Just a good quote from John McCain about commenting on an opponent in the New York Times:
"Never get into a wrestling match with a pig…you both get dirty, and the pig likes it."
A crash course on how youth uses technology
Watched parts of this last night. Frontline has a new program called "Growing Up Online." You should watch it (which you can do via the site…very cool).
It reinforces many things I have picked up from previous research into Generation Y and their communication habits. What struck me most is right at the end, one of the recently graduated high school seniors talks about the way he needs to unplug for bit because it is too much to deal with. Wow.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. Is it possible that we will exhaust our on-line preoccupation? I now rarely use IM, email is broken for sure, and text messaging works best for close contacts.
One of my favorite quotes
"…all glory is fleeting"
I was reminded of this great quote by General George C. Patton today. Humility (ironically not really Patton’s long suit) is a significant leadership quality and it is important keep things in perspective as we go about our daily lives.
The entire quote is below:
"For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."
Also, check this site out. I found it when I was looking for the full text of this. Great follow-on quote from former Sec. of State James Baker.
Towards true self-service
Shameless plug here for Hubspan, but Mark Hall over at Computerworld did a nice write up on us after we had the chance to speak. I thought the article title of "self-service middleware" was really good and fits our on-demand software message nicely. We’ve had a multi-tenant, on-demand approach from the beginning and our self-service efforts are focusing on allowing our customers to do things beyond data mapping to things like change management, e-commerce enablement, and business activity monitoring themselves. Simple integration is sort of an oxymoron although there are certainly basic data mapping needs (and tools) out there. Our technology really shines when there are more advanced needs to synchronize, correlate, and choreograph information flows at the business process level.
Also, our eight B2B New Year’s resolutions have gotten a bit of coverage recently.
Washington’s next boom industry
Coming soon to Washington state – distilled spirits. This story from the Seattle Times lays out how upcoming legislative changes will start a new industry around distilled spirits in the state. You know whiskey, gin, vodka, etc. After seeing the remarkably simple process for making gin at Plymouth Gin in the UK, I have wanted to give it a shot. Now I may have my chance…
Fun with charts
As someone who spends a fair amount of his time working to present ideas and information graphically, I found this very entertaining (via The Big Picture from the WSJ). It is all about scale so if we are talking about $100 billion dollars total, being on the "low end" of loss like Bear, Countrywide, or JP Morgan with a measly $1-2ish billion pales in comparison to Citi, Merrill, or UBS. This is very unsettling b/c this much loss doesn’t come without consequences. It’s sort of like the real estate binge of the past several years was a game of musical chairs with crap debt being passed from originator to underwriter to "safe" fixed income holder. Kinda like a game of musical chairs and somebody smashed the iPod with a boot….the music has stopped and those at the high end of this loss chart didn’t find a chair. 
Lots of buzz about Xobni
I’ve seen a recent uptick in both coverage and inquiries about Xobni. We can debate the merits of naming your company a word spelled backwards (inbox – get it?), but they are definitely getting some buzz. I have been using the beta for a while and plan a summary of my thoughts when I get spare moment. Good for them..they have tapped into the universal pain of email and our daily combat with Outlook. It does a lot of good things but not sure it solves the larger problem. More on that later.
I still have a couple of invites so ping me if you want one.
A great movie you’ve probably never heard about
I saw this movie many years ago and for some reason thought about it the other day. The "humor" is dark so be warned, but A Shock to the System starring Michael Caine ranks up there (for me) with the great flicks about office politics and power. Again, this is no Office Space, but as the clip below illustrates, it is highly entertaining. This was the only clip I found on YouTube…
Kirkland featured on NPR
Check out this short audio from NPR on Kirkland (via Kirkland Weblog) and the changes to my adopted hometown over the years. They are building "Googleplex north" here which is discussed in some detail. Lots of development (still) going on here – let’s hope the growth is managed for the benefit of us all.
Suggested reading for TSA
It is a bit too easy to complain about air travel and the circus that goes along with it so I thought I would do something to try to improve the overall process – a reading recommendation. If you work for TSA or are responsible for managing the security process at any airport, please read "The Goal
Those of us that travel for a living can easily spot the "Herbie" in the process and would it be too much to ask for a place for me to reassemble my clothing after running the gauntlet? Watch what people do before, during, and AFTER security screening…and at least give me a place to put my shoes back on.
Venture Vice 