Events

I'm sitting in the Hotel California lobby watching rain-soaked buses trundle down Geary Street. I'm in the lobby because the hotel's WiFi doesn't actually reach the fourth floor. This, and the unfortunate confluence of a room overlooking the street and a 23-year-old's birthday party Saturday night that spilled out of the lobby and down the block until the cops broke it up around 4 am, is my only complaint about the place. Old hotels have old windows, so it got a little noisy during the melée The hotel...

One would think that planning a conference for 1,500 or so software developers would involve planning for 1,500 or so laptop computers. This means, among other things, providing (a) power outlets and (b) decent WiFi access. After searching for half an hour I found one lone power strip in the "Gold Passport Lounge," and the only reason the other 1,499 people here aren't using it is that they're patiently sitting upstairs listening to an ill-prepared presenter from Microsoft who will probably get a...

I realized last night that I forgot to bring some important things to VSLive: Business cards. I have about six with me. I have about 200 in my office. Hello, Kinko's? A USB cable, required to connect my phone and my camera to my laptop. There's a CompUSA about 100 m from here, fortunately. It's always something. Also, a propos of nothing, I got the best pitch from a panhandler today that I've ever heard: "Buddy, can you spare $1,000? I have a payment plan..."

I'm in San Francisco, at the Hotel California on Geary Street. They've checked me in to Room 404, which, as you can imagine, I couldn't find at first.

Parker has gone on vacation for a week while I'm at a professional conference. When I dropped him off with the dog sitter I felt pretty sad: Today's DP will return April 2nd, but I'll be checking in all week (and probably cross-posting to my professional blog). So if you're only interested in puppy photos, enjoy spring break, and think of Parker spending every day with all his play-group friends (since many of them are in day care).

My accountant, Linda Forman, sent me this note on the Illinois Gross Receipts Tax proposed by Gov. Blagojevich. Now, I voted for the man twice, and I voted for my state senator (who also supports the proposal) twice, but if they go ahead with this proposal I'm not sure I will continue to support them: The Gross Receipts Tax Proposal There are thoughtful people in the political arena mulling over the proposal of a gross receipts tax and the prospect of health care coverage for the uninsured employees in...

On Sunday I posted about catching a dog running loose in town. This afternoon I spoke with the local animal shelter to see if she had gotten back home. Short answer: no. It seems that Sandy, the slightly-overweight, very sweet beagle mix that Parker and I collared, is a regular visitor to the shelter. Six times, in fact. And each time, the owner gets cited, and each time, the owner takes several days to collect her. Sandy also has a brother, who is also a slightly-pudgy, very sweet beagle mix, whom the...

This has to hurt: While doing routine maintenance work, [a] technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account — one of Alaska residents’ biggest perks — and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well. There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable. The article said "no one was blamed." Right.

I meant to put this photo up earlier. A week ago Monday, just three days after he had a nice bath, the warmer weather gave Parker a field of mud to play in: You should have seen the other guy. At least Parker has black fur; some of his friends showed the dirt a lot better on their white coats.

Four years. We weren't even in World War II for this long. I can't add anything really profound to the debate, but I will repeat something Garry Trudeau had on today's Doonesbury Daily Dose: "America has been conducting an experiment for the past six years, trying to validate the proposition that it really doesn't make any difference who you elect president. Now we know the result of that experiment."—Gen. Tony McPeak (retired), member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War I would also like...