A few months into the new system confirms the magnitude of the problem: the production numbers for November and December were the best ever for this system. January and February tied previous records, and in April this array smoked the previous best by 32%!

The new panels are 130-watt units, which is a small upgrade in theoretical capacity from the previous model (125 watts), but I think the performance gains are due primarily to the fact that the new array isn't b0rked.

(Contact me if you want to help out -- there's a free T-shirt with your name on it.)

Anyway, the soundtrack on the video is an excerpt from one of the songs I recorded during the session. The full song will be released later this year on Andrew Thomas' new CD.

Advertising via the email "signature" is nothing new; it was probably invented by Hotmail in 1996, and is used widely today. Lots of webmail and message-platform vendors promote their products this way.

With that in mind, check out the signature on the email I just received from my little sister, a Gmail user:

Is that not brilliant? Apple bought the signature line from Gmail to promote the iPhone!

That single line of text beautifully captures the sense of lust the iPhone inspires.

I was in awe of this little line of text. Was Ridley Scott in on this?

But no, it's not a real Apple campaign. Not yet, anyway. My sister made it up, in sarcastic protest to all her hipster friends who can afford iPhones.

It's too good not to be real, though, so (with my sister's blessing) I'm offering it to Apple. Give TBWA the afternoon off. We got your iPhone campaign right here.

But please send an iPhone to my sister.

Dear PG&E Customer:
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is constantly striving to improve products and services for its customers. We are excited to introduce to you our latest improvement.
Beginning this month, the "detail of bill" section of your energy statement will be double-sided. This new format will reduce the amount of paper used for each statement creating a better, more environment- and customer-friendly bill.
...

So, my 2-page electric bill now fits on a single sheet of paper.

Unfortunately, the letter proclaiming this savings was printed on a second sheet.

French horn player Meredith Brown had a busy weekend.

Last Saturday morning, she drove from her home in Vallejo to San Rafael for two back-to-back rehearsals with the Marin Symphony, then played an evening concert in San Jose with the Symphony Silicon Valley. Sunday's schedule was more grueling: morning rehearsal in Marin, afternoon concert in San Jose, evening concert in Marin.

And you thought your commute was rough.

The headline was have violins, will travel. The story describes the crazy lifestyles of the classical musicians who populate the Bay Area's part-time orchestras. None of these orchestras employ full-time players, so the musicians have to work with more than one. Sometimes six or eight.

The pay isn't great. The days are long. The oil changes are frequent. I'm not sure grueling would cover it.

But the players love it. I mean, they'd have to.

While Meredith Brown was putting in the 5000-10000 hours of practice she must have put in to become a professional classical musician, I was writing assembly code to draw Backgammon screens on my C=64 and solving Rubik's Cube and so on... which leads me to the following analysis of her weekend commute.

Vallejo to San Rafael is 30 miles... San Rafael to San Jose is 65 miles... San Jose to Vallejo is 70 miles. Her weekend total would have been 30+65+70 (saturday) plus 30+65+65+30 (sunday) or 355 miles, assuming she didn't go home between services. Drive like that 7 days a week for a year, and you'll put 62000 miles on your car.

When you commute, you pay twice, both in dollars and in hours. My 80-mile drive to the office regularly takes 120-160 minutes. If these musicians ever run into traffic, there's a good chance they're spending more time driving than they are playing music.

Anyway, here's the documentary, already on DVD: Freeway Philharmonic, the classical road warriors. At $25, it will cost you less than Ms. Brown spent on gas last weekend.

PS. I used to work with Bruce Chrisp, who, with his wife Meredith Brown is featured in the SFGate article and the Freeway Philharmonic documentary. If I recall correctly, Bruce retired from a very promising career in web design to pursue music full-time. Knowing what he sacrificed, I'm awed by his dedication.

Update 2008-02-09: Bruce got in touch to announce a new website, Freeway Philharmonic, which names the local musicians and orchestras, announces news and auditions, and more.