaw, but this might not be why it developed," Weston told LiveScience. "Rather the shorter [and] broader the male face the more ‘masculine’ and the less ‘feminine'—based on biological face changes that take place during growth and development—the individual becomes," she said.

They came up with a list of stars with masculine faces, listing them from most to least masculine according to facial dimensions: Will Smith, Peter Andre, Justin Timberlake, Thierry Henry, Brad Pitt, David Beckham, Johnny Depp and Kanye West.

What's Your Professor Poopypants Name?

Here's my Professor Poopypants name, what's yours?

Library Thing

How Cool is this?

Walk it Out with the Bell Bottom Pastel Ladies

Actually, that's Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse's wife, doing Mexican Breakfast. You can see the original on The Pineapple Princess' blog, unless she yanked it for some reason.

Sometimes, people having too much free time on their hands is a good thing.

The original dance and flutey music. Tell me you aren't impressed with the extensions and spins from this mid-40s lady.

Calligraphy Still Relevant Today

I love this article and it's pictures because it shows how calligraphy is still being used for everyday life, at least in once order of the world.

Seems like the newspaper's system is similar to the scribes in nunneries or monasteries.

clipped from www.wired.com India's News Calligraphers Do It on Deadline

Scott Carney Write to the Author
See related story: A Handwritten Daily Paper in India Faces the Digital Future
07.06.07 | 2:00 AM

The Musalman is possibly the last handwritten newspaper in the world. Four professional calligraphers spend three hours on each page every single day to put out this daily paper.

While it's a Muslim newspaper, it's also a beacon of liberalism in South Asia, employing both women and non-Muslims. Two of the four katibs (calligraphers) are women and the chief reporter is Hindu. Indian royalty and poets often visit the paper to offer content and accolades.

The following images portray The Musalman's modest office as the paper's staff puts together the next day's newspaper.

Left: Every day in Chennai, India, professional calligraphers called katibs handwrite The Musalman newspaper, established in 1927. Each page is written in Urdu, a language spoken by a small minority of the city's population.

Be sure to check out the pictures.

Fairmont High Tea and HSSV Fundraiser

Culo at the San Jose Fairmont Tea and Humane Society Silicon Valley fundraiser. I had high tea and Culo had a walk around downtown San Jose. Since Culo is a HSSV alumni, Class of 1997, we go to a lot of their events.

SJ's Fairmont Hotel Invites Dogs For Pizza, Sushi, Tacos

POSTED: 11:33 am PDT June 20, 2007

UPDATED: 12:01 pm PDT June 20, 2007

Pizza, sushi, tacos and banana biscotti; sounds like a great buffet for humans, but this Saturday's menu is for man's best friend and the Fairmont San Jose Hotel has invited local pooches and their owners to partake.On Saturday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. as a fundraiser for the Santa Clara County Humane Society and as a promotion for the hotel's pet-friendly policies, the Fairmont has invited local dog owners to come on down and enjoy deluxe doggy samples available on the private dining menu for pets.Also available on Saturday are dog walkers, who for $10 will walk visiting dogs while their human companions enjoy tea, lunch and cocktails in the hotel lobby. All proceeds from the dog walkers go to the Humane Society.

The hotel will have items that guest dogs can enjoy during their stay at the upscale downtown San Jose hotel, including beds, water and food dishes, a scooper, a doggy biscuit, a dog walking guide brochure and every dog's favorite: a squeaky toy. Also available to pet owners are digital cameras and printing facilities to snap and print images of their pet living the good life.

One Brick New Orleans Trip

One of my favorite do-gooder organizations, OneBrick, sent a crew down to help out in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone in New Orleans. Things like this made me glad I joined the volunteer organization. Without a doubt, they are the best run, most volunteer friendly group I've been attached to.

Culo Really likes his new Red Ball

One of my PayPal co-workers, Eve, was nice enough to gift Culo with a new, red, very bouncy Kong Ball. I love the pictures so much, I have to add them to my blog. I don't know the man in the pictures. He was just walking by and started playing ball with Culo.

Pilobolus Dance Theatre Back in The SF Bay Area

Just because I loved watching this troupe so much last year. And now we are MySpace friends. Pilobolus Dance Theatre gives good blog.

If you go, let me know how it was.

You Only Need A Heart Full of Grace - MLK Day

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Today, I hope you have a chance to reflect the positive changes that have taken place in American society because of the sacrifices of those who came before us. We stand on the shoulders of giants. I want to share this sermon and links because they encourage us not to rest, but continue pushing forward.

If you want to be important—-wonderful. If you want to be recognized—-wonderful. If you want to be great—-wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Amen) That’s a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, (Everybody) because everybody can serve. (Amen) You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. (All right) You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. (Amen) You only need a heart full of grace, (Yes, sir, Amen) a soul generated by love. (Yes) And you can be that servant.

Listen to the sermon in King's own voice. From "The Drum Major Instinct” sermon, delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, February 4, 1968

Pimped MySpace

After being embarrassed for so long about having the nerdiest MySpace on the planet, I finally spent some time today to pimp it out a little. I know I'm triple the age of the standard MySpace user, but it's a fun site to hook up with people you see on TV, in the movies or listen to the radio. Especially if they have a blog, you can see the more human side of them. It's like eavesdropping, sometimes, when their friends and family post on their space, but what can you do? When I figure it out, I plan to put my blinged out name at the top of MySpace. Which version do you like better?

Agent Orange

or

MicraDi

Send in your vote and it may make a difference. Just like a real USA election.

By the way, the site that helped me pull my page together and make my name is MyTheme.com. There's a lot of bad sites out there, but this one seemed OK.

Daddy, Husband, Son, Co-Worker and Friend = James Kim

Many of us here in Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay area have been following the stories about the Kim family. James Kim, an editor and video personality at CNet, is one of our own local technology geeks.

They lost their way on the way home from a Thanksgiving holiday trip from Seattle Washington to Tu Tu' Tun Lodge at Gold Beach on the Oregon coast. Apparently they missed their original turn off of highway 5 and thought NF-23 road looked like a viable option. Unfortunately the area has a bunch of side roads and logging trails, so they understandably got off the main road and go lost.

The good news is that Carson Helicopter Services Inc., hired by Mr. Kim's father found Jame's wife Kati and daughters Sabine and Penelope OK. Kati literally kept her kids alive with mother's love.

She breastfed her young daughters during the nine day ordeal when their car was stuck in the snow. I'm so proud of her resourcefulness and strength to get them through the nightmare.

I initially heard about James Kim situation through one of my CNet newsletter subscriptions on Monday, December 4th. I followed every twist and turn through the sad conclusion yesterday afternoon. It was heart breaking to read that Mr. Kim was found within a mile of the family car, but there's no way he could have reached them directly from where he was found.

Given the terrain, it's a wonder they found him and got his body out at all.

There were several good sites where people shared messages of hope, gave the local, search and rescue point of view plus offered advice about what people should do if in the same situation.

• CNet Wishes for the Kim Family
• CNet James Kim Video Retrospective
• Crave Blog
• YouTube
• KGO ABC Channel 7
• KNTV NBC Channel 11
• James and Kati website
  
• Managed by Scott Nelson Windels, a college friend of Kati and James. You can make donations here to help the Kim family pay for the helicopters and other expenses

Since the Kim girls are so young, I have high hopes that they'll be able to recover from what happened to their family this holiday season. Perhaps Kati's stores, Doe SF and Church Street Apothecary (very cute stores, by the way) can carry them through without James' income. Happily, James job required him to be video taped a lot over the years. That legacy of images and sound of his voice should help Penelope and Sabine get to know their father over the years.

---

Excellent post from Seattle Times blog. I agree whole heartedly. I always thought that if Kati was as skinny as her husband, James, no way she could have kept breastfeeding so many days.

It was painful to watch the sky turn dark and read the news that the rescue teams had to pull back for the night. To think of James Kim out there alone in the dark, with the freezing cold setting in, starving (and he looked like a skinny guy to begin with), in wet clothes, and -- not knowing that his family was safe -- plunging ahead through poison oak, icy water, heavy brush, treacherous ravines, because he was carrying the weight of his family's survival. His will to save his family propelled him forward until his body was completely overcome by the harsh conditions it had been subjected to, the temperature inside of him dropping steadily, down, down to a pilot light, down to a flicker, and then was gone. To lose that kind of a person is a loss to our society. And that just two days, a rescue two days earlier would have made such a difference. It's so sad.Who knows how many lives his story will save? Because this could have happened to almost any city slicker, a scary fact that is resonating with many readers. Those of us without emergency supplies in our car are now much more likely to be prepared.I will never be able to hear another story of people lost in the snow without thinking of this man's ordeal.
Posted by Anna K. at 03:54 PM, Dec 07, 2006

______________________________________________________
Stranded Father's Heroic Last Hours
by Peter Fimrite

Grants Pass, Ore. -- James Kim put himself through a desperate ordeal, climbing down a ravine over boulders and logs, through nearly impenetrable brush, and in and out of an icy creek, in what one rescue leader called a "superhuman" effort to save his family.

In the end, Kim's circuitous hike took him to within a mile as the crow flies from the spot where he had left his stranded family in their car. Rescuers said that if he had continued down the road in the direction he was driving when the car became stuck on Nov. 25, he would have reached a lodge and almost certain safety.

Kim died after picking his way nearly to the end of the steep, 5-mile canyon in the Siskiyou National Forest west of Grants Pass. Wearing tennis shoes, a jacket and sweater, he had left his family on Saturday, following a logging road back the way the family had come, winding around a ridge, first south, then west.

"I can only describe him as an extremely motivated individual," said Joe Hyatt of the local Swift Water Rescue Team, which tracked him along the creekbed. "There were areas where the only option for us to pass through was to enter the water and physically swim."

Kim was almost certainly dripping wet. It's not known whether he realized he was approaching the Rogue River, but authorities said he wouldn't have found civilization even had he made it to where the creek empties out.

"Based on what the searchers were describing, the terrain they were working in, it seems superhuman to me,'' Anderson said of Kim's effort.

A helicopter crew spotted Kim's body in the creek at a place where the terrain becomes impassable on both sides because two sheer cliffs line the water.

"He was probably too weak to get back up out of there," Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters said.
"I admire his effort, I truly do," Winters said. "He has a lot of intestinal fortitude. He comes from the city without a lot of outdoors experience, and he was thinking on his feet, he was very meticulous. ... He had a strong will to survive."

______________________________________________________
From: "info@flashnews.net"
Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 9:01:42 PM
Subject: Photographs Taken During Tuesday's Aerial Search for Missing James Kim

News Release from: Oregon State Police
PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN DURING TUESDAY'S AERIAL SEARCH FOR MISSING JAMES KIM
Posted: December 5th, 2006 8:56 PM
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashnews.net/images/news/P1010018.JPG
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashnews.net/images/news/P1010025.JPG
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashnews.net/images/news/P1010027.JPG
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashnews.net/images/news/P1010030.JPG
Photo/sound file: http://www.flashnews.net/images/news/P1010042.JPG

The attached photographs were taken by Oregon State Police while accompanying a helicopter crew during Tuesday's search for missing James Kim who was last seen leaving his car on Saturday, December 2, 2006 at 7:45 a.m.

The photographs are not the best quality but do depict the terrain and include a couple photographs of searchers being lowered down into the Big Windy Creek area to assist with the search.

These photographs may be used by media for reporting on this story.

Pilgrims Sicc'd on Turkey

AFP/Timothy A. Clary, November 22, 2006

This about sums up how turkeys must feel about Thanksgiving.

Actors Christine DeLos Angeles and Joseph Buchanan dressed as Pilgrims chase Sixto Cuevas dressed as turkey down the street in New York during the fifth annual Thanksgiving Turkey Chase sponsored by the Abracadabra Superstore. Americans on Thursday celebrate Thanksgiving, one of the country's most important holidays and also a rare occasion for harried families to reunite and share an elaborate home-cooked meal.

Free Blues Turkey Day Eve

Last night, the joint was jumpin' at The Redwood City Blues Jam at the Little Fox Theater

Several Wednesdays a month, Blues fans can go for free to sit in on the jam. The skill level is a mixture of people who play music as a hobby to musicians headlining local shows. It's a two level nightclub/theatre that could be described as cozy. I sat on the top level, with a clear view of the stage, even though there were a lot of dancers. Here's a blurb to describe what goes on:

Every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Wednesdays of the month from 7 PM to 11 PM, the beautiful historic Little Fox opens its doors to the jam hosted by the elite of Bay Area Blues. If the music were not enough, appearances at the jam provide an unparalleled promotional opportunity for artists with upcoming area gigs. The buzz following the jam in the highly active local blues community often results in sold-out shows for participating artists. If you are a touring blues performer, drop in and you'll not only get a chance to "cut heads" with the best but also get the word out about your upcoming gig.

I found out about the event by an e-mail newsletter from Tia Carroll, a local artist and entertainer.

Her style reminds me of the R&B Divas like Etta James, Ruth Brown, Irma Thomas. The generation who ruled the day before Aretha Franklin and her generation did there thing. Very charismatic and engaging with the audience and expressive interpreter of the music. Over the years since I've been watching her perform around the Bay Area, I've seen her work with a wide variety of musicians and other vocalists. She pretty much represents Bay Area Blues women for me.

One of the stand-out jam musicians was Ron Thompson, a self described Rhythm and Blues Legend. Within 15 seconds of playing, you knew he was the truth.

The bad thing about RT coming on so early was that almost every other guitarist that came on stage later was pedestrian by comparison. His style was like a combination of rockabilly, boogie woogie and the speed guitar of surf music like Dick Dale. I could tell he was special, but with a resume like the one on his website, I feel even more lucky

Not many living blues musicians can say they have performed with and recorded for legends like Big Mama Thornton, Sonny Rhodes, Luther Tucker, Jimmy McCracklin, Pee Wee Crayton, Carla Thomas, School Boy Cleve, Percy Mayfield, Etta James, B.B. King, and Jimmy Reed.

You can tell a lot of regulars go there. A lot of people knew each other and I recognize at least 2/3 of the people on the Redwood City Blues Jam photo page. Patricia Wilder (not the 1920s movie star) was one of the guitarists with a sweet sound.

On her website, I see she has a jazz, rock, R&B, blues and gospel background and has been playing since she was a teenager. So it makes sense she can find her way around an axe.

One of the Blues vocalists had blonde big bouffant hair, tight jeans, cowboy boots and red lace top, looking like she accidentally wandered in from some kind of hillbilly hoedown. But when she opened her mouth, no doubt she knew how to sing the Blues. With her two stepping and jig dancing self.

Even though four hours sounds like a long time, it goes fast when your watching good, live music. Other than the house band, Artie "Stix" Chavez and his All Stars who was consistently great, the different musicians that took they turns brought something different to the table. Including the keyboardist that looked like a physics teacher, the drummer who looked like one of the retired ladies in my Pacific Scribes calligraphy guild and the cool ass Pinoy guy, Carlos, was so good on mouth harp, everyone wanted to play with him so much, they wore the poor guy out.

I love the Bay Area.

I was there - PMI Global Congress 2006

This is my first year attending the PMI Global Congress - North America, October 21-24 2006 at the Seattle Washington State Convention & Trade Center. Needless to say, I learned a lot and met some interesting people. It was my chance to meet project managers outside of the software development/ IT fields. There were project managers from many fields
including: aerospace, defense, architecture, automotive, aviation, bio-technology,
civil engineering, construction, criminal justice, education & training,
financial services, government, healthcare, human resources, information technology,
telecommunications, life sciences, manufacturing, marketing & sales, metrics,
new product development, oil, gas & petrochemical, pharmaceutical, retail,
sports, utilities.

On Friday I arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in the afternoon. I was hoping there was time for me to make it over to the Science Fiction Museum, at the Experience Music Project
before it closed at 6 pm. Unfortunately, the Seattle Monorail was broken, so I had to figure out a different way to get over to the Seattle Center. I tried a taxi, but we went approximately 1.5 blocks in about half an hour. (The conversation with the driver on nanotechnology
and biotechnology was interesting, though.)

No way was I going to make it before the museum was going to close. So I had to bail on that idea and go shopping at Nordstrom instead. Later I ducked out on the "Simply the Best" PMI Awards Ceremony to go check out the Science Fiction Museum. Pretty good trade-off. I really enjoyed the museum which had a lot of interactive and video features.

Saturday, my first official PMI Congress related event was put on by Microsoft (surprise!). The Puget Sound chapter of MPA, Microsoft Project Association, mentioned a new Microsoft Project certification program and gave us a chance to meet some big wigs within the organization. I haven't seen the announcement myself, but apparently they had a press release party during the conference. The main "behind the scenes" news we heard was that MS Project is included in the long term MS Office strategy, which is about half of Microsoft's income.. Neither of my SIGs, Diversity or New Product Development, met on Saturday, so I sat in the Consulting SIG. I used to belong to that one, but nothing ever happened other than the LinkedIn group.

Sunday was a very long PMI Research Program Working Session. The first part of the day was when the PMI Research Program got together with academia, represented by

Start here to finish

• Countdown To Leadership - Mike Mullane
• Cross Culture Project Management
• Build Your Team with People-Savvy: Overcome the Five Team Dysfunctions
• New Directions and Innovations in Metrics-Based Project Management
• The Lens and the Mirror: Viewing Project Management as an Outcome or as
  a Set of Processes?
• Motivations and Blockades in International Project Management Work
• No-Nonsense Leadership Tips for Promoting Project Success - Neal Whitten,
  Strategic Portfolio Management at Hydromax: Converting Strategy into Action
  and the Strategic Importance of Project Execution
• You Too Can Do Earned Value Management, Understanding the Basics of CPM
  (Critical Path Method) Calculations: What is Scheduling Software Really Telling
  You?
• Successfully Manage Your Projects and Your Client's Expectations - Consultants'
  Secrets

Bark in the Park - September 2006

This year's Bark In the Park was fun as usual.



Seemed like attendance was up over last year. More dogs and people. Some highlights.



Big Dogs



Small Dogs



Giant Puppy

Younger than 1 year old, nephew of Gibson the giant dog



Heroic Dogs

Roy's trading card front

Heroic Dogs

Roy's trading card back



Unicorn


Dressed up as a Baby


Human dressed as a dog, for a change



Matching Mom and Fur Babies


Taking a break while listening to brass band


Big dog flyball run


Brown sheep herding dog

Shepard, crook and black herd dog

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Bark in the Park 2006 - Dogs Just Want to Have Fun! is a fundraising event hosted by the Naglee Park neighborhood's Campus Community Association. All proceeds benefit the CCA and Humane Society Silicon Valley [Culo is an Alumni, class of 1997].