Sometimes the best compliments are those least expected

Why, thank you, Yelp. I did put contacts on for the first time in 3 weeks, thanks for noticing.

:-)

Geek Day 2009!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me, it began with Macworld 2009 at the Moscone Center and ended with the Crunchies after party at SF City Hall. Although I'm not a techie myself, and perhaps because of it, I've always idolized the innovative, anyone-can-do-it attitude of Silicon Valley startups. There's something incredibly attractive about creative young minds clawing over one another to be the next big thing in technology, something that brings out the wide-eyed, groupie side of me I didn't realize existed. This considered, yesterday was like my birthday and Christmas combined- I spent a good part of the day having casually intellectual conversations with some of the brightest minds in the Bay Area and exploring the newest fads in technology.

Noteworthy things from Macworld:

-Axiotron Modbook Pro: Apple's Macbook converted into a tablet. Advantages: Its the only tablet available for Mac users. Disadvantages: Because its made from Apple's new unibody aluminum frame, it doesn't swivel out to a normal laptop, hence it lacks a keyboard.

-Crash Plan: A free software for automatic online backup. You can back up to any other computer in your house, obviously to a hard drive, and even online. Advantages: Free (with a few ads), its always on so no need to schedule backups, and it greatly compresses your hard drive using data deduplication. Disadvantages: A few ads, I guess.

-iLife 2009: Probably not a big deal for current Mac users, but it was my first exposure to this software package. The most impressive update was the iterative auto-tagging feature in iPhoto and location-based organization of photos. I was also introduced to Garage Band, which I think could be a great tool for learning to play music. Advantages: Like the labels as opposed to folders in Gmail, iPhoto allows multiple means of photo organization (date, region, event type, people). Disadvantages: As with most of Apple's products, there are numerous unnecessary bells and whistles that makes their software almost overwhelming.

-Nadachair: Simple straps to give you back support when sitting in a chair for extended periods. Advantages: Feels great while using it. Disadvantages: Makes back pain more noticeable once taken off.

-Rocstor: Portable external hard drives that can hold 500 GB and fit in your pocket. Enough said.

There was a significant (if not overbearing) presence of iPhone software and accessories. And a surprising amount of HD recording devices. I was more excited about the latter, because the 'High Definition' label is slowly spreading to the masses and no longer exclusive to professional sports.

Finally, Crunchie after party came around! Taken by a Googlite nominee for 'Best Mobile App', I met up with my fellow techie groupie, and we spent the night scouting out 'celebrities' and meeting people of various levels of accomplishment from various aspects of technology (a VC from Seattle, a NASA Ames engineer, and the founder of Tapulous, for example). What surprised me the most was how approachable people were in this scenario. Unlike the awkward, segregated 4-5 person huddles that characterize the first hour of a typical college party, at the Crunchies, random people were constantly showing up in our group and introducing themselves. Conversation was never difficult, and I must say I learned a surprising amount:

-"easter eggs" are hidden features included in any program or application that are meant for the rare user to stumble upon by accident

-the rapid proliferation of the iPhone application market has lead most vendors to sell at prices below their cost of production ($0.99/application doesn't begin to pay off until you've sold at least a few hundred thousand)

-Microsoft Surface is AMAZING! It's essentially a coffee table-sized iPhone, except it can be programmed to recognize objects placed on top of it (i.e. a sunglasses lense), and give the user the name and pricing of the object. Although its current market is businesses wishing to create an interactive shopping environment in-store, I can foresee this replacing actual coffee tables in a decade.

-Mark Zuckerberg still looks a bit like a sweaty teen.

-MC Hammer is now an active investor in multiple tech startups. But he still dresses like an ol' G.
G'nite folks!

How Many Berkeley Engineers does it take...

to change a tire? Well 4, and in 3 hours.

Of yesterday's trip to Tahoe:

The acme: Seeing Pai slide down a black diamond, on his back, head-first, board still attached, for approximately 1 minute straight. If there was ever a time in my life I wish I had a camera, that was it. I still lose composure every time I think about it.

The nadir: Realization that none of us knew how to change a tire. I mean, you don't understand how low that was. I know, Bioengineers and EECS aren't exactly meant to be mechanics, but definitely realized that book educations can only get you so far if you lack basic know-how.

The legen...wait for it...dary*: Hydroplaning on Highway 88, resulting in a few icy spins on the highway, and ending in the rear end of Atul's 4-runner jammed in a snowbank. Minus the front tire (popped) and trunk door (dented), we came out just fine. And on our way back, we found that crash spot to document this day. Pictures, Quyen?


*Okay, so we're all addicted to this phrase, and the ingenious show it comes from. I'm assuming this phrase, like "That's what she said", will soon tire out. In the mean time, get ready for more HIMYM allusions.

Online PDF Converter

I just found this great website that converts any document into a .pdf, without any software download, fee, login or registration. Its amazingly simple, spread the word!

http://www.doc2pdf.net/

:-D

6 days, 3 cultures

In the last week, I've bounced around quite a bit and noticed how disparate (GRE word, check!) the cultures can be in regions that are geographically so close.

Point 1: Fairfield, CA
Inhabited by Budweiser-drinking, fast-food chain-frequenting, V8-driving, obese (I guess that doesn't need any explaining) Caucasians. Colloquially known as Middle America.

Point 2: South Lake Tahoe, CA
Inhabited is a bit of strong term here because the population in this ski town is very transient, so we'll say it's frequented by easy-going, community college-attending, drug-abusing, "gnarly"-using, predominantly Caucasian twenty-somethings who live for winter sports. Also known as 'ski bums'.

Point 3: San Francisco, CA
Yuppies. Hippies. Yippies. You name it, SF has it. For those who don't know, yuppies are young urban professionals, so twenty-something college graduates making a career and living the fast-paced, high-stress, Starbucks-drinking, bluetooth headset-donning, (and recently) iPhone-toting life only a truly metropolis can provide. The hippies (evolved from original hipsters of SF), would be the vegetarian, Whole Foods-shopping, fixie bike-riding, yoga-teaching twenty-somethings living the green life (pun intended). Of course, most people fall in between both those characterizations, hence the term yippies.

Despite my intention to make an impartial comment on three different cultures, subjectivity crept in (and not subtly, at that), and its obvious which one I relate most to. I'm sure my opinions weren't the least bit influenced by Yippie origins in Berkeley's Free Speech Movement and the fact that San Francisco will most likely be my next city of residence.

But the broad cultural spectrum within a 4-hour driving distance still astonishes me. Is this specific to California- is it because we have multiple terrains in a small area and each terrain breeds a different culture- or is this a national phenomena?