The rest as they say is mystery.
Your performance problems are well known. Here a little improvement idea that is trivial to implement, but would make a big difference to your users and helps your performance too.
Add more information into your follow notifications.
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First SAP TechEd of the year in Las Vegas just about a month away. Still so much to do. Come to Community Day for some cool stuff.Nice little countdown widget written by Abesh inspired by Marcelo Ramos‘ Countdown Widgets
Today I got a sticker shock at Trader Joe’s. My beloved walnuts that I use in my morning muesli are $7.50 now. I recall having bought them just a couple of years back for $3.50 
75% of that price hike is directly related to biofuel. Turns out that over a third of the US corn is used for Ethanol production. Is the military using Ethanol to run their planes with? I am really wondering where all that is going.
The other thing that should be done is cut farm subsidies, with these prices the farmers should not need any more support. (Deducted from my home office chair 
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This was a try out post with clipmarks, but I don’t really like the result. To intrusive and self-promoting for my taste.
Three days ago I get the following email regarding our Wildfire Haze picture. The text reads interesting, NowPublic looks like a citizen journalism site :
:: Your California wildfire photo Hi Mark & Marie Finnern, Here’s a personal note from <name withheld>: _____________________________________ We’re running a news story about the wildfires in Northern California, and your photo would be a great addition. Would you be interested in sharing it? In case you haven’t heard of us, NowPublic is a participatory news website. The requested photo(s) will appear as thumbnails when you follow the link. Please let me know if you have any questions. Take care, Rob please click on this link - where you can approve or reject its use:
____________________________________________________________NowPublic is a news sharing community that uses stories, photos, & videos from sources like you.If you would like to learn more about this request, and the context in which your photo might be used, click on this link: http://www.nowpublic.com/import/4868164c2addb7.62822270
If you do give your permission, your photo will always remain your property, and whatever license you have specified will follow its use on NowPublic.com If you have any concerns about this, please contact our Quality Assurance Coordinator at quality@nowpublic.com ———————————————————— Picture taken by Mark & Marie Finnern.
Now our licensing is a Creative Commons one: Attribution & share alike aka link back to our picture on Flickr when you use it.
Of course I felt flattered, so I clicked on the link. First frustration instead of just a link to agree that the requester can use the picture, you get a sign up sheet. Grudgingly I filled it out, having been around the internet block for a while I should have stopped right there, but I was curious, wanted to know how the whole process works. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday morning we looked out of our window and the sun was already high up, but we were able to look straight into it without straining our eyes. We think the California Wildfire smoke is creating the haze.
Picture taken by Mark & Marie Finnern.
The San Mateo Highlands is one of the oldest and most comprehensive Eichler Communities in California. There are numerous coffee table books about this neighborhood and its developer Joseph Eichler, a pioneer of the Mid-Century Modern movement who parlayed his efforts into affordable California Modernism for the masses. The all-steel X100 house is here, the bemusing alpine Eichler, the rare two- and even three-story Eichlers.
Some of you may already know that on our block a neighbor is about to get the permits to built a 5,000 square foot Monster House on a parcel slightly smaller than 8k s.f. (link to the case). The current Eichler house there is 1,470 square feet. The proposed house is therefore over three times the size of the current house. (Click on the sketch to see more details.)
Initially, several people were concerned that a landslide that once occurred near the property would be a detriment to development of such scale, but it didn’t make a difference for the County Planning and Building Commission. If we were in San Mateo proper, likely it would. But as our attorney told us, if you want to build anything without regard to your neighbors and community, move to unincorporated San Mateo County.
Even though the owner is living in an Eichler himself, that’s not enough to stop him from creating a highly-visible eyesore: there’s no harmony at all in regards to architectural style and scale. The plans tell the tale of a bland, traditional house writ large.
We tried to fight it, even created a Google Group. And many people are outraged. The problem with the San Mateo Highlands is that it is unincorporated, so only San Mateo County rules apply. The single true restriction is you can’t build on more than 40% of the lot. He is building to 39.98%. There are no zoning overlays as the county doesn’t see the value in any kind of architectural preservation (in fact, it seems more hostile to the idea than anything). Even though the majority of residents want some sort of protection, this historic neighborhood is now prey for self-indulgent developers.
It appears that the current owner wants to maximize his investment and build as big a house on the property as he can to sell it at a premium to someone who has the capability to live in a bubble. We say this because the numbers bear out the fact that developing non-Eichlers here doesn’t reap significant financial rewards. I mean if you’re a Rothko fan are you going to hang your painting above a Louis XIV settée?
The permit is about to get approved, and as Marie is working from home and Nina is a light sleeper, we need a different solution at least until the house is built. Very reluctantly we are looking for a sublet for a year (great, rent and a mortgage!), ideally somewhere in San Mateo County.
Any other ideas greatly appreciated too.
The other day I was at Safeway which is trying to go upscale after watching Whole Foods successfully take your whole paycheck. Lots of money there.
Consumers are willing to pay premiums that run 30% and more, especially for perishable items such as produce.
What frustrates me endlessly are the stickers on our fruit. The worst I came across you see in the photo to the left. Every apricot has a sticker that is almost as big as the fruit itself and if you look closely, some have two stickers.
Now let me count the reasons why this is bad:
The sad truth is, it works. I am convinced that there have been many tests and we consumers are ill-informed enough to fall for the shiny sticker.
I think it is an example of how free-market capitalism is not working for the benefit of the common folk, and needs to, dare I say, be regulated.
It is sad, so sad. There are even a bunch of Facebook Groups dedicated to get rid of them. I joined the one with the most members.
My favorite weekend morning routine is: getting up really early while the best wife of all is still sleeping, filling a thermos with Earl Grey tea, cutting some fruit, and grabbing Nina as soon as she wakes up to drive the 10 minutes over the hill to Half Moon Bay, buy fresh Blueberry bagels at Safeway and park the car at Pilarcitos Avenue.
We walk over a small wooden bridge to the beach, where a little bench is already waiting for us. It is our sanctuary. The sound of the waves, the sun, the fresh air, some food and tea, all of that just makes us happy.
Sometimes our friends Vikram and Nikhil join us too. If you are in the ‘hood, please swing by, have a bagel, a cup of tea, and a bear hug.
Highly recommended. If you can’t swing by, go out and find your own little sanctuary.
42
Finally reached the ultimate geek age symbolizing the Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything. Douglas Adams is a hero of mine.
As a kid nine o’clock was my bedtime. The great thing was that I had a little radio and Monday and Tuesday night there were radio plays and I would lay in my warm bed and listen to them.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy came alive in my dark room more than anything else. I still smile just thinking about these late nights.
The best wife of all organized a babysitter and whisked me away to a great night out.
The sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge to the left was taken from the Bank of America building. Life is good.
… we need it to stand on this earth.
This is one of the most powerful YouTube clips ever. Even before Nina came into my world I longed for more strong women, actually I married one 
For example in my computer science class it would have been great to have parity. We were actually happy to have 20% women, that was better than most of the other engineer classes.I checked and they now have Girl’s Day in Germany where they bring young women to technical universities to show them how much fun science and technology can be, to take away their fear.
On the other hand there should also be parity in occupations like nursing. The thing is, that often such jobs don’t pay enough to feed a family. If you have read Joe Quirk’s very funny book about Sperms and Eggs you get a science perspective on the differences.If I am not mistaken teaching used to be the third highest ranked profession after university professor and medical doctor. This was in Germany, where teachers still are respected more than here in the US. Still the status went down in proportion to the rise of the percentage of female teachers, which is now over 50%. This is just very sad and we have a lot of work ahead of us to turn the tide.
[via Christina Wodtke]
