Even crazier, the article mentions a Paternoster. A sort of elevator that never stops. Watch this video for a demonstration. It does not look safe!

Inspired by a post on Hacker News.

Hey BrainFuel readers, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about Arizona’s first ever TEDxPhoenix event which is scheduled to take place this Friday, November 6th from 6pm to 9pm at the Mesa Arts Center.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with TEDxPhoenix, it’s a local and independently organized event operated under license from TED. TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design is the world famous conference that has been sharing it’s amazing TEDTalks with people around the world for several years now.

Anyway, so why the heck should you care? Well the answer to that is two-fold.. okay tri-fold.

First, our inaugural event has speakers who encompass a variety of disciplines, but unfortunately design isn’t one of them… yet. I’m hoping that local Phoenicians and Arizonans can come out to the event and think up of ways to incorporate some of the Valley’s local thinkers and doers in the design world for future events — we’ll take all the help we can get!

Second, TEDxPhoenix is a place to meet individuals who are interested in leveraging ideas, design, and education to help create a better future for the Valley and beyond.

Last but not least, TED is allowing local communities to bring their own independently organized TED-like event to your neck of the woods, so if you’re not in Phoenix, then check to see if there’s a local TEDx event scheduled for your home town. If not, then you might want to think about organizing a TEDx event for your community.

If you are in Phoenix, then I really hope you will join us this Friday; here are all the event details for your viewing pleasure:

• Homepage: www.tedxphoenix.com
• Event Date & Time: Friday, November 6th, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm
• Location: Mesa Arts Center – Google Map
• Tickets: $5 – Get your tickets here

Sincerely,
~Tomas

Post Scriptum: TEDxPhoenix is proud to be the unofficial kickoff event for the first ever GeekWeekAZ; check out the site to see all the other amazing events happening around the Phoenix-Metro area.

Around 7 pm we make our last trip and pull up to the new office but find the gate locked. We can’t get in!

And worse: there are still people from our team inside! They were locked in by other tenants.

So we phone the landlord. No answer.

Phone again, no answer. This isn’t looking good.

About 10 minutes later we hear that the maintenance man is coming by with a key to the gate.

To make a long story short, we threatened to change the locks on our doors that night if they didn’t get us keys (we had no way to lock them from the inside). We had keys in our pockets within 30 minutes.

“Would you mind sparing a quarter or 50 cents so I can get a bite to eat?”

The first thing that naturally crossed my mind was what this man could possibly buy for 50 cents that would be remotely filling. Maybe an 8th of a Subway sandwich?

Naturally, my mind progressed and I wondered if he was really going to get food, or just buy alcohol or something. Of course, that’s the moment when you look around at the people who are watching.

It’s at this point that you either have to say “no” or “here’s a buck.”

So I gave him two bucks and he was on his way. I saw him as we left smoking a cigarette, so I knew I had made the wrong choice.

Next time, I think I’ll ask the person questions. Like, what could you possibly get to eat for only 25 cents? And gladly hand the fellow a quarter. I’ll say “here you go!”

And deep inside, I’ll feel good knowing that he could have just as easily found that much money in a wishing pond. Maybe I should try the opposite approach, and exclaim that I’m from the Dept. of Weights and Measures, and we’ve been looking for a bright person to hire to measure peoples generosity. I could ask him for money instead and turn the tables.

I think that’s ok.

There’s a place for every type of writing style and some things call for their own. A personal journal written for friends should be different than what I write on a semi-corporate blog.

Speaking of a corporate blog. I’m not certain whether BrainFuel is a corporate blog for Tornado, or if it’s a random bazaar of links to cool web sites, or even if it’s just for experimentation. I also don’t think it matters because it’s great fun to write on BrainFuel.

Now I’m rambling.

Back to my point in writing this post: I’ve been working on a personal site (dare I say, blog) and while it’s under construction I won’t post a link to it. I wrote a half dozen posts for my personal site and decided I didn’t like the direction it was taking. When I do launch it I thought it’d be smart to have some content for people to read.

I had to read some of the posts over at Peter Rukavina’s weblog before I discovered why I was dissatisifed though. For example: Read Peter’s post about his trip to France and his attempts to find a WiFi spot with free internet.

Isn’t that so much fun to read!? All of his posts are like that. A sort of story format and I expressely like that style. It’s what I was shooting for when I first had the idea to start a personal site. Telling stories.

It was an awkward moment when my client said that. He had missed two previously scheduled meetings and I was berating him for his apparent lack of respect for my schedule even after I had confirmed the meetings the same day they were to happen. Then he throws this bomb into the conversation.

“Huh? You’re firstborn?”

Good thing he doesn’t have kids.