Category: General musings

  • Want to build a good software company? Squeeze four people into an office for one

    I’ve been working with a new startup for the last few months (which explains my silence here). This company is crammed into a single office. There are usually three people working in the office…and when I’m there, I make four. I work from on a small “piece” of an Ikea desk, kindly lent to me…

  • “Mister Softee” is the funniest episode of television ever made

    Do you know who this Red Sox first baseman is? Does this still image bring back unimaginable pain from the long lost 80s? Does Bill Buckner encapsulate for you the pre-21st century course for the Olde Towne Team? What if you could laugh it off, courtesy of a brilliant crew of comedic writers and actors…

  • Another old-school moment

    I’m on vacation on the Cape. We’re having a blast. But this isn’t about the fact that we walked along the beach at dusk and had it all to ourselves or the fact that it’s so quiet and peaceful at our undisclosed location that I never want to leave. Instead this post is about WordPress…

  • Mendacity: lying CEOs

    OK, now that I’ve teed up a 50¢ word like “mendacity,” let me at least tell you what it means. Simply, someone is lying to you. And who hasn’t had the experience of being lied to persuasively? Now, courtesy of researchers from Stanford and a story this morning on NPR that was so fascinating I…

  • Hungry? Check out seasonalfeast.com

    I love to eat. I can’t cook. Even microwaved Velveeta on Ritz is well beyond my gastronomic capabilities. I am quite content to sit at home all day Sunday, watch football all day and consume embarrassingly large quantities of things the FDA has no labeling standards for. Still, I have a lot of respect for…

  • Dear Michael Steele and the Republican Party: Please leave me alone

    Dear Chairman Steele, Last November, I made a $25 contribution to your party’s candidate. I also made a $25 contribution to the Obama campaign. Then, I wasn’t sure who would have been the better president. Now, after months and months of non-stop invective from you and your party against President Obama, I am sure I…

  • Guess what I am doing at Oracle OpenWorld next week in San Francisco

    Those of you who know me may remember Revit’s 2001’s “shelf present” or 2002’s infamous treadmill pr stunts. If you do, you won’t be in the least surprised to see images of the front and back of a card actors in prison uniforms are going to be handing out next week at Oracle OpenWorld in…

  • Choose one: New FTC blog post guidelines a) protect you b) kill free speech

    Well, this is one of those times when the government acts and you get to chose your reaction. On the one hand, the emergence of the ‘net as the definitive source of reviews for everything from software to celery has become a bonanza for the shills of the world who review products for filthy lucre…

  • You drive, you text…you die. Just try not to kill me, too

    Every day for nearly 17 years I’ve commuted on the Mass Pike between my home and workplaces in Cambridge, Boston, Burlington and, now, Waltham. Drivers on the Pike have long been deserving of the appellation “Masshole” — you can’t believe what I’ve seen people doing. They eat, they sing, they use bedpans, they trim their…

  • zug.com turns it up to 11 on Verizon over privacy

    Remember the original Spinal Tap movie in which the amplifiers go to 11? Voila! Instant meme. Well, I’ve just read a blog post from zug.com called “The Verizon Prank” in which John Hargrave risks big dogs and angry neighbors to make a point I wish more people were concerned about: lax privacy controls. Maybe we have…

  • amazon.com redefines doubleplusgood for the 21st century

    On the off-chance you haven’t heard about amazon.com erasing Orwell novels from Kindle users’ devices, here’s the coverage from nytimes.com. You really have to congratulate amazon.com for creating new levels of nested metaphor. My Room 101 isn’t rats: it’s DRM.

  • Currensee gets it

    I often use my blog to diss marketing that’s stupid, misleading, dangerous or derivative.  This time it’s my pleasure to share marketing that’s on it…at the top-dead-center of the power stroke…so damn good it’ll make your day. Coffee lovers often talk about the “blend” — a mystical combination of the beans, the roasting and the…