Mike Nicholson

Everyone who has flown in the last ten years knows Skymall. It's that silly yet comprehensive catalog in the seat-back-pocket of every major airline aircraft. It's the holiday shopping trip for the executive with too much money and either too little time or care to bother actually shopping at a real store or even Amazon.com.

Over the past few years I've seen both silly items as well as things I'd genuinely like if they were half the price, but the very flight I'm on now has charted new territory on both ends of the spectrum. First off, there exists an item in Skymall that is actually interesting and yet not ridiculously over priced. Yes, I may actually buy something from Skymall!

What is this diamond in the rough you ask? It's nothing more than a simple pocket tripod with a twist. It's small flexible arms are covered with grippy rubber. This may be something that Winona, the eccentric photographer, could use. Furthermore, it might just be worth the $25 price tag! Amazing!

At the other end of the spectrum, I've found what may be the silliest product ever devised. It's a $100 hybrid iPod dock / toilet paper dispenser. Its right out of a Saturday Night Live parody commercial. Just thinking about this boggles my mind. For this to have ended up in Skymall at least the following must have transpired:

• An inventor thought of this while sitting on the can in silence and decided it was a good enough idea to proceed investing his or her time into it.
• A corporation either decided to invest further in this idea or to purchase it from a freelance inventor (probably after much committee deliberation).
• A team of engineers poured hours and probably days of their waking lives into refining this device and perfecting the most cost effective design details and manufacturing processes.
• These engineers undoubtedly worked with one or more designers to ascetically design the perfect iPod musical toilet paper dispenser.
• A factory was selected and a team of poor Chinese factory workers was trained in the manufacture of these Cadillac of toilet paper dispensers. Just imagine how dumb those factory workers think Americans are as they toil their long work weeks away making them for us probably barely making enough to keep food on their tables.
• Finally, someone with enough brains to waddle their way through airport security, read the cataloge, and place an order, must believe that this is a good idea and warrants the $100 price tag but also the effort of tearing into their bathroom wall to run an electrical wire to their toilet paper dispenser.

And after all those steps of pure insanity it's only "moisture resistant". Yes, that means that if you're careless and spill your bottle of peach schnapps onto it while trying to switch to a less depressing cure album, it will stop working! (And we all know how hard it is to stretch and manipulate a docked iPod while taking a dump and holding a bottle.)

Of course, despite my analysis, this may never have been intended for serious purchase. Perhaps it's only targeted at executives for a gag gift for executives with no time and people fill write the wrong product sku number into the order form.

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I'm on my way home today via the fine twin cities airport of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. During my time awaiting my first flight and the additional two hours of layover here, I've made an unusual observation. Once the average traveler arrives at their gate after stressing their way through security they race to their gate only to sit there and wait for an hour. About forty minutes before their plane is ready to load they all rush up and crowd the gate.

Do you see the odd pattern? People seem in a rush to stop standing at security only to sit down. After that they rush to sit down somewhere else! (the plane).

If Tom Hanks has taught me anything, he's taught me to enjoy the airport, even one in this sleepy town you hardly ever hear of has art to observe, pinball and video games to play, shoe shines, shopping, and an indoor, climate controlled walk that rivals the largest of malls.

So next time you're at an airport, stretch those legs, explore a little, and find some fun.

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The first ever San Francisco Mob of Waldos was this past weekend. Winnie, the mastermind, and I conducted the mob on our way to Sacramento.

In short: this mob was great fun. It was my first flash mob, and a good one at that. What's better than a bunch of strangers all showing up dressed as Waldo and Wenda only to conscript confused by standards who just happen to be some duct tape shy of a Waldo or Wenda outfit?

So who wants to go to some other flash mobs with Winnie and I?

Pillow Fight
Zombie Mob

Perhaps ones that involve libations?

Brides of March
Drinktrain

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Hello to everyone from Sacramento!

Right now I'm sitting on Angela's couch with Adam and her roommate, Nick, playing Super Mario Brothers 3 with a minor hangover. It's just like being back in college. Joy.

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Hey all, time for another update

• I've spent the last two evenings nerding out on my new mobile phone gadget. It's amazing what exists for these mobile devices but also occasionally shocking when something else does not exist, such as Yahoo! Messenger.
• the democrats have just gained control of congress (both houses). This could make for an interesting near future.
• I'm going to Sacramento with Geoff, Adam, and Winnie to visit the old gang and meet Colleen and Ryan's kid. This should be fun. It's been too long.
• my morning exercise has finally started to pay off. I'm actually starting to lose a few lbs. I know it's just water weight from my carbo reserve so far, but it's still progress :)

That's all for now...

Posted by at 1:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm blogging from my latest toy! It's a Sprint PPC-6700 mobile pc / phone. it works surprisingly well with the movable type blogging form. i suppose this means ill be liveblogging again :)

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This was another good weekend.

It started off with a nice poker night. I only lost -$2 this time… That’s right, I actually won! It seems so rare these days. I blame the lack of ethanol and the sweet dense ice cream pie crafted by Jeannie.

The next day we actually woke up earlyish (10:00 am) for a hike. It was a nice easy 3.5 mile hike at Santa Theresa. We climbed a hill to find an abandoned microwave tower covered in graffiti. It had last been inspected in 1983 according to the abandoned inspection paperwork. There was a mysteriously placed bath tub behind it and an overturned out house in front. Near the bathtub Adam found and stepped in some human poo. There were lots of deer on the way back down. When we returned we found that the rangers had left us a note. We have to make a $35 donation to the parks system as a result.

That night was Lupita’s Halloween costume party. It was a stroke of genius: wait until after the holiday to have the party. That way you can buy everything on sale!

Winnie and I, being terrible at finding places in the dark, took awhile to find it, but once there we played some silly party games. Winnie won the mummy contest and the pin the nose on the pumpkin award. I managed to snag the best costume award and a nice hangover for the next day.

The costumes were entertaining enough that Jeannie recommended costume poker night this coming Friday poker night. Others agreed. Nothing beats getting some extra mileage out of a Halloween costume.

Next on the schedule was my first MixerMixer event. After some nice Brazilian food we decided to check out the nearby beach: Natural Bridges. The tide was so low that we were able to examine the underside of the arch.

Now it’s time to rest.

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New York Times mentioned in an article that Google was kicking everyone's ass at recruiting of top notch talent. Based on my small, unscientific sample set of myself, my girlfriend, and a few friends, this appears to only partially be the case. Google prides itself on it's committee based hiring practice. This bureaucracy may be thorough, but it takes so long. Although this will weed out all of the unskilled and unl337 engineers, it also leaves an opening for others to steal their leads.

Per a Google recruiter that spoke with a friend recently, the average turn around time on an interview is now about two months. This means from your first phone screening to your offer, if everything goes well, you may have to wait two months. Although in the ideal world everyone can wait two months to compare the offer from Google against those from startups, Yahoo!, and Amazon, offers from other companies expire and sometimes you just need a job sooner than 1/6 of a year. In my friend's case, although she had started by applying to Google first, she had already screened, interviewed, accepted an offer, gave notice to her former employer, worked out her visa issues, started at her new company, and become productive all before Google even called her back in response to her screening. She's really talented too.

Also, it's important to note that Google managed to acquire youtube.com faster than they were able to process my friend's initial screening. Amazing...

Google: You missed out. Maybe it's time to streamline your hiring process. Actually, don't bother: we'll take the talent that can't wait for your slower-than-the-federal-government hiring process.

Google Applicants: If you really want a job at Google, the most efficient way is to apply to a company that Google is looking to buy.

Posted by at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been in the bay area for some time now. I've been to career fairs and worked for several companies both large and small. Over the years I have a mountain of t-shirts, a closet of polo shirts, and a nice collection of coffee mugs, but Yahoo! keeps finding new ways to redefine the term schwag.

Today when I arrived to my cube I found a strange Tupperware container. Upon further inspection, it appears that I'm now the proud owner of an official Yahoo! Autos Green Center redwood tree! Yes, the schwag is a tree! Assuming it doesn't fail to grow or die right away, I'll post updates on its life here.

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