This weekend’s snowstorm and the ongoing airline turmoil provides a perfect background to check out the John Candy/Steve Martin 1987 film: Plains, Trains and Automobiles. This film is full of laughs and strangely prescient for a nearly 20 year old movie. I’m not optimistic that air travel will improve a whole lot the next few years.
More Madison Snowstorm Photos
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Click to view a larger version of these photos.
Saturday Snow Storm: Music to Shovel…. or a Snowstorm Playlist :)
A few selections from the music my ipod shuffled to while shoveling earlier today (Madison received about 8″ of snow).
- Pink Floyd On The Turning Away
- Dire Straits Every Street
- U2’s I will follow
- The Jesus & Mary Chain
Just Like Honey
Ironically, I received an email this morning from Tony Novak-Clifford, host of Manao Radio’s Sunday Mornings “Sunday Solstice” program as well as Monday & Tuesday morning’s “Academy of Errors”. Tony’s email mentioned a rainy Maui Saturday morning.
UPDATE:
Dave sends a link from Boston, which will soon have quite a bit of snow. More Madison Photos: Gala & James Gardner catch snowplow stuck in a snowbank. Ann Althouse posts two early morning photos. More later…
Lafayette, LA: Fiber to the Home; One time $1,079 per person
David Isenberg summarizes the latest news from LaFayette, Louisiana’s community fiber network plans (Madison should be so forward thinking!)
Finally, the price tag on the project is $125 million. The population of Lafayette is 116,000. That’s $1077.59 per person. Would you pay $1100 once to have fiber in your town forever after? N.O.B.R.A.I.N.E.R.
Sony admits their attempt to lock us in a box failed: DRM
Sony’s non mp3 support in it’s portable audio devices was a mistake, they now admit. Yuri Kageyama:
Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said he and other Sony employees had been frustrated for years with management’s reluctance to introduce products like Apple’s iPod, mainly because the Sony had music and movie units that were worried about content rights.
But Sony’s divisions were finally beginning to work together and share a common agenda, Mr Kutaragi said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo.
Well, duh. Most of these DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) schemes will fail. Slashdot discussion.
DRM is not binary
Tristan Louis takes a useful look at DRM (digital rights/restrictions management):
What I am trying to highlight is that while proponents and opponents of DRM solutions both see the world in black and white, they may want to start a dialogue and realize that there’s a lot of gray areas out there.
Via Doc Searls.
Inauguration VR Scene
Travis Fox & Pierre Kattar created a very useful Quicktime VR scene, taken just above President Bush overlooking the Mall. There’s also a protest VR scene. Some great inauguration photos here
The whole thing was a big waste of money, of course. Shutting down a city seems a terrible price to pay for politics (and lobbyists).
Sales Skills 101
Surviving a meeting today, I recalled the essential skill that makes a great salesperson: the ability to listen, sometimes for extensive periods of time. I’m always amazed when a person selling something can’t be bothered to actually listen to what the buyer has to say (another way one might put this, when the cluetrain made a stop, they failed to board).
It can be difficult, for sure. I remember one meeting, where there was 3 or 4 minutes of silence. Anyone involved in sales and marketing should become familiar with the term markets are conversations. Learn more at the cluetrain.
What Makes a Good Opportunity?
So what makes a good opportunity? A colleague of mine at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Alec Johnson, has come up with what I think is a simple yet effective framework for analyzing opportunities. It is based on what he terms the “Three M’s”: Me, Market, and Money. All three are related, and if any of them are missing, it’s likely the concept is not worth developing.
Coaching in Wisconsin – Worth it?
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Pearly Kiley – wishoops.net [PDF Version 103K] |
“With all this talent, why aren?t we winning more games?”
“My kid averaged 20 points in summer league, why isn?t he playing more?”
“Why are we walking the ball up the floor all the time?”
“I wish we had the old coach back.”
These unfounded sentiments were also a major reason why over 80 coaches
chose to resign, were relieved of duty or retired since last season.
There are coaches who point to AAU basketball and all its dramatically improving impact. Some blame school administrators for showing more allegiance to parents than them in disputes over individual roles and playing time. Still others say it takes too much time ? and impossible patience ? to deal with the increasingly overzealous parent.
?At the high school level, the rewards aren?t tangible,? said former Waupaca coach Tim Locum, who resigned after last season and is currently an assistant coach at UW-Oshkosh.