I wanted to try out a scenario I have been desiring for a while now so I took my new xo to yerba buena gardens, got on the free wifi and did a little browsing, capped off by this post. One of the reasons I got the xo was that it has a screen with great outdoor readability.

Aside from the screen, it also is small, has great battery life, strong wifi reception and is designed to take some abuse. Of course, olpc is a great idea so I hope the recipient of my donor laptop is enjoying it somewhere in the world.

More on the xo once I get to use it a bit more.

I've had a few WM phones and while they have all done a decent job in the utility department, they have always lacked a few key features which kept them from mobile phone perfection.  The iPhone is probably the device that is closest to my perfect cellphone but it too lacks key features that I need and ultimately the Blackjack wins for the corporate scenarios.  My dream phone would have:

• A regular headphone jack with no adapter needed
• Charging and syncing via mini-usb
• Wifi
• Bluetooth - The usual Bluetooth profiles plus A2DP & AVRCP
• GPS
• A touch screen that doesn't require a stylus
• Physical keys - ideally QWERTY text entry or tactile touch screen
• Good high resolution screen that is visible in daylight
• Quad band GSM w/ HSDPA or HSUPA (UMTS extra credit)
• A 3MP camera
• microSD
• Exchange ActiveSync with all the corporate IT functionality
• A music playback experience that doesn't suck

This basically amounts to a work hard + play hard phone.

Today Microsoft and Sony-Ericsson announced a partnership resulting in the Xperia X1 which has all of the above.  Engadget Mobile did a quick review and I am pretty impressed.  We'll have to see what the build quality and form factor is like when held in my hand but I am officially holding off on my prospective purchase of a new WM device until I have a chance to play with one of these.

Previous WM phones I have owned are the Audiovox SMT 5600 and the Samsung Blackjack.  The SMT 5600 was a great device for its time but times have changed.  The Blackjack has a nice feature set but it has a really poorly-designed proprietary connector for headphones/sync/charging, bad audio quality, bad build quality (I'm on my 3rd and it is having problems), flaky Bluetooth and barely sufficient battery life.  Its saving graces are the compact QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA support, rubberized skin and scroll wheel.

Hillary Clinton: Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Wesley Clark - political heavy hitters of the 90s.

Barack Obama: Campaign workers, youth, diversity - New face of politics.

Rudy Giuliani: Typical 9/11 fare - Did I mention 9/11?

Mike Huckabee: Chuck Norris.  What?  Read the facts.

The Blue Angels returned to San Francisco for Fleet Week this weekend and as with anything military or fuel-burning, it was met with controversy and a move by the board of supervisors to ban it.

Nonetheless, I took a few photos of them and was lucky enough to catch them in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The traffic getting back was a nightmare however.  Too bad the board of supervisors didn't arrange for a ton of public transit to and from the prime viewing areas.

Kudos to the Giants and San Francisco Opera for putting on opera at the ballpark last week.  There's something to be said for enjoying garlic fries and a beer while watching Samson and Delilah. 

It was also neat to see the full moon rising above the outfield.  My camera phone photo doesn't do it justice.

Here's a little tip for your career thanks to Sen. Craig of the infamous restroom sex scandal.  Don't speak before you think.  Of course, Sen. Craig is a great example of what NOT to do in this case.

MSNBC has a story about Sen. Craig possibly changing his resignation.  First he pleaded guilty but claimed he was innocent.  Then he resigns effective later this month.  Now he's reconsidering the resignation.

I wonder what's next...

I think I've made this claim several times over so we'll see if it sticks this time around.  I'm not going to have the bandwidth to post daily but I'll try to get back on the rails with posting at least once per week.

Blogging takes time and since I mostly do this to record my thoughts and make no money on it, it's not a high priority for me.

To all those who serve our country and their families, thanks.

Boing Boing points to a Milwaukee Journal article about a Harley hearse.  Only in Milwaukee.

The Golden Gate Bridge turned 70 today.  I remember a brochure my dad found from my grandparents' house.  They drove out to California on their honeymoon at the time that the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate bridge were being built.  I'm sure that it was built in less time than it took to fight court injunctions and hearings for the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

(Warning: retroblog post)

Tonight I saw Dave Brubeck at Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco.  Dave is one of the jazz greats and I have always wanted to see him perform live.  As a drummer, his Time Out album is one of those things you must own.  For those who don't know the album, it features non-traditional time signatures and its hit, Take Five, was in the background on The Sopranos the week before.  If you don't know Take Five, well, you're missing out.  At any rate, there were two standouts in the evening.  The first was the drum solo by Randy Jones.  I'm not sure how old he is but the guy is much older than I am and he really smoked.  Drum solos are oftentimes sources of cheap applause but this guy's solo was unbelievable and deserved the loud applause it got.  He fell into this theme and would keep coming back to it, building and layering each time.

Of course, the second highlight was Dave Brubeck.  There are few living jazz artists left with the cultural impact he has had.  According to Wikipedia he is now 86 but the amount of life he had onstage defied his age.  During the performance he was calling out to the other band members while comping, laughing and having a great time in general.  His chops seemed as good as they ever have been.  He had a few words for the audience and you could witness his age in his speech and in his cadence as we walked across the stage.

One other minor funny thing was a moment when the band leader for the big band, featured in the second half of the program, announced a song that incorporated some elements of Count Basie and someone in the audience yelled out "Hell yeah!"  I don't think I've ever seen a shout out for Count Basie.  He's one bad ass MF.  Jazz is alive!

The whole show was excellent and aside from the musical talent of the performers and historical significance, it was a great testament to the dichotomy of age (an odometer) versus experience (condition of the car).  I hope I can play drums when I'm 86.  Roy Haynes, another great drummer I saw years back at Stanford in his upper 70s, proves it's possible.