Category: Uncategorized

It looks like one of the culprits behind the recent JetBlue fiasco was a faulty computer system (one built on a mix of Microsoft and SAP proprietary technologies). I’m not saying open source software would have been glitch-free either, but I do wonder whether the open source community could’ve assembled — like an IT S.W.A.T. team — to get the airline back up-and-running quicker.

Open source continues to chip away at proprietary software’s position in the enterprise. This morning, Open-Xchange (a Page One PR client) announced that 1&1 Internet will host one million e-mail accounts using Open-Xchange’s open source software.

An interesting catch by Dave Rosenberg over at the Open Sources blog on SAP’s newest software offering. It’s a vivid example of why I joined Page One PR: open source software, heck, the open source business model, is obliterating the old guard of technology. Today, there are two kinds of proprietary software companies: those, like IBM, that embrace open source; and those, like SAP and Microsoft, that cling to business models that are no longer relevant to a growing number of their customers.

OK, more like the dyslexic version: hair yesterday, gone today. But it’s looking more and more like I’ll have an excuse to use a comb again (and not for a comb-over): check out this new product I found on Luxist.

I’m old enough to know better, but tonight I’m going to play a pick-up hockey game. It’ll be my fourth time this year (the weather’s been cooperating despite global warming). Here’s where we play:

The rink is in my friend Kevin’s yard. It is roughly 55′ x 120′ and lit with two 1,000 watt halogen work lights. The curved driveway will make it easier for the ambulance to cart me away.

When I grow up, I want to be Park B. Smith. Or his adopted grandson. Or his friend. Or whatever else it takes to get a tour (and tasting!) of his 8,000 square foot, 65,000 bottle wine cellar.

The author, Michael Crichton, writes scary thrillers about things that are all too real. But nothing — nothing — in his vast library of published work is as scary or real as the op-ed (free registration required) he wrote in today’s New York Times:

When SARS was spreading across the globe, medical researchers hesitated to study it — because of patent concerns. There is no clearer indication that gene patents block innovation, inhibit research and put us all at risk.

Yeah, you read that right. The patent system is so unbelievably, disgracefully broken that doctors and companies can patent the very genes in your body. Even more appalling, the current patent system actually encourages the research and development of new diseases and gene mutations for profit.

Two congressmen — Xavier Becerra, a Democrat of California, and Dave Weldon, a Republican of Florida — are doing what they can to ban the practice of patenting genes found in nature, although I suspect the absurdly high levels of special interest involvement on this issue will make their success very difficult.

Please write to your congressman and tell them you want them to put their support — your support — behind the Becerra/Weldon Genomic Research and Accessibility Act.

Computing

• My primary day-to-day computer is a 17″ PowerBook G4. I’m a Mac Switcher and can’t ever see myself going back to the Dark Side of Windows. Everything you see in the ads and everything you hear is true: Macs just work.
• I also have a 20″ iMac G5 that I use for photo and video editing. Apple really does some amazing work on electronic design.
• Keeping with the Apple theme, let’s talk music. And video. The 30gb video iPod was a gift from my wife last Father’s Day. Not only is it a great companion when I’m flying, but it is also really cool to be able to plug it into friends’ TVs to watch home videos and movies I’ve synched to it.
• Maxtor and LaClie back-up drives. You just never know.

Mobile

• I believe in the Palm operating system. I tried to give up my Treo about a year ago, but just couldn’t live without it. I currently carry the Treo 700p around. It’s amazing how mobile and connected it makes you. It’s liberating.
• While I’m not a fanboy of Verizon’s U.S.-centric network, I do like their high-speed wireless EVDO network. No cards for me since I can use Bluetooth to connect to the Internet from my PowerBook through the Treo.

Applications

• Adium. The #1 app on my system. It integrates all of my IM accounts into one big, simple list.
• Mail.app. Simple and it works.
• iCal and a small little app called Actiontastic that makes adding to-do’s quick and easy.
• QuickSilver. I can’t describe what it does or how it does it, so just check it out. It’ll grow on you and you’ll wonder how you lived without it. Integrates with Actiontastic and iCal.
• Camino. Web browser for the Mac.
• Word and Excel. I try to avoid PowerPoint at all costs.
• Textedit. No formatting, no BS…just plain, simple, clean text.
• Photoshop CS.
• GarageBand. It makes a great little amp with sound effect boxes for my Takamine G Series guitar.

Camera

• A Canon 10D I bought off of eBay. It was a pro photographer’s back-up camera.
• Lenses include a 28-70mm Canon EF-L at f2.8 and a 135-300 Canon USM at f3.5.
• Flash is a Canon Speedlite 550EX.

What you see here is Los Arcos shot from a small skiff during a family trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is the very southernmost tip of of the Baja penninsula, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez and gets its name from the arched rock in the center of the image. You can see the size of the swell by the markings on the rock wall to the right of the picture. What you don’t see just off the left side of the frame is a rock outcropping loaded with about 25 sea lions basking in the sun.