Category: the value of X

I got up early today and was on the road at 6:20, ending up with 40 miles on this first ride. Not very enjoyable. I couldn’t find a comfortable cadence or position, so some saddle adjustments are needed. I also gave in and bought some gloves to shield my hands from further nerve damage: I have sustained some minor damage to the median and ulnar nerves where they enter the palm of my hand and I’d like to minimize it.

Ran into a couple of riders who did the STP this year: first-timers both of them and they did the one day ride in 11 hours 47 minutes. Works out to about 17 miles per hour.

My new cyclometer seemed OK when I tested it, but the cadence counter — the chief reason for choosing it — wouldn’t work today. Very annoying. The speed and distance sensor worked just fine, so I don’t know what’s up with it.

john mahoney’s weblog

john mahoney contributed to my restoration to two-wheeled glory: many thanks.

I turned off comments on the two Harry Potter-related threads, one, to prevent the misconception that JK Rowling will ever read these; two, to stop kids leaving their email addresses in a public forum; and three, because they always press the Submit button multiple times, leaving a mess for me to clean up.

Enough.

Paul Holbrook of Bluepenguin just dropped a sawbuck in the “replace my stolen bike” fund, bless him.

meta-douglasp

This is a snapsnot of what we (Microsoft and everyone else in the software industry) should be focused on. We get too wrapped up in self-importance many times. In the end, it is about one thing… Making Bob (#define for our customers) happy. Not super cool features that can do X,Y, & Z, but just making Bob successful so he can go home and enjoy his family without worrying all night long…

Doug’s a smart guy, and I don’t doubt his sincerity, but for his vision to become reality would take some huge changes at the Big House.

Granted this is an old quote, but still: when the Boss says “The new version – it’s not there to fix bugs. That’s not the reason we come up with a new version,” what does that suggest *he* thinks is important? Chrome or stability? Reliability or security?

To be fair, marketing fewer bugs or greater stability would be harder than selling new features, and I suppose that’s why no one does it. Airlines don’t advertise their safety records or cite their competitors’ records, either: it’s not done.

But perhaps this is perhaps the most pernicious aspect of MSFT’s heft in the marketplace: if you’re really good, where else is there to work?

Shirky: RIP The Consumer, 1900-1999

A different take on the “death of the consumer.” I’m not sure I buy the premise that “we are all producers now.” It sounds like one of those delusions: if I am doing X (publishing on the web), then everyone else is, too. It seems we’re replacing one undifferentiated mass of advertising (TV and radio spots) with another: spam.

BlogShares – swa lejeune

So I spent some time playing this BlogShares game and successfully boosted my portfolio from the initial $500 and 1000 shares in this fine online property to just over $23,000. Not bad, I thought. Then the game’s minders posted the top players for May: the top player is somewhere well north of that.

Total Real Worth $207,093,803.07

Wow.

Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation: Bike To Work, commuting

This year’s bike to work event is better than ever. A full month of exciting activities have been added to the traditional WRQ Bike to Work Day.

3.7 miles in less than 20 minutes: it might make more sense than taking the bus, and I can always put the bike on the bus if I don’t feel like riding home.

PATRIOTIC POSTERS – WHITEHOUSE.ORG
Attention American Citizens! You stand hereby directed to prove your patriotism by printing out hundreds of the wartime morale posters below, and distributing them widely throughout your community!

Not work-safe and not for the faint of heart . . . .

One of the professors I work with has a game she plays as an anger management strategy, and it’s called “The Map of Banishment.” It works like this: you take a map of the world, any projection, and some colored pushpins or labelled straight pins. Then, as your colleagues or co-workers make themselves deserving of it, you “banish” them by assigning them a pushpin and placing it in some desolate or inhospitable region of the map.

Cheap, educational, and effective. And no one need know that, in your mind, they’re freezing their &%^$$ in Tierra del Feugo or roasting in the sands of the Sahara.