On 2009-08-28, sf > wrote:

><smile> I wouldn't call Silicon Valley "deserted", but it's quieter.

Are you trying to tell me there are still businesses in SV proper?
From Milpitas and hwy 880 West to 85 and from hwy 237 South to ECR?
3Com, National Semiconductor, AMAT, Apple, Sun, HP, IBM? No freakin
way! Last time I was there, not a single business I delt with, other
than my own company, remained. Even my company had shrunk from 18
huge campuses to 2, both ghosts of their former self. Every campus
for 5 miles in every direction was also deserted. The Central Frwy
was deserted. No restaurants, no vendors, no support business, nada.
Whole brand new campuses built in '98 still stand vacant, never having
been occupied to this very day. You can drive down a dozen boulevards
in that area and not see one single company campuse occupied. Smaller
business parks shuttered and deserted. No, it's beyond quiet. It's a
cemetery.

nb