Arrived in Santa Clara for the conference, so this is my second (groundhog!) attempt at Friday April 21st. I even arrived before I left. Timezones and the intl.dateline are of fun. Should also remember that Europe is now ahead of me rather than behind…

Colin, JD and I went for a good walk, so that might help with the jetlag (sunlight in the right timezone). This worked pretty well for me last year. Didn’t spot any mountain lions, but did see a rabbit, a few deer and a hummingbird. Stewart (cluster dev) also arrived today… it appears most Australians arrived a bit early, a wise move in my experience. And Lars Thalmann (replication dev) from Sweden. Briefly visited our offices in Cupertino, lots of people there also of course.

That car pictured is a pizza delivery vehicle I spotted near the hotel. The driver was quite capable of moving without assistence, but looking at the mangled structure, some invalidity may indeed be suspected anyway.

Had dinner with Jeremy Cole and Eric Bergen from Yahoo, and Michael Still from Google. It’s fun to see Yahoos and Googlers poke fun at eachother and tell local anecdotes ;-)

I do always wonder why I have to pick all my sauces, sides, other bits of my meals on American restaurant menus. It’s nice to have a choice in many matters, but I reckon this is over the top. I actually expect a chef to create a menu item with whatever they judge is a good combination. I’m a decent cook myself, so now why would I go to a restaurant if not to actually enjoy someone else’s creation. With these multiple choice menus, a restaurant doesn’t even need a chef, merely some cooks. Perhaps that’s the reason? Hmm…