SF - more pictures

Techno Lust

I have seen a new UMPC (ultra mobile PC) in operation ... not only that I have held it in my hands. On the way to breakfast I noticed a young man writing, tablet style, on a device slightly larger than a novel. Yes, I know I shouldn't bother strangers, but he was kind enough to let me interrupt him - and then to show me his Fujitsu Lifebook UMPC. It's about a third of the size of my Fijitsu LifeBook Tablet PC (Moses for short) and has all its features - except for an onboard DVD/CD. It makes up for that by having about a gazillion connectors including 3 USB ports. I may have to wait for a while before I even seriously consider buying one - although if I wait long enough they might find a way to include mini Blu-Ray or bring the price of standalone DVD/CD's low enough to be feasible - plus they also have to work out how to make them the size of DVD case for ease of portability. Hmmm ... technology.

Dog's breakfast

It doesn't have to just be breakfast either, because there's a list of general items for your pet available 24/7 via In Room Service at the W San Francisco. And as I was having my breakfast coffee and pastry this morning in the Cafe, I was pleased to see a cute young dog with its human. Very civilized. Not quite sure where they might go walkies though - I might check to see if there are parks in the vicinity while I'm doing my sightseeing today.

More SF

I had a great day sightseeing and taking photographs in San Francisco today. The high point was Lombard (The Crooked) Street - which I chanced upon because I was trying to get to Nob Hill. But it was good - with tourists lining up to take photographs of other tourists going down Lombard Street.
I'll just post the pics now, and come back on comment later!

Another place - another post

Finally. It's been a while coming but it's been a big week - so it's nice to be able to spend the weekend in San Francisco before heading out to San Ramon for meetings there next week. This was the view from my bedroom window this morning - still haven't quite got the times right because I wasn't actually planning to see dawn in the City by the Bay, but I'm glad I did.
I arrived yesterday afternoon and took myself off on the Muni (public transport) to see what I could see. The Muni is good - you can ride for 2 hours for $1.50 and the buses and trolley cars go all over. I'm still to locate a map of which routes go where - it was fairly hit and miss yesterday but I wanted to see everything so it didn't really matter - but today I want to go to specific places. Hopefully I'll be able to track down a better map than I currently have.
So one of the things I did yesterday, apart from riding public transport, was to take a cruise on the Bay, out under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz (Island). It was a smallish boat but a wonderful way to get cold (the heat wave that had settled on California causing around 100 deaths has now moved to the East Coast) and wet. Unfortunately during a bag swap in a slightly over-tired and befuddled stated, I left my spare battery back at the hotel - and for the first time ever found myself with a flat camera battery and some great shots going missing. Torture ... made worse by the lack of capability of the camera in the mobile phone. D'oh. I may need to re-do the cruise tonight. Hope I can get the $10 ticket again.
Of course, San Francisco is not just about "the Bridge". There's also hills. It's hard to capture just how steep they are - that's one of the things I'll be attempting today. As we were sitting half-way up a hill at a bus stop yesterday, I found myself thanking the inventor of effective braking systems - and hoping that the Muni never skips on brake maintenance. It would be horrific to think about a fully loaded trolley car hurtling backwards down one of the hills. Hmmm. Of course, from that, it would come as no surprise to know that I woke at one point during the night thinking "now what do you do in case of an earthquake?" Especially when you're on the 19th floor. The hills of San Francisco are due to much seismic disturbance - the last big one being back in 1989.