I just returned from visiting family in New Orleans, and, while I did enjoy taking my mother to Galatoire’s for dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day, I was astounded at how empty the city seems. A place that figured so prominently in my childhood has been taken apart and has yet to be put back together. Those who remain in the city and persevere with hope are an inspiration.
Prius Continued
I recently came across an amusing review of the Prius. Now that we’ve added the one of these to our fleet, it’s becoming a favorite. Not that I don’t still enjoy driving a German car up and down the 405 or 101, which, when either is not a parking lot, is a joy. The problem is that these arteries are parking lots much of the time, and this is where the Prius shines, getting 50 mpg and offering a great hands free experience to boot (my Treo 700p pairs perfectly and even syncs the address book).
On the highway at 80 mph efficiency and fun give way to the feeling that, no matter what the appeal at slower speeds, you’re still driving a compact Toyota in the midst of long-haul truck traffic. That said, for local driving and commutes, the car is noteworthy.
Prius
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a Prius. Magnetic Gray. I’m taking her up to SFO this afternoon on an inaugural cruise. Pictures and road report to follow.
Honolulu Redux
Moved to the east part of Honolulu. More pictures to come soon.
Honolulu
In Honolulu….starting out on Waikiki, then moving east of Diamond Head for the balance of our stay.From the window: 
Wii Update
Having spent about an hour with our new Wii, I’m impressed by the experience. When I first turned it on, I wondered why there were so many warnings related to using the wrist strap and having plenty of room. As I type this with a bandage covering the swollen knuckles on my right hand, I wish I had actually followed the advice instead of questioning it. The Wii is a physical game. And, because it’s immersive, physical surroundings are less top of mind than what’s going on in the game. The result- soundly punching the top of an Aeron chair while trying to pitch a respectable game of Wii Sports baseball.
Two other observations-
1.) Opera works well, though the screen rendering was variable (at least on my LCD).
2.) The Weather Forecast app is absolutely stunning. The ability to effortlessly scroll out the Globe and move around the word with the remote, zooming in as desired, is awesome.
Love indeed.
Wii
As a present before our anniversary trip to Hawaii, Tracy brought a Wii home last night (to our place in LA). That’s love. First impressions- 1.) Great controller (as expected) 2.) The bundled games are quite good, and 3.) Our 19 month old daughter loves it. More soon.
Location, location, location.
Fred Wilson has an interesting thread going here in response the Times story. I love the Bay Area and, in particular, the intellectual and economic ferment that so characterize it. It’s a great place to live, work and play. But the variables associated with starting, funding, and exiting a startup are so complicated, and the emergence of distributed workforces and "right shoring" as a commonplace tactic for early-stage development have me scratching my head after reading this article.
DEMO
Pricing
I’m a loyal Amazon customer, and with the free trial of Prime, I’m now a more frequent customer as well. The LA Times recently carried a story on Amazon’s "dynamic" pricing scheme. I read the story with some interest, and, while it was intriguing, I assumed the issue was a minor annoyance because Amazon was notifying customers if the price of anything in their respective carts had changed since they added it. At least that was my position before this weekend. I purchased a DVD from Amazon last week, so when I returned to the site this weekend, I was not surprised that they recommended the soundtrack. At ~15 dollars it seemed like a deal. So I clicked on the item to view the description, scanned it briefly and had to leave for dinner. When I returned and added it to my cart it was…..~19 dollars. Would I have paid 19 dollars for the soundtrack at the outset? I might have. But the fact that the price had changed so quickly was a bit disconcerting. My response- I went to iTunes and bought the soundtrack for ~10 dollars. Perhaps the transparency into pricing increases is supposed to reduce time to transaction (and across many consumers over time it might), but for this consumer, it’s been a reminder to compare prices before I consummate a purchase with Amazon.
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