A Horribly Broken Prescription Delivery System

From a recent e-mail to friends...

I rarely write during the day - I actually stay pretty busy. But I'm 'relaxing' over the holidays (only trying to work 8 hrs/day,) and I needed to focus on my Zolpidem (generic for Ambien) prescription because I'M ALMOST OUT!

So I wanted to order some online now that we are on an HSA and paying cash for them...I thought that it would be no big deal.

Lots to talk about here for the next time we're together. But interesting results from price checking a few local pharmacies: One tech told me she had know way to find out what prescriptions cost. The range was $45 (drugstore.com) to $164 (CVS.) Walmart was $86. The CVS tech asked me, "Do you know how many insurances (sic) there are?" She passed me around for a while and I finally learned that you need to specifically ask for the 'Cash' price - a keyword that takes you into the 'this poor bastard doesn't have insurance' queue - which they know means you'll PAY ANYTHING SINCE THERE IS NO MARKET FOR PRESCRIPTIONS SOLD AT AN ADVERTISED PRICE! (I use the term 'Market' in its technical/economic sense here.)

I ordered from drugstore.com on 12/9. The flurry of paperwork ended today when I practically had to conference them together to exchange info. My doctor still depends on faxes and phone calls exclusively to do this. There is no system of electronic communication. Zolpidem is a 'controlled substance' and must require doctors and pharmacists to pledge their first born sons or daughters to keep paper documentation authorizing them to write/fill prescriptions - with penalties like dismemberment if they can't provide the paper trail. (So much for the ubiquitously available ED meds!)

It would be MUCH EASIER to get Pot, Cocaine or Heroine. At least I know the service would be driven by market forces! I may try later today and report back ;)

P.S. Drugstore.com turns out to be the BEST place to get this stuff so far. I know exactly what phone numbers to dial and IVR prompts to pass to crack their system now ;) I'll clue you in for free drinks!

The Real Royal Society

A few friends and I meet from time to time to discuss the issues of the day. We careen from subject to subject and pontificate on a variety of topics, making assertions, citing dubious references, pillorying our lunchmates and attacking sacred cows with vim and vigor!

I have named the group the Royal Society and I mean it no disrespect. I long for the polemics and debate of a latter day; courteous, informed and energetic!

But there is a 'real' Royal Society which is celebrating its 350th anniversary - and they deserve congratulations and honor. The home of such great minds as Newton, Laplace, Maxwell, Hawking and Berners-Lee, all FRS - Fellows of the Royal Society, and countless others who have preserved science over centuries when, to paraphrase a popular country music song, science wasn't cool. We owe the Society an immeasurable debt for a life unparalleled in abundance, convenience and longevity.

You can read a brief (32 p) report, Science Sees Further, which their President, Martin Rees, calls "an opportunity for us to look at the key scientific issues of today, and those of tomorrow."

Edit: And then there was this.

This just in

NYU moves to Google Apps for Education. Does that score one for Microsoft 0n-premises solutions?

Couldn't help myself

Redmond Channel Partner is a thin magazine that extols the virtue of Microsoft Products and generally heaps praise on whatever they do. The last issue served up lots of affection for Microsoft's latest strategy to dominate the universe with their Cloud technology.

I think reports of their imminent success are a bit premature. But what do I know?

So I sent the author of the article a short note (using my Google Apps account,) to wit:

Hi Scott,

I read with interest your recent piece in RCP, "Bet on MS Cloudy Forecast." I got a kick out of the quote from the reporter: "What is it?" or words to that effect.

One of my customers recently asked: What is it? That is *not* a closing question.

The problem is that MS has hit a wall dictated by physics in a way. Customers' needs are well met by local apps, Internet for most is a flaky $20 DSL connection, they see the 'bleed' of a subscription service (I know, I sell one,) and open source is right on their tail. I say MS is a short sell opportunity.

What they can't control is the very real fear that viruses, malware and security risks impose. MS is at the root of all this, whether they are to blame or not. Bad PR is bad PR.

We've moved lots of customers to Google Apps. I love hosted Exchange @ $5/user per month. I think Windows servers are stupid complex and I'll be the first to admit my reluctance to sell them is that I'm not smart enough to work on them. My small business customers (less than 20 users, 5+ million,) are stupider than I am! They think I'm smart!

MS can't deny gravity. This cloud initiative is chasing Google. Apps are a commodity and search is all that matters.

Loved the article,

Kim Brand

www.ComputerExpertsIndy.com

www.FileSafeServer.com

www.KimBrand.com

Indianapolis

What does this mean?

I was just minding my own business when Tom Lapp, Co-Inventor of FileEngine, forwarded me a story from EWeek.com that includes this 'strategy' comment by a Microsoft executive:

“We are going to lead with the cloud,” Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said during a speech at the company’s Financial Analyst Meeting July 29. “Leading with the cloud actually helps better position Microsoft to sell more on-premises products than we ever have before. … Very strategically, it signals a very clear commitment to our customers and our partners.”

How could a C level exec attempt to convince intelligent finance managers that delivering cloud based solutions will accelerate sales of on-premises solutions?? Maybe Google should sell on-premises solutions to promote sales of Google Apps?

I had never heard of the term 'on-premises' solutions before. Was that Windows Server 200x? Almost sounds cooler when you call it an on-premises solution. (See my older blog entry here on how Windows server is like a puppy trying to find a place to pee.)

Harry Potter's Mom Gives Harvard Commencement

What a great resource for my DeadBeatsBall.com website! 

Early in the presentation I read...

On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

And it just kept getting better and better.

Sales 101

This week Jeff Bowe and I spoke at the Business Ownership Initiative. The SRO crowd (15) were all starting businesses or trying to develop the one they had. I love that crowd!

We ended up in Chicago this weekend to care for a daughter with a strained ankle. Ouch! So during the unexpected 'down time' I'm trying to do some 'sales development' by reading thoughtful sales articles. (You might find my collection of same here and here useful.

Anyway, the stuff I'm reading this morning is here...and from Sharon Drew Morgen. All good.

I spent some time this morning trying to understand the 'demotivators' that impact sales. Have you ever studied demotivators in a sales class? Looking at the sales encounters we've had over the years it's like a blinding flash of the obvious. The 'Features & Benefits' weren't enough to overcome the demotivators. I've been wasting all my time attacking one (price) and leaving all the rest unresolved.

So much to do ;(

Another Rotary Invocation

October 5, 2010 - Indianapolis Rotary Club.

I wanted to write on the theme: 'If this life was all there was.' Rather than hoping that when we die you reach your final reward, you realize that you better eat desert now - cause when it's over, it's over!

But I couldn't write that invocation and make it positive. I'll try again later.

So I started banging away on the keyboard Monday night around 9pm while Beth Ann was watching Dancing With The Stars. (Not exactly the most conducive environment to write.) Words didn't flow, sentences appeared and disappeared. It was a real struggle. Writing each line took effort. I felt like I was hewing art from stone. Ultimately, I finished it Tuesday morning after spending another hour. Our lunch starts at Noon.

I wanted to connect the recent discovery of a star system which may include a planet in what is called the Goldilocks zone which may harbor life of some kind to my belief that life on Earth is actually not that special. Interesting, definitely; but not unusual. There is no need for a deity (at least at this stage of the game.)

As you can read below, I believe we are special for entirely different reasons. But these ideas actually emerged on the page as if I was conjuring an 8 Ball. It was like I wrote words, stared at them for a while, assembled them in sentences, deleted a few, moved them around and then stared at them some more. Over a couple hours, a few ideas consolidated on this framework of words that allowed me to connect the parts into a whole.

I got several compliments on it. A few were quite enthusiastic. So I guess this worked. It was athletic in a cerebral way.

Are we special?

Science is nearly ready to answer that question in a way that wasn’t possible a decade ago.

120 trillion miles from here scientists say they have found what appears to be an Earth-like planet that may be just warm enough and wet enough to make the chemistry of life possible.

Our special place in the universe is about to be challenged. We may not be alone.

So much of life’s meaning is connected to a feeling that we are special. From religion to education to management, the means may be different, but the ends are the same: to affirm each person’s uniqueness, each person’s right to be different; to make each person feel special about themselves, their abilities, their relationships, their potential.

So today, we learn we may not have such a special place among the stars. So what?

Being special was never about being alone. To be truly special requires the attention of another human being. A gift given by one person to another; at arms length, with a smile, a sympathetic ear or just a sincere hello. Making another person feel special and cared for is something we do around here . . . in our corner of the Milky Way.

As you sit with each other, greet each other, interact with and work with others throughout the rest of today, and every day, remember that while we are each made from basic elements, combined in interesting but somewhat predictable ways, what makes us special is the way we love each other; the gifts of care and attention we freely give to make another person feel special among all the planets and stars of the cosmos.

When we do that, we can still be special, in the hearts of the ones we love, in the communities we serve, across continents and who knows, across light years. Making someone feel special is your personal gift to the galaxy, and as far as we know, uniquely human.

Another great quote

Reminds me of the 'Sunscreen Song', but contracted for the Twitter generation.

Live with intention.

Walk to the edge.

Listen hard.

Practice wellness.

Play with abandon.

Laugh.

Choose with no regret.

Appreciate your friends.

Continue to learn.

Do what you love.

Live as if this is all there is.

-Mary Anne Radmacher

A Dearth of Curiosity

A brief conversation with an old friend tonight reminded me...

She's working at a new charter school now; nothing but the best. New technology, nutrition plans to combat the let down after lunch, no desks, etc. She was so enthusiastic!

But I've mused before about how absent curiosity seems to be in schools that are otherwise well resourced. No pedagogical excess can overcome a dearth of curiosity. But a driving curiosity can lead to a fascination with learning that trumps suboptimal learning conditions. Indeed, what passes today for an impoverished educational environment would have been a luxury to the peers of Newton, Leibniz and countless others whose discoveries form the foundation of today's science curricula! Lavish the Internet on idiots and you end up with idiots!

What a tragedy! Anyone can now indulge their curiosity to nearly a limitless depth, for free, 24/7, from home, and avail themselves of knowledge formerly reserved for the bourgeois. Perhaps getting an education would be more desirable if it was hard?

Real Poetry

Thanks to my parents I had an excellent education. (I own the meager results.)

I came across a poem by Shelley by accident this morning. It spoke to me about the futility of desire for fame or riches. The author advises us to relax, enjoy the ride; it will all be lost in the end anyway.

An education could be wrapped around this poem. At least I found it. Better late than never.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

A further analysis can be found here and here.

Totaled

We've seen more and more cases where perfectly fine PCs get totaled by malware. The analogy to a car being totaled is apt: You slide into a barrier on ice in your 2002 Camaro at 10 MPH. No injuries, airbags don't deploy; the fender's messed up, front suspension too, the engine mounts go a little whacky. Fixable, right? Not!

The insurance guy says your car is worth $5K and the repairs will be $6K. Your car has just been totaled.

Think about the similarity to PCs but apply 'Internet Time' and 'Moore's Law': PCs change far more rapidly than automobiles. I need to remind customers all the time that the $1K PC they are buying today would have been $5K a few years ago - if it was available at all. Add in the cost of labor: probably not accelerating in this economy, but a good technician still bills out at $80-$110/hr.

How much can you afford to invest in that old 'PC Clunker' when it gets into an 'accident' with malware? (BTW: malware isn't the only malady: OS updates, hardware failure and abuse may be more familiar if less less likely threats.)

I assess the damage across several dimensions:

• How old is it?
• Is there important information still on it?
• Is the software installed on it recoverable? (i.e. do you have the rights and/or media, keys, codes, updates, configuration details, etc. available to make a new PC work like the old one.)
• How well did it perform before the crash?

Do you want to spend the cost of a new PC costs fixing up an old one? Not unless there are compelling reasons. For example: your old software won't work on Microsoft's latest OS (which is all you can find,) or the additional time and cost to configure a new PC is intolerable if not impossible. We wear-in PCs like old shoes. Sometimes, you just can't find one that fits as well.

We estimate that migration of all the stuff from an old PC to a new one can take from two to four hours - that adds hundreds of dollars to the equation. Your mileage may vary, but the pain is real.

What can you do to avoid having your PC totaled? Keeping it well maintained is a good start: update antivirus programs, safe surfing practices, store copies of the software, license keys and summary of significant configuration changes you've made in a separate place. This is like the little book you have in your glove compartment that records when you got oil changes and factory recommended service. It's a good idea for your PC too.

We recommend that important PCs use backup imaging software like Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition and Acronis True Image. Both are available for under $100 and allow you to capture everything on your PC to a USB hard drive. On-line backups are fine for data - and may be OK for DOCs, databases and photos - but getting your programs and the functionality of a finely tuned PC back is just as important, if less emotional. You won't appreciate all that stuff until it's gone!

Confused at a higher level

25 years ago, a friend (Mike St. Pierre) sent me the following. Mike was one of my first customers for the Data Digger software I wrote for his and about 1000 other funeral homes.

I came across a copy of the original fax that has managed to remain on the pile of papers that haunt my efforts to get organized. By memorializing the original here I may finally be rid of the stress of possibly losing it. (Which would occur after a purge inspired by the hopelessness of never being able to dig out of the mess.)

I fully realize that I have not succeeded in answering all of your questions. Indeed, I feel I have not answered any of them completely. The answers I have found only serve to raise a whole new set of questions, which only lead to more problems, some of which we weren't even aware were problems.

To sum it all up: In some ways I feel we are as confused as ever, but I believe we are confused on a higher level, and about more important things.

Despite the humor in this, every time I read it, I nod my head in agreement with is existential truth.

Password frenzy

Today I helped the Latino Coalition setup e-mail, change Windows logins and generally get their employees' accounts organized. OMG!

There were three employees and each required a password for their desktop PC, a POP account, and SMTP account. We needed passwords for their e-mail/web hosting service, (to administer the e-mail accounts,) Yahoo! account (to create and then validate their e-mail accounts for sending mail,) and router. To change former Windows user account passwords required knowing the former user account password to change them. The SMTP service required a separate password and non-standard port number; that's like a password too.

Like most of our customers, the 'boss' wanted to know these website URLs, logins and passwords. She was overwhelmed! Who wouldn't be? When we were finished, she had a spreadsheet with six lines and eight columns - just for three employees!

No wonder many of my customers are frustrated to the point of distraction with computer security. What does is get them? Where is the trade-off? What is the upside?

Each of these people probably have personal e-mail accounts, bank accounts, a dozen other services and websites that require logins and PIN codes.

We are being punished by all these passwords! They buy us precious little security and simply don't work.

Born May 7

May 7, 1840: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Wolfram Alpha is good for this kind of stuff. But I actually noticed it on Pandora.

Where O death is your sting?

I've registered LastCallFunerals.com to develop an idea about what funerals should be. This woman said it better than me . . . and put up a video too. Thanks, Reddit users, for getting it to the front page.

Her son posted the final entry (her eulogy) on her blog on June 10. She was a comedienne and, to my view, a philosopher of life. She was obviously a great mom too.

I hope to get the chance to meet her someday.

I told you so

From the Associated Press: College for all? Experts say not necessarily. I've written about this before (somewhere.) There is a 'newly' discovered disconnect in College determinism: get a college degree = have a better life. Not necessarily so.

• Colleges want cheap money to effectively lower the price of their product; fatten their endowments and broaden their brand
• Governments want to give away college to appear egalitarian; to tap dance around the expanding gap between rich and poor
• Financial institutions want to suck from the tits of market manipulation and fees.
• Parents, pushed by their peers, long for success for their child and don't pay attention to the cost:benefit ratio; a healthy dose of nostalgia may be added - but their college experience came before the 'bubble' (like the real estate bubble) when too much money chased too few real degrees and too few jobs.
• Students want to dodge reality for as long as possible - who can blame them?

We all want to deny that hard work, curiosity, discipline, cleverness and the right parents are enough, (and necessary.)

If there was ever a time that a motivated student could manufacture his own education, network with leaders in the field and create a job that didn't exist ten years ago - today is the day.

And if there was ever a time when the lag between what could be taught from textbooks for thousand of dollars was less relevant than what can be delivered from a laptop for free - today is the day.

[Too much] More of the Same

Microsoft has unleashed another revenue release of their category dominating office suite: Office 2010. With a name like that, you just know there will be office versions in perpetuity. If only skill with a word processor was related to facility with words.

I was struck by the lambasting the multi-gigabyte/multi-hundred-dollar package received from Wired. They summarized thusly:

TIRED More bloated than the Goodyear blimp. Printing is slow and buggy. Useless spam filter even after a decade of development. Occasional system crashes. Still feels like spending hundreds of dollars for the privilege of sending e-mail and typing letters.

If only I could so successfully monetize such a stream of ponderously mediocre technology ;(

Love, browser

Why Steve Ballmer must be buying stock in Pepto-Bismol: Google's Chrome browser.

Dividends or Taxes?

Talking with a friend (Travis Cross, OfficeTone,) about technology adoption by small businesses and I ask:

What happened to the Technology Progress Dividend?

My answer:

It became a Complexity Tax.

No doubt: small businesses spend more money dealing with technology than they earn from adopting new technology. Think: password mahem, upgrades that go wrong, incompatible versions, security threats and training that never seems to be enough to improve productivity or enhancing skills.

Just a thought.

Solving the Candle Problem - Daniel Pink

Love this Daniel Pink presentation on what really motivates people to solve complicated problems. This is especially relevant to entrepreneurs working with knowledge workers in technology start-ups.

Like finding a place to pee

I love my toy poodle Flower. But I have found little consistency in her choice of places to pee. It is not completely random; she generally goes on the grass. She knows where she is going before I do.

After working on Windows servers for the past few weeks, it occurs to me that Microsoft's flagship server product for small businesses is like my poodle. You can lead it around, but it decides what to do for reasons that are neither consistent nor understandable.

I think Flower is much more lovable.

Further along the path to despair

News comes from the Krebs on Security Blog that hundreds of PCs on the network operated by the City of Norfolk have been rendered useless by a 'Time Bomb' distributed to them by malware that infected a print server. Clever. Nobody worries about a print server, cares about its antivirus subscription or manages its updates. Who knew it could be the vector for such scurrilous attacks.

The shadow knew!

Change for change's sake

Will consumers ever be left with software products that they simply use, understand and become productive with? Or will they constantly be upgraded, service-packed, hot-fixed and release-creeped until they are so frustrated they abandon computers altogether?

Have you grown weary of Adobe updates? Windows updates? Java updates? Is the counter to the right of the version number of whatever software you are using spinning like the odometer on a rental car you're paying for by the mile? Can't they just get this stuff right when they release it?

I'm suffering from IT Fatigue. I believe we've stopped producing software products and have just put software seeds on systems that constantly grow into weeds that smother productivity with empty promises of new features, better security and improved performance.

But to wish they would stop is naive. Not only are connected computers vulnerable to changing threats, but software businesses want to monetize their install base. You are an all-day sucker constantly generating the sweet liquor of recurring revenue. Those publishers know you are an easy mark for 'New and Improved' even if leaving well enough alone is better for you.

And don't get me started on app-jealousy! When subsequently installed applications hijack settings that make them your new-best-friend! Like when my wife installed Adobe Elements to get her new scanner to work and it 'adopted' her SD Media Card - effectively replacing Picasa - and upsetting her expectation and dependence. Old behaviors that she had become accustomed to and which made her computer understandable and predictable were replaced with confusion and frustration.

Where do I get off this merry-go-round?

Google for Non-Profits

I don't think enough people know about Google's dedicated portal for the free Non-Profit applications and services they offer.

We serve lots and lots of non-profits that should consider this option to traditional software, license fees and support options. It may not be for everyone, but how can you lose by giving it a try?

It's not a Virus - It's Malware!

Our customers have been tormented by rogue fraudware more than ever lately. Despite antivirus programs, operating system patches and attention paid to avoiding 'bad' websites.

I was interviewed by Channel 13 last week on the subject. What can you say in 15 seconds? So I wrote a brief article about Malware for a CEO Networking organization and posted it here. Hopefully you'll find it interesting and helpful.

Kim

The Complexity Tax

The growing complexity of our lives - a byproduct of engineered flexibility and abstraction of utility - operates like a tax whittling away at the value of a given object. Like this blog post, for instance.

Another Rotary Invocation

This Rotary Invocation was inspired by Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea, in particular the scenic beauty it portrays of America's Southwest. It made me wonder about how inspired Native Americans must have been to live amongst such majesty. So I Googled for American Indian Religion and found this prayer:

Oh, Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear in the winds,

And whose breath gives life to all the world,

hear me, I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold

the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have

made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things

you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have

hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame.

Translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887

published in Native American Prayers - by the Episcopal Church.

Like Whitewater Rafting

The IT business today is like whitewater rafting. It is terrifying and exciting and the reality is we don't really know where we're going except wherever the river takes us; too fast and very scary.

It makes me crazy that our customers have PC problems like viruses, hackers, failed hardware, Windows calamities and Microsoft maladies like operating system 'upgrades' that few people need and nobody wants!

Like riding the torrent, we can't just choose to get off. We are being swept along and out of control.

1300 Setting in IE8 - not enough!

Our customers often feel abused and tormented by technology...it's just another rock in their backpack. So it was not surprising that I discovered today that Microsoft has built in over 1300 options in Internet Explorer.

In their own words:

There are approximately 1300 Group Policies for managing Windows® Internet Explorer® 8. Configuring these for the first time may seem like a daunting task.

How could a browser have 1300 options? OMG! What design purpose could be served by such complexity? Does the user want these options?

I spent over an hour finding and adjusting one of these 1300 options to allow QuickBooks to run for a customer logging into a session on a Windows 2008 Terminal Server. The default settings for Internet Zone security properties wouldn't allow QuickBooks to operate. OMG! Why does a bookkeeping program care about Internet properties? Can't I just use it to write checks and print bills? Obviously not in today's connected world.

Wake me up when the Windows 2008 nightmare is over. Can we just have DOS back?

Like practicing law in a corrupt country

We [maybe, nearly] finished the upgrade of a Windows Server 2003 Small Business Edition to Microsoft's latest, flagship product for small businesses: Windows Server 2008 Small Business Edition. This product is one of four Microsoft server versions to choose from. They are masters of monopoly marketing. Why look for an alternative if Microsoft offers everything you need?

This server will be used in a law firm with 12 employees. They have a dedicated web server, a dedicated VOIP system server and a dedicated Terminal Server. A Gen-X'er would say their technology was majorly tricked out.

But as a consultant I come away from the four day, 32 hr install-fest (that doesn't include the 8 hours of preparation,) feeling like a lawyer who practices in a corrupt country. The deck is stacked, the outcome dependent on the 'fix' that can only come from Microsoft. Your skills are irrelevant, your ambitions frustrated. If you're having trouble getting the system to work it must be because you are incompetent!

Windows 2008 is Vista on steroids. It is configured out of the box less like a Ferrari than a Fisher Price Pull Toy: you can drag it around your network but without serious Googling, support from friends and forums, and expensive phone calls to Microsoft, it doesn't do anything. Microsoft has recoiled into defensive server configuration mode that their server doesn't do anything without disabling, undoing and overriding 'features' designed to protect you from yourself.

If this experience is typical of hundreds of thousands of small businesses that are going to be prodded to upgrade from Server 2003 soon, we will all be able to share the young lawyer's experience in a dictatorship defending the rights of his client against the power of the state and a corrupt judiciary.

Finally, the Million Dollar Madness is [almost] over

The NY Times reported today that In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History. This couldn't happen to a more anachronistic habit of public education.

If we can save hundreds of millions of dollars on outdated, proprietary and increasingly irrelevant implements of education maybe we can start to spend more where it counts: inspiring teachers, personalized education plans and creating curiosity!

I hope Indiana catches on.

Progress?

My FileEngine product was the outgrowth of my frustration with increased functionality being peddled as improvement. We deal with lots of attorneys who still use Word Perfect. Truth be told, they'd probably still be using Version 5.1 or 6.0 if they could find systems that ran DOS!

Well, a recent post by Steve Lohr in the NY Times: Tech Payoff for Companies Remains Elusive, Study Finds, sums it up nicely. The 'more is more' philosophy just isn't paying off. We knew that - now we have proof.

Steve did an article titled: Tracking the World’s Appetite for Innovation in January 2008 that anticipated the conclusions of this study. We just don't want anymore. We have enough. Go away.

Now it would be easy to accuse me of being a Luddite, and I'm not so sure I'd be offended. I'd defend some advances in consumer technology...it's nice to carry books & music with you on an iPod or Kindle. And improved TV resolution is appreciated. But 200+ channels of crap in HD isn't progress. But how is it the government's responsibility to assure anybody with rabbit ears on their TVs can get a digital converter? Did they subsidize their upgrade to a DVD player from VHS when Blockbuster stopped carrying 'tapes'?

The real suffering is being felt by businesses who need to withstand a torrent of SPAM (or pay to have it filtered,) constantly worry about Internet borne threats and attacks that sneak into their network (and pay big bucks to innoculate systems or have them de-loused,) and worse: struggle with employees that consider broadband at the office just another entertainment option.

Another odd Rotary Invocation

My Rotary Club assigns the job of presenting invocations to volunteers like most clubs.  Our club is larger than most and with a diverse membership representing many faiths.  So when the duty came to me I wanted to do something different that the 'stock' Christian invocation we hear nearly every week.

My first invocation was based on a Masonic theme.   My most recent was on Karma.  Another was on Stoicism.  

A recent blog posting by Tim Ferriss titled: On The Shortness of Life: An Introduction to Seneca really resonated with me.  I had read quite a lot about Stoicism but didn't know nearly as much about it as I did after I had read his post.  This is a 'must read' for anyone convinced that we are living in unique times, with unprecedented challenges and confronted by post-modern issues of meaning and relevance.  Get over it!  It's all been done before, thought before and reasoned before.  Our best course is to take advantage of this great work and benefit from it.

With humility, I present the invocation I delivered at the Indianapolis Rotary Club on January 29, 2008.

"In the third century BC a philosophical movement known as Stoicism was conceived in Greece by a philosopher named Zeno.  His teachings ultimately gained popularity thoughout Imperial Rome.  Much of what we know about Stoics today we have learned from the diary of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  

In those days, religion wasn't helpful to mark the path to a desirable "good flow of life".  Philosophers literally gave such lessons on porches - the Greek name for which is stoa - thus the first teachers became Stoics.

Stoics believe that all that is necessary to have a happy life is to 'live in agreement with nature'  This included practicing prudence, wisdom, justice, courage and moderation.  These are purely internal prescriptions.  Virtue is the sole good.  Humans can exercize their power of choice and decide to be happy.  Stoicism shows them how.  The way may be hard, but the rules are simple.  A person who achieved the pinnacle of Stoic virtue was called a Sage.''

Like our Rotary Four Way Test, a Stoic life emphasized Ethics.  In addition to truth, they believed that to conform our affairs with nature demanded consideration of the concerns of others.  Sounds like 'Fair to all' and 'Beneficial to all concerned' to me.  Over 2000 years before Paul Harris was born, Stoic philosphy anticipated the words 1.2 million Rotarians would use to inspire our thoughts and actions.

Least important to a happy life were external attributes that include wealth, possessions, status - even health.  They called these 'indifferents'.  As if, with the proper internal focus, these common measures of success were unimportant to true happiness.  So should we believe today.

Many of you may not have heard of the Stoics, or of their philosophy.  The agreement of their views with our Rotarian mottos should give us confidence in their timeless relevance.  But most of us *have* heard of this prayer that unmistakably encapsulate Stoic beliefs.  It's called the Serenity Prayer:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.  Amen."

Why my Twitter avatar is Nicola Tesla

Entrepreneur Inspiration

Found this video on Technorati in a story on Blogtrepreneur

I cried.

Perfect doesn't matter

People are busy. Attention spans are short. They don't care nearly as much about whatever you are saying or doing as you think they do or should. Except maybe for your mother.

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this inference. But the one that makes the most difference is in your effort to delay an introduction of a product or service until it is perfect.

Remember the 80-20 rule? It is a Universal Constant! Most of your customers don't care about 80% of your features. They don't read 80% of your website or user manual. They don't hear 80% of what you say. So don't sweat the details - throw it out there in reasonable form and make an impression!

BUT: sloppy isn't good. Misspellings are symptoms of carelessness or worse: illiteracy. So just keep it simple, brief, functional. As the guys at 37 Signals would say: "We believe most software is too complex. Too many features, too many promises."

Get it out there. Perfect doesn't matter.

Note to a friend

An old friend (30+ yrs) is an avid bicycle enthusiast. I don't see him as much as I like, but I think of him often.

Randomly browsing the web turns up interesting links. I occasionally share them with friends. This one popped up today. So I sent him a message with a link.

"Could either of us have predicted that 30 yrs after we met we would be able to sit on our porch, type a few commands onto a system with a VDU (color & high res!) running on batteries, with a wireless connection to servers (millions of them!) with content uploaded with all manner of content (including video!) of stuff that was simply interesting (not corporate!) by normal people from all around the planet??"

Poincare's beauty of science

A friend (Woody Hill) recommended a quote by Henri Poincare regarding the beauty of science and the delight of scientists who spend their lives in the pursuit of discovery.

I thought the quote was a bit simple.  Poincare was a polymath, a genius and I'm not.  So my criticism should be treated with some suspicion.

But I thought about science and beauty and all that and decided to try my hand at describing a feeling that we both share.  Here's what I came up with.

"The Scientist, armed only with curiosity and experiments to tease truth from Nature, is driven to make sense of the world for himself as he pushes back the shadow of ignorance on behalf mankind.  With each discovery, he assembles a part of a vast puzzle; the whole of which can never be known to one man, but the significance of which is core to our ambition as a species.  When, by chance, a part is thought to be 'understood', (whether by the scientist alone or an entire culture,) Nature exchanges joy for mystery and at their nexus beauty is born."

How do you think I did?

E-Mail Roach Motel

Are you the target of too many e-mail newsletters?  I receive 5-7 a week.  These appear during the day.  They momentarily distract my attention.  Many of them are from companies and people I like.  But I don't have time to read them when they arrive.

In the past, I'd let them accumulate in my in-box to read later.  Then the torrent of e-mail (even after filtering) left anything delivered in the morning hidden by the pile that arrived in the afternoon.  I stopped reading any of them.

I try to politely unsubscribe.  Have you noticed that some e-mail newsletters make it hard to unsubscribe?  I hate it when they make you send an e-mail; to which they reply with a questionnaire!  The worst is when they make you login to unsubscribe.  How many logins have you accumulated with how many variations of passwords?  It just turns out to be too much work so I give up.  

It's not like I'm wasting paper - but nevertheless I have the feeling that I'm contributing to wasted energy on the Internet.  All those network bits, all those spinning hard drives - let alone the admin utilities, database programs and operating system components cranking out countless trillions of charge reversals - just so I can get an e-mail newsletter I don't want.  It just sounds so un-ecological.

This morning I found a great way to eliminate the e-mail quickly - if not my guilt.  There is a free service called Mailinator.com that acts like an e-mail Roach Motel.  It can get in but it can't get out!

Instead of using your real e-mail address for subscriptions, give the sender a Mailinator e-mail address.  Creating one is free.  It can be specific and personal, like 'kjb-marketing-newsletter@mailinator.com'  or completely random.  You make up this address before you even go to the Mailinator website - they accept e-mail for any address that goes there.  When and if you care about the contents of that newsletter you simply go to Mailinator.com and login with the address you chose - no password required.  The service keeps them for a few days.  But really, what are the chances you will care after that?

You may have a hard time imagining all the uses to which this great service can be put without actually trying it.  So just try it.  Next time you get a newsletter you can't remember reading for several weeks, change the e-mail address you gave them to a Mailinator address.  Next time you are asked to register for anything or subscribe to a newsletter give them a Mailinator address.  Visit the Mailinator website occasionally, enter your manufactured e-mail address (no password required!) and find out what you missed.  You can create dozens of special-purpose e-mail addresses that are dedicated to different uses.   

Then you can watch the junk flow to your nom de plume while your real inbox gets some relief!  Amazing!

MIT Media Lab gadget

My view of technology has ranged from delight to dismay to dischord lately.  It seems like the interruptions are offsetting any benefits.  I'm not sure whether it's just my age or attitude.  But I'm not happy about my tech trajectory and don't know what to do about it.

Tonight I browsed a link on reddit to a short piece from TED that simply amazed me and brought back some of the thrill technology used to deliver.  It showed a device that purports to deliver sixth-sense experiences.  That's a new phrase that will describe another wave of must-have gadgets every 20 something has before I do.

Maybe it will vindicate the last few years of disappointment in technology that has grown to annoy more than serve.

TIF, Freeze, NAV and RDC

I attended my first Cumberland Indiana Redevelopment Commission last night. 10 people dedicated to moving the small town of Cumberland forward (we'll find out what that means over the coming months.)

Although this was the very first meeting of the Cumberland RDC, redevelopment commissions have a lengthy legislative history. As with any government entity, I stepped onto a train mightily speeding down the track; lots of acronyms, concepts and constituents with a vision of the public role in private lives, property and progress.

I got a real education - I'm naturally curious (did you notice the title of this blog?) And this was an area that I had never considered interesting. Now, I consider it interesting.

It's like the first day of class at a new school, a new semester with a veteran teacher that knows everything about an arcane little piece of the world that so far has existed beneath my feet but beyond my awareness. (Nearly literally.) Fascinating!

I'm looking forward to nailing the final.

Marketing, Entrepreneurship, etc.

I recently facilitated a seminar on marketing for the Business Ownership Initiative.  (Slides available here.)  This non-profit helps women and minorities create businesses and become entrepreneurs.  I was happy to help.  

I've been adding to a wiki on entrepreneurship for a long time.  I call entrepreneurship Economic Alchemy because I believe it creates something from nothing.  And small businesses in particular create value for our entire economy.  The risks entrepreneurs take result in jobs, incomes, dividends, products and prosperity for our entire economy.  Their contributions can't be overvalued.

Meanwhile, I'm not an expert on marketing.  My experience has been fraught with stammers and stutters and miscues and mispent fortunes.  My great hopes for sales success reliably resulted in big disappointments.  I've spent $200K on marketing advice, programs, collateral and misadventures.  Probably 10:1 mis-spent.

Lately, I received my third $50K proposal for marketing research from as many advisors.  I don't doubt spending $50K would help - I just doubt that it would help more than $5K based on empirical evidence.   At that rate, I'd rather pay customers to accept my products - at least we'd start to capture market share!

The latest marketing consultant seemed annoyed with I responded that I'd rather try 10 marketing campaigns at $5K each, then try research at $50K.  I've never found anyone in the marketing business that would give me a guarantee.  So I figure they're all making educated guesses about what works.  I figure I've got a 1:10 chance of discovering a campaign that works based on my experience - and that's at least as good as they can reasonably offer.  And trying 10 different campaigns will result in learning how at least 10 marketing tactics don't work and learning from 10 mistakes.  (Trying something is called a 'tactic.'  Thinking about it is called 'strategy.')  

Finding out how one campaign doesn't work for $400K (the research was $50K - the estimated follow-on campaign was $350K - a modest campaign mind you,) versus 10 campaigns that don't work for $50K sounds like a better deal to me now.

The moral of the story is painfully obvious: you ought to be able to figure out how to market your product by asking your customers why they buy, how they found you, analyzing your competitors' strengths and weaknesses and depending on your own instincts.  That may not propel you to the Fortune 500, but it should prevent you from wasting $200K like I did.  

Just run your marketing budget past me before you write the check.  I'll be happy to scream at you for being stupid before you make the same mistakes I did!  For free!

Entropy

My aim is to reduce the entropy of the world. Having fought to a draw in larger battles to improve my position I am content now to simply backstop the inexorable slide towards chaos.

Reduction of Complexity

For some time I've railed against standard tests and their purpose. Having a daughter with ADD (or something - I think that's a simplification too,) I learned that human intelligence is an incredibly complex subject. We test people in ways convenient for the test maker. That leads me to suspicion that the test taker may be given short shrift.

This morning I coined a phrase I thought worthy of recording here.

"Tests attempt to digest complexity for consumption by the simple."

A horribly broken FCC SLD

I've attempted to help a poor inner-city Catholic school for several years. This is the grade school where my deceased father-in-law went. My contributions related to IT services. Many times my company billed for those services. Many times we didn't. But my personal contribution was applying for subsidies offered by the FCC's Universal Service Fund for Schools and Libraries.

Never has there been a labyrinthine government program that abused its intended beneficiaries the way this program abuses poor schools. I have pounds of paperwork in files I'd rather shred - but hold onto out of a sick desire to recall just how bad this program is.

In fairness, I'm sure my disregard for this program is naive. Most government programs are probably worse. FEMA comes to mind in the Hurricane Katrina debacle. But most abused must be welfare clients. Fortunately, I have dodged becoming a client of those services so far.

After years of dealing with a certification, application, payment and validation system inspired by the Marquee de Sade, I finally decided I had had enough and opted out. My brief note of regret to be leaving the program generated an automated reply that I couldn't be released until I asked in the right way!

So I called up the always polite support persons that handle this sort of thing, was directed to the right form, completed it (or so I thought) properly, and faxed it over. I was greeted this week with a resignation rejection letter!! They weren't going to allow me to leave their program until I submitted additional language that they required me to include, verbatim, in my request to leave:

We have received your request to revise your Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN). We are unable to process your application for the following reason(s):

• Certification Letter is incorrect (Certification Statement is missing). This paragraph must appear exactly word for word on the certification letter. Please see Form 498 Instructions, Page 20, Attachment B, for the exact format and precise wording required for this document.

In another follow-up call I challenged the always polite staff at the FCC to the following simple tasks:

1. Give your stupid paperwork to your mother. See if she can figure it out. Most principals at small schools are dedicated women who have way to much to do. They are of above average intelligence, but this program is inscrutable! to even the most accomplished of government paperwork pushing savants. If your mother can't do it neither can they.

2. Do a quick survey: find 10 local schools that have an obvious need for the subsidies promised by this program. Look up in your database if they are participating. I predict that most won't be. Of those that are, examine what they are paying for voice and data services. I predict it will be 30% to 50% higher than normal. Why? Because the vendors who have to wade through your program's maze of requirements, filings, certifications and rules are doing what they can to compensate themselves for the agony they must endure to provide services under this system.

My suggestion to the FCC: Write checks to the poorest of poor schools without any application process or hoop-jumping by their beleaguered administration. Give them $50 for each phone line and $200 for Internet service. OK, make them send you a copy of one of their phone bills. (Don't even bother with the bill for the Internet.)

I don't think too many Catholic schools are going to rip you off for the $400/mo you send them to rescue poor kids from the despairing circumstances most of them live in.

Awesome pics from CERN

The ambition of a planet to understand nature exemplified in pictures: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

Try Free Software for Free

I've been in the computer business for over 30 years. Software was included free with hardware in the early days . . . but a PC that didn't have the processing power of a video game was $4000. Today PCs are practically free and software, especially from Microsoft, is getting more expensive. In fact, you can easily buy a PC that is suitable for your business for less than $400, but the Microsoft Office software that most businesses want is at least $450.

Over the past ten years a growing number of programmers have been creating and distributing free software that anyone can use for free. Before you accuse me of being redundant in the use of the word: free, allow me to explain what free means.

In our language, the word free can mean two things: free as in free beer and free as in freedom. The free software movement aims to do both. For them the freedom part is the most important. They give away their software but also give away the programming 'secrets' that allow anyone who cares to see how they did what they did. More importantly, anyone who wants to can work on the program to make it better. This has turned out to be a very successful way to get lots of people to work on programs that just keep getting better and better and remain free as in free beer.

Big companies have joined the movement: IBM, Google, Yahoo and lots of others – including my company. We make a small business file server using free software.

You can try free software for free too. Many people know about Firefox: the Internet browser that is faster and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. You can download it for free from Firefox.com. I recommend OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft's Office if you want a Microsoft compatible word processor and spreadsheet program and save $450. (I'd be happy to send you a CD filled with free software if you send me your mailing address: kim@FileEngine.com)

There are thousands of free software programs. You won't see them on the shelves of Office Depot or Best Buy because no one is making money selling them. But with a little searching, you can save a lot of money and gain a little freedom too.

Top 10 Reasons why Books are Better than TV

1. Books are smaller and cheaper.
2. Books let you skip around.
3. There are millions and millions of people writing things compared to only a few thousand people video-taping things. (And people have been writing things for a lot longer.)
4. Books wait for you.
5. You can read just about anywhere you can see or hear.
6. Books let you repeat what you didn’t get the first time.
   
7. Books are ‘incomplete’ . . . you have to finish the story with your imagination.
8. You can look up what’s in a book on the Internet.
9. You can write one yourself.
10. Smarter People Read

Random thoughs not to be forgotten

People generally end up where they belong.  Statistically speaking however, many many people end up outside the two standard deviations.  Those people defy the odds and become winners and losers.

Passion is necessary in business, but a wise Entrepreneur knows how to turn it off so he can view the world from the perspective of his prospects, investors, competitors and family.

The S Chip

How much more beneficial would have been an 'S' chip - one that prevents Stupid material from being digested by impressionable minds - than a 'V' chip which Congress mandated be included in televisions to allow parents to filter violent content?

PID loops and management

Running a business involves creating/managing many processes. Engineers have controlled processes forever using PID loops. That's the ticket: create PID loops for business processes.

It also helps explain the analogy: Turning a ship around in a harbor.

E-Mail newsletter hell

Written to Ziff-Davis...

I get email promotions from you.  The latest is "The Best of Web Buyer's Guide This Week" I see an article and actually want it.  I go to the download site...I get lots of these, have I registered before?  I can't remember.  I type in all the normal logins...losing patience.  Do i really want that whitepaper?  I check the e-mail address you sent the original message to.  I use it to try and retrieve the password...no soap.  It says I'm not registered.  So I try to register, it says that e-mail address is already being used.  I sure don't want to start getting two of those buyer's guides...so I give up.  The white paper might have been worth a few clicks, even a 'remind me about my password' exchange, but it sure isn't worth this.  I'm only writing this because it seems like the whole industry is stuck in a loop.  Harvest e-mail addresses, share them with your friends, affiliates, colleagues, customers, etc.   Send messages (not exactly SPAM, but not far from it - the white paper offer WAS interesting,) then make the poor slob register to MAKE SURE you've got his e-mail address...more logins, more passwords to remember, more clutter in my life... AND THEN IT DOESN'T WORK!

Rather than Bill Gates

I was interested in a story about Bill Gates Sr's presentation to
Rotary International.  I've often wondered how much better-off our society would be if,
rather than attempting to emulate Bill Gates Jr, young men & women would
emulate Bill Gates Sr.  They would try their best to inspire hard work,
creativity, dedication and curiosity in their children.  THAT is a sure
deal.  Becoming Bill Gates Jr. is a long shot.

Luddites & the Long Tail

On the subject of the complexity of technology (James Gaskin sent me this link)

It's important not to be sucked into the narrowmindedness of a Luddite. The reason manufacturers put too many features in your phone is that you needed feature 'F' and that got combined with features 'A' through 'Z' to aggregate demand for all the phone buyers needed to justify the manufacturer's R&D for the phone. Since they can't possibly make only 'F' phones, you need to trip over the user interface for all the other features (some of which are mutually exclusive, contradictory and inconsistent - oops!)

There is a great book on the subject: Inmates Are Running The Asylum. (I'll try to rescue it from whereever Beth Ann hides my unfinished books and finish it.)

One consequence is The Long Tail.

More tomorrow.

Entrepreneur analogy

You're skipping a stone across a pond.  Everyone skips a few times then sinks...some skip more than others, some fewer, but they all end up at the bottom.

But one skips once, twice and then a bird swoops into its path, snatches the stone from the air.  You watch as the stone climbs higher and higher until it disappears from sight.

That's what every entrepreneur sees with every venture.

Training

My friend Bruce Frank asked me to help his wife learn about computers. Here's what I wrote him:

1. You married a smart woman. She's raised smart kids (with your help.)
2. Technology is like a hammer - it's just a tool. Nobody is hammer dumb. She's not technology dumb.
3. On the other hand, I don't want to teach hammer, I want to teach carpentry.
4. Here's how you learn this stuff:

1. Decide on something you want to do (like build a cabinet if it was carpentry.)
2. Try on your own - use available systems (like Help, Web, friends) to learn how.
3. Get so frustrated you're about to shoot yourself
4. Get the answer from an expert (like me)

Sometimes people go to courses. They spend $300 and all they've done is share a classroom with other people who don't know anything, to learn stuff they don't care about. The $300 DID get them commitment to learn. If it takes $300 to get Linda to decide she wants to learn this stuff and take the time to do it, have her give ME $300 - we'll both be better off :)

#2 above will expose you to lots of stuff you don't need to know now, but will come in handy later. This is like foraging for knowledge. Mapping the landscape of knowledge is a critical skill.

#3 is important since the relief in #4 is made sweeter proportional to how hard you've tried. It also means you spend more time on #2 doing it yourself.

Novell BrainShare

What a feast! (Literally and figuratively.) My first attendance at BrainShare was a feast for my technology senses. Meeting with my very attentive OEM rep Craig Toyama, meeting many of the other Novell faithful, catching the SuSE/OES buzz and hooking up with Brian Proffitt from LinuxToday.com were just some of the payoffs for enduring another flight through the TSA controlled skies.

While there I also had a chance to sit down with Mike Proper from DirectPointe. Ever the consummate promoter/entrepreneur, he showed off DirectPointe's very impressive SOS product. Not a FileEngine competitor per se, but targeting the SMB none the less. It offers a very powerful looking command center. FileEngine's control system: FEAT (the FileEngine Admin Tool), pales by comparison. But, that's the point, isn't it?

Rotary Club Election

Changing the way things are done can be risky, but it is generally worth doing. [Boring lead, I apologize.]

The most recent campaign for Rotary Club of Indianapolis, one of the largest/oldest in America, involved such change and risk. The change was the approach our team took: Serious, Sober, Content Rich. Our opponents continued a 22 year tradition of frivolity - Safe.

We pulled a pre-campaign stunt: introducing ourselves prior to the assigned campaign day exploiting a rule that allows a member to rise and introduce his/her guest; we used that opportunity to introduce ourselves to the amusement of the other members. We got noticed.

On campaign day, the other team assumed the stage, adorned with day-glow green tee shirts, 8.5" X 11" landscape printed keywords for campaign themes and just a few very simple PPT slides (that really only explained why they had called themselves the HAGS. Which really became BHAGS (instead of Spokes.) It stood for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. (This would make a lot of sense of you had read: James Collins and Jerry Porras's 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies' but from the reactions I observed, most of our members hadn't.) We never did learn about their complex 'eye' like logo. But that's for another blog about communication strategy: Keep It Simple.) [Now I need to apologize for the embedded parens.]

We, on the other hand, had a website, passed out Name Memory Cards which supported our theme: Every Rotarian Knows Every Rotarian, and presented what amounts to be a 'platform'. We developed a logo that presented key ideas, we used a Wiki to communicate among ourselves and used a 'gimmick' to demonstrate our Network theme: we paid out about 2000 feet of colorful crepe streamers 'connecting' (really wrapping) the audience in a virtual network to illustrate the way personal relationships create communication channels (ostensibly to enable members to do business with each other. I got worried that claustrophobic members would be alarmed!) But the biggest and most well received tactic was the use of a 5.5 minute video that introduced us to the audience; (economically produced by a member's video story company: Cantaloupe.tv.) There was no script - and I thought my own performance was ho-hum, but as Marshall McLuhen opined: The Medium is the Message.

One of our members created really cool name badges which included our logo; we also made silly banners that we wore like a collar - but hung backwards so when we sat facing the speaker our campaign was advertised to everyone behind us.

Another 'hit' was the text we had our announcer read. This made such an impression that some members that I regard as VIPs commented how good it was and one (the publisher of our monthly newsletter) asked for an electronic copy.

Altogether, our campaign broke with tradition and introduced a provocative goal - and that got us attention. One member remarked that he heard someone say: Imagine that: a SERIOUS campaign for the board. Imagine that: Every Rotarian should know every Rotarian. I was very pleased that those aspects of our campaign got the attention they deserved.

Finally, the hitch. During presentation, and for reasons that I'm still not sure about, the PPT displayed fine, but when I switched to the video all we got was audio and a blank screen! I felt mortified - here I was introduced as the A/V committee chair and I couldn't even get the video to play! After some fiddling around (about a minute and a half's worth) I got it running. The president of the club allowed me a 'do over' and the audience still mustered an applause when it was finished. (Multi-media is still so cool in most settings that it's OK if it comes off like starting a Model A.)

Afterwards, more than one member thought the faux pas wasn't off-putting at all. In fact, they gave me kudos for figuring it out under pressure. Luckily, suicide watch was not necessary!

Can a single election change the course of a venerable institution? I hope so. Our Rotary club is a very important part of our city and makes an impact in our world. As Margaret Mead said:

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Hopefully, we'll get elected and have a chance to transform the gimmicks of our campaign into the leadership needed to reestablish our club as an important force for good business and community building in Indianapolis.

Curiosity

The hallmark of good parenting (and the aim [prize] of a successful society) is raising children that are curious about the world and prepared to satisfy their curiosity. The principal feature missing in today's educational system is the development of curiosity. With it, all the assets of a connected, media rich world may be leveraged to produce insight, engagement, wisdom and empowerment. Without it, all is lost - the lavish application of the most precious educational resources will be for naught.

Who's to blame?

One of the problems of owning 90% of the desktop PC market is that the productivity of the world's desktops can be attributable to one company: Microsoft. It's not possible to hide behind anonymous statistics when everyone is using your software.

A recent issue of Inforworld concluded that over 50% of users are not engaged or actively disengaged at work due to the distractions of Internet access; an IN Education Technology Commission report concludes that over 50% of teachers complain their PCs aren't reliable and tech support is hard to get. PCs stopped adding to productivity a long time ago. Today they are primarily entertainment appliances.

Can we blame Microsoft for building systems that invite abuse, waste, mischief and maintenance headaches? Yes.

Vitamin Fear

Thinking about bringing a new partner into Server Partners, the FileEngine company. This partner has left fear of failure behind - he recently closed a sale of his business worth several million dollars.

I was thinking about how we could relate to each other. How our world views would be different - in fact, worried whether there would be enough common ground for us to work together.

It struck me that my life is still affected by fear. Fear of failure. But then I realized that fear leads to excitement. My life certainly isn't boring. Would having a lot of money make life boring without the fear? Maybe fear is a vitamin.

Education metaphors

Just thinking about how to describe abstraction and the infinitesimal (as in calculus) to young students.

1. Abstraction is familiar to programmers. We use it for indirection. It allow one thing to dynamically refer to multiple other things. You get to the target thing through dereferences. OK, so that sounds complicated. But Robert's Rule of Order is an example that can be easily understood. The Rules descrribe how to run a meeting. But they also describe a system for conducting debate and settling differences which are in fact used to create rule. Robert's Rules is therefore a set of rules to create rules. Seems to me with a little more time (than I have right now,) one could develop this example into a concrete examply of abstraction. Cool!

2. The notion of the infinitesmal is at the core of calculus. But how to make that idea come alive for a student is problematic. I think I found a way: Everyone is familiar with AM and PM. It's often seemed odd to me to call 12 Midnight 12:00AM. I don't disagree with it at all...it just brushes up against my curious bone.

The number 12 is the last number on the clock and follows 11 PM. If 11 you can say 11PM it seems that you ought to be able to say 12PM follows. But it doesn't. The next number is 12AM. As a programmer, I've done time math lots of times and have had to include qwerky logic to account for that. You might be able to have a student focus on that infinitesimal fraction of time that exists around 11:59:59.999999 and 12:00:00.000001. What happens there? There is no time that begins with 12 after midnight that ISN'T PM. (I use that argument when someone tries to tell me that 12:00AM should be 12:00PM but 12:01AM is obviously AM.) No matter how small you slice time up just before the 12, it's PM and no how small the increment is past it, you end up at AM. Thus, there is something very profound that happens at the imaginary gap between the two times. It's real, yet it's ethereal. It could be that it's infinitesimally small. And that's the idea. A real 'thing' that happens twice a day that exposes something strange yet familiar.

From this understanding, calculus seem a little more approachable.

The E-Mail Train Wreck

It has been 25 years since the invention of e-mail. Everybody I know uses it. They use it alot. Their use is self described as critical to their business and important to their personal lives.

Too many people get too much e-mail they can't ignore, organize, protect or trust. It has become as much of a distraction as it has an aid to communication. There must be billions of dollars wasted on it. And it's free!

E-mail can easily get sent by an imposter:
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news_article.php?section=5&category=89&story=1115

It can be sent anonymously via hundreds of free e-mail services.  If you don't understand how it works it can be a vector for much mischief.  Attachments grow like weeds unseen and clog file systems, exhausting backup capacity.

So much more can be said, I ought to write a book!  The E-Mail Trainwreck.  (Tom Lapp contributed to these ideas.)

Speaking to Pike

Very depressing experience: speaking to high school students at Pike High School in Indianapolis.

The best education money can buy. 5K students on a sprawling campus. Everything a culture could provide its youth. Except ambition, curiosity. I believe by eliminating fear (of hunger, disease, control, exclusion, etc) we've created a generation of young people who aren't motivated to do anything. Why should they?

Sad to see such potential wasted on such sloth.

Passing through airport security, 2/13/2006

Passing through security, 2/13/2006

Dropped off a deposit, found out i was $19 overdrawn...how can that happen? the OD fee is $35? the stupid Fry's payment didn't get made and is due 2/15...need to mail it somehow from the road or tomorrow overnight.

Can't park in the drop-off area and deliver a box to the ticket counter - terrorists have made that small convenience obsolete. the guard at the door is firm: You can't park here, can't go inside - "better move on" echos in my head from some movie.

All service workers are Mexican immigrants. All service workers wear rubber gloves. It occurs to me that gloves signify an additional separation from each other. irrational - but that's the way it makes me feel.

TSA workers have a nearly impossible job; (maybe Americans are just adjusting?) you take off your shoes, your belt, remove your laptop from it's case, all metal objects larger than a silver dollar and they scan you, blow air on you, x-ray you, carefully check your ID... i'm pretty sure the only ones that don't mind becoming criminal suspects (if only for 10 minutes) are the terrorists.

With my proclivity to lose things, i'm constantly worried that all these excess procedures will cause me to forget something. I observed a courteous TSA agent deliver a forgotten laptop case to a traveller. i saw myself. after patting my pockets for wallet, keys, cell phone, USB thumb drive, tickets and visually checking (and counting) the stuff i'm carrying multiple times, i feel some solidarity with persons suffering from OCD. at least they have drugs.

is it the inconvenience that pisses me off so bad? i know i used to get to the airport minutes before takeoff...this morning i arrived 1:20 early. (paybacks are a bitch.)

i've thought about moving before. not just to another town, but to another world...at least another country. if i make a lot of money i'll start looking. they probably won't speak english there. money will buy convenience. maybe if i find a like minded group it will buy the pleasures of living i seem to have lost.