That's certainly been true recently, but I've heard the other usage ("diva") within the last 4-5 years.

You know, I actually did think of that, but somehow I forgot it when sitting down to write the post. It's really difficult to be a mayor of anything in Silicon Valley.

I look forward to supplying some :-)

One of the real problems with this demographic is that, once they learn a method of doing something, they will repeat it endlessly rather than learn another way. I've actually had one person want to show me something on Yahoo!—she very carefully went to www.google.com, typed in Yahoo!, clicked the first link in the results, and then proceeded to navigate the site. She told me that one of her kids or grandkids had taught her to "always use Google," so that's what she did. She made no distinction between a search box and the URL bar; to her, they were just regions of the screen where she could tell the computer where to go.

That's actually a much better way of handling it. IMHO they made a serious mistake by announcing it with great fanfare, telling everyone it was available, and then having it effectively appear broken by not showing the "Check In" button.

Good question. But we went to the one in San Jose, at The Plant, and I'm told that there's one opening in Sunnyvale soon.

I believe I told you right there in the title to not read it. :P

Thanks — I'll see if I can arrange an advance viewing of this at Yahoo!

Wow, that's really frustrating. Even the SXSW website says that the Panel Picker will be open on August 9.

Yes, that's absolutely true. I use Amazon for a ton of purchases, and many of them are not for me. I know that companies are very big into "passive" personalization (i.e., it happen automatically without request), but there's a lot more power in "active" personalization (where the user can control what's happening). IMHO companies should provide both.