Fiat Lux

A right rear tire blowout on Highway 280 while on one's way to work does not generally bode well for the rest of the day. I'm Ok, but as you can see, the tire is complete toast. Great.

Being a gal who doesn't know much about cars, I call the "car guy" brother-in-law while I wait for AAA to show up, and check with him what I should expect to pay for a new tire. He tells me. So far so good.

I get nervous when the AAA tow truck driver tells me, "I know just the place where you can get that fixed." I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah right. How much does this place pay you to steer business their way?"

In short, I'm expecting to be massively ripped off. Instead, I get taken to a little home in the wall place on a side street off Stevens Creek in Cupertino.

Imperial Automotive isn't much to look at. Two bays, two mechanics, lots of stuff lying around, the owner up front, and a bunch of old imports waiting to be worked on. But looks are not everything. The guys there rotated the best of the remaining tires onto my back wheels and set me up with a new set of front tires with no wait time, and for $40 less than the brother-in-law said I'd probably have to pay for the work. They also, and for no charge, reattached a plastic guard thingie on the underside of my car that had gotten knocked loose by the tow truck guy.

While they were at it, they checked my brake pads and suggested that the next time I get an oil change I might want to have the pads replaced. I was so surprised that they weren't trying to push me into having the work done right then and there, I almost forgot to thank them.

I got to work a few hours late, and a little worn out from the stress, but all in all it turned out to be an OK morning.

As if the high gas prices weren't bad enough, there's more for Bay Area residents to worry about: the spectre of water shortages to come:

Frank Gehrke and Dave Hart of the state Department of Water Resources didn't even bother to take their measuring devices out of their vehicle before they hiked out into a barren field near Highway 50 at Phillips Station, a roadside stop established in 1859 at the 6,800-foot level.

Patches of white lingered on the hills around them, and the Sierra peaks were snowcapped in the distance. But all the surveyors spotted on the ground at Phillips Station were lodgepole pine cones and a few scattered dog droppings.

The meadow was under 67.4 inches of snow on the same date last year, double the historic average.

"This is definitely a dry year, no doubt about that," Hart said.

[snip]

[Nearly all] reservoirs in the system will be filled to start the dry season, PUC spokesman Tony Winnicker said, because of the excess water in previous years. But there won't be enough runoff to refill the reservoirs as the year progresses. That sets up a potential water shortage in 2008, unless next winter turns out to be wetter than average and recharges the system.

Officials will assess usage and storage trends in July. Contingency plans for mandatory cutbacks already are being drafted just in case. The system serves customers in San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

This caught my eye today: Barack Obama is getting a Secret Service detail.

The Secret Service said Thursday that Democratic Sen. Barack Obama was being placed under its protection, the earliest ever for a presidential candidate.

Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff authorized Obama's protection after consultations with the congressional advisory committee.

With more than 9 months to go before the first primary, the death threats he's getting must be pretty bad for them to start protecting him now.

Busy week. I'm tired.

Not sure if Gimi is hiding from the world, or simply waiting to spring out and attack the unwary passer-by.

While double checking a definition this morning, I noticed something funny about the Google AdWords on the page. Click through for a bigger version of the image, if you can't see it here.

Yes, that's right. When you look up "Disingenuous" the first two Google AdWords that come up are for George W Bush and Ann Coulter.

Heeheehee.

Not sure about that "Are you gay?" item for #3 though.

Skippy:

you know things are bad in wingerville when they are so desperate for good news about conservatives, they cheer france.

Heh, indeed.

Ezra's got an interesting post up today. It's about class inequality, but with a different twist -- instead of looking at how the gap is widening between rich and poor, he looks at how despite the income gap, the tastes and habits of the rich are becoming more mainstream.

One odd cross-indicator of rising income inequality has been the determined democratization of culture in this country. Containers of garlic hummus and free range eggs that would have been judged luxury items a few decades ago now dot the shelves at Safeway, mega-bookstores of the kind only available in wealth urban centers now populate every shopping mall, espresso drinks that could only have been procured at fine Italian and French restaurants are now offered on every street corner

[snip]

There's no doubt that wealth inequality has increased in this country, and that primary expenses ranging from housing to fuel to health have rapidly increased in cost. But there's simultaneously been, I'd argue, a drop in consumptive inequality, and a significant convergence in the experiences of the rich and, if not the poor, the middle.

It's a valid insight and one worth thinking about. Sadly, I'm off to work, so I don't have the time right now.

I am by no means any kind of an expert on trains, tunnels, church architecture, or construction, but something about this just strikes me as a really, really bad idea (emphasis added):

It has survived the death of its architect, a dearth of funding and the destruction of its prototypes during the Spanish civil war. Now the Cathedral of the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí's surreal, unfinished opus, faces a new threat: plans to bore a high-speed train tunnel within meters of its foundations.

"What would possess someone to build a tunnel like this next to the heaviest building in Barcelona, the most visited monument in Spain?" said Jordi Bonet, who leads a team of 20 architects working to complete the 125-year-old basilica.

In a workshop below the building, he paused next to a plaster model of the unbuilt facade and whipped out a yellow tape measure to show how the tunnel would pass just 1.5 meters, or 5 feet, from the cathedral's foundations.

This is the church in question, by the way:

Like I said, I am no expert, but you'd think that protecting a site like that would be considered important. I'm all for a high-speed rail link from Barcelona to Madrid, but couldn't they have found a better route?

Tommy & Bear snoozing together.

It's been a busy week.

I don't usually read The Onion, so I managed to miss this when if first came out, but it's funny as hell. It's also at least a tiny bit appropriate for that lovely Hallmark Holiday known as Mother's Day:

According to a study released Monday, women—once empowered primarily via the assertion of reproductive rights or workplace equality with men—are now empowered by virtually everything the typical woman does.

"From what she eats for breakfast to the way she cleans her home, today's woman lives in a state of near-constant empowerment," said Barbara Klein, professor of women's studies at Oberlin College and director of the study. "As recently as 15 years ago, a woman could only feel empowered by advancing in a male-dominated work world, asserting her own sexual wants and needs, or pushing for a stronger voice in politics. Today, a woman can empower herself through actions as seemingly inconsequential as driving her children to soccer practice or watching the Oxygen network."

Now, time to go call Mom.

A long time ago, when Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority were first making news, I went to the local variety store around the corner and had them make me a t-shirt that said 'Immoral Minority'. I thought it was funny as hell, but my mother asked me to not wear it. Being a good daughter, I didn't, but I still thought it was funny.

And now, long years later, Falwell has finally passed on. His star was eclipsed in later years by other players on the right-wing stage, but the virulent damage his brand of Christianity has done to the fabric of American society will take a long time to wash away.

I know it's not "nice" but I can't find it in me to be the tiniest bit sorry that he's gone.

Looks like someone is finally going to offer iTunes some real competition. Amazon has a press release out announcing that it:

will launch a digital music store later this year offering millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels. EMI Music's digital catalog is the latest addition to the store. Every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. Amazon's DRM-free MP3s will free customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices -- including PCs, Macs(TM), iPods(TM), Zunes(TM), Zens(TM) -- and to burn songs to CDs for personal use.

"Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO.

I've been happily buying music from iTunes because they have most of the music I want, at what I consider a fair price, with DRM that's at least manageable. If I can get all that without any DRM, well, that would be even more awesome.

I'm not surprised Amazon is doing this. They're one of the few companies big enough to stand up to the recoding industry and push back against their ridiculous demands. And if Amazon can get a decent selection of music available, then this will be a major shot across the bow of Apple.

Time has an excerpt. It's worth a read, and will likely make you wonder yet again why this man is not our President.

Here's a favorite graf or two to whet your whistle:

Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, have no practical means of participating in America's self-government. Unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong. Voters are often viewed mainly as targets for easy manipulation by those seeking their "consent" to exercise power. By using focus groups and elaborate polling techniques, those who design these messages are able to derive the only information they're interested in receiving from citizens—feedback useful in fine-tuning their efforts at manipulation. Over time, the lack of authenticity becomes obvious and takes its toll in the form of cynicism and alienation. And the more Americans disconnect from the democratic process, the less legitimate it becomes.

[snip]

So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.

In short, the Internet. Well, so far it's not getting taken all that seriously by the 'real world' of politics except as a means of raising money (and yes, that is the cynicism Gore referred to talking), but perhaps that will change with time.

PS: Welcome, Buzzfeed visitors!

I've been following the immigration reform bill as it slowly winds it way through the legislation process. It's starting to look like the bill's final form is settling into place, but since there have been no formal votes nor a bill sent to the President, it's a little early to start an in-depth dissection.

That said, I'm pretty much with Ezra on this one.

The worth of the new bill hinges on whether you think an effective amnesty for the country's 12 million undocumented immigrants is worth a 400,000 to 600,000 person guest worker program. That's the trade-off: A bad guest-worker program set against a broader path-to-citizenship program. My sense is that the system we've got right now is so bad, that even a regulated guest worker program is better than what we're living with. And bringing the 12 million undocumented immigrants who currently live in this country into the light would be a huge boon. So my snap reaction is that the guest worker program is problematic, but this might nevertheless be a deal worth making.

I really don't like guest worker programs: they've been problematic in other countries, and given the proclivities of many US employers, I don't see that we'd be able to avoid similar problems.

I'm also a bit dubious about the whole "go back to where you came from to apply" part of the process for moving current illegals onto "the path to citizenship". Why should someone have to make a multi-thousand mile round-trip just to file some papers? That seems wildly counterproductive and even a bit punitive.

And I know that some of my friends currently on the path towards citizenship are disappointed that they may not be able to bring their parents to America as easily, if at all.

At any rate, I'm reserving the right to change my mind on this issue if the final bill changes significantly and/or when more details emerge.

Almost forgot. Here's a quick one from the archives:

"U has a flavor?"

It's about time somebody in Congress proposed something like this: the Food Safety Act of 2007.

Currently, 12 federal agencies and 35 laws govern food safety, often with overlapping jurisdictions and different priorities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration play the biggest roles in making sure the food Americans eat is safe. The USDA oversees meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for eggs and produce.

The lines are not always clear-cut. For example, cheese pizzas fall under the FDA, while pepperoni pizzas fall under the Department of Agriculture.

In January, the Government Accountability Office added federal oversight of food safety to its list of "high risk" programs in need of "broad-based transformation." The GAO urged Congress to consider "a fundamental re-examination of the system ... before public health and safety is compromised."

Critics point to the FDA, in particular, as needing reform. The FDA oversees 80 percent of the food supply but receives only 20 percent of the funding.

But would Bush sign it?

In thinking about the life and times of the hapless would-be Donald Trump of Sacramento, Casey Serin, it occurred to me that (gender aside) he's much more like Blanche than The Donald.

Think about it.

Joss Whedon, for those unfamiliar with him, is a successful and well-respected creator of several television series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

So Joss got a look at the Dua Khalil murder video that's made the rounds of the Internet (and no, I am not linking to it, go find it yourself) and got a little upset, saying:

What is wrong with women?

I mean wrong. Physically. Spiritually. Something unnatural, something destructive, something that needs to be corrected.

How did more than half the people in the world come out incorrectly? I have spent a good part of my life trying to do that math, and I’m no closer to a viable equation. And I have yet to find a culture that doesn’t buy into it. Women’s inferiority – in fact, their malevolence -- is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkhas. I find it in movies, I hear it in the jokes of colleagues, I see it plastered on billboards, and not just the ones for horror movies. Women are weak. Women are manipulative. Women are somehow morally unfinished. (Objectification: another tangential rant avoided.) And the logical extension of this line of thinking is that women are, at the very least, expendable.

[snip]

It’s safe to say that I’ve snapped. That something broke, like one of those robots you can conquer with a logical conundrum. All my life I’ve looked at this faulty equation, trying to understand, and I’ve shorted out. I don’t pretend to be a great guy; I know really really well about objectification, trust me. And I’m not for a second going down the “women are saints” route – that just leads to more stone-throwing (and occasional Joan-burning). I just think there is the staggering imbalance in the world that we all just take for granted.

Call me ungrateful, but I have to wonder, why did it take him so long to get to this point?

Whedon is one of the few writers who's been able to write a successful TV series about a strong female protagonist who doesn't end up either dead or pregnant for having sex, a woman for whom rape is impossible. You'd like to think that he's sincere when he says that this is an issue he's thought about for a long time, but it would have been nice if he's applied his massive talents to giving voice to the problem a bit earlier.

Shorter Michael Arrington: "Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!"

Sounds like he is feeling burnt-out and needs to get away from the endless parade of CEOs begging him to cover their startup. And if that's how he's feeling, he really does need to take a break, because I lived through the last downturn and would rather not repeat that experience. We're still recovering from the financial hits we took then.

Oh, and in a side note, as a member of the marketing profession, it always grinds my gears to hear somebody get nostalgic for the days when:

There were a few dozen new startups, though, and the people who were involved with them were largely here because they loved what they did. No one had marketing departments or PR firms.

As if people who work in high-tech marketing or PR do not also love technology and what they do? *sigh*

I'm feeling cranky this week, so this will probably sound whiny, but another thing that bugs me about Web 2.0 is that the focus on web web web means that there's a noticeable lack of innovation in desktop apps.

Unfortunately, man (or in this case, woman) does not live by webmail alone, especially when it comes to office e-mail. I have been through three different IMAP clients at work in recent months (Mail, Entourage, and Thunderbird) and am still not happy with my options.

Are there any other decent options for native Mac IMAP or do I just have to live with one of the above?

Robert Scoble reads his feeds and notices that Fear of Google / Distrust of Google is growing.

I have no idea if Google is evil or not - I like to think they are not, but I don't have any knowledge one way or the other - but I completely agree that Google's public face is not helping matters.

Scoble's whole piece is good, but the closing comment is particularly apt:

I think Google has to be very transparent, very warm, and very open when it comes to privacy and the data it’s collecting on all of us and to many of us it’s coming across as closed, cold, and opaque. That leads to bad PR. Bad PR — if continued unabated — leads to government action. Just ask my friends at Microsoft.

Indeed.

Scott's company had a company shindig on one of those party boats this week, so instead, here's a couple of photos from that event:

I rather like the composition of this.

Doesn't get more touristy than that, does it?

No, this was not our ship.

This would be funny if it were not so true:

hat tip, Ritholtz

As I was cruising around the San Francisco bay this past week, something came to mind: it's possible that these sights, or the 1941 version of them, were the last my great-uncle Arthur saw of America, before he died over the Pacific in WW2.

During the war, San Francisco was a major naval base, and Angel Island was a major embarkation point for men going out to fight the war in the Pacific. So it's possible that Arthur sailed out through the beautiful Golden Gate that long-ago day, never to return.

He has a grave in the Punchbowl military cemetery on Oahu, instead. We visited it when I was a child, on our one family trip to Hawaii. But he's not there; he was MIA and presumed dead, with the rest of his crew. Whether he was shot down by the Japanese or was a victim of mechanical failure, we'll never know.

I keep a small book that I found in a used bookstore in my top desk drawer. It's a small, dull brown volume titled "Prayer Book for Jews in the Armed Forces of the United States" that dates to 1941. It wasn't his, but I keep it to honor his memory.

Those of us who still, against all odds, harbor some fondness for the PalmOS platform were looking forward to today, when Palm founder Jeff Hawkins finally unveiled the super-duper mystery project he's been working on for some time now.

It's an overpriced, underpowered Linux laptop.

I'm underwhelmed and very disappointed.

I've been feeling very much in the minority this week. First off, Google launched their new Street View. By and large, the tech community seems to love it. Me, I feel very, very uncomfortable that someone can sit at their leisure at their desk, call up a highly detailed photo of the outside of my home, and view it from any number of different angles, all without having to be on the scene. But clearly, I'm missing something, because just about everyone else seems to think it's uber-cool, or at the very least, slick.

Now, Google is introducing Google Gears, and I am similarly unimpressed. Off-line access to web-based apps is one of the big issues for web-based computing, and it was only a matter of time before someone filled that rather obvious gap. However, solving that problem only brings another one into focus -- web based apps don't have even a remotely comparable feature set as their desktop-based rivals in some rather vital areas. Sure, it's great that your feed reader will work on an airplane, but Google Docs is not even close to being a good replacement for MS Word.

And this brings me back to some comments I made about Web 2.0 just last month:

What I would really love to see is people spending all that time, talent, and money on solving the problems that have NOT been solved yet. Search technology, for example. We've made some big strides in text-based search (although there is still much to do there too), but searching around graphics, video, or audio is lagging far behind. Or if you want to focus on web-based technology, can someone please come up with a cross-platform web conferencing system that doesn't suck?

Maybe, as with Street View, there's something to Google Gears that I am just not seeing. Maybe all those big honking piles of desktop code really do need to be replaced with slightly less big honking piles of Ajaxifed XML and JavaScript.

Maybe I need an attitude adjustment, or just a vacation.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'm right, and we need new solutions to new problems much more than we need more solutions to problems that have already been solved.