68Bomber

What is the best eReader for the disconnected world? Kindle vrs iPad vrs Sony eReader

2011-04-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

In March of this year, sixteen outdoor lovers spent thirty days rafting and kayaking down the Grand Canyon, where the rush of rapids, steep canyon walls, cool night air, moonlight hikes, and stargazing replace the drudgery of being chained to an inbox. Four of us were Digital Wanderers who brought our respective eReaders in place of books. Read more

Where has Becky been?

2011-02-09T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've been writing. I have been writing a lot and I am nearly ready to publish a series of Whitepapers. I am in the midst of launching a new analyst firm under the name Vesselhead focused on Technology Disruptions.

Add the new blog to your RSS feeds. Go take a look at the new blog/website. I have already posted two entries, one on the eWallet and another on HP's debut in the Tablet market.

This Blog I will keep and write occasionally on; however, I will use it to discuss other life interests like kayaking, poetry, etc.

Thank you for humoring my musings and participating in discussions on this blog.

AAPL Hits $300 per share

2010-10-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

Seems ironic that AAPL just passed the $300 a share during the advent of the Windows 7 phone release.

It was fun to throw mud at Cramer's original target back in October of last year. My assessment back then fundamentally missed the fact that once a company proves that they understand consumer sentiment, you should automatically assume that their future offerings will be just as disruptive as their past offerings. While AAPL has a lot of competitors on it's coat-tails, it is currently leading in form factor, design, application breadth, overall innovation, and now distribution channels.

Life at 3MPH

2010-03-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

I just accomplished one of my dreams, I kayaked the Grand Canyon. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. 24 days of river life. The hikes, people, food and everything about the trip was surreal. While words cannot truly describe the experience, here is a little something I wrote to describe it in simple terms...

Life at 3MPH

life at 3mph
    the closest i'll ever get to the speed of light

worldly cares wash away with spring rain

then comes the desert bloom
   Palmer's Penstemon, Desert Larkspur, Sacred Datura, Primrose, Mariposa Lily, Prickly Pears and Poppies

sing in the amphitheater
   scale to look for another view

the enormity of everything is a halting horse

carved giants watch from above
   river, washes, tributaries
relics of the past leave simple traces
   stories make them into legends
      Anasazi, Hopi & Navajo

tracks of the day: mountain goats, deer
   scorpions, ringtail cats
   and river rats

survival is a simple cadence
   chores, paddling, swimming, and grooving with a view
life is more primal, routine, slowed
and every eye blink is of canvas quality

subtle fear sets in as the south rim arises

dance in the shadows of the canyon walls and laterals
   where serpentine waltzes show respect to the boil lines

STOP what you are doing
look up, it's breathtaking
   promontories, mesas, buttes, pinnacles

       as the fire red colors melt into the starry sky.

3/3/2010

Is Apple really going to hit $300 a share?

2009-10-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Cramer recently updated his AAPL target to $300. While I have been Bullish since returning from Ecuador, recently I have been pulling back. But that isn't my reason for throwing some mud on the $300 stock value.

Looking at a recent BusinessWeek valuation comparison. Apple is in second place:

Microsoft — $236 billion
Apple — $183 billion
Google — $176 billion
IBM — $162 billion
Cisco — $140 billion
HP — $115 billion
Oracle — $111 billion
Dell — $30 billion

Apple recently had a record breaking earnings quarter; however, I attribute Apples recent record quarter to ongoing anti-Vista sentiment. But Microsoft is trying to get everyone to throw them a party for sucking less this time round with one of the most eery advertising campaigns I've seen since the IBM Linux boy.

I just bought myself a MacBook and iPhone two months ago because I abhorred Windows Vista, but I am still reasonable about my outlook on AAPL. I've heard good things about Windows 7 and want to wait to cast my verdict on AAPL's price target until after I have evaluated it. I know that Windows 7 will likely slow down MacBook sales because Vista will no longer be driving customers to OS X. Microsoft is the king of good enough. The consumer has to choose between a 1.5K MacBook and an equivalent $750 Windows 7 box. In this economy, the consumer will think hard about the extra spend.

But what about the rest of Apple's market? Here is my bullet list of pro AAPL $300 target and cons.
pros:
- iTunes content
- iPhone (unmatched application strength and speed)
- Superior engineering design for laptops and desktops
- Superior OS
- Boot, Sleep and overall virus reliability
- Linux underneath cause I'm an old school nerd
cons:
- Still not first to be supported for new technologies
- Proprietary connectivity
- Expensive (even in this downturn they did not lower their prices much)
- Often does not support really basic and expected functionality
- Still not viable for the Enterprise customer :(, their market will continue to be limited to the consumer, designer, media, startup spaces.

I believe that Apple is a great company; however, technology doesn't sit still. And while AAPL definitely shows leadership in innovation, their competitors are becoming increasingly more threatening. iPhone is still king, but the Palm Pre, Android variations, and CrackBerry are on it's tail. And there are hints and allegations about MS Pink.

When it comes to content, I think there is going to be continued pressure from all sides. Pandora, LastFM, etc challenge the itunes MP3 store. Amazon, Netflix and others are competing now for video. Hulu is quickly becoming an alternative to cable and while their current movie selection is poor, I believe it can and will improve and begin to compete. Overall, I believe that Apple's content market is being challenged by a plethora of free and paid for choices.

Market pressures finally pushed Apple to support MMS (Send Pictures via text) and Flash on the iPhone. But lacking critical features like these from the get go are the types of annoyances that can keep them from being adopted and keep AAPL from being trusted by it's consumer base. Disclosure: I gave up my first iPhone due to lack of support for both of these features. At the time the iPhone Apps simply weren't as sexy as they are today. Right now I couldn't imagine having any other phone but my new 3G.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of GOOG, left AAPL's board Aug 3 because of increasing conflicts of interest. Now Google is speaking publicly about the Google OS (likely a combination of Android + Chrome + offline caching and app support) that will be releasing on Netbooks in 2010. The majority of internet users are already highly aligned with the Google brand and tools. BING is still trying to prove itself in search as a viable competitor with their recent deals with Twitter and Facebook; however, Google still holds 70% in US and 80% globally for search. With the introduction of Android, their smartphone platform, preceding it's laptop release, they are only strengthening their brand ubiquity. And recently they have been making inroads in the enterprise with their cloud services where Apple is not a player. Tight integration here will be key to Android's success and likely be a primary threat to BlackBerry and Window's Smartphone spaces; however, if done right can also become a potential threat to the iPhone.

In the Enterprise space, I see a future run of Google vrs. MS with a combination of smartphone, laptop, enterprise collaboration infra like SharePoint+Exchange. Eric's view is that the lines between the consumer and the employee lines are becoming increasingly more blurred. If this is true, this leaves GOOG in the most likely to succeed and grow position. Overall, Apple has yet to prove that it can enter the enterprise and this will limit their market potential greatly.

While I think AAPL is doing a phenomenal job. The bar is high and they will have to keep up with the innovation especially since the cost of their systems is well beyond the reach of most. They will not be able to penetrate emerging markets as well as their competition because of the price barrier. I think that AAPL was a killer buy at $8; however,to be a great buy at $200, they are really going to have to begin to make some strategic moves to grow their customer base without losing their core business model around innovation in their closed environment.

In the meantime, I believe GOOG is on the up and up.

You'll love your PC again

2009-10-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

We just waited for 2 hours for my friend's computer to be backed up by Windows Vista. Sadly, the tool was too pathetic to tell us ahead of time that there was not enough room on his drive for all selected files. I am helping him by trying to wipe his computer clean after getting malware. Unreal!

A few weeks ago, my brother Mark asked me where he can join the 'I hate Windows Vista' fan club. I responded sarcastically with "Get in line at the Mac store."

My entire family traditionally was a Windows family where programming and gaming ruled. Realize that I am the last of 14 and have over 40 nieces and nephews. Also, my family grew up in the Bay Area and are all nerds. My cousin invented a piece of the hard drive and my father worked at IBM for 40 years. He is 90 now. My family is slowly but surely becoming a Mac family. Not a good sign.

I am a Microsoft shareholder but that will not stop me from being critical. I have been waiting to upgrade my PC for Windows 7. I considered Windows Vista to be a hog with little to know extra value. Sure integrated search was nice but seriously you could have that functionality on XP with google indexer.

I have been told, it doesn't suck as much as Windows Vista. It is very sad to read an article where Michael Dell explains that you will "love your PC again." It is sad and frustrating to say the least.

But I am actually hopeful and excited. I get a new Windows 7 box in an hour. Full side by side comparisons of OSX and Win7 to come.

Has Twitter, the timesuck, won me over?

2009-10-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

I joined Twitter in the early days of it's launch, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to delve in and figure it out. After three weeks of living in the twitosphere, I am almost won over, BUT I am reserved about my praise.

Twitter is a great way to ascertain the heat on a new topic and to learn more about things you are interested in. For instance, in I have a search in my TweetDeck for GeoThermal. This allows me to see all realtime broadcasts from 12 million people tweeting that include the word GeoThermal. My friend @NASeason says that twitter for her is "more real time than Facebook, follow people without having to friend them, no more feeling strange about changing status 5x a day."

So why am I still reserved? Because in my Twitter exploration I have found the time suck factor to be quite high and I am still waiting to see if it is just another fad that will be supplanted with newer, more superior technology e.g. FriendFeed which has better support for conversations.

My friend NASeason highlights exactly why I think the time suck factor can be so high... people do change their status 5x a day. That is a lot of content to consume or filter esp if you are following a lot of people.

One of it's primary drawbacks is that the conversational paradigm is nearly non-existant yet that seems to be the whole purpose of the tool. Weird eh? Not really.

The original idea was to be able to use SMS to tell groups what you are doing. It is easy enough to send a quick message, but to carry a dialog is another thing. The retweet (RT) paradigm allows your message to easily be fanned out to different networks of people which is cool because ultimately people forward your broadcast and expand your message to new networks of people. The respond to (@) paradigm is interesting; however, there is no straightforward correlation to what someone is actually responding to. The trail can't easily be followed between two people let alone groups.

I am constantly asking myself the following questions in my Twitter exploration:

How can I optimize my engagement with Twitter to make my time investment valuable?
Could I be using my time more effectively somewhere else?

Some things I have learned along the way that may help you if you decide to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.

If you are new to Twitter, Mark Oneil has a step by step guide. Scott Hanselman also does a good job of explaining Twitter in a slightly more technical fashion on his blog post, usefulness of microblogging.
Some etiquette
Use it wisely. For example, I spend a lot of time investing in and researching stocks. I was curious if the tool could help me more readily predict what was going to happen in the market. Mostly I found that the tweets were often just highlighting articles on WSJ, NYT, SeekingAlpha, etc. that I would have read more directly if I wasn't using my time to browse tweets. Occasionally though, a great article or point of view shows up that I would never have seen without a tweet. It is the diamond in the rough that I seek so I keep coming back.
If you need to laugh search for #textthatgetnoreply on twitter, quite funny

Overall, I think Twitter is a simple, but powerful broadcasting mechanism that let's you follow topics and people you think are cool or pertinent in realtime.

Etiquette in Social Networking

2009-10-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been diving into Twitter and trying to find out how I can leverage it in my daily life. One of the first things I did as a part of this exploration was to syndicate my Twitter feed to my Facebook profile. I quickly realized this was a faux pas.

Why? Because I engage with different social networking sites in extremely different ways and my audiences' intrests vary. Before I delve deeper into this, let's see how I classify my Social networking world:

LinkedIn is my professional profile where my audience is my peers, potential clients and money making opportunities. This audience primarily cares about updates in my career successes and where I may be for networking opportunities using TripIt.
This Blog is my professional voice, rants and chronicle for my hobby, kayaking. My audience has the potential to be anyone in the public domain; however, generally it is a mix of friends and professional contacts. If I had the energy, I would have two blogs, one for kayaking and one for my professional public voice.
Twitter is a public dialog about all things with anyone and everyone that is paying attention to things I care about e.g. stocks, alternative energy, technology, the economy and other news. Very chatty forum and dialogs are announced to everyone following you or searching on a topic.
Facebook is a semi-private dialog about my personal life and less public views. I think this forum can stretch to be far more emotional than my public forums would ever be. Dialog updates are announced only to people who have actively participated in them.
Yelp is where I communicate my public opinion on what tastes good and things I would pay for.

Some people have the same voice on on social networking sites and so they simply don't differentiate. But the reality is that most recipients of facebook status, tweets, blog entries, etc. actually do care. For instance, I am not into Farmville and I have blocked everyone on facebook that plays it. For me, I can only imagine how annoying would it be if Farmville announcements were on Twitter.

I don't want to see 10 facebook update status from a person a day. Twitter is a more appropriate forum for that. And sadly, when people syndicate their twitter feed into Facebook, their Facebook status is often nonsensical. For example, say you tweet "@johndoe I'd do a put at 3". Your Facebook community cannot see that you have been dialoging with a guy by the name of John Doe about geothermal energy. The context is simply not there.

Facebook is a forum for keeping in touch with people I love or want to play with. It is my playground. I do things I would never do in public e.g. post a pic of my friend's child. I would even allow my niece to tag horrendous pictures of me when I was younger.

How do you answer and respond to the the question, what do you do? Are you the type of person who answers with details about your profession or your hobby? Do you roll your eyes when you ask the question and the person responds with their resume? For me it depends on where I am and what I am doing i.e. am I at a conference or on a river. When someone posts their work status on facebook, I generally feel sorry for them and believe they are working too hard and aren't happy in their personal life because their work is their entire life.

Sometimes the boundaries cross, but not always. For some people whose connections are synonymous in work and their personal lives, these variances may not be as relevant.

In general, unless you are a food critic, honestly, most people don't care where you ate on twitter. They would rather use Yelp to find out public opinion on the Sushi Restaurant in Fremont. By all means tweet about your review, but make your review count by cataloging it in the right place. On Facebook on the other hand, one can feel nostalgia and miss a loved one when they tweet about what/where they are eating. I am all about inviting myself over for dinner. And if I am making something sumptuous or going to a great restaurant, if I like you, by all means show up!

Another reality is, that while I may rant to my private audience on Facebook, I don't consider that to be a public forum where potential employers may see my cynical side. I don't want to be misunderstood in the public domain. My thoughts need to be more well articulated and complete in the public domain; whereas, my Facebook status is more contextualized based on knowing my character more intimately.

Personally, I don't like connections on facebook unless they are friends. I do have some colleagues on there, but that is usually because I have created a deeper relationship with them beyond the bounds of the office. If that relationship is not there, I would prefer they were following me on my blog or Twitter.

Each tool has a very profoundly different use for me and I recognize that my audience varies greatly in all scenarios. What is your social networking etiquette?

Marketing in the Social Age

2009-10-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Joakim Vars Nils articulates in 102 slides (yes a long one) why empowering people is key in marketing. If you don't have time to go through the deck, I summarize and highlight the best parts of his deck below.

People don't want to be interrupted by brand advertisement, they want to be engaged. Engaging brands that work within niches will be more successful in the Social Age. People confer with each other about their interests and what to buy. You have to engage the influencers.

"We have gone from scarcity of media to scarcity of attention, which cannot be bought but earned"

Slide 20 - He shows top brands and highlights that only 50% advertise. I have a different conclusion from him on this slide. The most valued brands today in technology do not use advertising. They use viral marketing i.e. they prove their brands worth and let the community market them.
Slides 39-42 - The Mobile internet is the wave of the future, people social network everywhere, videos and social networking are used more important than email
Slide 73 - Great segmentation of the Social Internet (Internet Marketplace, Social Content, Social Networks, Services, You)

Wish I could have seen Susan Mernit's talk live

2009-10-02T11:37:00.001-07:00

Check out the words in this deck... excellent. Now this is a woman I have to meet.

Is the blog dead?

2009-10-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

Due to the amount of time I spend on Facebook, I am now syndicating my blog posts to it. Sadly they don't syndicate the comments back. It makes sense because they want to own the discussion i.e. the advertisement impressions. But sadly this means that my poor blog is losing views and lacks discussion. Ultimately, it means I sacrifice advertising dollars to Facebook.

With my Facebook time and recent exploration of Twitter, it seems that using the blog as a vehicle for discussion is now legacy or dead as some would call it. Most pull snippets from their blogs and post them on Twitter. Then most comments are simply tweets.

The blog is still a good medium to author articles, but lower expectations on direct syndication and discussions in the traditional comment trail.

Is Twitter the next Webvan?

2009-10-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Great article and especially great chart showing private vrs VC funded companies from the 90s and beyond. Will Twitter with ~155M raised to date be the next Webvan or PayPal?

Read what the Wall Street Journal has to say about it.

Will Twitter win me over?

2009-09-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

I had a talk with Ray Valdes about my skepticism around the twitter business model. Don't get me wrong, I think Twitter has huge value. I just question the grandiose valuation of 15 Billion dollars. Why? Well for one, I don't see a legitimate way to advertise directly to users without pushing them away. The indirect approach isn't yet earning them dollars. And while there is a lot of potential up-sell opportunities, one would think, they would be in motion by now. There is a lot of money to be made by doing analytics over the data and selling it as research, but Twitter's openness makes me believe that anyone can do this. Perhaps I haven't read all the fine print.

Regardless, even if I haven't bought into the price tag yet, I still question it's value to me. As someone who was involved in the social internet from day one, I have been a very tentative user of the system. I registered with them early in the first year of their existence. But I never really enjoyed the short blast to the ether. And since then, even with all of the research I have been doing, I never find myself using it as a source. Simply put, I have always found the @ and # to simply be too much noise. Sifting through basketball, football, and what I ate for lunch info from people I'm not close too, doesn't add any value to my life. I much prefer the tidbits from my social network, once MySpace, now Facebook. And when I look at some of the folks like Scoble who seems to tweet more than write anymore. I must say, I still prefer his more well thought out rants to his tweets.

Sure if I was at a conference and wanted to know what I was missing in other sessions, I may just plug in. But other than that....

Hmm, but maybe I have been using the tool incorrectly. Maybe I am simply following too few people and not a broad enough sample or perhaps focused sample. Really, what I need is to get a broader perspective and do some analysis on what the conversation of the day is.

Why would I care about this? I have always seen the value of getting the news before the news hits the wire, and if I were responsible for PR at any company, I would be all over Twitter. But outside of work, in my day to day life, why would knowing the news a day before it is published be valuable? Day Trading!

So my experiment begins. Can knowing the temperature of the tweetosphere lead me to know what the news will be about a day later and thus know how a stock will move?

Let's see if Twitter can finally win me over.

Tools I'm in love with on the Mac

2009-09-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a couple of years ago I bought a Mac and felt some level of remorse. Yes, remorse. While there were moments of being overjoyed e.g. seeing my photographs with more vivid colors, iMovie editing, iChat, and a unix based OS. For the most part, I felt less productive. And my #1 frustration was lack of synchronization with my SmartPhone.

Why? Well, the reality was that some of my applications just weren't either a) as good or b) available. So I went back to the PC for a year.

Recently I decided it was time to upgrade my PC. I was very frustrated one day when I was trying to leave the house but Internet Explorer took an hour to upgrade only to find it wasn't as good as Chrome and ultimately looked like a rip off of FireFox. This drove me to go buy a new Powerbook for my personal computer.

With my new PowerBook, I can honestly say, I don't feel any remorse... YET. In fact, my only remorse was that I did not buy a larger hard drive because I am installing so much goodness.

Here are some of the awesome tools I have found:

Think or Swim (Up to you how much money you make or lose ;) My day trading app is on the Mac, I thought for sure I would have to keep my PC for this one.
Dupin ($15) - Yes, finally something to get rid of my duplicate songs in iTunes
TinkerTools (free)- Opens up the hidden controls on the Mac
Chmox (free) - Helps me read online books with .chm extensions
Stuffit Expander (free)
Senuti ($18) - To pull my songs off my iPod and onto my new computer
Vuze - For Bittorrents
Little Snitch ($29.95 - works for 3 hours in demo mode) - to tell me what my network is up to and block communication I don't want. This has been awesome when you are on sites that have a lot of callbacks to advertising firms etc. Also this a great tool to identify a potential worm or virus.
TextMate ($59) - Simple text editor for code
Site Sucker (Donation) - To help me in my consultancy work. I can easily archive a client's old web-site for later reference. Also it is great when I am trying to learn. I can easily look at someone's web code
VLC (free) - Media player

If you have any other great tools like these, let me know about them. I would love something as good as TextMate for cheaper.

My favorite quote from Pablo Neruda

2009-08-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

"He who becomes the slave of habit, who follows the
same routes every day, who never changes pace, who
does not risk and change the color of his clothes, who
does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion, who prefers black on
white, dotting ones "i's" rather than a bundle of
emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer, that
turn a yawn into a smile, that make the heart pound in
the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy, who is
unhappy at work, who does not risk certainty for
uncertainty, to thus follow a dream, those who do not
forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die
slowly.

He who does not travel, who does not read, who does
not listen to music, who does not find grace in
himself, she who does not find grace in herself, dies
slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem, who does
not allow himself to be helped, who spends days on end
complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain
that never stops, dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it,
who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know,
he or she who don't reply when they are asked
something they do know, die slowly.

Let's try and avoid death in small doses, reminding
oneself that being alive requires an effort far
greater than the simple fact of breathing. Only a
burning patience will lead to the attainment of a
splendid happiness."

-Neruda

Surfing the Wenatchee

2009-05-28T02:54:00.001-07:00

Irene got a video of some of us surfing this past weekend in the Wenatchee @ 8000cfs. I'm the last kayaker in the video, yellow boat and green helmet.

Are We on the Economic Mend?

2009-05-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

The WSJ just released an article foretelling that small to mid size banks will be losing ~100 Billion in capital this year due to commercial real-estate investments. Joe Weisenthal of Yahoo's TechInsider goes on to say, it isn't just the big banks that make bad investments.

Wow! I think Joe has forgotten trickle down economics. When big banks royally mess up and send the economy into a whirlwind downfall shouldn't it be assumed that eventually the smaller banks will be impacted? It doesn't mean the small banks make bad investments, it means that everyone is affected.

This too big to fail philosophy has some holes. The impact on the smaller banks is a glaring one. We should be letting companies fail that deserve to fail and saving companies that have good business practices that will be adversely affected by the Mortgage crisis. Investing in commercial real-estate was only a bad investment because of the economic down-turn. But giving loans for commercial real-estate is critical and necessary for a functioning economy. The smaller banks shouldn't be penalized for keeping the economy going. Commercial real-estate will not be in a good place until consumer spending rebounds. Consumer spending is being impacted because of job losses and downturns of stock portfolios. It is all a vicious cycle. But right now, the big question is, where will economic stimulation have its biggest impact?

This is a time for disruption. We can't assume that everything will or even should go back to the way it was. There were things that were broken e.g. population decreasing, housing development increasing, housing prices overly inflated, commercial real-estate also inflated, loans overly accessible by people and businesses that do not have collateral or sufficient income. Oh and don't forget, our overall environmental impact and oil crisis. We needed something to shake things out. I just hope that we take this opportunity to build the economy of the future instead of trying to keep the status quo. Take the stimulus money and make it an opportunity for innovation and new leadership. I don't have any faith in the incumbents in the big banks. Nor do I have any faith in the incumbents in the US auto-manufacturing. Let's push for the new economy. Sustainability, fiscal responsibility and potentially even more small business.

Sadly, indicators tell me that the economy hasn't hit its low yet. Take a look at what Howard Davidowitz has to say. Unemployment is high and shows no true signs of decreasing, consumer spending has not mended, foreclosures are continuing, credit is unaccessible to the individual etc., the commercial real-estate is on the verge of depression, the dollar is finally getting hit by Brazilian and Chinese trade and we are likely to start seeing some major inflation. But I am positive that the economy will turn around; however, I expect another major dip before that happens.

What will the signs be of an economy on the mend?

Stop bailouts for companies that are failing
Start paying off our debt, not just the interest for our debt
Implement proper banking regulations and criminalize the behavior that made us get into this mess in the first place
Decrease unemployment
Increased consumer spending
Foreigners renew faith in US government (Obama has been helping here) and the dollar (Stimulus packages doing major damage here)

Warner's Music Group (WMG) kills your Home Videos

2009-05-12T23:19:00.001-07:00

I'm nervous to the point of panic, the kind of panic that makes your mouth dry. I realize as I am filming Bruno descend over the crest of the waterfall that there is no way for me to portage. I am running that 25 foot waterfall in my kayak whether I like it or not. I snuggle myself into my boat and Muse starts playing in my ear, a high beat music that is as intense as I feel right now. But suddenly... there is silence.

Warner's Music Group's (WMG) has turned off the sound!

Warning!!! If you are hosting home videos on the internet that you overlaid copyrighted music to, realize that your videos may already have been deleted or had all of the sound removed.

Since when is using music on a home made, personal use video a target for copyright infringement?

I'm recently home from a 1/2 year of travels in South America. I was contemplating music compliments for movies I will make to highlight my trips kayaking in Ecuador, packing in Patagonia, tango dancing in Buenos Aires, horseback riding across the Andes, and motorcycle riding to Machu Pichu when I found that none of my older hosted videos were working anymore.

Why would they remove all of the sound from my insignificant videos you ask?

Well, I am infringing on one of the oldest laws of capitalism, Copyright! And, YouTube was just one of the many companies out there willing to help me do it publicly. Sorry YouTube, but you were in breach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when you helped my publish my video to my blog which states that it is illegal to aid in copyright infringement. The laws put in place are a result of World Trade Organization treaties and are seriously helping WMG in negotiations with YouTube.

My initial reaction was to yell, "WHY!?!?" when I feel am doing free advertising for them.

But I guess, they can't afford to see it my way. Highlighting new artists in my videos doesn't outweigh the potential piracy threats out there. I sit here and stir in my personal frustration while I listen to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on a Sideload playlist, another company targeted being sued by Britian's largest Music house, EMI. Sideload has a pretty cool new technology concept where you could upload your MP3s into a secure locker for access by all of your devices. The music companies have been levering DMCA to seriously threaten many new technology startups. The latest is against any passive MP3 search engines e.g. Seeqpod, Sideload, Songza, Skreemr, Google, and YouTube.

Since ~2003, EMI and WMG have been seen as victims losing their shorts in the 21st century where technology and piracy have reigned; however, recently, the losses impacting the big music players because of the likes of Napster and its descendants are no longing having the same effect. The law has leaned in their favor time and time again. EMI just announced triple gains in operating revenue last year due to both cost savings and digital content sales. Sidenote: Potentially a good stock market buy if you assume these lawsuits will continue to limit piracy.

We all understand why the likes of Bittorent are bad for the Music and Entertainment industry. When you can download an entire album in minutes and a movie in thirty, you know something is awry.

In all honesty, I believe in being paid for your work. I believe that one should pay for IP as long as it has value. Regardless, I hope that YouTube and others figure out how to play nice with the vendors and enable us to get to some middle ground so that the home "Wanna Be" movie directors can cross that fine line of copyright infringement, use our paid for music, and still make kick ass home videos without upsetting anyone.

In the meantime, the individual is SOL and any tech company that wants to make it in the music domain had better start out as good citizens and not enable bad behavior or they better be ready with strong legal defense.

I think there is a lot to be said for the technology leadership that all of these companies have brought to the table. I know that my music knowledge has increased as a result of the infrastructure they have put in motion. Perhaps now, all of my future music knowledge will be subject to advertising. The key to a good mucic tech biz is empowering the online listener is to broaden their musical taste and library while hiding the cost of the content. The current list of contenders playing with the music companies and leveraging advertising and other mechanisms to pay for the copyrighted content are Last.FM, Pandora, MySpace, Rhapsody, Napster, Imeem and Yahoo Music.

Ecuadorian Adventurer

2008-12-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

I have done a terrible job writing about my travels so far on the blog, but Brett has been documenting a lot. Check it out!

The Thompson River, BC on Oct 10 and 11th at 14,000 cfs

2008-10-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, it is not every day that you get walking pneumonia, nor is it every day that you get to run the Thompson. I had been feeling bad like I was fighting a cold off as I sat across from Joyce listening to her tall tales of 20 foot waves on the Thompson.

"OMG!!!! It is the best river ever. My favorite. It is not a matter of IF you will flip, just when. And it may take you four or more attempts to roll, but swimming is not an option on that river. It is H U G E. When you roll... no worries, just sit there and feel the boat hit the crest of the wave, then hip snap. It will take you awhile to get it, but keep trying. AND Do not eddy out, the whirlpools will eat you. It is a formidable river, but you'll be fine." - Joyce Stuart, kayakista extraordinaire.

So I call Shanna... "What Ugh?@. you have never done this river before? Why? I am sh$#in my pants. Joyce is talking about 20 foot waves with laterals slappin you silly. Idamay can't even claim she has run it because she swam all the big rapids out of the shoot. She flipped at Frog, the very first rapid! And I am getting sick. Man, I want to be top of my game for this thing. Should we go? Are we ready for this? Seriously"

Needless to say, I did nothing to calm Shanna's nerves. Now both of us were freaking out.

Next thing I know, I am packed and crossing the border listening to Dale's story of shipping an entire semi and it's contents bolt by bolt to his work in the MidWest after trying to cross from Canada back into the US years ago. They were detained for seven days because someone forgot a piece of paper. They had to fly home after the detainment. Meanwhile parts from the semi and cargo were being rejected by shop staff because they were being sent by the customs house COD and they did not realize it what it was.

Six hours later, my cold is already rearing its nasty head and I am worrying that I won't be able to run the river the next day.

We slept in a little town called Hope that looked like it hadn't progressed in fifty years. Sweet people, cheap eats and a freezing cold motel room that later turned into a sauna. The drive to the river from Hope is amazing and I would recommend driving it in the light to experience it.

The morning greeted me with a full blown cold. The day before I was hoping that the cold was just an excuse so I wouldn't have to face my fear about this river. It could have been my out. But when faced with reality, I pouted and went to try and sleep it off instead of risking getting sicker.

Shanna, Dale, and Don ran the river that day. They were invited by the Ontario Kayak Club to a Canadian Thanksgiving. But they declined and came back and ate Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches with me.

Shanna came back to the cabin with a big, wild eyes. "Oh no becky, Who cares about Frog, who cares about the cutting board, it was that other rapid after the Frog that was crazy. No one even knows it's name. That wave picked me up and threw me."

At that point, I could tell that Shanna was secretly hoping I was not going to feel good the next day so that she didn't have to run it again. But, I shattered that hope and rallied the next day. I felt horrible, but I went anyhow. I just promised myself that I would not try to surf the Frog so that I would keep all of my energy to run the river. As soon as you know you are going on a river like this, fear sets in. It becomes your job to control it, keep it hidden, and stay focused on what you know how to do.

Needless to say, my cold later turned into walking pneumonia. But it was worth it. I learned two lessons...
1) Stay out of the water when you are sick
2) Bring potentially two boats to the Thompson next time. The play boat for the Frog and a river runner for everything else. 14,000 cfs of water on a little Jackson Kayak is a lot of fun, but holy cow, it throws you around, it stops you when you are full speed, and good luck catching waves baby, ain't gonna happen. I was missing my Dagger Animas from the Hells Canyon. That thing sliced through waves and I could catch the green waves.

One time I was following Don on a rapid and were cruising pretty fast towards the end of a big wave train, the next thing I know, it was like he hit the e-brake or something and did a complete 180 and was moving up river... not on purpose mind you. He was not trying to Eddy out. I flew past him laughing, like oh wow.

Granite on the Hells Canyon @24000 cfs was still the biggest wave I have ever been on. It felt like 25 feet, something that could throw my 12 foot boat on end without a problem. But the waves on Thompson were big and they didn't stop. They were huge. And, it is my understanding that the water level was quite low for this river.

Check out the video I made. The boyz are surfing the frog, appropriately named for how it throws the boat up and down in a frog like movement.

This rapid is one of the easiest rapids on the river. The line is generally on the right and it has some pretty big waves down that entire line.

I am eager to go back and surf the Frog. Next time, I want to make sure that I have a few hours just for that.

Note: I have a typo in Dale's last name, it is Bonson.

Who cares about one laptop per child?

2008-06-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Who cares about one laptop per child (OLPC) when you have the iPhone? This was the question that came to mind as Apple begins to role out v2 of the iPhone at much lower prices.

While I primarily use my iPhone to manage my life... my contacts, my email, my videos, my pictures, where to go, how to get there, what rivers to run and stay away from, etc; I see it as a full blown computer and why not leverage it for education at such a low price point? 8-16GB of storage and it's processing power and applications are more than enough.

The keyboard ain't that great, but the screen sure is better than the XO. And the iPhone has all the applications on it to manage one's life. Sure you require a cellular subscription in order to use it as an actual phone and to make the majority of the apps come alive. But why not make the phone wireless and get WiMax in place in rural or impoverished areas? Then you would have universal information access without the subscription fees. And regardless, how many kids do you know that don't have a cell phone and an iPod regardless of their current economic status in the US?

Also, rugged... yeah it can be. I have dropped my iPhone far too many times and it is still working. It has no hard drive so it is less fragile than the average computer. And well, the hard plastic cases are pretty cheap.

But does the iPhone have the Logo programming language I ask myself? I am sure if you wanted it to be there, it would be easy enough for a Lisp nerd to get it up and running. And, heck, you already have ruby or python on the iPhone. Just install the terminal app. Ruby and Python are real languages with actual purpose and while logo just makes me feel nostalgic. But logo definitely has it merits when teaching programming to a child. I just wonder how many students today actually use it. And if they do, when does the light bulb goes off to encourage a child to evolve from logo into a real programming language.

The iPhone aside, while many doubt the intentions of the OLPC, I do see a lot of Pros and Cons for OLPC as it is today:

Pros

Lowers the barrier to entry to having a computer as a child
Introduces all children (potentially impoverished) to Computers
Teachers need a menu of tools to pull from to train students with, OLPC can be seen as a powerful tool provided they have the skills to leverage it

Cons

Not all teachers have had sufficient professional development to introduce a device like this into the class
Now teachers have to manage, chat, internet access, iPods and cell phones in the classroom.
The Teacher should still be the boss. The students should be learning structure in much the same way that there will be when they have a career. If the computer has all of the attention, the teacher will have less relevance. This will translate into other social challenges over time.
Who is going to maintain the equipment?

I loved the story from Ray Fisman's article, the $100 distraction. He highlights without proper guidance and educator influence from a child's guardians, the likelihood of the OLPC being of any value in that child's education is quite low.

It just seems, if the students are already going to already have an phone, an MP3 player, and well now a computer. Why not consolidate into one device?

Semantic Web in Education

2008-06-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

SynapticMash begins to turn up the volume on our product offerings. In preparation for my talk at the Linked Data Planet on the 16th in NY City, Jennifer Zaino did a great job of summarizing our conversation about some of the key technology challenges in schools and how SynapticMash is here to save the day. At the Linked Data planet I will go into more details on how Web 2.0 can be leveraged to solve big challenges in education.

Bringing the Semantic Web to Education
May 30, 2008
By Jennifer Zaino

Talk in NY with Tim Berner's Lee @ Linked DataPlanet

2008-04-11T00:04:00.000-07:00

Linked Data Planet June 17-18, NY City
Wed Jun 18, 2008 -- 3:00pm - 3:50pm
Track: Terrace Ballroom
W11: The Social Internet, Promise or Plague in Education?

I really must update my abstract... but this is the current draft.

The Social Internet has spawned numerous networks silos with data that is isolated from traditional search mechanisms. How will all of this new data being generated in these silos be accessed? When, if ever, is it appropriate to connect with the data and profiles in these silos? Education is a great arena to explore when thinking about bridging privacy needs with the benefits of data connectivity and collaboration provided by social networking. Can social networking keep students profiles protected, enhance student performance and facilitate professional development with social networking? This talk will cover the benefits of and technology best practices for collaborative educational environments and data connectivity in education.

SPEAKER: Rebecca Dias, VP of Software Development, SynapticMash

UI Developer Needed

2008-04-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Are you a CSS guru? How are your Javascript and Ajax skills? Can you code reusable components? Do you know enough ruby to be dangerous? How about Information Architecture Skills and the ability to work with designers? Are you an open source fiend?

We need you if you fit the bill.
ruby - jobs @ synapticmash .com

Surfing the Cispus

2008-04-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to have Michael Deckert's grace....

This guys was soooo smooth on the river. He didn't actually need a paddle. He rigged up a cool little pully system for us so that we could keep getting on the wave. Great core strength exercise... let me tell you.

Surfing the lower gorge on the green

2008-04-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

This was the most amazing day. Check it out!!!

Marketing as a Second Language (MSL)

2008-03-07T00:31:00.000-08:00

David Marsee is my lead designer. We were both laughing (and crying) this last week as we designed this.

During this experience we both about fell over laughing when we invented a new special services declaration within the bounds of our office, Marketing as second language or MSL.

While Dave has a great mind for marketing, the majority of the world does not. Ed Guadet, if you are out there, hands off!! He would get bored with your business model anyhow ;)/

Back on topic... when people can not understand marketing, it is painful to even try to explain certain concepts. And when you are sent whitepapers to create what should be a simple message, you can declare that these people need to be put into the MSL program. For the majority of the world that is MSL, I thought I would laugh with you and give you a few lessons on how less is more....

here are my tips... what are yours?

the most difficult task is consolidating a page into one sentence that has necessary emotional and intellectual impact. It takes four months and potentially 60K worh to marketing spend to come up with:

SynaticMash
build's excellence in student achievement (copyright, 2008)

800 x 600 is all the information a mind can handle anyhow, so keep the nav unless you are communicating with statisticians
11pt font or larger
508 enabled cause everyone deserves the right to learn and teach
the mind pulls to the right of the screen unless something is in the middle to draw the eyes
people want simplicity, that is why blogger survives when I have 5 profiles on different social networks.. this is my blog, the other ones s#$% cause they aren't this simple

Anyhow... kudos to Dave

Come join us at the NCCE Conference in Seattle

2008-02-28T22:32:00.001-08:00

I have been too busy to blog about it, but tomorrow I will give my first talk on the work SynapticMash is doing. It will also be our first live demo of our product offerings.

Here are the talk details...
http://www.ncce.org/2008

Friday, February 29, 2008, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Room 620

Social Learning Networks: Moving Beyond ePortfolios
Rebecca Dias, VP for Software Development

The SynapticMash platform provides a new type of social learning network. Fusing the social collaboration of MySpace with the rich media experience of YouTube, SynapticMash makes it easy to create electronic portfolios and online classes with streaming audio, video, and flash learning applications.

Audience: Grades 3-16, Admin, IT, Library Media
Expertise: All Levels
Strand: Online Learning

Ruby Coders and UI Designers Needed

2008-02-06T19:56:00.001-08:00

We are looking for more talent. Check it out!! We need a Guru Ruby Developer and a Lead Graphic UI and RIA designer. We are also looking for extremely talented mid-tier folks that can crunch data and get real world applications of AI...

Check out careers at SynapticMash.

You wont believe me but...

2008-02-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have actually been working for the past two weeks, but it is always good to reminisce about vacation. :)

Sad news...

2008-02-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

It is not often I run into female entrepreneurs that really gets it... very sad. Janette Symos, the founder of Imbee and Zhone passed away yesterday.

Three Amigos

2008-02-04T23:48:00.000-08:00

Kayaking the Cubatão do Sul in Santa Catarina, Brazil (III+)

2008-01-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

I had planned a vacation to Brzail for my 5 year anniversary at Microsoft... Then I was offered a new job at SynapticMash which resulted in me resigning.

... But I still went on my vacation ...

I am in Curitiba presently and I just made the following video kayaking the Cubatão do Sul in the state of Santa Catarina in the South of Brazil. It is a III+ river. It is the most challenging kayaking experience I have had yet!!!

I didn't know the river well; I wasn't with my normal kayaking peeps; I rented a boat that was slightly too small for me from an awesome guy; It was my first time in a creek boat in some time; and I had never run a III+ river before. Wow!!! And while it is not on video, I really did run the waterfall in the movie. I videoed Bruno and scouted the run. Then I went by myself... check it out.

Maurice rented me his boat and is the rock star with the killer tatoo. He is also the guy that I rafted with the day prior and showed me all of the lines. Bruno was my guide the day of. We ended up running the river just the two of us.

The experience was amazing and I hope to go back there next week.
I will post another video of our rafting experiences the day before. If you plan to go to Brazil or if you have been looking for an amazing trip, come to Brazil and hang with the gang at TDA.

Thank you to everyone at TDA for being so awesome.

Wow... it is amazing what time pressure can do

2007-12-20T23:06:00.000-08:00

All positions aside from the designer have been filled. We are actually going to build an entire team of designers, so if you are out there, let me know!

I have the most amazing team and I am excited.

Job Openings at Synaptic Mash

2007-12-10T23:28:00.000-08:00

If you are passionate about Education and live in Seattle, apply for a position at SynapticMash. We want talent!!! Email jobs@synapticmash.com.

Lead Graphic, Web, and UI Designer

Leader who is a fan of Edward Tufte, understands the human mind, is amazing at unfolding stories
Is passionate about social networking
Must have worked on complex Web-sites, knows intuitive Web page layout and site navigation
5+yrs Illustrator and Flash
2+yrs of XHTML with CSS
1+yr JavaScript 1.5+
UI experience
Ruby on Rails exposure a plus

Junior Web Dev

Presentation, applications, network services and protocols
2+yrs Ruby family, Python, Perl or Lisp family

Junior Server Devs

Distr systems (shared storage object space, data versioning/partitioning)
2yr+ LISP family
2yr+ meta-programming lang (Scheme, OCaml, Python)
2yr+ C/C++
2yr+ *nix scripting
Network protocols and distr systems
Familiar with LispWorks or SBCL deployment
Play nice w/ MacOSX and Linux desktops

Sys Admin / Production Server Farm Programming

Server farm automation and design
Agent authoring for monitoring server farms
Server upgrades
2yr+ *nix scripting
2yr+ sys-admin experience with Linux
2yr+ Debian Linux
1yr+ C

Student Information System (SIS) Programmer/Analyst

Statistical models for assessment and attendance data
BI
Fuzzy sets or Bayesian style weighting
Experience with LISP family
Will consider candidates who work primarily with statistics packages such as Mathematica, SAS, Stata, etc.

Downsides/upsides of a startup

2007-12-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

I paid $70 in tickets and $30+ in parking this week.
I also received the smallest check I have seen since I was in highschool (or so it feels). But you know what...

I am all smiles.

I believe that this is the coolest company that has crossed my path in my career!!!

And, Allison brought us breakfast. It is my goal to turn Allison into a nerd.

We are hiring

2007-12-08T00:18:00.000-08:00

We need User Interaction Designers, Web Graphic Designers (Javascript, XHTML, CSS), Information Architects, Server Developers (LISP, C, C++, Python), Production Server Farm Programmers/Automation Engineers, Systems Integrators for Educational Systems.

If you are interested in a kick a@# Seattle Startup... send me your resume.

Surfing the Green

2007-12-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

So my new water love is Kayaking....

A couple of short videos of one of the best Falls of my life 2007

This one is of Allen, John, and Me Surfing the Green at around 680 cfs... The surf wave was awesome and every time the camera got on me, I could not catch it... camera is bad mojo man. But check out Allen, he doesn't even look like he is trying...

This is another day on the Skykomish river. We put in below Boulder Drop at around 2000 cfs I believe.

Rene was my fearless leader down Lunch Hole, Raja, Me in the Green Kayak, and Joyce the rock star who taught me a lot of what I know

Lunch 2.0

2007-12-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

This is awesome. You know Lunch 2.0 could become an organic alternative to conferences.

ADD and ADHD - evolution?

2007-11-29T21:43:00.001-08:00

CDC Report Looks at Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
According to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1.6 million elementary school-aged children have been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In a national survey, the parents of 7 percent of children 6-11 years of age reported ever being told by a doctor or health professional that their child had ADHD.

At some point, don't you just ask the question, is this a natural phase of evolution?

What if ADD and ADHD were just natural by-products of our over-achieving, capitalistic society? Children just acclimatizing.

Once you get to a point where 7% of a population is diagnosed with anything.... don't you think you need to change your prognosis?

Ruby on Rails - Your Thoughts?

2007-11-29T21:41:00.000-08:00

Sam Ruby... you are the first person I think of when I think of Rails and if you are contributing, I know it must be good.... But how good is it? What do you love/hate about it?

How do you setup your dev processes? That is some of the research I will be doing this week.

A new career in Education..

2007-11-22T01:14:00.000-08:00

When I was in High school I tutored my sister's boyfriend, now husband. When I was in college, I home schooled my niece and nephew for a spell. I was actually teaching Tony Calculus at 12... but did it every amount to anything? And, while at Santa Clara University, I recall tutoring a lot of Stanford students ;)- poor sods. Today, I am trying to inspire a kid to discover his strengths in math.

I have always been into education, but I wasn't like my brother Andy or my brother Paul. I was too afraid of being poor to be a teacher. GREED. How wrong is that? Why are teachers so underpaid? I used to have dreams about being a politician so I could lobby for teacher's salaries and then become a teacher later in life.

Anyhow, there is irony in my love of education, it seems even still, with all my training, nearly every important email I write has one ADD moment where I have some grammar error. And you know, I have come to realize, I am going to have to just be ok with it cause that is how my brain works. I can play the dictionary game for the rest of my life and still, I am going to type something too fast and be frowned on by the wordly at heart.

BTW: If the following words ever show up in the dictionary, I am claiming credit for them now

performant - showing sufficient performance characteristics for modern day applications
wordly - someone who shows disdain for those who make spelling or grammatical errors

Well, back to the topic at hand, my new career.

Distributed computing has been my life. I sometimes say that since I have 8 brothers, I love Big Brother... my last product was centralized control of IT Systems. But not all things are bad because they are centralized and connected... think... satellite networks, ATMs, blogging, and Federated Identity. Now I am growing up, and instead of Big Brother, I am going to help out Big Mom and Pop and the Educator to have more visibility in their children's and their education.

Social Networking in the context of Education will transform how we think about learning.

Tell me, how would you like to see your child's education evolve?

My new career is VP of Software Development for SynapticMash

How do you define Web 2.0?

2007-11-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

Web 1.0
* published content that people pull
* shopping cart is local to the site
Web 2.0
* everything is connected and content is pushed and pulled between everyone
* peer networks subsegment the Web into an infinite number of more private and interpersonal networks
* shopping cart is federated

your thoughts?

Haruki Murakami

2005-05-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much time it is required to sit down in a well before clarity starts to come to someone.