This probably won’t be a regular feature, but I often find things to get my mind going when I read Tim Bray’s ongoing.
This week Tim talks about business blogging:
“If your employees are going to say stupid things in public, you’ve got a management problem and a policy problem, not a blogging problem.”
Rod Johnson, founder of Spring and CEO of Interface 21, helped out on a panel at BEA’s analyst conference last week in San Francisco. He said something that really resonated and stuck with me:
“The difference between good software and bad software is bigger and more important than the difference between open source and commercial software.”
The Wall Street Journal has a very nice piece on Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature house in Pennsylvania. It’s one of those buildings that is hard to put into words, but Ada Louise Huxtable does does an elegant job suitable for the subject matter.
Interestingly, she and her husband got to stay in the house with the original owner before he passed away - a rare treat indeed.
I saw Falling Water about 20 years ago, and its one of those places that stays with you no matter how long its been since you’ve seen it.
Facts from “Let My People Go Surfing” by Patagonia CEO founder Yvon Chouinard:
from raw materials it costs 110,000 BTUs to make a Patgonia shirt shipping it airfreight from Ventura, CA to a store in Boston costs 50,000 BTUs And generically, cost to ship per ton:
Rail or boat: 400 BTUs per ton per mile Truck: 3,300 BTUs per ton per mile Air cargo: 21,760 BTUs per ton per mile If you’re buying over the internet and have time to spare - ship it ground!
Lately I’ve been having experiences which keep making me think about the future of the country, as the rest of the world closes the gap in just about everything we picture ourselves to be #1 in. (Note that I haven’t even read Friedman’s “The World is Flat” yet, which will probably just add to the list).
The first was the winter Olympics. We have the view we should be able to dominate Olympic competitions.
Sitting in CDG airport in Paris en route to Prague. Long layover - fortunately was able to talk my way into the Air France lounge where I found WiFi via TMobile and power.
CDG gets bigger and more difficult to deal with every time I come here. The terminal two complex is amazing in scope. After we landed we drove in a bus for 10 minutes to get to Terminal 2C, followed by 10 minute ride to get to 2B.
At my daughter’s preschool there’s a sign up at the end of every day with notes for the parents. It includes activities of the day, who napped, current illness in the class, etc. Last week the sign said “Ask your child about neutrinos”. Yep, they’re learning about subatomic physics earlier than I ever did, and in this case my Dad’s responsible.
Last time he was visiting he learned that my daughter’s class was studying Antarctica.
Have a new NearWalden.com up and running on WordPress. Will create a page soon with a description of what I’m using. Am enjoying the large user community - lots of plugins, themes, etc.
The North American Hockey teams are out of the Olympics early. Hal’s summary hits the nail on the head.
Eye-opening opinion piece in the WSJ today (on-line subscribers only, unfortunately) about free trade and biofuels. While its interesting that the farm lobby is pushing ethanol hard, they really don’t just want any old ethanol. Countries such as Brazil are producing ethanol from sugar cane at very cost-effective rates ($20/barrel of oil equivalent, according to the article). However, import tariffs combined with massive subsidies for domestic corn-based ethanol kill these as viable energy sources in the US.