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Archive: February 14, 2010
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 Happy Valentine's Day!
Shirley and I had a wonderful dinner last night at our new local favorite Leila's, accompanied by a simply amazing Foxen Sea Smoke. The more Santa Rita Pinot Noir I drink, the more I love it; it might be replacing Napa Cabernet as my wine of choice. I can't say it is more affordable - I'm not the only one who likes it, and the market prices have responded to the demand - but it is more subtle and versatile.
Valentine's Day is this weird holiday, a chance to spend time with the one you love, but also a chance to screw up. As my daughter says, "love is complicated enough without Valentine's". Anyway good luck, I hope yours is as good as mine :)
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I finally made time to install Google Earth on my "new" laptop, and was reminded once again how absolutely cool it is. That this capability exists is amazing enough, but that it is completely free - even free from advertising - is astonishing. Google might come under fire for some of their practices and policies, but they are still quite a phenomenon.
I especially like using Google Earth in conjunction with my spiffy 3DConnexion Navigator, a little hockey-puck shaped navigation device which comes with an interface to Google Earth. It makes zooming around really easy, rotating, tilting, etc. Quite remarkable.
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And so it is over; BMW Oracle's amazing trimaran (aka "Trizilla") has won the 33rd America's Cup, today defeating defender Alinghi's nearly-equally-amazing catamaran with a horizon job lead. It was apparent to all that BMW Oracle was considerably faster on all points of sail in all conditions, making the result a foregone conclusion even if the regatta wasn't a simple best out of three. As it was, the race was over at the start, but then a wind shift gave the lead back to Alinghi. But not for long, as the speed and power of the trimaran's wing sail prevailed, particularly showing a huge advantage off the wind.
Here are some great photos:
And here's a cool video showing the yacht at full speed:
And so it is over, just like that... all those years of work and dollars of R&D spent, and three days of racing and it is all over. Still, the U.S. has regained the America's Cup - that's a great thing - and the next defense will be much better, with more competitors... it might even be in San Diego! Stay tuned...
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A nice quiet Valentine's Day... hung out, coded, blogged, and generally enjoyed being home... as I have another week of travel coming up... sadly this almost feels like a rhythm now, work away from home all week, and then hang out on the weekend. So be it. Ready for a filter pass?
 Robert Scoble: The elephants in the room at TED. "Let’s take the elephant head on: rich people can afford things you and I can’t. I can’t afford a Ferrari either. Even though I definitely appreciate them. I can’t afford a private plane, even though when I’ve gotten a ride in one I’ve always appreciated them and can see why I’d want one. I can’t afford an original Ansel Adams’ print, either, even though I am a huge fan and would love to have one." This is so true... fire on 'em, Robert! 
 TTAC: An illustrated history of automotive aerodynamics. If you love beautiful cars, check this out - great shots of some amazing old cars. I'd say they don't make 'em like they used to, but I guess that's not true; today's Maserati's (among others) are rather pretty :)
Philip Greenspun: Factory Navigation System pricing. "I’m wondering now if the inability of mainstream car manufacturers to take advantage of modern electronics is harming their profitability." What he writes about is so true; the electronics in modern cars are obsolete from the moment they're designed, so that by the time you buy them, they're positively ancient. The nav system in my car is so far inferior to the nav system in my Palm Pre phone, it is ridiculous, and the system in my car was expensive, while nav was just another app that came free on my Pre.
 And here we have Computer Engineer Barbie. I am not making this up :)
Well, why not? I wonder if she likes PHP?
 Wrapping up the weekend, here we have the ZooBorn of the day, a baby anteater.
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