Wow, these are definitely cool:

Man, Canon surely been busy working on new cameras… the SD450 is very interesting… I sold my PowerShot S100 (aka Digital IXUS), might pick up one of these SD450 is the CA (purple fringing) isn’t as bad as the SD400.
Canon PowerShot SD450 & SD550:
Two more additions to the Canon ultra-compact line are the new five megapixel SD450 (IXUS 55) and seven megapixel SD550 (IXUS 750). Both cameras feature a new wide viewing angle 2.5″ LCD monitor, DIGIC II image processor, Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries and SD card storage. They also have a surprisingly useful new feature which rotates the image in display mode depending on which orientation you are holding the camera. These models will be priced at $399 and $499 respectively.
So the EOS 5D is real:

Canon EOS 5D, full-frame 12.8 megapixel: Digital Photography Review
$3.3k, that’s quite a bit of change, don’t think this is better than the D2x, which is just a couple of hundred bucks more. Couple points from brief inspection of the specs:
I guess the 5D bridges the gap between the 20D and the $8k 1DsM2, from the specs it doesn’t look as good as the Nikon D2x. But then of course, if you already have invested in Canon L glasses, you want a pro body to compliment them, and you can’t justify spending $8k for the 1DsM2, then this might be the answer for you.
I think I’ll be keeping my 20D until its replacement comes out.
Interesting, Chinese low-cost ASIC design engineer body shop, the day is near… 🙂
VeriSilicon – Profile:
HQ: SHANGHAI, China Founded: 2001 Management: CEO is Wayne Dai, who was the Co-Chairman and CTO of Celestry Technologies, which was acquired by Cadence Design Systems in 2002. Prior to that, he was the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ultima Interconnect Technology. He has a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, from UC Berkeley and was a professor at UC Santa Cruz. Investors: In August 2005, Verisilicon closed Series B with US$13.5M. New investors included Intel Capital, HSBC Private Equity (Asia), CID Group, Legend Capital, KTB/UCI, International Finance Corporation (IFC). Existing investors were WI Harper Group, IDG Technology Venture Investment, iGlobe Partners, and Harbinger Ventures. Business Model: Verisilicon is an ASIC design foundry; aka – a low-cost chip engineer body shop. Services range from a design and verification platform, IP, front-end and back-end design services, software design service and turn-key services for China based foundries. VeriSilicon had 140 engineers prior to its latest round of funding. Competitors: Faraday Technology, Paradigm Works, ViASIC. Dirt: Even as Intel has added more and more functionality to its chips, the demand for specialized chips continues unabated. VeriSilicon has proven that it can do good work in China – and for much less than shops…
I can’t believe Whole Foods does not have a store locator at their website; one where you enter a zip code or address and they find you the closest ones. This is insane!! Their store locations link doesn’t really do much good when I have no idea where the heck Campbell or Fresno or Petaluma are, in their NoCal store listing. I should file this in the rants category, but I don’t have one, so Random Stuff is the closest…
Did a ton of shopping today, at Valley Fair, that place was like a real mall, not like the little malls in Austin… This is the real shit, like the Mall of America in Minnesota, with covered parking garage on the sides, and a road that surrounds the malls. I like it here that a lot of places have covered parking!! Even the sucky Target at Sunnyvale I went yesterday had it.
Bought quite a bit of clothes from Nordstrom, coz I donated most of my old stuff back in Austin (most were really not worth shipping or bringing over here)… Actually they didn’t have my size for most of the stuff I bought there, or they had to be tailored, so I won’t get them until next week. Good thing when they ship from a different Nordstrom location, they do it free of charge when the total of the shipment is over $100. I then raided the stores in the mall for more work clothes, and then at Macy’s, they had a lot of household items on sale, like I got an electric toothbrush (gave the one I had to Sherry) at almost 60% off!
Stopped by Milpita Square again for some food, this time I got there the right way and the road brought me straight to Ranch 99. Where I was yesterday turned out to be the southern tip of it. On my way back I stopped by T.J.Maxx, this one was actually called T.J.Maxx & Home, it’s bigger than normal.
After that I made my way to Costco, it was crazy there. Took me a good 15 minutes to park, and the place was also much bigger than the Austin version, and I thought everything were bigger in Texas, false! The highlight of the day was seeing the Vita-Mix guys there, I immediately went to pick one up. The guy was trying to explain what was in the box, I was like, dude, just GIVE ME ONE! He seemed surprised that he didn’t have to do anything to sell me a $360 blender, so I told him I tried to get a second one in Austin and failed. I didn’t know where Whole Foods was so I just picked up a ton of fruits from Costco for the Vita-Mix.
Haha, last time I went there with Kevin and Shirley, they got water dripping from the pipes, service was mediocre, and when I left only 10% tip the waitress bitched about it. BURN! (HAHA! j/k)… 😀
BREAKING NEWS! Warehouse District on Fire!:
Well, not quite. But enormous smoke clouds are billowing out of what Austinist thinks might be the Bitter End – firefighters have been here for the last 45 minutes valiantly attempting to extinguish the blaze.
Police have closed off a two-block radius from 4th and Colorado. We’d advise you to stay away from here at least for the next few hours – the air is toxic and traffic will likely be difficult to navigate.
Kitchen fire? We’re not sure, but we’ll let you know as soon as we find out.
I tried to go to Milpitas Square per recommendation from my friend Gordon, I went to that area but I’m not sure if that was it. Wherever I went was very close to a Cisco facility (I don’t think that was their headquarters).
Anyway, I found a little Asian mall and tried one of the HK-style restaurants, it was pretty good, much better than Chinese food in Austin… hehe… Took some pics with my Treo:

It was “baked pork with rice” (????) and some veggie… 🙂
Ming Thein?s Photographic Dictionary
My friend Ming posted his photographic dictionary, very nice!!
Today I left Austin and officially moved to the bay area. I lived in Austin for about 5 years, love it there, but wanted a change of scenery. Flew into SJC, picked up a rental car from Hertz for 2 days, will be getting a cheaper weekly rental from Enterprise next Monday morning, my flight got delayed and by the time I got to SJC only the airport rental locations were open.
Intercity Lines will be picking up my Evo middle of next week and I should have it the beginning of the following week. Like I said in my previous blog entry, I am staying at the Larkspur Landing. It’s pretty nice, got my Airport Express setup so got wifi in my room. 😀
I do miss Austin…