What about a "stupidity" pill?

There was a great quote from the movie "The Sixth Sense" that shortly after it came out was completely transformed/modified into an even better quote:

"I see stupid people. They're everywhere. They don't know they are stupid."

I was talking at lunch with some coworkers about large drug companies and the fact that they are heavily incented to find drugs to treat chronic diseases, since you have to regularly take the medicine, resulting in good ROI for the drug company. Chronic pain, obesity, etc.

So why not a drug to treat stupidity? It's a common illness. If you could just improve IQ by 10 points with a daily drug, wouldn't that be great? Of course, smart people would end up taking it, too, so I guess it would be more accurate to call it IQ booster or IQ vitamin, rather than a stupidity pill.

But what would it feel like to be 10 IQ points smarter? Would everything suddenly get easier? Would everything be instantly boring? Could you even tell?

I think there's a lot of money waiting to be made here, but by somebody much smarter than me.

Yahoo! getting bought by MSFT?

Wow.

I've been speculating about this with some friends recently, that if we dropped below $20 that we'd be ripe for acquisition and that the most likely target would be MSFT for exactly the reasons listed in this article. In addition to providing a competitive alternative on the advertising front, a combined MSFT+YHOO would *own* the global markets for email and messenger, plus have an unbelievable mobile presence.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Voting along party lines

I'm sure to hear a lot of reasons why I'm wrong on this from both Democrats and Republicans, but I really dislike it when people vote entirely along party lines. I feel like there is a tacit acceptance that the party's position or candidate is the best person, and relieves the voter from the responsibility of examining the issues or persons sufficiently in-depth.

It's almost like our political parties have become larger-than-life versions of college mascots. I will unabashedly vote for Duke over Carolina every time, and will happily question anyone's intelligence who likes the Tar Heels. But at least I know that I'm being biased. Correctly biased, of course, but biased.

But when it comes to the people who are going to run the country, or the decisions we're making, shouldn't we pay a bit more attention?

I'm not saying that Republicans won't end up voting for the Republican position or candidate anyways, but at least take a serious look. I guess you could argue that this is the role of the primary, for the party to identify the best candidate. I can sort of buy that. But if my best candidate is still not as good as yours, shouldn't I vote for yours? There's no pride as stake here, just our future.

Of course, I'm one to talk. I'm an independent, and theoretically should be paying close attention on both sides of the fence, but the reality is that I'm overwhelmed with work and life and end up trying to catch up at the last minute anyway. I'm the reason we have an electoral college to begin with. But then again, so are people in each party who blindly pull the party lever without looking under the covers...

Hiring good people

Every book on management or successful business talks about hiring great people. But very little of what I've seen suggests how to *identify* those people.

However, I went through a recruiting/interviewing class that was fantastic earlier this week. The guy leading the class (who wrote a book on this subject), said that the absolute key thing to interview for is "motivation", which you can *only* tell from past performance. His 3 take-away messages were:

1) Write a 'real' job description - Write specifically the person needs to deliver in the first month, first quarter, etc., not what characteristics or background they need. That way you get people who self-identify that they can and want to do what you need.

2) Don't make an in initial impression until you've finished interviewing the person. People who are affable, nice, etc aren't necessarily good candidates. Don't get sold by their outward presentation; focus on what they've done, and if it matches what you need them to do.

3) Never hire people who competent but who are not motivated. Motivation is what sets apart people who make your team great and people who make your life a lot of work.

It was an awesome presentation. I am sure I can put it to good use, too.

The best of CES 2008

I never do get around to blogging about CES while I'm actually there. Too much walking, too little sleep, too hard to get internet access.

But as usual, CES was insane. Tons and tons of people. Enough electronics running to be seen from space if it wasn't all under a roof. And of course lots of TVs and other electronics. Like 100 Fry's electronics stores all in one place. Heaven and Hell, all mixed together.

There wasn't much new this year, but here were my TOP TWO things from the show:

#2: Panasonic 150" Plasma
This is like, the biggest TV EVER. It's the size of a number of the walls in my house. Wow. It was so big that some of the videos made me ill to watch... almost gave me vertigo.

#1: BUMBLEBEE!!!
The DTS (surround sound) booth had an *enormous* replica of the transformer Bumblebee from the movie. It was like 2 stories tall. AWESOME! Now if only it transformed.

Vegas is ridiculous

I end up posting about Las Vegas every time I go there. I can't help it. The place is completely ridiculous on so many levels. I don't know why, but it makes me think of Rome back in the gladiator era. Completely dedicated to personal pleasure (aka sin) and excess, and bragging about it all the way. Very tantalizing, even fun, but ultimately very empty.

Everything is huge. Everything is about pleasure (e.g. sex, gambling). Everything costs a fortune.

On the one hand it's impressive, but for the most part I really dislike it. You are forced to walk endlessly through a complex maze of slot machines, shops, and past numerous adult entertainment opportunities just to get to the elevator to your room. Or the bathroom. Ugh.

I was sitting "outdoors" on the patio of a restaurant for breakfast this morning that was INSIDE the lobby of my hotel. It is freaking enormous. And they are *constantly* building new and bigger casinos, etc. Complete insanity.

However, I did get to spend some quality time with coworkers, have some nice food, and maybe most fun, went to two different dueling piano bars, which I've never done, and had a great time both times.

But I'd be ok not going to Vegas.

Compuslively helpful?

A co-worker of mine made a very interesting observation about me today, which is that I'm "compulsively helpful". What she meant by that is that if I see something that could be better, or more efficient, whether in my domain/responsibility or not, I almost cannot help but offer assistance or input.

I think she's right. It's interesting for me to reflect how the best intentions can have very unintended and opposite results.

My sister would probably second this if I think back to all the unsolicited advice I gave her growing up. And I'm sure Soph would resonate with this.

That co-worker is correct, though. It *is* compulsive. I have a hard time even imagining a case where I would see something and be able to hold myself back from offering assistance. Wow. Clearly something to think about/grow in.

The Elves of 2007

Since I posted about the existence of Christmas Elves the other day, I thought I'd follow up with a list of some of the Elves that came to visit this year:

The Like-it Elf
The Cozy Elf
The Naughty Elf
The Here & There & Back Again Elf
The Early Morning Elf
The DC Elf
The Lounging Elf
The Rival Elves (apparently from NC State and UNC)
The Asana Elf
The Shiny Elf

And I know that at least a few different Elves showed up out in North Carolina this year at my sister's house (where most of my family was this year):

The Sartorial Elf
The Chance Elf
The Self-Serving Elf

T-Minus 48 hrs to Orange Rolls

My family has a number of long-standing Christmas traditions, most centered around food in one way or another. One of my favorites, though, and one that I've continued since leaving home, is to have Orange Rolls (family recipe) and bacon for breakfast on Christmas day.

Orange Rolls are light and fluffy (at least how I make them) with a mild Orange taste and an orange glaze. And bacon is, well, salty. Salty-sweet perfection. mmmmm.

And it's the perfect breakfast to eat over the course of the gift-opening marathon that takes place Christmas morning.

[sigh] so good.

can't wait.

Christmas is for the Elves

You may not believe in Santa Clause, but at least his Elves are real. At least in my family. Every year I get a number of gifts from various Elves, most nice, some used, some, well, mischevious. And I love it.

My family loves to give gifts, and we give (and get) a lot of them. The typical Christmas morning takes maybe 3-4 hours because of the number of gifts, and because we open them one at a time. Awesome. (plus orange rolls and bacon, double awesome, but that's for another post)

And a lot of those gifts are from Elves. For example, I frequently get great books from the "Used-Book Elf", who must frequent used-book stores looking for the books that other folks in the family have read and enjoyed. I *never* get a used book from someone in the family, even though they have obviously read the same book the Elf is giving me, but then, who gives a used book on Christmas? It's just not right. But the Elves have their own thinking about what's right and what isn't. And the "used-book elf" is a personal favorite since that Elf has particularly good reading taste.

And of course there's the "Sartorial Elf" who leaves me looking dapper. Or the "Cozy Elf" who keeps the whole family warm. There are even college-specific Elves. I know of ones from Duke, Florida State, Miami of Ohio, Vanderbilt... they're everywhere.

And let me tell you, the Elves are multiplying. Every year some new Elf shows up. Or a whole cadre of new Elves. It could be scary to think of this hidden race, slowly propogating without most of humanity's knowledge, except that for the most part they're benign, even benefecial; I mean, the gifts are usually good!

So long live the Elves.

+3:54 of fame

A month or so I ago I presented to the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) in Los Angeles. Afterwards I was interviewed by BnetTV, an online news source. I'm only mentioning it because I clearly need to add it to my "fame counter" (previously at 15 seconds). However, I really can't watch it; maybe you can.

Fame Counter Total: 4:09

Still don't have my face on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, so I haven't won the $5 bet with my college roommates about who will end up there first.

Modern gift giving to the nth degree

More and more I see friends and family members either giving or asking for gift cards for Christmas. On the one hand, this is great, because they can buy exactly what they want, and if they like shopping (many of the women in my immediate family don't seem to mind), they get to enjoy that, too.

However, it does seem a bit strange to me when two people exchange gift cards.

"Here, I got you $50 to REI".
"Oh, thank you! That's so great. And here's your Christmas present, a $50 gift certificate to Macy's!"
"Awesome!"

Ok... so why don't we just spend our own money on ourselves on behalf of each other? For example:

"Hey! I spent $50 (that I saved myself) to buy a new fleece at REI for myself on your behalf! Thanks and Merry Christmas!"
"Oh, that's great. I spent $50 to buy a new coat at Macy's for myself on YOUR behalf! Merry Christmas to you, too. "

Not quite the way it worked with the Wise Men, I suppose, but seems like the logical conclusion to this trend.

Of course, half the fun of gift giving is *giving* the gift, and figuring out what to give the person is what makes it both fun and meaningful. So while I don't mind getting gift cards, I much prefer to give a tangible present.

Strengths Finder

I realized that I never blogged about this, but I found it on my desk today while cleaning up a bit. A number of months ago my team went through the Strengths Finder program, which is sort of a businessy version of a personality test, to find out what our underlying strengths are (so that we can theoretically focus on leveraging them, rather than trying to fix our weaknesses).

Here were mine:

Futurist
Ideation
Strategic
Communication
Activator

Here are the definitions:

Futurist: People strong in the Futurist theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

Ideation: People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Strategic: People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Communication: People strong in the communication theme generally find it eway to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Activator: People strong in the Activor theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.


Fits me pretty well. The really interesting part for me, though, was in the more detailed descriptions, which I'll post later if I can find them. Basically, at least 3 of the first 4 strengths all say that I should partner with an "activator", which is my 5th strength! Split personality?

An unbelievable home-grown dinner

My dinner at home tonight was AWESOME! I got home late after working late and working out afterwards, so just grabbed things from the fridge.

But the key thing I grabbed and that made the dinner amazing was a bunch of *enormous* mission figs from the fig tree in our back yard!! The figs were so ripe they were like jam inside. Ohmygosh.

So I had fresh figs, fresh figs with prosciutto, fresh figs with goat cheese, and fresh figs with goat cheese and prosciutto. What an intensely luxurious but simple dinner.

Figs are the bomb. Now if only I could get mangos to grow in Northern CA...

Quintessential UK, Ireland, Hogwarts, and Vancouver

I was out in the UK and Ireland last week for a few days for work, and had a few really quintessential experiences.

On Tuesday I had a great Indian dinner, which is, of course, pretty British.

On Wednesday I went to Ireland and had a Guiness, which was noticeably better than what we get in the states. It's apparently not pasteurized in Ireland, since it gets drunk fast enough not to need preservation, and it's on tap, all of which meant it was sweeter and slightly less bitter aftertaste than the US variety. And then I had an amazing Moroccan dinner back in the UK later that night. (We were unable to eat dinner before 9pm any night, no matter how hard we tried.)

On Thursday I was back in the UK and took off for Hogwarts. For proof check out the pic of me above at King's Cross Train Station. (Don't mess with me; I know some bad-ass spells now.) I also had a fantastic Tapas dinner that night, which underscores the international flavor of the UK.

On Friday I got up early and went for a run with a co-worker and had the most amazing run. We left the hotel, made two turns, and just jogged along a random street. We ended up passing through Trafalgar Square with the statue of Nelson, and then on past Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and down along the Thames, then back again. Amazing. I got all my touristing done in less than 30 minutes.

Unfortunately we were late leaving Heathrow on Friday night, and so missed our connection in Vancouver, and were forced to stay the night. We were hungry (even though we'd eaten dinner twice already that long day), and went for Chinese! There were only about 20 Chinese restaurants within a 3 block area of the hotel. Food was good, too. It was a good trip for eating dinner. Lunches were another story for the most part, which is why I haven't described them here.

Is oneSearch one of Yahoo!'s Top 10?

ReadWriteWeb has an article on Yahoo!'s top 10 services, and oneSearch came it at number 9! Considering that other products on the list are things like Yahoo! Mail or Yahoo! Answers, that's pretty cool.


Of course, it should have been number 1...

(thanks to Danny Chai for the link)

Real Ultimate Power

One of my college roomate, RD, and his wife Maria are town for the weekend for a wedding, so we had a "traditional" steak dinner last night with them and the Camps. yummy.

RD mentioned a pretty hysterical YouTube video to me called "Ask a Ninja" (and this particular clip is a great explanation of what podcasting really is), which made me remember a very old but also very funny website, which is all about Ninjas.

Workaholics Anonymous...

Is there any such organization? I think I have a problem. Every time I come back from a vacation, I'm so energized that I go completely nuts at work and risk burning myself out too quickly. I know I should take it slow, but I don't *want* to.

I've been back at work after my vacation to Alaska for 1.5 weeks, and have been working some serious hours every day since then (weekend excepted). And I find myself wishing their were more hours I could put in. I even find myself thinking about doing stuff over Labor Day weekend - for fun - but thankfully I'm not so far gone that I will actually do that.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned once before, work can be incredibly addictive, especially when you're doing something you love, and when you are needed. I'm addicted right now.

At least I've managed to stay away from caffeine for the last two months, even in the midst of all this insanity. I have to admit that I feel better overall as a result, even more awake in the mornings than when I used to drink coffee (although now I drink decaf, since I like a hot beverage).

Upside Down

Soph and I took a 3 hr yoga workshop this Saturday that was all about "inversions", which is a yoga-ese way to say "upside down". We did two types of headstand, handstand, forearm stand, and shoulder stand. Amazingly I got upside down for at least a split second on each of these. Easily the most fun, though, is forearm stand, although I can't really explain why.

I'll probably keep practicing hand-stands the most, though, since I've wanted to be able to do them since I was a little kid.

For what it's worth, a 3 hour yoga workshop is exhausting. I slept 11 hours Sat night and still needed a 2 hr nap on Sunday. Whew!

a Voice in the Wind

I don't know the last time i read a book that made me tear up, or if that has *ever* happened to me, but it did last night. I am reading a series of books by Francine Rivers that Soph read and recommended to me, and as I finished reading "An Echo in the Darkness" I had to stop and take my glasses off to wipe my eyes so that I could see the pages. That's a new experience for me.

The story (fictional) and the characters are just unbelievably challenging on a personal level for me. Some characters represent me, and others who I wish I could be. I can't really explain it. But it moved me.

Pink elephants

I got an SMS from RD today saying something to the effect that he was "on vacation, and what do you use to catch pink elephants?".

I think the answer is obvious, and gave it to him.

To catch pink elephants you use pink elephant bait, without the bobber.

Is GMail the leader in Mail?

Um, no. People in Silicon Valley have a bit too much Google fever, sometimes.

According to comScore Media Metrix over 80 million people used Yahoo! Mail in May, vs. 15 million people using Gmail. Yahoo! Mail also accounts for almost half of all online duration spent in the Mail category, 10 times the amount of duration spent in Gmail.

Yahoo!'s the leader.

This burns me up

I haven't been following the blogging world closely for the last year since I joined mobile, so I just saw today that Google acquired Feedburner, probably last week. What completely drives me crazy is that I pushed for Yahoo! to buy this company two years ago, again and again, and we could just not get over the cost.

So does it matter? Maybe Yahoo! didn't need it... Well, no, I think we missed something. Feedburner fits into the "analytics tools" category that is so appealing to publishers. Yahoo! claims to care about publishers, and yet we do not do anything to engage with the blogging community other than purchasing a ping service, blo.gs.

[sigh]. I won't bother to go into detail about the why's and if's, but let's just say that it's frustrating b/c I feel like Y! missed on a really obvious opportunity.

What blogging system to use?

I've been using 360 now for a while, and it's ok, but I feel a bit cramped in terms of how the page looks, and all the extraneous social networking features that never really succeeded are sort of just in the way now. I've basically switched my social network to Linked In (professional) and Facebook (personal).

360 is now only my blog, but not a very good one at that. I've thought about switching to blogger, and have even gone so far as to cross-post the last few postings there, but haven't really committed yet.

Anyone got an opinion about the best service to use?

Transformers, Reviewed

Um, Optimus Prime. Need I say more? This movie kicked ass front start to finish. Awesome, especially if you loved Transformers as a kid.

Eyes on the Prize

I read a really interesting little book over vacation called "The Dip", by Seth Godin, that talks about when to quit at something and when not to. The basic premise is that anything worth doing will have a long hard stretch in the middle, but that all the rewards are at the end, after that hard stretch. If you're going to quit when you get to that part, you shouldn't ever really have started. If you're going to start, you should see it through. In order to live like this, you have to know what you're pursuing and why, and be intentional about it.

I also went for a run while on vacation this past week in a spot where a long, straight section of sidewalk had been creatively laid out with a number of undulating curves. I realized (because I am a lazy runner) that if I kept my eyes on the very end of the long stretch that I could actually run less distance by running a straight line without taking any of the curves. Anytime I found myself looking off to the side, or nearer than the far end, I ended up running the curves, and taking a longer route.

All of this made me reflect that I get unbelievably caught up in my work, to the point where it pushes everything else in life out. I end up running the curves, and not really focusing on the goal. Furthermore, I'm not always running after the right goals. While I'm a believer in the products I work on, and I love building them, I *know* that they in and of themselves are not my life's purpose. What am I really trying to achieve, and why?

I went to a wedding yesterday of a couple of friends, Melanie Chan and Greg Jimmerson, and it was a fantastic ceremony. It was a fairly non-standard ceremony in many respects, but one of the most meaningful I've been to in a while. One of the things that really struck me was how intentional both Melanie and Greg were not only in their relationship, but how intentional they both were and are in the *purpose* of their lives individually, and now together. They went so far as to write up a family mission statement that they printed in the bulletin. Their mission is:

To bring glory to God
By reflecting the love and truth
Of Jesus Christ
To each other and the world

Freakin' awesome. I want my life to reflect the glory of God, and to share with others what Jesus freely gave. *THAT* is what I want to be my life's goal.

But how does that fit with my day to day life, which is manic? I want to build great products. I want to "win" at whatever I'm doing in the corporate world. I want to be CEO of a major corporation someday. And I'm willing to work my ass off to accomplish those goals. But while I may have those as personal goals, those are not the goals that I want to dictate my life or what I do. I want them to fit into a bigger picture, not the other way around, and to be subject to change by God's hands. The prize I am going for is bigger and more important than any of those. It's a long term goal, and one I want to be pursuing intentionally.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1

"I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - Hebrews 9:23-24

I love the idea of having a life mission statement. A good mission statement in the corporate world is something that is both aspirational, but also something that you can measure or gauge any new efforts against, to see if they really line up with what you are working towards. If they don't line up, don't do them. Soph and I are going to come up with our own mission statement, and we'll probably use Melanie and Greg's as a starting point.

Like sand in a jar of water

Soph and I were on vacation all week this past week, and it was a great chance to really let everything go and just let things settle mentally. The best analogy I can come up with is that pre-vacation I was like a jar of water with some sand in it that had been vigorously shaken, so that the water was effectively opaque. Vacation let the sand settle so that the water in the jar was clear, and let me actually think some things through.

It was really good to take a step back from work, a step back from our house, a step back even from friendships, and just be still. The last 6 months, and really the last year have been all movement, all at a manic pace, and I just have not made sufficient space to rest. This past week was too short, in many ways, but it was soooo necessary. And I feel a *lot* better now than I did beforehand.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." - Psalm 46:10

Soph and I are going to make sure going forward that we take at least a long weekend once every 3 months; we'll even plan the next break at the end of the current one. Our next one will be a weekend at Pismo beach sometime in September.

Coke Zero is the Real Thing

I really didn't understand what Coke Zero was supposed to be (I mean, there's already a "Diet Coke", right?) until this past week when my sister explained it to me. According to her, Diet Coke was supposed to taste like Coke but be zero calorie, but ended up tasting enough different to really be its own drink.

Enter Coke Zero. Coke Zero is *also* a zero-calorie version of Coke, but is supposed to actually taste like the original.

Soph and I tried it for the first time yesterday and much to our surprise, it DOES taste like the Real Thing, Coke Classic. Amazing. It tastes great!

I'm a fan.

+15 sec of fame

Yahoo! announced today that we're launching Yahoo! Go 2.0 as "GA" (general availability), which is I guess the opposite of launching a product as "beta". Check out this article, which had a great quote from me. Also, I can't find the link, but I know the article ran in the Wall Street Journal, at least online, yesterday. Here's the quote:

"We have a very clearly stated goal, which is to be No. 1 in mobile," said Lee Ott, director of mobile product management at Yahoo. "We're making a major push to get the service out in everyone's hands."

Ott predicted that "2007 is going to be the tipping point for mobile," because finally "the phones are good enough, the networks are good enough and now, with the new Yahoo Go, the products are good enough."

Wow. I sound smart. That's so cool. I'm always nervous that I'm going to make some comment that is going to get misquoted, or that I'll say something idiotic or that I shouldn't say. So, Whew!

Add 15 seconds of fame to my fame counter.

lee


p.s. Here's a link to the WSJ article.

Congrats Will & Ellie!

Congrats to Will and Ellie! Awesome people, beautiful wedding. Enjoy the honeymoon!

The 5 D's of PR

PR is like a game of dodgeball (in the movie of the same name). It's all about the 5 D's: Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and Dodge.

I sometimes have to do quite a bit of PR for work, and it's a very interesting experience. You are definitely trying to get a reporter excited about what you're doing, and give them enough info to back it up. That part is no problem; I do that in my normal life anyway.

But you definitely get a lot of questions that either a) you can't answer because you don't know or b) you don't want to answer directly for one reason or another or c) isn't related to what you're talking about.

For example, one time I was asked by a reporter during an interview about Y! Go and oneSearch something to the effect of "So tell me. What is Yahoo!'s acquisition strategy?". Excuse me? You want to know why we bought Flickr or GeoCities? I get that it's interesting, but shouldn't you ask Terry Semel or Jerry Yang? What makes you think that I'm qualified to talk to that, or even want to?

The trick of PR is to somehow get the answer to the question to be about what *you* want to talk about, and to make it be (or feel) related to the question.

How bizarre.

(It makes an enormous difference to have a great PR manager, which I do).

lee

extreme outdoors

My new favorite show is "Man vs. Wild", on the Discover Channel. Have you seen this show? Man, this guy is on crack the stuff he does. But it's really cool. And since I like spending time in the outdoors, it's really informative. Some of the stuff he does I already know from my Boy Scout days, but no Eagle Scout knows half of what this guys does in the average show.

Two Thumbs Up for new AMC theater at Vallco / Cupertino Square

Wow. The new theater at Cupertino Square (previously "vallco mall") is incredible! It's brand-spanking new, and super-nice. It's also super-quiet, since it just opened and no one knows about it yet.

I went there last night for SpiderMan 3 with Soph. The movie was sort of "eh", a lot like the original SpiderMan movie and *unlike* SpiderMan 2, but theater was WOW.

The screen is HUUUUUGE. It's bigger than the AMC Mercado 20 even. Taller and wider. Big big big. The sound is fantastic. The seats are nice. And the floors are CLEAN. Of course, I expect the latter to change once folks start going there.

The only downside is that it's wicked expensive... $10.25/ticket. Ridiculous.

Bay to Breakers 2007

I love Bay to Breakers. It's quintessential San Francisco. Even if people don't run it, they should at least go see it.

I run it almost every year, and while for the past few years I haven't been able to, I did this year. Of course, things have been so crazed at work and in personal life that it snuck up on me. I barely registered in time (3 days early), and I have done little to no working out for the past month. Well, let's be honest. I've really done no consistent work out for the last 10 months, since joining Y! Mobile. What a roller coaster.

In any case, I did run today, and WHAT A BLAST. I could do without the old naked guys, but the costumes are hysterical, and there's a fantastic "energy" throughout the race. I had a huge grin on my face until after the Hayes Street hill, and then my lack of conditioning caught up with me. Fun nonetheless, though.

My time kinda sucked, but that's what I get for not working out. Official time: 1:09:17. That's really slow, and I can't even blame it entirely on the crowds. But I'll blame at least some of it on the crowds... ;-)

A great quote about Y! Mobile

This is my favorite quote from the last week's coverage after we launched oneSearch and then announced the Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Network.

"Meanwhile, here we have Yahoo kicking everyone’s ass with something that does everything, does it well, runs great, looks great, and makes me wonder if the others have plans to really compete with this." - Yahoo!'s All-In-One Mobile Product, WebProNews, 3/27/07

Freakin' awesome. We're putting a little bit of that good 'ole "shine" on Y!'s somewhat tarnished halo.

This is what I've been working on - oneSearch

I've been completely buried under a rock, and I'm exhausted. But we launched Yahoo! oneSearch today in the US. Whoo-HOO! Awesome.

Check it out. Go to m.yahoo.com in the browser on your phone and try a search. Try "yahoo", or "pizza" or "ipod".

There's a great blog post summary of it where you can listen to me talk about it (I can't listen to it myself, though) at ReadRightWeb.

Or check out this headline: "Yahoo! jumps ahead of Google on mobile search". Oh SNAP!


Awesome.

Maybe I can get some sleep now. Or maybe not.

A look at back at some old "life philosophies"

Soph and I were packing up this weekend, preparing to move to our new house (yeah!), and I came across some of my notes from a long time ago when I was selling Cutco knives during college. One page was simply titled "Lee's Philosophies". Here's what it said.

>> Be Prepared

>> Always do your best
>> Maintain Balance - Work, Play, Family, Friends, God
>> Learn whatever, whenever possible
>> Keep the Goal in mind; do not settle for less
>> Let God do the driving

Cool so see that while lots of things have changed in my life since then, some things are constant.

Albert's big day

Today is my brother-in-law's wedding day. He's a lucky guy, marrying a beautiful and God-fearing woman named Connie. I'm really excited for him. I have the honor of reading 1 Corinthians 1-13 in the ceremony; should be fun.

And then we'll chow down on some yummy food. We already had some good Chinese food for the rehearsal dinner. Eating is one of my favorite parts of any wedding. Yum.

Weddings themselves are interesting affairs. They are a ton of work for the new couple to pull together, especially today when families are often spread out geographically and can't help with the preparation. It seems to me that they often take on a life of their own. What I end up telling most couples shortly before the wedding is to stop worrying about the details when the day approaches, and just enjoy it. It won't go perfectly, and it doesn't have to. They're going to get married and have a party with their closest friends and family, and that's all that really matters.

Congrats, Albert and Connie. May God smile on your marriage and give you both strength, wisdom, and love for each other for the rest of your lives. Hooray!

We're Moving!!

Talk about a whirlwind of activity. Right after vacation and right after CES (huge time-drain for me), we started looking at houses. Our current place, which we LOVE, only has two bedrooms, and we'd really like a third.

I certainly didn't expect, though, that we'd find a house within days of starting our search for real, but that's what happened. And Thursday night we signed the docs that made it official. So we're moving!!

I'm totally excited about it; the new house is great. Not perfect, of course, but great. For those interested in such things, we'll probably close in two weeks, fix up the place, move, then stage and sell our current place. Exact timing TBD.

Ok, about the house. No pics yet, but coming soon. The house is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath with a relatively large lot (~10k sq. ft) since it's at the end of a cul-de-sac. Upgraded kitchen with new cabinets and granite counters, large great room with white tile floor, large master bed/bath, etc. There are a few downsides, too, like the apartment complex across from the backyard, but they're all manageable. In general, the house has a lot going for it, but most of all, the thing I love about the house is that it has *potential*. It's in move-in condition already, but I'm as excited about what I *could* do with it as with what it is today. Of course, I'm a product manager. I get paid to come up with ideas.

I already have the first 4 phases of work (next 5-10 years, if we're even there that long) planned out. Phase I: move the stove top to another spot in the kitchen, and landscape everything. Phase II: open up on of the bedrooms into the great room with pocket french doors. Phase III: Add a covered entryway and a bay window for some depth and curb appeal. Phase IV: expand back corner, turning existing bedroom into a hallway, two bedrooms, and a study/family room.

I'm way too broke to do any of these these right now, except for Phase I which I'm keeping my fingers crossed for, but I can dream. And the beauty is that they are achievable dreams! Anyway, I'm stoked.

Moving party date TBD.

Microsoft is pissing me off

When Apple announced Apple TV at MacWorld last week, I was so stoked, b/c it would finally in a convenient way let me get my music from my PC to my TV. Then my friend Danny asked me, "why, you already have an xbox 360". And so I thought about it and decided to give it another go.

Big mistake.


Freakin' MSFT. First I had to install a new version of Windows Media Player, version 11. Then I discovered that Microsoft, for some completely idiot reason, doesn't support .aac filetypes, which is what I have my entire library ripped in (b/c it's better audio quality). And since it doesn't recognize those files for it's library, it won't share them to the xbox (which *will* play them, by the way). And there's no way to force WMP11 to share specific files.

Pisses me off like crazy. I mean, AAC is STANDARD, not company-specific. It's like mp3 but more up-to-date. Apple supports it. And yes, songs from iTunes Music Store are in an Apple-specific flavor that nothing else will play either, but at least iTunes will play (and rip) basic .aac files. And MSFT won't even recognize them.

Truly annoying. By ignoring industry standards and trying to force their own thing, they've basically made my $400 Xbox 360 with all its "media center extender" capabilities a very expensive DVD player (and not even HD). Ridiculous.

I'm even more ticked because I tried *for the second time* to get it to work.


I cannot wait to get my Apple TV. Of course, I'll have to get a big screen TV for it to work...

Yahoo! Go and oneSearch

CES was a blast, and not just because of the *massive* LCD screens (check out my Flickr photos), although those were nice. We launched Yahoo! Go and oneSearch (check it out), two products that I've been working on a LOT for the past many months.
And all that hard work payed off! We got a lot of awesome coverage in the press and with CES attendees, and the general reaction was really positive. It was a ton of fun. And I got do a few entertaining interviews, including one live radio spot, which was a first for me.
Check out my quote. Cool.

Time to Get Your Geek On

It's Sunday night, I'm in Vegas at the Flamingo, and CES starts tomorrow morning. Cool. All your base are belong to us.

21 & 22

I spent the last 2 days scrambling to file some patents on a product that we've been working on furiously for the last many months, trying to get them done before an impending deadline. I was on the phone with one laywer until literally past midnight on Thursday drawing diagrams on a whiteboard, taking pictures with my phone, and sending them to him so that we could communicate effectively long distance.
But I finished the last one last night at 9:30, a full hour before the deadline. Whew!
In the course of the discussion the lawyer asked if I'd done a lot of these, to which I responded yes, but in doing so realized that I didn't actually know how many I'd filed. So I checked. So far as I can remember (I might be missing some), I filed my 21st and 22nd patents yesterday. Cool.
It's only my pride, of course, but for some reason, filing patents gives me a huge sense of satisfaction. I love it. Now, of course, I have to wait 5 years or so to find out if the patent office is going to grant me the patent. With all those filed, I have yet to actually be awarded one. But it's just a matter of time.

More than meets the eye

Oh, boy. I saw a preview for Transformers this weekend, and I can't WAIT! I remember in the cartoons that the transformers were always kind of, well, non-threatening, even when the Decepticons were blowing stuff up. But in the movie, they are SCARY! It's AWESOME. I mean, shouldn't a huge, tractor-trailer-turned-robot be scary, even if he's a good guy? Wow. I'm so stoked. Bring it.

The Good and the bad bad bad

I saw a number of movies last weekend, both in the theater and at home. It was the first time in quite a while that I'd gone to a movie - working too much, I guess - and the popcorn was great.

I went to see Night at the Museum last Sunday (was it really only 5 days ago?). It was a fun fun movie! Totally predictable, inane plot, yes. Clearly someone had an idea about everything in a museum coming to life and tried to put a story around it. Totally transparent. But it was fun anyway. No great acting, no great dialog, no great meaning, but it was entertaining. So good.

Soph and I also rented some dancing movie with Antonio Banderas - Take the Lead - which is based on a real life story. That movie was a lot of fun. It was also predictable, but the plot was at least meaningful, and it was entertaining. Also, the soundtrack was GREAT. Tons of fun, and it sounded fantastic on my stereo. Sooooo nice. I love my stereo.

And finally, when Soph when to see Dreamgirls with Ellie, Will and I went to see Eragon (mostly b/c neither of us wanted watch Dreamgirls). What a mistake. We should have played frisbee golf or something. While the book that Eragon is based on is a really fun read with decent characters and fast action, the movie was HORRIBLE! Like D-. Bad bad bad. The acting was bad. The dialog was worse. The sequencing was awful. If I hadn't read the book I would have had no idea what was going on. Have you ever seen a movie with a scene that's obviously intended to be "powerful" in some way? Like it was supposed to move you to tears, or was supposed to feel really ominous, or was a "soaring moment"? This movie had all of those, but instead of actually being powerful, they only felt like they were *trying* to be powerful. This is one of those things that if you're going to attempt, you need to succeed, because failing is worse than not trying. Unfortunately for Eragon, they tried over and over again, but failed every. single. time. It might have been laughably bad, but I sat through it for 2 hours, so even when I laugh at it, I'm sad. It was just bad. bad bad bad.

When does Transformers come out again?

Check out Ms. Dewey

This is pretty cool. http://www.msdewey.com

Try "Chris Rock"

DodgeMallow

This past weekend I went down to Monterey for a church retreat with Baylight. It was a great time of fellowship, worship, and sand football.

What was really hysterically fun, though, was a new sport that was invented by accident late Saturday night by myself, Jason Kuo, Mike Kim, Jay Jansen, Hideo Sataki, and Minho Hyun. We were sitting around with Jason musing to himself that there must be a game we could play with the orange cones he had brought with him (the type used for outlining a sports field). I don't know how we ended up there, but within a few minutes everbody had an orange cone and a marshmallow, and were lobbing them back and forth in a game of catch.

Until I randomly decided to wing one side-arm at Minho and nail him squarely in the chest. 30 seconds later we were lined up in two teams on opposite sides of the small room, with a host of chairs between us, and playing the first ever game of DodgeMallow.

The rules are simple. You throw marshmallows at each other, and if you are hit, you're out. If you catch one thrown at you, the thrower is out and one of your teammates can come back in. As quoted in the game of Dodgeball, it's all about Dodge, Dip, Duck, and Dodge, the 4 D's of Dodgeball. Except in DodgeMallow, you're throwing marshmallows. And of course you are only allowed to throw OR catch the marshmallow in an orange cone, not in your bare hand.

As it turns out, marshmallows fly perfectly straight when thrown from a cone, but there is no ability (or nearly none) to control which direction the marshmallow flies in. Which explains why at one point in the game two guys threw 10 marshmallows at once (5 in each cone) at Jason, and all 10 somehow missed. Amazing.

And so a new tradition is born. Maybe next we'll try Halo-Frisbee...

Yahoo! SuperStar Awards

Today was the announcement of the yearly Y! Superstar winners. I knew quite a few of them, including Brady Wood, Irv Henderson, and Joy Mountford among others. Lots of kudos to those folks.

I am a bit disappointed that neither of the folks that I nominated this year, Praz or Joe, received awards either. Both guys did an amazing job on the project I worked with them on last year, both examplifying the best of what it means to be a Yahoo!, and also going far above and beyond the call. I wonder if I should have "gamed" the system more, and encouraged more folks to write nominations for my nominees, to convince the judging panel by volume, rather than by content...

I have to admit that I'd love to win a SuperStar award someday. It's not terribly likely, to be honest, given the parcity of awards and the large number of employees, but that doesn't make it any less appealing. I love public recognition (this blog does not count), and to be honest, it's rare, at least at Yahoo!. The SuperStar award is the one consistent example that I'm aware of that actually is actually material recognition (Y! putting its money where its mouth is). So someday I'd love to win one. But knowing the winners as I do, and some of what they did, the competition and bar are set incredibly high. But that doesn't keep me from dreaming.

Cameraphones grow up

I'm using a Nokia N73 right now, and it's got a 3.2 megapixel camera on it. Wow. Have to tell you that it's amazing. It's not my 8 MP Canon 20d by any stretch but it's an *amazing* cameraphone. Seriously, why carry around a point and shoot anymore? You can see the pictures I've taken with this phone here. Not many yet, but still cool.

I love it.

Jetlag el sucko

I'm in London for 3 days, starting yesterday, leaving tomorrow. Jetlag sucks. I was fine all-day yesterday, somehow by the grace of God catching a full 5 hours of sleep on the flight over, even though I went to sleep at 6pm my time.

But last night was a different story. I went to bed at 10:30, woke up 3 hours later, worked for 3 hours, went to sleep for 5 more. The fact that I actually got 8 hrs helped, but it's still no fun.

London, however, is cool. I don't really have time to explore much on this trip, but the views from the office are definitely different from those in Sunnyvale. I have at least had some good food for lunch both days, thx to various co-workers.

Back from Vacation

The trip was great. Denali was... wet. The cruise was awesome. Pictures to come later, and hopefully more interesting memories.

The double-edged sword of patents

When we launched Yahoo! Podcasts last year, we put together a quite impressive list of patents to file for. On the one hand, it's cool to have patents in your name. And at Yahoo!, there's a bonus for patents filed. And it's good for Yahoo! So I'm a big fan of patents.

However, they are a *huge* time-suck. Each one requires a number of discussions with attorney's, and at the very least reading a 50 page legal document for each, if not writing sections of it. I am *still* doing patent work for Yahoo! Podcasts, from 9 months ago. Craziness.

And in the meantime my team has put together a list of potential patents (not all of which we'll file, thank God) for stuff we've worked on since then that's more than twice as long as the list from Y! Podcasts.

But it's hard to complain when you get a bonus check in the mail.

From Advanced Products to Mobile Web

Today was officially the first day of a new job for me at Yahoo!. I loved running the Advanced Products Group and am going to miss working with that team on a daily basis. But I'm really stoked about my new gig, running Mobile Web. As one of the designers on APG phrased so eloquently, Mobile Web is the crouching tiger of the mobile world.

I've got tons of learning to do; Yahoo! Mobile has a lot going on, but I'm really stoked to join such a strong team and change the world. For real.

Goodbye standby mode?

According to Engadget standby modes on electronic devices eat up 8% of the UK's energy. That's incredible! And a complete waste. Crazy.

So they're thinking of outlawing it, and from my California environment-friendly perspective (although I do drive an SUV... guess no one's perfect), that's a great idea. It's not like we "need" standby mode.

But then part of me is also like, holy cow, that's going to cause a ton of extra work for lots and lots of companies...

Maybe instead of outlawing standby they should require that devices using standby include their own solar energy cells.

Back from the beach

I went to a wedding and then to the beach in South Carolina for all of last week, and am now back in the flow of my regular life. I have to admit, though, that I miss the beach. Big surprise, huh? 6 days of doing pretty much nothing at all. Wake up when I wake up, read a book, get in the water, read a book, eat, eat, eat, read a book, sleep again. Awesome.

I really needed the break, both from work and from regular life (six weekends in a row of weddings or wedding-related activities knocks the wind out of you). For some reason whenever I actually let myself take a break, I get sick, or nearly so. For the first half of last week I felt like a truck had run over me. Sore muscles, sore throat, headache, etc. Basically I felt like ass. Soph speculated that when I actually let myself relax that much that my muscles release any and all toxins that they'd been accumulating. Who knows. But I do know that after a week of aggressive relaxing, I feel way better. Almost fully awake.

And I've got another adventure/vacation in August. I should be fully functional by September.

Naming conventions for web-products... and the next fad

I had a fun discussion a few days ago with some coworkers about fads in the naming conventions for web products. It started because we were talking about the abundance of products launched in the last year or so with a missing "e". That all started with Flickr, but has continued to Flaggr, Wishlistr, etc. And a lot of Web 2.0 companies have also used new domains (instead of .com) to make interesting URLs, like del.icio.us or blo.gs.

Of course, this isn't just a Web 2.0 thing, it's a web thing. Why are Flickr, Flaggr, and their ilk missing the "e"? Because they all got used up by all the "eCompany" names in Web 1.0. Or the "o" 's got used up by Yahooooo, Goooogle, etc. And the "i" 's got eaten up by iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, etc. Anyway, so now in Web 2.0 we're missing vowels.

Anyway, the point is that web names go in fads. So here's the next fad, Web 3.0. I decided on it today with some coworkers.

Web 3.0: Company or Product names made up of words repeated twice.

• cowcow
• fixfix
• toptop
• boxbox
  

you get the idea. we discovered that most farm animals make interesting product names when used in this way. they don't mean much, but they're fun to say. a lot like the names kicked out by the Web 2.0 Name Generator.

Time for a vacation

I'm exhausted. Work isn't the culprit, really, although it's always moving at 110 mph at Yahoo!. No, this time it's weddings. I thought I made it through the wedding season a few years back, but this must be "Indian Summer" or something. We've had wedding-related activities every single weekend since essentially the 3rd weekend of May. That's like 6 weeks in a row or something.

I'm totally worn out. And we're not just talking about the kind of wedding where you show up, drink some champaign, and take off. No, these are the kind where I'm helping out, standing up, or in charge of something, which means that every Thurs/Fri/Sat for as long as I can seem to remember recently are wedding-filled.

Don't get me wrong; I'm stoked for all my friends. I just need a vacation. Thankfully, it's very close. I have one more wedding this weekend, and then I can take a break. Can't wait.

Digital Sneezing

This is a phenomena that my co-worker, Matt Fukuda, noted yesterday, and he's totally right.

Just about everybody in my group has a Nokia 6682 camera-phone. It's a cool phone, but basically just a basic camera phone to most folks. The cool thing is that it can run lots of next-generation application, like Zonetags, which was put out by Yahoo! Research Berkeley. Zonetags makes it a one-click step to upload camera-phone pictures to Flickr, and also figures out where you are physically in the real world, and adds that information as a tag. Very cool.

It means I put up a ton more photos on Flickr, and also means that I just take a lot more pictures with my phone. Since everybody on my team has this phone, and we all have zonetags, we're all always taking pictures of things. Pictures of each other in embarrassing situations, pictures of each other at our desks, pictures of what we're working on, pictures of buildings, pictures of just about anything.

Here's where the sneezing part comes in. When I see one of these guys take out his cell phone to take a picture of something, I get mine out, pretty much unconsciously, as if *I* should be taking a picture of whatever it is too. And it's not just limited to me. If one person gets out their camera phone, the whole group suddenly has their phones out, and are taking pictures. It's just like when someone sneezes, and a bunch of other people suddenly need to sneeze. What gives? Bizarre, frankly, but entertaining.

And of course terribly geeky (someday it will be totally hip). At a swank Japanese restaurant last week, Nihon (Y! Local info), we were about 10 minutes into appetizers and suddenly more than half the table had their phones out and were taking pictures. of everything. everything. so geeky. so ridiculous.

but so entertaining. and of course the photos are fun to look at the next day, too.

This is just wrong

This site "christian social networking site", ChristianVibes, at least according to TechCrunch, is related to another site called "SmutVibes", which is like MySpace, but actually encourages pornographic photos.

If they really are the same company, that's absolutely ridiculous. Or rather, it's brilliant, assuming you're just trying to use one platform to target two very different constituencies. But there's something offensive about it as well. It would be like having an "anti-gun" site intended to attract the eyes of anti-gun advocates, and using the resulting revenue dollars to run the NRA site.

doh! delete isn't the same as edit

I deleted a comment today by accident, when I was trying to respond. and unfortunately, 360 doesn't give me the option to "undelete", and didn't give me a confirmation dialog. I thought it was standard practice to get confirmation for irrevocable actions?

Unconditional consumer love of Google

For those of you who don't religiously follow the internet industry (what's wrong with you?), TechCrunch is one of the best tech blogs for just keeping up-to-date with recent internet news, and for a quick analysis of new products, and it's relatively evenly delivered.

This article today vents about a lot of the "halo" effect Google seems to enjoy, even when they release products that aren't necessarily life-changing. But somehow everyone thinks they are.

I have huge respect for Google, and actually love the fact that having healthy competition has really benefited consumers (note Gmail and Google Maps). But seriously, the products aren't really "better" than other products out there, or if they are, it's marginally. But people have a love affair with the brand.

As a Yahoo!, it's annoying. I'm sure if I was a Googler, though, I'd be reveling in it, and laughing at folks like at Yahoo! and MSFT. Guess it just provides a nice challenge to those of us without the home court advantage of unconditional consumer love.

Building products fast

I'm giving a talk tomorrow to whatever Yahoo!'s want to hear my $.02 on how to build products quickly. I titled the talk "Building products fast - cutting through the red tape... but not really... but really", in reference to a line from Dodgeball. Quite appropriate in this case, because some of the "red tape" can be cut (ignored, reclassified, avoided, etc), some you can reduce with a little elbow grease, and some you have to deal with. But a lot of folks, myself included at times, get bogged down and end up letting ourselves think that it's the organization's problem, and stop taking the responsibility to just get the job done.

But I digress. Much more important is that while typing up the presentation (which I kept very light-weight, to give more time for discussion), I accidentally wrote a rhyme. Can't really call it a poem, though. That would be demeaning to the art-form. But a rhyme nonetheless. Here's what I wrote.

If your engineers are stuck, so are you.
If your designers are stuck, so are you.
If anything is stuck, so are you.
If you are stuck, your product is too.

Funny that it rhymes. But very true.

Make it burn

I go to a Power Yoga class at the local YMCA twice a week. It's a tough work-out, something I would never have believed before trying it. I thought Yoga was all stretching and calming. Not this one. Lots of stretching, but a serious serious workout.

Today, though, was a whole new experience. Ever "sit" with your back against a wall as though you were sitting in a chair, but simply using your quads to keep you in that position? Remember how it makes your legs burn? That was today. We held a position for 2 minutes, switched to another position that used the same leg and held *that* position for 2 minutes. And onto another position on the same leg. And a fourth. And a fifth. And then we did it all on the other leg.

That's basically 10 minutes making one quad BURN. Burn baby burn. Man. It felt like someone had injected molten lava into the veins in my leg. I had forgotten what that feels like. It's definitely not the same as simply tiring out... it's burning out.

We won the Webby Award!

Yahoo! Podcasts, a product my team launched last September, won a Webby Award for best podcast site. Cool!

Panopticon

What a cool word. What is it? A very interesting type of prison where a very few number of guards can see all inmates, each inmate has a window to the outside world, and no inmate can see another inmate. Check it out on Wikipedia.

I heard the concept in the context of a talk given at Yahoo! by Jamais Cascio (cascio@openthefuture.com), where he talked about the Participatory Panopticon. The idea is that once everyone has a mobile phone capable of recording photos or videos at any time, without the target's knowledge, we basically are in a situation where you live your life as you do, but at any moment you might be recorded (seen by the guards).

Question: If everything is always recorded, does it destory social fabric, or does it require forgiveness, since nothing is forgotten?

Natural high

I decided yesterday to do a "sprint" workout, something I haven't done in a long time. I was partially motivated by the fact that I want to play ultimate frisbee this weekend, and would like to get the lactic acid out of my legs ahead of time. I was also partially motivated because the more I've done Yoga, and stretched out my legs, the more I feel like I need to do something to tighten them back up. Just stretching all the time is uncomfortable.

Anyway, the point is I ran some sprints. And it was EXHILERATING. Man, it was great to run at full speed. It feels like I'm flying. And almost immediately after finishing the first sprint, I could feel the runner's high hit me like a freight train. I had a huge grin on my face. I felt awesome. So I ran a few more sprints. And I felt awesome. But then I quit, because I knew I was running on borrowed energy, so to speak.

About 15 minutes later, as I was getting ready for work, I crashed. I felt sick. It was brief, thank God, but it was real. Unsettled stomach, spinning head, the works. Yeach.

So what's the point? I need to sprint more often.

A great idea finally comes to life

I had this idea maybe 5 years ago; I just didn't know how to make it happen. Iomega has launched a wifi NAS... what is it? It's a set of hard-drives that you just hook up to your home network. You put all your photos, music, etc on there, and it's all available to every computer or networked television (Tivo, Windows Media Center) in your house. Not only that, but because there are multiple hard-drives, the data is backed up. Even if one hard-drive fails, you haven't lost the data. You just swap out that one drive and keep going.

It's probably still not sufficiently user-friendly to hit a mass market, and I doubt most people would get the benefits, but someday something like this will be either part of your home stereo setup, or part of your internet setup.

I'm glad it's finally happening.

Denali!!!

I'm totally stoked! Soph and I have cemented our plans to take off for Alaska this summer, something I've wanted to do for a while now.

We'll be spending about 5 days backpacking in Denali National Park (pictured here). The mosquitos will suck (literally), but it's wide-open, no trails. Basically hike wherever you want for days on end, with nearly endless sunlight. Cool.

Then we'll take an SUV down the Denali highway from Fairbanks to Anchorage for a couple of days. The road parallels the park, and has great views of the mountain. The whole thing is unpaved, too... Off-roading!

So then after a full week+ of exhausting vacationing, we'll take a cruise down the Alaska/Canada coast for a week, taking in the sights, doing day excursions if we have the energy, and basically soaking it all up with very little effort.

And then we come home and collapse for a day before returning to work/school.

I am SO stoked. I can't wait. I'm starting to compile a list of stuff I may need to buy in anticipation of the trip (and probably sell on Craig's list/Ebay again after we're back). Things like:

• 600mm lens (for bears and wolves and such)
• GPS (no trails, remember? and my map/compass skills are ok, but maybe not ok enough)
• mosquito netting (nasty suckers)
• solar recharger? (camera batteries, gps batteries)

If you've been to Alaska and have any recommendations, throw 'em my way.

Crush List

Soph and I both realized lately that we have become buried in our work and hobbies, both individually and together. It seems like whenever we have free time - weeknight or weekend - we try to fill it with things like watching a movie, reading a book, surfing the web, playing a game, photography, etc. We're already super-busy during the week with work and school, so perhaps it's understandable to want to relax.

The effect, though, has been that we're not investing in people's lives the way we once used to. We used to have at least one night a week that we spent with friends, or with people we were hoping would become friends. And that time really was a great way for us to both be encouraged and have fun, but also a way for us to pour ourselves into other people.

If you examine Jesus' life, you'll see that he was almost always inviting someone to join him in *whatever* he was doing. Every moment, it seems, was a chance for him to invest himself in someone else. That's how he made disciples. My Dad refers to this as the "With Me" principle. He even wrote a book on it called "The Joy of Discipleship".

Anway, both Soph and I came to this conclusion on our own at about the same time a couple of weeks ago. So we decided to institute the Crush List. This is a concept we borrowed from a friend of ours from his "single" days. He had 5 women on the crush list, and 5 in waiting. It might seem like a strange concept, but it makes sense. He was basically focusing on the set of people he wanted to develop relationship with. So Soph and I now have a "Crush List" with people that we really want to target developing deeper relationship with. The list changes regularly, and the number of people on the list isn't really a set limit. But it gives us some focus relationally, and gets us off our butts when we have free time.

360 drafts...

I really really wish 360 allowed me to save draft blog entries.

This entry, for example, I am writing in notepad because I just posted another post. I don't want to post all my thoughts all at once, but I need a place to capture the thought when it occurs. I've also run into plenty of instances where I'm halfway through writing a post when I need to shut-down, close the browser, whatever. I can't save the draft, but I don't want to post a half-finished thought, so what can I do?

Why multiple blogs are useful...

I constantly find that there are things I want to blog about that for one reason or another I can't. Usually it's because it's related to Yahoo!, or product strategies of competitive companies as they relate to Yahoo!, etc. Obviously I can't blog about that stuff in public, because, well, it's not public information.

But sometimes I *really* want to talk about it. So now I have three blogs. I have this one, purely for personal stuff. I know some people are much more hip than I and use their 360 to write up their thoughts on Web 2.0 stuff, but most of my thoughts can't be expressed publicly anyway. So this blog is for personal happenings, opinions, etc.

I have *also* started a blog internally at Yahoo!, behind the corporate firewall (sorry to those of you who don't work at Yahoo!), where I *can* comment about these things. Actually, I've started two internal blogs. I started one for my group - the Advanced Products Group - and one for myself.

It does mean, though, that I've neglected this blog for a number of days, maybe even weeks, since I've been posting to those other two blogs. Sorry about that. I'll try to make amends over the upcoming weekend.

Snowboarding blind

Since my trip out of the country for work was postponed, I took advantage of having no meetings scheduled for Friday to take the day off and hit the slopes with Soph. We headed up to Kirkwood early in the morning, and had an awesome day.

The snow up there is crazy deep. Like 20 feet or something. We were going down blacks and double blacks that were essentially just blues. All of the gullies and gulches were filled in with snow. It was a blast.

It was blowing really hard, though. I couldn't see the lift until we were one pole away. No visibility at all. And the wind was so strong at the top that if you just stood up on a flat area, it pushed you along like a sailboat. One run we went on was so whited-out, that it felt like I was in Antartica. A little bit disconcerting.

But the snow was awesome. I love being the first or only person to make tracks down a long run. What a blast!

Rain, rain, go away, but just the same, leave the snow to stay

What a crazy March in northern CA. It has rained a ton! here, which of course also means it has snowed a ton up at Tahoe (for you non-californians, rain in SF = snow in the sierras).

Alpine Meadows is reporting an all-time record for snow-fall in a single month, with 189.5 inches just this March. That's nearly sixteen feet of fresh snow. 16. That's nuts. I hope I get up there soon.

When you're so mad you can't see straight

I rarely get this upset, but something happened yesterday that really lit a fire. I won't bother with the gory details; let's just say that I have to keep telling myself not to break stuff. I'm trying really hard to get my thoughts together so that I can express my frustrations correctly even to myself (I must be learning something from my wife). In the meantime I'm trying not to take it out on people who just happen to be sitting near me, something I failed at last night with Soph. Thankfully she has lots of grace for me.

What it comes down to is this: I don't like being manipulated. At all. Really only two things can get me this pissed off with any certainty. One is causing me unnecessary physical pain. The other is being manipulated, and I definitely feel that way right now.

Just needed to vent.

Finding joy in the small things

It's cold out in the Bay Area right now. By cold I mean wet and upper 50's, of course, not freezing rain or snow. But it's cold enough to want a hot drink.

I have to say that I love hot drinks in cold weather, just as much as I love cold drinks the rest of the year. I live my life at a sprint, both at work and at home; somehow having a really good beverage in the middle of the day (or the end) is like taking a small hiatus, and entering a world of relaxation.

I don't know too many other people who get as much pleasure from just a simple beverage as I do, but I do believe that finding joy in the small things is a great way to enjoy life, whatever the circumstance.

US Patent System - Time for a Refresh?

The US Patent system is crazy. I don't claim to really understand it, but I know enough to know that I wish it would be changed. Unlike patent law in many other countries, US patent law essentially allows you to patent an "invention" simply by dreaming it up, not requiring you to build it or even intend to build it. Of course, it has to be pretty thoroughly dreamt-up... including diagrams, explanations, etc. But you don't have to actually sell the thing, or even build it. That seems crazy to me.

On the one hand it's nice for inventors; if you have a great idea and don't have the money, time, or expertise to build it, you can still get a patent.

However, it also creates a corporate culture of litigation. There are companies that do nothing but acquire patents, never intending to do anything with them, only intending to litigate for tons of money should the patent become valuable. Rather than protect the inventor, this system ends up preventing some really fantastic inventions from getting to market, or in the case of BlackBerry, possibly being pulled from the market. So ultimately this just harms the consumer.

I think it would make a lot more sense for the US to require the invention to be publicly available... as in you've actually *built* what you've invented, at least in some prototype variation. This would certainly cut down on frivolous patent lawsuits, and would also force companies to really put their money where their mouth is with regards to what areas of intellectual property they think is important, since they'd have to spend resources to make it happen. If was a really important area for a company, they'd actually ship it! That's a way better proposition for consumers.

I moved up on Jack!

Wow. Cool. I decided to see if I could write somewhat more regularly, and have been somewhat successful. To prove it, I noticed that Danny has moved me up on Jack.html to "updates somewhat regularly".

Awesome. Catch me if you can.

Battlestar Gallactica - Best Show on Televsion

Ok, I'm a sci-fi geek, and I know it. But that doesn't make it any less true when I say that Battlestar Gallactica is the best show on tv. It's really amazing, and if you haven't watched it, you should. Go get it on iTunes or something.

First of all, it's not your normal sci-fi show with little plot substance and lots of geek factor. This is quite different. It's really a drama that simply occurs in a very real setting that just happens to be futuristic and in-space. But the drama is awesome.

It's SO intense. In fact, it's so intense that Soph and I don't watch it regularly. We record multiple weeks on Tivo, and we ask ourselves, "Do we have the emotional energy to watch this tonight?" Usually the answer is no, and we watch something way less involved. But then there are those nights where we say, "heck yeah, let's do it", and we watch like 3 or 4 episodes in a row. And then we're exhausted for another few weeks.

I thought we were the only folks who did this, but the more I talk to other people to watch the show, the more I'm discovering it's quite common.

All of this is to say that if you're not watching the show, you're missing out. I'm rarely this into a show, too, so you know it's really good.

Sweet Dreams - Dashed... argh

Duke lost and is out of the tourny. Aaaaargh. What an abysmal game. J.J. - where was your shot? My only consolation is that UNC went out earlier than us. And Stanford, of course, was nowhere to be seen...

Oh well. At least I won't be upset about missing the Final Four and Championship games when I'm on a plane to India.

vegas, baby... or not?

It seems like everyone I know is a huge Vegas fan, so I definitely feel like the odd-man-out at times, as I am not particularly enamored with the place. At the risk of seeming lame to those of my friends/colleagues that really like Vegas (who are many), here's why.

1. I don't really gamble
I have too many expensive hobbies, at least by my standards, to blow the money in a relatively short time playing a game. I like games; I really figuring them out; I especially like winning. And I love hanging out with friends. But I don't like losing money; it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather go buy a new camera lens. Or a snowboard. Or camping gear. Or spend the same amount of time and money on a shopping spree at REI.

I hung out last night with some friends from work as they tossed their money away at Craps, or as other people did it for them. It was fun. I had a great time, even though I wasn't playing, and as a result wasn't nearly as energetic or entertaining as they were. It's a great social atmosphere. Everyone's friendly and exuberant. And there's a sense of suspense that the game creates that's really addictive. It's fantastic. But I was perfectly happy still having all my cash at the end of the night.

2. Strip clubs ain't my thing
There are some things that are culturally acceptable that just aren't ok with me. This is one of those cases. It's an issue of personal integrity. There's no way I could enjoy a show like that, or even go along for the ride, and make any sort of claim to wanting to know God better. I know that God's not going to like it. And there's no way I could tell Soph that she's the only one for me, and still go. It's not that a part of me wouldn't enjoy it, quite the contrary unfortunately, but not the part of me that is the person I aspire to be.

3. I never get around to seeing the shows
Ok, so this is more a function of me coming for business conferences all the time, and has little to do with Vegas. I'd probably enjoy a lot of the shows. I just never get to go. Someday I'll come for a vacation and not for work, and will see some, and maybe I'll re-evaluate my opinion then.

On a positive note, I will say that Vegas is a great place for a business conference. Most business folks (especially tech?) are eager to come, and the facilities are fantastic. It's also a cheap flight from a lot of places. So for that, it's great.

V for Vendatta

I went to see this movie on Saturday with Ted and Danny, and we were evenly split on our reactions. I really liked the movie, overall. Ted hated it. Danny liked it more than he hated it.

The movie is quite political; it makes numerous not-so-subtle statements about the current political environment. And the movie takes a *very* strong stance; it's so dogmatic in it's position that it is almost as outrageous as the position it is fighting. Of course, you have to think about that a bit, because they don't make the dogmatism of their own position all that obvious - or at least they don't come right out and state it.

I didn't agree with all of the comments, but I did like the movie overall. I liked the tone, I liked the visual effect, and I agreed with one of the main comments in the movie, which I think is this: it's extremely dangerous to sacrifice freedom for security.

But maybe the reason I liked it most is that it was both entertaining (a basic requirement for me, and one that most dramas fail to meet), AND it causes you to think. "The Usual Suspects" was similar. This one actually has a real-life component to it, though, which makes for great conversation.

Let me know if you see it; I'd love to discuss it more.

Tourney Time - Go Blue Devils!

I love tournmanet time, even if I don't always have time to watch as many games as I want to watch. And while it's specific to Duke/Carolina, not the tourny overall, this link from Miriam just warmed my heart. Basically, it explain why it's sometimes good to have someone to hate. Really hate. And even though it's written from the decidely uniformed and inherently "wrong" perspective of a UNC grad, it's still good.

Interestingly, as a Christian, I'm instructed to "turn the other cheek". Can this possibly apply to the University of North Carolina, though? If it does, then thank God for Jesus, because I'm a sinner.


Go Duke.
Go to hell, Carolina.

Dancing with the Football stars?

A co-worker just told me that Jerry Rice was the runner-up in Dancing with the Stars. I was shocked. Not in a bad way. Just shocked.

My [female] co-worker's first question to me was if I danced with Jerry. Um, no?

Obey Your Thirst

I sat behind Jerry Rice on the plane home from LA yesterday. He ordered a Sprite.

I have to admit that being a celebrity has *got* to be exhausting. Every single 20-something guy in the airport kept asking to get a picture with him. I've got to give the guy a ton of credit, though. He was super-nice about it, always said yes, and smiled for the picture. He even stayed on the plane while people were filing off so that he could take one with the stewardesses. Class act. I was very impressed. And sure that he was going to go home and collapse of exhaustion.

Ratings ratings everywhere

My team just launched Syndicated Ratings (officially, anyway - it's really been out for weeks if you knew where to find it). Check out the blog post by Mike Quoc. It's a very cool concept that we kicked off a long time back, and finally manifested itself.

Basically it takes the power of a platform that Yahoo! has been using internally, and makes it available for any site. Good for the site because they can show off their rating, or encourage users to rate. Good for Yahoo! because it generates a lot more ratings data.

Right now it's limited to the Yahoo! Podcasts site, but it's very extensible.

Anyway, I'm stoked! In some ways I'm as excited about this one little feature as I was about the whole Podcasts product, simply because it illustrates and illuminates a big concept that should hopefully take off.

Yosemite in the Winter

I've been wanting to go to Yosemite in the winter for the last three years, and I finally made it this last weekend. Holy cow. I've read that Yosemite is actually the least beautiful in the summer when everybody usually visits, but I only half-believed it. But wow, Yosemite in winter after a fresh snowfall is UNBELIEVABLY beautiful.

It was being in Narnia. It was so beautiful it was surreal. Even while I wandered around for 4 hours in the morning snapping pictures, I couldn't really believe it. And afterwards, sitting exhausted by the fire I couldn't really believe it.

The pain of losing

Nobody likes to lose, but when Duke loses a basketball game in the ACC, it sucks. I'm ok with the occassional loss - good learning experiences and all. But the problem is that most of my family has allegiences to *other* schools in the ACC, so when Duke loses, I always get crap.

My dad went to Georgia Tech. My youngest sister is in Law School at Florida State. My other sister's husband does ROTC for NC State. Shelley called me Wed at half-time when Florida State was up, and again afterwards to gloat. Ridiculous. I would never do that to anyone. Never.

uh. right.

Thank God none of them went to UNC. That would be the definition of a dysfunctional family.

loss of childhood?

I occassionally here comments in the media or from people about how kids, teens in particular, no longer can enjoy "childhood" because of the expectations put on them, such as homework, activities, etc.

Those kind of comments seem a bit ridiculous to me. Where did we come up with the notion that you are not expected to be a contributing member of society until you are 21? In many previous generations you were already working, married, and possibly with kids by then.

I feel like these sorts of comments idealize what it means to be a kid, or a teen, rather than be realistic. I think we expect too little out of ourselves as a society, honestly, not too much.

Drinks from next door

I went to lunch with my team recently and saw this under the glass table cover. This was a first for me.

Reflections - 2/14

I read this excerpt this morning.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that [God] finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - From The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis.

We dream too small.

Podcasts go mobile

I think this is cool - Yahoo! Podcasts getting demoed on Motoralo phones at a huge mobile trade show in Europe.

Of course, I participated in it, so I'm biased, but it's cool nonetheless. Partly it's cool because it's a great idea. But I think for the most part I think it's cool to see something I worked on validated by another big brand that I've long admired for creating cool products.

Steelers win the Superbowl!

Awesome. I had my Terrible Towel ready, and the team came through. Pittsburgh has got to be rockin' tonight. I'm guessing my sisters, who are unbelievably crazy fans, may be in need of some medical attention to help them recover from the ride.

Even if you're not a Pittsburgh fan, which you should be, you have to at least love that Bettis got to win the big game in his own town. That's awesome.

I love how Detroit turned out to support the Steelers, too. One Detroit writer said this: ""98.99 percent of Detroit is rooting for the Steelers," wrote Bob Wojnarowski of the Detroit News. "The other 1.01 percent drink $6 cups of coffee."

love it.

Size Matters

I have a bunch of photos that I've taken printed and framed in my house. A lot of them are decent, some better than hours. But anytime someone visits they are inevitably drawn to the largest photo in the house (50"x17"), and they *always* say they like that one best. It's a good picture, maybe my best, but it's not so much better than the others to earn the disproportianate amount of praise, but it gets it.

Size does matter.

So in that vein I had my first *digital* picture professionally enlarged and printed at 20"x30", which is standard poster size. I really though it would be pixelated at that size - it should have been given the limited amount of data an 8MP camera captures. But amazingly it wasn't pixelated at all. I even commented on it to the folks in the shop and they agreed with me that I could have gone even bigger, maybe 24x36. That's AWESOME! The picture looks pretty cool, too. It's a bit more stark than some of my other pictures, but looks pretty cool.

Go Stillers!

It's true that I rarely find time to watch or pay attention to sports anymore, even my beloved Duke Blue Devils. It just takes so much time to watch a game, and I have too many things going at once to take so many hours out on a regular basis. Tivo is a big, help, of course. And it also makes it a lot less interesting for me with fewer local Blue Devils or Stiller fans in the area anymore to watch the games with; I'm not one to watch games alone much.

All that aside, I am salivating at the chance to watch the 'Burgh pick up another Superbowl win. GO STILLERS!!! Now, where did I put my Terrible Towel?

Playing with pictures

I printed out a ton of photos this past weekend. What a blast! I printed them all at about 12x18 inches... LARGE! Size really does matter, at least in prints. They look spectacular! Now I just have to matte and frame them.

How many #1 priorities can you have?

I saw a slide in a presentation today that made me laugh. The title said something like "#1 Priority". In the body of the slide were 8 bullet points.

I see this happen all the time at work where there are multiple "#1" priorities. It's really impossible to have more than 1. You can work on more than one thing at a time, but when push comes to shove, something is the top priority. And frankly, you shouldn't work on too many things at once. You get less done overall, even though you *feel* like you're doing more. It's very dangerous.

Of course, I'm really bad at this myself, especially at home. Recently I was installing track lights, a project that had been taking a few days, and I had a set of shelves waiting out in the garage to do, and I was printing/matting pictures. There was no way I was going to get through it all, but I was still tempted to buy another set of lights to install in the garage. I didn't, but I was tempted.