Victor

Just discovered Gnutella (how did I miss this one?). At first glance it doesn’t seem much different than an FTP/WWW server/search engine for everyone, which Apple started shipping with the OS a while ago. A key difference is that this is anonymous; It seems you can’t reference a server by an IP address; your identity…

A while ago I ran an experiment testing the acuracy of the 5-day forecast. While my sample was small, I found the forecast for the 5th day had only a 50% chance of nailing the basics (precipitation or not, significantly higher or lower than the average temperature). After reading a great article by Howard Rheingold…

I had to edit the below post once I learned some more about the IAM situation. The reality of the situation is just not as significant as the Standard article sounds.

TheStandard.com: IAM Sues Razorfish for Poor Design. IAM, among other things, is looking for “a formal declaration that the five-day period in Razorfish’s contract is legally unconscionable.” What happens if the contract is declared “legally unconscionable”? Will a judge sentence the developers to 10 Sundays in church?

In the New York Times this morning, a story about the Tour de France mentions a statue to Tom Simpson, a rider who in the 1960s cycled himself to death. Like the Vasa entry below, it struck me as another example of a European country praising a somewhat disturbing failure. I wonder if Amercans are…

Regarding business plans, Lane at Deepleap (an actual startup) has some oh-so-helpful advice: most of the people these days — and they’re pretty much all vcs [ venture capitalists ] — recommend you don’t bother with a full biz plan, and just do a 6-8 page executive summary, since it’s all they’re going to read,…

The Vasa, a state of the art warship from the 1620s that sank on it’s first voyage, is on display in Stockholm’s most visited museum. And it’s absolutely stunning to see in person; I spent several hours at the museum. Once in a while I’d be looking at some glass cases holding the original sailer’s…

Sarah just bought a red VW Beetle, just months after I bought my black one, ‘cept mine’s a fuel sippin’ diesel. We’re a Beetle couple. More good vibes from the company: Volkswagen Mobility Access

I’m curently working on a business plan. If you know of any particularly good examples please let me know.

For some reason, last night I broke my not-after-8-o’clock rule and had a double espresso after dinner. I was up until 6 a.m.

Stockholm is amazing, a very livable city. It has that combination of history, friendly natives, sophistication, earthiness, and right-size that I didn’t quite find in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, or Germany. Unfortunately my perspective is skewed because I’m in one of the nicest sections of town during some of the nicest weather. I don’t…

Leaving for a vacation/business trip to Stockholm, Sweden. As usual I’ve done little to no research and will be scrambling to find a travel book in the airport! Bummed that Sarah can’t come, especially as she’s partially of Swedish heritage. Also bummed I’ll be spending July 4th outside the US. But I’m psyched to be…

To everyone in the US, happy Independence Day

Just returned from my second-ever trip to the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area, the first being just a few weeks ago. Interesting how everyone, from the client to the cabbies, lament the suburban/corporate sprawl that obliterates the orchards and other open space. I just saw the revival of Sam Shepard’s True West, originally written in the…

Celebrity sighting! I saw Joy Mountford in the San Francisco airport coming off the plane I was getting on. But by the time I realized who it was she had walked away. I heard a speech she and Brenda Laurel gave at NYU in 1993 and it got me all excited about human computer interaction,…