The great outdoors

The hotel in which I was staying for the O’Reilly Emerging Tech Conference was located in the middle of a Santa Clara office park. There was nothing but hi-tech office buildings surrounded by immaculately manicured lawns and a nearby gold course. Only the empty lots nearby — future locations of officeplexes, no doubt — had any kind of growth that didn’t look gardened, genetically engineered or designed. Aside from hanging out on the pool patio for lunch and to catch some end-of-day sun, we were pretty much confined to the hotel, as there was nowhere to walk for at least a mile around.

How do people live and work in such a sterile environment, where the buildings are just bigger cubicles for cubicles? No wonder computers are the way they are.

I’ve just woekn up from making up for the sleep debt inucrred at the conference, and am getting ready to go to some campfire party out in Guelph. My friend Will told me about it; apparently it’s someone’s parents’ two-story cabin with a giant fire pit, and people are bringing musical instruments. Tonight, we share the glow of a fire, not that of an 802.11b wireless Internet connection. Both are great things, in my geeky eyes, but with a fire:

See you on the flipside.

AddThis Website Tools
Joey deVilla

Recent Posts

The most “Florida” post on Reddit today

Wow — that’s pretty Florida. But it’s nice that other people get along with their…

21 hours ago

A worrisome airline safety timeline

January 17, 2025 January 20, 2025 (Inauguration Day) January 22, 2025 January 29, 2025 January…

2 days ago

Sunday picdump for February 16, 2024

Another Sunday, another “picdump!” Here are 170+ memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet…

3 days ago

Happy Valentine’s Day 2025!

Have a great Valentine’s Day, everybody.

5 days ago

Why didn’t we go with THIS name for the Gulf?

It would’ve been so much cooler. Anyway, here’s a classic from KMFDM: Godlike...but with Spanish subtitles!

5 days ago