Archive for the ‘Theory’ category

Douglas’ Guide to the 2010 Galaxy

January 6th, 2010
Douglas Adams, that is … and re-reading – and re-thinking – his wit and wisdom is one of my favorite ways to start each new year.

His quotes are in no particular order; and all of them are worth thinking about.  Enjoy!

  • “Anything that happens happens, anything that in happening causes something else to happen causes something else to happen, and anything that in happening causes itself to happen again, happens again. Although not necessarily in chronological order.”
  • “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”
  • “A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
  • “Some say that the universe is made so that when we are about to understand it it changes into something even more incomprehensible. And then there are those who say that this has already happened.”
  • “We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
  • “A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
  • “Some say that the universe is made so that when we are about to understand it it changes into something even more incomprehensible. And then there are those who say that this has already happened.
  • “We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
  • “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
    There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
  • “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
  • “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
  • “The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
  • “You live and learn. At any rate, you live.”
  • “He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. ”
  • “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.”
  • “Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
  • “The impossible often has a kind of integrity the merely improbable lacks.”
  • “Once you do know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means.”
  • “Let the past hold on to itself and let the present move forward into the future.”
  • “Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, then everything else becomes eerily easy.”
  • “See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”
  • “Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks at least as logically as it does.”
  • “See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”
  • “There’s always a moment when you start to fall out of love, whether it’s with a person or an idea or a cause, even if it’s one you only narrate to yourself years after the event: a tiny thing, a wrong word, a false note, which means that things can never be quite the same again.”
  • “Life is wasted on the living.”
  • “The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis.”
  • “The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.”
  • “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.”
  • “It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end.”
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Douglas' Guide to the 2010 Galaxy

January 6th, 2010
Douglas Adams, that is … and re-reading – and re-thinking – his wit and wisdom is one of my favorite ways to start each new year.

His quotes are in no particular order; and all of them are worth thinking about.  Enjoy!

  • “Anything that happens happens, anything that in happening causes something else to happen causes something else to happen, and anything that in happening causes itself to happen again, happens again. Although not necessarily in chronological order.”
  • “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.”
  • “A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
  • “Some say that the universe is made so that when we are about to understand it it changes into something even more incomprehensible. And then there are those who say that this has already happened.”
  • “We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
  • “A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
  • “Some say that the universe is made so that when we are about to understand it it changes into something even more incomprehensible. And then there are those who say that this has already happened.
  • “We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
  • “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
    There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
  • “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
  • “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
  • “The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
  • “You live and learn. At any rate, you live.”
  • “He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. ”
  • “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.”
  • “Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
  • “The impossible often has a kind of integrity the merely improbable lacks.”
  • “Once you do know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means.”
  • “Let the past hold on to itself and let the present move forward into the future.”
  • “Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, then everything else becomes eerily easy.”
  • “See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”
  • “Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks at least as logically as it does.”
  • “See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.”
  • “There’s always a moment when you start to fall out of love, whether it’s with a person or an idea or a cause, even if it’s one you only narrate to yourself years after the event: a tiny thing, a wrong word, a false note, which means that things can never be quite the same again.”
  • “Life is wasted on the living.”
  • “The complexities of cause and effect defy analysis.”
  • “The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.”
  • “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.”
  • “It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end.”
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Craig Marker’s Picture of New Year’s Eve 2010 @ the Seattle Space Needle

January 2nd, 2010

My friend Craig posted a truly wonderful photo of Seattle‘s New Year’s Eve 2010:

“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.

May good luck pursue you each morning and night.”

-  Traditional Irish Blessing


“May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been

the foresight to know where you’re going

and the insight to know when you’re going too far.”

-  Traditional Irish Blessing

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Craig Marker's Picture of New Year's Eve 2010 @ the Seattle Space Needle

January 2nd, 2010

My friend Craig posted a truly wonderful photo of Seattle‘s New Year’s Eve 2010:

“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.

May good luck pursue you each morning and night.”

-  Traditional Irish Blessing


“May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been

the foresight to know where you’re going

and the insight to know when you’re going too far.”

-  Traditional Irish Blessing

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Life in the Shadow of the Valley of the Blue Screen of Death:

December 21st, 2009

How one Microsoft employee didn’t “bing” good enough for Steve Ballmer….

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life, the universe, and other awesome douglas adams quotes

December 20th, 2009

Writer Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) left behind some of my all time favorite quotes:

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Anything that happens, happens. Anthing that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.

It’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end.

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Comcast Takes on Hulu in the Battle for TV to be Everywhere

December 15th, 2009

thinkoutsidethebox

Via CNN.com today:

Comcast rolled out a Web-based on-demand television and movie service on Tuesday that gives customers access to more than 2,000 hours of television and movies.

- more –

The service, named Fancast XFINITY TV (formerly TV Everywhere),  is getting mixed reviews on Twitter,  and is in beta, with limited availability.

Customer access of XFINITY content is tied to the tiered level of service they subscribe to; a customer must subscribe to HBO via Comcast to be able to watch HBO content on XFINITY.

At least for now, Hulu‘s offering has is superior, in regards to both technical  quality and also value;  but I look forward to the continuing battle between broadcast tv and the web.

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Proud as a Peacock?

December 3rd, 2009

Comcast seems to be overflowing with joint ventures this past year; it invested approximately US  $1.2 billion in WiMax , and this week announced it will become majority owner of NBC Universal.

Comcast is spending $13.75 billion in cash and assets for a 51% ownership of a joint venture that will own two broadcast networks, over a dozen cable networks, a major movie studio and several theme parks.

Empire building on that level requires a lot of revenue; I’m starting to understand why my Comcast internet bill risen so quickly.

It will be very interesting to see whether Comcast’s gamble pays off – and how it will impact broadcast media – including Hulu.com’s – efforts to bring the cable-TV subscription model to the Web and other platforms.

Will this be the start of new era – or of a consumer revolution?  And what will Netflix add into this mix?

“Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.”

– Edward Thorndike (1874 – 1949)

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Hello, Roku HD…!

When I still had cable tv, I loved my Tivo, even though I never upgraded my Tivo 2 box the Tivo HD. Why not?  Pricing.  I had a lifetime (of the Tivo 2 box) subscription, so upgrading would have been very expensive for me – first because of Tivo’s high pricing …

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According to Silicon Alley Insider, with data partly from Comscore, 38 million people watched Hulu at least once in July - a viewership which easily topped Time Warner Cable‘s July viewership of 34 million. That same month, only DirecTV (47 million viewers) and Comcast (62 million) pulled larger audiences: While impressive, Hulu.com has a long way to go before reaching the cable companies’ …

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Today Netflix Corp. awarded its long-awaited $1M Grand Prize to team “BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos,” which consisted of Bob Bell, Martin Chabbert, Michael Jahrer, Yehuda Koren, Martin Piotte, Andreas Töscher and Chris Volinsky. The 3-year crowdsourcing contest motivated self-forming, unpaid volunteer teams to compete for one $1 million dollar prize by creating  an …

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The Roku Channel Store will roll out 10 new (and free, at least for now) channels to users within the next two weeks:  Pandora, MotionBox, MediaFly, blip.tv, TWiT.tv, Facebook Photos, Revision3, framechannel, flickr & MobileTribe. More channels are promised “as they become available.” Tip for Roku:  adding Hulu would be a lot more …

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Inspiration.

November 16th, 2009

Something too few of us do these days:

think

We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” - John W. Gardner (1912 – 2002)

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.” –  Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)
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Things I Learned Working for Great Managers, Part 1

I will always be very appreciative of the many things I learned from working for great managers. These experiences changed my life in small and large ways which keep alive inside me the hope I will have an opportunity to work for at least a few more - and sooner rather than later. I’ve …

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Entrepreneurial FLDS Crafts Closes Webfront Store

November 11th, 2009

While fans of HBO‘s tv series Big Love eagerly await this season’s series opener in January, 2010, they may be disappointed to learn the FLDS Crafts web store has permanently closed its electronic shopping carts.

Approximately a year ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the store and the FLDS families behind it; apparently the original prices for the prairie dresses ranged from $60-100; currently posted prices now range from $129-$165.  Either web development costs were higher than expected, or consumer demand supported the higher prices.

I genuinely enjoy Big Love; I think the story lines are just a little out there <G>, but also well written, and offer a compelling hour or so of escapism/entertainment per episode.  However, myself and other fans who hadn’t already bought their authentic peachskin prairie dresses, children’s clothing, or sewing patterns for same will now have to scramble to find appropriate show watching attire:

Green Three Tie Front

Also no longer available is the FLDS Craft’s “top selling FLDS Hair Styling DVD – Braids DVD #2:”

Hair_DVD-2

Beginning with long hair care and advancing through basic waves and braids, these instructional videos will teach you some of the most intricate hairstyles you have ever seen.

Soon you will be styling your own hair in French braids, Dutch braids, Twists, and more!

The talented hairstylists will take you step-by-step through each of the featured braid styles.

The easiest braids are explained, and the complicated styles are described in detail, along with variations to get you started in your own creative style.

DVD #2 Includes:

6:02 — Basic Braids

3:34 — French Braids

4:40 — Dutch Braids

Total Time: 17:16 minutes

cost: $19.99

Coming soon: more DVD teaching more advanced braids and updos.

I am curious as to exactly why the store closed – maybe it was surprisingly profitable, but too far a culture shift for the entrepreneurs who created it?  Or was it only because the founders’ target market – “the professional business woman” – was  the wrong market for these products?

Either way – the store provided interesting insights – and questions – about the FLDS culture, which will continue to be in the public eye, through Big Love and also the remaining bigamy and child abuse trials.

Ironically, Delta Airlines’ Weekly Fare Specials just landed in my inbox: on sale this week:

Seattle, WA (SEA) to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) $59

talk about ironic
delta’s discount email just hit my inbox
on sale this week: Seattle, WA (SEA) to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) $59 Seattle, WA (SEA) to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) $59

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