Google’s Knol

Bottom line: Google is going to begin hosting a hosting a collection of author-expert postings on various topics, in the hopes that it will represent an alternative to the collection of 2+ million anonymous community-homogenized articles on Wikipedia. My prediction: yes, it will probably succeed (regardless of whether it’s a good thing or a bad […]

Eddie Izzard’s “Stonehenge”

Another gray, gloomy day in New York, with winter storms approaching. Time for a little levity before settling down to a depressing day’s work …

Mercenary nation

From time to time, we hear brief, frustrated comments from politicians, pundits, and ordinary citizens along the lines of, “If we had a draft in this country, you can bet the Iraq War would be over in 30 days.” But the comments are always made in a resigned, despairing tone of voice — much like […]

Eddie Izzard’s Encore on Computers

Another light-hearted moment — I had no idea that Eddie Izzard was familiar with Macintosh computers (though it sounds as if he’s using a vintage-1998 OS9 machine):

Donald Norman’s “Design of Future Things”

After yesterday’s discussion of whether enterprise applications are doomed to be dull and “unsexy,” I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide a review of Donald Norman’s new book, The Design of Future Things. Norman doesn’t talk about ERP or enterprise applications, nor does he focus on software “products” per se — though […]

Eddie Izzard’s “Death Star canteen”

A little levity to help everyone through another gray, foggy Monday morning … back to more serious matters later today …

Debating enterprise software

I’ve been intrigued by the recent debate about the “sexiness” of enterprise software, initiated in a Robert Scoble post, which was then rebutted in a Michael Krigsman post, who then got criticized in a Nicholas Carr post. I think the debate has already raised some interesting points, and I hope some additional perspectives emerge […]

Here Comes Another Bubble

Here’s a cheery little video to brighten up your weekend; I learned about it from my friend Mo Bjornestad, and I suspect it’s already been viewed by every single person who lives in Silicon Valley …

Outsourcing my life — part 1B: stll getting started

A couple days ago, I described my initial foray into the world small-scale offshore outsourcing — for the business and personal tasks carried out by an individual, i.e., me. At the time, I said I had contacted two Indian firms, and neither had responded to me.
Well, both of them have now contacted me, and I’ve […]

Archiving our lives

Fair warning: if you’re thoroughly uninterested in photographs, or archiving large collections of photographs of your family life, do yourself a favor and skip this blog posting.
Have you noticed that when victims of floods, fires, hurricanes and other disasters are interviewed about what they managed to take with them when they fled from their houses, […]