the art of writing is discovering what you believe
New bike today. Rode my too-large mountain bike in the rain to one of the many local bike shops and traded it against a Fuji Finest. Rode it home in an even harder rain but it was a lot easier to ride, more responsive, and more fun.
As noted elsewhere, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. And I was wearing ’em today. Shopping for a rain-proof but breathable cycling jacket now.
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STEVE HEYER’S MANIFESTO FOR A NEW AGE OF MARKETING
People are always saying that this medium or that medium is in decay, declining, going away. No medium goes away; its role changes. That’s all. And as media fragmentation continues… and as new choices continue to emerge and technology leaps out ahead of consumers’ wishes to change the way they behave… it’s incumbent upon us all — advertisers, marketers, creators of content and culture, everyone in this game — to think. And to think differently about how we’ll connect with consumers in the future.
This is worth reading if you’re interested in how your attention, your time, is going to be commoditized in future.
King County Library System — How To Install & Use the LibraryLookup Tool
LibraryLookup is a small bit of JavaScript (a bookmarklet) that you add to your Bookmarks.
Excellent.
White House Scales Back Cyberspace Plan
“The plan is all about consensus,” said Bruce Schneier, the chief technology officer of Counterpane, a security company. “Consensus is the lowest common denominator. Security is not achieved by consensus.”
I sent the below email to Steve Jobs today.
I think Mr Purdy was in some of my UW CSE classes: he was slumming, since he knew all the material cold.
I find his weblog thrugh Dave Winer: he mentioned how MSFT needs a human face (other than Gates and Ballmer).
Other stuff on this page worth reading as well.
Microsoft and the Commoditization of Software
Linux is certainly a threat to Microsoft’s less-than-perfect server software right now (and to its desktop in the not-too-distant future), but open source software in general, running especially on the Windows operating system, is a much bigger threat. As the quality of this software improves, there will be less and less reason to pay for core software-only assets that have become stylized categories over the years: Microsoft sells OFFICE (the suite) while people may only need a small part of Word or a bit of Access. Microsoft sells WINDOWS (the platform) but a small org might just need a website, or a fileserver. It no longer fits Microsoft’s business model to have many individual offerings and to innovate with new application software. Unfortunately, this is exactly where free software excels and is making inroads. One-size-fits-all, one-app-is-all-you-need, one-api-and-damn-the-torpedoes has turned out to be an imperfect strategy for the long haul.
Some insight here. And it’s entirely likely they can make the changes he suggests . . . if they want to.
Senator Byrd – Virtual Newsroom
Have we not learned that after winning the war one must always secure the peace?
You can hear his voice ringing through the Senate as you read this. Please do read it.
(I should also mention geography as a negative selector. Since early stage investing is inherently hands-on, many funds won’t do early deals very far from their home offices. Our rule is now ‘Pacific time zone only.’ Distance also makes the networking more difficult, even in the Internet age.)
The widespread and generally unchallenged Net belief is that the age of communication – from e-mail to teleconferencing to wireless devices everywhere – will finally make physical presence and location irrelevant. Work will be farmed out around the world, wherever talented people are available. The living-hell of airline travel and commuting will diminish, as we perform our work from a location we choose.
Everyone knows the evidence of this proposition. People log in from around the world to connect with the head office. Cargo ships deliver countless wares produced overseas using designs sent to manufacturers by e-mail. But consider the evidence on the other side:
* The real-estate premium for choice, central locations – Manhattan, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle – vs. the hinterlands is higher than ever before, suggesting that people in the same business find physical proximity to work worth an ever-rising price.
* Well over half of all U.S. venture capital flows through Northern California, rather than dispersing – as it would if location didn’t count.
* The biggest and most fiercely competitive knowledge-industry companies make a point of concentrating their work in central locations, rather than scattering it across the country. Land is far pricier in Redmond, Wash., than in Amarillo, Texas, but Microsoft (MSFT) keeps putting its new buildings close to the old Redmond ones.
* Just as the “paperless office” era has led to steadily higher pulp consumption, so the age of the “virtual office” has led to more passengers on the airways and more commuters on the roadways than ever before.
So the question is: Why should we think it will ever be different? When, exactly, will location and face-to-face contact cease to be as important as they are now? The person who can offer the best fact-based argument wins the prize. Decision of the judge (me) is subjective, and final. The reward is a meal and drink in the San Francisco area – where, odds are, the winner is already based.
An old question: so far, the answer is no.