Thursday, January 31, 2019

I think she should get off on a technicality.



Mr S. likes to send me articles when people get into trouble for speeding. Because he knows I'm just trying to find the boundaries of what will get your arrested.

Which is funny because he was pretty mad when I got my ticket. He thought I didn't take it seriously enough. Believe me - once you get the bill... you will slow your roll for a while - for sure.

So apparently,  driving 115 mph in a 35 mph speed limit zone, while driving in snowy and slushy conditions does get you arrested. But I think that's unfair because she was just doing what the National weather Service advised a couple of days ago. Here.

And I'm just kind of wondering how the ticket goes if you have this license plate. I'm sorry doesn't do shit for you once you get pulled over. As a matter of a fact that whole experience made me feel ugly because that cop didn't give me a break at all. Yes,  not even a "because you are cute" kinda break and not an asshole when pulled over.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

You know the end is near when someone asks you if they should bottom fish PG&E.

I was like - NO!

Cammo wrap.



Whenever I am in Santa Clara I like to drive by the Byton Campus. I think if they are going to have a real car, you'd start seeing it around campus. I have driven by probably a dozen times, and nothing. Until today.

It is a very busy small campus. At first I tried taking stalker pictures with zoom, and then I was like - they can't make me get off the sidewalk. So - after I was done today, I went back and just took pictures from the sidewalk. They still had guys watching the car. Eventually I asked if I could take pictures a little closer. This meant stepping on their property. And they were fine with it.

The only thing they said was not to take pictures of the interior. I took a couple of shots thanked them and walked off. But I did wonder what they thought I didn't need to see. I've seen this car at CES and Pebble beach. So I've already seen the inside.



Why so negative?



Source.

This is the chart for pending home sales. Those are all negative numbers. ALL of them. It will be interesting to see the numbers from the shutdown.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Today was very stereotypically "Silicon Valley".



I really have a ton of home projects to get to, but Mr S. got that new 3D phone. So we said screw that - let's go get The Gates of Hell at Stanford!  Imagine photo's kinda of like this, but in 3D.

We decided to stop at the new Shake Shack at the Palo Alto mall. Where we waited in line for about an hour.  Which was kind of funny since our AitrBnb in Vegas was right next to a Shake Shack. We shared a table with a stranger because when you wait in line that long you get to know people a little.

Normally I might not have thought having lunch with a stranger would be something I was into - but it worked today. Also Palo Alto is just one of those places where you feel you can have lunch with any rando and it's not bad.

Then went over to the Campus. See ....this whole story sounds like a stereotype!

Honestly, I can't believe I don't think that phone is stupid because no one without a 3D enabled device can see the pictures. But they have managed to make it "fun enough" for it not to matter that much. Although, not quite fun enough for me to convert my phone too. It's sort of a big phone for girl hands. But fun enough that you swing back around to some of the touristy things.

(Update) -  The interesting thing about the Palo Alto Shake shack -  zero order takers/cashiers. Kiosk only. I'm not even sure how you would give them cash.

So lonely.



I have literally never once driven by the Facebook campus and not seen people taking pictures in front of the Facebook thumb. Oh wait - this would be once. I hope it's not an indication of anything. Said in the most sarcastic way. They have a TON of crap ripped up in Menlo Park. I think they have like five building going up right now. But hey - if you bought ONE share of Facebook in January, you would still have made 19 bucks a share. So....it's not all horrible yet. Sadly.

However if you bought in July, you'd be down about 50 bucks a share.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

I just came from "one of those car things", and I get the distinct impression "they" want to make those cube cars to be like rolling karaoke pods. The whole thing was kinda weird so I'm going to be super vague about it for now.  Plus, I think I need to rewind the whole thing in my head and try to unpack it again. I might even delete this whole post tomorrow and start again.

It just feels like car companies are sort of out of ideas. They don't really know what we want from cars. It's confusing! I don't know why they just won't make them sleeper cars. It makes so much more sense.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Pretty ugly.



I have been seeing houses sit on the market for six months now. Which is consistent with real estate slowing this past summer. Everything seems to be "right priced" currently. But houses sitting that long really starts a negative feedback loop.

When prices were going up like crazy you would sell because you are getting a premium. Now that prices have stabilized, it's going to be very hard to wedge people out from those low interest rates. And when you can sell in 6 days like April of last year, you feel pretty secure. When it is routinely taking months to sell houses - you pull back. I would expect to have your house be on the market for at least three months right now.

I am completely shocked at how much new housing inventory is still on the market in my city. Home builders are going to be butthurt. They have had to lower prices and those places are still siting on the market for six months as well. Then there is this.

California sees its first home sales drop in four years.

Southern California usually leads the way. But what does it matter? We are in a global housing reset. Australia said - screw the prices from the 2008 recession. We are taking these prices back 30 years. It's been going on for months. And I keep wondering if Australia had the internet when we went through our crisis. But that tells you how bad China is and has been before the tariffs.

Canada looks under real stress now. So yeah. I want to say we have a good foundation here in the US because most people are locked into very low interest rates. But people never know when they have it good, and they always overextend themselves. Plus, people are very adverse to pain. They will do anything to avoid it and they do irrational things. So I don't know how this is going to play out honestly.

Conversations with Mr S.

Sometime last week I told Mr S. that I was starting to feel anxious about the economy. He's like - yeah. Who knows what this Brexit thing is going to do.

Me - Screw Europe! We haven't gotten any financial data in weeks. And it's starting to freak me out.

Him - Do we really believe that data anyway? It will be interesting to see how the market reacts when there is no government manipulation.

Which just made me just look and him and smile. Because he is sorta right. No one believes the numbers.

Then last night I was like - You are right, we don't believe that data - but I would like to at least how much I don't trust the data. We are four reports behind. And I would just like to know the range so I can decide what I want to believe or not.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Well, I guess if the National Weather System says so.



It would make getting to Swensons a lot faster. But Ohio Swensons. Not California Swensons.

Smart glasses are not "the next big thing".

Smart Glasses, Neural Computers, Self-Driving Cars: What's "The Next Big Thing" After Smartphones.

I feel like people who write these stories have never really spent much time with these devices.

Mr S. and I actually met back in the day at a company that did VR. So I call this VR2. I talk to as many people as I can about VR or XR. Which is really just a fancy acronym for mixed reality. Because I am always curious if all the problems from the past will be resolved this time around.

For example I when I was at CES - they had a huge booth for the fire department which was giving out technology grants. They need to get all of their equipment to talk to each other. So I was kinda curious since I have seen some pretty amazing HUD concepts. I have always wondered why they were never adopted. You can see one of the videos I did on one back in 2011.



Interestingly when I walked up and started talking to them about what I said above - they pulled out a Magic Leap and offered to let me see their demo. But I was not having any VR/XR stuff at CES. That is how people come back with the flu. And I knew that I had another chance to see it soon. So I declined. I have already tried the Hololens.

What they told me I found super interesting. And it's sort of the same reason why motorcycles can't get their helmet HUDS to take off that well. They can't figure out how to put data in front your eye and not have it interrupt your field of view. To be there when you need it, and not when you don't. How to make it so it's not distracting.

Additionally - there is a not an insignificant amount of people who get motion sickness from these devices. Even really young people report they have to take a break after using them for a full day. It is why 3D glasses failed.

I truly believe these devices will be "a" thing.  Just not "the" thing. Manufacturing for sure will use them. They already wear bulky headgear. But I doubt this will be a mass adoption kind of thing. VR is still less than 1% of all gaming systems sold. For sure there is still a ton of hype. With smart glasses you are competing for the smallest screen on the planet. And you still need to be able to see.

Plus, I just still believe that people hate to wear glasses. I've said it a million times and nothing has happened to make me stop believing that. Sunglasses aside. You don't spend that much time in sunglasses. So people tolerate them.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Lantern festival.



I think it was at the end of the Christmas light crawl that we saw this in the city next to us. I don't think it would have normally been something that we went out of our way for. They'd been advertising it on TV. But, when we drove by, it looked bigger than we thought. We were already light crawled out at that point though. So I put it out of my mind.

Then a couple of days ago Mr. S. randomly said - Hey, do you want to go check out that thing in the city next to us. It's the last week.

I was kinda surprised because this almost isn't in the top ten things I would try to drag him to this time of year. But then it hit me - you want to go take pictures with your phone!

He bust out laughing. Because he did want to go take pictures with his new 3D phone. Sadly you can not see any of those pictures because only people with those phones can see them. But it is sort of like all of these photo's. Only in 3D.

I was the first to try to talk him out of buying that thing, but it has actually turned out to be quite fun. It makes you discover things in a different way. And some of the pictures are pretty fun and cool. You just can't see them. And Red Hydrogen didn't ruin the phone part of being a phone.

But these are my shots in non 3D.



































Friday, January 18, 2019

Have you heard about asymmetrical jeans?

I guess that day has finally arrived.

Tesla sinks after cutting 7% of its workforce. Five experts weigh in on what's next.

I know I talk a lot of shit about them, but now that the day is here - it sort of gives me a far away stare.

If Telsa can't make it - all of these other players really have an uphill battle. Tesla would not exist without government support. Period. The new players are going to encounter a very challenging environment indeed. And this whole Valley right now is built around supporting those cars. I just don't even know what the knock on effect is going to be.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

The low point of CES. Toilets.



I got to this area of CES and frankly just became incensed. I have been to CES for a lot of years now, and it was the first time I saw them with toilets. This is the kind of thing you see at Dwell. NOT CES.

And furthermore - I have NEVER seen dudes so interested in toilets! A woman would never in a million years walk up to a toilet demo and run their hands over the seat. I could have hung out forever and just gotten hundreds of dudes caressing a toilet seat. That never happens in real life! They don't even spend any time on these things! What do they effing care?

Also, I'm just super bitter about restroom policy these days. Can't I just have a public toilet that hasn't been peed on? If you cared that much about toilets - I wouldn't have a shitty attitude about gender neutral bathrooms!







Also WTF do you need a graph chart usage for? I know these photos are crap, but I was just incensed.





Not much new to report about 3D printing. It's basically just gotten faster.

Send your dumb robot to school.

Do these hip protectors make my ass look fat?



When you don't care what is in the box.



I love all of this new low power LED stuff! I walked up to this guy and of course he wanted to show me what was inside.

I was like - NO. Let's just look at the box!

I think these would be good Halloween Masks.



I see facial recognition often enough that I think these would be funny masks. My picture sucks, but you can't have everything in life.

I still love transparent TV's.



And I don't know why. There is no logical explanation for it. But in the Snarkolepsy household we have a rule that we can just tell you to shut up. I just like it. Meaning it's probably stupid but it doesn't matter because it delights me in some way.

This one was better than most because I actually had to work a little to capture the transparency.





Well, that explains that.

Doom and gloom: Department stores' disappointing holiday sales results spell trouble for 2019.

"Macy's in particular — with more than 690 stores across the U.S., including Bloomingdale's — has served as a sort of barometer for its peers. When the company said it didn't sell as much women's sportswear, sleepwear, fashion jewelry and cosmetics during the holidays as executives had hoped, Macy's shares had their worst day ever, cratering nearly 18 percent. It brought many retail stocks down with it too.

Hey - I have an idea. If Macy's wanted to sell things, maybe they could get their cashiers to actually not call a break with a line six people deep during the holidays.

It is also super irritating that the media is blaming the government shutdown for the weak holiday sales. I mean, I started getting my panties in a bunch about this a full week before the shutdown because the malls suddenly had discount signs back up.

I posted about it on November 19th - I guess it's not trendy to talk about the mallpocolypse right now. With a follow up post on December 24 - This is our life now. I'm pretty sure the shutdown had JUST happened.

This was well under way before the government shutdown. But at least they have someone to blame.
Is it just me or have the search algo's just stopped trying. No matter where you go they are just like we don't give and eff what you were looking for. Here is a bunch of garbage.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Do we really want to avoid dying in our sleep?



It's the best way to go - right? I am actually pretty conflicted about this one. If a young guy was laying on that bed I'd be like - eeeew. Google is gonna listen to you have sex! But an old guy was there, so I thought - maybe old people need that. But honestly, maybe a lot people who die in their sleep, just die in their beds and they can't call for help. I dunno.