I had lunch with Tom, Fanny, and Vijay at 3Com’s cafeteria. 3Com has seen some major cutbacks in recent months and the campus seems sooo dead these days. The cafeteria, once bustling with people from both 3Com and Palm, is not empty during the lunch house. I’d hate to be working at that company, always running under the uncertainty of tomorrow. In today’s marketplace, however, it’s like that for many companies in the Silicon Valley.
Tom’s a nice, laid-back guy from the Cambridge, MA, area, but he has the look of someone straight out of a James Bond movie! “007, your next opponent is the deadly PM Tom Lerra. Be wary of his quick smile and sharp wit.”
Fanny just got back from vacationing in Kauai. and took a bunch of pictures and video with her new equipment. I haven’t seen them yet, but I’m sure that they are great. I’m seeing more and more people getting interested in purchasing digital cameras. I usually recommend a few models for the casual digital photographer: Canon PowerShot S110 Digital Elph, the Nikon Coolpix 885, or the Canon PowerShot G2. You can find reviews of these cameras and more from Digital Photography Review.
From Eric, Amabelle, and Rita’s web sites, I’ve heard a lot about this Park Chow restaurant in the City, but I’ve never been there. I figured that it was either a Korean or a Chinese restaurant, but I found out that it was a quaint, rustic Italian restaurant! Guess you can’t tell a restaurant by its name anymore, eh?
Eric, Rita, Amabelle, Rae, and Felicia rounded out the group of six that went to dinner. We sat outside on the second floor and under some warm heat lamps. It was good that there were heat lamps, since my silk shirt wasn’t going to keep me warm all by myself. The lighting outside was fantastic for my camera; it was some of the best lighting that I’ve seen in a long time… enough to hand hold at ISO 800 with my 50mm f/1.4 lens. Eric and Rita took turns being photographer for the evening, keeping their own cameras in their purses or pockets. You can see more photos taken this evening from Eric’s web site.
I didn’t find the food to be much to write home about, but maybe that’s because most American-style Italian restaurants all taste the same. When I lived in Paris, France, I used to go to this great Italian restaurant near République. It wasn’t there anymore when I visited Paris at the beginning of 2001, but the memories of the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten remain indelibly imprinted into my mind.
After dinner, the girls decided to go over to Drink Club for a night of clubbing. Eric, Rae, and I retired to Eric’s place, where Eric and I wrestled getting my Glidecam 2000 stabilization device working properly. Rae entertained herself with her two new friends, Hiro and Ra, Eric’s famous bengal cats. After much investigation, we figured out how the Glidecam works. It’s a finicky setup where the slightest adjustment can ruin the balance of the device. When aligned properly, however, it’s a great replacement for a dolly when filming. I think that I’m going to have fun using this device in my future video projects!
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