Month: February 2005

Ben McConnell bought a new Powerbook this weekend. [here]
<pout>
To all sponsors, or Apple staff: Please note the sub-title of this blog. I want to be a Powerbook evangelist.

On January 31, I went on a rampage about United and Mileage Plus. On Feb 25, Lessig posted that he flew his 1 Millionth mile on United, with no recognition.
Today, Johnnie Moore and Jon Strande weigh in on the same topic.
I am flying United on Wednesday and Friday. I used to be excited about travelling on United. Then I flew Alaska Airlines last week. United, you need to re-invigorate your brand, your company, and your staff.
Make me want to fly United again.

Yes, I am still here. I have been involved with the kids and family this weekend, so posting was light.
I am travelling to the Bay Area on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, and have some time on Thursday night, if any fellow bloggers want to grab a brew somewhere on the peninsula (I am staying in the San Mateo/Burlingame area).

Adrants points to the MSN Search viral page, MSN Found. [here]
Rumour has it that these are the twits that Scoble flamed for not getting it; his post is a classic. [here]
Steve Rubel continues the flaming. [here]
John Battelle turns up the flamethrower as well. [here]

Here are some autolink killers for you. [here]
Thanks to Steve Rubel for this.

I am now at Sea-Tac, on a very snappy 54Mbps wireless connection.
Had great meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. Had some very interesting feedback on the strategic product analysis I am performing. I will be able to do some work on the plane to hammer out my ideas.
Back to the grind tomorrow. And then out to the Bay Area next Wednesday for more client meetings.

Just found a corner-case issue in the GrabPERF system where the charts would return an error datapoint in a graph if the server did not send an HTTP return code. However, the data tables did not see the same issue, and the data was just ignored.
Turns out that I don’t factor in this empty return-code scenario in my code lookup table. Added an empty value, and voila!
Ugh!

Went out with a client last night to have dinner. This is a contact I have known since my last company, so it was good to re-affirm that he is still looking at the space that I work in the same way as when I last talked to him.
He does challenge us to look at things in a whole new light and offered up one piece of advice last night. He said that the company he works for is notorious for coming up with the “right” answer, but maybe not the best answer. And this is because the envionment and culture of the company is such that the ability to quickly parse, analyze and make business decisions on data is valued over taking the extra time to walk away for a while from important decisions, and try and gain new perspective on them.
In the wild ride that was the dot-com boom, I saw a lot of that. I am starting to see a lot more of it again. Rational, considered decisions are being replaced by the need to be the thought-leader, or the first-to-market.
Getting out away from the office allows me to place a greater perspective on the challenges we face as a company, and hear how some of the decisions that have been made are affecting us out in the marketplace.
It is always an eye-opening adventure. And sometimes, being outside your comfort zone is good. As long as you take the time to process what you have heard and seen.

Jeremy Zawodny hits it…and he works for Yahoo. [here]

The Six Degrees of Separation for Google. [here]
Author also agrees that Google is becoming evil.