Technorati Tags: Inspiration

U.S. states (visited in Red):

Create your own personalized map of the USA

World:

create your own visited country map

Admittedly, some of these I've only been through (short visit in airport, or drive-thru). But hey -- it's still a checkmark on the map.

Next place I want to visit: Russia. (Not only do I electronically know people there whom I want to meet in person, and not only do I want to see it, doing so would add a ton of red in one fell swoop. ;-)

Technorati Tags: Inspiration

I was raised in Denver, in a pentecostal christian home. Christianity has been my root faith for my entire life.

As a person who loves science (I like the popular everyman's books on physics, etc.), and a technology-type guy, I must admit I had times when I wanted to reconcile in my mind what I know and believe about science and my faith. Far, far, far too many Christians accept of their faith without question, and turn a blind eye to the findings of scientists.

I question everything I do in my work life - to challenge existing thinking to make it better. Why, then, should I not challenge my faith to see what holds up, and what doesn't? Doesn't this lack of willingness of Christians to examine ourselves reduce our credibility? Hasn't this reluctance by american Christians come to be viewed by the intellectual elite as non-thinking masses blindly taking their opiate?

I decided that intellectual honesty compels me to do a deep examination of my long-held beliefs to see what stands up under the scrutiny of the modern era of cosmology, evolutionary bilogy, etc., and be ready to accept where this led. A bold thing in my world.

If you're either a Christian who has deeply-repressed worries about the same thing, or are an agnostic who endures (but looks slightly down on) Christians, or a full-out atheist wondering how a rational thinker could believe in God, give me the next 2 minutes of your time. I request no change in your belief; just willingness to listen, as I've chosen to do.

Technorati Tags: Inspiration

Technorati Tags: Inspiration

Technorati Tags: Inspiration, Internet

However, I am a serious fan of professional bicycle racing, particularly the pro tour in Europe. While it's a popular spectator sport in Europe, with big purses and large fan attendance, it's (sadly) hardly on the radar screen here in the U.S.

Besides being a spectacularly difficult sport of human strength and endurance, it's also fraught with huge danger. Crashes are not uncommon, and having been in a couple of cycling crashes myself, I can tell you that:

• It hurts a lot to go down;
• These guys more often than not get up and finish a race after a crash -- a decidedly superhuman effort in my opinion;
• Anybody that doesn't cringe when they watch a crash, and who doesn't have huge respect for these athletes who put themselves on the line with nothing except some nylon and a helmet on their bodies, is way too closed-minded to be a friend of mine.

The folks who organize the Tour de France have put together a video of the notable crashes in the 2007 tour. While the Tour is the race everybody in the U.S. knows about, the summer cycle racing season is full of amazing races, with spectacular athletic efforts, exciting finishes, and too many crashes.

Technorati Tags: Inspiration

Technorati Tags: Inspiration

Mike Feinstein is an old work acquaintance turned VC. I've never worked with him directly, but kept in contact over the years, and have always considered him sharp. He's recently left the firm he was with for the last few years, and it appears he's started a blog. From what I can read, entrepreneurs would do well to read it. His thoughts, and analysis line up with the experiences I've had, and seen others have when building tech businesses.

Mike linked to a flash movie that has the creators planting their tongue firmly in the cheek. But as with many parodies, there is a grain of truth in it. It's speaks highly of a VC when honest self-introspection shows up in a VC. I should talk to those guys about funding next time I'm looking.

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

This device comes from Switzerland. I wonder which bar in the U.S. will be first to have it?

When I look at applications themselves (distinct from frameworks), I see three basic types:

• Content management systems
• Wikis
• Blogging systems

And these are all (of course) built these days on some kind of framework, like Spring, Ruby on Rails, or Grails.

The question that occurs to me? Why have these three types of applications emerged as separate application types? Aren't they all just variations on content presented through web servers? I look at each and see:

• Content types, e.g. body content, sidebar content, etc.
• Layout controls, indicating where each content type will appear, along with how it appears (e.g. all of the content, vs. blog-style “intro” and “read more”)
• User access controls
• etc.

Seems to me that as each of these three types of web applications mature, they're looking more and more alike. Maybe somebody should really abstract these properly, and create one system that is adaptable as needed.

Of course, then again, maybe “applications optimized for a purpose” make them more friendly for users. I guess I have more to learn here.

Technorati Tags: Software

What made me start thinking this was when I checked in with the progress of the Eclipse Communications Framework project (also see the beta version of a new project website here). While the ECF is far from a perfect example, what started to dawn on me was that these guys are moving pretty fast to implement a nice way for collaborative communications to be realized in applications, and if they're successful, and the code is in open source, it could become the defacto standard for how application software does collaboration in a few yesrs.

The new idea for me here was when I looked at how fast the ECF is moving to affect how software is working, vs. how quickly (nee, slowly) the IETF SIP, and in particular the SIMPLE work has impacted collaboration software. The ECF guys are creating a framework that is protocol independent, but their first (and compelling) implementations are done using the XMPP protocol.

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, Software

The bottom line: A leader isn't a leader unless he's part of a team that's aligned with him. There has to be a great team in order to have a strong CEO. While a football quarterback may be a leader, he can't play the game without wide receivers, running backs, and a front line - and that's on offense alone. And the better the team around him, the more the team wins.

I hope I'm that leader now. Regardless, I resolve to strive during 2007 to continue to build the best team possible for Plum Canary, and to be so effective in leading them that we become the best small software player in our league.

Other things that occur to me at the moment:

• Losses are as important as wins. While winning is the goal, losses will happen. Thank goodness for them. They show us our weak points, and what we need to work on.
• Nimbleness is the most powerful weapon of small companies. Don't get too relaxed; always be looking to move fast, find openings, and serve markets others aren't seeing (yet).
• Money is a tool - not a goal. In fact, money helps you make more money. Let's be effective in the way we think about it this year, and not be hesitant to use it when we have it, or let lack of it make us be a slave to it (or its sources).

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, Inspiration

So with that said, it makes me feel happy that I scored high on this. :-)

Technorati Tags: Nerds