May 2008
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Clues vs. Trains, cont’d
For some reason this blog has failed to post the comment that I just wrote in response to Simon Edhouse‘s latest comment in response to the Clues vs. Trains post. It’s within a good dialog that involves Simon’s post here, which makes some subtle but important points about the degree to which the client-server nature… Continue reading
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And now, in my case as well
This is mostly true: This one is my fave. There is no business I wish more that I had thought of than Despair.com. Just freaking brilliant. And humbling. Continue reading
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Thought du jour
The Net is a way to work around the silos that substitute for it. This came to me after seeing “Twitter is over capacity.” for the Nth time. Twitter will be better off when it’s the best of its own breed, rather than the only place to do what can only be done there. That’s… Continue reading
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Tropical Massachusetts
It was a clear morning yesterday when I flew out of Boston, and almost identical when I landed in San Francisco. For oddball reasons of season and perspective, many of the sights on the outbound looked like the coast of Mexico or Brazil. In fact the above is Plum Island and its inlet on the… Continue reading
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Killer “journalism”
Yesterday on the drive from SFO to Palo Alto, I hit SCAN on the rental car radio. Aside from the sports shows and the still-awesome KPIG (with a little signal on 1510 out of Oakland… check it out), most of what I heard was partisanship at all costs. Eventually you get slips like this one… Continue reading
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Clues vs. Trains
I don’t begrudge anybody going after advertising money. And I don’t have anything against advertising itself. For many products and services advertising will remain the best way for supply and demand to get acquainted. But advertising also involves guesswork and waste, and always will. It is also, by its shout-to-the-world nature, not a “conversation”. This… Continue reading
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Hope for old fat guys everywhere
While the kid had his violin lesson this evening at his school, I went out and shot hoops for as long as it took. Hits vs. Misses, all shots from beyond the foul line in any direction. When the kid came out, I was up 42 to 37. After we started playing HORSE, a couple… Continue reading
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More Motown
It’s a warm breezy day in Cambridge, a perfect pre-summer day for the Motown Orgy that WHRB is holding right now. I caught it first this morning on my way back from dropping the kid off at school, and it’s been hard to tune away since. Great radio, even though it’s weird getting schooled by… Continue reading
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Remembering Catherine Burns
My grandmother, who was born in 1882 and died in 1990, came from sturdy Irish and German stock. It’s a combination that yields what I like to call “very organized party people”. She lived longer than her sisters, but not by a huge sum. The other three all lived into their 80s and 90s. Grandma… Continue reading
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I can see what they’re saying
What the deaf can teach us about listening. The short version: Look people in the eye. Don’t interrupt. Say what you mean, as simply as possible. When you don’t understand something, ask. Stay focused. I’d call all that common sense, if it were more commonly applied. Including by me. Continue reading
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Looking for Libertarian help with Saving the Net
Interesting video on the Threat to Net Neutrality. Well done, but I’m not crazy about bills that legislate something that isn’t well-enough defined or understood. By which I mean both the Net and Neutrality. Here’s S.215, for example. (Full text here.) What’s meant by “lawful”? Or “broadband”? I suspect the language in this bill will… Continue reading
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Remembranes
The hardest I ever laughed in my life was right after Paul Marshall, Ken Raabe and I were already laughing our asses off at something in Mad Magazine about a gun called “Death 26”. Just when we caught our breaths enough to talk, Ken said “I haven’t laughed so hard since the pigs ate my… Continue reading
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VRMmings
Here’s a round-up of VRM blogs and twits from conferences and stuff over the last couple weeks. Not all of them, but a bunch. Continue reading
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Chicago sky line-up
Click on the above for a nice series of shots I took while flying out of Chicago in the evening, looking east toward the skyline with the sun behind me in the west. Early on is a nice series of the Bensenville Yard, one of the most impressive, and busy, rail yards in the world.… Continue reading
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Discovering Columbus, cont’d
Flying out now. They have free wifi here. No spash page, no goofy PR. Just an open hot spot. Or a bunch of them. A major high five for that to the CMH folks. Continue reading
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Now is history. Get over it.
That’s a headline from a slide I just dropped from the talk I’m giving this morning. But I still like the line, so I’m sticking it here. Continue reading
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The Relating Game
Are markets role playing games? If so, can we change them by making customers more capable? And if the answer to that is yes, what existing RPGs best resemble the game we want markets to become? Say, one where we either kill marketers or win them over to our side? Or something like that? Those… Continue reading
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Happy take-offings
Shot this series of pictures, mostly of islands in Boston Harbor, while ascending to the skies out of Logan on Sunday, en route to San Francisco. The one above is Rainsford Island. (And my shot is a lot prettier than the one at that last link, on Wikipedia. They can use it if they like.)… Continue reading