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[ places ]
Where is Silicon Valley? What is it?
Silicon Valley is an informal name given to an area sort of centered
around north San Jose or Santa Clara, California.
It's about 50 miles south (south-east) of San Francisco and Oakland, around
the base of the San Francisco bay. The valley's true name is Santa Clara
valley. The area is also known to locals as "the South Bay."
So what's the big deal about Silicon Valley? Well, most of the heavy-hitters
(and a lot of the light-hitters) in the computer industry are headquartered
here: Intel, Sun, Cisco, HP, Adobe, Applie, Novell, Oracle, Yahoo, Palm...
The list goes on and on. (Microsoft isn't headquartered here, but they
do have a campus in Mountain View.)
View
Map to Nvidia, Intel, Cisco
There's this local company
that produces and sells "maps" of Silicon Valley that showcase
most of the local high-tech companies. Funny thing is, it looks like this
year's edition has a lot fewer companies on it than last
year's...
Life In Silicon Valley
Link: Images
from Silicon Valley
[www.livefromsiliconvalley.com]
Unfortunately, most of the pictures at this site are mediocre at best,
but it's an admirable project; trying to capture scenes of Silicon Valley
that people who live or work here see on a regular basis.
Here are some of the better pictures (all by Justin Milliun, Jr.):
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Habitat: "This is indoors in an office building in
Silicon Valley. When human communities travel to other planets,
such as Mars, they will probably create pleasant habitats such
as this under domes."
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San
Jose State University
This is right in the middle of downtown San Jose...
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More pictures:
- Storage:
"Morning at the self-storage building. These buildings house 2 stories
of self-storage space. Why is this popular in Silicon Valley? Many
reasons, here very few houses have basements, and thus the garage
is devoted to storage. But here in Silicon Valley the garage is a
special place. In addition to storing cars, people often start companies
in them..."
(Also on this page: A decent picture of Los Gatos Creek Park. Gives
you a sense of the hills which surround the valley.)
- Outside
Yahoo (1999) And here's how
to get to Yahoo...
Silicon Valley Weather
Diary
Price Checks (state of the economy):
2001, December: Average rental cost for a 2-bedroom apartment: $1,600
- $2,100
2003, October 15:
Cigarettes (Camels) average price per pack: $4.62 (but you can find
them on sale for $3.64; $34.09 for a carton)
Gas, Regular Unleaded: $1.75 [1.67 to 1.97] [check
gas prices in Bay Area]
Sample
2-bedroom apartment cost: $1,350 {sample
apt search}
2004, March:
Cigarettes (Camels): 3.64 per pack (cheapest); $34.09 per carton (same
as last October)
Gas, Regular Unleaded: $2.057 [1.97 to 2.23]
Sample
2-bedroom apartment cost: $1,400 [940 Sq. Feet]
2004, May 28:
Median Home Prices Pass Half-Million Mark; Figure Reaches $520,000
In Bay Area
Bay Area home prices have crossed a new threshold with the figure
reaching $520,000.
Source: San Jose Mercury News
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