犀利哥

在别人的博客上看到一组名为“相亲”的照片，注意照片里相亲的对象是谁。

Photo from: http://pindao.blogbus.com/sejie/201004085805.html

四月花生屯 草长樱飞时

DC又到了樱花开放的时候，其实不只是樱花，黄色的迎春花，白色的梨花，还有粉色的玉兰花，都在一个时节开放，不过风头都被樱花抢去了。

这是我家附近的樱花，虽然没有Tidal Basin的盛名，在幽静的小区却显的特别繁盛。

费城之行

上个星期去费城，有个大裂缝的钟都看过了，所以就不打算重温了。费城是个历史与现代并存的城市，就象这个城市的天际线，现代线条的摩天大楼和19世纪建造的市政大楼相映成趣。

此行首要目的是Elfreth's Alley。这个不足50米的小巷至今仍保持者18世纪初建时的风貌。可惜巷子里停着辆汽车，应该停辆马车才对。

小时候我们家院子里也有这种压水管，那可是70年代耶，怎么还没这两百多年前的看着现代呢？

一个窗上贴着这栋房子两百多年前几度易主的记录，当年在1762年房主卖了700块，后来出租给一个人，租金23块，一年。

费城到处都可见富兰克林的身影。尽管富兰克林生于波士顿，但自从他17岁来费城，就与这个城市结下了不解之缘，并一同见证和参与了美国的建国和发展。美国的建国之父里面数富兰克林这个老头不象个政治家，他就象个老顽童。

雕像身上布满了钥匙，为什么呢?这个老顽童当初在雷电交加的晚上放风筝，风筝上就是挂了个钥匙来遭雷劈的。

这尊雕像是在一个消防队，因为富兰克林正是消防队的创始人。

我很喜欢费城公车站的这种招贴画，讲述历史上在这个街区发生的大事小情，甚至还有当年鞋匠挣多少钱。

费城还以随处可见的城市壁画而闻名，还有一个tour专门就是看这些壁画。

我们在priceline上bid的酒店，$75，四星，房间很宽敞，头一次在床上觉得离电视太远。还很喜欢房间黄色的壁纸。

早就耳闻费城的兰州牛肉拉面，慕名前往，结果有点失望。也许是因为我点的是拉面，邻座点的刀削面看起来就好一些。麻辣耳丝上来一大盘，正窃喜，原来下面是罗卜丝。

给我意外惊喜的是这家离酒店不远的伪中餐馆，名字叫Chew Man Chu，听着象满洲国，招牌上还挂着末代皇帝的照片。我们头台点了毛豆和一种印度饼，主菜点了一种炒面，都有点象中餐，但又有点异国味道。

Google-->Topeka

今早一google，发现google网站变成了Topeka。

A different kind of company name

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka’s municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains.

In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”

For 150 years, its fortuitous location at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Oregon Trail has made the city formerly known as Topeka a key jumping-off point to the new world of the West, just as for 150 months the company formerly known as Google has been a key jumping-off point to the new world of the web. When in 1858 a crucial bridge built across the Kansas River was destroyed by flooding mere months later, it was promptly rebuilt — and we too are accustomed to releasing 2.0 versions of software after stormy feedback on our ‘beta’ releases. And just as the town's nickname is "Top City," and the word “topeka” itself derives from a term used by the Kansa and Ioway tribes to refer to “a good place to dig for potatoes,” we’d like to think that our website is one of the web's top places to dig for information.

In the early 20th century, the former Topeka enjoyed a remarkable run of political prominence, gracing the nation with Margaret Hill McCarter, the first woman to address a national political convention (1920, Republican); Charles Curtis, the only Native American ever to serve as vice president (’29 to ‘33, under Herbert Hoover); Carrie Nation, leader of the old temperance movement (and wielder of American history’s most famous hatchet); and, most important, Alfred E. Neuman, arguably the most influential figure to an entire generation of Americans. We couldn’t be happier to add our own chapter to this storied history.

A change this dramatic won’t happen without consequences, perhaps even some disruptions. Here are a few of the thorny issues that we hope everyone in the broader Topeka community will bear in mind as we begin one of the most important transitions in our company’s history:

Correspondence to both our corporate headquarters and offices around the world should now be addressed to Topeka Inc., but otherwise can be addressed normally.

Google employees once known as “Googlers” should now be referred to as either “Topekers” or “Topekans,” depending on the result of a board meeting that’s ongoing at this hour. Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren’t in Google anymore.

Our new product names will take some getting used to. For instance, we’ll have to assure users of Topeka News and Topeka Maps that these services will continue to offer news and local information from across the globe. Topeka Talk, similarly, is an instant messaging product, not, say, a folksy midwestern morning show. And Project Virgle, our co-venture with Richard Branson and Virgin to launch the first permanent human colony on Mars, will henceforth be known as Project Vireka.

We don’t really know what to tell Oliver Google Kai’s parents, except that, if you ask us, Oliver Topeka Kai would be a charming name for their little boy.

As our lawyers remind us, branded product names can achieve such popularity as to risk losing their trademark status (see cellophane, zippers, trampolines, et al). So we hope all of you will do your best to remember our new name’s proper usage:
Finally, we want to be clear that this initiative is a one-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project, to which Google, Kansas has been just one of many communities to apply.

Posted by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Topeka Inc.