This one was a freebie from work, as we were traveling to meet with a large customer in Silicon Valley. Normally I wouldn't count business travel as a trip, but as we only had one day of meetings there was enough free time to enjoy the city. Additionally, the customer is awesome to work with, and my boss lives in SF, serving as a dedicated local guide.

After checking in at the Intercontinental hotel downtown, I made a beeline for the California Academy of Sciences, which had recently opened and contains a great aquarium. They have one of the largest indoor coral reefs, and I had visited their temporary facility and coral aquaculture center the last time I was in SF.

Labels: Aquarium, Photos, The Monthly Trip

This year I am attempting to go on at least one trip per month for the entire year. It may be as short as a road trip to a ski mountain, or as far away as I can afford to go on a jet, but hopefully I will have managed to get somewhere interesting one every month. As Liz Lemon would say, I want to go to there.

January started off with eight days in the Dominican Republic. I've been here several times before, but this year we tried a new hotel, Excellence Punta Cana. Adults only and low key, it was a relaxing trip with typically perfect Caribbean weather. As is our custom, not much happened beyond daily migrations between the beach and the pool, reading, drinking and eating. After the holidays and a few months of New England winter, you don't really need much else.









More photos here.

Labels: Domincan Republic, Photos, The Monthly Trip, Vacation

A good open letter from the guys at Plex to the media companies. Obviously I share most of their sentiments.

Dear Media Companies,

I’m really beginning to think that things between us won’t work.

I have to admit that I’ve been cheating on you for a while now. I’ve been spending time with USENET. She’s old, she’s unattractive, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with her, but she does offer me one simple thing that you don’t: unencumbered access to ad-free media.

Plex is a free media center application for OS X, based on the Xbox Media Center code. A similar project is Boxee, which seems to get a lot more attention and press. Having tried both, I can say I prefer Plex. But really, having a choice between two awesome media center applications that are under active development, who can complain?

Labels: internet, Links, Video