All of the fair that is fit to print. END

I swear I thought these were conjoined.

All of the fair that is fit to print. Part1.

Yesterday we actually contemplated going to the zoo. Nothing else has gotten me out of my funk. We wound up at the San Mateo County Fair instead which was almost like the zoo.

We saw tree porcupines.



And, this animal I will call Satan.





Sometimes I think I am a portrait photographer.



OH! The Da Vinci surgical robot was there. And they were letting you take test drives. They even had a surgeon there answering questions.

My question was - why did you bring it to the fair? I guess they had a Made in America theme. And what do I care since it was pretty cool to see the bot without needing expensive surgery.

Look ma!

Chicks man.

It wasn't tardly or bad ass enough for me to do much more than smile.

Must stop asking people how they are.

What do u do when your checker goes into great detail of how their dog just died?

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the wind?

I like the weekends because it feels like the whole world pauses.

Such a sorry state of affairs. There is no catalyst for the stock market to go any higher, except for the hope of government printing.

Which is precisely why people are not spending money.

Just saw someone I used to know on Americas got Talent. I'm stunned.

I've never wanted to vote less in my life. I hate all of these people.

Dear FB, you know your business is in trouble when you have to pick up 13 year olds.

Maybe they are going after the lucrative Catholic priest market.

Time stands still.

When I woke up this morning, I could have done at least three things. I just didn't want to do any of them. Even a car show. Maybe tomorrow.

I started going to all of these events to distract me from how horrible I felt about the economy. You know, if you could forget for a brief few hours - it was enough. It isn't like that for me now. We all know things are going to get much worse before they get better.

The government has used up most of the tricks available to it. Their ability to herd you into one direction or another seems to be getting more limited. And tax season is completely over - so, no money from the sky.

So, Mr S and I decided we are going to work on turning the garage into a shop. We hope to build robots.

I've been covering them so long, it's hard to see what I can contribute that hasn't already been done. Maybe it will just turn into an escape, since the people who say things - say, next year could be worse.

Pot luck Wednesday.

I've been busy today. So, no rants. Lucky you! You get a Noble and an Xprize car from Saba Motors.

These pictures are two weeks old.

Sitting in traffic we accidentally ran across a car show at the San Jose Mercury News building. I didn't post these because I wasn't expecting to be at a car show, and I only had mint berry. Who's batteries promptly failed. Stupid non standard batteries.





These were taken with a cell phone.

Today Mr. S chides me about my punctuation. I point him to my title banner.

Today on, While the world burns.

Oh yeah. The week is starting that way.

Well, it's good to know that banks and brokerage houses treat the filthy rich just as badly as the rest of us. If I were Mark Zuckerburg I'd be punching at the sky.

One week you are on top of the world, the next week all your employees hate you. Because you know, they are still locked up for two more months. With the way this stock is falling, this stock could be down by half. I mean, for three days in big bold letters, Marketwatch said the stock was worth 13 bucks and change. I would guess it eventually falls to that range.

And then there is California thinking they were playing the Facebook lottery. Last week it was estimated that thousands of millionaires would be created by the IPO. I think that army just became smaller. Replaced by the people who listened to this guy:

Facebook Short-Sellers in Front of ‘Freight Train’

Published: Wednesday, 23 May 2012 | 4:21 PM ET
By: Matthew J. Belvedere Street Signs, Producer

Investors looking to short Facebook stock are getting “in front of a freight train,” analyst Laura Martin of Needham & Co. told CNBC.

Martin initiated coverage of Facebook Wednesday with a “buy” rating and a $40 per share price target — that’s a 29 percent premium to Tuesday’s closing price.

Fanimeh 2012.

I really wasn't in to this today. I'm still in a funk. Don't say I never give you anything.

EN-V.

I have to admit - I kinda like these En-v's. Although I'm not sure were they fit in, on the road to electric heaven. They max out at 25 miles an hour. But even my town has changed all the speed limits in residential areas to be 30 miles an hour. I guess when they realised they didn't have money to pay the popo, they decided five miles an hour wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Having said all that - I'd never in a million years give any money to GM. They can rot in hell for all I care. I am happy to have seen one though.

Oh the drama.

"The first issue - if the "economic recovery is accelerating" why is California's revenue still decelerating on numbers that have been revised downward something like 5 times?

The second issue - It is becoming an extremely uncomfortable spot to be placing an IPO for anything right now. It doesn't matter that the entire finances of California apparently depends on you. The world doesn't care about your finances California. They have a few problems of their own.

A company that is suppose to have such a strong market position will certainly be embarrassed if the market takes a dive, and the IPO doesn't go well. It hurts your brand."

I wrote this about Facebook at the beginning of February in What if facebook withdrew its IPO.

The things is - there were many articles out last year (2011) saying that Facebooks revenues were slowing. Read: All the Cool Kids Are Quitting Facebook.

Then there was the crazy valuations. 5 times what Google commanded. Seriously? Google has done nothing but gobble up IP. Google has F-U space money. Facebook isn't going to space! And if it did - so what?

Then there is California with it's hands out. I'd read they already penciled in the 2 billion they expected to make in taxes based on a 35.00 stock price.

Look, Facebook likely waited too long to go IPO. You are suppose to do it while you are still growing. Their growth had obviously peaked.

And I want to feel bad for Mark Zuckerburg - I think this debacle mostly wasn't his fault. But he has the President on speed dial and I am just sick to death of crony capitalism. It's why no one trusts the market anymore. Instead of taking a company public to grow it - they take companies public to loot the individual investors.

Random Maker Faire 2012 Shots.

Qu-bd

I have not seen this machine work. But, it's now moved up to be the most promising candidate I've seen.

It is a combination 3D printer/CNC machine. It roughly prices at 2200.00. Depending on which motor you want.

I am not a huge fan of combo machines. In my experience they don't do anything exceedingly well. Yet, they do everything marginally well.

Still, this was the smallest CNC machine I've ever seen. I'd buy it just for that because you can cut metal.


Metal heat sync.






Here is a link to their website. Which isn't live yet.