July 23rd 2008
I must have misheard Phil Liggett yesterday because today’s stage is much harder: three HC climbs including Col du Galibier, 131 miles and a finish on the famous L’Alpe d’Huez.
The best-placed American is Vandevelde but he lost time yesterday and is 3:15 back. Unless he does well today, I think Schleck, Sastre or Cadel Evans will be the winner in Paris. Schleck’s got the strongest team so it’ll be hard to beat him today.
July 23rd 2008
Last Friday morning, my .Mac (now renamed “MobileMe”) email went offline. Long story short, it’s still out and Apple has no estimate on when it’ll be fixed. Fortunately, most of my email is on my Gmail account, but lots of people use .Mac mail as their only email account. Why not? It costs $99/year, it should be more reliable than the free email services. But it’s not.
I know how hard it is to keep an online service up for a long time and how hard it is when things go awry and you’re hurrying to fix it. But Apple has really fallen down on the customer service and PR. Apple has always had top-notch customer service, but this debacle is a lesson in how not to do customer service.
July 22nd 2008
July 16th 2008
Yesterday I ran errands in Seattle and went out to dinner with my best girlfriends from college, Stephanie and Annie, to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday. That meant that Troy was home alone with Havana all night. We sent pictures back and forth to keep each other updated on what we up to. Here’s what dads do with their little girls…
Walk around the yard:
July 14th 2008
I love this. Anheuser-Busch has agreed to be bought by InBev, a Belgian company. Finally, America no longer makes the carbonated urine that most Americans call “beer”. That’s for the Europeans and Canadians now. America’s beers are now the best in the world. Since most mergers tend to fail or at least stumble, American craft brewers should have an opportunity to give the Bud-swilling masses a beer that has flavor.
July 7th 2008
After three weeks with the Kindle, I’ve read six books. That’s a lot for me in three weeks. And I’ve probably read a seventh book considering all the samples of books I read (and decided not to buy). Overall, the Kindle is great. It creates a good reading experience and is light enough to hold for long periods of time, unlike a big hardcover book. It’s also very close to being the iPod of books. I have several books available to me, so if I decide I’d rather read another book, it’s there. So when you’re going to read, you just grab the Kindle, lay down on the hammock and then decide what you want to read.
July 6th 2008
This is the first computer I ever bought with my salary from my first professional job. It’s a 66MHz 486 from Gateway, back when they were called “Gateway 2000″ and made the best PCs. I bought it in 1992, 16 years ago and it was used every single day until three years ago. We’re doing some much-needed cleaning and I’m finally throwing it away (giving it to a PC recycle place, actually).
July 5th 2008
The Tour de France kicked off today. No Americans are likely to win this year, though. See the Google Maps street view of the entire Tour.
July 4th 2008
