Los Gatos Cyclist

Ok, I am not a member, and yet I subscribe to the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club email list. I am undecided whether to join the monstrous Alto Velo or the smaller and nicer LGBRC, so I thought I’d listen in and see how they treat people from the outside. Short comment: so far, LGBRC beats Alto Velo hands down. The Velistas are obnoxious on the Expressway, behaving as if they own the place. Continue reading

Spring in January

Zipping around on this wonderfully balmy Sunday, I discover the incredible: the mimosa trees are already in full bloom. Their smell hit me twice, on Foothill (coming back) and on Alpine, and interestingly enough our little enclave of Los Altos Highlands has several trees that erupted in a shower of yellow. It was warm enough to wear just the skinsuit, the first time in a month or so. Unseasonably warm, as the weather forecast says. Continue reading

Riding On Bikes With Boys

Looks like the drenching rain of December is giving way to unseasonably warm weather, and I am enjoying as much of it as I can, riding my bike furiously up and down the hills. On Wednesday, New Year’s day, I rode for the first time up Old La Honda, trailing what must have been a larger group from a major outfit around here. It was very tough, especially since I hadn’t the slightest idea of when it would end, which makes it never end. Continue reading

Biking to Work

Taken advantage of the first day of sunshine to actually ride out to work. Uneventful ride, since there weren’t many cars around. The only bikers I saw were those that were finishing up their morning ride, so I had two Alto Velo zippies flashing by. Biking is really a different way of getting there. I start the day full of energy and commitment.

Brand New Year

It’s still dark and cold, and the day has that New Year Smell about itself, that smug quality that all brand new things irradiate. I want this to be a better year than the four that preceded it. I want this slavery to end; I want to be a part of the society I am living in; I do not want to be a misfit any more. Huddled together in the same room with people that busily chatter in their native tongue, unwilling to give up the only culture they appreciate for the one that gives them only money, not values. Continue reading

NetBeans or Eclipse?

There is your expert nerd again! This time the question is: should I use the IBM IDE or Sun’s? The question is tricky, since the philosophy of the two engines is different. Sun’s NetBeans is a pure Java IDE with support for everything under the sun (pardon the pun). Eclipse is a common IDE for any language, and support for Java and C/C++ is currently under way. I use my IDE only for Java. Continue reading

The Day After Christmas

Somehow yesterday was the toughest day of the year. Nothing worked as usual, everybody was busy with their family, and I felt like the only person on this planet that quite didn’t get the point of it all. Christmas has always been a challenge for me. It’s the worst time of the year for light intensity, and the weather tends to be bad, no matter what. And on top of that you disrupt my pleasurable routine and replace it with a state of suspension. Continue reading

Biking on Foothill

It was rumoured to be a rainy day, with a thirty percent chance of a drizzle. In the morning, indeed, it was cloudy and wet; and once in a while you would see a sprinkle hit the pool, the tiny drops barely able to grow circles on the perfectly smooth surface of the water. But then the clouds broke, like in summer. The front had passed and left us alone, and I was able to bike. Continue reading

Messenger, Instantly

How could I run a blog without even mentioning Instant Messenger? I don’t know. Am I becoming an expert on the matter? I have been working on this off and on since 2000, when Marshall T. Rose first started talking about his beloved BEEP (back then still BXXP) and a new generation of IM products and protocols. He was getting excited, sat down a while with a bunch of smart nerds, and there you are, out comes IMXP (soon to be renamed APEX). Continue reading

The Two Towers (2003)

Chance made me go to the opening night of “The Two Towers”, the sequel to last year’s “The Fellowship of the Ring”. A colleague had bought two tickets and had run amiss of his date, so that there was an immediate opening. We were very late, so that a lot of this review will be tainted by the spectacle of elves with elongated faces and flat hobbits. The Two Towers is the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Continue reading