Nothing says 1980’s bachelor pad like wood paneling, skylights and a rear projection large screen TV you can hook up to your Atari console. Notice the grandfather clock which is always a turn on for the ladies.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:23 PM PDT []
If you are getting too much exercise walking from the sofa to the refrigerator, move them closer together.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:13 PM PDT []
On March 16, 2010 in Palo Alto at SAP, SDForum’s Business Intelligence SIG hosted Google’s Avinash Kaushik presentation on “Web Analytics 2.0: Rethinking Decision Making in a 2.0 World.” Kaushik is the author of “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day” and winner of the 2009 Statistical Advocate of the Year award from the American Statistical Association. Text from DJCline.com
In the old days analysts could make a prediction and if it was wrong, they could always say they did not have enough data. Today software can record every keystroke and click on the web. The result is a lot of data, some information and very little wisdom. What is the point of gathering all this information if it cannot result in productive analysis and useful decision-making? Kaushik thinks not just about conversion rates but completion rates. Your analysis is not about how consumers behave online but offline. Statisticians must see the people behind the numbers. Any traffic analysis software will show you that more people might be visiting Facebook more than Google. The answers might lie beyond the statistics and more in the way people relate to one another. Text from DJCline.com
I think it interesting that with all the technology and information we have today we are still thrown back to the days of Socrates and trying to find out what is true with our reasoning skills. Web Analytics 2.0 may require Philosophy 1.0.
Be sure to check out SDForum’s big event called “The Analytics Revolution” on Friday, April 9, 2010.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Celtic Animals Coloring Book By Mallory Pearce
A good source of inspiration for complex Celtic designs. Too nice for a coloring book. Text from DJCline.com
Celtic Design Animal Patterns By Aidan Meehan
Another group that would have made great circuit designers. Why do think most of these designs will wind up as tattoos? Text from DJCline.com
Fabulous Beasts By Alison Lurie And Monika Beisner
Great for kids and the adventurous genetic engineer.Text from DJCline.com
The Ultimate Design Source Book For Crafters
All the designs seem to be done by the same artists. Little variation or inspiration.Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reaserved.
On March 15, 2010 in Santa Clara, SDForum, IBM and Enterprise Ireland hosted an executive luncheon for Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
On Monday, March 15th 2010 in Santa Clara, SDForum, IBM and Enterprise Ireland held the Smartcamp Silicon Valley Launch event and executive luncheon with Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen. Three winning startup companies were presented by SDForum’s Susan Lucas-Conwell as well as IBM’s Claudia Fan Munce and Deborah Magid. Enda Keane of Treemetrics developed 3D laser scanning technology to more efficiently manage forests. Marc McCarville of Green Diamond Technologies developed wireless technology to monitor recyclable waste and efficiently reduce costs. Joe Drumgoole of Cloudsplit developed a technology for companies to track the cost of cloud computing in real time. There will be more pictures of the luncheon tomorrow, but until then….Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Railroading The Press
On March 9, 2010 Meg Whitman of eBay and candidate for governor of California invited members of the press to cover an event at the Union Pacific Railroad facility in Oakland. It did not go well. She would not answer questions from reporters and photographers were blocked from taking pictures.
Besides being a public relations disaster, it was also a teachable moment. When Meg Whitman was at eBay their events ran smooth as silk. The public relations people were professional. Meg hit her mark and delivered her message. Afterward she would answer questions. Nobody wanted to get in the way of getting out the message of the day. The press went home happy knowing we all did our jobs.
Covering politics should not be that much different, but you don’t want the way the story is covered to detract from your message. When an elected official or a candidate for public office makes an appearance at a public or even a private event, it is news. It is most certainly a First Amendment right to cover and comment on such an event. Keeping the press from covering it is also news. It is not a good idea to invite and then un-invite the press.
I checked my math and over the last ten years alone I have appeared in print over hundreds of times and online thousands of times. I carry credentials and my work is recognized and awarded. People know me as I walk in the door. Usually I cover events and they go off without a hitch. Sometimes event organizers have to learn how to deal with the press. We are the good guys. We think your event is worth covering. We think what you say and do is newsworthy. If you treat us poorly we will say so. What’s more, we may stop coming to your events and tell people about our experience.
You can get good press, bad press, or no press at all. Choose.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Blumbers, Commentary at 4:34 PM PDT []
This place has lots of storage… if you want to store things in your living room.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline all rights reserved
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:59 PM PST []
The cabinets and counter tops are all black. If the stove and refrigerator were not stainless steel, you would not see anything at all. You would need a miner’s helmet to make a sandwich.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:43 PM PST []
This furry blue bathmat and toilet seat cover look like they turned Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster into a rug. Today’s episode was brought to you by the number 2.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:49 PM PST []
On Tuesday March 9, 2009 San Francisco at Nixon Peabody, SDForum and Astia presented the latest installment of the Clean Tech Breakfast Series “Green Buildings ? Design and Control Analysis?” Greg O’Hara of Nixon Peabody moderated panelists Michael R. D’Amour of Lumenergi, Matt Denesuk of IBM, Gary Dillabough of Westly Group and Scott Hublou of EcoFactor. They discussed the impact of Title 24 and market forces driving energy efficiencies in building.
Startups, major corporations and government agencies see the benefits of efficiently managing energy use with green software and hardware. The challenge is to make the best use of the data to design new or retrofit existing buildings.
Lighting is an obvious example to save energy. While designing a new building with lots of natural light is nice, most businesses are stuck with existing buildings that need illumination. Inefficient lighting creates heat, requiring more energy to cool a building. While fluorescent lighting is replacing incandescent lighting, a facilities manager might want to wait for cheaper more efficient LED lighting. Ironically the consumerism that is driving the sales of LED televisions is driving down the cost of LEDs for lighting.
Efficiencies can scale for large organizations. If a large restaurant or convenience store chain has a large number of identical buildings, small improvements in efficiencies can be multiplied across the chain resulting in huge savings. Recently the Empire State Building began installing energy efficient windows and expects to save over $400,000 per year. While government mandates may create technical parameters for conservation, it is the bottom line cost reductions that really drive energy efficiency for business.
Even at the small business or residential level managing efficiencies can reap big results. Accurate local measurement of usage gives enough feedback to change behavior. Being able to dim a light bulb or adjust a thermostat is good. Being able to turn off a light or open a window using no energy is even better. Dimming a light may lead to a brighter future. Opening a window may open a door to opportunity.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
The Hurt Locker won best picture. Sandra Bullock won best actress for playing a Southern woman. Jeff Bridges won for playing a Southern man. The irony of the movies and characters that play well in red states winning in California, the bluest state is not lost on me. The movie industry is now merely one part of a franchise factory turning out two hour commercials for brands also pushing games and ringtones. Text from DJCline.com.
I had the misfortune to screen the latest version of Alice In Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. Even Johnny Depp could not lift the spirits of this dark unhappy vehicle. I hope for better, but know that is like expecting caviar at a drive-thru window. Text from DJCline.com.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
I’ve been doing a lot or research on emerging technology and the direction things are heading. I’m contemplating bigger changes on the way I’m doing things. It looks like a lot of work but that never stopped me before. Watch this space.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Blumbers, Commentary at 4:32 PM PST []
STC Web Manager Todd Hawley covered this week’s RSA conference and his article can be seen at:
http://hawkeegn.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/bsides-vs-rsa-conference/
Check it out.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
On Thursday March 4, 2010 in Palo Alto at Nokia, the SDForum Mobile SIG hosted “Digital Media End-User Demographics and Generations” to discuss mobile consumption and distribution in the current mobile markets. The convergence of digital media in telecommunications and the Internet is spreading to all age groups and across international boundaries. Text from DJCline.com
Scott Sutherland, Managing Director of Technology Investments at Wedbush gave one of the best snapshots of the mobile industry so far. There are seven billion people on the planet, five billion have cell phones and one billion have Internet access. Mobile devices are now the dominant computing platform on the planet displacing desktop or laptop computers. The mobile market is fragmented by carriers, manufacturers and regulation. Companies that control hardware, software, content and the distribution network will eventually marginalize this crowded field. Text from DJCline.com
Who will dominate? Carriers jealously control access to get their percentage of texting and video. Hardware and software players push for proprietary standards. Content developers try to guard their content with DRM. Each of these controls only a part of the mobile market. Apple controls every aspect of the customer experience except the network it must get from carriers like AT&T. Google controls software with Android and arguably access to content, but does not control the hardware or network. The growth of WiFi could bypass the carriers entirely. The winners will be those who can dramatically simplify the situation for users. Text from DJCline.com
Gurminder Singh, Ph.D. CTO and COO of MoSoNex has devised such a solution. He wanted to send family pictures from America to his mother in India. He sent them to a relative’s cell phone living in the same house as his mother. While it took seconds to send the pictures half way around the world it took a month to transfer the pictures from a cell phone to a TV. Text from DJCline.com
MoSoNex has figured out how to simplify this process. You set up a friends and family network with all the players identified for easy access. You can then take a picture with your cell phone and send it to your grandmother. She can watch it on her iPTV or any other device like another cell phone. He also understands the broader implications of sending this beyond family and friends. I think you could make the group as large as you want and become a one man CNN by charging subscribers or selling ads. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
On Wednesday, March 3, 2010 in Palo Alto the SDForum Semantic Web SIG hosted “Intelligence from the Cloud” with presenters Wesley Chun from Google AppEngine Team and Andrew Lampitt from Jaspersoft. They focused on new tools for creating and using web intelligence and semantics in the cloud. Text from DJCline.com
Andrew Lampitt from Jaspersoft and zAgile gave his definitions of business intelligence, semantics, analytics, and the cloud. Jaspersoft deploys business intelligence to the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud and semantic layer in a way business users understand without becoming database developers. zAgile is an ontology-driven context server integrating semantic enterprise information across tools and applications creating a comprehensive description of the complete information architecture. It helps recognize problems and find solutions that were not possible until now. Text from DJCline.com
Wesley Chun from Google AppEngine Team introduced the Google App Engine platform to build and deploy web applications on Google’s high-traffic infrastructure. App Engine executes apps in Python or Java on servers using the same technology that powers Google’s websites for speed and reliability. Developers no longer have to worry about virtual machine images or disk requirements but just provide the code. He talked about the Google App Engine’s components, architecture, and developer APIs like memcache, users (Google accounts), email, URLFetch, XMPP, Blobstore, etc. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Somewhere there is a general store missing a potbellied stove.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:10 PM PST []
I first looked at this and thought those stairs were a little steep. I looked closer and that is actually a ladder! Is there a firepole you can slide down?
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Humor at 4:05 PM PST []
On Thursday, February 25, 2010 in Palo Alto at SAP the Bay Area Future Salon hosted John Montgomery’s presentation “Activating Consciousness in Corporations” In June 2009, US Supreme Court has basically decided that corporations have the same right to free speech as people. Do they have the same responsibilities? Text from DJCline.com
As a lawyer representing over a thousand startups, Montgomery sees a definite pattern among the successful ones: They activated their conscience. He wants to share that pattern of success. Montgomery thinks new corporations can build positive behavior into their DNA. He thinks they should be raised with the same values as you would raise a child. With human status comes freedom and responsibility. Text from DJCline.com
People ask me why I study startups. I tell them because corporations are cute when they are little. “Look! it just got its first round of funding.” When they get too big to fail they can lose sight of things. Montgomery is familiar with economist Joel Bakan’s book and film “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit And Power.” Bakan said if you evaluated a corporation’s behavior it might be diagnosed as psychotic because of its disregard of others. As long as profit is the priority all other considerations are unimportant. Bakan recommends revoking charters or articles of incorporation for companies that fail to comply with the needs of the societies they live in. Text from DJCline.com
I do not know if Montgomery’s plans will help much with existing corporations. How do you change a corporate culture that thinks polluting, destroying the economy, or killing people is the cost of doing business? Montgomery talked about how many people leave the ethical parts of themselves of at home when they go to work. That must change. Google has a motto of “Don’t be evil.” I thought that was kind of obvious and sad. I know one marketing writer who bragged in their spin blog that their company’s executives were not convicted of anything…yet. It implies that not being caught is their virtue and that is nothing to brag about. Text from DJCline.com
Montgomery wants the ethical person to find or start a company that reflects their values and he aims to show the way.
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 11:59 PM PST []
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