My destination was the Weirdstuff Warehouse in Sunnyvale.

It was very ... calming. Walking among rows and rows of discarded parts reminded me of my youth.

I've been missing the smell of solder, and the simple pleasure of programming uncomplicated microcontrollers. To that end, I was in search of an Arduino, and WsW was one of the places listed heavily in Make magazine. I could try there, and then go to Fry's if all else failed.

I didn't find what I was looking for at WsW, but I found many wonderful things, including a 4-pack of Skype-branded USB web cams that I need to figure out how to use, for $20.

I was tempted a number of times, especially by this pile of Commodore 128s:



I was almost very naughty about these walk/don't walk signs:



Some people have strong feelings about office temperature. Their feelings about the English Language aren't so rigorously held, however:



Couple of 8088 IBM PCs, looking roughly no different than the day they rolled off the assembly line. Sure don't make 'em like this anymore:




If you got 16 copies of the same CD, and hooked up 16 of these beauties in parallel, I bet you could rip it real fast:



There was zero female presence here. None whatsoever.



I ended up getting the microcontroller board at Fry's. I'm eager to put my thermostat on the internet.

On the way home, I went past Moffet Field

The zeppelin hangar needs to be seen in person to be truly appreciated.



The flickr set.

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I'm trying to arrange my living room to be more pleasing / functional.
Priorities, in descending order:

Couch facing TV, so two people can watch comfortably.
Splitting room into two functional areas, a recreation area and a projects area with a desk / drafting table.
Windows face north and east, I'd be nice to be able to use natural light in the window corner as a reading area. By the same token, I'd prefer to keep as much light as possible from the TV screen.

edit
The Sketchup file of my Living Room

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As I connect with yet another high school friend on Facebook, it strikes me that I know more about my cohort on a day to day basis now than I got from my 10 year high school reunion 5 years ago -- and upon further reflection, as I've always been a bit of an introvert, I probably know the people I went to school with now better than I ever did when I saw them every day.

I have to wonder if wide-scale adoption of social networks is going to make school reunions a thing of the past. I've reconnected with nearly everyone I lost touch with from high school and college through Facebook in the last 18 months or so. I see pictures of their children, I know their pets' names.

Will it mean as much to me in 5 years to go a thousand miles to see the people whose lives I read about on the internet every day? What news will they have for me? What major life events will they shock me with?

I'm sure I'll still go to my 20 year reunion. I still like seeing people in the flesh.

But what about someone who was born in 1994, the year I graduated high school. If he has responsible parents, by the time he was allowed unrestricted access to the Internet, social networks had always existed. He will never lose track of a single friend he's ever made in his entire life … will he think it's worth his time to travel to see people he never missed?

Poll #1477334
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

You have one bullet and a time machine

Warehouse


Fog eating Treasure Island


Bird


Sunset


Church

This doesn't inspire much confidence:


And, Um, thanks, but no thanks:

"Radiation-reducing" case for the iPhone.

Yeah. You read that right.

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There is no need to diversify everywhere. For instance, we don't
need pomegranate flavored iced coffee.

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Peanut flower. Fucking why??? What monumental lapse of reasoning
would lead someone to create this, and then put peanuts in it?

From what I can tell from the dwindling supplies of such goods as books, music, and DVDs, Borders has apparently decided to give up and stop selling. 

Anything. 

Except maybe for the latest Dan Brown 'book'. 

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