July, 1, 2005 archives
high stakes, no prisoners: a winner’s tale of greed and glory in the internet wars by charles h. ferguson is the story of vermeer technologies, the company that created that created frontpage and was acquired by microsoft. it’s a very personal account of the story, and it’s a good read. ferguson is quite a character, and his characterizations of various dotcom celebrities and microsoft insiders are entertaining.
the book was written about six years ago, and some of his predictions have fallen short in the meantime. microsoft hasn’t really claimed a huge percentage of the server market, and the frontpage server extensions certainly haven’t done much to drive iis adoption.
fuel-injected dreams: a novel by james robert baker is a story about a late-night radio dj’s life colliding with a phil spector-like record producer who has retreated into drug-addled nuttiness. it’s funny and well written, with some clever plot twists and an appropriately loopy ending.
the book is 20 years old, which makes some of it seem eerily prescient with spector on trial for murder now.
i spent the last few days in seattle, meeting with the developers of the various mysql connectors.
while in seattle, i stayed at the moore hotel, in downtown seattle. the building is just two months newer than where i live. i guess not all of the floors have been refurbished, but the room i had was great (and pretty cheap).
this is the first time i spent any time in seattle, and still didn’t take any time to do any sightseeing at all. but seattle seems like a cool city, and i probably should do that some day.
one observation: i took the bus to the office from my hotel, and it was a much, much whiter crowd than i’ve ever seen on any bus in los angeles. i was impressed by seattle’s bus system.
zócalo will be having one of their events at the dorothy chandler pavilion later this month, “is california governable? a conversation with gray davis, pete wilson, george deukmejian, and jerry brown.” that’s four former governors for the price of none — it’s a free event.
they also have an upcoming event with wonkette’s ana marie cox, and one at the california plaza with the editor-in-chief of the hollywood reporter and joel stein, everyone’s favorite hollywood-wannabe opinion columnist for the los angeles times.
i guess the best way to review blink: the power of thinking without thinking by malcolm gladwell is to give my immediate impression: i liked it.
it also resonates with on intelligence, such as the example gladwell cites of a psychological experiment where the subjects would read comics while either holding a pen using their lips (preventing them from smiling) or with their teeth (forcing a smile) and they would either report the comic less or more amusing, respectively. that’s just what you would expect using the theory of how the brain works from on intelligence: you’re causing (or suppressing) associations with humor because you’re forcing values back up the feedback chain.
today was the big tour of the historic core shepherded by shannon, and it delivered on all the promised reasons to go. even the story about the parking lot. i have a bunch more pictures, and i’ll upload them to my flickr photos after i sort through them and clean up the good ones.
after the tour, albert, lisa and i went to clifton’s cafeteria, which i think is a required stop for anyone who hasn’t yet been there. and though i still think it is overpriced, the turkey was quite good.