A WholeMeal

This week, I was on business in Fair Fax (Fair Lakes), Virginia. It was the first time I visited Virginia. I spent three days in the Fair Fax area. On the last evening, I made the 45 minute drive into Washington D.C. to see the squeeky clean center and the national monuments.

During the day, I went for lunch with the team of the company I was visiting. In the evening, I was on my own. On the way to my hotel, I decided to stop for a bottle of sparkling water at Whole Foods in Fair Lakes. It is always an experience to walk into Whole Foods. This one was wonderful and very spacious, unlike the cramped Whole Foods stores in the Bay Area. While strolling around, I noticed a lot of people were dining inside Whole Foods. I am not referring to the tables at the end of the checkout, where you can eat the food you just bought inside the store. No, in the middle of the stores, at various locations, you find tables and chairs, or a counter to sit at.

I ate tuna prepared with miso and sesame seeds in the middle of store and right in front of the fresh fish counter. The food was delicious, made right in front of me. The scenery is fun: people strolling by, grocery shopping. The price is like a medium priced restaurant ($15 I believe). A nice detail is that there is a no tipping policy. ("We already get paid enough by WholeFoods", the waitress told me.)

The next day, I checked out the meat counter. Pork is smoked right in front of you. This is a great idea. I will keep my WholeFood shares a little longer.

Premium Passengers

You've read it before: everybody is equal; just some are more equal than others. This was especially obvious when you have to go through airport security. I snapped this picture at Washington Dulles Airport (IAD). But I've seen similar signs at San Francisco Airport (SFO). The plebs is separated from the Premium Passengers into shorter and special lines when approaching airport security. The only thing missing is a red carpet for the "premies" so their feet don't get cold when taking of their shoes. I thought airport security was run by the federal government, and not by the airlines.

Among space engineers

I just returned from the Infotech@Aerospace conference in Rohnert Park. It is small conference (about 300 people), especially compared to the big (~15000 people) JavaOne conference going on concurrently downtown San Francisco. The location of the Infotech conference was wonderful: at the end of Sonoma Wine Country. The evening smooze fest was a nice wine tasting of small wineries (which loosened the tongues a bit).

The conference is organized by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), of which I am a member. I presented a paper on Standards-Based Plug-and-Play Data Distribution, and the work we are doing with plug-and-play research satellites.

The conference is much different from an OracleWorld, JavaOne or FooCamp. Some differences:

1. You'll see a lot of gray hair and hear quiet a few stories about building the real-time kernel for the Space Shuttle. Budget cuts must have killed a lot of (young) aerospace companies.
   
2. Suits are in. Plus you'll run into the occasional military uniform, both US as foreign military.
   
3. You'll find presentators from the big university laboratories at Carnegie Mellon, MIT Lincoln Labs, Jet Propulsion Lab, Utah State University Space Software Lab.
   
4. Many of the space engineers run one person consultancies, subcontracted to these big labs and NASA programs.
   

waffletchnlgy

When I was looking for an internet pseudonym to obfuscate my identity, I came up with 'waffletchnlgy'. After all, I am from Belgium (and I do like waffles). Furthermore, I am a geek working on computer technology. I don't recall the exact instant messenger program, but one of them had a character limitation. So I stripped out the vowels from the technology part. Yes, I admit it is geeky. Thanks to Laughing Squid I found the appliance to go with the name. I introduce to you: "waffle-technology".

Coffeehouse Investor

I recently finished reading a small book by Bill Shultheis called "The Coffeehouse Investor". It reads easy and is written in a conversation style. The moral of the book is (1) to ignore Wallstreet: they only make money when there is movement in the market and (2) use a simple index investing style: don't try to outsmart the market. Make sure you at least match the market. For a preview of the three key principles of investing: outlined in the book, check out its website: http://coffeehouseinvestor.com/
The name of the book is based upon a weekly gathering of friends in a coffeeshop.
There are only two things puzzling about the book: (a) How did the author get out the door to have a coffee on a rainy Seattle Saturday morning at 5:45am (!) and (b) How did he convince his friends to join him.