Feeling Pretty Good…
P.S. It’s not really cloudy right now.
David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start & Design for Hackers.
David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start & Design for Hackers.
P.S. It’s not really cloudy right now.
The possessions that by far take up the most space in my self-proclaimed lifestyle of minimalism are my books and my records. Until now, I just had a crappy WAL-MART (yes, I went shopping there, but only once, I swear) shelf for my books, and a bunch of cardboard boxes for my records. Besides looking bad, this system also wasn’t very space-efficient, so, since I’m not going to convert my vinyl to CD anytime soon, I decided to search for something much less crappy.
I have now been living in Silicon Valley for just a little over six weeks. It has no doubt been an extremely positive experience thus far. The company I’m working for is growing at a very fast pace and has a very laid back work environment. I haven’t even unpacked my alarm clock yet, nor much else for that matter, and the work is challenging and interesting to me. We have hired enough people that we recently moved to a new office and are celebrating our successes as we grow. Hopefully there will be many more celebrations to come.
Tonight I went to a presentation called “Mobile Web and Wireless”, put on by the Silicon Valley Web Guild at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus. The speakers were Deep Nishar of Google, Rob Katcher of Palm, Ron Mandel of Openwave Systems, and Dan Turchin of Aeroprise.
Microsoft and the guild were a very good host. The “refreshments” at the event included crab cakes, brie, delicious roasted portobello mushrooms, fresh mozarella, and fresh fruit. I wonder if all of that was from Microsoft’s cafeteria. It was delicious.
The presentation and discussion was good too, and undeniably held by the experts in the subject. There are some major hurdles to be overcome in making a mobile web experience anywhere near as good as what the web is today. It’s impossible to develop for all of the different devices and platforms out there, but at crucial thing for developers to think of now is how differently the web is used when a person is on a mobile device as opposed to when a person is on the traditional web. You aren’t likely to spend hours searching for whatever pops into your head on Google, but rather, you may be in an unfamiliar town, and want to know where the nearest Vietnamese restaurant is.
I know the true geeks will find me about a year to late on talking about this, but this is where Google SMS comes in handy. Say you are wandering about my neighborhood, and wanted to find a mexican restaurant. You would just text “mexican 95112” (my zipcode) to GOOGL (46645), Google would then send you the first couple of results. For me it sent:
Iguanas Taqueria
330 S 3rd St #A
San Jose, CA 95112
408-995-6023
Tico’s Tacos
291 N 4th St
San Jose, CA 95112
408-297-8421
El Tarasco Mexican Food
170 East Taylor St.
San Jose, CA 95112
408-293-7682
Or say you wanted to see a movie, you could just send a text to 46645 saying, for example, “el crimen perfecto 95112.” Tonight it returns:
El Crimen Perfecto
1hr 45min,No Rating,Drama/Comedy.3.8/5
Camera 12 4:40 7:05 9:25
201 South Second Street
San Jose, CA 95112
Yeah! That place happens to be like two blocks away. There is even talk that at some point it may be able to get this information for you based upon your actual location. You can use Google SMS to get many other things such as stock quotes and weather reports, and the ability to look up people and businesses can spare you the hefty 411 fees.
They also discussed the limitations of the actual user interface. Obviously there isn’t much screen real-estate to work with, but what about voice browsing? Also, there are some interesting differences in usage amongst various cultures. Some of the reasons that text messaging may have taken off in Europe or Asia may be connected to cultural perceptions about talking in public, as well as the logistics of using a portable device in a car vs. on public transportation. Additionally, youth were using text because it was cheaper than voice, they could text during class and not get caught, and since European cultures and Asian cultures have more generations living together, the phenomenon has just spread.
This is just one of many geeky events that I have attended, and will attend here in the valley. It is positively jam-packed with geeks, and I definitely plan on soaking up everything it has to offer.
Obviously I won’t make it, but if you’re in the Omaha area, you shouldn’t miss it. Tour homes designed by Omaha’s premiere Architects at AIA Omaha’s Architect’s Home Tour. I was a part of the inaugural home tour two years ago and it was a huge success. AIA Omaha has put together another great lineup of homes that exemplify great architecture. You know where you can find homes that don’t exemplify great architecture. The tour will take place from noon-5pm on Sunday, September 25th 2005.
Today I took a scenic drive and explored some of the lesser-known beaches of The Bay Area. Most people here go to one of the many beaches in Santa Cruz, about 35 minutes Southwest of San Jose, but I decided to visit some of the beaches North of Santa Cruz. keep on reading »
Some more photo highlights from my journey to The Bay.
A sculpture on the salt flats in Utah. There really is salt everywhere.
A roadside fire in Elko, Nevada.
Battle Mountain, Nevada – officially, the armpit of America.
Horse at gas station in Battle Mountain.
Some pretty roadside hills in Nevada.
Arriving in Reno, Nevada.
I have arrived! Too much sensory overload for a full post right now. It’s hard to believe that the weather is supposed to stay like this pretty much all of the time. They aren’t kidding about traffic. Where do all of those people have to go at 2 in the afternoon? Fortunately I’ll be walking to work. The apartment is absolutely great.
I got a pretty late start out of Denver, but arrived safely in Park City, Utah at about 1am Mountain Time. From what part of the drive that was in daylight, I could see that Wyoming is a beautiful state. Red Bull works as a wonderful driving elixir, but it doesn’t cancel out the drowsiness caused by Benadryl. The ragweed pollen count is extremely high in the Salt Lake area, and so even with Claritin, Allegra, Benadryl, and SinusRinse, there is absolutely no air making it through my nostrils.
I’ve driven one day and am currently in Denver at my friend Onye’s house. It’s a very lucky coincidence that Onye, one of my very good friends from college, is going to Stanford Law (in Palo Alto, 20 minutes from San Jose) at the exact same time as I am making this move. Our plan is to go to Park City today, Tahoe/Reno on Wednesday, and the Bay Area on Thursday. This move would be much more fun if my ragweed allergies were not pure torture. keep on reading »