Month: November 2005 (Page 1 of 2)

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bolted from the Likud Party, one that he helped found and finance, the latter by selling two tons of hay from his ranch in 1973. He split because he believes the right-wing hard-liners in the party were presenting too many obstacles for a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon’s new “Freedom” party is more centrist, and has gained instant credibility in Israel, indicating popular support for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Polls indicate Mr. Sharon will win re-election as Prime Minister and that the Likud party is crumbling. This move took extraordinary courage, but the size of the risk may result in a huge reward… security for Israel.

I’d love to see this type of courage and boldness from an American politician, say Arizona Senator John McCain. He’s probably too moderate to win the nomination of the Republican party, but I think he’d make a great president. By 2008, we’re gonna need that.

My latest gadget is a Palm Treo 650 and it is the best thing EVER! Yes, EVER! Check this out… In addition to keeping me tethered to my corporate network 24×7 and giving me access to the WICKED WIDE WEB, it has all kinds of cool accessories like a Global Positioning System (GPS) for golf courses! This will really help my game. I’ll never get lost in the woods looking for an errant drive again, but I digress… The coolest accessory today is the TreoTurkeyTimer.

Yep, you just shove this bad boy into Tom’s nether region and using state of the art, “bluetooth” wireless technology, it will notify me it’s done and dinner can be served!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Long before I worked for a real company, I toiled in the fields of NEC’s AFIS Division. Looking back with some perspective, I can now say it really was pretty disfunctional, but they had (at least while I was there) a great group of loyal customers known as the “AFIS Internet Users Group.” Interestingly, they named themselves well before Al Gore worked his magic with IP, and they still to this day use a (now very cheesey) logo created by yours truly in…uhhhh 1993?

The NEC AFIS politics were sickening, and as some great philosopher once said, “the fish rots from the head.” The head in this case was an evil, old Japanese man known to most as “HH.” He came from a world where it was okay to hand out paper bags of money to one group of prospective customers while telling another about his exploits killing American pilots in the Pacific during the “big one.” Yeah, he was a real piece of work. One year he pulled a long, stretch limo up to the state capitol in Arkansas for an audience with members of the legislature. That arrogant behavior was not well received in the deep South, and we ended up losing the deal. For that, everyone involved with it took a hit on their next merit raise. Also included in his list of absurd ego-stroking needs included: traveling with a “nurse,” and requiring an entourage to ensure doorways were cleared and elevators always open.

Hey, speaking of stroking, those Japanese think of everything!

I apologize for my protracted absence from the um, well, from here. This boy has been busy. Lately I’ve found myself shuffling from one meeting to another to be force-fed the glow of hideous Powerpoint “decks.” We sit there like zombies as many well intentioned folks read their slides to us. About the only time I’m awakened from the trance is if a hot babe in a tee-shirt runs by swinging a sledgehammer. Kinda like this.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Powerpoint and do quite a bit of them myself, but damn… It’s intended as a visual medium, so why not use some pictures? I have a new favorite blog called Presentation Zen. It’s devoted to “professional presentation design.” One recent post compares the presentation styles of two high-tech heavyweights, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates:

Which speaker do you think would be more compelling? Somewhere I read that “communication is the transfer of emotion.” Bullet points sure don’t evoke any, but a good storyteller can paint vivid images in your mind so the point really sticks. Isn’t that the um, point? Recently I had the pleasure of watching Barb and Joe present. They both presented naked. Well, not literally, but without the security blanket of slides for people to go zombie on. They were both great because they know their stuff cold and speak passionately about it. That’s communication.

Oh, if you’d like to improve your PPT’s, check out Seth Godin’s Really Bad Powerpoint.

Now that my HDTV summit has been um, scaled, I’m embarking on another gadget quest. I need a smartphone so I can have 7×24 access to my corporate email. Uhhhhh…. Nevermind. Perhaps that one deserves some rethinking. Nah! I’m all over it! My Product Advisor is a very cool site that runs you through a series of questions to help recommend the right product for you. They cover cars, smartphones, digital cameras and TV’s. Right now the Palm Treo650 is in the lead…

There are TV commercials that are artisticly pleasing and there are ads that are effective. In rare instances, they accomplish both. I think a current ad from Fidelity Investments hits a home run. The visuals are flourescent green lava lamp bubbles with key investment words related to 401K’s. The point of the ad is to get people to consolidate their various 401K’s held at various institutions with Fidelity. Or maybe I just like lava lamp bubbles.

This is just for Jeff.

Bloglines, that is… This cool site provides me one place that I can view all the internet content that interests me. Previously, I used to have a MyYahoo page and a MyMSN page to aggregate all that content. Now it’s all on one easily navigated page. A couple things I still haven’t figured out, like how to get local sports scores and movie times, but for the most part, it’s all there.

Yesterday was Kyle’s 14th birthday. I had a comittment to do a presentation for our Education line of business at Babson College, so I took Kyle along. It was the first time he’s ever seen me speak publicly. I sprinkled a good amount of humor into it, and I thought it went well. When I asked Kyle what he thought, he had but a one word response: “humiliating.” I see. In spite of being viciously panned by my own son, we went straight to the mall to grab (another) present. His new Darth Vader lightsaber is one nasty tool. When you turn it on, the beam of red light shoots up the blade while the digital sound effects wail. The beam shut off in the opposite direction. So cool. He was a very happy evil Sith Lord.

Finally, I’m guessing this is just an internet hoax, but it’s so well done, I can’t tell for sure. The Focus Fusion Society claims to be developing the Plasma Focus Device for hydrogen-boron nuclear fusion… Hmmmmm….

Yesterday I found myself chatting with my boss about the horrors present in the bathroom mirror in the wee hours. “I should blog on that, because it’s pretty scary at that time of day.” I just wasn’t sure whether I’d have the guts to go with full disclosure. What the hell? If I can’t laugh at myself…

I’m sure a great deal of what’s going on in the world today is good, but the news media puts most of their efforts into the bad stuff. One bit of news (good imo) is that the International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy overseer, issued a bleak report urging the industrialized world to kick its oil habit. Interesting, the Paris-based IEA issued its report from London. Perhaps that’s because a great deal of petroleum products were ablaze across the French countryside. Slate has an interesting compilation of foreign press perspective on the rioting of frustrated Muslim youth in France.

Anyway, speaking of weaning us off of petrol, I read in dismay a Marketwatch report on the “insurance sticker shock” parents receive when junior gets added to their automobile policy. (Note: Megan got her Learner’s Permit last Friday. She’s a very good driver. Seems quite experienced, but that’s another story…) The report says that adding a teenager to a policy can increase premiums anywhere from 100% to 355% even for the old family jalopy! It notes that “safe” vehicles will drive the cost down. As is my nature, I seek the good in everyone and everything, so here it is: Female drivers pose less risk, so adding a 16-year-old daughter results in only a 349% hike… Cool. Why are the rates so high you ask? Well, the report cites “Car accidents are the leading cause of death among those 15 to 20, according to 2002 figures from the National Center for Health Statistics, the most recent data available.”

So now I’m in a bit of a quandry given the fatality statistics and the costs for insurance and gasoline. The Sherman tank I’m buying Megan will keep her safe and the insurance on it will be a mere pittance, but the fill-ups are gonna be brutal.

I heard this line from Elliott Smith’s “Baby Britain” (From “XO,” 1998) on the way home from the gym tonight. It echoed the sentiments of an email I received earlier today. In part, it read, “Ned (not his real name) was a great guy, but we weren’t exactly on the same intellectual level if you know what I mean.” Yeah, I do know what you mean. It’s just one of the many “tests” we all must pass in the mating game. As I get older, I find myself overanalyzing these things with regard to women. The truth is I think I’m just looking for something to disqualify them from being “the one.” The one I’m afraid to let in. My issues aside, I think as single thirty or forty-somethings get used to the independence and freedom their lifestyle affords them, the less apt they are to “settle” for a relationship with a person that doesn’t measure up in one category or another. Intelligence. Honesty. Physical appeal. Empathy. A sense of humor. Class. Dignity. Self-esteem. Hey, the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd even asks in a new book, “Are Men Necessary?” As the subject of her punching bag of a book, I guess we are.