I have just migrated my blog to Wordpress. Yes I haven't been blogging much in the past months. But I'm going to start up again. If you care, would love to have you continue to follow me. My new blog is located at agregov.wordpress.com.
I will be deleting this blog soon. So, update your RSS feed readers. Thanks!
As a few people have been asking me my opinion of the new Apple laptops, so I'm reposting an email note I sent out to a friend. Sums up my opinion in not too many words.
If I were buying a new laptop these days, I'd probably pick up one of the MacBook Airs. I think that's Apple's nicest machine. Beautiful display, light and portable. And then I'd likely connect it to an external display for home use. The new 24" display is pretty cool.
The big problem with the new MacBook Pro is the screen. As soon as I saw the specs I knew their would be a firestorm over the lack of a matte option. Photographers and designers don't generally like the glossy screens. I predict in the short run, the last rev of MacBook Pros will actually see a slight bump in their used value. And it will delay current Pro users from upgrading for awhile until the community figures out how to deal with it. Also somewhat worrying is the glass screen. If it cracks easier, that will be a disaster for sales. It almost seems to me that you now are required to get Applecare if you buy one of the new machines to protect yourself from a screen failure. Other than that, the track pad looks cool. I like the chicklet style keyboard better than the old one. And the asethics are great (though somewhat conservative in comparison to the Air).
As it's a v1.0, I'd hold off on buying unless you're really in need for a new machine.
Yes I'm still alive. Just haven't been much in a blogging mode. But this YouTube piece on Jobs caught my eye. Over the past year or so, Jobs has gotten a lot of praise for his brilliance as a marketer. I've never liked that description of him. Yes, he is great at marketing. But where I think he really excels as a strategist.
In this YouTube video, you'll see how Job's brain works. The video is really an internal training piece for NeXT. So, it reveals a lot more details about his thinking than one would usually see in a keynote. But if you watch closely, you'll see how he takes a very abstract and complex marketplace, the workstation market, and tries to simplify it and turn into easily identifiable segments. From this simplification, he is able to plot a strategy and communicate it to others in a very understandable way. As you watch the piece, compare his breakdown of the workstation market to how he breaks down the consumer and pro market for Apple products. It's very similar and most importantly, simple. MacBook Pro/MacBook. iPod/iPod Nano. Pro Tower/iMac.
In my opinion, Jobs' brilliance is not in making us lust to buy something. Though he has great aesthetic sense. His real ability is at taking a 10,000 ft level perspective of a market, breaking into a few basic segments and then targeting those segments with simple and straight forward products.
Oh, and hindsight being 20/20, his strategy was wrong in his presentation. He should have focused on bringing workstations to the masses. His real competitor was Microsoft not Sun. This would have meant a big price cut on NeXT boxes. That many have not been feasible at the time. But it was the only way they could have won big. IMO.
Can never get enough of Calatrava.
Tom Friedman's latest post on diversity in the United States.
Let’s start with us. Walking through the Olympic Village the other day, here’s what struck me most: the Russian team all looks Russian; the African team all looks African; the Chinese team all looks Chinese; and the American team looks like all of them.
It is amazing that with our Noah’s Ark of an Olympic team doing so well “that at the same time you have this rising call in America to restrict immigration,” said Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. “Some people want to choke off the very thing that makes us strong and unique.”Amen.
Got this via Presentation Zen, Ken Burns talks about the power of still photographs. He also tells of his meeting with Steve Jobs where they discuss the using of his name for the Ken Burns Effect. Fun excerpt.
Latest Nike commercial for the games. No one captures the romance and passion of sports better than them. Makes me want to go workout!
Via Joe, I found about this ridiculous event of Seattle riders "protesting" their rite to ride on city streets. King 5 has some video here about an altercation with a local driver during the most recent protest ride. I'm totally embarrassed for all my fellow cyclists in the city. I've road Ride of Silence before which I think is a positive event--to honor riders that have been killed by bike/car accidents and bring attention for drivers to pay closer attention to cyclists on the road. But Critical Mass seems like overkill (too much protesting for little likely gain). Politically, I'd be surprised if the City of Seattle pays attention to this sort of a group.
I've been commuting for years and never felt like someone was denying my right to share the road. Yes some drivers get way to close to me and sometimes flip me off because I've slowed them down by 2 seconds. But for the most part, every year more and more people start riding and more bike lanes get built.
No, I didn't crash on my bike. I crashed on my run today of all things. Picture this...and action!
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Scene 1
Cut to Andrej doing some trail running in Seward Park. He's in the zone today, running at about 8:30mi pace (good for him). Mind is elsewhere, listing out vacation spots for the year. Having a grand time. Scene 2
Cut to a still image of a 1 inch piece of rebar sticking up in the middle of the trail. Scene 3
Cut back to Andrej coming down the trail. Quick cut to his right foot getting caught on the rebar in full stride. Scene 4
Slow-mo! With Andrej's foot firmly locked against a piece of rebar, left comes forward at full pace. But with no right following, entire body flails forward head first down the trail with arms out by now to protect core and head. With enough momentum still in force, Andrej slides down the trail on his stomach, arms out in-front of body at this point as if he were sliding head first into home plate for the game winning run. Scene 5
Cut to mild mannered park walker up the trail who sees retardo runner's events unfolding ahead of him. "Whoa, what the F**k. That guy tripped over thin air. Wonder if he's OK?" Scene 6
Cutting back to Andrej, face down on the trail. "Mother 'explicative!' What the 'explicative' did I hit!?! Another explicative', 'another', and 'yet another.' Andrej get's up to investigate. Finds the rebar and then proceeds to to blame Seattle Park & Rec for his predicament. Marks the rebar for other runners and takes off back down the trail. Final scene
Cut back to mild mannered walker. "Guess he's OK."
Very cool video piece at the Whitney by artist Omer Fast.
