About Palo Alto:

Palo Alto is located at the heart of Silicon Valley, where the majority of the people lead fast-paced, busy lives, struggling to keep up with their PalmPilot dictated schedules and coughing up exorbitant amounts of money for horrendous rent charges imposed by ruthless landlords.

Okay, perhaps that was a bit melodramatic, but it is to some extent true. Typical one-bedroom apartments run $1300/month or more in popular areas, and gas is $2/gallon at some stations. Words and phrases commonly overheard during lunch-time conversations include, "SQL Server", "Java", and "I work at this new start-up..."

People actually wear their work badges to lunch. I've seen it.

About the photographer:

Eric Cheng works at a software startup called E.piphany, Inc. He struggles to balance sitting in front of a computer all day by trying to cling to his creative side by playing the cello and taking photographs.

For more info about Eric, visit http://www.echeng.com