Read this
Grady Booch is one of the luminaries of our field. Take a look at this postand tell me that it isn’t amazing and touching to see people revealing a personal side which one otherwise probably never would see.
Blog Posts
All my blog posts and articles
January 2005
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2005-01-04
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2005-01-03
Elephants are cool!
I just finished watching “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” which had some really cool scenes with these warrior elephants. So here is a case of life immitating art: * Two elephants clear debris in Indonesia’s tsunami-hit city of Banda Aceh January 3, 2005. Eight days on, hungry and sick survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami are waiting for food and medicine in growing desperation as a multinational aid operation tries to reach remote towns ravaged by the waves. (Beawiharta/Reuters)*
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2005-01-03
Suckered again by Microsoft?
Read more →I’ve been using Microsoft Money ** (their personal finance package) for years now (after having switched from Quicken probably 5 years ago.) I really like it, for what it is. In January of each of the last few years it seems, I shell out another $60 for the latest “upgrade”, install it, and immediately kick **myself when I find almost no new functionality.
It seems like the graphic designers get a turn to play with all the art work and colors but as far as new functionality, nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the M$ is down to 4 people, with the highest operating margin of any product.
This has gone so far now, that they don’t even pretend by putting a “What’s new in this ...
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2005-01-02
Incredibly cool visualizations
In the realm of interesting visualizations, check this oneout. It’s a Chess game where the computer’s ‘thought process’ is displayed as it figures out the next move. Via “Bad Magic Number” who said “It’s quite an interesting cross between art, programming and chess. “
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2005-01-01
GMail – Part 3
Continuing thinking about GMail and what Google really is up to. From the Department of Unintended Consequences (via Paul Kleppner): **… somebody has created a Windows file system extension so that you can use your 1gb GMail account as a remote file system! It’s a crazy hack. But it makes me think that something like this could easily be done as a true service by Google (with sensible protocols).
Check out the Gmail Virtual File system hack.
Pretty neat. My guess is Google loves this kind of thing, and at the point when it starts being a noticable stress on their system (never) they will either start offering it themselves (with ads) or prohibit it.
Love them unintended consequences!
p.s. Happy 2005!**
December 2004
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2004-12-31
What is the difference between a blog and a newsgroup?
Recently in a conversation I was asked to comment on what really was the big difference between a blog and a newsgroup. After all they are both a reverse chronological list of postings, right?
My answer, maybe obvious, is this: a newsgroup is (typically) focused on a certain subject matter, and has many different people posting their comments and questions on that topic. So you follow a newsgroup because you are interested in a specific subject matter.
A blog is (typically) focused on a certain author’s voice, and often covers many different topics, of interest to the author. So you follow a blog because you are interested in a particular author’s point of view.
Of course in reality it’s not quite that black and white, and there are shades of grey in between.
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2004-12-27
“Pure Entrepreneurship” article in tbe Boston Globe
“Pure Entrepeneurs”, according to this article in the Boston Globe, ***… are loopy and obsessed. They have a vision of the future, and while others are casting their lines into the water to see what will bite, pure entrepreneurs are jumping over the gunwales and swimming after the white whale.
Pure entrepreneurship, by my definition, is often driven by a belief that a major shift is coming — and thus it’s hard to find customers who already understand that they need the product a pure entrepreneur is developing.*
You know the funny thing that my wife pointed out? For me, being called “loopy and obsessed” high praise**!
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2004-12-26
Seeing the other side of someone
Adam Bossworth is a guy who I’ve written about before, in a very technical context. He’s well known in techie circles for many important accomplishments and contributions. It is nice to see him writingabout a totally other side of him, the side that you of course always knew had to exist, and yet in his tech industry persona would probably never ever come up. It’s easy to agree with what he is saying.
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2004-12-25
For every question there is someone who is interested in studying it
Yes I have to admit it’s something that I too have wondered about, and now, there’s a study about it. It just struck me as amusing (click on the map to enlarge it)
p.s.: Merry Christmas!
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2004-12-24
Is Sarah McLachlan is Video Podcasting?
Read more →
On her site, World On Fire, Sarah McLachlanhas an interesting video, which reminded me what Video podcasting or Video blogging can become.Picking up on a theme of minefrom a few days ago, one of the important characteristics of the blogging phenomenon is that people who otherwise would have no access to broadcasting are able to get their content (text, pictures, audio and video) del...
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2004-12-23
Gmail, Part Deux: Strategy
Read more →So what might GMail’s strategy be? I listened to a wonderful Podcast with Georges Harik all about GMail and some of the thinking about it. If you are interested in GMail, it’s a worthwhile listen. I noticed that Georges kept referring to GMail as providing great email and communications capabilities. An interesting and fine distinction to be stressing, although the interviewer never referred to it.
Another interesting strategic point that was covered was the question of providing free POP and SMTP, which is certainly counterintuitive if you believe that GMail is being made to make money, and the only w...
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2004-12-22
Free Coffee and Bad Marketing
Read more →First the punchline: go to this link, fill out a short questionaire, and receive a $15 Starbucks gift card in the mail, no questions asked. But hurry, because I wouldn’t be surprised if that offer evaporates quickly. Here is one of those cool “internet effects.” There’s a site called DealNewswhere you can immediate reports of interesting offers, coupons, deals, etc. They are posted there by I don’t know who – people without a life. They also have an RSS Feedfor you BlogBridgeusers. That’s how I found out about the offer.
Anyway, ...
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2004-12-20
Boston Globe on PodCasting
The BostonGlobe writes an insightful article about Podcsating (note: the link will turn stale tomorrow, but I will try and update it if I can find the article elsewhere on the web.) “If Internet-based weblogs turned everyone into a potential newspaper columnist, and digital cameras let them become photojournalists, podcasting is promising to let everyone with a microphone and a computer become a radio commentator.”
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2004-12-19
Coding as Writing
Read more →If you read this blog at all, you know that I’ve been working on a piece of software (BlogBridge) which at this point I am pretty excited about, even though I don’t know where it will go or end up. I was recently interviewed about my work by Scott Kirsner (of the Boston Globe) who writes the @Large Column. I don’t know whether or when he will write an article, but the questions he asked made me think a bit about what I was doing, and particularlyy the way I have chosen to go about it.
I have purposely decided not to try and raise capital to fund this proje...
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2004-12-18
Lightbulb about Podcasting (“Some stuff I just figured out”)
Read more →I attended a Podcasting meeting at Berkmana couple of days ago(see “The Berkman Choir”for some silliness) and came back, as often happens, with a new insight. Here it is, and if it seems obvious to you, that would be my failing. (And if you have no idea what I am talking about, well, just move on!) You will see some themes that I’ve mentioned before, but elaborated in some new ways. The technology for blogging and Podcasting isn’t that complicated or new. It’s really stuff that’s been around put together in new ways, ...
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2004-12-17
Great Movie: Osama
No it’s not about Osama Bin Laden (UBL) but about a little girl called Osama, living in Taliban Kabul. I didn’t see it in the theatres but got the DVD out. Highly recommended. Review.
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2004-12-14
Heard of GMail?
Read more →There are many interesting things about GMail, so this is either going to be a long post or one of a series. First things first: GMail is now my primary email provider. Yes, you heard that right. It’s free, does a great job with spam and I can continue to use Outlook. Life is good. First of all, what is GMail (for those of you who have been living under a rock!) GMail is Google’s free, web based, email service. Its major claim to fame, at least initially, was the 1 Gig of free Mail storage they provide. Kind of amazing isn’t it? When it first came out, that got all the attention. In fact it seems to have forced Hotmail and Yahoo mail to increase the a...
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2004-12-14
My social theory of blogging
We all love reading blogs (right?), and some of us even use their valuable time writing blogs. In my evangelism of blogging, a common question is “Why?.” Why would you spend your time writing, for a small (for most of us) mostly anonymous audience, for free? Well I have a (lower-case “t”) theory that many bloggers (like me) work alone, at home, or as a consultant, or perhaps wor in a company but not among like minded people.
In this scenario, the blog becomes an outlet for casual little thoughts, insights and discoveries (like this one), which usually would be shared around the office coffee machine, by popping into someone else’s office, or when running into them at lunch or on the elevator. When none of these outlets are available, a solo worker becomes a blogger and shares those nuggets with “the world.”
I don’t know if this rings true to other bloggers, but it does to me.
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2004-12-14
How Seinfeld as shaped popular culture
In this morning’s Blog reading, I saw two references to Seinfeld episodes, in each case the reference was just thrown into a headline without further comment. Shows how Seinfeld has shaped how we think and speak!
“No WinFS For You”referering to the totally famous Soup Nazi episode. “A Festivus for the rest of us”,from the little less well known Festivus episode.
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2004-12-12
I’m in good company
A week or so ago I posted an amusing picture, supposedly from Popular Mechanics. Well it was quickly debunked as a hoax. This morning, this, showing that I am in good company!
