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A Still Verdictless Life
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Wednesday, July 31, 2002 |
One last thought before it's time to wake up the rest of the family. Broadband is a drug. I find myself spending more and more time reading/exploring the net because there's no latency. Jumping from site-site-site has no cost, so you can lose hours just...absorbing. While that's nice, it seems I have no off-switch for this behavior. I may have to add broadband to the Four Basic Food Groups list (caffeine, alcohol, sugar, fat). Worst part is that while I'm exploring, I'm not writing. Gotta get this under control.
7:55:11 AM 
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On my way today to beautiful Thousand Oaks CA to meet with a guy about helping his startup. I'm pretty pessimistic about the trip - 5+ hours of LA traffic to spend 2 hours talking about a business concept I don't quite get yet, with the obligatory demo. But you never know - the founder has a good track record, so I'll put in the time to listen to the pitch and see if I "get it".
But the drive is what's got me down. I *hate* long drives, particularly in Socal. It's more like Road Warrior all the time - periods of high speed, manic "the best defense is a good offense" driving, punctuated by screeching halts in all seven lanes for no apparent reason. I can't wait. Look for me on this site www.traffic.com/LosAngeles/index.html .
7:41:25 AM
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Mesh Networks www.meshnetworks.com , one of my favorite startup companies, finally announced an 802.11 compatible product. They've taken the logic used in their proprietary RF WWAN/WLAN product and made it an add-on for any WLAN cards. Turns your WLAN card into a wireless router/repeater. Could be very cool - I need to get the software and install it on the home WLAN.
6:50:35 AM
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Tuesday, July 30, 2002 |
Got the "Open links in new windows" script working. Slow but sure progress on the design details.
10:54:34 AM
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Monday, July 29, 2002 |
If Radio allowed backdating of posts, I'd stamp this post for about 10 days ago. On our recent Ojai trip, we decided against staying in the wonderful but pricey Ojai Vally Inn www.ojairesort.com , and instead opted for a B&B that looked good on the web and was more reasonably priced. We settled on the Emerald Iguana Inn www.emeraldiguana.com (at least the domain name was easy to secure). It was, in a word, fantastic. I've stayed all over the world, and this place was as nice a getaway as I've seen. Lush grounds, great suites, comfortable furnishings, a magical atmosphere at night - really quite the unexpected find. Highly recommended if you're going to Ojai.
5:09:05 PM
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Added two new features to ASVL - the "Email Me" link and the "Open Links in New Window" checkbox. Former works, latter doesn't. My site construction abilities suck, though I'm working on it.
The few people who really know me and know about this blog probably wonder why I'm trying to do page design/construction at my advanced age. Truth is, it has felt bad for a while to be a technology consultant/advisor with purely abstract knowledge. I haven't "gotten my hands dirty" for a very long time. I think my ability to see and explain the "big picture" to clients was degrading due to this lack of experience at the bottom of the digital food chain. Maybe it won't help, but I hope to have a more credible basis for my advice by learning some basics in web construction.
5:01:01 PM
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More bad news from The Firm today. Seems the Board decided that they had to renege on the previously announced stock price (private firm, internal trading, long story...see www.fed.org if you're interested). Market conditions are the public reason, though I have to believe it's purely an oversubscription problem. This is a very slippery slope. Once employees get the idea that the rules in a privately-traded stock are "flexible", their confidence has to go down, and the selling will increase (again). Not good news for those of us with too much net worth tied up in The Firm.
4:52:54 PM
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It's Monday, and I'm back at work..sort of. These days work means marketing and networking, now problem solving. I can't say I enjoy it as much.
To deal with the problem solving jones, I'm digging in website design and finally learning enough to read and write raw HTML. I've found that's necessary to be able to understand the pages that Radio produces for this site. While the basic site is nice, there are some simple tweaks I'd like to be able to do that require HTML and XML literacy. From there, I *might* move on to Radio macros - though I'm at least as likely to change horse and go the Movable Type www.movabletype.org direction. MT sites always seems a little classier, a little bit better designed, than other weblogs, IMHO. There's something about the tool and the people using it.
4:20:02 PM
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Sunday, July 28, 2002 |
OK, new content time. On further consideration of the question "...why would people do that?" (blogging), I propose the following ten reasons to participate in the weblog community:
1. Self expression (duh)
2. "Meeting" people with interesting ideas
3. Quiet time - blogging, like all writing, is a mostly solitary activity
4. Beats the hell out of watching network TV
5. Feels good to use the Net as it should be used - hyperlinked, interactive media
6. Produces something I can show the tax man for all those computer writeoffs I'll take this year
7. Exercises the writing muscles a little
8. Forces me to learn more about the details of web publishing
9. Beats the hell out of reading most newspapers
10. Satisfies the need to leave more than a fossil when I'm gone
I suppose everyone has their reasons, but these are mine.
7:35:46 AM
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As I look back on the week, it's been a poor week for writing - blog or otherwise. I think it starts when I hit the road, as I did on Monday the 22nd. The journey I took on the 22nd through the 24th was hellish, one of the worst set of flights I can remember. I considered posting all the details here, but decided to spare myself and others the shrill whining about non-reclining center seats, weather delays, poor service and bad food. But after three days of that, plus about 10 pages of note-taking, I guess my creative instincts were stunted.
What brings this up is the excellent evening with friends last night (thanks, Bob and Sandy), where one of the conversation topics was blogging. Turns out neither Bob nor Sandy had heard of blogs, and either wanted to learn more or were just being polite. The first question was, as always, "...why would anyone want to do that?". That's a tough one. What's my motivation?
I think for me it comes down to a need for reflection on life. I get lost pretty easily in life's complexity, in the hustle and bustle of everyday things. I need some mechanism for focusing on what's important, and savoring the moment a bit. Blogging satisfies that need.
I also believe that you're not a writer if you don't write. Sounds trite, but all my adult life I've had this shadow identity of "someone who can write", but of course I never took the time to do much of it outside the occasional work piece. So at least with a blog, the process of focusing thoughts and stringing whole sentences together satisfies the letter of that particular law, if not the spirit.
In considering this, I ran into an excellent survey on blogging at www.amytart.com/2002_06_01_archive.shtml#77462088 .
6:46:05 AM
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Monday, July 22, 2002 |
It must be something with golf this weekend. First the Open, and then the Michael Douglas celebrity tourney. The MD tourney was of interest because it was at Ojai, where I played just two days ago. It was very cool to see the celebs play the same holes and make some of the same mistakes. And, either they were pretty good or there was some really nice editing of their shots (likely). Nonetheless, it was fun to watch.
I'm watching a movie, "Joy Ride" www.joyridemovie.com , with my daughter and 3 of her friends. They picked the movie, not me. So far, it's pretty intense and only mildly objectionable - the F word a few times. It *is* a creepy story. Pursuit, the eerie voice, kidnapping, truckers...all iconic nightmare components.
4:57:40 AM
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Saturday, July 20, 2002 |
More Open comments. Just saw Monty hit a 3 wood on a 203 yard par 3, and came up 20 yards short due to the stiff wind and rain. Plus Woods is struggling, hitting balls right into the deep rough. He just took a double on a par 5! Unbelievable. I take my earlier comment back - I'd shoot 200.
Muirfield www.golfeastlothian.com/07.htm is on the "golf coast" of Scotland, otherwise known as the Firth of Forth. We were there a year ago, and played Nairn on that same coast. It was one of the coolest golf experiences ever. Today it's literally "cool" - there's a 38 degree wind chill on July 20th.
Got a headhunter referral today for a job that allegedly pays *very* well, heading up the healthcare practice for a pro-services company. That would be perfect for me, so I'll check it out. I need to start thinking about how to recover from the blow suffered in my transition from The Firm, so a big paycheck for a couple of years is worth exploring.
I'm seeing a lot of Sun Microsystems www.sun.com references all of a sudden. First Orlando, then Sun's rapid drop in the market yesterday (lost 25% of their already low value), some Sun commercials on the Open today, then a comment from McNealy about Sun's newfound commitment to healthcare. What does it mean? Is it a real cluster of coincidences, or have I just become sensitive/aware of the term? There's probably a formal term for this.
7:35:59 AM
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Watching the Open this morning from KY. This is my favorite golf tourney of the year, and this year, the course is playing unbelievably hard. So much for Bethpage Black being the toughest course we'll see this year. Just saw Mark O' Meara chip from a deep bunker onto a green, and then spin back 40 feet into a deeper bunker. I imagine I'd shoot 150 in the conditions they're paying in - tough course, high winds, cold rain, 3 foot rough...aacck.
I guess this is my first post from the Bluegrass State. Quite a bit to write about today.
First is the strangeness of this dual mode life I lead. Switching gears from CA to KY is always tough, but I'm finding it tougher and tougher. Last night I enjoyed the drive in from CVG, with rain, lightning and the usual pastoral scenery of the AAA highway. It was a fine moment. But this AM, the reality of the time shift (tired), the need to run out and stock up on food, and the need to do LOTS of lawn maintenance have made the weekend a lot less fun. Reality bites.
I'm getting company this evening - my old, old friend Mark Steffen and his family from Cincinnati, plus Dad and Phyllis. We'll have a semi-traditional summer cookout and swim party. Cookout for me; swim for the kids. We may also get some of Em's friends as well, though they won't likely want to spend time with the old folks. I wish Kathryn was here to enjoy the gathering.
7:33:01 AM
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Thursday, July 18, 2002 |
Day 2, Ojai, continued. Good discussion with Orlando Portale, Sun's new Worldwide Marketing Manager for HC. Small world...Orlando has a good idea about creating an open source model for HC apps. Might work, but will need companies to take on the productization and support of the OS components. Sure would be popular in academic medical centers.
Speaker from CareScience - lots of good statistics. Major point - clinical fragmentation, where the primary care provider (or any provider) has no insight into the care/drugs being given to a patient by others, even in the same system. Big problem, part organizational, part IT. <Is Care Science an offshoot of the old Care Data company? He's used the "Care Data" term a couple of times with a TM symbol. If so, his stock just went down with me.> CS has a pilot project at UCSB. CS also hired McKenzie (!) to do a case study for use of their product in an IDN or community. Surprise, the ROI is very positive. Citing a cost basis of $1/life/year, as opposed to $12/life/year for CDR approaches.
The more this guy talks, it sounds like the old Care Data story. Amazing that this is still kicking around - I met the principal in 1994.
Editorial comment - I continue to be amazed that many of these HCOs still make the decision to custom build their apps instead of buying them. It's strange. Some nice stuff gets built, but I don't believe any of these orgs have the capacity to do long term support of the app and its users - they're not structured to be a product company. Perhaps there's a business opportunity here, where someone could take on the product management / support of a portfolio of these home grown apps. Are there economies of scale here? Probably....no, definitely. Assuming only a few things about the apps, can use the same sode management, code distribution tools, and same bug fix teams. This begins to feel like a highly specialized form of outsourcing. Hmmm...
12:04:09 PM
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Notes from Ojai, Day 2.
My talk and my panel came off very well. I got lots of sincere congrats and attaboys. It feels good to be back in the saddle, evangelizing. I get more energy from public speaking than almost anything else. Also, my two other panelists were quite good, and stuck to the program. Good stuff.
Thoughts while on the panel: (1) check out Stentor; (2) focus more on why the audience should care about the topic, rather than detailed explanations of the content; (3) might want to offer to "manage" some of the speakers or panels for Rydell next year. They needed some organizational and facilitation help, before and during the event.
I like the Patientkeeper model, where a mobile platform (services, not just the device) is placed at the presentation layer, above the legacy app (Cerner, IDX, etc). Having the partnerships with those companies is key - you don't want to fight them.
Ran into more old friends / acquaintances - Bill Bria, and Ron Pion, who threatens to send some business my way. That would certainly make the trip worthwhile. Also, now have an invite to polay golf with Kopetsky et all this afternoon. The Ojai course is great, and there's something special about the afternoon light on the course. Not sure why, but it's striking.
Next topic/panel includes Lee Anne and Ed Kopetsky. First speaker is Charles Koo, CEO of iMedica. Hope it's not a sales pitch. He's focusing on wireless apps for MDs. Several good observations from Koo, including (1) need to support any input mode - click, writing, voice, templates; (2) PDA vs tablet form factor wars are a red herring - both form factors may be used in healthcare. Koo cited a $250K experiment with 802.11a that failed because of rapid signal degradation and corresponding bandwidth drop-off. He declares 11a not ready for prime time - he may be right. Perhaps orthogonal wavelength division multiplexing isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Shit, shit. I just lost a full page of notes from 2 speakers. Offline posting using Radio requires great caution - you CANNOT jump to another link from the editor mode and get back to the text being inout in the edit window - it's just gone. I've done this 2-3 times now, and it's *irritating*.
I lost the notes about Mercury MD and eMedicine. Merc MD is a company that pushes the day's data and work to a Palm platform. eMed is a company that provides online medical literature at the point of care. Cie la vie...have to remember not to jump out of context while I'm posting offline.
The next speaker(s) are my friends from HealthLink. Being last on the panel, a long panel, sucks. Only thing worse would be being last up for the day - there will be no one here at 2pm; we'll all be out on the course.
Lee Anne's co-presenter (Melinda Costin) has to deal with a balky laptop-projector interface. They're using an InFocus projector - wonder if this is typical for InFocus? Their talk - what it's like to go into a health system as a consultant and find a dog's breakfast (my term) of systems. First point: knowledge and tech capability have far outstripped care providers' ability to use them / absorb them. Second point: medical errors are still the #1 cause of death (and half off those are medication errors), and IT can reduce the error rate. <JCN: maybe, but not certain.> Third point: It's not just IT, it's people and process that make the real difference. Agreed for the nth time. She uses a good slide describing the benefits of CPOE - would like to get that.
Lee Anne finally gets to speak. "Integrating pharmacy with MD orders is one of the least advanced processes/systems around." Some guy just walked into the room talking on a cell phone, and is continuing the conversation in competition with LA's talk. Rude beyond belief.
LA's big message is about difficuly of integration the systems and the work processes across pharmacy and CPOE. This doesn't even include the Pyxis-style dispensing systems. (Note - I think the CEO from Pyxis was here 4 years ago with "a new, big thing".
LA cites "the 5 rights". Need to ask about that - is it from HIPAA?
10:09:00 AM
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Wednesday, July 17, 2002 |
Notes from Ojai, second topic - CPOE Implementation Case Studies. Big panel.
1st speaker is Doug Jones (ex-Kaiser), now CIO at Cedars Sinai. Have built a CPOE system called Patient Care Expert. PCX is a pure thin client app, web-based UI. PCX challenges: dev/test of content; way too many requests for enhancements; training 7000 people is a huge challenge; conversion of good medical advice to rule sets is difficult; change management (PCX is only way to place orders). Hospital made PCX competency a term of employment.
Doug mentioned that a strong business case led CS to make the investment in PCX. I'd love to get my hands on that business case.
PCX does Patient Mgmt, Orders Mgmt, MR Coding, Patient Accting. Runs on AIX. Have built own CDR. Has dozens of interfaces. Wonder who Doug used to build PCX - IBM proservices?
Next speaker - Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Ambulatory EMR strategy. Chose Cerner for their CPOE project. This speaker had a lot of good lessons learned, but he had to blow through them very fast.
Next speaker - the new VP/CIO of Stanford Medical Center. Lots going on here: have de-installed Oacis, have turned over CIO a couple of times; have installed IDX Lastword. What went well? (1) pharmacy integration and (2) portable wireless devices. What would they do differently? (1) mandatory MD training, (2) offer advanced training for shortcuts and power users, (3) pay more attention to use of rule sets and workflow, (4) put a process in place to deal with verbal orders, (5) would have done nursing documentation before CPOE, (6) paid more attention to organizational readiness and change management - had LOTS of churn with people and systems in the post-Oacis stage.
This guy's slides are a good template for why you need great proservices help in any CPOE project.
Just ran into Orlando Portale. Looks like he's now Sun's Healthcare Industry Manager. Cool...good for him. Seems he's moved back to San Diego.
Missed another speaker from Loma Linda. Advocated Big Bang approach for CPOE - good list of why. User training keeps being mentioned as the long pole in the tent for CPOE. Once again, it's not the tech, it's the people/process that is important.
Last speaker - John Fleming, Cerner. Presented Cerner's "Transformation Model". Looks like good content, but he's run out of time. <The moderator of this panel should be punished.> Spent time talking about a strategic planning roadmap, the big picture for rollout. Point is the #1 reason for problems is poor change management, not the app.
Last last speaker - an MD from Ohio State, director of ICU. Avowed complete non-digital guy. Interesting strategy - introducing himself via comprehensive denigration. Don't think I'll use this...
This is really pathetic - the guy has been talking extemporaneously for 10 minutes, while 2 people feverishly worked to get his PC booted and his slides projected, with no luck. Doesn't anyone prepare!?!?
OK, finally, an insight. The OSU guy notes that focusing on workflow is of limited value, because in his world care is a set of responses to random events. Good point. I guess the trick is focusing on the pre-programmed responses, and explicitly assuming that a response (workflow) can/will happen at any instant.
3:33:14 PM
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Notes from PCC, Ojai.
Feels good to be back at Ojai - it's been 10 years. Wasn't here 10 minutes and ran into some old friends and familiar people - Bill Spooner, Lee Ann Slinkard, Ed Kopetsky, Rich Rydell. Running into Lee Ann was particularly nice (other than introducing her as Lee Marley...ackkk). It helps to see some familiar faces.
First speaker talked about system selection - at least ostensibly. He cited Tufte's "Presentation of Visual Information" www.edwardtufte.com/1715886774/tufte/, plus a book called "The Logic of Errors". He used space shuttle O ring data to illustrate his point about presenting information properly. He spent some time describing why Google is great. The only link I could find to system selection is the notion that you need a good data model and flexible, specialty-specific presentation capability. Duh...He also cited the Gartner 8-part EMR model.
VP/CIO of Loma Linda: "...when you get right down to it, any vendor's product can do the job...". Implication is that selection must be made on some basis other than the product's function.
Another speaker - good insight - multi-tier architectures make system performance complex, even problematic. Pay attention to performance guarantees.
Spooner: advocates scenario-based selection process, because all vendors can/do lie in RFP responses. LL CIO advocates detailed Q&A being attached as part of the contract. Usabililty, workflow, integration are cited as things you can get from scenario-based selection vs. RFP-based.
1st speaker keeps citing Google as the model. Bad example, I think. Google can withstand casual use and even errors - it's not mission critical. EMR systems cannot afford to present a single error - very different problems.
LL CIO cites 5 year strategic plan as his saving grace when other executive staff turned over. CGEY person made the point that if you're not ready to really, really transform the way you do business, don't bother acquiring an EMR or major app. LL CIO is doing Cerner rollout right now.
Good system selection sources: (1) Product specific message groups; (2) Gartner and Dorenfest; (3) one of the speaker's own web pubs (KLAS?).
Interesting question - how decoupled is the data store from logic and presentation in the big apps (Cerner, Siemens, IDX)? If the data store is decoupled, you can do a best of breed strategy. Otherwise, it's big bang.
2:03:50 PM
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Tuesday, July 16, 2002 |
Had an interesting conversation today with a guy who's running the healthcare business in my most recent alma mater. Seems like a straight shooter. I sure hope so; that company needs lots of honesty. One of these days I may want to go back there.
Watching PBS right now, and seeing the unveiling of the President's "Homeland Security" plans. While it's obvious we need some constructive responses to terrorists, the whole thing seems a bit creepy. To start with, couldn't we come up with a title that doesn't immediately remind one of WWII Germany and jackbooted thugs? How about "National Defense"? Probably some PR genius in DC decided that we can't confuse the title with that of the DoD. It feels odd to be a staunch Republican and yet be uneasy at this obvious tilting of power to the right and center.
Got a chance to play a really nice course yesterday in a charity benefit tournament. The Yorba Linda Country Club was a classic, old-style southern CA course. Mature trees, great greens, and a well-run tournament. Charity was the OC Ronald McDonald House.
7:31:03 PM
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Monday, July 15, 2002 |
I've taken a few days off, no writing, just some browsing around favorite sites. Time to get back to work on several fronts.
The need to land a bigger project is acute. Money is the secondary issue; feeling productive is the primary issue. I've had more than enough time to relax lately. Meeting with several potential clients today - let's hope something pans out.
Also getting ready for a 9 day trip - 2 days in Ojai, speaking at a small healthcare/IT conference, 4 days at the KY house with my daughter, then 2-3 days in Chicago, speaking at another healthcare conference. Should be good for my professional network, but that's a while on the road. Though I guess the time at the KY house really doesn't count as "on the road".
6:44:21 AM
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Thursday, July 11, 2002 |
Posting offline for the first time. Since I pretty much live on my broadband connection, and I haven't traveled in a couple of weeks, I've not had reason to use this feature - but it's great! I don't know if Winer's offline post mode is unique (unlikely), but it sure is nice.
Been thinking a lot about NextCo. I keep thinking about starting a VAR business involving things I enjoy - digital technology, music, photos, gadgets of all kind. I keep coming back to the things that really frustrate me with digital tech today: (1) Zero or negative customer service for most products, (2) the incessant configuration/troubleshooting/setup/debug problems associated with connected digital toys. I think there's a need for a local-focused, service-oriented business - but coming up with a profitable formula for same is a little less obvious.
1:08:15 PM
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Dictionary macro moved - works OK.
I'm meeting today with two potentially interesting people: the CEO of a local company that does infrastructure services for MD offices and groups (see www.altient.com ) and the VP of Broadband Services for www.sony.com. Both meeting have potential for new projects and/or good personal network additions. Too bad I'm operating on 3 hours sleep.
9:41:26 AM
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More thoughts about 802.11 security: This paper by Tyson Macaulay ( www.ewa-canada.com/Papers/Hardening_802.11.pdf ) says it better than I can. Nice job.
Also, I *really* need to put the dictionary.com word of the day in my main or home template, not the daily template. The macro isn't smart enough to keep the previous words in previous days, and I'm not yet smart enough at writing these macros to make it do so. Probably belongs on the main page anyway.
8:15:45 AM
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Wednesday, July 10, 2002 |
Today's the birthday. Yippee. In years past I would have been pretty happy about it, but something changed in the last year and I am now *much* more acutely aware of the passing of time and how little of it may be left. A maudlin thought, that. I am trying to look at the bright side, which is substantial, but I can't shake the feeling that the odometer clicking over one more digit is no longer a good thing.
On more productive fronts, I need to bone up on 802.11x security for a set of conferences where I have a speaking slot. I'm having a hard time reconciling my view that 802.11 is a wonderful workgroup and collaboration tool with the more widely-held view that 802.11 is just not secure enough for corporate use. My take on that is yes, WEP is very weak as encryption goes, but so what? Most corporate data isn't worth protecting - for that matter, it's not worth publishing in the clear. I guess I have a problem with all the people piling on the "802.11 is insecure" bandwagon. All they're doing is insuring that companies will avoid the technology, when in fact WLANs with even minimal protections (WEP, RADIUS) are much more secure than the memos and papers that you routinely find in conference rooms and in trash.
I suppose I can summarize my position as "don't label 802.11 as too insecure for corporate use till you do some real thinking about the data you're trying to protect and the context". For example, do we really care if someone (with GREAT difficulty, from most people's POV) could packet sniff and eventually decode the minutes of our staff meetings? The only valid concern I can see is that once the WLAN link is hacked, the intruder is now able to snoop around the intranet and do...whatever application or data store-level security will let him/her do. Perhaps the answer is every WLAN access point should have an embedded firewall (have to do some research on that). Anyway, that's the big technical issue for the week.
9:35:48 AM
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Tuesday, July 09, 2002 |
After much research, there are still some very puzzling things about Radio Userland. Most of the directions I follow on Dave Winer's page aren't working for me - I wonder if I have a corrupt copy of the program?
But I'm spending all my time tweaking the site rather than writing. How do people manage to do both?
Tomorrow's the birthday, and I can't say that I'm looking forward to it. I'm just not sure enough about where I am right now (mostly professionally) to be real thrilled about celebrating a milestone (more like a millstone). This "going it alone" has some bigs pros and cons, and between projects, the cons shout loudest. I find my self thinking about working for a company again, with all its concommittent baggage, just to have the steady focus and community. But just thinking so far...
On more productive ground, I've pretty much decided to go back and write one of the better items in the idea file - either "Emergence" or "the telepathy idea" - as a book rather than a screenplay. The screenplay format all of a sudden seems so constrictive. That's the tradeoff: 100 finely crafted pages, where every word counts or 300 rambling pages. Some of the ideas are just too hard to get across in dialogue and pictures, or so it seems right now. But that's where I should be spending my time - creating content rather than format.
12:13:09 PM
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Monday, July 08, 2002 |
Still can't get the picture tool working. Shit.
6:09:12 AM
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Sunday, July 07, 2002 |
So it's the end of the 4th of July holiday. It's been good, and very laid back. The hole in one on the 4th is still the highlight. Today has been about as relaxed as it gets - a long online session in the AM, reading the NY Times and working on the weblog layout; a 3 mile hike in the afternoon; a long lazy read of a good novel; and now the realization that it's back to the real world tomorrow.
Kathryn and I are making plans for a short trip to Ojai the week after next, where I'm speaking at a small health care / computers conference (www.keeneresearch.com/pcc.htm) . Ojai is a wonderful spot ( www.ojairesort.com/) - I always enjoy being there. Beautiful countryside, and a great golf course.
The Bourne Identity was pretty good - not as good as Minority Report, but pretty good. I had read some pretty pointed criticism of Matt Damon's acting in this one, but I found him to be as believable as anyone could be in a role where you're basically Superman. That was the movie's biggest problem - that no matter what Bourne (Damon) came up against, he defeated it so easily that it was boring by the end. Anyway, still worth 7 bucks.
7:00:46 PM
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Saturday, July 06, 2002 |
Looks like this could become a new obsession. Could be worse.
Finally found the way to add new navigation links to the left frame - had to fall back to editing XML directly. I guess this'll be good for me; been a while since I touched code and scripts.
The Nichols Group webpage, now linked, looks pretty lame. I suspect I'll redo it with Radio and XML.
Going to see The Bourne Identity tonight. I remember reading the book long, long ago - I discovered Ludlum and Trevanian as a kid. Took a while to get the film made, I guess.
A hint for my friends - the best move review site going - at least the best quick view - is www.checkthegrid.com . Excellent resource.
5:48:16 PM
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Note to self: took this out of the item template. Put it back later if I still want to do categories this way.
<br><%
local (ret = "");
for cat in @radio.weblog.init()^.categories {
ret = ret + "<a href='categories/" + cat^.filename + "/'>" + cat^.displayName + "</a> ";
};
return ret;
%>
Force update now.
4:35:28 PM
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Opportunity and Motive: Not that blogging is a crime, but I’m still in the early stages of examining my motives. Why would anyone do this? In my case, it comes down to opportunity and motive. For over 20 years I’ve gone into the office every day like a good soldier boy, most weeks traveling to other cities and sleeping in hotels (OK, good hotels, but it’s still pretty miserable). For all that time I put 95% of myself into the work, making a little money for me and a lot for my employers. Not smart. But having made the break, I now have the unimaginable luxury of entire days with nothing to do – at least nothing I have to do. I always knew there were people who lived like this, but they kept it very quiet. (Would someone please tell me when is the next Socal meeting of the leisurely middle class?) So I’ve got opportunity – but what’s the motive?
I guess it’s just the need to write. Self expression. I have several writing projects in progress – a screenplay, a technical paper, a novel – but blogging has the advantage of needing no one’s approval for publishing except mine. It’s the most pure form of writing I know – in movie terms, I’m scriptwriter, director, and producer. Not bad. So anytime I need a dose of publishment, I can blog. Other forms of writing take longer to see through to print (or display, or electrons), and ultimately I am a citizen of the Fast Food Nation (www.mcspotlight.org/media/books/schlosser.html).
Discovered a great new voice on CD – John Mayer (www.johnmayer.com ). Kind of a cheesy corp website, but...what talent! Sort of a cross between Van Morrison and Dave Matthews, guitar and all. Bought his new disc, and have played the grooves off it (bit of an anachronism, that). Trouble is, he’s only 23 years old. How can someone that age produce something so wonderful? I can’t decide whether to be irritated or depressed. But go out and buy the CD.
And I suppose I should mention that this site's name is taken from one of Mayer's songs. You figure it out.
1:28:58 PM
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I’m between jobs (projects) right now. The strangeness is setting in. I’ve worked constantly for 23 years; have only been without the safety net of a full time employer once, in 1994. The fact that I willingly walked away from a job “in the mid six figures”, to use the politely vague vernacular, some days strikes me as intensely stupid. I have to make my self remember how unhappy I was. There’s just no amount of money worth being unhappy most of the time – odd, but true. So, five months into my journey and between gigs, the strangeness seeps into my soul. How do people live like this, with so much free time? I’m trying to use the time productively (this blog, for example), but I get the feeling that I’m very, very bad at using my time productively, alone. I’d actually be pretty happy just reading all day, most days. I heard somewhere that what you do when you’re truly alone is what defines you. Frightening thought, that one. There are worse things than being defined as “a reader”, but it’s pretty passive. Not my internal view of myself.
As for being between projects, I really got lucky, landing the first couple of projects fast. The medical device project (link) was fun; I met some great people; I learned a lot and I contributed a bit. And I got paid, always a Good Thing. But I got lucky because I don’t think I could have taken a long hiatus right after I made The Leap. The worry about money, on top of all the other whiny self-dissection about whether I made the right decision or not would have sent me spinning into the void. As it was, I had enough structure to keep me going – a good transition.
12:26:19 PM
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I can’t decide if this blog is going to be personal or professional. I’ve never really reconciled those two sides of my existence. I’m leaning toward the professional, because the alternative is just too embarrassing/sophomoric/uninteresting/maudlin/whiny. After all, does anybody really care what I’m thinking – what I’m doing and learning and reading has to be much more interesting. Also, to focus on things personal would mean potential embarrassment by my friends and family, who on occasion might not appreciate the things I have to say. All this said, why do I get drawn to the intensely personal and introspective sites like blueblog (www.mybluehouse.com )? Netted out, I think my blog role model is more along the lines of evhead (www.evhead.com ) or even davezilla (www.davezilla.com ).
I *am* intrigued by the potential for blogs in corporate life (once a corpguy, always a corpguy). It seems they’d be wonderful vehicles for documenting major meetings, offsites, conferences, big client events. I can also imagine using a weblog to keep a development team in synch.
12:25:20 PM
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Every blog seems to have this tucked away somewhere. IMHO, it says more about the author than any bio. So here my list of Things I Hate.
Feel free to send me your own entries. These are mine. My hope is that by writing them down, I exorcise the demons and gain some ability to empathize with these icons of evil.
· Tailgaters
· Gantsta rap lyrics
· Telemarketing calls
· The unrelenting slide toward old age and feebleness
· Britney
· People who won’t eat my cooking because of their stupid diet
· Cowboy hat wearing country music stars who’ve never seen the country
· Customer support
· My golf swing
· Helping other people use Microsoft’s terminally screwed-up software
· Saying goodbye
· Passive aggressive behavior
· Duke basketball
· Memory loss
· My small participation in The Disco Era
12:18:44 PM
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I read something today that really rang true and gives me hope. It’s in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,720305,00.html, a UK rag that I just have to read more often. There’s a lot in this article, but the bit that rang true for me is the thought that in 2002, post-Internet bubble, we’re only left with the geeks, the True Believers. 1999-2001 were filled with suits, marketers, and people who were only in the tech business because it was (a) cool, and (b) lucrative. Now, to be in tech you have to *really* want to be in tech. I like that. It’s the way things were when I started, back in 1979. I didn’t even bother to try and explain what I did for a living back then – I’d just say “I’m an engineer”, and people would nod their head as if they knew. If I’d said “I’m part of the team designing the world’s first massively parallel processor, one that will let us manipulate digital images a million times faster…”…Hmmm, now that I think of it, that’s what I should have done. The reactions would have been interesting. Anyway, the fact that We Who Are Left are hard core tech fanatics is a positive thing. Perhaps the next few years will be fun.
12:15:47 PM
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Biggest news of the weekend - I got my first hole in one, after 20+ years of golf! It was very cool. Happened at Tecolote Canyon www.golfsd.com/tecolote.html on July 4th. It was the 6th hole, 138 yards, uphill. I used an 8 iron and hit a perfect, towering shot. Kathryn, Bob Brown and Sandy Holloway all witnessed it. Very cool - still brings a smile to my face 2 days later.
I'm well and truly addicted. Even after playing 3 days in a row, I'd gladly go out again today. Oh well...
12:09:42 PM
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Uh-oh. Big test this time. Added a catergories macro that I only have a faint idea of what it really does. Better now..
11:53:17 AM
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Added comment macro to item template. Works?
11:37:47 AM
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OK, I just uploaded 2 more pictures to the site via the Upstream file. They definitely go "somewhere" - the upload script works - but so far, I've no ability to access them on the public home page or the home/edit page. Ackkk
11:18:02 AM
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OK, this is another test. My intent is to have 2 major categories for the blog - one set of posts for people I know, one set just for the world - the latter less personal and more of a narrative describing work and profession.
It would be nice if the Friends/Family category could be passworded. We'll see.
10:42:44 AM
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OK, I'm sold. Amazing! I've got a blog more or less up and running in 10 minutes, with no technical work whatsoever. Now to get down to the hard part - site design and content.
Thanks to Dave Winer.
10:11:25 AM
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First post, 7-6-02:
Not exactly original, but...this is a test. After rummaging through the weblogs of others, it seems that Radio may be the best/fastest way of getting a blog started. We'll see.
9:59:44 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Jeff Nichols.
Last update: 8/28/2002; 6:52:39 AM.
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