Miscellaneous and Useless Information
James Lin’s infrequently updated blog
Two weeks ago, Michael and his two brothers joined me in the grand opening of the Guadalupe River Park. It’s a somewhat odd juxtaposition of greenery, urban and suburban landscape, and the sounds of jets landing at San Jose International Airport, but it is a nice respite in the heart of San Jose, and I’m …
Continue reading “Guadalupe River and Los Gatos Creek parks”
Li Ao, a Taiwanese politician who favors unification (or reunification, depending on your political slant) with mainland China, is currently touring the mainland. China’s official Xinhua news agency proudly points out how Li has thanked the Chinese Communist Party for bringing prosperity and military power to China, adding, “Only the Communist Party of China is …
At a new generation of Chinese restaurants in New York, you don’t have to worry about the food being Americanized. That’s because the Chinese food is via other countries, including Korea, India, Madagascar, Cuba, and Peru. One Chinese-Peruvian dish called lomo saltado — a stir fry of beef, onions and tomatoes seasoned with soy sauce …
Last week, Microsoft had its semi-regular Professional Developers Conference. I was impressed by the amount of new material it put out, much of it unexpected, including: LINQ — language enhancements to C# and Visual Basic to ease the "impedance mismatch" between data access and object-oriented programming The overhauled user interface of Office "12" — they've …
Kepler’s Books might not be doomed after all. A group of investors is trying to help Clark Kepler save the bookstore his father founded 50 years ago.
Sprint’s new logo, which is a consequence of its merger with Nextel, seems very European to me. It’s that whole black-on-yellow sans-serif thing. And in fact, I’m not the only one whose noticed that it looks a lot like the logo for Deutsche Post.
I was glad to see Microsoft announce a new ergonomic keyboard, the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, for a couple of reasons. For a while, it looked like they were deemphasizing their standalone ergonomic keyboards. Microsoft introduced a lot of wireless ergonomic keyboard/mouse sets in the past few years, but I’m only interested in wired keyboards. …
Just as radio was not made obsolete by television, we should not be surprised that the U.S. Postal Service and even typewriters are finding their place in a digital world.
After celebrating its 50th anniversary just a few months ago, Kepler’s Books suddenly closed its doors yesterday. What a shock, and what a shame — it was one of the most prominent independent bookstores in the U.S., akin to City Lights in San Francisco, Vroman’s in Pasadena, or Powell’s in Portland. Situated in Menlo Park …
I find it fascinating how there is suddenly a bunch of articles talking about how the perception of Google is changing from a bunch of fun-loving hackers dedicated to helping the world to a bunch of fun-loving hackers hellbent on controlling and dominating the world. First, the New York Times, then USA Today, and finally …