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Friday, July 5, 2013

Tech #nerdgasm: Silicon Valley, California

Posted By on Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Silicon Valley, Calif., is a strange and enthralling place. The average passer-by might be confidently sporting Google Glass like it's no big deal. People ride their bikes all over the place because it's such a healthy, beautiful environment, and one can't help feeling smarter and better looking just for being there amongst this madness.

Cupertino, Calif., the 11th richest city in the nation and one of the 24 cities that compromise Silicon Valley, is home to Apple, Inc. and has been since 1993. I know a guy and got to go inside Apple headquarters. I've always wanted to eat in the employee cafeteria, so that's what I did. But, of course, not before I took a long gaze at this sexy thing on display in the employee lounge (which, I'll add, had real trees growing in it):

It's the new MacPro with the thermalcore technology and it is damn drool-worthy.

It's sleek and looks like it came from the Borg. Ooh! And there was this:

It's a sea of iPads that are streaming, in color groupings, all of the most popular apps as they are being downloaded. #nerdgasm #achieved

Oh yeah, about that cafeteria: I had a grass-fed bison and black bean burrito. It was delicious. All of the temporary utensils were cornstarch-made and biodegradable - the whole thing was great. Everything was so bright and technologically advanced, I could feel my blood pressure lowering the longer I sat.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California is epic.

And by epic I mean, if robots do it for you, or if you like reminiscing about the old Speak-And-Spell you played with as a kid, this is well worth the $15-$40 admission.

There are hours to be lost here just looking at things.

All of the big names are in Silicon Valley. Stanford University, eBay, Facebook, Google ... too many to name, in fact; NASA's Ames Research Center, in Moffett Field, where they do an amazing things like build and test NextGen air transportation, discover exoplanets beyond our own, and build robots for the new Millennium, is visible from the highway, (Or, as Cali natives call it "The 101").

San Jose, dubbed the "Capitol of Silicon Valley," is equally amazing. It has a Charlotte feel to it in that after about 11 p.m., everyone is out in the 'burbs and you can run amok in the streets without seeing anyone for hours. There's a lovely riverwalk and the Tech Museum of Innovation is currently home to a hands-on Star Wars exposition. Need I say more?

All ye pale nerds get on out to Silicon Valley where you can get a tan, eat organic, and finally proclaim you've had a full-on nerdgasm. You'll thank me later.

For more commentary, follow me on Twitter @dbirdy, for more photos peep my Flickr and to see all videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel here!

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