An alumni dinner with IDGNS

That's not a school, that's IDG News Service, the world's only 24-hour dedicated technology news wire.

I have many good memories from my years at IDG News Service, from covering large conventions with fellow IDGNS-ers in Las Vegas (Comdex, CES) and Germany (CeBIT) to working with some great colleagues in a virtual global newsroom.

The jet setting team landed in San Francisco this week for the annual IDGNS off-site meeting. Editors Elizabeth, James and Marc invited old-timers Elinor, Nial and myself to dinner. We had fabulous Burmese food at Burma Superstar on Clement Street, recommended by Elinor. (If you go, arrive early, it does fill up.)

Victory for journalism: McCracken back at PC World

In a move that's great for journalism everywhere, Harry McCracken is back as editor-in-chief of PC World. McCracken suddenly quit last week after a clash with PC World CEO Colin Crawford, who will now leave PC World and rejoin the management team at IDG, PC World's parent, as executive vice president for online.

McCracken resigned on April 30 after Crawford refused to allow publication of a story entitled "10 Things We Hate About Apple." The PC World veteran said that the story was pulled because Crawford was worried about the impact it would have on Apple advertising. The story is now running on PCWorld.com.

PC World is continuing its search for a new CEO to lead PC World and Macworld. Leaders with high integrity are encouraged to apply :-)

Power shopping

Because I am starting a new job soon, my friend Jessica offered to help me shop for some new clothes. She likes dressing up people, she said, and has done it many times before. So, why not, I thought.

The experience ended up being unlike any other shopping experience in my life.

It is a good thing we shopped on Monday night. That meant we had the stores essentially to ourselves. First we went to Banana Republic, which was pretty mellow, probably because it is not that huge.

But after entering the Macy's Men's Store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto Jessica stormed all the racks. She methodically went from area to area looking at shirts and pants and would load my arms with whatever item she thought would look good on me.

The store attendants would empty my arms every now and then and start stocking a dressing room. I'd also grab a shirt that could look good on occasion and add it to the pile.

After scouring the entire ground floor of men's designer clothing, it was time to try some of the collection on. I remember stores with limits on the number of items you could bring to the fitting rooms. If Macy's has a rule like that, we definitely broke it. There were at least 20 shirts (long and short sleeved) and a half-dozen pair of pants (jeans and dress pants).

In a race against the clock--Macy's was closing in 15 minutes--I tried on all of the clothes and discovered that there should be more hangers and shelves inside the Macy's dressing rooms for people who shop like this.

A selection was quickly made by Fashion Judge Jessica and clothes were discarded or put on the buy pile. When at the register, with lights already being switched off inside the store and the doors being locked, Jessica asked me to try on one more shirt. I did, but it was see-through, so not my thing. (No time to try on undershirts.)

Several hundred dollars and a Macy's card membership later I was outside with a full Macy's bag and some free hangers. My wardrobe is now well stocked with new clothes.

Babies "R" Us

Saturday morning, 10.00 am, Redwood City, CA. I pulled up outside the Babies "R" Us just after it opened. Today I am being introduced to a special piece of American culture: the baby shower.

The event is this afternoon in San Jose, but like all such parties it requires bringing at least one gift. Colleagues suggested the gift should cost between $30 and $40. Since the mom-to-be's birthday was just a day before the baby party, I decided that a bigger gift was in order.

It was a good thing that I arrived early. The Babies "R" Us is cavernous! Luckily there was technology to help me out. A computer placed right after the store entrance let me print my friend's five page "baby registry." (They seem to have gift registries for everything in this country, and this time I was really happy they did!)

Next up was trying to find some items on the list in the store. A scavenger hunt! An entire wall full of diaper bags had me perplexed. They all seemed to be olive green in color and all of the Eddie Bauer brand. So I ambushed an employee busy stocking some other baby items and she helped me out. I found the bag, I found a mirror for in the car and a set of "receiving blankets," another new term for me.

The gifts were a hit. But even after four years here I haven't learned that one is also expected to put a card on the gifts, even if you give it in person--no surprise Hallmark is so big. So I wrote on the wrapping paper that the gifts came from me and slipped my friend the gift receipt (which otherwise could be placed with the card in the envelope--there's a purpose!).

I had heard of silly baby shower games like measuring the belly with toilet paper and tasting baby food. Sounded like fun, somewhat. But we didn't play any of those. Instead, we played a game of the price is right with baby items and charades with baby-related term.

Another game was a quiz with questions on American nursery rhymes. No surprise that I didn't know any of the answers. We also had a raffle, I won some cookies from Hawaii. Those will be shared at work this week :-)

It was a fun look into U.S. culture. I can learn to like these baby showers. Pizza and tortilla chips + dip were served as well as a giant cake with a thick layer of icing. (My teeth and I prefer Princess Cake with delicate marzipan as a topping.)

I ended the day playing Xbox 360 with some of the kids. They had a lot of fun beating me at all of the games, though I did beat a 6-year-old on a racing game.

My cousin & El Presidente

It took me a while to get my hands on this photo, which was taken on Dec. 31, 2006 at a New Year's party in Quito.


You see my cousin Jaap and his friend Ewoud embracing Rafael Correa, Ecuador's then president-elect. Since then, Correa has taken office and has the country by storm. He has made true on all of his promises to the public. (At least that's what my dad tells me, and he's a big fan.) Most recently the public overwhelmingly backed Correa in a referendum for a special assembly to rewrite the country's constitution.

PC World EIC Resigns

For two years I worked only a few feet away from Harry McCracken's office at the IDG building on 501 2nd Street in San Francisco. Harry has been with PC World forever, he's an icon and much-loved by the people who work on the magazine. But now he's gone.

From what I hear Harry resigned on Wednesday over a dispute with senior management at PC World regarding an online story about Apple. The story, headlined "Ten Things We Hate About Apple," would have irked a major advertised and was pulled.

"I spent 12 years at PC World; it's been incredibly good to me," McCracken told my colleague Tom Krazit at CNET News.com.

Wired's Kim Zetter broke the news on Harry's departure. She writes that IDG executive Colin Crawford told editors that product reviews in PC World were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers.

I commend Harry. It takes guts to make such a move. He's taking one for the team and I hope PC World and IDG executives realize that editorial integrity is a big thing. If you let that go, your readership will find out and soon you won't have anyone buying your magazines or going to your Web site. After that the advertisers will be gone as well.

Earthquake!

Another one I didn't feel, though this one was probably closer than any previous temblors. According to the U.S. Geological Survey there was a magnitude 3.0 quake in Berkeley this morning. I'm in the South of Market district in San Francisco, near the Bay Bridge on the sixth and top floor of the CNET building. Some co-workers said the blinds were swinging. I didn't notice anything, sitting on my chair and typing away while listening to the Counting Crows. Maybe I'll feel the next one. (Being careful though what I wish for.)