Ramblings of a Dutchy in California

Friday Coffee Disaster

2010-01-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

Somebody had a bad start to their day. Entering an office building in the Washington D.C. area on a recent Friday I saw a cup of coffee that had hit the shiny floor, creating a puddle around it. The person who dropped the McCafe cup obviously didn't feel like cleaning up his or her own mess, the janitor apparently didn't either. Hence the sign, danger, coffee spill.

Avenida Amazonas - Quito, Ecuador

2009-12-30T09:36:00.001-08:00

The view from my office window temporarily changed recently as I worked a couple of days from the offices of Andean Travel Company in Quito, Ecuador. They're based in a colonial style-building on the Avenida Amazonas in the modern center of the city. Here is the view from my temporary office, a big change from the Silicon Valley view in Santa Clara, Calif. By the way, if you're going to Ecuador, the Galapagos, Peru or Bolivia, Andean Travel Company can hook you up. They're a full service agency.

Cartagena de Indias - Tourist Trap?

2009-12-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Colonial cities in Central and South America are treasures for tourists and many have been undiscovered by tourism. Granada and Leon, Nicaragua as well as Cuenca, Ecuador, are some of the places where tourism hasn't taken over. Strolling through those towns will make you feel like you've entered a different world.

Cartagena de Indias in Colombia is a bit of a different story. Yes, it is a beautiful and very special place with ancient walls around an historic center with narrow streets, colonial buildings, romantic squares and colorful bougainvillea growing everywhere. Here's a key statistic for the downside: the tiny historic center of Cartagena de Indias expects to get nearly 500,000 visitors from cruise ships alone in the 2009/2010 season.

The mass tourism has turned the gorgeous town into somewhat of a tourist trap, complete with people trying to sell souvenirs everywhere you walk or sit, pricey boutiques, mediocre restaurants with pushy runners, the obligatory horse drawn carriages and taxi drivers who try to get more money for the short trips you might take.

If you're prepared to deal with those minor hassles and don't mind seeing hordes of slightly overweight elderly people (mostly Americans) who travel in groups, following a guide and take pictures of a butterfly that landed on the hat of a fellow cruise tourist, you will be fine.

Despite the mass tourism, Cartagena de Indias is worth a visit and you will remember the gorgeous historic buildings, squares and streets. If I were to go back I'd plan to stay in the historic center and just spend two nights, with one full day, walking around the town, drinking coffee and snacking on local delicacies.

Here are some impressions of the town:

Beach Scenes At Boca Grande, Colombia

2009-12-21T13:41:00.001-08:00

Prepare to be assaulted the moment you set foot on Boca Grande Beach near Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. It is a physical assault, but not by gangsters or mobsters, instead by massage therapists looking to sell their services. They won't take "no" for an answer and will start massaging you even if you tell them to leave you alone. "Es un regalo" -- a present, they say. But before you know if you're getting the full massage and you will spend $10 or so being rubbed in with some cheap lotion. The massage isn't bad at all, quite good actually, but the assault is a bit of an experience.

The pushy massage therapists are just the start. Once you park yourself in a chair on the beach a veritable parade of peddlers will come by. You can buy sun glasses, towels, T-shirts, fruit plates, ceviches, full lunches, ice creams, beers, tours, smokes and more from your lazy position on the beach. It is quite comfortable to sit there, but don't think you will be left in peace for long. A tip, take a book and at least pretend to be reading from it and you will be left alone by the hawkers.

Here are some shots from the beach, taken by my dad "Latino" Benno

Stanford vs UC Davis

2009-12-14T08:39:00.001-08:00

The Stanford "Cardinals" handily beat the UC Davis "Aggies" on Sunday night. It is very rare for me to go see a sporting event, but I bought tickets so my visiting cousin from Holland could experience an American sports event. He loves basketball and he was very impressed with the size of the Maples Pavilion at Stanford as well as the game in general. One odd thing though, I bought tickets online and the only seats the Stanford Web site would sell me were high up, way in the back. I thought the game would be sold out, but there were plenty of seats near the court left. What's up with that?

12 Scams of Christmas

2009-12-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last week King 5 News (NBC) in Seattle discussed some of the scams cybercrooks are pulling around Christmas time. The segment was based on a McAfee pitch about some of the tricks we've seen online during the holidays. Many broadcasters around the nation and the world have paid attention to the topic, advising consumers how to be safe online while dealing with the stress of the season and trying to get the best deals for the wishlists they have to fill. The Seattle station interviewed me, the segment is below.

Christmas In The Park - San Jose

2009-12-10T14:49:00.001-08:00

Last night I stumbled upon a pretty cool display in downtown San Jose. All of the park on Plaza de Cesar Chavez has been turned into a Christmas display complete with tons of Christmas trees, decorations, caroling and fake snow. Here's an impression taken with my Blackberry camera.

Snow on Bay Area Mountains

2009-12-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

This morning Silicon Valley woke up to snowcapped mountains. That's quite a rare event, it happens only a few times a year. We got one of our main storms overnight and the temperature has been close to freezing. I heard one report that snow was coming down in the East Bay this morning and the drive across the Sunol Grade, which connects the East Bay with the Silicon Valley, was akin to a drive in the Sierra Nevada.

Dreary December Day At Golden Gate Bridge

2009-12-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

It is December in California too, so no more long hot sunny days, but a bit more frigid weather and, today, a chance of rain. I've got a visitor from Holland, so we walked the Golden Gate, looked at pelicans and sea lions. Always a hit!

Hacking License

2009-12-03T15:49:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I saw the first "Hacking License" I've ever seen. It didn't belong to someone licensed to break into computers. Instead, it was on display on the dashboard of a Virginia Yellow Cab.

The cabbie explained to me that the "Hacking License" is something that came from England where driving around looking for fares apparently was once called (or maybe still is called) hacking.

Being a former cabbie, I guess that makes me an ex-hacker :-) (I was a cabbie in Haarlem/Amsterdam/Schiphol during my college years.)

Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet

2009-11-28T07:39:00.001-08:00

Take a walk around the center of any Dutch city this time of year and you will run into Zwarte Piet and maybe Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus and his elves. Actually, the jolly ho-ho-ho-ing overweight Santa is based on the Dutch Sinterklaas. The physical resemblance is also obvious, though Sinterklaas is a skinny tall man (like most Dutchies.)

Zwarte Piet and Santa's elves have little in common, except their task to support their Saint. Zwarte Piet is typically a white man in black face, dressed kind of funny. One story is that Piet got black because of all the traveling up and down chimneys to deliver gifts to kids. However, it also has links back to slavery.

There are people in the Netherlands who call for and end to the tradition of Zwarte Piet because of its political incorrectness. However, tradition is strong and most Dutch seem to want to keep Zwarte Piet part of the annual Sinterklaas festivities. Sint and Piet arrive each year by steam engine ship into a Dutch town, a nationally televised event. They both leave quietly after December 6 when all Dutch families have unwrapped their gifts.

Here are some shots taken this weekend in Haarlem and Rijswijk, Netherlands.

Two Zwarte Pieten walk through the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem.

Zwarte Piet in a baker's store window in Rijswijk

Sinterklaas in the same bakery. The celebration usually includes lots of chocolate and marzipan.

Lunch in Sky Londa

2009-11-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about life in the San Francisco Bay Area is being able to escape urban sprawl and be in the country in minutes.

This Sunday a group of friends and I hiked in the Santa Cruz mountains on a great trail where we saw zero other hikers and only a few mountain bikers. The weather was so-so, but mist with some drizzle made the woods even more spectacular and smell great. We parked at Skeggs Point on Skyline and hiked into the open space preserve.

Afterwards we headed to the restaurant in the photo for a late lunch. It isn't really the middle of nowhere because they serve kobe beef burgers. All burgers are named after motorbikes as this place is frequented by bikers. I recommend the kobe BMW :)

Another great thing about the area, my hiking partners were from all over the world: Ireland, Italy, Germany and the US.

Socialism

2009-11-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

The corner of Stevens Creek and Winchester is one of the busiest intersections in San Jose, CA. The crossroads is the site of two of San Jose's major shopping areas, Westfield Valley Fair and Santana Row.

View Larger Map

Every weekend protesters come to the intersection carrying banners, advocating for peace, for a certain political candidate or whatever other cause. I have seen protests for and against gay marriage, for and against George Bush's administration and for and against Barack Obama.

On my drive home from work last week I saw one of the largest groups of protesters I have seen on the intersection, especially on a weekday. Most of the people were protesting for health care reform, but a few were against.

One sign had a faded image of Barack Obama with sickly reddish lips. Under the scary image was printed the word: Socialist.

Socialism in the U.S. is a bad word, even for those left of center. To some, folks more on the right, "socialism" is almost as evil as Osama bin Laden. Does that go back to fear of communism and the propaganda of McCarthy? It might.

Being from Western Europe this is all foreign to me. All of Western Europe is filled with Social Democrats and people are perfectly happy there, happier than most are here, if you follow polls and surveys like those done by the UN.

Socialism comes in many forms and isn't evil or by default anti anything that has to do with capitalism. There's a happy median that can and should be found. No country should leave its people perish without health care, especially the world's richest nation. The U.S. is still growing up and coming of age. Taking care of the people in the country should be part of that, instead of the old Wild West principal of every man for himself.

I pay taxes in the US. I am happy to pay taxes--and even to pay more in taxes--as long as the money goes to support things I can stand for. That would include health care for everyone and a good educational system as well as safe airports, public transit and good roads. It would exclude certain military operations or funding continued efforts by the US to remain the world's cop.

Adding a few socialist principles to the U.S. system won't upset the American Way or American Dream. It is an evolution, not a revolution. Try it, you might like it.

Go Mama

2009-11-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

A sculpture on California Ave. in Palo Alto.

McAfee's Office From The Sky

2009-10-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

I know, electronic devices are supposed to be off on take off. I had to take a shot of the McAfee office when flying over it on my way to Chicago.

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

2009-10-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

As part of the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival I saw "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" last night. The documentary played in a large theater and the room was nearly filled to capacity. The audience audibly enjoyed the show, laughing, commenting, sighing at many points in the movie. I really enjoyed the look into the life of one extraordinary family in West Virginia. Unfortunately, I must say, too many people in Europe and outside of the U.S. think all Americans are like the Whites because of films like this and daytime TV shows like Jerry Springer. Still, as long as one realizes that this isn't the norm by any means, the movie is great entertainment as well as a reminder that some parts of American society are troublesome. Highly recommended.

Spun Out On 101

2009-10-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Rain in California means a mess on the roads. Right outside my office window is highway 101, the artery of Silicon Valley. The driver of this pick up truck is not having a good day, he spun out and lost a wheel and has been standing in the middle of the freeway, awaiting emergency services, for 10 minutes or so.

Leaving Las Vegas

2009-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

It has been an action packed week at McAfee's FOCUS 09 Security Conference with over 90 sessions, six keynote sessions and, for the first time, a press and analyst event. It was a lot of work, but a great reward to see that it all came together. I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Best Fish Tacos in San Jose

2009-09-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

This somewhat nondescript place on Bascom Ave in central San Jose sells the best fish tacos I've had. It is also conveniently close to home, lucky me!

The place, Dia the Pesca, is on a parking lot and serves out of a disguised "roach coach." They've turned the lot into a haven with planters and tables and chairs.

People rave about the place on Yelp. I concur wholeheartedly. I don't like the somewhat cheesy "Si Food" references they make though (and I do speak Spanish.)

Real Estate Sales Shenanigans

2009-08-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I have been looking for a house to buy. It seems that the market has bottomed out, or may already be riding a small upward slope. Today I went to another open house, this one was different that any other I have been to.

The house is a three bedroom, two bath, 1200 square foot ranch style home on a 7,000 square foot lot with a decent pool in a West San Jose neighborhood, near Campbell. It is listed for $300,000, which is unheard of in these areas for a nicely maintained house. That's exactly where the catch is.

The house was open on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and it was a real circus when I was there on Sunday. Throngs of people clogging the halls, rooms and yard. The neighbors probably were upset as well since their quiet streets were turned into a parking lot with cars coming and going.

Inside the house the selling realtor--a short-tempered, middle-aged man dressed in a suit--was barely able to manage the crowd. He didn't really spend time answering questions about the property, instead he handed out forms and sternly instructed people to fill out initial offers on the spot, before 4 PM.

It seems the Silicon Valley housing market has gone crazy again. My current representing realtor, Chisholm Gentry, said he hadn't seen this type of gross underpricing of the house to get people in the doors in his many years on the job. "If you put it on the market for $1 it will sell," he said, noting that this tactic doesn't make sense even in the current market.

I wrote down an initial offer, but I don't really expect it will go anywhere. On to the next open house.

Cloud's Rest in Yosemite NP

2009-08-16T14:57:00.001-07:00

This Saturday I did one of my favorite things in one of my favorite places: a day hike in Yosemite NP.

The hike from the Sunrise Lakes trail head to Cloud's Rest is about 7 miles and you hike the same way back, making it a good 14 mile trek. The scenery is spectacular and the view from the top of Cloud's Rest onto Yosemite Valley and Half Dome is awesome. A highly recommended hike!

TV Interviews via Skype

2009-08-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

In the past two days I have been interviewed twice for U.S.-based broadcast outlets via Skype. While the video quality isn't quite as good as when it is shot onsite or in a studio, it is sufficient and TV stations do use it. I've been told that Oprah has been doing Skype interviews for over a year now.

Video interviews via Skype make a lot of sense as they save the stations time and money. Traditionally the stations drive a crew out to the office or the interviewee has to go down to a local studio. This costs time and can cost expensive studio and satellite fees.

Now, for little money and time investment at all, KRON in San Francisco and 11Alive in Atlanta had a McAfee security expert on TV when they wanted it. I am sure this will happen more in the future. You can see the clips below:

11Alive, Atlanta:

KRON 4 San Francisco:

Farmers And Fishermen of Cambodia

2009-07-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

Going to Cambodia is like going through a timewarp. Life has not changed for hundreds of years for many Cambodian families. Over 80 percent farm their own piece of land or fish. They own a water buffalo or other animal to help them (if they farm) or a simple canoe and some netting, or even simply a net and a bucket, if they fish. It is a very sobering experience to visit Cambodia and see the true simple life.

Pirated Software In Cambodia

2009-07-10T05:59:00.000-07:00

Need to get a copy of Windows or Office, it costs only $3 in Cambodia. Same for a disc filled with the latest McAfee applications. One thought though, the Business Software Alliance has done some tests around the world and has found that pirated software is often infested with malware.

Sunset Over Bangkok

2009-07-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

A gorgeous view over Bangkok from the top of the Millennium Hilton Hotel's Executive Lounge terrace on the 32nd floor.