3.66 Mile Run: Destin, FL

Great run. Started out with Lito and Judy. Oh yeah, they and our friends Edd and Kaye are in Destin Florida vacationing and celebrating New Years here. The house we got is excellent, but not on the beach. Little bungalow with 3 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. It also has a screened in front porch. Shaby chic furniture and cabinets. Very quaint.

Back to the run. I ran while listening to 3 Doors Down, Away from the Sun. It is good music and appears near the top of the list in the mp3 player. Retrospective lyrics, soft rock rythms with occasional hard rock riffs. I dig it. Knocked off 5 minutes based on the last run at the 3 mile mark, cool. I used the Garwin/Timex time and distance system so no heart rate measure. I am also testing my new iRiver and lapel mic that I got for Christmas. Soon, I'm sure I will be recording stuff while running. Thanks for the inspiration Steve Runner.

Data

Distance: 3.661
Time: 34:44
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: 9:29
Weather: Clear skies and 40 degrees

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Tonight was the first run since jaw surgery. I came through it just fine. The hardest part was eating a liquid diet and avoiding exercise. The swelling also took awhile to get down. But, I won't gross anyone out who happens to come here to read. The great news is I can run and I can go workout. I went to the gym yesterday and got out on the road tonight.

I listened to Phedippidations and the Daily Source Code to get caught up.

Data

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 33:42
Heart Rate: 168
Pace: 11:14
Weather: Clear skies, 59 degrees

Podcast Update

• Norman Packard talked about Synthetic Biology. The main starting theme he introduced was a definition of life which includes requirements for self-subsistence, reproduction, and ability to evolve. With this definition, many things can be considered alive and Norman is particularly targeting creating things that are living that can do useful things. Best to let him tell you. This is an excellent presentation and I am looking for my new laptop that comes with the factory to produce more laptops and to improve them along the way!
• Dr. Moira Gunn talks with Gerd Leonhard, music industry strategist, about the future of music. He's written a book for which you can get a direct link by following the link just before this sentence, The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution. If you are a Daily Source Code listener, then you know that Adam Curry has been discussing how the current musical industry and the laws that support it are archaic. Further, that they don't adequately or fairly represent the real interests of musicians or customers. Gerd provides validation of most of Adam's views and a good all around discussion of this important topic. And, yes getting music as we know it is changing!
• Peter O'Kelly, Burton Group, discusses Microsoft as a Superplatform. His presentation provides quick fly-by of Microsoft's main platform offerrings. He validates that Microsoft is a viable candidate. Yes, there is lock-in just as there is if one goes with IBM, Oracle, SAP, and other providers. He believes that all of these vendors and others operate on a similar business model that seeks to provide multiple layers of the stack to each of their customers.
  

Podcast Update

• Dr. Moira Gunn talks with Ann Winblad, Hummer-Winblad Venture Partners, and Laura Merling, SDForum about funding and building new software. This is an interesting podcast predominantly about how silicon valley is still the center of software innovation. While they did give credit to the collaboration environment enabled by the Internet, I am not so confident that all big time software innovation begins in southern California. But, a lot certainly does.
• Balaji B. Prasad, EDS, talks about the Future of the Computer in Your Car. This was a very interesting presentation that I listened to quite awhile ago, but failed to log. Thus, my memory is a little light on his presentation. I do remember that he indicated that we might expect thinks like SIP to be used to help our various pieces of equipment to keep up with where we are and where we were with various things we might be using. I know this was a very interesting presentation and I would recommend it.
• Dr. Moira Gunn talks with Eamonn Kelly, Global Business Network, about the major impacts on the world today. He and Dr. Gunn walk quickly through the last 500 years and remind us that we are under going changes today that may not be unlike those of the enlightenment of those days 500 years ago. I think Eamonn is right on target with his prognostications and analysis of the current climate on the planet. The ubiquity of information and its access around the planet is reshaping the way people think and communicate. Further, as Eamonn notes we are discovering what we have and are doing to the planet. People are taking different sides and, in many cases, taking action. All of which is setting the stage for change. I highly recommend this presentation.
  

Podcast Update

• Esther Tyson led a discussion on accountability on the Internet. She spent a significant time talking about the importance of the rules that govern the creation of things on the net. This is seen in light of things like flickr and other sites that permit users to create things to which others have access and frequently participate in some form of exchange about. Much of the discussion was focused on those that are clearly involved in this topic and as such I did not have enough context to follow all of the exchanges. For example, there was a good discussion on the whether or not root domain servers (think DNS) should be commercial entities and wouldn't that improve root domain servers' services?
  
  There was a significant discussion around the accountable and non-accountable web. Non-accountable web really refers to the ability for anonymity and as such protecting the identity of the user. Esther supports the idea of having a non-accountable web, but believes that in general it leads to bad, harmful activities. She believes transparency is better. Her policy was expressed as "do ask, don't lie". You can say, I won't say. This led to some heated exchange around this. Quite interesting.
• John Clippinger talked about Social Physics. The domain of the topic is all about social networks and most particularly self-organizing on the web. He compares our traditional notions of authority, the influences of thoughts by those like Adam Smith, and neural science to draw conclusions about social physics as it applies to group formation and regulation (frequently self-forming and regulating). Very interesting presentation. He built the case that you can not separate emotion from reason. He claimed that as one reviews or formulates an argument, the evaluation is not some dry truth value calculation, but that in fact their are connections in the brain between this cortex related activity and the limbic system maintain an significant connect between reason and emotion. Thus, as we participate in groups from a variety identities (roles), we react emotionally and this emotion is driven partially by our desire to trust and such. He concludes (like Esther above), that transparency in this context is extremely important for the establishment of trust. Good presentation.
• Dick Hardt talked about identity 2.0. He did a good brief review of the past trail (like Microsoft's Passport) and paper based documents we have had historically. He clearly shows that ultimately what we want from identity infrastructure that identifies the person. That person will, of course, has different relationships, reflections of self on from different contexts, but is ultimately the same person. Reputation becomes significant in this context. He does a quick review of the various technologies coming into this space now and offers caution given RSA's expectations for SAML for registering for use given their claim of patent. His best line is "simple and open" wins. It is true and as he implied the domains to which this truism applies is extremely broad. It is clear that we don't know where identity is going, but Dick definitely has his hand directly on the pulse. He rejects WS-* stuff and SAML as very likely candidates given a variety of reasons not least of which is they are not "open and simple". He would like to see the identity strategy he backs win as thanks to the presentation, I will be checking out. He suggests sxip.
• Dr. Moira Gunn talked with Dr. Paul Hallenback about NeoTropix and his research involving viruses and cancer. This fast paced presentation proved to be very interesting. Paul talked alot about a virus they have identified that prove to be able to go throughout one's system and systematically eat tumor cells and then just get flushed away by the body at the end. Many current therapies and a 10-1 kill ratio (for 10 cancer cells the person loses 1 good cell). This new virus may have a kill ration of 1 million-1. WOW. Very interesting stuff.
  

Podcast Update: Robert Lefkowitz and Semasiology, Again

Robert presented the second part of his presentation on the semasiology of open source. I thoroughly enjoyed the first part and this one did not let me down either. He does a good job of making some straight forward facts and observations painfully obvious and, more importantly, convincingly important. For example, he builds the case that at least 1/2 of the money spent on software is spent reading it. Thus, make it readable is far more important that we may generally think. Why is this true? Well 60+% of the expense for any software is consumed in maintenance. Most of the time spent in maintenance is spent reading the code trying to figure out what it does.

He also reminds us that the meaning of "reading" has changed over time and that the nature of this change has relevance for open source in the modern world. For example, in the early days of reading, the reader was seen as taking on the properties of the writer. Anyone reading a book as taking the role of the speaker (writer). Overtime, the reader was seen as the receiver of the exchange. The reader essentially became the target, the listener for the writer. Open Source in this same way will and does encompass more then just the source. It is also about requirements and all of the other characteristics accompany our conception of software. Very interesting presentation.

Podcast Update

I have only managed to listen to one new IT podcast since my last update. I am keeping up with Adam Curry's Daily Source Code and Steve Runner's Phedippidations. I listened Robert Lang talk about origami, computation, and open source. Robert talked about how those in the origami community have shared designs and the computations underneath many of the designs. Apparently, much of modern origami is based on series of mathematical calculations many of which are generated by computers. This same technology is used to determine how to fold things from air bags in cars to solar sails deployed in space. This was a brief, but very interesting presentation.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Well, this is the last run before the jaw surgery. I am getting jaw surgery to correct my bite. This is part of the ortho treatment I have been in for almost a year now (wearing braces). I had the choice of losing some teeth or surgery. I went for the surgery. I won't be able to run for 2 weeks. At that point, I will be training in earnest for Cooper River Bridge which I have registered for now. Tonight, I ran to Alien Ant Farm which just cranks. I especially like their cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" Data: Distance: 3 Miles Time: 30:26 Heart Rate: 161 Pace: 10:9 Weather: Partly cloudy, 48 degrees

Added Frappr Map

I am sure that there are few (if anyone) that follow my rambling and blog entries. But, hey if you do, how about following the link in the header to Peg yourself on my Frappr map.

Podcast Update

• Kim Polese, SpikeSource, talked about companies moving from using Open Source from a "Do it Yourself" to a "Do it Together" mentality. This is the second podcast of a speech by Kim that I have listened to. And, both times she delivers. I, too, believe that we are under going a culture change as it pertains to the development and integration of software. This modern age of participation and transparency is changing the way we look at software and architecture. I highly recommend this podcast.
• Daniel Blum, Burton Group, talked about Managing Security. He does a good job of building the case of why the security is good for business and why business needs to be concerned about security. Further, he reminds us that we must be proactive and that realistic threat analysis is MUST and that some of the biggest threats work inside the firewall. Good presentation.
• Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil Technologies, talked with Dr. Moira Gunn about the singularity and how humans transcend biology. This was a very interesting podcast and I plan to listen to his full length discussion as referenced in this interview. One of his comments I found most memorable referred to the darwinistic view of a buffalo growing a thick and protective hide. In this view, the buffalo that were born with genes that didn't not result in warm enough hides died. The evolution took generations. For us humans, as the weather gets cold, we only need to be near on the warm buffalo. Good interview.

Book Update: Finished Podcast Solutions

I found the book very informative and the chatty style (not to be confused with lots of words) that created the allusion of a conversation with the authors was great. I have podcasting equipment on order and have improved the production quality of my podcasts that are hosted on an intranet as a result of reading this book. If you are interested in Podcasting , this is a great book.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

It was a cold night. First time in tights this year. I double layered the top with a singlet and a long sleeve coolmax. Ran slow as I took my time along the trail along the lake to protect the ankle. It doesn't make sense to push it. I listened to another Phedippidations 19 - Rambling Diatribes from Steverunner.com. First, let me say that running while listening to a runner WORKS. I enjoyed the experience. Not to mention how many times I have had similar internal diatribes while running. Two of my favorite topics were mentioned by Steve: dogs and cars (esp. the nuts holding the steering wheels). He is right in both cases. People should take better care of dogs and not let them roam. People should drive as if they had sense. And, yes there are tons of stupid drivers. And, they all seem to hate runners.

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 32:00
Heart Rate: 151 (nice rate!)
Pace: 10:40
Weather: Clear skies, 42 degrees (weather.com said feels like 34).

Podcast Update: Phedippidations

I checked out Steve Runner's Phedippidations. At first, I didn't think I was going to like it. I like to run and I read Runners' World. But I typically prefer to listen to music or technical stuff when I am listening to podcasts. But, as I hung in there, I found myself getting locked into what Steve was experiencing and I couldn't turn it off. I am hooked. I will be continuing to listen in on Steve's Phedippidations. Steve, I was about to yell when you stopped near the end of the Cape Cod marathon. Good job for making it!

5K Run: Demopolis, AL

I ran the Christmas on the River Jingle Bell 5K in Demopolis, AL. I cranked up Stepford Wives, Back, and Puddle of Mud's Come Clean CD. Great run on a cool, but not cold morning. I have run this race at least 6 or 7 times now and it is always fun to run in this community run with a couple hundred runners. Good time today too. Maybe, I can pick up the pace. Data: Distance: 3.1 Miles Time: 27:50 Heart Rate: 175 Pace: 9:16 Weather: Cloudy skies, 52 degrees (in fact, it started raining when I finished).

Found a Running Podcast!

I was listening to the Dawn and Drew Show, a podcast, recently and they played a snippet of some guy that was recording a podcast while running. So, I went to their website and got the link, http://www.steverunner.com, and I am now checking it out. Too early for me to say if I like it yet, as I have not had a chance to listen. But, what a good idea. I emailed Steve too. He sure seems like a nice person as well. Thanks for the reply Steve. I asked him about the equipment he used to record.

I noticed a question/answer board, basically "Ask Steve", where there is an anwser to how one knows if he is a runner or a jogger. I gotta say, I think the answer is simpler. Ask the runner or the jogger (depends on their self-perception). Just my opinion. Me, I'm a runner and a jogger. Now, the ultimate question is are you "a real runner", lol (lots of laughs). For me, the answers to this question provides a framework for "you're a real runner if...".

You're a real runner if:

• You run in the rain
• You run in the cold
• You understand putting vaseline on your nipples
• You know the definition of "chub rub"
• You watch friends drink while you abstain 'cause you have to run tomorrow
• You drink beer tonight even though you are running tomorrow

This list could get huge.... But, I have heard this at many a runner/jogger gathering.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Good run, even if slow. Guess it is going to take me awhile to get the pace back. But, hey it is better then spraining an ankle and falling down and scraping a knee. "On the road again...". Anyway, the Creative Zen Sleek and I are still getting along. Here are some tidbits:

Creative Zen Sleek

• Likes:
• Lots of storage
• Easy to use
• I have dropped this thing 3 times and it just keeps working
• Supports Windows media format
  
• Dislikes:
• Random shuffle seems to select the same albums in the same order just different songs
• Pause and return after idle shutdown works great (takes back to where you where) if you come back soon. But, if you wait too long, it forgets where you where. This is the biggest nuisance. As a podcast listener, it would be great if I could just hit pause, it shutdowns after idle timeout, and no matter when I return it puts me where I was.
• Hard to find cases and accessories
  

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 30:40
Heart Rate: 160
Pace: 10:13
Weather: Clear skies, 48 degrees.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

This old body is feeling the increase of activity after 2 months of little exercise beyond the physical therapy for the left ankle. I am glad to be out there doing it. I am planning to run 4 days this week with 2 days at the gym. Close to my original schedule, albeit, with fewer miles for the week. I will be running a 5K this weekend. I do have jaw surgery coming up to correct my bite, that will slow me down again for a week or two. I will be ready for Cooper River in April as usual, I believe.

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 31:32
Heart Rate: 160
Pace: 10:31
Weather: Clear skies, 60 degrees.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Well, I am getting back to my normal workout schedule. I am going to the gym twice a week for muscle works. Of course, I am getting the usual set of questions after laying off for awhile, "where have you been?" But, all are wishing me well. The running is going fine but, I can still feel something is different with the left heel and ankle. But, it doesn't feel like weakness or pain. I think it may be the brace. But, it sure does feel good to be back at it.

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 30:43
Heart Rate: 167
Pace: 10:14
Weather: Clear skies, 57 degrees.

Podcast Update

• Vernor Vinge talked about Technical Singularity. I got interested in this topic after reading an article in Wired. I thought that I saw references to hackers and terrorists as additional limitations on our ability to make progress towards something like the singularity to which Vernor alludes. But, I can't find it. Not worth the trouble. Vernor delivered a very interesting presentation. His ideas are great fodder for science fiction writers and for general contemplation. Vernor introduces some interesting ideas related to this singularity. So, what is singularity? I found this definition on Wikipedia:
  
  technological singularity (also referred to as just "the Singularity") is a predicted future event when technological progress and societal change accelerate due to the advent of superhuman intelligence, changing our environment beyond the ability of pre-Singularity humans to comprehend or reliably predict.
  
  Vernor adds concepts like a soft and hard take-off. A soft take-off refers to the idea that we gradually and relatively incrementally reach singularity. A hard take-off refers to the idea that it emerges as more or less a surprise maybe even without notice. As we continue to add chips to all kinds of things in our environment, what happens when the devices get ornery. Hum. The more we lean on computers for management of basic features of our social and general environment, the easier it is to imagine machines coordinating an automatic expansion of capabilities that just escapes us.
  
  Great presentation. The whole topic has me thinking about basic dichotomies like good-and-evil. In this context, I am treating the singularity as "good" which, of course, is not a given. Thus, the association with hackers and terrorists in my mind is related to the notion that worms, Trojan horses, viruses and those that introduce them distract from our ability to keep growing our abilities on exponential scales as we have to spend so much resources on defense. Terrorism and other social ills provide the same controlling impact on society. Of course, the troubling thought is that if singularity were to take place which side of the dichotomy would benefit? What if it just exacerbates the battle?
• Paul Le Dieu talks about how the BBC is participating in the digitization of more and more information. Further, that the BBC is participating in making this content available for those that wish to remix and redistribute under a creative commons license (limited to the UK). Very interesting presentation.
• Paul Graham talks about blogging and open source and how it compares to more traditional IT work environments. He hits the nail on the head so many times and does so with a nice peppering of humor. I laughed out loud so many times listening to this. Fortunately for me, I work for an organization that gets it. I don't trudge into a endless sea of cubicles each day and experience some of the humorous (well, maybe not really funny) events described by Paul so well. For example, to describe the motivation for making people go to work during certain hours he says "if you can't make people work, at least, you can prevent them from having fun". I do visit from time-to-time. In this case, my visits are packed with face-to-face meetings that are not just contrived or distracting but about making connections.
  One of the less obvious things Paul points out is that despite the traditional media's pointing out that the average blog contains content of average or worse content, they miss that what they will compete is against isn't the average blog. They will compete against the best blogs. This, of course, is comparable to Microsoft's position with open source. Paul's comments are on target, iconoclastic and highly recommended listening.
  

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I put in another good run. Yeppee! All seems to be working OK. I have finished physical therapy and I am embarking on picking up my normal workout schedule. It feels good to be back, but I am tired.

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 30:57
Heart Rate: 169
Pace: 10:19
Weather: Partly cloudy, 60 degrees.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I know it is a shock! First run since the injury on September 18th. I have been in physical therapy and was cleared by the podiatrist. I was slow and stiff, but it was great to be back out there. My plan is to train hard and steady for Cooper River Bridge Run in April.

Data:

Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 32:03
Heart Rate: 168
Pace: 10:40
Weather: Partly cloudy, 61 degrees.

Podcast Update

• Opening Move with Scott Mace
  • Julie Hanna Farris talks about Scalix which offers a messaging application that presents an Outlook like interface via a browser. Interesting comments about the penetration of open source into commercial enterprises. She clearly believes that the two will continue to play well together. For her company, they open sourced a limited, but rich set of features in Scalix Community Edition. In fact, it sounds like they open sourced all but those that are most clearly directed towards more enterprise use (e.g., group scheduling). She also made it clear that their target is to provide a messaging system for Linux. They are not targeting Windows. Interesting presentation.
    
  • Brian Capouch talks about the open source project, Asterisk. This open source project provides PBX functionality for VoIP. Brian made it clear that the main version of Asterisk is best understood by those with a background in IT and Telephony. However, he also indicated that the home distribution is easy to install and essentially gets you setup via answers to easy to understand questions. I know little about telephony. So, I imagine I would find the full edition of Asterisk intimidating. Brian mentioned several uses of Asterisk that were quite interesting. For example, he mentioned once case where an application used Asterisk and bluetooth to ring the room in which a person was physically located. Good presentation.
• Larry's World
• Larry talked with Craig Newmark of Craig's List. Given the use of Craig's List during hurricane Katrina, I was very curious to hear this presentation. I must the most impressive part for me was the insight I gained into the character of Craig. Maintaining a simple site where control remains with the users, bypassing offers for huge sums of cash to maintain a work he finds important, both speak well for Craig. Very interesting.
• Larry talked with Jakob Nielsen a usability expert. This lively and entertaining presentation features Jakob sharing some of the no-no's we see and should avoid as we build web applications (or applications in general for that matter). It is how the user is going to use the site, not what it looks like that matters. Good listening.
  
• Rajesh Jain, Professor of Information & Computer Sciences, UC, Irvine, talks about Experiential Computing. Every time I listen to Rajesh I gain more appreciation for his insightful and informed viewpoint on where computer science is taking us. This excellent presentation find Rajesh reminding us that we are on the edge of escaping some of our historical baggage (like viewing everything on the web as a document) into a world where our experiences are captured in multiple ways and linked via the web and other technologies to allows to revisit and share that experience. Cool presentation.
  
• Vermor Vinge talks about Singularity.
• The Gilmor Gang talks about the current range of browsers standards for the web (blessed and de facto). This very interesting presentation brings together a group of knowledgeable folks to talk about the browsers and the tagged languages to which the appeal. They talked about the W3C blessed standards and the standards that appear in the real world. XForms, SVG, and DOM level 0 and level 1 make the list of topics discussed. With the apparent ongoing onslaught of Firefox use growth, this presentation is still timely and interesting. I highly recommend this presentation.
  
• Tara Lemmey talks about National Security in the Information Age. This brief, but very informative presentation, highlights how the automation of information between and within agencies needs to meet certain usability requirements that many of us probably don't think about much. For example, some FBI agents have a strong preference for NOT having to type in information. Then, one has to determine how to manage annotations and viewability within a security context. Who can see what on the original document and amongst the collections of annotations. Good presentation.
• Richard Monson-Haefel, Senior Analyst for the Burton Group, talks about Java Superplatforms including those from IBM, Oracle, and BEA. Richard makes a compelling case that essentially divides the world of Java based platforms between these big players and open source where open source represents the lower end of the market space (read as less large scale enterprise deployments). I am not sure I completely accept Richard's viewpoint as the most accurate descriptive or prescriptive of the current and future marketplace. But, it is certainly feasible that things could end up exactly as he describes. My hesitation is driven by my knowledge that some corporations do, in fact, thrive on multiple and varied solutions. Many corporations' IT shops are thrown a mix of applications by their business units and expected to help them find coexistence without forcing a one-size fits all solution. Do NOT read this comment as a rejection of Richard's position. I do believe Richard speaks for some, perhaps many, organizations.

Podcast Update

• Robert Lefkowitz, VP Enterprise Systems & Architecture, AT&T Wireless, talks about The Semasiology of Open Source. Before you ask, semasiology refers to the study of the development of words and their meanings. Robert does an excellent job of dividing the term "open source" into a variety of possible connotations and such. This very interesting presentation includes consideration for how an IT organization might view open source from an accountant's perspective. For those of you familiar with FASB 86, this is quite interesting. Robert also notes the changes that have occurred in how we diagnose problems with systems and how this has changed over the last 20+ years. In this context, logging has become perhaps more important then being able to use a debugger. A very interesting idea indeed, when was the last time you, if you are a techie, checked the contents of a register. Robert also talked about what constitutes source for open source. His discussion would apply to closed source too. In this context, he builds a good case that it isn't just the code. In fact, it starts with the requirements. This is a rich presentation with great analysis and wonderful historical references. ITConversations includes a link to a transcript of the presentation too.
• David Ritter, VP Boston Consulting Group, delivered an inspiring and information packed presentation about Making Connections. I recommend listening to this one while viewing the slides which ITConversations provides. This presentation talks about how networking has changed the dynamics of many industrial processes including, but not only, software. Networking, in this context, while enhanced and aided by technological capabilities like the Internet, is more about how organizations and people connect with each other. David's presentation includes a good selection of examples including what happened with a single provider of a critical component for ALL Toyota cars burned to the ground. Many other Toyota providing vendors worked together with the original provider to bring Toyota plants back online (an amazing story). David drives home the importance of transparency and offers some interesting tidbits about network analysis in this regard. I highly recommend this presentation. ITConversations also provides access to a transcript of this presentation.
• Steve Gillmor (ZDNet), Glenn Reid (Five Across), Dorée Duncan Seligmann (Avaya), David Sifry (Technorati), and Linda Stone (Apple) talked about Attention. My first glance at the description of this session made me think I wouldn't find this presentation interesting. To the contrary, this interesting panel discussion brought to light the real essence of what my everyday is like in many ways. The whole notion of continuous partial attention is so apt. I highly recommend this presentation.
• Jonathan Schwartz, President of Sun Microsystems, was interviewed by Kevin Werbach. Jonathan offers some very interesting perspectives about open source and the importance of decentralizing the control of technology. Jonathan is insightful and outspoken. This is another presentation I would highly recommend especially if, like me, you share an interest in software development and open source from a software vendor's perspective.
• Kartik Subbarao, Hewlett Packard, talks about embracing Open Source within an enterprise. Particularly, he uses an interesting analysis incorporating a metaphor of water (open source) and earth (closed source) and Venice. He talks about the characteristics of both are necessary to support Venice's existence (and yes he addresses the fact the Venice is still sinking). His examples include HP's use and contributions to OpenLDAP. I highly recommend this presentation. The world of enterprise software today is not just choices between buy and build. Open and closed source. Great, fast, short presentation.
• John Smart delivered the opening presentation at the Accelerating Change conference. This presentation was predominantly an overview of the other presentations to come and at first swipe, this may sound uninteresting. The contrary is true. I am actively seeking the podcast of the presentation on technical singularity to which John referred now. Go listen. :)
• Several lawyers, Lauren Gelman and Wendy Seltzer, participated in a panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Collins about the legal rights and responsibilities of bloggers. This is a very informative and interesting discussion that any blogger would find value listening to. They provide good coverage of the issues surrounding borrowing text, using music, and talking about others.

Podcast Update

• I listened to Dr. Moira Gunn interview Robert Kaplan about his book Imperial Grunts. He talked about the experience of doing the research to learn first hand about the experience of American soldiers in the field. He described much of our work as imperialistic. I was surprised until he defended why he applied that definition. In fact, we do spend a lot of time consulting and training troops in other countries. To do otherwise would require us to have to strong of a presence in the host countries. Very interesting interview and I have added his book to my desired reading list.
  
• I listened to a panel moderated by Liza Sabater. The panel included Debi Jones who blogs as mobile jones, Ellen Spertus a computer science professor, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez who blogs and writes. It was very interesting to listen to this group of women talk about how to manage and react to those who would flame, shame, or blame (this was the title of the panel) others via blogs, email, and such. It was fiery and very interesting. My wife and I listened to this and a few other podcasts while driving on a long trip. This is the only one my wife liked. My wife does find IT as interesting as I do.
• Jeremy Zawodny, Yahoo, led an interesting presentation about the infrastructure of some of the software at Yahoo. He particularly addressed open source used at Yahoo. A good and thorough presentation.

Anonymous Posts Not Welcome

I suspect this blog is read by few. And that is ok, I am using this as a personal log and if someone finds my ramblings interesting fine. But, clearly anonymous posts that are not related to the log entries themselves are not really welcome. The few I get seem to be spam. I wonder if there is a different word for them when they are posted to blogs like this. Hum.... Probably so.

The Dark Tower - Finally or No, Not Yet!

Stephen King has written the last of the Dark Tower series and I have been reading them as they have come out since the 1980's. What a long time! I thoroughly enjoyed the journey through the books. I have found it difficult to read other books of this type (read as Tolkien and such). Yet, I was attracted to this story and its main characters. It has been a great read.

First, I was excited to learn the last one was done. Finally, we get to the tower! Second, I was sad to think the journey was to end. Roland and his ka-tet traveled far, fought hard, and shared their souls.


Thanks for the trip, Stephen.

Rave - I Figured Out How to Use My Zen Sleek

I have had my Creative Zen Sleek for a few months now, and finally I have learned how to use it correctly. My major mistake was to somehow get my music loaded on to the player where each artist and album was treated as a folder. Thus, the desktop software seemed to suck when it came to looking at all songs for sorting and such. I reformatted and loaded anew. This time I selected all the tracks on the PC tab after selected the various directories within which I may have music and drug them to the "Music" tab on the player. Now, I can slice and dice 'em. Don't know how I started down the folder path, but it sucked. I can also look for the most recently loaded on to the PC. Thus, noticing what needs to be moved is now easy. Yeppee!

Podcast Update

• Andrew Zolli, Z+ Partners, participated in an interview as part of Globeshakers with Tim Zak. During this interview, Andrew talks about the impact of demographic distribution changes on the world and domestic economy. This is a very interesting presentation that I would recommend. Unfortunately, I listened too long ago and didn't take notes so I can't state an specifics about the interview. But, I know I liked it.
• Anne Thomas Manes, APS Research Director for the Burton Group, talked about The Advent of Superplatforms. This information packed and insightful presentation is well worth listening to if you are an architect. Anne correctly notes that the major platform providers like Microsoft with .Net and IBM with WebSphere are including 100's of support applications with their suites. Thus, while the promise of web services, open source, and industry standards would lead you to think that a new world of plug and play is on the horizon, we may in fact, be seeing something entirely different emerge. I can't help but think this is sort of more of the same. That is, the IDE and infrastructure providers build in features that help lock you in to their solution (and their problems). I don't read this as good or bad. It is the nature of things. Anne also notes that Open Source is essentially an alternative choice. One that on a feature basis may not compete directly with the comprehensive suites of the commercial providers. My primary concern with implications of her analysis is that continuing notion of vendor lock-in at the platform level. But, her analysis definitely has merit and for many companies, the information she provides is surely of high interest and value. Thanks Anne for a very thought provoking presentation.

Judith Miller has Balls

Well, not literally. Judith Miller, N.Y. Times reporter that has been in jail for almost 90 days because she chose not to reveal her source for information related to the leaking of Valerie Plame's name as a covert CIA operative. She only relinquished when her source offered his release to do so and the court agreed to limit the questions to the information from this particular source.

Clearly, Judith held her personal principles and her promise to her source paramount. That's integrity! You go Judith! But, I gotta say I hope we never release an agent's name in a context that leads to their death or some other horrible outcome as a result.

Podcast Update

Still catching up on Tech Nation with Dr. Moira Gunn:

• The interview with Dr. David Stretavan about the knifes that cut axons for the purpose of neural graphs was interesting. I assume I don't need to tell you just how small that is.
• Daniel Liebowitz talked about Henry Stanley's last expedition to Africa in the 19th century. Daniel got his insight writing his book The Last Expedition: Stanley's Mad Journey Through the Congo. This interview made Henry's experience sound exciting and surprising and I am sure the Daniel's book is equally so. Given time, I will be reading this one.

Not Running Update

Given the multiple sprained ankles I have suffered over the last few months, I met with a podiatrist for the latest injury. I will be going into physical therapy for 6-8 weeks staring in about 2 weeks. The intent is to build up my ankle strength. At the end of the therapy, I will be fit with an orthorotic and will likely run with some form of support specifically for my left ankle. Not running sucks, but at least there is hope.

Meanwhile, I will log my podcast listening and an occasional rant or rave.

Podcast Update

Well, I guess if I don't run, then I listen to podcasts! Well, I have also traveled a bit lately which offers great opportunities for listening. Here's my latest listening log:

• Sigmund Solares, CEO of DirectNIC, is interview buy Doc Searls about keeping their operation running in New Orleans during Katrina. This is an extremely interesting story. Sigmund talks about how the internet and helpful technicians helped his team configure and manage software to help manage updates, changes, and such. He talks about what they had to go through to get fuel for their generator. This interview is just packed with interesting experiences and highlights how many aspects of today's openness enables technical operations despite adversity.
• I listened to a panel discussion (several times actually) while driving around in New Jersey and New York. The panel discussion was titled Distributed Business and was held at Supernova 2005. I highly recommend listening to this information packed podcast. My favorite part was Dick Hardt's discussion of Identity 2.0 and implications for today's identity management (1.0). Particularly, he describes today's notions as site based and more specifically based on what you have said and done on particular sites. In this context, you can't really take your identity with you.
• Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, talks about his teams creation of Basecamp. This very interesting project (and it sounds like most of 37signals' projects are interesting) brought fresh and insightful perspectives to project management. Some attributes are Extreme Programming like and others are not. I would have to admit that I share many of Jason's views about the false sense of control many traditional development methodology artifacts provide (especially to senior management). Today, agility and comfortably managing change are more important than proving conformance to dictates recorded on paper. Great presentation that I would recommend listening to. It would be interesting to hear Jason and Joel Spolsky discuss methodology.
• Getting through a bunch of Tech Nation with Dr. Moira Gunn too:
• Interview with Andrew Fraknoi, Chairman of the Astronomy Program at Foothill College talks with Dr. Gunn about planets. Particularly, he addresses why we are finding so many and the ambiguous label planet. The label is ambiguous now as astronomers are trying to distinguish between objects that may or may not be planets. For example, is a large object that is not round a planet? We have discovered that at least 14 stars have multiple planets! This is a very interesting podcast. He also noted the startling observations that objects in the universe are speeding up not slowing down as we have suspected for a long time.
  
• Dr. Gunn interviewed Robert Shelton, Managing Director for Innovation at Navigant Consulting. No surprise, the topic was innovation. He talks at length about 7 characteristics of innovation and it is well worth listening to.
• I also recommend these from Tech Nation:
• Doug Kaye interview. Doug Kaye is doing a great service to the IT and podcasting community via ITConversations and this interview is very good.
• Daniel Imhoff interview. Daniel talked with Dr. Gunn about how we should think about our current use of plastic for shopping bags and product packages. For those of us (includes me), that are and should be concerned about human impact on environment, this is an information packed podcast. Good job Daniel.
• More to come....

Podcast Update

I was listening to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code recently when I heard a song titled: MY BACK'S ACHIN, MY BRA'S TOO TIGHT, by the Stepford Wives! I gotta tell you, I think this song is way cool.

Thanks Adam

Podcast Update

• Nathan Torkington and Tim O'Reilly talked about Trends in the Open Source Marketplace. And, in the process provide lots of good fodder for the rest of us. As a result, I will be checking out GreaseMonkey. They did ask an interesting concept about the impact of software as a service on the open source movement. If you are not actually loading or even seeing the source.... Good presentation.
• David Rumsey, President, Cartography Associates, talked the Past and Future of Mapping. If you are into maps or history, this is an excellent presentation. It would be greatly enhanced by access to the pictures, charts, and maps he referenced during the presentation. I thought the most interesting bits were those about the differences in the maps from different periods of history and from different perspectives. David points out how the biases and such of the chartographer are evident in his charts.
• Asa Dotzler talks about why or should Linux find its way to the desktop. Asa builds the case that if Linux is to take significant desktops from Microsoft the time is nigh (before Vista). However, he notes the importance of ensuring a good experience for the user to enable this to occur. Things like making things simple, not moving buttons or changing fast keys from the settings which most users are acquainted. He further says that we should reduce the choices users have to install and use an operating system. Good and interesting presentation.
• Bob Wyman, PubSub, talks Denise Howell about syndication, RSS and copyright. He builds the case that the law is not a far behind technology as many would have us believe. He goes on to talk about some of the practices (good and bad) that are visible today that are taking advantage of opportunities to respect and use the content of others and those that are violating copyright. A very interesting presentation that I would highly recommend.
  

Podcast Update

• Alan Ganek, IBM, talks about Autonomic Computing Systems. This brief, but very interesting presentation outlayes a lot of information about self-healing and such that is made possible using the nervous system metaphor. Very worthwhile listening.
• Lisa Williams and Ryanne Hodson talk about Audio and Video Blogging at BlogHer 2005. I only listened to part of this podcast before my schedule interrupted me. It sounded like it was going to be interesting, but I am battling a hectic schedule and a lot of podcasts I haven't gotten to yet. Since it is focused on women blogging and such and I am a man, I will get to it later. From the little I heard this podcast will NOT be boring.

Aborted 9 Mile: Shades Creek Greenway

Well, I started off with Lito and a whole host of others on the first training day for the Mercedes Marathon. At the half way point, my damn ankle gave out and I scraped my knee again. I can't believe my poor luck. That makes 2 major sprains and 2 minor sprains this summer. All on the same ankle. Something is WRONG and this SUCKS. Went to the doctor and the xrays don't show anything. She is going to refer me to a specialist and I asked for one that understands sports medicine.

Before the fall, I was cranking and running strong. I just can't believe my bad luck.

3 Mile Run: Myrtle Beach

Well, I did my presentation yesterday and all went well. Interesting since my presentation included a hip-hop number using music I cut from a Beastie Boys, Creative Commons covered song "Now Get Busy?. I saw a guy walk by that looked a little like Emenim. So, I asked him if he would be willing to participate. As it turned out, he is in a band that does rap. Well, he was great and it really added some pow to my presentation.

The run today was good. The weather was dry and in the 70's.

Data:
Distance: 3.173 Miles
Time: 27:38
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: @8:42 (Cool, first time under 9:00 in a long while!)

5 Mile Run: Myrtle Beach, SC

Hurricane Ophelia is just off shore; it is raining; it is windy;it is dark. But, the run was good. Myrtle Beach is getting prettier and prettier based on my periodic visits. I remember from years ago as old and ugly. But, I never really came here as a tourist and it may have just been related to where I accidentally traveled.

Data:
Distance: 5.029 Miles
Time: 47:26
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: @9:25

3 Mile Run: Myrtle Beach, SC

I am at a business conference on the east coast during another hurricane. Fortunately, it has stayed off shore and hasn't impacted Myrtle Beach in any large way and appears that it will not. Looks like it will cause some havoc north of here, but hopefully nothing too critical. I did get rained on a little during this run, but not bad.

I skipped my long run on Sunday as I had a sinus headache on Saturday night that just knocked me out. So, I skipped supper and last time I tried to run the day after this, I suffered enormously. A break every now and then is good.

Data:
Distance: 3.056 Miles
Time: 28:02
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: @9:10

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Still running with the "Time and Distance" system since the bridges are broken and I am taking alternate courses. Totally enjoying the new Mp3 player, Creative, Zen Sleek.

Data:
Distance: 3.009 Miles
Time: 29:10
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: @9:41

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

No time to smell the roses this week as I am just swamped with work. But, I am getting my runs in. I am a bit distracted by all of this Katrina stuff. I am just so disturbed by so many aspects of this whole disaster including:

• The sluggish response to get help to New Orleans
• The disgusting behavior of some of the folks in the Superdome (rapes, murders, and such)
• The obvious contrast between various groups of our society
• The thin veil of civilization
• The notion that perhaps scarce resources will create a situation where people turn to violence on a much larger scale in general
• The notion that we might be aiding this phenomenon through global warming
  

I hope I find that this was just a huge mistake from which we learn to behave much better.

Data:
Distance: 5.354 Miles
Time: 51:46
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: 9:40

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Back home. A crew is working on the bridges over the coves in our neighborhood lake, so I had to pick an alternate course. I found a very minor modification requiring me to follow a path between 2 of the houses along the lake up to a road that skirts the lake near the bridge.

Data:
Distance: 3.205
Time: 31:09
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: 9:43

10 Miles: Fort Walton Beach, FL

The "Time and Distance" system lost power during the run, so the distance is an estimate based on time. Also, since I don't know exactly when the GPS stopped, I could be off a significant amount. It was a hard run primarily due to the temperature. I felt like I needed more water and I didn't have my usual water stop 1/2 way through the run to top off the my water bottle. I stopped in front of a fire station to see if they had a fountain I could use. The guy out front was not helpful. But, I bumped into a fountain just a few hundred yards along.

Data:
Distance: @10 Miles
Time: 1:30:27
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: @9:00

Don't Confuse Incompetence with Racism

Kayne West apparently believes that George Bush is a racist. I strongly doubt that. George thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a friend to Osama Bin Laden. Oh yeah, he also thought the Iraqis would be dancing in the street after we took over. So, why would we be surprised that he would under estimate the need for federal government to jump in and help the people in New Orleans? Why we would be surprised that his reaction would not be fast enough with the immediate and massive support required.

Like Kayne (I assume this is his real motivation), it breaks my heart to see so many people suffering and the seemingly incredible slow pace of help. Unlike Kayne, I see people screwing up (not helping quick enough) and people suffering. I don't think playing the race card explains or helps the situation. The New Orleans mayor and the Louisiana Governor are also hugely to blame for such a colossal failure to plan for this. It is not like this scenario was never considered. It was considered.

Are New Orleans Police Officers taught how to introduce order and organization? I mean if you put 30, 000 people in a single location with little contact with the outside world, limited resources, and high duress, you need to help them get organized and manage their situation. You need some folks to focus on sanitation, some to focus on supplies and rationing, some to focus on security, etc. The thing that disgusted me the most in this whole situation is the simple and urgent requests from some of those at the convention center and on the bridges. They simply wanted to know "what is happening, what should I expect, when are people coming, where should I go, etc?". Surely, we could have managed some reasonable answers even if there were to admit that we don't fully know yet and here are some things you need to do (like get organized).

As to the looters, if there were looting for food, water and necessary supplies that they intended to share with all, no problem. However, I have NO patience and would not be bothered by the most extreme punishments for those hauling off merchandise that was just for greed (electronics and such). For the rapists that we heard about, the end of their existence would be a welcome change to the planet.

I sure hope we don't let this horrible experience and the inept response by some in authority, illegal and violent behavior of some in the streets of New Orleans, over shadow the pure enormity of the disaster and the Herculean efforts many are putting in to help.

As for Kayne who I know little about, I assume that his ability to get on national TV to make such statements implies that he has the resources to contribute and do a lot. He should quit his f**king bitching and go do something! If he is so torn to help, he should go help. Anybody stopping him from renting a shitload of buses, buying a shitload of food and water, and organizing a rescue mission. As it is, I think he hurt the cause instead of helping it. Just my opinion, your are welcome to your own. I will be so glad when we can STOP separating each other into color groups. We are all people.

3 Mile Run: Fort Walton Beach, FL

We have been planning this Labor Day trip for a long time. Unfortunately, Katrina has put a huge damper on spirits. It is hard to believe that it took so long to get a signficance presence of help in New Orleans. I don't believe the racist charges that are emerging. I think the problem is simple lack of leadership, under estimation, and a storm and aftermath that was just HUGE.

My run, however, went well. I started out trying to run along the beach and discovered that the sand was too soft, the hard part to narrow and winding. So, I bagged that and went out to the street. My wife asked me to tell her were the 1 mile turn around would be since I was using the "Time and Distance" system. I did. But, when she went out she went the other way and never saw the landmark I told her to look for. Too funny.

Data:
Distance: 3.317 Miles
Time: 28:57
Heart Rate: Not Measured
Pace: 9:23

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is replacing one of the bridges across the a portion of the lake, so have had to alter my course around the lake. There is a path between 2 of the houses near the bridge that leads to the road that ends at an intersection that once one turns left intersects the path around the lake beyond the bridge. Added a little distance, but that is ok. I used the "Time and Distance" system to check the difference in distance. I will have to do so again as my first attempt was to run around the little cove across which the bridge went across. It was not possible.

The reports from the disaster zone are just unbelievable. Some are just incredible. It just irks me that these situations can bring the worse from so many. The thugs in the streets of New Orleans need to be stopped. Can you imagine being stuck there with your family and just trying to make you way to a safe area. Of course, I am sure it brings out the best too. I just find it incredible that civil society can disintegrate so quickly. Worse is knowing that before the storm some of these folks ignored the warnings from the experts.

Data:
Distance: 5.31 Miles
Time: 53:34
Heart Rate: Not Measured
Pace: 10:05 (yuk! I did have to stop to see the distance on the watch, but I doubt it took this much time off. Sure would be nice if they had designed the display to be readable at dusk, dawn, and at night.)

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Unfortunately, Katrina packed the punch the experts predicted. This is an incredible disaster and will be just horrible for those affected. And, poor New Orleans. This was a therapeutic run if anything.

We lost a tree in our back yard and several around the neighborhood lake. Our neighbor lost a shutter. We also found a roofing shingle in our front yard that we assume came from our roof. Still trying to determine if so, from where. If the ferocity and frequency of these storms is being fueled by the behavior of humans, then I sure hope we change our behavior and clean up our act.

Data:
Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 29:27
Heart Rate: 159
Pace: 9:49

Podcast Update

Listened to yet another one while mowing the yard. I listened to Werner Vogels,CTO at Amazon.com talk with Halley Suitt. The is the second podcast within which Werner speaks that I have listened to and it is clear that he gets it. This time he focused on talking about the relationship between Amazon and its customers and search. He provided several examples of where search today just doesn't cut it (like the top 10 returns for "digital camera" may be commercials and not what the user was looking for). Good presentation.

10.5 Mile Run: Brownell Circle

6:30 am and I am at Brownell meeting Lito for our Sunday morning ritual. He chose to run 7 today, so we only ran the first 3.5 miles together. He went back along the Shades Creek Greenway while I continued along the big loop. Felt like a good run and the Creative Zen Sleek Mp3 player didn't SFR. So far, I am liking the player and accommodating the nuisances I don't like in the desktop software.

Big worry today is New Orleans. That is our favorite party town and it looks like it is going to get bashed by hurricane Katrina.

Data:
Distance: 10.5 Miles
Time: 1:40:58
Heart Rate: 162
Pace: 9:37

Podcast Update

Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine talks about The Long Tail (he wrote an article in Wired on the same subject too). This is a very interesting topic. The long tail refers to the long and thin area under a sales curve. The items under this curve are many and distributed individually to few. Amazon, eBay, and other net based distribution models are finding profitable ways to deal with thelong tail. Traditional distribution channels do not fare so well.

Jory des Jardins, Heather B. Armstrong, Ronni Bennett, and Koan Bremner talk about blogging "naked". In other words, exposing one's real self and personal details via one's blog. I guess I am sort of doing this. They talk about folks revealingthings about themselves that can potentially lead to bigger backlashes then I would expect (e.g., revealing that one is changing one's gender). Interesting discussion.

Scott Kriens talks about the relationship between applications and the network. He basically builds the case that the network should have more intelligence to help deliver richer behaving applications.

Alan Zelicoff and Michael Belloma talked about fighting virus outbreaks and bioterrorism. Specifically, they talked about the importance of tracking symptoms instead of diseases. Currently, doctors are required to submit information based on the diseases they diagnose. But, they grossly under-report.

Joshua Schachter (del.icio.us), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) and Clay Shirky talk about folksonomies. If you have an interest in opening up a taxonomy to "folks" then I recommend this podcast. We are using Wiki to collect documentation for one of our product frameworks at work. I liked this presentation.

Brian Dear, founder & CEO of EVDB.com talks about EVDB, a database for events. Imagine one stop to learn about events with views that change depending on whether you have registered or not. Further, what if you can register for an event and have the registration site update your calendar. Very cool and great presentation.

Jerry Weissman, Media and Presentation Coach, talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about well, making presentations. He offers advice about how to use (or how not to use) PowerPoint. Specifically, he recommends using slides to support the presentation not to contain lots and lots of details on each slide. Each slide should have nothing much more then a graphic and a few words to support the content be presented by the presenter.

Dennis Bakke talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about having fun at work. He indicates that it is more about having a work environment where folks can take a stake in what they do and be accountable. It is not just about freebies and benies.

Darwin Prockop,Director of Tulane's Gene Therapy Center, talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about adult stem cells and how they may prove to provide benefits for a variety of medical uses in the future. Very interesting presentation.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Finally running at home again. The new Mp3 player, Creative Zen Sleek, works well while running. I am still learning how to use the software. The only thing I really miss is the ability to view all tracks at once and sort them by virtually any column of information. The Creative software doesn't seem to support that or they hid the feature really well. Anyway, the run was good (if you ignore the pace). I guess I am going to have to accept that I am 1 minute per mile slower then I was 5 years ago. Damn!

It is good to be home. My son had taken to talking to my picture. :(

Data:
Distance: 3
Time: 28:37
Heart Rate: 157
Pace: 9:32

5 Mile Run: Columbia, SC

Early morning run with the new Creative Mp3 player. It is working very well. The desktop software sucks as compared to that of the Rio Carbon. For example, you can't view content on the player as a long list of tracks sorted by date loaded. This is my preferred view for clean up after listening to Podcasts. But, it is very easy to delete directly on the player itself, so not so bad and I am sure I will accomodate.

Data:

Distance: 5:087
Time: 47:36
Heart Rate: Not measured
Pace: 9:21

3 Mile Run: Columbia, SC

A few time zones later.... Back from Australia on Sunday, off to Columbia, SC on Monday. Hectic schedule and I don't get a run until Wednesday (last one was on Saturday). I dropped and broke the Rio on the way here. So, I bought a Creative "Sleek". 20GB, great sound, with horrible desktop software.

Anyway the run was fine with the exception that I am discovering that the new Time and Distance watch I got as a replacement to my original is hard to read while running in between dawn and dusk. The print is too small and the contrast is not sufficient for my old eyes. It's always something, eh?

Data:
Distance: 3.119 Miles
Time: 28:21
HR: Not measured
Pace: 9:19

Podcast Update

Adam Curry talks with Rob Greenlee, the host of webtalk about podcasting and a wide number of other topics including podsafe music, Adam's personal history, bittorrent, and all of the subjects that Adam frequently talks about on the Daily Source Code. Since I am a regular listener to the Daily Source Code, there was nothing new in here. I wasn't bored and listened to the whole podcast anyway. Rob also interviewed David Coursey who slammed Adam without using his name. Adam maintained the higher ground. If you don't listen to the Daily Source Code, this is a good way to get a sense of should you.

Podcast Update

Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet (Not to be confused with Al Gore), talks with Larry Magid, of Larry's World about the Internet what he might have done if he could have more accurately predicted how itwould be used. He also builds the case for IPv6. A good listen.

John Seely Brown talks about off-shoring during which he talks about how suppliers influence the design decisions of some companies through a process that focuses more on cost then price. He elaborates this case to imply that this bottom up approach influencesa style of design and construction that is similar to or useful for computer science topics like open source.

Kris Lichter talked about the Genographic Project. IBM and National Geographic are collecting DNA from a large number of people via a participation package. Others are solicited because they are indigenous to particular and identifiable areas. Then, the volunteers DNA is analyzed to determine is geographical history. I can't wait to search the net and become a participant. Yes, participants get to see their own history. Very cool.

Found it and the kit costs almost $100, ouch. I might still do it, but some how I was expecting less expense. I won't be doing it right away.

Joel Spolsky talks with Phil Windley about writing skills and their importance for programmers. He and Phil also talked about a collection (a book I think) that Joel put together. The collection contained artices thatJoel and others nominated as some of the best writing examples on the web.

Buzz Aldrin talks about space flight. Particularly, he talks about some ideas about how to make it more feasible for more of us. He also talks a hearing aids and why those that need them should be less concerned about social stigmas and those of that don't should create fewer stigmas. It is amazing that Buzz is still as energetic and youthful, but is also hope creating. May I be so lucky. Keep it up Buzz.

Susan Crawford and Phil Weiser talk about the "Brand X" decision from the Supreme Court involving broadband and cable. The built a good case for why this may be more important then the "MGM vs Grokster" decision. This decision gave the FCC the power to choose when to intervene by declaring certain uses of the cable systems for Internet traffic (e.g., e911 for VoIP). If you are interested in legal stuff as it applies to the Internet, you will like this. For me, a bit too legalistic.

Podcast Update

• Anna Nagurney gave a presentation about networks of all types. She was well prepared and brought many perspectives to the subject including consideration of traffic patterns and the influence of the acts of individuals on the performance of a network.Networks. This is a very interesting, but heady presentation.
• Tim O'Reilly delivered the closing session at the MySQL User's Conference. Tim delivered a great presentation talking about what is coming around the corner (his radar talk). He offered very insightful observations about open source and notions of "small parts, loosely joined". A meaningful presentation I intend to quote at presentations of my own.
• Jimmy Wales, President & Director, Wikimedia Foundation delivers a talk about wikipedia and the wiki phenomenon in general. His talk includes content relevant to people sharing and the impact of the web. An excellent presentation.
• A panel of CIO's met to talk about software vendors and how the recession has influenced their behavior. More importantly, they talk about changes that are still required. The variety of perspectives provided made the whole presentation quire interesting.
• A group of pundits (analysts) participated in a panel talked about IT budgets, consolidation and the impact of open source on IT companies and their work. A very interesting presentation with some humor between the panelists. One panelist sees open source projects leading to the emergence of new companies. He believes that open source is challenging existing companies as it is not held down by existing legacy and compliance. He sees both cost and innovation offering opportunity for business models to be defined to leverage some of this innovation. Off shoring was another topic discussed. They pointed out that this offers opportunity and threat. Another pundit suggested that automation will cause more job loss.
• Only Connect was a panel discussion about how broadband and wireless is affecting the telecommunications industry. For example, rulings indicating that VoIP providers must supply support for 911. This will potentially add all kinds of demands and introduce new innovations. This was an interesting and worthwhile listen.
• Andrew Morton, Lead Maintainer for the Linux Production Kernal talked about the processes and procedures behind managing the large numbrer of changes to the Linux Kernal. He is a very relaxed and calming speaker, but delivers a lot of content. He made a very interesting comment about Steve Balmer's comments about open source development and its comparison to communism. Since the Linux kernal is managed from the bottom up (unlike Microsoft development), he thought Steve's comment was laughable.
• Werner Vogels talked about eCommerce at Interplantary Scale. This very interesting presentation talked about mimicking the patterns observed in nature to achieve scale for computer science problems. The main one Werner referenced was the epidemic pattern. Very, very interesting presentation.
• Mark Carges, CTO, BEA Systems talked about service-oriented archiecture (SOA). He built a good case for composability and how one achieves it. This is an excellent presentation and I would highly recommend it for those interested in SOA.

10 Miles: Sydney, Australia

I basically added the other 2 runs I have done here into 1 and added a little more distance on the other side of the Harbour Bridge. Great run.

Data:
Time: 1:42:34
HR: Not measured
Pace: 10:15

3.233 Mile Run: Sydney, Australia

The temperature was 50 degrees. This time I ran across the Harbour Bridge. Very cool views of the city. It felt like I was running in an European city.

Data:
Time: 30:24
HR: Not measured
Pace: 9.24

5.5 Mile Run: Sydney, Australia

The temperature was 50 degrees. Great run along the Quay in downtown Sydney, Australia.. It took the Garwin a few minutes to lock in to the satelites, but it did. So, I actually ran something more like 5.5 miles. Started right next to the Sydney Opera House. I walked across the famous bridge (so, famous I can't name it), but you would recognize it. I thought I was in shape, but I tell you all of the people that were just walking home, were passing me like I was standing still. I didn't see too may obese folks.

This place is packed with runners too. Unbelievablely full of 'em. What a great atmosphere for a run.

Data:
Time: 50:59
HR: Not measured
Pace: 9.27

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Today, I ran in 99 degrees. Man it was hot. Tomorrow, well sort of, I should be running in temperatures in the 50's in Sydney, Australia. That should be cool eh! Well, the technical gremlins were at it again. And, they were attacking the Rio again. Except, this time I think I may have spotted what has been happening. Namely, that the stop button is somehow getting pressed while I am running. The SFR is a result of button presses. But, I am not certain by any means.

Data:
Time: 30:44
HR:153
Pace: 10:15

10.5 Mile Run: Brownell-Shades Creek Greenway

I did the "Lito Loop" again (see July 31, 2005 run). However, Lito was out of town. So, I was alone. I took the Garwin, Time "Speed and Distance" system with me this time. It worked flawlessly. However, Lito's 12 miles, is 10.5 miles. Amazingly, the distance is the same as my original loop. I, too, thought this route was longer.

Damn technology failures strike again. I update my Rio Carbon to the latest versions of the desktop manager and the flash for the player itself. In addition to the published fixes and access to online purchase systems, I was hoping that the SFR problem would be fixed. I know you are asking what is SFR. Spontaneous F**king Reboot. On long runs, I have had several occasions where the Rio, just SFR's. Well, it did it again. Gees, technology just keeps chugging and choking eh?

The run was good except for that. I would say great if not for the pace.

Data:

Distance: 10.5
Time: 1:45:20
Average heart rate: Not measured
Pace: 10:03 (yuk!)

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Damn technology failures strike again. I bought Missy Elliott's song "Lose Control" on iTunes only to discover I should have read the fine print first. It is some format not supported on my Rio Carbon. OK, it was just a buck. But, that is not the end of it. I went out and bought the CD. I ripped it, copied the folder to the machine I use to load my Rio, stuck the player in the pouch for running and took off. Well, I listened to the entire contents of the CD's folder on the Rio and never heard "Lose Control". Don't know what happened, but the song didn't make it to the machine from which I loaded the Rio. Arghhhhhhhhhhh.

The run was great except for that.

Data:

Distance: 5
Time: 48:46
Average heart rate: 156
Pace: 9:45

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

My legs were a little sore from the 13 miler, so just took it slow and easy. Nice comfortable run.

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 29:26
Average heart rate: 153
Pace: 9:49

13 Mile Run: Shades Creek Greenway + 6 Mile Loop

Lito overslept, but showed up before 6:30 am. That was ok with me as I needed to visit the Shell station down the road anyway (as in use their restroom). Lito wanted to do 13, so we went from Brownell to the end of Shades Creek Greenway and back (7 miles) and did a 6 mile loop through Mountain Brook. I caught on Adam Curry's latest Daily Source Codes and Dawn and Drew's shows on the mp3 player.

The mash up with Dolly Parton doing Stairway to Heaven was awesome (on one of the Daily Source Codes)!

Data:

Distance: 13
Time: 2:05:23
Average heart rate: 161
Pace: 9:38

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I heard that some nearby county was getting hail and the day was nearing the end, so I took off for my run. The skies were overcast, but no problem. I had a good run. But, about 15 minutes after I got home, I heard hail outside. Sure glad I wasn't still out there! We lost power as did the restaurant we had planned for dinner with the usual group. Alas, we went across town and ate with them there.

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 28:52
Average heart rate: 154
Pace: 9:37

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Extremely hot day! And, man I was not on the top of my game as is obvious by my pace. I am nearly embarrassed. But, hey, I ran.

Data:

Distance: 5
Time: 50:12
Average heart rate: 159
Pace: 10:02

Podcast Update

• Michael Tiemann delivers a great presentation on Defining Open Source. Highly Recommended.
• Ron Gula talks about security. Good presentation.
  
• Roger McNamee talks about the "New Normal". Interesting presentation that synchronizes a variety of today's trends into a cohesive and meaningful presentation.
  
• Joseph Fuselier talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about proteins and DNA. Brief, but very good.
  
• Frank Martinez talks about Web Services. This is an excellent presentation that helps make sense out of the milieu of information about web services.
  
• JD Lasica talks about Darknet and Hollywood's desire to stop digital copying. Good presentation highlighting the growing distance between technical innovation and Hollywood's attempted choke hold.
  
• Hossein Eslambolchi talks about intelligence and whether it occurs on the edge or on the network. Excellent and technical presentation.
  
• Meyya Meyyappan talks about nanotechnology and NASA. Very interesting presentation and it generating much contemplation and thought for me.
  

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I ran another early morning in anticipation of Betsy's upcoming evening run. I jammed to the Police's Reggatta De Blanc. Sometimes, this old stuff just brings back young memories and makes me feel good. Today was just such a day.

Data:
Distance: 3

Time: 28:31
Average heart rate: 156
Pace: 9:30

10.5 Mile Run: Brownell-Shades Creek Greenway

I ran with Lito again. He suggested we change the course and we did. First, we ran it in reverse order to help shade the sun from our faces and backs on the last part of the run. This put us in the shaded neighborhoods and Jemison Park at the end of the run. Second, we went on down Broadway to Montevello (I think it is a different name at the Homewood end). Lito believes this added 1.5 miles to the course. I am a bit skeptical, but I didn't have the GPS with me, so I didn't get a measure. I will measure it in the future.

OK. Got a measure on August 14th. It is 10.5 miles! So, I updated the information below.

Data:
Distance: 10.5

Time: 1:40:50
Average heart rate: Not Measured
Pace: 9:36

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I ran in the morning with my new Timex Ironman Speed + Distance System watch. It worked! Despite my frustration getting here, I am satisfied now. I am still disappointed that anytime the battery goes on these devices, I seem to have to replace the watch. That's $39 instead of $2. But, I like the GPS based tracking for my runs on the road or on picking a new route. So, it is worth it.

Data:
Distance: 3

Time: 29:00
Average heart rate: Not Measured
Pace: 9:40

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

I ran in the evening and collected data this time. We had an afternoon shower so temperatures were in the lower 80's. I jammed to Vertical Horizon. I forgot how much I liked this CD. I nearly caught up with another runner then collide with her at the end of a cul de sac when she turned as I was about to pass. She cut the cul de sac short.

Data:
Distance: 5

Time: 48:53
Average heart rate: 154
Pace: 9:46

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Ran in the morning to permit Betsy, wife, to continue on her new training program with an evening run. I neglected to save the data or make this entry before the next run. So,

No Data:

10.5 Mile Run: Brownell: Shades Creek Greenway Circle

I ran the my favorite long run with Lito on warm and humid morning. We were so wet from sweating that we left tracks on the pavement. Lito is running strong and pulled me most of the way. As usual, I started out in front. When will I learn to slow down and the beginning and pick it up at the end?

Data:
Distance: 10.5

Time: 1:40:44
Average heart rate: 165
Pace: 9:36

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Another very hot run. Jammed to Hoobastank which is an excellent running CD. But, good to get it done and knock off some more miles...

Data:
Distance: 3

Time: 28:44
Average heart rate: 159
Pace: 9:35

Podcast Update # 7

More ITConversations

• JonathanSchwartz, president of Sun Microsystems, participates in an interview during which he talks about how technology has influenced more and more decentralization thought the work place and society. He also talks about blogging. In fact, he doesn't see how one can lead these days without it. Interesting idea. I know there are many executives that do not blog today. Good presentation.
• Zoe Trippi, former campaign for Howard Dean, talks about how blogging and the internet has created more opportunities for grass root political movements. Some surprises include his reference to overloading the accounting folks when a campaign has to comply with a law that indicates you have to provide paper evidence for each contribution. That system works well, perhaps, when all the donations are large and from a relatively small number of contributors. What happens if the they are small and from many contributors as was the case with Dean's campaign.
• Gurinder Shahi talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about biotech in India. Interesting demonstration of India's continued movement into high tech and industry.
• David Coursey, tech journalist and author, was interviewed by Rob Greenlee. David had some rather terse and negative comments about the future of blogging and podcasting. Basically, he believes they will become domains for what will essentially become part of the main stream media staffed by "pros". Further, he does think RSS and its use to support a subscription model is all that innovative or new as it applies to podcasting. I think David speaks for a few. Yes, a few folks will put their toe in the water and find that it's too cold to continue. But, I suspect he is missing the mark in general.
  
  Equally interesting in his presentation is where he refers to the over exuberant, naive promoters of podcasting If he isn't thinking specifically of Adam Curry, I would be extremely surprised. David also mentions how most of the things he have been involved in ceased to exist, hum... Anyway, Adam commented on this podcast during one of his podcasts as well. Obviously, he disagreed. However, he did not get defensive or offensive. Adam does a very good job responding to criticism if you ask me.

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Took off in very hot temperatures (90+) listening to Velvet Revolver. Good CD, but difficult run. It was definitely a mental run.

Data:
Distance: 5

Time: 49:28
Average heart rate: 157
Pace: 9:53

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood

Well, I ran 3 miles in the neighborhood, but I failed to log or save the data before my next run. I was a good run that took around 29 minutes.

Garwin/Timex news: I finally gave up and called Timex. It is going to cost me $37.50 plus state tax to send the watch to Arkansas for a replacement. But, I am convinced that will fix it. At least, I didn't have to replace the whole lot including the GPS unit.