My "Lost" Alter Ego is Hurley

I scored as Hurley. I'm Hurley! A big fan of food, fun, a person everybody can relate to and everybody likes. Who is your "Lost" alter ego?

Information Is Getting (To Me) Faster

I've found that the flow of new information is getting faster. Since I started using NetNewsWire, there has been a steady uptick in my ratio of information found versus time spent finding it. I used to spend a lot of time surfing the web looking at various news sites looking for interesting things. Now, well over a year after I started using NetNewsWire, it's all coming to me. Now, RSS alone hasn't accounted for all of this. This seems old-hat to many people out there, but we are still in the early-adopter part of the curve. I recently added feeds from digg to my subscription list, and it has only helped things out. For those who don't know, digg is like Slashdot on steriods. What the editors and moderators on Slashdot do that takes a day or more is done by the collective power of the users at digg.com in a few minutes. I often see information on digg.com a day or two before it makes it to Slashdot. Information flows faster. Does anyone remember the old television commercials from AT&T with the dog in the computer who would go fetch the news? It was an idea back then that never quite materialized. With the ability to do tag searches on news feeds, we are almost getting to the point where this is feasable. Perhaps it is already there in some people's minds, but I'm setting my standards a little bit higher. I just love the magic of technology. I'm anxious to see how Newsvine turns out.

Konditorei

I read this little book, by Randy Komisar, called The Monk and the Riddle. In this book, there is this little coffee shop where some of the scenes take place. I just couldn't help but take a trip there, and see it for myself. I have to say that it was nothing like I'd expected. I did, however, have a very nice white chocolate mocha latte there, though.

One Infinite Loop

What Apple fan couldn't resist a little side trip while visiting Silicon Valley?

Business Development

In continuing my theme with contrasting various sources, I couldn't help but draw inspiration from my wife and I's trip to California last weekend. We took a tour of the Korbel Champagne Cellars near Sonoma, and the history goes back to the Korbel Brothers starting out making cigar boxes. That was the reason they bought that land -- for the lumber. As it turns out, there wasn't that many trees left, and they needed to find a use for that land. They started farming many different crops, including tobacco, apples, pears, and finally grapes. At each point, they readjusted their plans and kept trudging on. They are now one of the premier brands of champagne worldwide. Can you imagine starting a business as a cigar-maker and changing that into a Champagne maker? The perseverance that would take is just amazing. As we were wondering around the winery after the tour, I couldn't help but connect that to Paul Graham's speech at OSCON (see Channels), where he talked about new companies and how they often have to change direction by asking the right questions.