Hike to the Beach

Hike to the BeachThe walk from the Andrew Molera state park parking lot to the beach is about a mile. It starts out with a wade over a stream, then a long walk through small wooded areas and wide open grassy areas (like the one in the photo).

Unfortunately, when we finally made it to the beach the wind had picked up so much that it was more like being in a sand blaster so we basically turned right around and walked back!

Cost of Support

One of the interesting differentiators between smaller service providers and larger ones is often the quality of their customer support. I suspect the same may well be true for hardware manufacturers and software vendors too, but what triggered this post was thinking about service provider support. Is it really more cost effective to operate a two-tiered support system, or does it just seem that way to large corporations?
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Mint Leaf Menu

I have taken a few photos of the Mint Leaf menu and uploaded them here so you can see what options are available.

This is the main menu page, showing all the starters and main course options (click the image for a larger view):

And this is the lunch menu page:

I didn’t include the page with the side dishes, deserts and beverages, the latter including a selection of beer and sake options. If you’re looking for a desert, I recommend trying the Cream Cheese Cigar with Bananas – you might want to share it though!

Mint Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant

Mint Leaf Vietnamese RestaurantHeading out to do a quick network access test at McDonald’s tonight, then on to pick up some dinner from a new Vietnamese restaurant right here in Alameda: the Mint Leaf.

Located in Marina Village, the Mint Leaf is a sit down restaurant. We went for dinner a couple of weeks back and ate in. Tonight I’m planning to pick up and head home since I’m eating alone. Their website is not yet live, but you can check out the reviews on Yelp and ChowHound.

Ring Bell and Wait

What else would they do?Hanging on the fence next to the gates to the loading bay at the Hangar 1 facility in Alameda is this sign. I wonder what caused them to use this wording though? Had there been incidents of truck drivers arriving, ringing the bell and then driving off? Or, perhaps, getting out, ringing the bell and then hopping back in the cab and just driving through the gates?

The mind boggles!

Open Top Public Transit

Open Top TrolleyLast weekend MUNI was running this open top trolley along the Embarcadero, apparently as a shuttle service for something. Aside from being a trolley I haven’t seen often, it also caught my eye because it was flying both the Stars & Stripes and a Union Jack flag (it is the one on the far side in this photo).

Not sure who it was shuttling, nor why there was a Union Jack flying on it – anybody know?

Twitter Load

It has been a bad couple of weeks for the folks over at Twitter (and perhaps not a great time for me to start playing with it – I don’t think there’s a connection). Looks like they’ve become a victim of their own success.

The main reason I starting playing with Twitter though was the XMPP/Jabber capability, making it possible to keep an eye on the musings of the folks I follow, as well as being able to post my own messages without needing a web page. Using the OctroTalk app on my N95 allows me to take all that with me too. Sadly, that’s the one thing that is still not working.

Alien Landscape

Alien LandscapeIn fact, not a landscape at all. These are jelly fish, which all sit together in what might be called upside down (relative to the orientation of other species) on the sea bed.

These ones were photographed in one of the hemispherical tanks that are part of the Jellies as Art exhibition at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.