...i've never laughed so hard!

We left this morning to beautiful weather, heading out to Netvibes to meet with Chris. Chris was a very laid back, knowledgeable guy, who worked on the business side of Netvibes, while the coders, and the majority of the company, worked in Paris. I'm not going to lie, I had to do my research of Netvibes, and what I found was basically that it is just a company who creates personalized dashboards. I immediately thought that my Google homepage definitely worked for me, and that Netvibes would definitely never fly. However, after our meeting with Chris, I quickly realized how they took this (what I thought was) out-dated idea of a dashboard, and made it desirable and profitable to other companies. He showed us around the web page and highlighted what makes Netvibes worthwhile for all companies, schools, individuals, etc. Instantly, I was convinced that I needed to use it (which I signed up as soon as we got back for the day), and also that Luther should buy into it. It goes to show how a small idea can be applied to a grander scale and that's how you can do the whole, charge some for the product (the businesses, etc.) and allow others to use it for free (you and me!).

We then ate out at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, great burger joint on the pier...probably better than the In-N-Out burger ;).

I finally caught up on my current events! And discussed (slash listened in on a discussion) politics. Aww...my dad would be so proud!

The newspaper

Next we made our way over to Kiva.org. A really great idea for a company, connecting lenders here in the US to entrepreneurs in third world countries. They took us through the set up of their company and explained how all the financial things worked out and how they are working their way to becoming sustainable with lenders donating an extra 10% of their donations to help keep Kiva running (right now they are at about 6.5%). The most interesting thing I got out of it was really their reaction to our questions of the bad press that they had gotten. They explained how they had to respond and how the misunderstanding was caused by the website wording not being updated when they tweaked the system just a little bit. I found Kiva interesting because of their laid back environment, the enthusiasm of all people we visited with, and the fact that we had actual software developers in the room. It was neat to hear their impressive backgrounds and what drew them to a non-profit organization such as Kiva. As exciting and interesting as it sounded, and for how rewarding and great I think it would be, I felt like their reasons for being at Kiva didn't really convince me to go towards a not-for-profit organization. I think I'd still prefer a start-up out here if I decide to come out here.

Anyway, then we wandered around down by where we ate (I forgot what it was called). Whatevs, we got some cool pictures by the Bay Bridge, ate some Ciao Bella Gelado...Dulce de Leche and Cookie Dough!! Then caught the tram (??) and came back to the hotel.

We left for supper at Scoma's where I had a very delicious three course meal, crab cakes (seafood!) which were...UH-MAZING!! Then like some prawn-pesto linguine...also delicious, however, I couldn't finish it all because I had to save room for my DIVINE dessert...sound kinda, normal...but it was great!...a walnut brownie with some good ice cream (don't remember what kind) and some caramel sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Kiflu: So a farmer has a tiger, a goat, and cabbage...

Brad: So there's a farmer, a goat and a chicken...what's the other animal?

Jacob: A tiger?

Brad: No, why would a farmer have a tiger?

Adam: I guess only Ethiopian farmers must have tigers!

However, the best part of the day...at dinner...the conversation and the laughter...O M G...never laughed SOOO hard in my entire life. For real.