I'm not a fan of frivolous lawsuits (hot coffee in the lap) because they generally take time away from lawsuits with real merit (asbestos, guns, cigarettes, etc). Most recently lawsuits have been lodged against Apple for the iPhone - One for the antenna issue and the other for the AT&T iPhone exclusivity. The first one is clearly an idiotic attempt at a money grab. Sure it's proven that holding the phone a certain way causes you to lose bars (I can't seem to reproduce this issue but others I know have) but so what? If you don't like the way your phone behaves, return the phone for a full refund. You haven't been damaged in any way that would require redress via a lawsuit. That would be like me buying a pepperoni pizza that didn't have enough pepperonis on it. I'd either suck it up or return it for another one that had enough pepperonis. If the pizza place couldn't deliver me a pizza with enough pepperonis on it because of a design flaw in their pizza making process, I'd just go but a pepperoni pizza from another place that could deliver me a pizza with the required number of pepperonis.

The second lawsuit is one that definitely will be beneficial should it prevail. Having the iPhone on multiple carriers will create more competition in the wireless marketplace forcing AT&T (and others) to compete more on price, service, etc. If nothing else, it'll mean that iPhone users will be dispersed across multiple networks so that the strain won't be on one network. To keep with the pizza analogy, this would be like if you could only order a pepperoni pizza from one place. Not to say that the quality of the pizza or the pizza place was bad but it's easy to see that if more places could offer that pepperoni pizza to their customers, this would benefit everyone in terms of more options, faster service, etc.

Dang... I'm hungry now.

I'm sitting at my usual coffee spot, Peet's on 12th and Broadway. I'm always asked why I go 9+ blocks from the office to get my coffee when there are a few cafes close by. The short answer, it's not easy to get a well made cup of coffee. The "artisanal" coffee roasters over at Blue Bottle apparently can roast a mean bean, but their baristas can't make a good cup of coffee. Always luke warm, always tepid. I've given them maybe 3-4 tries at different times to make sure it wasn't one particular barista. Still no luck. World Ground makes a decent cup of coffee but only if a particular person is there. Urban Blend is ok but only on a nice day. It has this open air configuration that's not too comfortable on colder, windier days.

Christine at Peet's was nice enough to make me a special latte in light of my recent bad luck. This just put a huge smile on my face. :-)

I missed my afternoon cup of coffee yesterday and had a headache all night long and even into this morning. Sitting at Crema at the base of the Oakland Tribune building and having a nice latte. Five minutes after taking my first sips... headache gone. This is not good. The wife has been like this for years. I guess I'm screwed now.
 
13th Street between Franklin and Broadway is turning into a nice little block. Besides from Crema there's Ba Vo across the street and a couple of other small eating spots. With the UC headquarters around the corner, this makes sense. Too bad the Oakland Tribune moved to a building closer to the airport. I wonder who occupies the Oakland Tribune tower now. Definitely an iconic Oakland landmark that needs to be repurposed in some way.