Brown Motion

If data can move to the cloud - can you imagine life as we know it in 2050? Everything we do other than when real matter matters - i.e. consuming food or wearing clothes or spending time with loved ones in a manner that motivates and stimulates your being - would be managed via the cloud. Can you comprehend where this is going? You could start by taking the concept of Telepresence and extrapolating it to the outdoor world. No more planning that Grand Cayman or the Grand Canyon trip. Why you ask? You could simply don specially designed 3D glasses and log on to the cloud version of EXPEDIA and you are there. In glorious hi resolution with special effects like wind and smell built in - that is right - it is merely sensory perception of what our mind reads anyway so why not simulate it via the massive computing power of the cloud and deliver that to your occipital lobe? You will be flying over the canyons or the caymans (which ever tickles you pink or which ever color you are t...

This Mem Day we decided to chill in the hood - so to speak. From the far east bay we took our one source of reliable transit into SF. It had been a while since the family hit the tracks to coast into town and take in the sights, sounds and food. We enjoyed getting on the BART from a new infill station in the east bay - all shiny new fixtures unlike the grunge look that the rest of the system has developed over years of use and poorly guided funding spend. Once we got into the city the presence of international hob nobble gobble surrounded us with different languages, styles and cultures making a fantastic ambience around the Ferry Building. From admiring the amazing art that the locals produce using glass, copper, plastic, wood and canvas with oils we strolled our way to China Town. Using a locally grown technology called iphone we dug a place to chew for our little one - she had her mind set on crepes. Turned out YELP was HELPLESS than helpful - what was defined as OPEN tu...

I recently was perusing a blog that talked about the demographic distribution of the planet's races and its implications. I was struck by the far out of the ball (as in our planet) comments from racial epithets, to obvious uneducated laments. My 89 cents (never commit the whole dollar I say) - 1. Survival of the fittest (fit of mind and body); 2. There will always be a few bad apples (regardless of the tree you plucked them); 3. There is only one livable planet that we know of so perhaps we should take a deep breath and enjoy it; 4. Every person has the capacity to define their own destiny; 5. Education or access to it for every living person is key to the success of the humans on this rock

What is the human obsession with it? From Wall Street to Washington and from Bollywood to Buckingham. Especially when there is alleged marital infidelity involved. I am surprised that as fads come and go this particular scenario still garners media and its consumer public attention. Has the internet made these events more accessible to the hobo on the street than the say JFK days? Or has the human condition inherently been designed to revel in the dirty laundry that others carry? Is it as some say an affront to the belief system that gets people talking or is it something to entertain them other than overpriced popcorn? My personal observation is that it is a conspiracy to beat all conspiracies. As in the recent juicy examples of large (former) heads of powerful organizations have exhibited, I suspect that it is a trick to earn a bunch of publicity money when the portrayed protagonist and his or her victim have agreed to rake in the winnings by putting on a Reality Show for the...

I am a reborn Taco Bellite. Used to equate this brand to Taco Hell until the early 2000s when with the ecomm bust they came into their own. With under a dollar block busters from creative minds at the YUM factory they cranked out a palate pleasing array of processed foods that satiated my foodie bug. From an infrastucture dev standpoint they also redid or opened newer, slicker stores with no nonsense staff that served these price (and in my case waist) busting array of stuffed rolled tubes (fried, semi fried, and something in between). Not just that, they also provide Yodaesque or pithy (depending on your world view) commentary on their sauce packets while you stare at the burrito going down your hatch. Fire sauce is my fave.

Sounds like a Toys R Us company selling scary toys! Who was this enigma? I have read a little about him, seen some documentaries; no less than NatGeo kind but am puzzled with what this 16th century Frenchman really was. The Wiki entries for this person are tenuous at best with a maybe date and place of birth (strange for someone who could predict that far out but not confirm his own creation?). Another funny item in his bio is how his wife and children expired. The reality around that is a bit shall we say 'fuzzy'. Yet he was also called the SEER and seemed to have a periscope designed to provide visibility into the coming centuries. Perhaps the lens was a bit skewed eh? He was supposed to have been hired as an expert forecaster by the then French Queen (much like today's TV stations hire weatherpersons - you know my thoughts on this subject) to predict what was to come down the pike. Apparently the dude even saw 9 11 happen. Now call me crazy but perhaps there ar...

It started with a CHIP CLIP. The engagement with a new retail bank in my neighborhood. I wanted to benefit from some service they had to offer and as we sat down to get the paperwork out of the way, I was greeted with a bank branded Chip Clip. Asked as to the relevance of it to our transaction I was explained that it was a welcome gift and something I can lovingly enjoy over time. Really? A bag of the good stuff (chips) would have made me fall more in love with the bank than a CLIP that assumed I would buy chips. Bad Move I thought. Not to mention that the retarded process still involves paper enough to destroy 1 Tall Pine, with the applications and the T&C filled bumpf that they want you to take for bedside reading. Why can they not swipe my Driver Lic or some other form of transaction device (think Cr or Debit card); which each American has more than their fair share of - and get the damn app filled in? But no, its all about the relationship as you banter and get t...

Terminated my reading experience of this story by Michael Crichton. The protagonist is a smart but 'out of control' computer geek who has been subjected to a medical experiment designed to modify his behavior. The irony of the plot centers around the (human) notion that a machine can make smarter decisions to in turn control human behavior. The device implanted in this engineer's brain is supposed to sense and alter the reactions much like Newton's third law except the algorithm does not exactly play out as designed. What the humans think is logical and therefore practical proves to be not so. Clearly the machine goes out of control and therefore the tethered human as well resulting in a destructive outcome for all. While subtle forms of behavior alteration exercises are in daily practice today (think TV; Internet; Places of Worship; AA etc), many of our species do not actually comprehend that they are being exposed to this radiation of thought altering though...

I think we have long turned into zombies. I mean 'we' the human race. Take for example the association of the words 'human race'. What the heck does that mean? Does any one know? Doubt it. Why race? Are we in a race? If so who is organizing this one? Is it a slur? If so how come its in colloquial use? Are we still in the 1800s? I don't think so but who cares? Well folks - I have to break this to you but we as a species are clueless of most things that are going on around us and just assume we know a lot. That in my book is IGNORANCE and ARROGANCE. Both sorta go hand in hand as far as us mortals are concerned. Having nightmares about this whole diatribe? Well, what the heck are nightmares? Are there dayhorses to go with them? Can there be some nightstallions waiting to do their bit somewhere? What about this bias in an equal opportunity nation? How do daymares compare to their other halves I ask? Anybody know? As you can tell I am always...

Tasting as in Testing? I am all for the spirit of discovery. New tastes (in spirits that is) that you can develop over time and begin to enjoy. Somehow what has eluded me is the ability to enjoy what are considered DRY wines. Forget the name - they just do not seem to create the dance on my toungue tip as say a very fruity late harvest or muscat might. Some sommelier once told me that our taste buds are a function of where we grew up and the type of foods we are used to tasting. Makes sense to me - I am the product of growing up in a tropical country where all tastes (from sweet to spicy) are extreme to go with the extra ordinarily hot climate. That the buds be prone to appreciating big bold flavors perhaps is natural. Similarly for a western palate used to mildly spiced meat and potato productions by way of entrees and matters edible, the palate is tuned to understand the nuances of a dry or off-dry vino. I do try every now and then to test this hypothesis and partake a m...

Read that as 'Jawyus' Coronation and it is apparent I am not talking (more on that later) about any royal boondoggle, but the rather unpleasant bout that took place in my oral cavity as the venue this AM. I had a crown installed on my molar (for those not literate in matters oral - it is the large dude in the back that does the heavy chewing) while also sealing a rather large Caltrans worthy pothole i.e. cavity on a premolar adjacent to the molar of attention. All this occured on a bright spring morning - at least there was that - when I showed up for my appointment with the cherub - read female dentist. Admin greets me with the same excitement a Disney ride attendant would a young bug eyed teen going on a ride - How's it going? Carlinesque retorts come to mind - then again it is not that important. So this dentist that works my infrastructure has this quality of making the patient feel at ease but when she gets going with the tools its a NASCAR event in your mouth...

The sensational news flash last night from the POTUS announcing to the world of the death of a master terrorist was welcome news. That said it was also summarized by pundits as being consistent with the theme of good conquering evil. As simple as that? How humans have come to define this demarcation of good and evil is a very interesting subject indeed. This is evident on tracking and (if you believe what you read out there) understanding the genesis of this criminal mind. His original rise to prominence was fueled out of being aligned to the western capitalist intervention in Afghanistan, when the defined enemy or evil was 'Communism' and those that harbored that belief. Removing the erstwhile USSR from the Afghan landscape was the charter for the day and the recruits included the now dead but then motivated mercenary. His eventual disgust of occupying forces and dominance on what he considered his turf crescendoed into a villianous drive toward the capitalist culture...