This day always brings back memories. I recall waking up that day that day to two things:

1. My clock radio was yammering about a plane crashing into a building. In my semi-concious state, I thought “Oh that’s ok, planes have crashed into buildings before with no problem.” (See the 1945 Empire State Building accident.)

2. A friend of mine in Berekely called my cell phone and then hung up - not leaving a message.

After a while I decided to turn on the TV and it was just a picture of a big cloud of smoke - I couldn’t understand what was going on. All the news websites were hosed too - so I asked a college friend of mine in Connecticut what was going on via IM, and he simply said: The world is coming to an end.

A bit of an statement in retrospect, but rather appropriate at the time.

I’m fortunate in not directly knowing anyone who perished that day - I think I knew one person at Cantor, and a lot of other people who worked in that area. Not everyone I know is as fortunate.
I’ll always have my memories of the World Trade Center. I look forwards to visiting the completed rebuilt site in a few years.

 Oh wow! This totally cracked me up…

Here’s a Google Video of Ze Frank doing a stupendously funny geeky standup routine at the TED Conference — don’t miss the dramatic reading of a Nigerian Letter! Link (Thanks, Henning!)

Source: Boing Boing: Ze Frank’s nerdcore standup routine at TED

I almost never leave work at 5pm - I usually get in at 10am and stay until 7 or 8. But today I had no choice as I needed to be in Downtown San Jose by 5:45pm. According to Windows Live Local, this 13.3 mile drive should take 15 minutes. Today, this drive took me exactly 50 minutes. No accidents. No special events. Nothing. Youch! Needless to say, I didn’t quite get there in time.

On the other hand, I’ve driven from Microsoft to SeaTac at 5pm too many times. According to Live Local, this 21.6 mile drive should take 26 minutes. The longest it ever took me was 1.5 hours, but that involved rain (surprise surprise) and 2 accidents. Usually it takes me 40-60 minutes.

I know that Bay Area traffic is bad, but sometimes the awfulness of traffic doesn’t get you until you compare it with someone else’s “Bad Traffic”. Crimminy!

So if you want to schedule something with me, please don’t make it so I have to leave work at 5pm.

In one of the more peculiar coincidences yet, this weekend I attended two weddings that were both at the same place, on the same day: the Decathlon Club. Fortunately, they were at different times!

Here are two pictures that I tried to take from the same angle…

First, there was Ellen and Dave (Congrats!)

Then, later that evening, there was Maggie and Tom (Congrats!)

It’s amazing what a difference a different centerpiece can do. Both were beautiful weddings. Congrats to all!

WSJ.com - Most Americans Support Ban Of Liquids on Airlines, Poll Shows
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the current ban of most liquids on airplanes, according to a new Harris Interactive poll, compared with about a third who feel it is unnecessary.

In a separate question, forty-eight percent of those polled said they think the current ban on bringing liquids onto airplanes should last as long as the government deems it necessary. Twenty-five percent said they think the ban should last indefinitely, while 20% said they think it should last for “a few months.”

The telephone poll of 1,000 U.S. adults also shows potential support for greater luggage restrictions, if necessary: 62% said they would support a ban of all carry-on luggage being brought onto an airplane if the Transportation Security Administration thought it was necessary, compared with 35% who would oppose such a ban.

I wonder how many of the polled fly regularly or - heck - have ever flown at all! (Side note: It’s estimated that fewer than 34% of Americans have passports.)

I fly a lot - in fact I’ve been on 31 flight segments so far this year. I’d prefer not to be blown up but there has to be some sort of balance between safety, security, and sanity.

This poll reminds me of something that happened at the Village Voice last year. NYPD started doing random bag searches in the subway, and the Voice had a negative piece about a number of NYers didn’t approve of this practice (unsurprisingly). This is what happened next:

village voice > specials > by
Editor’s note: Chisun Lee’s article about Tony Lu, an immigrant rights activist who designed T-shirts declaring his objection to the new random bag search policy in New York’s transit systems ["NYers to NYPD: 'I Do Not Consent to Being Searched,' " July 21, villagevoice.com], received an extraordinary response from readers. Nearly all disagreed with Lu’s protest, many were angry, and some voiced their opinions in the most extreme terms. At deadline, the Voice had not received a letter from a New Yorker.

Perhaps some day this article in the The Onion will become reality: FAA Considering Passenger Ban.

The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft (where I used to work) has a blog. This recent entry cracks me up:

Mac Mojo
The MacBU is just one product cycle away from being disbanded, laid off, or re-purposed.You guys must be nervous about your jobs, huh?
This is a reasonable question. I asked the same thing during my interviews. How sure was everyone about their job security? Did you worry every time a product shipped that it would be the last time you sat in front of a Mac? Everyone I’ve talked to, including some people that have been with Microsoft for over 15 years and working in the MacBU since its inception had absolutely no fear of their job going away.

The MacBU is just Microsoft’s way of avoiding some kind of legal problems or appeasing Apple.
I’d heard this explanation before from plenty of Mac users. I thought that maybe the folks working on Mac Office were just some kind of sacrificial lamb offered up by management to appease the Legal Gods. The reality is that the MacBU a very successful part of Microsoft when taken on our own. I don’t know all of the intricacies of the Microsoft/Apple relationship, but I get no feeling from my day-to-day work that they are dictating our direction with our products or vice-versa.

Gosh that brings back memories of all those questions I would always be peppered with at MacWorld.