I have been quiet lately because I have been slowly learning ruby on rails.
More posts to come but so far I have managed to:
So, lots more to learn and do. Next up I am going to try web service calls. Looks pretty easy.
In my mind the number one upside of this deal would be:
"The market just lost 1 major competitor. Microsoft won't know how to leave the great Yahoo properties (Flickr, Del.icio.us) alone and will muddle with their look and feel, ad integration and integration of Microsoft technologies, operating systems etc. Since Microsoft has a poor track record of leaving well enough alone we will see the market open up for a whole new round of web 2.0 (3.0?) competitors who can re-invent photo sharing, bookmark management, social networking within a level playing field. And the best part is the layoffs / departures at both Microsoft and Yahoo due to integration frustration and bad HR policy will put the right people in a position to build the next generation technologies as they head to the street."
In my mind the future just got a big kick-start.
* The warm sandwiches “are going to be out by year’s end.” In the meantime, they will be “de-emphasized.” * Serving sandwiches got in the way of employees’ “ability to make the perfect shot of espresso.” In other words, spending time on sandwiches took away from the focus on coffee. * The sandwiches will be replaced with “a breakfast menu that delivers what our customers are asking for.” * “We’re going to be in the lunch business; we’re going to modify it.” [From Starbucks to get rid of warm breakfast sandwiches]
What we learned today from the new CEO of Starbucks was good news. The awful breakfast sandwiches are on the way out. Quite frankly, if you actually saw a disgruntled Starbucks employee rip one of these cardboard wonders out of the plastic wrap and toss it into the store space heater it was completely unappealing. Pretty much disgusting. And the CEO of Starbucks hits the smell issue right on the head. The sandwiches stunk up the stores. As a bit of coffee snob, I like to walk into my coffee shop and be presented with the wonderful odor of roasted coffee, not burn cheese and bacon. A bit too MacDonalds if you ask me.
What is interesting is they are going to go full on into a more full lunch offering. I wonder if this is the right move, or if they should focus on the coffee and pastry offerings. If you visit Seattle’s Best stores I think they have it right. Great customer service with the right focus on great tasting coffee drinks and good pastry offerings. Seattle’s Best fells like the brand Starbucks really wants to be. Seattle's best asks your name at the register, and they remember you and your drink orders. Something you will not find at Starbucks very often. It is one of those small personal touches which makes the experience just slightly less corporate.
The entire family headed out to the Kingstad gallery tonight to view the newest show by artists from around the Portland area. We recently met Katie Todd when she came to our home to put on a Demarle Party with my wife Julie. Katie is a gifted artist and we happy to get an invite to come out an see her work.
Here is a link to her website.
Here is a sample of her artwork:
I noticed this poll tonight on KATU.com. As I suspected, the tax rebates will serve to put some money back into our pockets but I wouldn't be at all surprised if most people will either use it to pay down debt, or put it in savings to boost their liquidity. Either way, it isn't going to end up being spent on many big screen TVs.
Time for some more testing...
Arg! My mighty mouse is becoming not so mighty these days, Two things have gone horribly wrong. First no matter how much I clean my scroll wheel I can go down the page like butter but scrolling up just never works. Secondly, the top shell of the mouse seems to have disconnected from the bottom shell. Thus when clicking you get this strange "thunk" sound half of the time. I know this is a common problem and I wonder if it has something to do with the scrolling problem. I am tempted to go and get a new mouse, but I wonder if I should try the apple mouse again. As much as I love apple my Microsoft scroll mouse never gave me these kinds of problems.... sigh!
I am currently reading the newest book by AJ Jacobs. I had recently finished his excellent previous book about his quest to read the entire encyclopedia. So far his latest book is just as good. His quest to not only abide by biblical doctrine but to also understand religion, and faith makes for an amazing tale.
I have visions of driving in Britain each time I hunt for the close button on the wrong side of the firefox tab...
It is like driving on the wrong side of the road...
The title of the post sums up a current challenge at work. Sometimes folks get stuck in analysis land. I am just as guilty of this too. You see a big problem and you get wrapped up in getting the answer/analysis or process perfect, but loose sight of the goal. Sometimes, knowing 80% and going is the right thing to do. For some problems getting even close to perfect is better then not starting at all or heading down a contingency plan rabbit hole.
It is OK to make a mistake. My mantra for Monday.
Hmm, for the first time in a year the Trimet cops jumped our bus on Friday night and did a random ticket check. They busted two innocent students off the bus with passes that looked like they hadn't been valid in about 3 years. I have been frisked down for at ticket a few times on the max but never on a bus. You have got to figure the driver is checking tickets? I wonder if this has some relationship to the proposal to get rid of fare-less square. The 94 I catch does roll out of the free zone. Perhaps Trimet is figuring people are not paying to ride the express all the way home.
None the less, it was strange...
Mint, I love the changes to your spending trend toolset. It is 100% better then then the first version. The only feature I am missing is the ability to set the compare your to "all spending". This way I can see a graph of where my total spending is heading month over month against the other Mint users. This would give me a quick view of improvement or not. Thanks for listening!
I got this great comment from a reader.
If you haven't already visited here: http://code.google.com/p/gdata-issues/issues/detail?id=25
Click on through and register your vote for a Gmail Contacts API. Lots of folks have already voted so make yourself heard.
Google, can you hear us all shouting?!?!
Contact API... contact api...<fades to the distance> ....
None the less, nice job mint guys. Keep the great features coming.
Lately, the webkit nightly builds have just been rock solid and super fast. Even firefox 3 nightly builds have nothing on webkit for pure speed when browsing. A couple of folks on twitter pointed out that they just can' t live without the firebug plug-in for firefox. Web inspector (part of the webkit) is coming along as a great tool but it still has a ways to go to catch up with firebug. I wouldn't put it past the webkit team to produce an inspector tool better then firebug in the future. They are certainly working on it.
Two thoughts popped into my head this weekend.
First, I absolutely loved Thursday. I drove with a coworker up to our Seattle office to spend most of the day with our team who supports web applications infrastructure. We are building out a series of new environments at work to gain more releases per year. But, I digress, the best part of Thursday was the single task. I realized that for the first time in for ever I went to work and spent the entire day focused on one important item. It was pure bliss. I was creative, focused, and generated some strategic thinking at the white board. I wanted to high five myself when it was all over.
Second, Thursday made me realize that 2007 was made up of a series of days running like a washing machine. Each day full of tasks, where I get to spend only an hour focused on designing the right thing. Perhaps with 1-5 interruptions going on. Instant messages, phone calls, emails, people dropping by... sigh.
So, with my GTD focus this year. I am aiming to cleanse my mind of future tasks and get focused on being strategic again. I want to spend less time being so damn "E" and spend a bunch more time being "I". Sorry, career ambitions and ego. It is time to jump out of the spotlight and do some creative work.
In that, I suspect I can find my zen.
