I sat in on a web teleconference today. Altera was giving an overview of a new line of CPLDs called MAX II due out this year.

The technology worked really well, nice full streaming video that was well produced in a studio. A button you could click to type a question. And a window that had a powerpoint presentation controlled by the presenter.

There was a moderator from the webcast company, and a presenter from Altera. They were both women, and the odd thing was, they were both wearing neck scarves. I had trouble concentrating on what they were saying because I kept thinking, “who wears neck scarves? and why? and how is it that TWO women who happen to wear neck scarves are giving this presentation?”

Is there a neck scarf trend that I’m missing? The teleconference was in the Pacific time zone, so perhaps this is a California trend that will eventually make it’s way here.

I hope not.

The other thing I kept thinking is, it figures a tech company would hire a hot vaguely-asian woman to be their spokesperson. The attendees were undoubtedly mostly male, geek males at that, as evidenced by the ratio of men-to-women asking questions. (about 30 to 1).

A depressing point today: Netflix, a company I had looked into investing in over a year ago (at $10/share) and rejected because I felt it overvalued is now sitting at $35/share. *sigh* There was an article on the Fool today about it, and why they felt it was STILL undervalued. It was a pretty good arguement, perhaps I’ll look into it.

I came in early today, so I’m leaving early too. Tah!

Creating Bills of Materials (aka Parts Lists) is the absolute, hands down, most tedious, boring part of being an engineer.

That is what I have done for the past two days. I am now done. That makes me so happy I am going to go home early.

I just wanted to post this because I never have an entry for the “Current Music” slot. But since I’m at home and not in a cube, I can play music.

I had a very nice weekend, in spite of the fact that I didn’t get to spend it in Lynchburg.

Poor planning and traffic scuttled my trip. Sad. But as I discussed with my brother, we were woefully unprepared to do the work on his house that we wanted to. (Concrete countertops for the kitchen). We’ll regroup and try again in mid April. glenn5 may join me.

Some long rambling reflections of the weekend…

For eastlake, who wondered what a $20,000 house in Lynchburg, VA looks like.

If you look close, there is a dog named Tesla in the upper right window.

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When did I say “electricrocket1”? That’s my IM… Hmmm…

I’m a lying liar. Someone needs to take a fair and balanced look at me.

I got tied up in traffic and tried to go around it and ended up at home, then I looked at traffic on www.georgia-navigator.com and figure out it was going to take me 2 hours to get out of town, and then another 7-8 to get to Lynchburg, and it was already 6:30pm.

So I called my brother and rescheduled for April 16, when I can plan to take a day off or at least a half day.

*sigh*

When I talked to my brother, we realized we were completely disorganized and didn’t have our act together enough to try the concrete countertops this weekend anyway. So he’s going to do some experiments with small 12″ x 12″ slabs and some red dye to see what he can do.

He doesn’t have cabinets to put the countertops on anyway. He’s got to rip up the flooring and put down tile, new appliances, cabinets… so we weren’t going to have working countertops any way you sliced it.

So, we’ll do something else in April.

Maybe shoot pool.

I’m off to Lynchburg, Virginia to help my brother with his $20,000 house.

Will report my adventures on Monday… have a good weekend all!