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i’m in san francisco for the microsoft launch activities and while waiting to check in to my hotel i thought i’d just wander around.

getting off the plane i decided to take the bart system to downtown rather than the typical taxi (and now that i have, not sure why i ever took a taxi).  i wish i lived in a city with major public transportation all over the place.  the ride was $4.95 (versus a $40 taxi) and got me there in about 10 minutes. 

getting off the bart i noticed the station (powell station) was flooded with ipod advertisements all over the place — like every sign was ipod, the column pillars were ipod, the benches, everything.  you’d think there was an ipod conference.  as i climbed the stairs i realized potentially one of the reasons why…at the top of the stairs of the powell station is an ipod store.  even high above union square though — ipod nano all over the place.

i guess this struck me as in all other major conferences i’ve gone to of microsoft’s, the city is usually plastered with marketing of that conference.  granted launch isn’t as large (attendee speaking of course) as others, but why not put out the word?

sfo is a great place and if i could convince my family to move, it would be one i’d consider — beautiful and cool (weather speaking) — remember i’m from phoenix.  i wandered all over downtown aimlessly just observing.  i noticed a homeless man pressing the coin return button on a newspaper stand violently/consistently about 20 times in a row…then he’d check the change bin…repeat 5 times…maybe he knows something we don’t? i thought.

i also saw a bunch of photographers taking pictures of trolleys and people — something i would imagine isn’t uncommon in other large metro cities.  i really enjoyed all the social gathering and just business of the city…it was great to see that.  there were some other weird things i saw (like a toilet/public restroom in the middle of the sidewalk that i must have walked past several times on previous viits), but in general, if you like people watching, sfo is a great place to be.

well, i’m off to some pre-launch stuff and can’t wait to see steveb tomorrow.

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