I have been working on a project for Emirates, the airline of the UAE. Emirates has its worldwide hub in Dubai. I haven't been to Dubai (yet), but I am hoping this project gets me there (soon). In the meantime, I had to share this image of a bridge about to be built in Dubai. It's called the Dubai Creek 6th Bridge. Thank you Gizmodo for the tip-off.
This will be the tallest spanning arch bridge in the world, at 673 feet high. Heck, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a spanning arch bridge. I am, however, very familiar with Arches, having grown up in St. Louis, MO, which is home to the Gateway Arch. And I currently live in the hometown of the wildly creative architecture firm that designed the Dubai Creek 6th Bridge, called Fxfowle. Construction begins next month.
Breasts thrust forward. Ready for lift off.
This is the recently unveiled logo for Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's suborbital space product, set to fly sometime in the next few years.
If you have $200,000 to spare, the trip is yours for the asking. That said, it'll probably be several years before Branson can make Galactic a reality, so start saving now. I figure all I need to do is increase blog readership by 10,000 times its current daily average, and they'll give me a free ticket. Right? Any thoughts on how I might achieve this are welcome.
This is where you go when you want to raise venture capital to grow your new business quickly.
This is where I'll be today and tomorrow.
This is Silicon Valley's main drag and it's called Sand Hill Road. I think of it as Sunset Boulevard for tech geeks. This week marks my 4th trip to Silicon Valley in 2007, and my first in which I'm actually trying to raise money for the new business. Wish me luck, and pray that no one kicks sand in my eyes.
If this image looks somewhat familiar to you, it's probably because you have used Google Maps, one of several excellent sites for getting driving directions from Point A to Point B. These sites are not always perfect, but they are amazing examples if how dramatically the Internet has improved our lives in a very short time.
I am featuring this specific map, however, to make the point that Google is a corporate behemoth you've gotta love. Go to Google Maps and click on <Get Directions> at the top of the page. Type in <New York, NY> in the first field and <Paris, France> in the second, and this is your resulting map. Now here's the fun: Check out the step-by-step directions that accompany the map. Especially the step after reaching Boston's Long Wharf. :-)
Enjoy, and thank goodness for Google. Also thanks to Babs, who tipped me off to this Google gem.
I am highly skilled at selecting youth-enhancing pictures
of myself for this blog. Today, I sacrifice vanity to make a point. It is virtually impossible to snap a great picture of yourself holding your own digital camera.
This picture of me last June at the Vienna airport illustrates my point. It was hard to properly frame my self-portrait. More problematic: the limited length of my arm meant that the camera was so close to my face that I ended up looking pudgy, distorted and wrinkly ... a shocking falsehood.
Here's a solution: Purchase the QuikPod, a nifty camera attachment that works like a hand-held tripod. It's an awesome little tool that totally changes the process of taking a self-portrait, and means you never have to ask a stranger to shoot you again. You'll love it!
If I had a lot more money than I do – in other words, if I was a janitor at Goldman Sachs – there are several ways I would change my life.
That said, even with loads of cash I would still keep riding the subway. In NYC, your $2 subway ride is more than often the easiest and quickest way from store A to cultural activity B. The same is also true for Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and DC.
If you're lucky enough to live in – or periodically visit – one of these cities, you should know about HopStop. This nifty little website is "Mapquest–meets-Mass Transit." You enter in your starting and ending locations, and it tells you the best way to get there using public transportation. You can specify preferences regarding bus vs subway, and transfers vs walking. HopStop is super simple, super accurate and just one more reason to love the web.
By the way, getting to Goldman Sachs from my apartment is a pain in the ass.
I have been meaning to buy myself a new digital camera for over a year now, and I intend to do so this week. It will replace a 4 year old Sony DSC75 that has served me well. But my Sony is too big, too slow, and too in need of a battery replacement. My priorities for the new camera are, in order:
1. small enough to fit in a pocket
2. a very good lens
3. at least 6 megapixels
4. minimal shutter lag
5. a viewfinder
I hope to spend under $400. My research has me leaning toward the Canon SD800 (pictured above). That said, please let me know if you have a digital camera you love that fits the above criteria. Thanks.
Ever wish you had a really quick way of figuring out what time it is somewhere else in the world? I was recently on gadling.com and learned about a site called TimeZoneCheck which allows you to do just that.
You enter in a city, it shows up on a map, and when you fly over it with your cursor you get the time at that destination. It's not a perfect interface, but it'll do. I was especially distraught when I discovered that my hometown of St. Louis was not included. But then I typed in "Saint Louis," and it appeared. Whew.
Check it out. And next time I'm traveling and you're dying to know if I'm awake or sound asleep, you'll be able to make an educated guess.
Big special hug for my friend Craig, who referred me to a great travel blog in response to my request for great travel blogs. More about his recommendation soon.
This new blog discovery led me to a very interesting world map (and you know how I love maps) of little real value. The map is created by Visibone, and it's unique feature is that it details every single two-digit internet code in the world. Next time you get spam linking you to a website with a .cd at the end, you'll know that your computer is heading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Click on this and you can download the big map with all the codes.
Okay, readers: Here's a quiz (try it before you download the map). Name the country associated with these internet codes. Answers next post.
.ca
.it
.gy
.in
.ge
.iq
.va
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