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So, it turns out that there is a big difference between Silicon Valley and Silicone Valley. That little "e" changes everything.

Anyway, last week was spent in the wonder world of start-ups, tech giants, VCs and communal delusion. We visited about 20 companies in 4.5 days. Some of the most interesting ones were Prosper, MobiTV, Akimbo, SugarCRM, 4info, TravelPost and vmWare. I wouldn't have thought it, but it's surprisingly tiring to wake up, shower, eat, drive around, sit in a board room, drive around, another meeting, more driving, eat again, more sitting, driving, meeting, shaking and driving.

Overall, the trip was not terribly exiting. Which is why I carried my camera in my backpack all week and never took it out. I have to mention that, almost without exception, the small companies were much more interesting than the big companies. Special mention should be given to Google, where we had a terrible snoozer of a meeting with one of their marketing guys. He didn't show us anything and generally avoided most of our questions.

Other than research for our paper on wireless technology, I got one important thing: I like shufflepuck. This is the game that is usually sitting in the corner of a bar, with little metal disks
that drunk guys usually fling around the play field, which is covered with sand-like particles. I played this game for the first time on Friday, and it turns out I'm pretty good at it. As evidence, here is a camera phone shot of one of my many four point scores:


If I could just get rid of the inclination to hit my own pucks off the play board, I could be a real force at this game.

On the home front, I installed a bird feeder on the rail on the deck in front of our living room window. This was mostly for Ally and Bo to enjoy the birds it should attract. Well, it turns out that the squirrels are just as keen on the seeds as the birds are.


This is a phone picture of Ally looking out the window at a squirrel taking seeds from the bird feeder. I think I'm going to have to come up with something different.