A few random quotes from Californians…
“The state of software is such that we now have toilets that understand when a person is standing in front of them, but not computers.” [computer-human interaction expert]
“McAfee Coliseum” [sign on the enormous baseball stadium in Oakland; there are so many security holes in Microsoft Windows that you can earn enough money to sponsor a stadium by attempting to paper over the C programmers’ bugs]
“I picked the navigation system that I liked and then bought the car that came with it.” [computer-human interaction expert; car turns out to have been the Acura RL]
“The avocados are from the front yard; I just picked them up from the driveway. We have another 100 in the garage if you want some. The orange juice is from the back yard tree.” [Nobel Prize winning physicist and suburban farmer in Palo Alto]
“We could have airline service and even 747s on the 10,000′ runway at Moffett (old military field in Mountain View; very lightly used by the government now), but the City of San Jose spends a fortune lobbying against it so they can continue to collect fees at the San Jose airport.” [Flight instructor at the Palo Alto airport.]
“I’m going out to a company party. Unfortunately most of the people there will be programmers. They’re just the dullest people in the world. It is even worse because I’m a woman and they are afraid to talk to women…. I hope that you’re not a programmer.” [Software marketing executive sitting next to me on American Airlines.]
Last night: Good night and good luck with my friend Toby (aged 76, so she lived through the era). We both enjoyed it.
Tonight: Some sort of multi-media lecture by Stephen Hawking at Oakland’s Paramount Theater (my cousin got the tickets).
Tomorrow: Hacker’s Conference in Santa Cruz.
Last time I checked, San Jose was trying to get approval for “General Aviation” (i.e., 24 hour air cargo) at Moffett, while the city governments and residents of Sunnyvale and Mountain View were lobbying against this. (Disclosure: I’m a resident of downtown Mountain View, and am very glad the lobbying has been successful so far.)