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I was lucky enough to see President and First Lady Obama walk right by on the Inaugural Parade route in DC. It was the high point of several wonderful days here, with the city jam-packed full of elated people celebrating. It's been great being out among all these happy people everywhere. I've lived here for several other inaugurations, which were nothing like this.

I tried to find a way to explain how they looked, as the President and First Lady went by, and think I eventually found the right words; cheerful, natural, and beautiful. This could also describe Obama's campaign and winning the election, and how that feels here in the US (in spite of the challenges we're facing) and especially here in DC recently. Experiencing the hope he's inspired, to this degree, has convinced me of how powerful it is.

I was able to get some good photos, and have created Flickr photo sets for the Inaugural We Are One Concert at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, and the Inaugural Parade for President Obama on January 20, 2009.

The photos have received some nice comments, and have CC licenses available, which allow options including a +Magnify/Sizes button.

Read more below (click the link if needed), where I'll continue to update this story with links to other good inaugural photos I find on Flickr.

I'm very happy to have seen Barack Obama's hope win over fear in the election, and I'm looking forward to his Inauguration here on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The Inaugural's theme of A New Birth of Freedom comes from the Gettysburg address.

A week of festivities is planned, and there's huge demand for the 240,000 tickets to the close-up area at the Swearing-in Ceremony, but the entire Mall will be open for the crowds of 1.5 million people that are expected (about 100,000 were estimated at Bush’s second inauguration in 2005). Just in time for Inauguration Day, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Lincoln Bicentennial will have special events as well, so it's sure to be an exciting time in DC.

Iced Espresso? (!!!) There are lots of iced coffee drinks you might enjoy more; if you want the flavor of an espresso roast it might be better to make it as americano or drip, and better still to choose a coffee and process specifically for icing.

Too bad the fussy barista at Murky Coffee in Arlington didn't say something like that when he was asked for an iced espresso. He said no. It was against their policy. The customer wasn't too happy, and after a few more words and other beverages, he left a dollar in the tip jar with the message "Fuck you and your precious coffee policy" written on it. Then he started blogging about it with a funny story, illustrating how he felt with a clip of Jack Nicholson at a diner in Five Easy Pieces. The story began to spin out-of-control and over-the-top as it was reported all over, from The Washington Post to Reuters India, along with many bloggers, pilers-on, and enormous numbers of people leaving comments. Murky Coffee's owner Nick Cho responded with a letter to the customer on the front page of Murky's web site that ended "if you ever show your face at my shop, I'll punch you in your dick." Instant Internet Phenomenon.

Microsoft seems to like getting spanked by Apple. In digital music they keep positioning themselves to be a better target.

Earlier this week, Microsoft ended its PlaysforSure certification program, used by nearly all successful services and music players other than Apple's. PlaysforSure has now been assimilated into the Vista certification program, causing some confusion, especially for users of Windows XP.

Today Google announced Android, their wildly anticipated mobile platform. Android is a free, open, and complete software platform for mobile devices like phones. It includes a Linux-based operating system, a user-interface, and applications.

Android will be developed by the Open Handset Alliance, which includes Google and more than 30 other heavyweights such as Sprint, T-Mobile, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. The first version of the Software Development Kit will be available for download next week on November 12. Handsets based on Android are expected to be available in the second half of 2008.

Google introduced OpenSocial last night at their first Campfire One--literally an outdoor fireside chat for developers. A one-hour video of the event appears on Google’s OpenSocial page, which shows some great examples of how these new APIs are being used. Earlier in the day, MySpace announced their support of OpenSocial, which increases the potential users to over 200 million.

This is a big step in the evolution of the web that will make it more social and dynamic. At this point it’s only of interest to developers, but some sites have already incorporated social applications, and web users will soon see many more of them.

Google has created a great platform for social applications here, and a mobile platform is expected from them soon. When these two things combine, they’re going to have a big impact; the way we stay informed and in touch may never be the same.

Google is introducing new standards for interfacing with social networking sites. OpenSocial is a set of (soon to be posted) APIs that allow developers to create web applications and widgets that integrate with social networks. It’s an open alternative to the Facebook application platform. Thousands of Facebook applications have been developed and used by millions, helping to fuel Facebook's growth, since the platform was introduced five months ago.

Google announced yesterday that OpenSocial will be launched tomorrow (November 1). Likely to be very significant, the announcement has been referred to as one of the two Silicon Valley earthquakes occurring yesterday (in addition to the magnitude 5.6 quake that struck there).

Though few people are aware of it, one of the most important allocations of radio spectrum in U.S. history will occur in a few months. Today the Federal Communications Commission announced rules for the auction of some of the most valuable public airwaves, but failed to ensure they will be available in an open manner.

Much of the 700 MHz band will be freed-up when U.S. television stations switch to more efficient digital broadcasting in February 2009. Most existing TVs not connected to cable systems will need converters to receive over-the-air signals after that time. The 700 MHz band has valuable properties of traveling farther and penetrating walls better than other frequencies. The availability of these frequencies offers a great opportunity to provide fast internet access everywhere, and stimulate development of new services with mobile voice, data, and video.

I hate waking-up. So it’s very stupid to spend the first hour of the day repeatedly waking-up a half-dozen times, but that’s what I’ve often done. Now Clocky is breaking me of the snooze-button habit.

Clocky goes off like a normal alarm clock the first time, with some random R2D2-like sounds which remind you of what will happen if you sleep through the first snooze. After the first snooze, Clocky’s wheels spin and he jumps off the table and runs away; you must get up and find him as he randomly rolls around spinning, squawking, and flashing. This is ridiculous, cute, and humorous enough that I do not want to smash Clocky to bits, and it works like a charm.

It looks like TV is the thing this year. After announcements from Apple and NetFlix about high-quality online video, we now have Joost. Formerly known as The Venice Project, and announced on the 16th of January, Joost aims to revolutionize television by delivering it for free in a new way on the Internet.

Now in beta testing, Joost streams television using a secure peer-to-peer client that protects the content. It’s supported by advertising which is much less frequent than network television and usually with ads that are much shorter. I'm testing Joost using a 700 kbps DSL connection and it performs very well. It begins streaming almost immediately and only rarely pauses to catch-up.

Full-screen quality is good. Currently most of the content is