Yea.. it really is a blur

Oddly.. this sign (in front of 1 Infinite Loop, the main Apple building in Cupertino) looks all blurry and out of focus all the time.. this is it's natural state.

Tt

1 Infinite Loop- The Center of the Known World (well, at least to Steve)

And here you have Mecca. Well, sort of. For those of you that are Apple Computer inclined, this is a view of the man entrance to 1 Infinite Loop.. the main Apple Campus. This is where your precious iPod was invented and where your operating system lives. Interestingly, as soon as I snapped this picture, a white jeep with rent a cop lights pulled up behind me told me to CUT IT OUT... even when I explained: hey.. I worked here for a decade and this is for my blog. He didn't care. Guess I'm going to learn some sort of super secret bit of knowledge by looking at the building from a quater mile away. Go figure.

10355 De Anza Six

Here's where my life at Apple started. Building six on the Apple Campus in Cupertino. I find myself, this week, in the area that I spent about 10 years of my life while working at Apple Computer. This is the building that I spent the first 5 years in. DeAnza Six. Interestingly, Apple was the most fun (and the first 5 years the most fun of my time at Apple) that I've had in my adult work life. There was more IQ per square foot at Apple in those days then anywhere on the planet. And more creativity. And, damn, more highly intelligent/educated beautiful (under 30, everyone's beautiful it seems) people that I can remember ever seeing anywhere. And, of course, we were all single and having sex in the stairwells between meetings.

Ahh.. life in Silicon Valley back in the good old days.

Stop with BOGUS REBATES

An Open Letter to the Users of Rebates:

To all you company's using rebates on your products to get people to buy things.

STOP!

We know it's bull. We know you only deliver on a small percentage of rebates sent in. We know it's a scam.

When I see a 1GB SD card for 'only' $39 (after rebates) I skip right on by. I ignore the ad, delete the email and keep walking by the disply. I know I have, if I'm lucky, a 1 in 5 chance of getting that $50 rebate. That, assuming I go to the trouble of filling out the paperwork, finding the secret bar code on the box and including my original reciept and mailing it to you. Actually getting around to filling out the rebate is only a 50/50 chance thing for me anyway, so that lowers my chances to 1 in 10 of getting that money back.

And, if it's a small rebate, it's even less likely I'll get around to it.

So quit thinking we're fooled by this stupid scam.

When I buy a product nowadays, I NEVER EVER count the rebate into the price. I always figure the price to be WHAT I PAY AT THE REGISTER or ONLINE CHECKOUT CART. Period.

Here is a partial list of companies that have denied me a rebate for reasons that simply make no sense (like: you didn't include the right version of the bar code, even though there was only ONE on the box):

Best Buy (the worst)
CompUSA (the 2nd worst)
Curcuit City
HP
Nikon
Dell
Costco
Safeway
Energizer
Linksys (the 3rd worst)
Toshiba (the 4th worst)
Best Buy (did I mention BEST BUY)...

Don't bother guys. We know it's a scam. And we're dead sick and tired of it.

S

The Carpet Car

Notice the odd color of this car. Notice the texture?

IT'S COVERED IN GREEN ASTROTURF.

Only in Boulder...

ClickCaster goes beta!

Finally... after months, we finally went beta.

We started this in Jan, but we didn't have a development team with the right set of skills. It wasn't until about 2 and half months ago we got the right guys in. Shaun found Matt, Tony and Brandt and man, what a team. In 60 days they've moved mountains and we're about 90% of the way to a basic product. Beautiful.

Check it out at: www.clickcaster.com
Use the invitation code: revolution
(you'll need that code to get an account set up for at least the next few weeks.. open beta sometime in October).

The Geek Squad Car

The geek squad!