The angst of Silicon Valley 

This NY Times article finally gets the story of Silicon Valley.

For so many years they carried the myth, the genius, driven to create, to make his or her mark on the world, doing technology because it's so challenging, so mysterious, so enabling. The people who have their eye on the future, like people nowhere else do. The air they breathe is finer than us mere mortals do.

The truth is that the people of Silicon Valley toil to find security in money, never getting there, while avoiding the pleasures of life, including the mythological creativity, spinning on a treadmill, doing nothing but striving to make money, but it's never enough.

"Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent."

The problem could be solved by an engineer, if there were any left. You can't find security through money, because security is impossible. We die. Deal with it.

I left because, even though its climate is ideal, the place lacks heart, the patient is dead, there is no pulse. A friend from New Orleans said it well. "It doesn't feel homey."

You might as well live somewhere else and create, the network effect of being in the valley is negative. At least it was when I left, in 2003. It seems from the Times article that it's getting worse. It's great to see people on the east coast getting the message. Don't live in the shadow of this place. There's nothing there but people trying to make money, without a good idea why.

If you like the climate, as I do, Berkeley ain't a bad place to park your kiester. Or so it seems, so far, knock wood.

How to do a TwitterGram 

1. Register three pieces of info with the TwitterGram site: username, password, and phone number.

2. Call 646-716-6000. Record your message. Hang up.

That's it. There is no step 3.

Did the blogosphere implode? 

I just checked to see how I'm doing on Technorati and found that not only did I break into the Top 100, but I'm actually number one!

Goodbye Engadget, siyonara TechCrunch, kissmyass BoingBoing.

Who's your Daddy?

Heh. It's a joke. Technorati is broken. Again.

Oooops.

PS: Skrocki was #1 too. Coooolio!

Okay the Simpsons Movie sucked too 

Yesterday I said the movie theater was totally broken and hopelessly out of date. It's true. One of the movie companies ought to invest a billion dollars in upgrading their theaters to HD. Double the ticket price. How many people who drive Hondas get a chance to drive an Audi? How many people who can't afford a kickass home theater would pay $20 to see a movie, no matter how mediocre, in an HD theater? I'd pay for sure, if it were better than my home theater. I want to know what I can aspire to.

Anyway, I digress....

Even if the Simpsons Movie were playing in one of those theaters, it would still suck bigtime. Just to be sure I watched a random Simpsons episode this morning. Yup. It's still good. Irreverent, abusive, horribly politically incorrect. That's why it's such a great show!

But the movie was edited by the censors who edit all Hollywood fare. That meant it followed the normal Star Wars plot, problem created, live with the problem for a while, solve the problem, everyone is happy. Scroll the credits.

That's not The Simpsons!!

There was one scene, where they had Bart throwing something at Homer over and over. I don't remember what it was, but it was so funny I couldn't see through my eyes I was laughing so hard. That's The Simpsons. Ths film was the creation of the ghost of that horrible Hollywood dwarf guy who used to be Lyndon Johnson's personal elf. (They should have put him in the movie, editing a movie within a movie.)

The rest of the movie was so lame even Dr Nick couldn't save it.