No on Prop 87 (Yes on new gas usage tax)

I can not vote, as I am not a US citizen. Yet, as many of us "US persons", the term used for foreigners legally in the US not on a visiting visa or waiver program, I do follow the debate on the different propositions, up for voting in the coming elections in November.

More money has been spend on a single proposition in California, than on any other proposition. Even almost as much as what it takes to run for president in the US. That proposition is 87, a ballot initiative that would impose a higher extraction fee on oil pumped in California. Even former president Clinton is currently running adds for Yes on Proposition 87.

In our household, we are environmently friendly. For example, we drive a small car and commute to work. Every morning, our car is full as a sardine can.

However, I feel there is something fishy about proposition 87. Just because oil companies are making big bucks, doesn't mean they should be penalized by a new tax. Instead go back to the source: why these companies are making so much money ... yes .. you, with the big SUV ... and you, single driver to work ... and that V6 you really needed to sit still in traffic. Yes, you are the culprit. Proposition 87 is not tackling the so

I've read the arguments from Koshla and co. Investing in alternative energy is a good thing. Yet, I tend to agree more with a recent article in Venture beat by Robert Rapier. Unless California changes its habits, the results will be as Robert Rapier predicts:

1. Proposition 87 will pass.
2. The gasoline price gap between California and the rest of the country will increase by at least $0.05/gallon next year as a result.
3. California oil production, already in decline, will see a much sharper decline next year as higher costs cause marginal production to shut down. Longer term, the $4 billion dollars extracted by this proposition (at the expense of oil company shareholders and consumers) will result in underinvestment in California oil production, leading to more serious supply problems in the future. Ironically, these supply problems will drive up the price of gasoline, which will cause people to conserve. As a result, conservation, which could have been achieved by just increasing the gas tax by a nickel, will be the key measurable from the passage of Prop 87.

Instead of Prop 87, I am in favor of adding a new usage tax, so that big oil consumers pay proportionally. Conversation will be immediate. And people will be encouraged to look at the products using alternative energy right away.

Some people are already experimenting. I had a great education this afternoon from a good friend of mine on the topic of building an electric powered motorcycle. He plans to start first experimenting on a bicycle and then tackle the bigger problems of a motorcycle. We went over a long series of alternatives, the pros and cons: different battery types, using different types of solar panels, using different types of engines (electric with and without brushed, compressed air, hydrogen, methane, etc.) The Bay Area is full of great ideas and lots of experimentation.

All Prop 87 argument spinning aside, the priority of prop 87 should have been on conversation measures and tax the big consumers of gas.

Update (11/1/2006): The Khosla - Rapier bout entered the second round. Take a look at both arguments.

• Don't let the Big Oil money confuse you on Prop 87 part II - Vinod
  

• People in Glass houses - Robert Rapier
  

Technorati: Clinton Prop 87 Environment Electric Cars

It's about Lists!

If you pay attention to the interesting bits I read (on the right of this blog), it will be no surprise that I am a big cheerleader for the web applications from Google. Google Calendar, Gmail and Google Reader are my favorite. They are simple, easy to use, and by definition available from anywhere. I have been experimenting with Google Notebook, Google docs and spreadsheets. One key feature missing from the Google products is working with lists [1].

At work (even at home), I have a little notebook. Most of the entries are in the form of a list: to-do items, shopping lists, meeting notes in the form of bullet items. OmniOutliner is closests to the ideal outliner. Unfortunately, it is only available for MacOS.

Techcrunch pointed me to a new startup iScrybe. From the introductary video, they differentiate themselves from other online doc webapps in two important ways:

• Lists: importing lists from a document, converting lists, adding to-do items to the calendar, take clippings from a website to add to your list.
  
• Papersync: the ability to print out your ideas, calendar and lists in a simple way
  to take with you.
  

Also the ability to work offline is very important.

Technorati: iScrybe Google Software as a service

It takes three languages to kill a forest

Local elections in Belgium were October 8. Two weeks later, I received the first paperwork for the national elections in the mail from the consulate in Los Angeles.

• One big envelope
• One page with three columns, discussing the elections. In three languages.: Dutch, French and German, the three national languages of Belgium.
  
• One forms to indicate how to vote (by mail, in person, in Belgium, etc.). Times three languages.
  
• One set of information about voting abroad, 2 pages, front and back. Times three languages.
• One form to indicate who can vote in your name. Times three languages.
• One booklet with all the towns and the language:
• N = Nederlandstalig (Dutch speaking)
• F = Franstalig (French speaking)
• D = Duitstalig (German speaking)
• N/F = tweetalig Nederland-Frans (Bi-lingual Dutch and French)
• Nf = Nederlandstalig + faciliteiten voor Franstaligen (Dutch speaking, with facilities for French speaking)
• Fn = Franstalig + faciliteiten voor Nederlandstaligen (French speaking, with facilities for Dutch speaking)
• Fd = Franstalig + faciliteiten voor Duitstaligen (French speaking, with facilities for German speaking)
• Df = Duitstalig + faciliteiten voor Franstaligen (German speaking, with facilities for French speaking)

My mother tongue is Dutch. So,
Geachte eerste minister,
Cher premier ministre,
Premierminister,
Dear prime minister,
Save your duplicate words,
Save your duplicate forms,
Save the trees.
Allow us to indicate a language of preference.

PS: While California prints the driver's license test in many many languages, they will only send you one booklet.

Ideal Cellphone specs

For the last few years, both my wife and I have been using a Sony Ericsson T637 cellphone. I originally selected it for its buil-tin Bluetooth, synchronization with MacOS X addressbook and iCal .
We got both phones as discounted rate with AT&T wireless when signing up for a 1 year contract. I am fine with the 1 year cellphone plan handcufs. That was until Cingular bought AT&T wireless. Automatically, our plans were transfered, as if nothing happened. Only the logo on the bill had changed. (I heard rumors that all AT&T contracts were void, and you could walk away without the cancelation penalty. I don't know if this was true or not.)

After the 1 year contract expired, I was on the look out for new contract. Cingular had been offering roll-over family plans, where unused minutes will automatically "roll-over" (accumulate). The catch: my cellphone was a locked phone. Locked for AT&T Wireless. Not Cingular. Thus, if I wanted Cingular to put me on another 1-year handcuf, I also needed to change my two perfectly functional phones. Cingular apparently doesn't care too much about the old AT&T Wireless customers, or they must feel their offering is superior enough that they can be a bit arrogant. So, I was putting out my wrists to slap me on another set of contract handcufs, and basically, they told me, "Don't forget to check out the handcufs (new cellphones) from the competitors first". That's exactly what I am doing.

Here is a list of my phone and plan requirements:

1. Good antena reception
   
2. Good sound quality
3. Easy to use: one, two clicks to read SMS messages; or to add a contact
4. Small enough to fit in my pocket (until now, I have preferred the bar-style cellphone over the flip phones)
5. Cheap add-on handsfree headset (wired is ok)
   
6. Optional: Easy synchronization with MacOS X (addressbook)
   
7. Free incoming SMS

I'm basically looking for a mobile PHONE (and not a gadget).

Non-requirements

1. The phone doesn't need to work all over the world
2. I do not care for AOL instant messenger or MySpace support
   
3. I do not care for a built-in digital camera or camcorder
4. Cellphones with screensavers should be forbidden by law, for environmental reasons
   

Any good suggestions or recommendations? Virgin mobile looks like a cost effective alternative.

---
Update (10/12/2006): I found a couple of interesting related articles from Om Malik

1. LinuxPhone - Mobile DIY
   
2. 10 Things that are wrong with telecoms

Visiting San Francisco

During the first summers in the Bay Area, there was a steady stream of visitors from Europe stopping by, traveling through the golden state. The couch. The floor. The empty second bedroom. One weekend, we must have had four couples sleeping over. Mandatory of course was a visit and tour of San Francisco. I got pretty good at knowing the city and build out a little tour. (Time permitting, I will plot this on a Google Map. In the meantime, I'll start adding directions and tidbits in this post.


View Larger Map

My little tour of San Francisco - driving directions
(still work in progress - visit back)

1. We enter San Francisco using highway 280. Keep going straight onto Junpero Serra Blvd (as opposed to crossing over the city to the bay side of San Francisco).
   
2. Follow Brotherhood Way towards the coast. (You'll make a hairpin turn at the point Hwy 280 ends)
3. Make left on Lake Merced Blvd and a right on John Muir Drv. You'll drive around Lake Merced, driving along the Olympic Club golf course.
4. Join Skyline Blvd shortly to make a left onto the Great Hwy (aka Ocean Beach).
   
1. You'll pass the San Francisco zoo on your right.
   
2. You'll pass 'doggy' as you look into Sloat.
   
3. Stop at the Beach Chalet for a sampler of their beer and read the story of Golden Gate Park downstairs in the Beach Chalet.
4. You'll see naked surfer butts getting into their wet suits on Ocean Beach. (Watch out for the Ocean Beach rip curl.)
5. Dutch heritage with the windmills at the entrance of Golden Gate Park
6. Stop at the Cliff house. You can overlook the first Spanish defenses of San Francisco
5. Coming through the turn onto Point Lobos Avenue, make a left onto El Camino Del Mar to get a great view of the Golden Gate bridge. (Better ones still coming up)
6. Turn back onto Point Lobos Avenue (= Geary)
7. Turn Left onto 34th Avenue to enter the Ledion of Honor Dr. You're among the San Francisco public golf course.
   
1. On top of the hill is the Palace of the Legion of Honor.
   
2. As you pass it Palace, you'll come across one of the better place to take a picture of the Golden Gate bridge. Watch out for angry golfers, if you decide to capture both the greens and the bridge. Since recent, there is at the end of the golf course and little vista point for tourists.
   
8. Continuing, you enter Sea Cliff, a very affluent neighborhood. Robin Williams calls/called this home.
   
9. Get onto Lincoln. Visit Baker Beach by making a left on Bowley st. Note that the far end of Baker Beach is a nude beach.
   
10. Continue on Lincoln, pass under highway 101 and make a left either to the Golden Gate Vista Point and/or onto Marine Drive to Fort Point. On the return from Fort Point, stop for a picnic at Crissy Fields, formerly the San Francisco airport and now restored to marsh land and a nice beach. This is also a great place to windsurf (for seriously experienced windsurfers as the water is quiet choppy near the bridge. Worse is the current in case you rip your sail.)
11. Continue back on Mason St. Near the merge with the Marina Blvd, you can visit the Palace of Fine Arts, as well as the Exploratorium The Lagoon near the Palace of Fine Arts is a great place for pictures. Also the San Francisco yacht club is nice to walk around. This area of town is called, the Marina.
    
12. At the end of Marina Blvd, when it turns into Laguna street, vist Fort Mason. You can climb the hill and end up on Van Ness Ave, or just drive around Fort Mason, via Bay Street, to end up Van Ness.
    
1. Visit the Acquatic Park
2. Visit the Cannery on Beach St
3. Observe the Hyde Street cable car turn around in old manual style.
   
13. [To be continued]
    

Technorati: San Francisco, California

New window of opportunity

Since a few weeks, I moved to a new office: one with a new window of opportunity. A pretty nice place, on the west side of the building. In front of my office are a few couches to hang out. Here are a few pictures:


Right in front of my office, at about 300-400 meter is another big office tower (McAfee). To the left, is a distant view of the San Jose skyline. The San Jose international airport is in between, so I see airplanes take off and land throughout the day.

On the right side (behind my monitor) is a view of Highway 101 and the Great America Parkway/Bowers off ramp. I typically close my blinds a bit. First of all, to dim the sunlight behind my monitor. Secondly, the traffic can be distracting. At the other hand, watching the slow traffic during the afternoon commute is entertaining. In the distant are the mountains of Cupertino.


The view during the night is impressive. I wonder how the view must be at level 9, where a new startup, Code Green Networks, recently moved in.

Sign of the times: meet me in Second Life

ABC News Nightline ends its broadcast with a little piece called Sign of the Times. A little interesting tidbit how things are changes. I got a Sign of the Times when reading the latest post on the Amazon Webservices Blog.

"PS - ..., yes I am still posting, evangelizing, and so forth. In fact I will be doing a presentation in Second Life on Tuesday night at a place called Info Island. If you are in Second Life and want to see me speak, please come by the open air auditorium at 5 PM. More info here."

Evangelism on steriods!

NetBeans

Over the last weeks, I have used Eclipse, Netbeans and Microsoft Visual Studio for my simple C, C++, Java and XML schema projects. May I stress simple.

Though Netbeans is the de facto IDE at Sun, many in Solaris land appear to be primarily vi and emacs users. Even though the Sun Studio compilers had a visual front end, few used it. On June 28th, Netbeans released a C/C++ development pack for Netbeans (aka CND) for download in Beta. Since then a second Beta added gdb debugging support.

I've come to like Netbeans a lot. It is now my primary IDE, although on occasion because of customer issues, I use Visual C++.

In Netbeans, things overall just work! Ok, in fairness, I did have to file a few minor bugs. However, I 've been impressed by the Netbeans community. Specifically by the response to those bugs or RFEs. Give CND it a try!

PS - You might also want to check out some interesting posts about Netbeans (versus Eclipse and others) from earlier this year: The Register ; Evans

Technorati: Netbeans

The new Google Reader

Last week, Google launched a new version of the Google Reader. For a long time, NetNewsWire was my RSS reader of choice. Unfortunately, my computer environment goes beyond MacOS X, so I wanted something online. I decided to give Google Reader a try for a few weeks and really liked it. Some of the flaws have been fixed in the update of last week. Here's a short list what sold me on Google Reader:

1. It's a web application, accesible from different hardware and operating systems.
   
2. Add clips to your website. The little left side pane 'Interesting Bits I read' is automatically generated from articles I read in Google Reader. All I have to do is label a particular article with a tag and it automatically shows up on the left side of my blog. Very nice.
   
3. Automatic feed discovery: just type in the URl and Google Reader will explore the site for available feeds
4. Tags: allow you organize feeds, as well as individual articles
5. Easy reading: (ajax-style) scrolling through your articles; keyboard shortcuts; read per tag; read starred articles
   

Other features (such as list view, a la Gmail; or the email button) are nice additional features. I haven't used them very much.