Month: March 2006

The “old saw” is that the way to get rich during a gold rush is selling shovels. David Hornik avoids leaning on that analogy (good for him). Still, Points On The Curve made me think that in a world where data is gold, we all need better shovels.

I suppose measurement is a recent theme for me. I created a category for measurement. I hate struggling for numbers, and — more importantly — insight, when I work in such a data-rich environment. When you’re swimming in data, it feels foolish to make decisions without analysis. But if you’re not tracking the right things, or can’t get information (not data) easily, then you act with what you had before… which is your gut.

I know I can do better.

p.s. I’m now subscribed to Xavier Casanova’s Coffee, Sun & Technology, discovered through Hornik.

Seth Godin reminds us that “Most people don’t really care about price.” Don’t take that at face value, but read to remember that price is only a single obstacle in the battle to change human behavior, or otherwise precipitate action. Inertia and context form a richer part of the blend than cost alone for many decisions.

Tuesday was not my best day.

I got off to a bad start. Just down the hill (east) of the intersection of Fulton and Pierce, alongside Alamo Square (see for yourself), I was given my first ticket for a moving violation.

On a bicycle.

Yes, my ticket says, for make and vehicle, “Specialized Rockhopper, Red.” A stop sign was recently added on Fulton at the Pierce intersection. As I was coming down the hill, I saw a motorcycle cop on Pierce, and I slowed down. Not all the way.

Through the intersection, and “whoop, whoop” — yes, I was being pulled over on my bicycle for going through a stop sign. The policeman told me that his boss had been “strafed” by a couple of bicyclists while walking across the crosswalk recently, so the policeman had been sent out expressly to look for bicyclists. The officer was almost apologetic, saying that he usually wouldn’t bother with bicycles, since he figures that if something goes wrong, the cyclist is the one who will pay the price. Too true. He said he wouldn’t take it personally if I contested the ticket… unclear if that was a nudge and a wink or not. I haven’t decided my next step.

I don’t know (still) whether to be mad or amused or otherwise. My delayed reaction is due to a lack of information as to the cost and possible insurance impact on my otherwise clean “driving” record.

The rest of the day was meetings, meetings, meetings, with a few quick notes on my telling IM message hinting at the incident. I subscribe to a version of the “IM is your friend” vision, but less work-oriented. I ended the day with a bout of food poisoning.

All in all, a March 7 to remember…and never repeat.

After the end of the Oscars, I watched Thursday’s Colbert Report, and Stephen Colbert picked all five of the top awards correctly, using The Da Colbert Code. Funny segment, though I couldn’t find a link on the website (yet?). Of course, his faux conservative schtick meant he couldn’t choose Brokeback Mountain, which helped him keep his sheet clean.

Each of these montages during the Academy Awards seems to make a plea to the audience to keep watching movies. There is an insistence that the DVD isn’t enough, with either a bit of nervous laughter or earnest plugging (the president of the MPAA). Where’s the self-confidence? None of us want to listen to the insecurities of the industry. If you’re watching the Oscars, you care (at some level) about movies. Whether you care — or should — about the distribution of this entertainment is debatable. I understand the value of promotion to an existing audience (“Must See TV” anyone?), but don’t do it with apology.

Only took me six years to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Metacritic score of 69), and four months of a stuck Netflix queue.

I enjoyed it. Almost makes me want to re-read The Odyssey, just to pick up the references. The connections are not hidden, but there were several moments when I’m sure there were pointers I missed.

On a web note… I mention this all too often: the official movie site is long gone. Why, for a movie made in 2000, would you let the website lapse, even if it lives only to sell the DVD?

I’m watching the Academy Awards presentation. Not sure if George Clooney was the best candidate for Supporting Actor, but quite a range all the same. I’ve missed (and plan on continuing to) his Spy Kids contributions, but several fun movies in the mix.

Read the quote below from The New York Times article “In Baby Boomlet, Preschool Derby Is the Fiercest Yet“:

After years of decline, the number of children under 5 in Manhattan, where the most competitive [pre-school] programs are located, increased by 26 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to census estimates. Yet the number of slots has not kept apace.

Replace “Manhattan” with “San Francisco.” Rinse. Repeat.

Origami frustrates me.

I’m not talking tech here, despite all the recent press (and follow-up stories).

I’m talking about folding paper.

The boy has some dinosaur (of course) origami, and this stuff is too damn hard. Maybe it’s just faulty instructions, or maybe this is an advanced set (I hope so!), but I’d rather back up my computer, which has been a frustrating, still-incomplete experience in its own right, than try and fold another Yangchuanosaurus.

But few things make him happier right now, so I am grateful that there are only a handful of these beasts left in the set. I suppose I should put the rose-colored glasses on and be thrilled to be a father here, but damn.

What’s more fun about being a father is coming home and listening to the boy read a book to his sister, which I also got to do last night. So I suppose there is balance in the world.

On Thursday, February 16, the Center for Media Research published Reading: A Vital Part of Human Experience as its Daily Brief. This is a report pulling interesting data from a presentation by Gavin O’Reilly in January 2006. Several interesting stats in the Brief, but the headline caught my eye, and it was pulled from this quote:

In a presentation to brokers and corporate bankers in London recently, the President of WAN, Gavin O’Reilly, demonstrated that print media continues to be successful in both readership and revenue terms and that “reading is still a vital ingredient in the human experience.”

While I believe in reading, and print media is still successful in readership and revenue terms (even while declining in most markets), seems like a false syllogism to suggest that print and reading are logically connected. I didn’t read Mr. O’Reilly’s presentation, but I read about it online.

Tiny point, probably, but I find these connect the dot moments telling in their biases.

(Strangely, if you follow my link to the Daily Brief above, the date shows up as today’s date… but I get the e-mail newsletter, and it arrived on February 16.)

Yesterday’s Google analyst day commanded a lot of attention worldwide from the press and their customers. CNET News.com was no exception. What I didn’t realize until I got home last night and had a chance to take a look at my colleagues’ coverage was that we took three simple steps to make our coverage more useful, as you can witness in Live: Google faces off with analysts.

First, Elinor Mills did a running transcript of the webcast. Not verbatim, but lots of detail and quotes. Simple enough, but pretty darn useful since I know I didn’t want to spend hours on this, and the real source information is certainly of interest to many.

Second, some of the most interesting audio clips are presented in page. This is not new, but it’s slightly more elegantly done now with an in-page Flash player.

Third — and this one literally caught my eye — key passages are highlighted in yellow. The transcript is long, so “editing” to call attention to the important points saves the reader time without cutting the parts which may be important to some for unique reasons.

None of this is rocket science, but all three combined make for really useful information.

One problem (which I’ll discuss later this morning): the transcript was so live that it’s in reverse chronological order, which makes for weird reading after the fact.