Day: November 5, 2006

Speaking of Web 2.0… the only reason I would want to be at that conference is to hear Jeff Bezos speak. I think Amazon Web Services, and their other efforts to re-use their existing infrastructure across the web (and the real world, including shipping centers) is the most impressive change in how business works I’ve seen in years. BusinessWeek’s cover story was called “Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet.” I’d put my chips on the same number. And I’m not much of a gambler. Only time will tell, but I’m convinced Amazon is both well suited and well positioned to become an even bigger force in both the business of technology and the technology of business. The latter is the big score. I think this is akin to the introduction of eBay in its ability to create new types of businesses, of all sizes, which could not have existed before.

Amazon has already had to build its own “river” of infrastructure; now they are opening it up to all “boats,” from entrepreneurs on inner tubes to businesses with barges. It’s not just about books anymore.

In the past, I’d be paying more attention to the Web 2.0 conference this week in San Francisco, November 7-9. Instead, I’ll be in Santa Clara for the same three days for ISPCON, the semi-annual conference for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the companies which work with them. We’ll be announcing a new service for OpenDNS which will be of interest to ISPs (and others), and it will be a great chance to listen to possible customers and partners. Won’t be as media-saturated as Web 2.0, but then what could be?

Find me at Kiosk O (for OpenDNS) in the LaunchPad area.

I’ll admit to one other curiousity: the Segway Raceway in the back corner is near our kiosk (PDF of the floor plan) .

Last night, we watche a popcorn action movie with Michael Douglas once again hanging around the White House, this time as a Secret Service agent. I just described The Sentinel, and there’s a reason why I’d never even heard of the movie before. But at least it keeps moving, and it’s not too long. Metacritic score of 48 shows that mediocrity is well earned. But after two heavy movies in a row, this was about right. 😉

If you haven’t seen In the Line of Fire, watch that Secret Service movie instead.

We’ve had Mystic River out from Netflix since late April. Friday night, we finally made time for it. I was looking forward to this movie, perhaps too much, since I didn’t love it.

The opening scene, which ripples through the rest of the story, is ominous: one of three boys is abducted and sexually abused for four days before escaping. What’s not clear is why this event also disrupts the lives of the other two boys even decades later. The interactions between the three of them are broken, and that’s plausible. Yet it feels a bit overblown.

Strangest part is the brief vignette at the end, where Sean Penn’s wife — previously in the background — comes out with a rip-roaring endorsement for Penn’s criminal actions because he’s defending his family. The tone isn’t surprising in this film, but the voice is.

Metacritic score of 84 is too high.

We were looking for a lighter movie on Thursday evening. Little Children wasn’t it.

Still, a worthwhile movie which I’d add to your future DVD queue, without worrying about seeing it in theaters. This is a character story, centered around the affair between the mother of a small child with the father of a small child: both adults are the caregivers.

It’s not a visual extravaganza, but a tale with funny moments in the first half and crunching, near-tragic moments in the second half. Watching people’s marriages teeter isn’t my idea of fun, but there is humor in the small moments all the same. I’m not surprised to learn Little Children was a book first. It feels almost like a play, in a positive way.

Metacritic score of 76 might be a little high, but not outrageous.

Carl Hiaasen’s Basket Case is another romp through a South Florida sprinkled with, ahem, characters. You’ll never have so much fun reading about an obituary writer. 😉

New York Times article about marathons, in preparation for this morning’s race “Everything You Know About Marathons Is Wrong.” The fear of dehydration and hot weather is overrated, and cramps don’t happen because of improper fueling. Unclear how certain this science is, but matches my experiences more.

“We completely changed the way we treat patients,” Noakes said. “All we do is have them lie down and put their feet higher than their head.”

Postmarathon collapse, [Timothy Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town] added, “is a benign condition.”

“Just lift their legs and you will help the majority of patients,” he said. “That’s all you need to do to make most people recover very, very quickly. You can infuse as much fluid as you want, and you will not get the same response.”