I still remember a time when Dannon made 8 oz. cups of yogurt. Dannon used to be my favorite yogurt (now it’s Brown Cow all the way). The 8 oz. cups were a perfect amount of yogurt. It was much bigger than those wimpy Yoplait cups (what is it with those inverted cups anyway? I find it’s hard to get all the yogurt out).

But suddenly, Dannon stopped all production on their 8 oz. cups, and moved to 6 oz. I was devastated. The 6 oz. cups just doesn’t provide enough yogurt for me. Rumor has it that the reason they moved to smaller cups was because Colombo stopped shipping their yogurts with the built in spoons. This lowered the bar on many yogurt companies, and “allowed” Dannon to stoop a bit lower.

I even wrote to Dannon, and got the generic response:

Our most recent market research indicates that most consumers prefer a 6-ounce container compared to our old 8-ounce size. The smaller product is just the right size to consume yogurt as a snack or as part of a meal.

Clearly, Dannon has lost touch with consumers like me who want a bigger snack. I say we all protest to have yogurts of many sizes that fit many people. What do you say?

I miss the east coast food. There’s just not any good down to earth pizza places here on the peninsula. Amici’s tries to emulate; their slogan is even “Best Pizza West of New York.”

If I were walking down any street in NYC, I could find some good classic thin style pizzas. Over here, we just drive around, and around, looking for pizzerias. Even in Ithaca, I could list four places off the top of my head that has good pizza, and that’s just in a small collegetown in a tiny town.

Maybe I should seriously consider starting an east coast pizzeria at Stanford: one that opens late, and serves up some great slices. What would be more realistic is to invest with someone that has east coast pizza experience.

Amazon has stepped into the brick and mortar business world in an ingenious way. Not only can you rate businesses online, leave comments, and enter all of that good meta information that Amazon is known for, you can actually take a stroll up and down the block. They have literally strapped a camera on top of an SUV and have taken millions of photos, one address at a time.

Right now, only metropolitan areas have been hit. But they plan to roll out more soon.

I could see this being highly effective. Giving that visual cue isn’t just a gimmick. Being able to take a virtual stroll down any street gives a bigger impression of the businesses there than just plain text. I’ve always wanted something that could provide more information about businesses in the Yellow Pages. But alas, usually the mom and pop stores that place their ads do little more than that. Now, I can see ratings and pictures online.

Bravo to Amazon.

I know I haven’t programmed in C for a while when I make stupid mistakes like this:

int a = 2;
int b = 1/a;

Of course this is in a jumble of other complex code. Took me quite some time to trace that one…

Palo Alto really is a sleepy town.

Before arriving at Stanford, I thought there would be a bustling young community. It’s at the epicenter of technology: where new ideas are sparked everyday. Surely there would be some partying going on in streets. Right?

*crickets chirp*

Okay, so maybe my view of this technology savvy suburban town was a bit rash. Most people in Palo Alto are working professionals: they either go to sleep early, or work late. In either case, we get about zero percent of the night time din as compared to New York City. What’s most annoying is that almost all businesses close by 9PM. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven around at night, failing to find anything decent open that would provide a late night snack.

Stanford doesn’t even have a collegetown. The closest thing is University Ave., but most students wouldn’t consider this yuppie posh street anything close to a collegetown. There are a few places that are lively at night, but for the most part it’s high dollar fine dining restaurants that cater to the local wealthy people. The students at Stanford mostly keep to themselves. Campus Road is like a moat that surrounds the campus, letting nothing in, and nothing out.

Of course, I’m not within that moat. But it can get rather silent at night here in the “city.” We usually deal with it by just going to sleep earlier.

Go and measure your Starbucks Density [Starbucks / 5 mi radius, or is it 25 mi^2?]. Me being in Palo Alto (nowhere near urban), I thought there’d maybe be 3 or 4 around me. But, I was suprised to find 18 stores around me.

People in NYC have been reporting upwards of 167 stores within a five mile radius.

Is it really necessary to have that many Starbucks? I know it’s an old cliche that every store is turning into a Starbucks, but when is it too much? I’ve never heard anyone griping that they can’t find a Starbucks, no matter where they are. I heard that they build at least one new Starbucks in a day. The keyword is “least”. That’s scary.

It seems like Flickr loves to get massages. I’m not a paying user, but if I were I could see myself getting a bit annoyed at their recent spotty behavior. It is understandable that they are doing massive upgrades (a very positive thing), but it would be nice if they did their downtime maintenances at around 4AM on a Sunday, instead of 8:30PM on a Monday.

However, it quite amusing that the team at Flickr anthropomorphizes their site all the time. As if it’s a giant picture nabbing creature.

I had a great sandwich for lunch. Tippy and I made it in homage to the Mr. Pickles sandwiches.

Dutch Crunch Bread
Homemade Spinach and Garlic Pesto
Sharp Cheddar
Roast Beef (or Turkey)
Lettuce
Mustard
Pepperocinis
Pickles

Great stuff.

“Variety is the spice of life.”

– Luke McSpadden

We all know the travesty of the modern dining experience. Your exquisite entree is served piping hot, straight from the kitchen. Playfully, you discuss its visual aesthetics, even showing pride in your fine dining decision.

Then, you take the first bite.

You reel in how awful it tastes. The chicken is dry, the sauce is too salty, the beef is too well done, the noodles are not al dente. The fact is, it’s just bad.

At this point, you either cover up this fact by forcing a smile and a “mmmm”. Or, you begin to berate the restaurant right then and there in front of the manager.

Sound familiar? Well, I’ve got a solution. Instead of focusing on the entree, why not try lots of side dishes. Many cultural foods from tapas to dim sum let you pick and nibble at several small dishes. But today, I want to talk Korean.

Probabilistically speaking, the more side dishes there are, the more likely you will like the expected number of dishes you would have liked if you tried all the dishes at a restaurant (for those mathy people: strong law of large numbers). In Korea, the more side dishes that come with the meal, the better. Good Korean restaurants in the US will generally give 5 to 7 side dishes (anything less is wimpy).

The side dishes have a wide range of flavors, from the subtle sesame fragrance of the jap chae noodles, to the strongly fermented kim chi. One of the best places to experience side dish overload is at the Korea House in Sunnyvale, CA. My friend suggested we go there, saying that they give enough side dishes to feed an army. I was skeptical.

The restaurant itself looked like any other ordinary Korean restaurant, complete with the usual Korean waitresses, big stone soup bowls, and the smell of bul go gi in the air. However, as soon as we the saw the owner, an eccentric looking Korean lady with hair like a lion (seriously, this is the only way I know how to describe it), we knew we would be in for a ride.

We ordered our usual favorites: chige and bul go gi. Before, any side dishes were served, a full plate of jap chae was served. We were puzzled, and asked if there was a mistake. “It’s on the house!” Now this is something I could live with, a free appetizer.

Then, the side dishes came. If you were there to witness my jaw, you would have seen much droppage. The waitress came out with a gigantic tray, with at least a dozen dishes, some I haven’t even seen before. These weren’t cheap looking items either, the vegetables looked fresh, and there was even some chicken and fish items. Our table had trouble accommodating to the number of dishes. When the main entrees came out, Tippy and I had to do some clever shuffling in order to fit all the dishes.

The food itself was delicious. I probably spent more time nibbling at the side dishes than the main entrees themselves. I was surrounded by sweet marinated tofu, dried fish, fried chicken wings, kim chi, and one of my favorites, Korean pickled cucumber. Needless to say, I was quite full by the end of the evening.

Around the middle of our meal, the eccentric Korean lady (which I presumed to be the owner), came to educate us. She quickly pulled a pair of chopsticks from her “holster” and began assembling a sushi-like wrap using the bul go gi, rice, nori, bean sprouts, and tofu. “Put this, and this, and this, and then eat!” She left as quickly as she came. And true to her words, this sushi-like combination was a winner.

If you live in the bay area, go try Korea House sometime. Avoid the lunch buffet, which usually pale in quality compared to their dinner items. Don’t worry, I guarantee you will be stuffed by the end of the night. The owner really has a mission every night to feed her customers silly.

My hair is long now. It hasn’t been this long since high school.

It’s at that awkward length where it’s just long enough to annoy my ears and side of my face, but not long enough to sweep back very easily. Also, my hair doesn’t instant dry after showers: oh bother.

I think it might be wise to trim it back before interviews start. But then again, if they really wanted me, shouldn’t they not care about my appearance? Sure, if I was going to work in a customer relations type of position, then I could understand the focus on appearance. But, for the hardcore engineering positions I’ll be applying to, I wouldn’t be suprised if a scruffy look would put me at an advantage. “Hmm, he looks rather unkempt and disheveled. That must mean he works really hard in the lab all day! Let’s hire him…”

Or, it might just be a disaster. Better reach for the shaver soon. Either that or grow it long enough to be in a ponytail. Then I could look like one of those hardcore European Physics people.