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Pacific Northwest Tour: Whidbey Island

In my five years living in Seattle, I’ve visited many parts of the Pacific Northwest, but still haven’t made it to some of the most talked-about areas.  Last weekend I decided to day trip to one of those places – Whidbey Island – and I wasn’t disappointed.

I drove north of Whidbey Island on I-5 and came down onto the island across Deception Pass.  When I first arrived, heavy fog blanketed the area.  I couldn’t see one end of the bridge from the other or anywhere close to the water below me.  By the time I hiked a couple hours through Deception Pass State Park, though, the fog had lifted.  These two shots capture the change pretty well:

The area is simply beautiful.  The water was blue and clear and the islands make an excellent backdrop.

I drove south from Deception Pass to Ebey’s Landing, the start of another hike I’d like to take in the future.  By now the weather was perfect and the Olympic peninsula and mountain range made for a great backdrop.  I didn’t see any whales surfacing but hopefully will on another trip.

I kept driving south through the island and took the ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo and back to Seattle to finish a great day (with a stop at Albertson’s for my favorite summer beer: Kona Brewery Longboard.  Kona also makes my favorite winter beer: Pipeline Porter).

Check out the rest of my photos here.

Photo Touch-Ups

I’ve started using Lightroom to manage my photos and tweaked a few from my hike on Mt. Pilchuk.  I’m not sophisticated about it at all, but I’m learning.  I think they look pretty good.  Here’s a favorite:

Bing it!

Bing has received some great press recently, and I thought I’d share this one from TechCrunch. 

If you haven’t tried Bing yet, you should.  They do a great job for all queries and an excellent job for certain types.  For example, try ‘american airlines’ or ‘bmw’.  You’ll find categories of results to help you find exactly what you need.

Bing Travel is my favorite, though.  Search for a flight and it’ll tell you whether to buy or wait based on its prediction of how prices will change.  You can then subscribe to email alerts for that search so you know when to buy.  It’s incredibly helpful.

And the homepage pictures are simply beautiful.  I love seeing the image each day and learning a few new things.  Here’s a recent one…

IE8 Developer Tools Resources

I created a new page on the IE8 developer tools.  I plan to use it as a quick landing page for finding all the different resources out there, from demo videos and MSDN documentation to user tips and tricks.

If you know of good resources or have tips and tricks to share, let me know and I’ll add them!

Download IE8!

Today we launched IE8 at MIX!  It’s been an amazing cycle and I think it’s an excellent product.

Try it now: www.microsoft.com/ie8. 

Speaking at MIX09 on Web Performance

Next week Microsoft hosts MIX09 in Las Vegas. As Pete wrote about on the IE Blog, IE will have a big presence, including a presentation I’m giving:

For anyone who’ll be there, stop by and say hi. For those of you who can’t, I’ll post afterward and link to a recording.

BREAKING NEWS: Catholics and Atheists disagree!!!

Shocking!

Not really.

While the title of this article tries to make it seem controversial, it’s not surprising that Christians – who by definition believe Christ is God – don’t agree with atheists who don’t believe any deities exist.

The part of the article I like is that the Cardinal is clear that science, and particularly evolution, is not at odds with Catholicism.  The only part he called “absurd” is the idea that evolution proves there is no God which says nothing about the validity of the theory of evolution.  And I agree with his statement, if only because proving there is no God is just as absurd as proving there is a God.

It’s where that pesky “faith” thing comes in.

Finally a solution for complicated remote controls

Great find by Gizmodo:

 
Fixing Stupidity: Cheap User Interface Hack Finally Solves TV Remotes Stupidity

Evolutionary or Revolutionary?

Sarah Lacy’s TechCrunch post on the future of the Web sparked some thought on evolutionary versus revolutionary changes.  She discusses how the rate of innovation within an area decreases over time and questions if the Internet’s peak innovation rate is behind us.  I think she’s right about the general rule, but “the Web” is too large to follow it and like all important life lessons, this one’s part of a classic movie: Back to the Future II.

I’ve always enjoyed watching depictions of the future since they usually focus on evolutionary changes.  In Back to the Future II, the house in 2015 showed fax machines everywhere.  That made sense at the time: take the technology you have and expand it.  But clearly the future looks a little different.  I guess you can say fax machines followed the path of slowing innovation, but communications technology certainly didn’t.  I think it’s more likely that parts of the Web are past their prime rate of innovation, but the Web as a whole is simply too broad and powerful to follow the same path. 

I find it more interesting to think about how deep change frequently comes from completely new ideas rather than simply expanding on what exists today.  It’s why research, even when its ultimate use to society is unknown, is critical.  A great example is the microwave: if you gave someone unlimited funds to improve the conventional oven, you’re more likely to to build the world’s best conventional oven than the microware.  Sometimes the best innovations happen when you’re not looking for them. 

London Part 2: Tower of London, Shopping, Nightlife, and Rugby

After several months, I’m finally getting around to writing about the rest of my trip.

Tower of London

Before my trip I heard mixed reviews on the Tower of London.  Some called it a must-see and others said it was clearly overrated.  I found the truth somewhere in between. 

The tour guides are Tower guards, or Yeoman Warders, who meet strict qualifications (22 years honorable military service, for example) and live in the Tower with their families where they’re locked in each night.  Primarily hired to protect the Queen and the crown jewels, they also give excellent tours and have wonderful senses of humor.  You may recognize their uniforms from a popular liquor:

Turns out the gin gets its name from the guards who are nicknamed “beefeaters” because of their traditionally large rations of beef.

Shopping

After spending several days sightseeing, I needed to relax, and I did so by walking around some of the nice neighborhoods and doing a little shopping.  The stores throughout the entire city are incredible, from Harrod’s to Hemley’s.  While the exchange rate was better for the US Dollar than it has been for years, it was still expensive so I didn’t make too many purchases but found a couple nice things and gifts for some friends.  Not surprisingly, if you’re a shopper you’d love London and probably spend more than a day on it.

Here’s Harrod’s…

…a life-size Lego model of Indiana Jones, and a shot of a great shopping area:

Nightlife

London and Barcelona couldn’t be more different when it comes to nightlife.  Barcelona doesn’t start partying until after midnight while London is closed by then except for a few areas of clubs taking advantage of the recent law change that lets them stay open past 11.  However, the same places that are empty by 11pm are packed from 5 until 9.  People come straight from work for a few pints regardless of the day of the week.

And the pubs are great.  Fish and chips, stews, beer…what’s not to like?  

I spent one night out late at a bar/club and met a fun group of people.  They were out for a work party and wearing costumes.  Of course, they didn’t call it a costume party; they were in “fancy dress”. 

I also went to the theater.  I had trouble choosing one play given the endless choices and finally settled on Rain Man.  I figured I’d see something I couldn’t easily see in the US (at least not yet) and it starred someone I knew – Josh Hartnett.  Unfortunately he was sick that night and while they’d gladly exchange tickets for another night, I was leaving soon so I just saw it anyway.  The theater was beautiful and the performance was excellence.  Adam Godley did an amazing job as the rain main .  He’s not quite Dustin Hoffman but for a live performance he was spectacular.

Rugby

Saturday was probably the highlight of my trip.  A college friend who lives in London found tickets to the England/South Africa rugby match.  I’ve seen rugby on TV and watched a few matches in college, but had never seen anything like this.  Twickenham Stadium, the dedicated Rugby stadium and second largest stadium of any kind in the UK, was filled to it’s 82,000-person capacity.  The atmosphere was electric, although more so before the home team started losing badly, the fans were friendly and fun, and they served Guinness and fish-and-chips  Again: what’s not to like?

While the game wasn’t great for England, I’ve built an appreciation for the sport.  It’s physically demanding, fast-paced, and fun to watch.  I need to learn more about strategy but even without background I enjoyed it tremendously.

London is now near the top of my list of favorite places.  The best word I have for it is approachable.  Between the people, the transportation, and the endless activities, I never felt lost or overwhelmed, even in such a large city.  It’s a place I’ll always be happy to visit.