Black Friday 2009

Amidst a struggling economy and growing concerns that another slum is right around the corner, retailers once again slash prices this day after Thanksgiving, opening even earlier than previous years: JC Penny at 4am, Gilroy outlet mall at midnight, and listen to this, Old Navy on Thanksgiving day itself. Best Buy, promised to offer incredible deals, opens at 5am attracts campers as earlier as 10am the day before.

I joined the crowd at Fry's Electronics at Osgood Road, Fremont, California amid police detour and a line of 100 people at 4:45am. Free after rebate items are practically non-existent this year. GPSes lined the walls but drew little interest. Flying off the shelves, HDTVs remain the favorite this holiday season - people were still lining up for them as late as 6am.

The line at Fry's is long even before dawn

People show up in warm gear, the entrance is round the corner at the far side of the building (not visible from here)

Police had barricaded off the side streets

Nearby retail giant Walmart offered discounts on low end items and shoppers filled the enormous parking lot to the last spot. Off brand 32" LCD went for a pityful $300 and the crowd was loving it.

Walmart's lot was completely full

I don't blame him for showing up in his pajamas, it was real early

Home improvement stores like Lowes, Home Depot and OSH didn't fare so well. Customers were scant and business was dismal. They could have saved on utilities opening later.

While economists claim to have seen signs of growth and the shopping rush today may represent some belt loosening evidence, it is still unclear whether the good times will last. Last year saw some incredible Black Friday weekend sales figures initially but the numbers soon tapered off. No matter what records today's shopping spree may break, if any, the looming economic atmosphere such as the Dubai crisis will surely have retailers weary about business in Decemeber - the most important month of the year. Hopefully that translates to more good deals for consumers.

Reporting live from Fremont, California, it's Black Friday 2009.

Taken by the Storm

So my brother loaned me his Blackberry Storm a couple weeks ago. I used it mostly for texting. I was immediately impressed by the hardware design when I first played with it.

Good input method remains elusive among handheld devices. Don't even start with the iPhone's on screen keyboard - without a stylus, it is simply annoying. I can't comment on Blackberry style hardware keyboard cause I haven't used that kind that much, but I've used a slide out one on an htc phone, which was pretty alright - the down side is, it makes the device incredibly bulkier.

Back to the Storm, the clever part about it is, it is both an onscreen (software) and hardware keyboard. It senses contact and highlight the key that it thinks you want to press, but doesn't take any action until you press on it, which is when the screen clicks - the screen itself is one giant hardware button. This allows you to be really sure where your finger had landed before committing to a key stroke.



I spent a week acquainting with it, but eventually gave up and went back to using the Hermes. The reason: the Blackberry software has trouble sensing which thumb is doing the pressing, which is important in thumb texting where both fingers go to work at the same time.

I believe the Storm has a piece revolutionary hardware, but the software needs work.

Billy bookcase 30th anniversary

IKEA's iconic Billy bookcase turns 30 this year. I had always wanted one. When I was a teenager I would stare at the catalog picturing one in my living room, behind an english sofa with a quilt throw... My wish finally came true, oh, sort of, a couple weeks ago, when I put together one for my mother.

There was no english sofa and it wasn't the wall-to-wall dark walnut complete with ladder and cabinet lighting housing my dad's wuxi collection one that I had wanted, my mother wanted a red one with a pair of white doors to store her junk. That's okay, baby steps, close enough.

It was delivered and I put it together on the Saturday that I was supposed to spend at Disney with my brother and sister-in-law. It was alright, I was content.

Article about HAL sings daisy

Scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)'s iconic HAL going down is so powerful, we can all recall it years after seeing the movie.

It all makes sense. HAL is spelled one alphabet before IBM.