living, thinking and writing
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| PRACTICE living, thinking and writing |
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004 San Jose, January If Silicon Valley has been in recovery, I did not feel it in the chilly late January. Monday afternoon at 4:30 at San Jose downtown felt like the first half hour of 28 Days Later. Being aware that the kind of lavish parties thrown at heydays do not come back, we are still appalled at the so called “banquet” that serves only pasta and cheese at SPIE, annual congregation of more than 2000 scientists and technicians. Although it was a conference on image processing, people seem eager to reorient their future research from the traditional subject. The speak of research director from Google attracted more people than the room can accommodate, although she talked nothing more than what I learnt three years ago, except their new attempt on shopping catalogue index and map of business nearby. The second meeting on document image analysis was hold at PARC. Again people talked about text storage and retrieval. It is hard to resist taking a photo in front of podium with letter “PARC”, but everyone knows the glory is not anymore. Palo Alto is a beautiful place, green valley, horses sauntering. But no people moving within your sight- all hide in cars or offices. Plain and big office building looked lifeless rather than a foundation of innovation and creativity. Met some Bin’s old friends, no one gets fired or bankrupt, neither anyone got rich during the boom. While you are amazed on how many top Chinese students have imported themselves to Silicon Valley, you also felt a kind of sorrow for how few of them have play strategic role, compared to Indians. The last night we stayed at Marriot at Newark-Fremont. The fire alarm went off abruptly at the middle of the night, waking me straight up screaming like a loony. Luckily it is just a false alarm, but all the fire wagons still whistle over. Outside the window of 4th floor, red and orange lights flashed against the stilled valley. Highway 84 was faintly illuminated by a couple headlights moving along. Removing its glamorous makeup of money and machine, it is just a valley, by all means. posted by lmeimei @12:59 AM| permanent link| | |
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