I just off the phone with an old High School chum. We got to talking about Bottom-Up Thinking as a way to set direction when a situation is unclear or changing too quickly. It was in the context of career, so I gave a lot of unsolicited advice … ‘natch.
From the Google Chrome OS announcement:
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.
Recently, I failed to notice a Google malware notice on some search results. In a scene straight from the late 90’s, I clicked on my browser, it crashed, followed by Windows crashing too. Been a while since I’ve seen that blue screen of death. Kinda missed it…not!
Recently I read “The Internet devalues everything it touches..“ While I wantedto dismiss the premise of the article out of hand, I think this will be a popular opinion. It is also worthy of study. After all, it is easy to get caught up in the idea that everything Internet is always better.
Looking at the continuing development of IBDTs [Internet-based disruptive business technologies] and their relative low cost of development and nearly free distribution, it is easy to see that once they become widely used and implemented, we will see a massive reduction in the costs of doing business.
We will know when this scenario has occurred, or is occurring because we will see the signs: a strong and continuing deflationary trend. We will see a continual erosion in the value of products and services.
In simple terms, the Internet devalues everything it touches. Anything that can be digitized. I’m using the term “devalues” in a strictly materialistic definition and not in a cultural “values” sense. And I’m using the term “Internet” to denote a class of distributed technologies and applications.
When I started this blog, it was named The Cotton Gin. I liked the name, and I liked the metaphor. I still do. So why would I change the blog’s name to the most boring thing possible: “John Conti’s Software Journal?” Blame my favorite company Google.
You see, when I looked at the Google Analytics data for this blog, I saw a bunch of searches for information on, you guessed it, cotton gins, the kind Eli Whitney invented. Google was putting more stock in the H1 and title tag at the top of every one of my pages, as opposed to all the other content, which never mentioned Eli Whitney (until now).
Sigh. I buckled to the pressure. It seemed like no service at all to those school kids working on social studies reports to end up here. Well, I’ve changed my mind (or lost it). I’ve decided to ignore Google. After all, one of the most prominent ads Google placed on my pages is for tires. So Google search and ads can’t be all that smart. SEO is one thing, following a dumb machine’s dumb ideas, is well…
I think groups going Agile need the one sheet Principles Behind The Agile Manifesto. Short and clear, it has a good chance of galvanizing change. In true contrarian manner though, I’d like to point out why blindly following these principles is a bad idea.
So I have watched the Google Wave introduction video and demo. You should too. If Google is successful at building, attracting developers to, and deploying this system, it very well might be the next HTTP. Web servers, domain names and all the other cargo of the Internet might just up and float away.
Now Google is capable of accomplishing this. They might also manage to screw it up. Google Wave is such a large venture, I doubt seriously if anyone will be able to predict success or failure. However, Google Wave is so important that to ignore it might just be fatal to an Internet business. That’s something to think about.
Recently the Wall Street Journal dove into some of the influenza death rate numbers that have been bandied about since the swine flu “outbreak”. Numbers can be particularly convincing, so finding new and “creative” ways to use them is a top priority for anyone with an agenda, even if the agenda is just to sell more media to panic stricken consumers.
The NY Times recently summarized a debate on using analytics versus human design at Google. I think it is amazing we’re having this discussion sometimes. My definition of engineering is “science for money”. Design and analytics are like two wings of a bird, one cannot engineer without both. Yet, analytics and design are often misapplied, and that’s why folks get stuck in this silly discussion, IMHO.
A book about blogging released in 2004, might as well be one of the dead sea scrolls considering how fast blogging and blogs have changed. However, Biz Stone’s “Who Let The Blogs Out?” is likely a classic. It is readable, useful (still!) and carefully lays out the basic premise of all collaborative software. No wonder Biz went on to become part of some, ehem, pretty interesting web companies (via Biz Stone’s blog). And I’m sure having such a cool name helped 
Last week I attended my first monthly meeting of Kickstand. I had heard about Kickstand several years ago, but wasn’t interested in finding venture capital or attracting too many clients without capital :^) If last week’s meeting was any indication, I’ve been missing a fine gathering of folks doing much more than networking. The panel presentation was entitled “Failing Forward.” The businesses and people on the panel were diverse, but the panelists’ experiences were very similar. That was interesting!