Gift idea for your little tree hugger. Or nerd, Or both!

This is the H-Racer. A real hydrogen fuelcell car. It even comes with a solar powered hydrolizer to make hydrogen out of water. Give your kid one of these and they'll grow up to ask why are we burning nasty petroleum products?

It's not so bad

Maybe it's too early to declare victory. I hope not. As far as ice storms go this one barely counts. At least in my neighborhood. Last night I drifted off to a fitful sleep to the sound of electric transformers shorting out. I was not happy. We lost power for three miserable days back in 2002. I wasn't looking forward to going through that again. My next door neighbor has an electric generator that he placed on the side of his house underneath my bedroom window. Three days of what sounded like a wood chipper idling outside my window. Yesterday afternoon he was out tuning it up. Good times. Fortunately the storm did not hit as hard as I'd feared. My power is still on and my neighbor's generator remains silent. I feel very lucky today.

Who are you?

I was in Silicon Valley last week. Working for a high tech company affords me the opportunity to travel to the motherland every now and then. This time I stayed in the Doubletree in San Jose. Right by the airport. If you don't know your way around San Jose it can be very difficult. They're not real big on street signs out there. Maybe they realize it's not necessary because the commercial real estate firms take care of it for them. You could hop from "For Lease" sign to "For Lease" sign without touching the ground. "For Lease, 1609 Technology Way" "For Lease, 1611 Technology Way..." Things have not bounced back from the Dot Com bust. With all the empty office space outside, you wouldn't know there has been a downturn once you walk into the hotel. Cisco Systems was having some big corporate pep rally in several of the ball rooms, and a company called Set Top Box was there too. The uniform of the day was khakis and a belt holster Blackberry. As I made my way to the elevators I became aware that everyone I passed was very interested in me and my luggage. On the elevator going up to my room, one guy was very blatant about reading my luggage tags! I figured it out at that point. In the Valley if you're not wearing a corporate logo shirt, or corporate logo jacket or you don't have corporate logo luggage tags you must be up to no good or a complete nobody. I'm not big on corporate wear, especially as a fashion statement. Maybe next time I'll make up some creative luggage tags.