Search Results for: palo alto

Sleeping in Seattle

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There are a couple of things that seem to make a difference in traffic to Slope: (a) the amount of new content; (b) the drama – particularly downward drama – of the market.

If I am running a normal pace of content (something like six or seven posts per day), and the market is pretty much not doing anything particularly interesting, traffic to the blog is breathtakingly steady. In spite of the many thousands of people that visit, and the tens of thousands of circumstances in their lives, human nature is, on the whole, incredibly consistent, and traffic moves up or down literally just a few tenths of a percentage point from day to day.

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A Quick Review of the Tesla S

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(Note: when I gave this review a title, I intended to write up a few paragraphs, but it got a little out of hand; sorry for the misnomer above.)

My relationship with cars started thirty years ago. As a high school junior, I was already earning enough money to afford my own car, and I can clearly remember all the details: it was a 4-door, 5-speed (manual), Lindsey Blue (whatever that is…..) Honda Accord. It was $14,192, if I recall properly, and I just about counted the days until it arrived. I had a vanity license plate for it (K S I for Knight Software Incorporated), and I felt incredibly free and independent to have a car of my own that I earned myself. (more…)

Slopefest V plus SPY Guessing Game! (by Market Sniper)

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SlopefestV!: The time rapidly approaches for the gathering of THE Tribe, Slopers from around the country and even beyond. Now scheduled for May 18 and 19, 2013 in Las Vegas (where else?). Come and meet with old friends and make new ones! Match up avatars and handles with REAL people!! I can guarantee you one thing in this life for certain, you will have a great time! With any luck, our gracious host, Mr. Tim Knight, will also join us. For those of you who have not met him in person, you are in for a treat. Though notoriously reclusive and a home body, perhaps he can be persuaded to get out of Palo Alto and join us for a rollicking good time.

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Crime and Punishment

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I just returned from the barber (I don't like my hair getting even somewhat longish, and I find getting a haircut surprisingly relaxing). While there, I thumbed through the Palo Alto Daily Post. In it was a tiny article whose headline was "Dine and Dashier Gets Jail Time" It reads as follows:

A man who dined and dashed at a San Carlos restaurant was sentenced yesterday to 120 days in jail, prosectors said. Patrick James Higgins, 43, pleaded guilty yesterday to commercial burglary for skipping out on a $70.24 check at Sneakers Pub and Grill on March 1, Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti said. After ordering the hefty tab on his own, Guidotti said he ran out of the restaurant to the rear alley, leaving the check behind.

He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, ordered to pay back the tab as restitution, and will have three years of supervised probation, she said.

So let me get this straight. As a society, we have decided to let people like Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Jon Corzine, and everyone else involved in the financial crisis (including that complete douchebag from AIG) not only get away with murder, but also get breathtakingly rich while doing so, but if some guy has a meal and runs away, and he pleads guilty to the crime, we decide:

(a) he needs to pay the tab (fair enough!);

(b) he needs to be locked up for 4 months;

(c) he needs to spend three years – at significant taxpayer expense – being closely monitored by a probation officer.

Excuse me for asking, but what in the name of Jesus H. Christ is wrong with us? Oh, I forgot. If you're rich, you can do anything you want. If you're poor, you have the be the apotheosis of rectitude. And talk about swift justice! This incident took place not even two weeks ago! And yet Blankfein, a man who torture is too good for, smirks and leers his way to mega-riches.

0314-inaSpeaking of financial criminals, Congress is going to go through the motions of pretending to hold the leadership of JP Morgan accountable for their own misdeeds. The star is going to be Ina Drew, who is closely associated with the "whale trade" of last year. Ms. Drew, of course, is the massively successful former CIO at JP Morgan. Flying in by jumbo jet tomorrow, Ms. Drew will confront some weighty charges, having to carefully balance the voracious appetite of some legislators for explanation with massive amounts of hefty evidence.

Cognizant of the gravity of the situation, Ms. Drew will hopefully not sag with the colossal amount of pressure on her. The room will be thick with anticipation, but let us collectively hope no blubbering will take place on Ms. Drew's part. Tons of people will be watching, and the implications, perhaps, could be enormous.

My Youthful Friendship with Death

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I’ve never been rattled by human death.  I’d probably be a better grief counselor for those who have lost pets, since that has always affected me far more deeply. Even the event of losing my most brilliant engineer – which I’ve written about at some length – didn’t really shake me for a few days.

But I bring up death as a segue to sharing a tale I’ve been meaning to share for many years. It is about the death of a friend when I was 18 years old, and his name was Kurt McFall.

As a thirteen-year old, I moved out with my family to the little town of Moraga, a suburb of San Francisco which was described as a “bedroom community” (which was a polite way of saying a solidly upper-middle class town; not as well-to-do or high-strung as Palo Alto, but close). About fifteen miles northeast was a city called Concord, which was larger, more lower-middle class, and pretty much a place most Moraga kids would have no reason to visit.

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