My plane leaves in a little bit, so I decided to wander around town and snap some shots before I left.  I found this Skoda dealer....

Above is an Octavia TDI and below is the Fabia.

Skoda is a Czech brand of car that's now a subsidiary of Volkswagen.  Of course, we don't have these cars in the U.S., but I'm a bit of a VW fan so I think these cars are cool.

AMD supposedly launched AM2 a couple weeks ago and although Anand could get his hands on some hardware, I couldn't find it in stock anywhere. I need to help Ultra design an AM2 bracket for one of their fans, but before I can do that.  I have to have the hardware!  Fortunately, here in Taipei, I have an entire city block full of computer stores to look for a motherboard and CPU....

So we walk into one of the stores where there's A LOT of motherboards....

And A LOT of power supplies.....

And we pick up a motherboard and AM2 3000+ processor...

They'll actually benchtest the combo right there at the cash register to make sure you don't come back claiming it doesn't work.

Now that I have that out of the way... I can shop for something for my wife.....

I took some pictures of some World Cup fan activities just outside of Taipei 101.  The World Cup kicks off next week and the Taiwanese seem to be some real soccer fans.

Below is a picture of two people inside a pair of giant soccer balls.  The object is to get to the goal on the other side of the "field"....

This is the back of the giant ramp the people got to roll their super-sized soccer balls down.....

Initially I thought "Impossible is Nothing" was a bit of Engrish, but it's actually the slogan for Adidas's new ad campaign. 

Soccer fan or not, you've got to dig the giant soccer ball in the middle of the courtyard that looks like I crashed in from outerspace.

....For 7-11!

Almost all of the usual suspects are here.  Lays potato chips, Big Gulps, beer... along side the Big Bites though there's a crock pot of dumplings you can dive into.  I hear they're "safe" but not as tasty as the street vendors'.

Today ended up being a busy day.  I was at the Ultra Products Taiwan office for a good part of the day.  When I left, the person I had left with took me towards this temple across the street from the office.

Sort of weird to see a temple like this amongst city skyscrapers.  What else was weird was I had no idea WHY we were walking towards this temple.  But I decided to whip out the camera and snap a few shots while I blindly followed the man with the car keys in his hand....

It turns out there was underground parking underneath the temple. Once inside, we took an elevator down and hopped into a car and drove away. Wild.

Mmm... Barista Coffee......

"Seatle Style", eh?  Like Starbucks?

"Stay competitive with the giant?"  You mean... Starbucks?

That's ok.  It's actually more comfortable in here (the Starbucks next door is a stand in the middle of a mall-type setting with shoppers buzzing about) and the coffee beans don't taste over-roasted.

Well... seriously jet-lagged, I didn't sleep at all last night.  I walked the floor of Computex and immediately went to Taipei 101 to hang out.....

Taipei 101 doesn't look so tall when you're staring up at it, but it is currently the tallest building in the world at 449.2 meters from the ground to the roof.

Inside the first few floors of Taipei 101 is a mall.  Do you see a Nine West and Tommy Hilfiger?  Yep!  They're pretty much all American brands in here.

In the basement there is a food court with a KFC, McDonalds and other familiar brands.  There's also "Jason's Market" which is a big grocery store with products imported from the U.S. and abroad.

Above is the illuminated sign on the wall of the world's fastest elevator (at 37.7 mph).  It got us to the 89th floor (observation deck) in only 35 seconds.

Needless to say, there's quite a view of the city below.

To help offset movement of the building when strong gusts hit it, there's a huge tuned mass damper:

Untouched photo above.  The lighting gives it a kind of eerir glow!

Above is signage bragging about the super fast elevator.

There was a bunch of art up on the observation deck when we were up there today.  I snapped a photo of this word-carved dragon that seems to be eating something that looks an awful lot like Taipei 101!

Scooters are the main mode of transportation in Taiwan.....

Here's a father and son team coming back from KFC with some dinner for the family.....

Looks like dad's scooter's been in a couple fender benders.

I even shot this video of a parade of scooters flying by my hotel room.....

Well... I'm in Taipei!  For work, unfortunately, but I do have my camera with me and will be snapping photos whenever possible.

I'm staying at the Howard, which is actually a pretty nice hotel considering and it's only about $100 USD a night.  Here's a picture outside of my window:

Needless to say I'm in a room on the inside of the tower so my window faces the elevators and the lobby down below.  Hmm... guess I should put some clothes on.  I think the people in the elevator can see me.

My mini-fridge came well stocked with one Taiwan Beer, one Coke, one Pepsi, one Sprite and one Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade, only it tastes good):

Prices are reasonable (for a hotel) at around $1 per can.  That's not going to hold me over though.  I'll need more beer.  Good thing there's a 7-11 down the street.