Shades of Gray

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. By choosing a loan on Kiva, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the entrepreneur you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Checking the site out, S. and I wondered if the focus on profiles and pictures will mean that only the good looking entrepreneurs would get funded -- hopefully not! But it will be interesting to learn from the Kiva team what trends they see in this person-to-person microfinance endeavor.

Born September 27th at 9:52pm!

Badmash is a common nickname in India for mischievous little boys, which I fully expect our N. to be.

We called him Doc for a reason. He had a gift for diagnosing what was wrong.

One of my early memories from summers at the farm was reading my cousin's story of Doc and the Seven Dwarves: Sleepy, Sneezy and all the others. Of course, Doc found what was wrong and soon Sneezy wasn't sneezy any more!

Later in life, I found that he had a knack for pinning down and explaining all those little problems. When my orthopedist said, "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning," Doc asked a few questions, probed my back and proceeded to tell me what to look for on the x-rays, which exercises to do and what drugs to take and avoid.

He loved sharing his gift with his friends; of all the technology he had, I think his favorite might have been a palm pilot medical reference we made so he could keep on advising his Meadowood dinner companies in retirement.

His talent was not the only gift Doc shared. Each summer when I came to visit, I would meet a new adopted family member. Bud & Geneva reach out to so many people, providing a steady job, filling in for absent parents, running summer camps, or just delivering care packages in times of need. His generosity set an example, making possible many things that otherwise would not have been possible.

Grandpa, we love you and honor the time we had with you.

Jared Diamond's Collapse presents an interesting study of many past societies. At first it seemed to lack the brilliance of his previous work, Guns, Germs & Steel. In the course of reading it over several weeks, I took many breaks, considered putting it aside or jumping ahead, but somehow always coming back for a bit more. What's the relevance of deforestation on Easter Island? How can one make any judgment now on a topic as complex as China's emerging environmental policies? The well written introduction claimed it would all come together in the end.

And it did.

The final three chapters are a tour de force review of 1) behavior and systemic breakdowns that lead to poor societal choices, 2) current initiatives credibly addressing these issues for fisheries, forests and mineral extraction, and 3) a status check on twelve threats to the long-term health of our system. Alone, these three chapters would provide a good primer on the point of sustainable development. Illustrated by a dozen society review of success and failure due to environmental policies, the point becomes unforgettable.

Economically-oriented, environmentally-aware, yet skeptical might be a good phrase to capture my attitude towards the concept of sustainable development. Enjoy one's environment, make economic choices, avoid hyperbole and try to structure policies such that encourage long-term viability of the system. This book spoke to me. I don't know how it will change my behavior yet, but I'm sure it will have an impact. For now, I'll start by learning a bit more about the Forest and Marine Stewardship Councils.

Changing hosting companies turns out to be a big deal. Just transfered to (mt) Media Temple.

And after a quick assessment of my economic and social political views at the Political Compass, one source of my frustration in politics comes out. Relative to current world leaders, I seem to hold a very different world view.

An interesting quiz at QuizFarm categorizes one's perspective on Christian theology . Although I'm somewhat of a closet student of religion, I found myself having to research the particular theologians and even some of the doctrines mentioned. Not necessarily for the lay user! Take it at http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=43870.

For those interested, here were my results:

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Classical Liberal 75% Modern Liberal 64% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 61% Neo orthodox 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 46% Reformed Evangelical 36% Roman Catholic 36% Fundamentalist 4% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Reaching the mid-point of intermediate sailing lessons at CalAdventures, today, I now understand that mysterious smile and hint of yearning in the the voice of true sailers. Sailing a Coronado 15 in 20 knot winds, out into the swells of the open bay beyond His Lordship's point at the Berkeley marina proved a challenge at first. An early capsize with instructor on board provided a sound lesson on the responsibilities of crew and skipper. But by mid-day when the gusts were hitting 25, the mental shift occurred. No longer was the boat "tippy." No, if I wasn't hiked out, tail to the surf in a perpetual situp, something was wrong!

Sailing the British Virgin Islands in a 50' boat a few years back, I glimpsed the finer side of sailing. There the goal was to not run a ground, drift out to see or spill the chardonnay. But now I've seen the side of sailing that can properly be called a sport. Heart pumping, sea spraying, hiked to the max and loving every minute. That was today's lesson at the Berkeley Marina.

After using the new iBook for a month now, S. & I have agreed that while generally elegant, it does have its share of flaws. While some are just due to ingrained habits of a decade of PC-use, others are just annoying. The book Mac Annoyances captures the spirit perfectly. I was about to buy this book, until I discovered via Google Print that my particular pet peeves are missing!

So instead, here's my list of mac annoyances...

1) Delete key is really a backspace.
Turns out fn-delete is the forward delete of the PC world.

2) Many non-postscript Windows shared printers (including our Canon Multipass F80) are unsupported.
The article How to Use a Printer Attached to a Windows XP Computer in Mac OS X provides a workaround for this by running GhostScript and a port redirector on the PC. Note that under Panther, you can just share the GhostScript redirect port via Windows instead of setting up Unix print services.

3) Poorly implemented full keyboard access.
I'm used to accessing menu commands using Alt-key + letter combinations. But on the Mac, one has to use an F-key to access the right target (menu, dock, etc...) then the arrow keys to navigate to a menu item. This totally screws with my reflexes and means I'm using the mouse much more than I'd like. Looking for a fix, I've come across million articles saying I should just learn the apple + letter shortcuts, how much more consistent these are on a Mac and how the Microsoft implementation is poor design. But you know what? I've got years of muscle memory to overcome and I still use a PC all day. So how about a compatibility mode?

4) Microsoft Office is ... um ... well ... different.
Speaking of compatibility modes, how about an option to make the Office toolbars and menu keys the same as the PC version? It's nice that Office 2004 is "mac-like" but if I already know PC Office, why change?

New Year's this year was a bit of a change. Turns out that sunrise from the veranda of Manjali, one of the guest houses of Navadarshanam, is quite lovely. In fact, it inspires one to do a surya namaskar or two (the sun salutation yoga sequence). S. even decided to joined in despite protestations that yoga is slow and boring.

The next day, we were doing it again... Another guest commented how impressed she was with our dedication. A feeling somewhere between disbelief and pride started forming. Was I actually turning into one of those people with the discipline to be up early, doing what's good for the body and soul? Impossible!

Well, it lasted for over a week. Now back in Berkeley, I find the combination of jet lag and the all too familiar landscape of our home sapping my will. But briefly, I achieved an aspect of that person I've always wanted to be...

Heading off to India for a few weeks today, hope to have some traveler's tales to tell shortly!

Our plan is to spend a week at Navadarshanam, the spiritual retreat near Bangalore run by S.'s aunt and uncle. Then we will go to Chennai to visit other relatives. Thankfully, no one in the family was affected by the Tsunami.

After waffling for some time, I've decided to switch -- back. Previously a mac aficionado, I'd used a IIci, Powerbook Duo and finally Powerbook 5300 before succumbing to the Windows world of business computing. I'd briefly flirted with going back to a Mac in 2000 when I returned to school, but I couldn't justify the premium and possible compatibility headaches of a TiBook.

Lately though, I've been comparing the elegance of iTunes with Adobe Photoshop Album on the PC. Photos, music, finances, web browsing & publishing (to a unix server) are my primary personal computing tasks. And the Mac just makes those regular activities more enjoyable. Or so I believe based on several drop-in sessions to the local apple store.

The kicker though was an unbeatable offer. The UIC micro-center held a one-day sale today for 12" 1GHz iBooks at $599. That's 25% off the normal academic price. It's not the $2500 Aluminum Powerbook I'd had on the wish list. But that's a sweet deal for a home system only 30% slower than top-of-the-line. With a RAM upgrade and wireless card, I'll still be under the magic 1K mark.

Here's hoping OSX, iLife & such live up to the hype.

After the move to California, I've been job hunting with steadily increasing intensity. My prior employer needed me through the end of the year, giving plenty of time to network and consider opportunities. Of course, that also provided way to many possibilities! Biotech, medical device, tools, startup, post-IPO, large company, business development, product management, consulting? It was just like first-year MBA career planning all over again!

I've finally wrapped things up though, taking a medical device product management job at the newly established division of a major company. The goal? Take the winning new technology developed by an acquired startup and drive it into new market segments both at home and internationally. Put that way, it sounds like exactly what I wrote back in my old career handbook.

The hunt has reinforced a couple of things to me. First, it's a question of not what you know vs. who you know. It is first who you know (get in the door) and then what you know (get hired). Second, even under the best circumstances, 3 months is the bare minimum to complete a job hunt at the professional level. Finally, there are a wealth of resources available--the challenge is choosing the best and getting active in the community. To that end, here are some of the things I've found most valuable in my hunt:

Networking groups
* NorCal Product Development & Marketing Association
* Silicon Valley Product Management Association
* BayBioNEST Entrepreneurial Series
* The BioScience Forum
* BioE2E entrepreneurs' forum

Online Resources
* LinkedIn peer-to-peer guide of who knows whom and where they work (note my prior entry)
* LinkSV directory of N CA venture funded companies

There are many more organizations here in the Bay Area, the majority focused on software and information technology. Of those that do include the occasional biomedical topic, SVASE and the WorkIt directory stand out for quality of co-sponsorships and quantity of listings respectively.

I'd wondered what all the downtown chaos was last Sunday. Now I know it was the "How Berkeley Can You Be?" parade. There's a photo gallery here. I must say, all the junk turned into art and many of the characters in the parade look familiar, but I don't see many of the abundant wildflowers from around town.

I'd thought buying a used car was painful. The Autobarn of Mt. Prospect ran me through every BS tactic one could imagine. But now I know that selling a used car is just as bad.

It started well, with a quick photography session and an ad on Cars.com. That generated one lead and the first inspection. Of course, they buyer just wanted to know my "bottom price" without making an offer. A couple of weeks later though, when I was ready to move on to an eBay auction, it turned out that first buyer's phone had been disconnected.

In the meantime, my car Sunny, had figured out that both it was out of warranty and I was planning to sell it. So immediately after getting it inspected, all heck broke loose. Over two weeks, the timing belt, water pump and left front ball joint all went out leaving me a $1000+ repair bill. But even to get a tax write-off, one has to appraise the car and if it doesn't work the value is quite low.

Going back to the auction, it all started pretty slow with only a couple of bids down in the thousand range. That said, there were over 20 watchers so I hoped all would be well. Having made the mistake of posting my phone number, a couple buyers called to suggest side deals. Finally, in classic eBay style, all the buyers waited until the last hour and then went berzerk. The net effect was that with 15s to go, one buyer managed to bid up to my exact reserve price. One had the gall to bid a high price (exposing the reserve), then withdraw the bid and resubmit a lower price.

Which all would have been fine had I stuck with my original reserve ($6000) set at the dealer appraisal value and just below the Blue Book trade-in value ($6980). But in an effort to stimulate bidding, I'd lowered the reserve to the cash price CarMax offered me ($4800). Had I been thinking, I would have considered the ease of dropping off the car at a local dealer vs. the risk and effort of transacting business with a random out-of-town buyer.

Then to top off the confusion, another potential buyer came by in person. He seems serious as he brought back his mother back to see the car a couple of hours later. $7000 sounded fine to him, but he needed a few days to talk to the bank...

Luckily, the winner on eBay understood my situation. In fact, he later e-mailed to see if I'd go for $5300 and local pickup (he would travel). Shortly thereafter another bidder called (and called again, and again...) to offer $5500, but he was from out of town. That plus severely broken english put him out of consideration.

So I decided to wait on the $7000 offer and see what the bank said. As a back-up, I e-mailed the $5300 eBayer to see if he'd go for $6000.

So how did it finally play out?

Well, the bank said no to the high bidder. And the $5300 bidder wasn't willing to raise. So I decided to pay for convenience and dropped Sunny off at CarMax. *Sigh*

In retrospect, most every individual decision was fine at the time. But all together it made for a lot of work with little reward.
So what did I learn from this?

• Don't bother with reserve price auctions on eBay. Go with a reasonable starting price instead (above what you can get at CarMax). Be prepared for a 7-14 day window on the back-end to actually complete the transaction.


• CarMax really is a great backup plan, offering a no hassle sale in less than 3 hours total. Do cleanup your car first and make sure you accept their offer within the 7 day window.


• Given the $442/mo that I ended up paying (depreciation, sales tax, out of warranty repairs), I probably didn't save anything by going with a certified used car. Had I been able to keep Sunny longer, it would have worked out as a better deal.

After all the controversy over Movable Type's licensing fees, it turned out that I could buy a personal 5 author license for $30 because I was a member of the TypeKey beta test group. That was too good an offer to pass up so I went ahead and upgraded to 3.0D. As I support the blogging aspirations of friends and family, sticking with the tried and true is worth something.

The 3.0 upgrade rejected many of my plug-ins, and I soon found that one must rewrite many sections of one's templates to take advantage of the features. After a few attempts at tweaking, I gave up and decided to rebuild from the ground up. No great loss given the limited look & feel work done on my old site.

The new site is based on the default Gettysburg templates and style sheet, with the little list-based menu bar adapted from a variety of CSS resources (PS - anyone know how to get rid of that white band that shows up when viewing with Netscape?). For those who don't do RSS news, the site now offers e-mail notification of my monthly musings. And to prevent spam, I've turned on TypeKey-based comment registration -- at least until the 3.1 update comes out with MT-Blacklist. Finally, after a bit of playing, I discovered that GalleryLink and SmartyPants both do work just fine with 3.0.

With the move, I've also put the site on a sub-domain so I can separate Shades of Gray from other Piquant.us traffic. A handy and amazingly simple single .htaccess file is now redirecting old links like a charm. Amazingly, I'm now supporting 2 full generations of past site structures without any problems.

And as a treat for those blogerotti friends of mine who think one should post early and often, I now consider myself to have met your challenge for a week or two by posting several things to the archive. These entries come from old letters and such; the earliest is from 1994 and my very first web site!

• Favorite quotes from High School


• Thoughts on divorce and children


• An attempt to explain spooky motion at a distance


• Progress (or lack thereof) in finding a religion

One thing that irks me about this election is the complete lack of issues being discussed. Military records, honorable, cooked or missing, are really a far second to military plans for what this nation does next. Hopefully, by the time the debates roll around, both sides will have something useful to say rather than sling mud.

Along those lines, my recent political reading has been Mark Satin's "Radical Middle." It is quite interesting what an aging draft-dodging activist leader comes up with after completing an NYU law degree. This book basically is a catalog of mostly workable solutions to the major issues of our day. And even better, it includes references to the organizations working to implement these ideas. Some of my favorites are:

• Education: pay for performance incentive plans for teachers & schools - NCTAF
  
• War & Peace: humanitarian intervention guidelines for failed or failing states, supported by a UN rapid reaction force and a volunteer peacekeeping force - Fund for Peace
  
• Healthcare: mandatory, privately administered insurance focused on preventive healthcare and made universal with subsidies - Center for Health Transformation
  
• Law: improve access and accountability through expanded small claims courts and local problem-solving courts for misdemeanors - HALT
  
• Energy: rapid pursuit of independence by investing in parallel paths including conservation, renewables, nuclear, hydrogen, clean coal, biomass, and values-change - EPRI
  
• Globalization: fair & open trade policy, reducing rich country subsidies - Oxfam International

While these solutions are not silver bullets, it is nice to see something on the table. Yes, in healthcare, I'd like to see more talk of consumer-driven care with real economic incentives. And I'm not sure I'm really for universal indentured servitude - but I'll admit it could be an improvement over the draft. These are good starting points though and I'm going to add a few of the organizations to my annual giving list.

And finally for a bit of political humor, check out This Land at JibJab. Don't worry, there's something offensive in it for every candidate.

It's been a wild month what with a wedding, a move, a few parties, plans for a job change, and adopting a cat. A friend at work who is a nurse likes to remind me that I've got 4 out of 5 major stress factors covered (marriage, moving, job change, child--ok that one's a stretch). Thank goodness there's no death in the family to complete the list!

Westward Ho and the Wedding discuss the first two. And T. did a great write-up on the Vegas celebration at the Golden Path. Pictures for that even should be up soon in the gallery.

UPDATE: Check out the party photos in the gallery!

As for the job search, I'm hoping to continue doing some project work with my current employer. Meanwhile, I'll be searching for the right biotech startup to join out in the bay area. Once everything else is out of the way, I'll focus on that next.

And finally, here's the newest member of our new household, Tux!

June 19th was the big day for S. & myself!

We held a small family-oriented ceremony in my Grandparent's Bloomington, Indiana garden. Blending Eastern and Western traditions, S. & I borrowed from many sources to make our own unique service. And of course there are pictures.

In the final planning stages, I was grousing about how even for a small wedding, one still has to do all the work and make all the decisions of a large one. S. fixed that by roping me in to help with the thousand and one last-minute errands for a friend's traditional wedding in which she was a bridesmaid. Ok, maybe it is easier with only eighteen people!

Those older and wiser kept telling me how a wedding changes everything in your perspective. Frankly, I didn't see it coming -- apart from some minor event planning hassles, the weeks leading up to the wedding were business as usual. The day before, the wedding counseling reaffirmed some underlying differences in outlook that S. & I had discussed for years. The morning of, my father checked in to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. Of course we knew - we've been together seven years and planning this for over two!

But then about two hours before-hand the nerves kicked in...

S. & I wrote our own vows. I knew what she was going to say and vice versa, we'd practiced in the car the day before. But what did she really mean? Was I promising what was important? Could I hold to those words? About 12 hours late, I experienced what probably every bachelor has been through.

Giving vows to your loved one in the presence of your closest friends and family does change your outlook. The profound sense of rightness at hearing S. promise lifelong companionship. The sincerity I felt in my heart when promising to grow together and nurture one another. My words alone are insufficient.

Just got this one from a friend via e-mail. Quite funny but unfortunately false per the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

A Charlotte, North Carolina, lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, and then insured them against fire amongst other things.

Within a month of having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, and without yet having made the first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated that the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires". The insurance company refused to meet the claim, citing the obvious reason - "that the lawyer had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion".

The lawyer sued ....... and won !!!!

In delivering the ruling, the Judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. However, the Judge stated nevertheless, that the
lawyer held a policy from the insurance company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would
insure against fire, without defining what is considered to be an acceptable fire, and was therefore obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure the lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the $15,000 claim to the lawyer for the loss of his rare cigars which were "lost in fires".

After the lawyer cashed his cheque, the insurance company made a formal complaint to the police and had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON !!!!

With only his insurance claim and his testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of "intentionally and
deliberately setting fire to his insured property" and was subsequently sentenced to a 24 months jail sentence as well as a $24,000 fine.

This is a true story and was the First Prize Winner in the recent Criminal Lawyer's Award Contest.

ONLY IN AMERICA.

It's taken me a bit to write about this, but the big news recently is that S. has decided to go back to school. She's accepted a place in the Environmental Economics PhD program in UC Berkeley (technically with the Agriculture & Resource Economics department). I'm excited for her because after five years of indentured servitude she'll have the opportunity to help set policies about landfills and water treatment centers from sunny California rather than romp through them in the middle of Chicago winters.

I'm not quite sure what to expect as we get ready to pack up and head West. Many of my friends are there in the Bay Area and love it. Actually, it's a subset of my friends -- the tech-savvy and the outdoors lovers. Visiting them, one notices the little differences in how they spend their time from my Chicago and Boston friends. More weekend outings, hanging at outdoor cafes, debating techie stuff. I think I might just fit right in...

That said, I know quite a few people who have left California. High taxes, nutty politicians, sky-high housing prices, poor schools, etc... are enough to make a prospector think seriously before settling. As expressed in a recent e-mail joke:

"It's time to reevaluate our involvement! Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on TV there are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there?

We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there?

Many of our children go there and never come back. Why are we still there?

Their government is unstable, and they have loopy leadership. Why are we still there?

Many of their people are uncivilized. Why are we still there?

The place is subject to natural disasters and we are supposed to bail them out. Why are we still there?

There are more than 1,000 religious sects, which we do not understand. Why are we still there?

Their folkways, foods and fads are unfathomable to ordinary Americans. Why are we still there?

We can't even secure the borders. Why are we still there?

They are billions of dollars in debt and it will cost billions more to rebuild, which we can't afford.

Why are we still there?

It's becoming clear . . .

WE MUST PULL OUT OF CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!!!"

Looking forward to a good five years there. After that, we'll see ;)

As a kid, I loved building things out of legos, blocks, or anything else I could get my hands on at the time. At my grandfathers' shop one summer, we built a go-cart. For junior high shop, a good friend and I worked out the perfect specs worked for a catapault -- unfortunately that one got the kabosh from the powers that be...

Now a couple of other friends from the MIT Media lap show what you can do even if you don't have the full resources of a full shop or lab at your disposal. Check it out at Howtoons.org or read about it at MIT's alumni news site. I'm so psyched to see this project progress towards that tipping point of realizing international fame, fortune and fun!

If you're looking for a generic criticism in the world of business, just tell someone they need to be more "strategic." What the heck does that mean, anyways? I've watched a room chock full of the Presidents, VPs and Directors of a fortune 500 company debate that topic for an hour without resolve.

There are a million metaphors for explaining strategy. In business school one tends to focus on the Porter model for business unit strategy, assessing environmental factors deploying resources in a way that creates temporary competitive advantage. I personally like some of the military-inspired views on strategy that build on Sun Tzu's Art of War as these begin to delve into the leader-oriented view of strategy -- how should one create an effective organization and what objectives should one pursue?

To me, being strategic is all about knowing what the most influential factors are when faced with a challenge and then focusing on those. Are you discussing board-level investment decisions? Then you might have a "strategic" discussion about your WACC. If you're trying to decide whether a potential spouse is the right one though, get to the real meat of communication, personal maturity, finances, family plans and your ability to grow together for the years to come. I often find myself in conversations stopping and thinking, "Wait a minute, does this really matter? What's going to make a real difference in this situation?"

This is really about how one thinks -- and what frameworks one can apply to the situation at hand. Two types of thinking that are rather rare in our society but can be helpful are systems thinking and really long-term thinking. Systems thinking is helpful because it focuses one on the consequences of actions over time and can train one to identify the most important factors. Really long-term thinking is somewhat less practical, but still fun -- see the Long Bets Foundation for a fun example.

Enough thought for the moment; time to get out and do something!

Over the past few months, friends and family have been asking me for advice regarding spam. Here's a few observations and things I do:

1) Choose an e-mail address that won't be found in the dictionary or telephone books. As R. demonstrated, a brand new account at Earthlink with just a last name managed to become a spam magnet within a week of opening. A nonsense phrase by comparison has remained relatively spam-free for him. Longer names are better here as well although I fear the convention of first.lastname or first_lastname will soon fall victim to the phonebook spammers as well.

2) Keep a separate e-mail account for commercial sites. This way if some site sells your name, you only have to change over your accounts with merchants to a new address.

3) Never put your actual e-mail on a public web page (even hidden as a mailto: HTML link), it is too easy for an automated address harvester to find. Disguise it somehow or just don't publish it.

4) Find out what types of filters your ISP offers and use them. You might want a second layer of protection by getting and training a filter on your own mail reader. Technology Review has a great diagram of the different types of filters. I currently use the new (and free) Mozilla Thunderbird mail client myself which includes a Bayesian filter.

Good luck! 10 years of spam and we have yet to find a real solution.

A couple of weeks into the social networking scene and what I've primarily noticed is a big jump in correspondence. The invitation to join one of these networks is that little push needed to get back in touch with old friends. Whether or not my friends have wanted to join, the majority shoot an e-mail, "What's up?" Those that do join typically add in a "What the heck is this thing and will it last?" discussion about the networks.

A few private e-mail discussions on the sustainability of the networks have led to a couple of conclusions:

• An online networking tool such as LinkedIn ads value to traditional networks by providing transparency to the natural process of finding others who share common interests. Traditional networking functions work best when there is some potential common interest among participants. Online profiles and documented linkages provide a basis for previewing those interests; much like a good facilitator helps introduce people with common interests in a real-life function. Relationship-building is still the core of networking and real life interactions are relatively powerful. Expect a few people who think like me to actually pay money for these services; and if I were Korn/Ferry or another big executive recruiter, I'd be keeping a very close eye on these companies.
  
• Friendship-oriented services (Friendster, Orkut, Tribe, etc...) will probably find some niches in the future, augmenting portal services, providing demographic information for ads and targeting the most powerful seeds for viral marketing activities. That said, I'd predict no end user's going to directly pay for these things. Expect small margins, bankruptcies and cheap acquisitions by the portals.
  
• An interesting corporate application is mining e-mail and customer relationship systems to provide sales leads (Spoke, Virtual Path). Another potential use is to augment knowledge management "who knows what" systems with "who knows who" capability (Tacit). Overcoming the existing barriers for these systems, a reluctance to share one's rolodex with the corporate beast, will be a barrier with these systems. Given this, the vendor's approach of just mining existing e-mail systems and other databases for linkages and knowledge may just have potential. Without direct experience, I'm not sure that I can say yet whether these applications will drift to insignificance or help tip the scales in favor of efficient business knowledge & relationship management. I might just have to ask for a demo...

UPDATE: Here's an interesting take on etiquette for these social networking sites.

Just got hooked up with two social networking sites trying to revive the idea of SixDegrees.com -- that everyone is connected by a chain of friendships to everyone else. That site shut down in 2001 with 3M members in it and no viable way to make money. But it did serve to disprove the hypothesis of six degrees, eventually having to create a "cloud" of higher-order connections if I recall.

So VCs have revived this fad, tossing money at the problem. A quick survey shows Friendster, Tribe, Orkut, LinkedIn & wait, SixDegrees will soon be back for a third attempt! Dating services, targeted mailing lists, community discussion supported by ads, maybe there will be a way to make money this time around. Will they succeed? My bet's on Affinity Engines, a tool-maker that's got real customers in college alumni organizations. But for now, some thoughts on the two services I joined, Orkut & LinkedIn.

Orkut is a Google project that's got exclusivity & buzz going for it. Launched in January and based on a Stanford project, Club Nexus, they seeded the web and only allow invitees to join. The quality of profiles is actually pretty impressive -- I was motivated to go beyond just the lame Yahoo-type profile by the obvious care put in by my friends. If you just got in the exclusive club, you don't want to be the slacker that kills the cool! So in the social hierarchy emanating from Google HQ, I'm 2 months out...

LinkedIn is targeted at business networking -- specifically job seeking & proposals. In fact, it sure looks like it was designed by a VC for their own networking. That suits my needs and interests, maybe it will even be a useful tool for my own entrepreneurial aspirations. I'd pay for the capability search for contacts and to send proposals out specific to my business. Now what might really make people willing to pay is if you instituted a rating & micropayment system for referrals. You send a good proposal my way and I'll reward you with some cold hard cash. And unless you're willing to risk $5, don't even bother contacting me!

One of the wilder things on Orkut is the dating service portion on open relationships and funkier things. Maybe the real killer app will be the epidemiology one...

Recently back from a wonderful family trip to the Galapagos islands in Equador. A few hundred miles west of continental S. America, you've probably heard of this archipelago either in your high school biology class or more recently if you saw the movie Master and Commander. Famed for its fearless and unique animals, the Galapagos are a treasure well worth a visit.

Beyond just the glorious photo opportunities provided by swimming with sea lions, basking on the beach with iguanas and getting into staring contests with red or blue-footed boobies, a trip to the Galapagos can't but help raise some weighty issues. A rich environment, the islands have supplied fishing fleets for years but now many animals are endangered. And as a isolated ecosystem, it is possible to directly observe the interactions between flora and fauna over time - evolution in action as observed by Charles Darwin himself.

So wait, all these evolved animals are endanger? Evolution isn't just survival of the fittest? P.J. O'Rourke does a great piece for Forbes along these lines. Suffice it to say that adaptation to one's environment in the absence of competition does not produce much of a survival instinct. Great for the tourists, bad if you've got poachers around.

Of particular interest to me was the ongoing study by Professor Peter Grant of Princeton on the Galapagos Finches of Daphne Major. For 30 years, Prof. Grant has been tracking every single finch on this small isolated island. As one would predict from theory, the observed frequency of beak size in the population varies with environmental conditions and the available food sources.
Unexpected were the rapidity of the changes and the effects of hybridization between two species. What I see in the data though is a little practical example of complexity theory in action. The two food sources can be modeled as point source attractors for the bird population which wanders a chaotic pathway. The natural result of such a model would be bifurcation to the two point sources. Ah yes, math reflected in nature!

S. loves animals and carries over her beliefs to the foods we eat and the companies we support with our grocery budget. While most organic shoppers are concerned about antibiotics and other such things, she's more interested in humane conditions. So we look for truly free-range meat and poultry -- sometimes also organic, but not necessarily.

For a really funny (yet serious) take on this topic, head over to the Meatrix.

And for those who would agree that overly processed food loses much of its value (both nutrition and taste), also check out Slow Food. Their objective is to seek out and preserve the best of traditional ethnic fare worldwide. A. works for them and introduced us to the idea with an Italian fruitcake that was actually edible. While they have a noble goal, the reason I really appreciate Slow Food is their market-focus and a demanding standard -- only preserve that which actually tastes good!

I'm not sure, but I think I might have just passed a career threshold. The last two requests for career advice that came my way were not just about my current employer or college, but were more general about pursuing a career in business. It's a bit odd to think that I might be at that stage in life where the requests start coming in to talk to 3rd graders about what one does as a businessman...

When I first interned in the corporate world, my parents had me read S. Blotnick's 1984 classic "The Corporate Steeplechase : Predictable Crises in a Business Career." As I recall the key point of this book was that those who succeed in business are those that actually want to -- and most people end up in business by default, not because they want to be there.

Once past that hump, I'd say some of the most helpful information for me coming out of NU & later Sloan were detailed reports offered by two companies: The Vault and The Wetfeet Press. Started by some MBAs looking for better career advice, they both do extensive interviews of working professionals in or recently with the target company and then produce detailed reports covering both how to get into and how to succeed in the particular industry, functional role, or companies. While the reports are expensive, they are worth every penny. And both even offer a bit of free general advice on their web sites:

• The Vault - http://www.vault.com
  
• Wetfeet Press - http://www.wetfeet.com

Here's a brief note I penned to J. in response to Manliness and its lack. This is an article stressing the importance of developing virtue in the young in constrast to understanding personal values.

First, I have a different take on values vs. virtue. I think of values in terms of group social norms; this comes from organizational culture studies (i.e. the Core Values book). Individuals also have values, but those are frankly less meaningful. They key to building a good organization is to hire people who naturally hold or are receptive to taking on the desired values of the organization. As a leader, I may have a particular vision and operate under certain value parameters. This cannot be forced on someone who already holds different values. Thus the primary focus of hiring should be to screen for those who hold compatible values and will positively reinforce the organizational norms.

In the above there is nothing about those values being the right ones. Enron had a very strong organizational culture that reinforced disasterous behavior.

Virtue to me means identifying and pursuing the right values. The ones DS has listed are a fine start. Where does one learn these? Boy Scouts, team sports, church, and other "extracurriculars" can all contribute, but really depend on the quality of the coach/leader/educator. A good teacher (think Geneva) can instill virtue in the classroom. A bad sunday school teacher can take little angels and turn them into devils (think Wesley church). So in my opinion it really comes down to the role models to which children are first exposed and subsequently choose to follow. Choose wisely, but more importantly, help them learn to choose wisely...

T. warned me about this when I setup Shades of Gray, but I didn't listen. Now, I'm realizing that the default URL structure in Movable Type just doesn't work well as one's site grows over time.

To the rescue are some fellow bloggers:
* Mar Orlygsson with advice and the rational for taking action at How to Future-proof Movable Type
* David Ely with an analysis of TypePad's new link structure and some tips on setting up redirection to avoid broken links.

This seems to have worked quite well. Now to determine how long I need to leave the old clutter lying around...

Proving that librarians still have value in spite of a seemingly omniscient Google, the Shifted Librarian provides a great listing of titles for the Treo 600 at What's on My Treo 600. Although I'd already waded through the discussion boards at TreoCentral.com, I still found several useful references to pick up.

To return the favor, here's my annotated Treo application listing:

Sandman (free) - Simple power off application. Sounds strange, until you realize the practical use of this app -- turning off the backlight while on a phone call and thus saving battery life. Map it to your screen button and you have a working screen-off button. This should have been the standard design!

Vindigo ($24.95 / yr) - City guides designed for mobile use. You're at State & Lake in Chicago. Where's the nearest Chinese restaurant and do I have time to catch a movie? Vindigo gives the answer fast. I've even given gift subscriptions through them to a few friends.

Chatter ($20) - Universal instant messaging and true push IMAP e-mail.

BrainForest ($19.95) - Great little outline tool.

PowerOne ($9.99) - Calculator with templates for common business & science calculations with a fancier graphing version available. Imagine a user-friendly calculator...

WorldMate ($24.45) - More travel information than you can shake a stick at. But the really useful feature is the atomic clock time sync. Note SNTP does this for free, albeit in a plain fashion.

Hand / RSS ($14.95) - RSS news reading application.

McPhling ($10) - Provides quick launch menu and a back button to return to the last viewed application. The killer app for me with this one is viewing RSS news in Hand / RSS, following a link to Blazer, then jumping back to Hand / RSS.
I map the app menu to a 1 sec hold of the up volume button and the back function to holding the down volume button.

Aftersync (free) - Choose an application to switch to after syncing. Nice to jump back to the launcher. This is a free application that comes with the Launcher X trial.

RadioControl (free) - Schedules on and off times for the Treo radio (no 2am wake-up calls) and automatically turn it on after a reset.

DualDate (free) - Share your calendar via beaming. S. & I use this occasionally, but often forget to sync.

Other applications I'm still evaluating (not including those recommeded by TSL) include:
Resco View photo album
MobileDB database
FileZ file manager
PalmVNC for VNC connections
PdaNet for laptop GPRS connectivity
SmbMate to access Windows file / print shares
VFSFTP+ for FTPing files

Added a new tool to the site today for submitting posts via e-mail. The excellent MfOP2 web tool by Kevin Cameron interfaces with Movable Type and can accept both text and photos.

After registering your MT blog details, you just send an e-mail to mfop2@bastish.net, with or without picture attachment. MfOP logs into your blog, makes the post, and rebuilds your indexes.

For security purposes, I'd suggest creating a special mfop author that only has posting permissions. You might also want to setup a special e-mail account only for sending posts. I've completed a test post and it seems to work great.

PS: Do take a moment to read the help screen for the Template section when setting up your account. The system has a few special tags that are not obvious, but very useful.

Healthcare obeys the laws of economics, but we desire a moral, humanitarian outcome different than what would be achieved by either liaise-faire or centralized planning. Unfortunately, while our society has some of the best care in the world, it seems that we are also failing on both economic and humanitarian grounds. Costs are spiraling out of control and service for the majority seems to be declining while many have no access to care at all. What is happening here and how can it be fixed?

For the moment, I'm just going to toss out a few observations, questions and issues. This will be an evolving series of posts, as I flesh out the details in each area.

First, let's address some of the background issues and look at the assumptions behind our thinking about health. I believe three core questions that one needs to consider and understand are:
1. Why are healthcare costs increasing?
(i.e. downward pressure of managed care vs. upward pressure of technology)

2. What should the basic right to life, as stated in the Constitution, mean?
(i.e. food, shelter, emergency care, preventative care, elective surgery, etc...)

3. How much of society's resources should we collectively dedicate to healthcare?
(i.e. 15% of GDP? 20% of GDP? Consider inter-generational transfer of wealth issues.)

Second, let's take a look at what economics says about the inherent trade-offs in healthcare. How are resources being allocated and is the system doing this allocation efficiently? There seem to be two primary problems with the present situation:
1. Care is being provided through the highest-cost channels
(i.e. uninsured using the ER instead of clinics for common ailments).

2. Consumers and suppliers disconnected from pricing mechanism
(i.e. insurance distorts pricing signals, increasing consumer cost of preventative care while decreasing the cost of )

How should we address these issues? The details will be exceptionally difficult to figure out, especially given the tough humanitarian decisions. But at I high level, I believe we need to establish a system with:
1. Universal basic health service and catastrophic care insurance
(i.e. network of clinics providing basic services, including first aid, vaccinations, physicals, STD screening, schizophrenia drugs, etc...)

2. Standards of care, clearly defining universal (public-pay) services and differentiating private-pay services
(i.e. public pay for childhood leukemia vs. private pay for adult onset; transparent body and processes for making the difficult resource trade-offs)

3. Physician and nurse licensing system, incorporating community service to address equitable access to care and raising the status of Nurse Practitioners
(i.e. annual public service requirement for licensing - either join Doctors without Borders or open your clinic to the poor a half-day a week; no, you can't go into medicine and then just do cosmetic surgery on the rich. Increase responsibilities of NP to address monopoly power of the AMA)

4. A restructured private insurance industry, de-linked from employers
(i.e. Remove insurance as barrier to changing jobs; develop better risk-pooling mechanisms; integrate private administration of public-pay services)

Balthazar, or Baz, says hello!

He's our current boarder, hanging out while his owner get settled in Italy. Unfortunately, he's a bit schitzophrenic, switching between a nice friendly and playful Abysinian ala Dr. Jeckle and the ferile hunter ala Mr. Hyde. He's a purebred in his terrible twos though, which might account for his high-strung nature. Hopefully he'll mellow out with age. But for now we love having him around.

After some experimentation, I've finally chosen a web gallery program to post my digital photos. The open source Gallery proved to be the best choice, beating out Adobe Photoshop Album and several other desktop shareware solutions for plain old ease of use and updating. Photoshop Album is still great for managing photos on the desktop, but I then upload them using the great Gallery Remote tool and control layout and albums online.

Take a look at the new Piquant.us Gallery. I've put some favorite vacation photos and some old humor up as the first albums.

UPDATE: Mar 2004
Added photo highlights to the main index page using the GalleryLink plugin.

Sometimes, I just get carried away...

When there's a job to be done, I'm not the sort to just sit down and get it over with. No, I think about it. I look for inspiration. I go out and research the 10 most efficient ways of doing something, often spending more time in the process than just doing the job. And then when I decide how I want to do the task, it often bears little resemblance to what was originally assigned.

That didn't work particularly well in school. It made for the occassional flash of inspiration, but quite a lot of procrastination. Through work, I've gotten better at reigning in the impulse to wander--when the choice is finish or don't go home, discipline is easier. But I still like to let myself wander on personal projects.

Sometimes, you hit paydirt while wading through muck. I'm hoping that's the case with my latest project. Movable Type and weblogging got me interested in web sites again, and content management systems in particular. It was enough to start this log and get a hosting company. But since then, I've been wondering what else might be done in this realm. Now I've found one potential answer, with the upcoming IMSA 2004 reunion and the Xoops CMS. Our planning team needed a place to post information and photos. But with the help of an amazing tool, we're set to deliver much, much more.

So take a look at the new Class of 1994 Alumni Portal at http://piquant.us/imsa/. And kudos to the fine open source development team at Xoops.org.

Jul 2005 UPDATE: The site has now served its purpose, supporting our 10 year reunion. Content now available on the IMSA Alumni Association site, served by another publishing-oriented CMS, Plone.

Sadly enough, the site has now been comment spammed. I find this rather amazing given the limited amount of traffic to the site. Luckily Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist plugin was a simple install that promises to keep the spammers away.

In Jay's documentation, he delves into an interesting theory that the purpose of weblog comment spam is to boost site rankings on google. And I have noticed recently that searches for certain terms like "discount" or "coupon" return meaningless pages rather than valuable information. It is sad to see such a powerful tool as google abused in this way. Then again, I'm sure online merchants consider my use of google to get coupons an abuse too :)

As a side note, it is not surprising to see that my Globalization comments are the key traffic generator. In November, there were just over 3000 hits from 880 visits. Of these 188 went directly to the Globalization: Good or Bad entry. As I haven't managed to get Zeitgeist working yet. Here's the graph of search terms pulled from the web log analyzer:

Went hiking the other day near Claremont, CA in an area lightly touched by the recent fires. Climbing into the hills from some heavily defended residential areas, we saw devestation on the ridges with a few surviving plants in the valley. Amid the charred remains, we also saw signs of new life blooming -- a cactus beginning to flower. And to close, the biggest spider I've ever seen!

NOTE: Photos taken on my new Treo 600.

PVR Blog noted an interesting article about raising kids, TV and how a TiVo has fit in to one family's experience, A life where TiVo has always existed.

Alan Taylor writes about this three year old daughter that happens to be 3 months older than their three year old TiVo, and how that has affected her view of what TV is. Article

S. cooked tonight. Yumm...

As a former mac-addict, I've watched with growing interest over the past couple of years as Apple introduces its products for the digital lifestyle. With the release of iTunes for the PC, I decided to give it a test run even though I haven't taken the iPod plunge. Clean design and eye candy were to be expected, but what about that usability claim?

I've alternated between Music Match and Windows Media player for organizing my MP3 collection. Given the tedium of getting all those ID3 tags right, I came to rely on a simple folder structure for album / artist identification and just focused on getting the genre right for playlists. So when iTunes offered to "manage my collection" I was both intrigued and concerned. Was this going to be an improvement or a disaster?

Safe in the knowledge of a complete music archive and secure with iTunes ability to recognize some truly obscure discs (no, MusicMatch didn't identify the 1996 Spin magazine sampler disc) I let the program proceed. Importing 1300 songs took about 20 minutes to volume-level and organize. As iTunes uses the ID3 takes to create folder structures, the resulting mess was not unexpected. The surprising part though was how easy it was to clean.

The iTunes interface makes it extremely easy to pull up lists by artist, album & genre -- as well as make changes to those three. Thus identifying all the misplaced tracks took no time at all. The changes one makes immediately propagate to the ID3 file tags and iTunes moves the tracks on the fly (unlike Windows Media). The real innovations though were the iTunes functions for managing multiple disc sets and compilations. Just mark a track as part of a compilation and iTunes uses an album-based filing system rather than artist-based. It took a while to understand, but after a minutes use, I recognized how many problems this solved and proceeded to eliminate all of my "various artist" tracks. Similarly track numbers and disc-set numbers suddenly have purpose, as iTunes displays songs in track order when an album is selected. How intuitive! Why am I so happily surprised by such a simple thing?

From the above you might guess that the perfectionist in me came out and I proceeded to actually start work on that organization job I'd abandoned when I first ripped my CDs. I'm not ready to go enter all the album label information -- maybe the next version will know how to pull this for individual tracks? -- but I am going to finish getting the basics in line. For the first times since I ripped my CDs, I'm actually using artist & album playlists rather than just running genre mixes.

Thanks iTunes! Now to think about that iPod...

PS: At 99 cents a track, I might just actually come round to buying some current music rather than relying on 2 yr old BMG freebies!

A letter to the editor of Gizmodo, in response to his request for topic ideas for a new magazine column. See the column (alas, without my answer) at Wired Magazine.

Dear Gizmodo,

Help me optimize my MP3 systems! I've made the plunge of ripping the collection, but have been frustrated at making it pervasive.

First, I've read your reviews on the Martian Technology NetDrive and the XiMeta NetDisk. I quite like the idea of a network attached MP3 + backup server. Martian would seem to be the top choice given its cross-platform compatibility, direct support of devices like the SliMP3, and the potential of a robust open source community. But Martian's home page now says they will focus exclusively on OEMs. Is the Audiotron / NetDisk combination the only option now? Would it be robust given its basis on Windows file sharing?

Second for the car, the VW version of the PhatBox looks to be the next step. I must admit my iRiver CD - MP3 player with casette adaptor isn't working out as I hoped. Not only have I not managed to burn my collection properly to MP3, but I find I dislike changing the CDs and moving cables around. At $800 though it is quite steep.

That said, one wonders if the new 40GB iPods might be a better way to go. With a FM transmittor for the car and the stereo dock at home, one could do quite well transfering the iPod between environements. I suppose the trade-off is the lower capacity and the inability to connect multiple receivers. But I'm not keen on another device to haul around, especially given my plans to pick up a Treo 600 soon.

Finally, there is the gym question. My Intel PocketConcert has served me well, but 128MB is just not enough anymore. Would the iPod hold up at the gym? I'm pretty sure the Treo 600 would not!

So help me figure out the best way to make the full MP3 plunge. What's the right combination of devices? My goal is to minimize the hassle of maintaining my collection, never have to swap out cartridges, devices, songs, etc... and of course make it all acceptable to the wife from both a budget and usability standpoint. Suggestions?

Good luck with the column! I'm sure others are faced with this general situation if not the specifics. Thanks for doing such a great job with the daily reports.

--Straz


For your reference:
Windows 2000 PCs (but considering the switch back to MacOS)
Netgear 802.11b + 10/100 network infrastructure
DirecTV with Tivo, no home media option yet
Dennon 1035R receiver with Ohm Walsh3 speakers
Bose WaveRadio in the bedroom
2 VWs (GTI & Passat)

Tonight, S. and I took a voyage down memory lane, making a date by returning to some of our favorite downtown spots. Starting with dinner at Cafe Absinthe, we flirted with first date reminiscence followed by a bit of nupital planning. Our memory of excellent entrees and fine wines was not disappointed, although we did note a slight change - this time S. enjoyed my Bordeaux more than her light and fruity selection.

After dinner we moved on to Club 720, the salsa institution on N. Wells. Although a bit disappointed that it happened to be meregue night, we still picked up a few moves from the evening's instructor. Moving downstairs, the DJ chose a few 1997 dance favorites for us with the Trainspotting theme and Children by Robert Miles. The dance floor had yet to really fill, but our working-man's hours began to catch up with us and we moved towards the exit.

As we emerged into the night, we were greeted by quite the surprise . Sunny, my golden GTI held the place of honor in front of the entryway!

While I like the fact that I took quantum mechanics in college, any time I try to explain something I quickly realize why I didn't stick with physics. Here's a sample exchange with S., my sister in-law:

---Original Message---
From: S. (sister in-law)

Hey -- Do you understand "spooky action at a distance"? If so, could you explain it to me?

---Original Message---
From: S. (wife)

Huh? I am clueless - never even heard of it.

---Original Message---
From: S. (sister in-law)

It's a quantum mechanics thing. You take a pair of particles that
have a fixed relationship (e.g., one spin up and one spin down), let
them interact, then go far apart. Then, if you measure one and find
it to be spin up, you automatically know that the other is spin down. The "spooky action" is supposed to be that one particle instantly
communicate (faster than the speed of light) to the other that it is
supposed to be spin down. I read about this in a magazine, but I'm not sure I see why it's spooky. I was just wondering if it was because of the quantum mechanics interpretation that the particle is
neither spin up nor spin down until observed, which would mean that it instantly communicates the state it chose to its partner.

---Original Message---
From: S. (wife)

That is kinda spooky. P. actually took a quantum mechanics class, so I'm cc'ing him on this. Maybe he knows...

P.S. He also reads MIT maganizes that have pictures of molecules in them...

---Original Message---
From: P. (me)

No this is not spooky, it is an actual phenomena that makes for good sci-fi writing about faster than light communications. It really isn't related to the uncertainty principle I believe.

FYI, the speed of light as a universal speed limit is a result of Eistein's general relativity model. This is one of several models modern physics uses to explain the behavior of various observable phenomina.

Newtonian mechanics was another model that was pretty darn good in 1672 and is still useful today...

---Original Message---
From: S. (sister in-law)

But what I don't understand is, what exactly makes this worthy of
being called a phenomenon? For example, suppose you and I each randomly pick one shoe out of a pair, then go to opposite corners
of the world. If I look at my shoe and see that it's the right
shoe, I'll know that you must have the left shoe. But there's no
communication going on here; I'm just using logic. The only way

I can see that there's any communication involved is if the right shoe only "decides" to be right when I observe it. Or am I missing something about the nature of particles?

---Original Message---
From: P. (me)

Given your example of shoes, the correlating natural phenomina that could be observed might more closely relate to tying:

1) Take a pair of shoes. Tie the right shoe, leaving the left shoe untied.
2) Separate the shoes. I'll take right and go to Alpha Centauri(4.7 light years away), you take left and stay on Earth.
3) 5 years later (I've got a cool starship S. made me buy), I decide to untie my right shoe for the heck of it.
4) That evening you look in your closet and wonder why your left shoe is now tied.
5) You declare your house haunted and run screaming for the hills...

The point is that if you act on one of the paired particles, the result of the action is observed in the other as well. How this occurs is either a mystery of the universe or a topic on which to sic young physics PhD candidates, depending on your cosmological outlook. I think we did the math in my quantum class to demonstrate this with spin up / down particle pairs, but I really don't recall and probably couldn't even understand my notes anymore.

---Original Message---
From: S. (sister in-law)

So, spin is not a unchanging property (like being a left or right shoe) -- it's just perfectly correlated for particle pairs, no matter
how far apart they get? If one particle changes spin, so does its partner? In that case, I think I get it now.

BTW: I went to a Buddhist temple today (thinking I'd try to branch out in my search for a church). It was a little strange -- they expected you to meditate for the first part of the service, but it was 90 degrees out and they had no air conditioning. I guess if you're truly enlightened, you'd be able to deal with that

----- Original Message -----
From: P. (me)

So spin is the angular momentum of a particle. As such, I don't think it can change without some type of nuclear reaction that actually changes the particle itself. I'm not sure what's changing in this whole setup.

I think this whole paired particle thing is one of those special case scenarios that happens very rarely in reality, but is lots of fun for physics professors to play with when calculating complex equations. Kind of like in calculus when you did limit as n goes to infinity problems...

...Brief pause...

Ok, I give up, what the heck is happening here? Now I've got to figure it out.

... Google search...

Hmmm, so "Spooky Action at a Distance" is acutually a quote from Einstein...

The best google answer is...

http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny/papers/bell.html

It even tells you how to set up the experiment to prove this yourself.

Next family vacation ladies?

----- Original Message -----
From: P. (me)

So I read the article a bit more and I was wrong, spin is what's changing in the electrons for which this actually happens. And there are three axis along which spin can be measured. And I'm going to have nightmares about my quantum mechanics examinations now because of you...

Learned today about the googlebot and other web crawlers. The Robot Exclusion Standard site has a write-up on how to instruct these critters where on your site the are wanted. Reviewing my site logs, I noticed some google activity and this explains how to avoid undesired indexing.

Of course, I'd much prefer to learn how Tim taught that MSN critter a lesson!

Attended a talk tonight by Prof. Richard Locke from MIT in which he outlined a multi-disciplinary research project on globalization and development. He suggests that "Is globalization good or bad?" is really the wrong question because it has caused both good and bad things. Rather, one should be asking the question, "Under what conditions does globalization succeed in raising living standards, etc...?" How do we create the virtuous growth on which I pin my hopes (Developmental Policy) vs. the vicious cycle about which Tarun raises fears (A Little Bit More on Globalization)?

Prof. Locke focuses his research on athletic footwear companies (Nike, Adidas, Reebok, etc) that manufacture all of their shoes outside the US. He's written some interesting case reports on Nike and is now pursuing more emperical evidence on the impact of implementing labor standards. A side objective is to set up a forum in which the big manufacturers and interested NGOs can come together to see if "reasonable people" can agree on basic standards for factories in developing countries. For this, it is imperative to keep the press out to get the two sides talking rather than posturing for the media.

Fascinating stuff! I look forward to monitoring and learning the eventual outcomes of this effort.

Break out the champagne! Although I'm not sure what the net equivalent of breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow is, something would seem appropriate to mark the registering of a new domain name. Henceforth, piquant.us will be the home for this blog and other online projects.

From the Oxford Concise English Dictionary: pi·quant     (pknt, -känt, p-känt)

1. having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavour.
2. pleasantly stimulating or exciting to the mind.

The North-South Gap, Fair Trade, Anti-Globalization, Imperialism, etc... Activist rallying cries that deal with real issues in international affaris, but often seem to degenerate into passionate pleas, patriotic polemic, self-flagulation, dissmissive calousness and sometimes violent protest. So what matters and what should be done? Specifically, what policy goals should the United States be pursuing with regards to the developing world?

Excluding extremist interpretations, I believe that fostering robust economic growth is desirable as it raises the absolute standard of living for all. Aid and policies that foster 1) security, 2) good governance, and 3) basic public health & infrastructure are necessary to achieve this growth and ensure that it benefits the whole population.

First, security. Thomas Barnett of the US Naval War College makes an excellent case in "The Pentagon's New Map" for the role of the US military in both defending our country and supporting development. The dynamics of terrorism are such that both short-term suppression and long-term grievance alleviation are necessary. Yes, this smacks of imperialism; however, the US has a long history of a relatively benign type of imperialism, using force for strategic interests, primarily relating to establishing and protecting trade relations. Max Boot addresses this well in his book, "The Savage Wars of Peace," nicely summarized in an article for Stanford's Hoover Digest. In short, stability and security is a prerequisite for development and the US military one option to ensure it should others fail.

Second, good governance. By this I mean a free press, incremental market liberalization, rule of law, and political transparency and accountability (thus limiting corruption). As discussed in the Economist's recent article, "Liberty's Great Advance," policies that open a country to the international community contribute to growth and an absolute rise in living standards. The desired degree of openness is debatable. The rate of integration and change is debatable. The best way to cope with increased inequality is debatable. But corrupt, totalitarian, and anarchic governments have been responsible for much of the despair in our world. We cannot necessarily enforce good governance on others (e.g. Haiti--we have tried many times and continue to fail), but we should foster it in every way possible.

Finally, basic public health & infrastructure. Good roads, clean water, primary schooling, vaccinations and child nutrition are all critical to produce a population that can move beyond subsistence and begin contributing to developmental goals. This is the realm for multi-national aide agencies, public / private partnerships, and charities. The 2003 UN Human Development Report discusses where we stand on these issues.

Once these basics are in place, the stage is set for economic growth. Here business, both multi-national corporations and domestic entrepreneurs, are the engine. Fueled a by healthy, educated populace, given appropriate freedom by market-oriented trustworthy population, and without the roadblocks of unexpected war, businesses can generate the wealth needed for prosperity.

Pittsburgh, Steel City, has earned the epithet 'surprisingly beautiful' from both travelers and residents. Flying in over the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, one could see this was a city that had not yet conquered its environment. Heading towards the city center along I-376, I arranged my route in anticipation of a first downtown view from the gateway of the Mt. Washington tunnel.

Sadly, the grimy reality of traffic hit. Finally creeping out of the tunnel, I found to my dismay that there was no view--just glimpses of a town and the river confluence around girders and other construction debris.

Checking in at my hotel, I made my first acquaintance with the first of the UAW members who would be sharing my every elevator ride. With each trip, I discovered some new local representative in town for their conference. But like peas in a pod, each could be described as middling-height, mustached, with heavy glasses and paunch. This is how stereotypes get started!

I hoped to get a feel for this city though and discover those surprises for which the city is beautiful. Walking by Pointe State Park and its riverside fountain, I passed many locals enjoying the evening on their riverboats. Quite a lovely setting apart from the freeway looming overhead. I'm afraid I had farther to look for my first surprise.

Across the Allegheny river, PNC park opened to the river. I imagine the fans there appreciate the city view while awaiting their beloved Pirates. Crossing towards the stadium, I was intrigued to discover that there would be a fireworks display that evening after the game. A nice touch that I am well familiar with from Mr. Daley. With several nearby streets closed, much of the town was out and about, enjoying music and drink at pubs and tailgates.

The six wrought iron bridges along the Allegheny merited a bit of reflection. No gossamer beauty these, they are a monument to steel. Placed every block in what must have been a 1920's display of wealth, I was intrigued to note one styled after a suspension bridge, but with thin steel girders in place of cables. Impressive, but not inspirational. By contrast, the sweeping modern lines of the convention center riverside offered a welcome variation from the surrounding brick warehouses. The capstone piece though turned out to be the freakishly avant garde mirrored castle of PPG, that other industrial titan--Pittsburgh Plate Glass.

Moving away from downtown to the university district, the city's ambition comes out...

Two universities surround the Carnegie music hall and museum in their modern gothic glory. In the center of it all is the Pitt's Cathedral of Learning. Before the smog sullied its surface, one could imagine this imposing building having once have been the inspiration of the phrase ivory tower.

Having seen aspiration and the legacy of success, it was time to see what this city offered to feed its favored sons. I headed to dinner at the Monterrey Fish Grotto on the aptly named Grandview Aveneue, overlooking downtown from the heights of Mt Washington. With fresh halibut and a promised view of the fireworks, I was set to see Pitt's best. Nor was I disappointed, with the first fireworks display I've seen that covers an entire city. With five launch points, including two bridges, two buildings, and a barge in the river the city created a wild effect, reinforced by the reflections from the rivers and that glass castle. Waiting for the valet I took the chance for one last view of the city's golden triangle. Maybe "surprisingly beautiful" is the best way to describe Carnegie's Steel Town.

On a serious note, I wrote this letter to a close family friend. For online purposes, we'll call him Z. for Zerbert. Z. is a divorced father was working through his obligations to his former wife and kids, now both graduated, and his obligations to his new family of wife and two young children. Z.'s extremely generous, but faced with two house payments and a bankrupt employer, some choices were needed. This is way out of my league, but I have a strong opinion...

Dear Zerbert,

Thanks for an enjoyable evening tonight. I just wanted to drop you a quick note on our last topic of conversation, which surprised me both in that I had stayed past my bedtime to be part of it and that I discovered I had such strong opinions on the topic. A bit of context should explain.

Two of my former roommates were the product of divorces. With them, I indirectly experienced some of the challenges your boys might soon go through. What made the situation work out in both cases was the establishment of stability. For them, the most painful situations were unexpected changes that caused short-term crisis. For R., it was the IRS collecting back taxes from his father. For A., it was her father taking on the added responsibilities of a second family like you have. Both resulted in highly variable levels of support that could not be counted on. R. solved it by setting up loans with the financial aid office to secure his ability to complete his education, with his father contributing what he could. A.'s family solved it by establishing a trust.

You've been in a very unstable situation now with United and probably will be for some time. It sounds like you've been able to absorb most of the impact for now, but another shock were to hit, where would that put you? That's where trusts, financial aid and insurance can help you establish expectations and ensure your commitments to both families can be fulfilled. A trust for example can own a life insurance policy, have your son as a trustee (or even your former wife) and insure both your regular contributions and other assets are focused on goals you share. The question isn't just about breaking the news to your former wife about the house, it's about deciding your goals for your two families and minimizing the risk that either won't be able to accomplish them. Especially now.

Ok, more than I'd ever expected to say or that you were looking for. But hopefully, this will be a helpful perspective to you.

--P.

Travel is something I truly love. But it takes a companion to really enjoy the experience. For the lonely road warrior, that often means chatting up a friendly concierge, bartender, colleague, or if one's lucky, a spouse on the far end of the mobile phone.

Replacing all those today for me is travel equivalent of an artificial pet, my treo, Kablog and you, my virtual reader. At risk for reinforcing my introversion, I decided to save my comments on Pittsburg for prosperity.

Add Vindigo to the mix and I think I may have found the perfect tool for the aspiring travel writer. Although it won't be enough to let me match the young host of Globe Trekker, I think this combo of guide, journal and communicator will be coming along on many trips.

I'm afraid a few minor criticisms must sneak in to mar the scene though. First Vindigo lacks many reviews, especially in second tier cities. Kablog has a very basic interface, not alowing one to separate the introduction from the body or an excerpt. But the worst sin is that it does not save the current state on exit so answering a call becomes a decision between losing one's work or missing the call. And finally the treo, while a miracle of usability, is still a clunky phone with a tiny keyboard.

Enough of that! The truly amazing aspect to this is that I have just created my second actual travel journal. The first took weeks in Europe to reach the point of cracking my logbook open one evening to try and remember all that I had seen. Now I have a way to jot down those thoughts whenever and wherever they arise. I hope you enjoy the experiences as I have.

"Why?" was probably my favorite word growing up. Heck, I guess it still is although now I put in a little bit more effort answering my own questions. So now for some thoughts on why I'm starting this web log.

At first, I heard about blogging in the news context -- but hey, that's what the new blog media giant wants us to hear, right? I'll grant that news blogs are a useful addition to the net to I've been impressed to see blogs come up on google searches for obscure topics. That said, I have no journalistic ambitions.

What really caught my attention was an article by Cory Doctorow, "My Blog, My Outboard Brain." I stumbled across this while flipping through Essential Blogging, trying to figure out why some otherwise sane friends had gotten into this fad. Information overload is something I understand and I've tried to developed habits to quickly process things. If you don't see me write down a request, you can be sure it will be gone from my mind within a minute. Similarly, I often try to jot down a few key points from conferences or books to remember. My files are littered with notes on things I thought were cool or relevant at some point in time. Hopefully, this site will give me a place to collect, organize and maybe even synthesize those collected factoids (btw, this is why some entries date back years--it indicates when certain materials were originally collected). Exposing those thoughts to the rigor of publishing and critique only increases the value.

I've tried to build a web site several times before, starting in 1994. Somehow though I've always ended up coming up with a few categories of stuff I should put online, but then never filling it out. I think the journal approach of discussing whatever comes to mind might be the ticket to overcoming that barrier. And as I set up this site, more things keep coming to mind that might be useful to weave into the mix -- developing different writing techniques, posting travel photos, sharing collected humor, hosting surveys, managing bookmarks, political commentary, etc...

It should be an interesting journey. Still care to come along for the ride?

It seems every blog talks a little about the how and why. I'll start off with the how for now...

First, thanks to Tarun for his obsessive search for the best blogging system and the must-have plugins for it. Jumping off from that base, I'm setup with Textile for easy HTML entry, Smarty Pants for fancy quotes and Related Entries for easy category-based links.

On the hosting front, I discovered that a DSL line with a NAT router is a bad way to go. Even local publishing was intolerable due to the slowdown across the NAT. Sitelutions has proven to be a great choice though, with low costs and that killer feature for those obsessed with synchronized e-mail, IMAP. They've also been very supportive of me as I play around with crazy open-source stuff such as PHP Surveyor and the MIT Virtual Customer demos (Configurator, Conjoint).

Finally, I've been experimenting with different photo album tools. Turns out that both Photoshop and Powerpoint have a built-in web gallery tool, but neither does exactly what I want. A shareware tool, PhotoThumbs, has good potential although I'm still undecided. Check out my post on Trekking the Grand Canyon for samples of each.

All in all, that is probably enough mechanics for now. Time to start building up some content and the writing habit. Of course I might get side-tracked by those look and feel issues--the base templates didn't thrill me, but I can't yet envision a better style.

UPDATE: Dec 30, 2003
Decided to remove textile. Unfortunately, I found myself switching between Textile and HTML and it just got confusing. When installed, it also makes bookmarklets without a formatting drop-down default to textile formatting for all blogs. Not good when one is supporting non-textile authors!

A couple years back, a small team of my MBA colleagues and I designed our ideal PDA/Phone combo device for a class project. Displaying the classical business-marketing arrogance, we ignored all engineering realities and designed something with the flair & size of a Zippo lighter while claiming the power of a laptop. Looking back at that design, I'm amused at how much I now find myself wanting a new Treo 600!

Our design, the "Sherpa", was a best-of-breed thief, starting with the dual phone / laptop design like the Nokia 9210 (now 9290) so the device could be used closed as a hand-to-ear phone or open as a pda with wireless earpiece. We then replaced the large and klunky keyboard with a BlackBerry thumb board and wished for a larger color screen. Of course we thought the then-popular Nokia 8260 was the perfect size for all this. Maybe someday. What really sold the class on our idea though was the fashion-oriented marketing plan. Who wouldn't pull out their Prada or 24k gold plate phone and put it on the conference table as a power totem?

Six months later, I found myself actually buying the first Handspring Treo 180. While I've enjoyed it, I do find myself wishing for a more phone-like form factor and a color screen. This the 600 will provide wonderfullly. However I do wish they'd found out a way to make the screen wider for a better web-experience.

UPDATE: Dec 2003
Got my 600 and loving it!

At the MIT Technology Day (aka a reunion), one professor S. Ansolabehere discussed some interesting facts on campaign finance reform that challenge the conventional wisdom:

1. Total campaign spending does not correllate with media prices across different markets. In fact there is a direct trade-off between different media channels (TV vs. direct mail) based on the relative price. One can thus conclude that politicians are actually rational (at least in this instance) and substitute an inferior good, direct mail, for television ads as prices rise.


2. While campaign spending has risen at a rate significantly greater than inflation, it actually correlates roughly to the rise in GDP. What has been stable over time is the 8% of the populace that contributes to campaigns. This extreme growth in spending one regularly hears about is actually just a natural result of the United States getting wealthier.


3. Although no routine influence buying has been demonstrated (apart from isolated instances), there does seem to be a slight anti-progressive influence on taxes that correlates with donations by the highest income brackets.

Reflecting on this, I was a bit surprised. I'd thought that campaign finance reform was important to keep our politicians honest. Now I wonder if it is really that important an issue? While we need to avoid the truly corrupt examples of certain other democracies, the current state of transparancy and competitive contributions among those of diverse viewpoints may be doing a surprisingly good job of keeping the overall system fair. Tweaks to ensure everyone is represented? Yes. An overhaul? Possibly more than really needed.

Hiking the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim is one of those trips you just have to do. To ensure I didn't lead us astray, we signed up for a guided trip with the Grand Canyon Field Institute.

At first, I wasn't too keen on paying for a tour. As it turns out, our guide and the group was great. Wayne taught geology locally and knew an amazing amount about the Canyon. He had an interesting story for every question we came up with. Not to mention all his important knowledge on how to not only survive, but how to actually enjoy 110 degree weather in a desert rich with water. Finally, the group's company was much appreciated on the trail and back in camp.

So without further ado, here's the photos:
* Adobe web gallery
* Native Powerpoint presentation
* Powerpoint web presentation
* PhotoThumb gallery
* Zip file

UPDATE: 12/29/03
These photos have been moved to the new Gallery. I'll leave up the other examples for comparision.

Flipping through ROI, MIT Sloan's alumni magazine, I was intrigued to find some research by "Prof. Joseph Doyle":http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle that discusses the impact of health insurance status on treatment decisions and patient outcomes. No real surprises here, but always nice to get some data to back up one's opinions. In this case, Doyle concludes from auto accident statistics that medical professionals are actively making decisions in the ER based on insurance status, independant of other variables. Even the Hippocratic oath must deal with economic reality it seems.

At the Siebel Scholars conference, I had the interesting opportunity to watch Dr. Arthur Caplan, William Kristol & Dr. Irving L. Weissman of Stanford debate Stem Cell research. My conclusion? The political environment on this issue is being shaped by the anti-abortion lobby without much regard for the facts...

Some of the more interesting points I found follow:

• Dr. Weissman: The compromise reached by the Bush administration (allow federal funding only for currently existing stem-cell lines) raises some scientific barriers:
  1) limited genetic diversity from only 64 source donors,
  2) no donor-specific cell lines for autologous transplantation,
  3) no disease-specific cell lines, either for hereditary or mutagenic (i.e. cancer) diseases


• Dr. Caplan: What is the definition of life?
  He prefers to focus on the interaction of the living cell with its environment. Thus when the blastocyst is implanted, one has a viable human. Another take is that after 12 weeks, we can observe neurons forming with something resembling "thought," detected as electrical impulses across synapses.

I'm afraid Mr. Kristol did not make any points I found relevant to the debate. The slipperly slope argument is just rather weak in my opinion. When challenged, he sought refuge in "abortion is murder" and stem-cell research brings us one step closer to death.

Here's one of my favorite pictures from traveling around India in 2000.

Rooting through the archives today, I came across some favorite quotes from high school:

"Don't let morality get in the way of doing the right thing."

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
-I. Asimov, Foundation

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."
-Reinhold Niebuhr

"A day you don't dance is a day wasted."
-Judith Cofer

"In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat --
for He grants sleep to those He loves."
-Psalm 127:2

"If you are going to get into real trouble, you should start laying the
groundwork early in life by being quiet, shy, a staight-A student, and
a dutiful child to your parents. It gives no end of pleasure when a
person like that throws a flaming bucket of gasoline into the Senate from
the visitor's gallery."
-P.J. O'Rorke

DON'T PANIC !!!
-Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy