Quick Israel-Hamas Comment

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the situation in Gaza, but I thought this was important to note. Of the 300+ casualties, only 62 are being reported as civilians. 62 too many to be sure, but low considering how embedded the Hamas fighters are with the civilian population.

It is interesting to note however that the count of civilians doesn't include any men. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/30/2456334.htm

In essence, this fact holds that whomever is doing the counting doesn,t feel that there are any civilian men in Gaza.

There are a couple of possible and disturbing conclusions that can be drawn from this:

1. Israel considers all men in Gaza combatants

2. Israel cannot tell male non-combatants from combatants

3. Israel doesn't care whether men are combatants or not. They are all targets.

These are the only conclusions that can be draw for sure, but they are very scary indeed.

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Follow-on "Resolutions"

As usual, fred wilson cuts to the core of some great ideas. But don't call them resolutions. Worth a read

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/12/things-i-wish-f.html

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New Years Resolutions

This seems to be as good a forum as any to broadcast my New Year's resolutions. So here it goes.

1. Read, either a book (kindle) or online, one hour for every hour spent watching TV

2. Work out at least 5 days each week. (Target weight by april of 185.


3. Join a club or group in the City (am thinking the Lincoln Park Rugby club, but will have to see with my work schedule)

4. Make a decision on Law School v. Career by April, 1

5. Keep both blogs active and current.

#1 & #2 are by far the most important to me. #2 is pretty common, so that doesn't need much explaining. But #1 I think is a little unique. I like TV and I watch a lot of it. There are definitely shows that I like and I don't think there is anything wrong with watching those. But often times I find myself turning the TV on to find something to watch, basically just killing time. A lot of this habit I think got started by being on the road, where after work you ate, maybe worked out and the pretty much just zoned out on the TV. Well I'm hoping to change that. Reading is an awesome activity. It's entertaining, it exposes you to new thoughts and ideas, and it can inspire, hopefully by fulfilling #1 it will also lead to the natural fulfillment of #5 as well.

A lot of these resolutions stemmed from the time off that I have had recently. I have tried to live by these rules for the past couple weeks and it has served me very well. I have great feelings about 2009 and hopefully these 5 resolutions can be part of it.

Happy New Year everyone!!
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Cloud Computing & Open Source

There's a great discussion going on at a student nerds' post (not mine) http://www.studentnerds.com/blog/2008/12/give-google-docs-try.php

About cloud computing and Open source. Andrew H makes some great points, but I still am a proponent of Open source and the cloud.

I got my new netbook almost a month ago, and promptly uninstalled the MS Works skeleton application that it came packaged with. I installed Open Office.org's suite of applications, and uploaded a lot my previous files to Google docs. I have been nothing but happy. The applications are powerful, flexible and free.

This is the way computing should be. Facebook, twitter, google itself, all these tools are free, and are changing the way the world works. This is the future. I think that the business model certainly needs a little work ( I personally like the free+premium model as I indicated in the comments) but that will come.

I understand that standard software is embedded and it's hard for people to change. But they do, especially in the face of a vastly superior product that I believe open cloud computing is.

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Back in Business

Blogging has been slower than usual. I had meant to keep it up while at home, but I found myself relaxing to much, and writing to little. I did have a chance to read a lot and am working on a post reviewing Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat and Crowded." The book has a really good thesis (whether it is a good book is a another issue), and it's definitely worth a read. Hopefully I'll be touching on this as well as a lot more topics in the next few days as I thrust myself back into blogging.

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Blogging From the Blackberry

I've tried to do most posts on this blog from my blackberry. Not only is it easier than firing up the computer, it keeps the posts simple, and concise (it also has the added benefit of helping my blackberry typing skills, but that's more of just an added benefit). I had been meaning to do a post about it, but I see that Fred Wilson at AVC has beat me to it. He also says it better than I do. Especially since one of the drawbacks to the berry blogging is that my grammar probably suffers a great deal.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FAVc%2F%7E3%2FXdly0GnQVgE%2Fmy-quill-pen.html

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Israel, Hamas and Change

I woke up today with 45 new twitter messages that had arrived between 1am and 8am. I hoped that my friends had just been drunk tweeting all night, but sadly I knew that probably wasn't the case. Instead the news was about Israeli attacks into Gaza, against Hamas, that twitter is now telling me have killed at least 200, and potentially nearly 4 times as many injured.

I don't know the details yet so I don't want to say too much. But Israel has been responding to Hamas in much the same way for a long time. Part of the blame might lie on Hamas refusing to renew the truce, but who really knows. The point is that the same old responses to conflict and geo-political disagreement isn't working. I think that American is waking up to that. I have been reading Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat and Crowded" recently, and will blog about that later, but his economic thesis, that as the world grows and evolves, that as we become more interconnected and dependent, we cannot keep attack problems in the same way applies here as well I think.

I'm going to read more about the attacks and maybe once I educate myself I will be singing a different tune. But I hope for all out sake that people find new ways of resolving conflicts that don't involve 1,000 casualties and rocket attacks.


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Track Santa all the way down the Chimney

Another Cross Post from Student Nerds

Santa Hacking: http://www.studentnerds.com/blog/2008/12/hacking-santa.php

Home for Christmas

I am home for Christmas. A stressful but safe drive home. I am continuing my week and a half of relaxation, but plan to keep up the blogging.
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For the love of Tech

This is a cross post from http://www.studentnerds.com/blog/2008/12/for-love-of-tech.php

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If you read this blog, it won't come as a surprise to you that we here at Student Nerds love technology. We love how it changes lives and connects people, There's an innate “gadget” factor that I think we all buy-into, finding new devices that do old things better, as well as new things for the first time.

But Tech is more than just processors and touchscreens, uploading photo and gigabytes. Tech is a way of thinking, it is believing that if an old way of thinking doesn't work, or did, but doesn't anymore, then it's part of what makes us people to try and find a way that does.

Our country is faced with unparalleled challenges and pain, there's a fear out there that can be felt in many, and a sense of confusion and apprehension that can be felt by all.

We are not going to grow out of this by doing things the same way. The trust that we put into our regulators to monitor the financial services industry has been shown to be sorely misplaced. The refusal of Detroit to operate in any way but business as usual is frustrating. The fact is that those parts of our economy that we consider to be cornerstones have proven to be the weakest. It's a crisis of trust, and respect and of our priorities as Americans and people.

I'm not suggesting that iPhones and blackberrys are replacements for financial services and heavy manufacturing. Nor do I think that we can necessary invent our way of of this with nifty gadgets and toys.

But what I do believe is that it is a tech way of thinking that will allow us to build ourselves back up again. We need new ways to manageable our financial resources, and we can and will make the best cars again one day, cars that people get as excited over as they do their iPhones. And the future will look different than the past. It will need new skills and new talents, but fresh thinking and creative, innovative and inspiring people, armed with a Tech way of thinking can lead us into that future.

As scary as this time is, it's also exciting. I've referenced Joseph Schumpter in this blog before, and I will do again, as he talks about the forces of creative destruction. Only by tearing down the structures and processes of the old way of doing things, will the necessary will and energy be expended finding and inventing new ways. I think we all can agree that we've been through a uniquely destructive run over this past year. We've fallen off a pretty high tightrope that we were walking, but we're going to climb higher, and I'm excited to see the view.

Comments are now Free!

Don't know if anyone reads this yet. But Comments are now enabled. So blast, troll, spam and insult away. Please?
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Interest Rates @0%

I think the Fed is doing the right thing dropping the Funds rate to 0%. Everyone says it effectively was there anyway.

Bernake is a deflation hawk (a good thing to have in a deflationary environment) so it's not surprising that he has the will to drop the rates to 0.

Clearly though, I think that the key question is that will he have the will to jack the rates up as soon as possible? We are currently in a deflationary environment, but that won't last for ever. With Billions and potentially Trillons of new money out there, it's clear that Zimbabwaw-esk hyperinflation is a real possibility.

It's easy to inject money into a struggling economy, it's like Christmas for the Fed. But when the recovery starts, it will be important that someone crashes the party. This recovery needs to be slow, painfully slow. It's a lot harder to end the party than it is to start one. I sincerely hope that we have the right guy heading the Fed to do just that.
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Weekend Road Trip

Just got back from a road trip to a Christmas party in Indianapolis. My friends and I go every year and it's always a blast and this time was no different. Great time, everything from the car convo to breakfast this morning was fun.

I've remarked to my friends that whenever I leave Indy, and say goodbye to the many close friends we have there, I've always felt a sense of sadness or emptiness or something. I've always felt that this feeling is a reflection of leaving college friends behind to go back to my "real world" life in Chicago.

This time, driving home, I didn't feel that sadness, that down-feeling. I felt relaxed. I miss the guys in Indy, but it feels different. I don't know if this is because I have been so happy recently, or if it is because I am leaving College behind. It is interesting though. I feel like people are growing up fast around me, which is both an exciting and scary thing to think about.
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Snowy in Chicago

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Week Off Reflections

I haven't been working this week. And I don't mean just on Vacation, but I am talking the perfect no working storm. I quit my previous job last week, but I have a new one that I start in another week and a half. There is literally no work for me to do.

But that doesn't mean that I have been doing anything, nor does it mean that I haven't felt like I've accomplished anything. On the contrary, I feel like this has been one of the most productive weeks of the year. After 2.5 years of near constant travel, it has been great to actually spend some time in Chicago, and just one place in general.

What have I been doing. I've been working out. It has been since Thanksgiving 2007 that I have been on a daily workout program, and it shows. On Monday of this week I weighed 208. Very heavy for me. I worked out monday and every day since. Today when I weighed myself I weighed 202. Now I know that's not all burning fat, but I don't feel 208 any more, I feel 202, and those 6lbs must be the equivalent of a million bucks.

I've been focused on eating well. I'm not slamming frozen pizzas, I'm not eating pasta carbonera off www.seamlessweb.com (I will miss seamless very much by the way) I'm not eating dinner at the office and retreating back to hotel bar to pretend that it's not lonely being on the road.

I went honest-to-God grocery shopping on monday, bought soup, bought stuff for salads, stuff like that. It felt and feels good to not be eating crap.

I've been reading, a lot. On the Kindle that I reviewed on the other blog (www.studentnerds.com/blog) I've been reading a good chunk of the times every day, I've been reading "See No Evil" the book that the movie Syriana is based off of. I've been reading online too. Catching up on my RSS feeds. Everyday I've logged o nan I am more and more convinced that the internet is the greatest thing to ever happen to public discourse. The smartest people in the world (or at least people lightyears smarter than me) are writing on the web, and these publications are timely, accessible and concise in ways that many publications aren't.

I've been twittering and reading twitters more than usual too. There is great stuff on there, and it is great fun.

I've ben writing, on this blog and the blog over at student nerds. That has felt good too.

I've also been doing a whole lot of nothing, I've been watching CNBC and movies, I've been walking around the neighborhood with a cup of coffee (not today since there is 2ft of snow on the ground) and I've been just relaxing. Not worrying about the work that isn't getting done, not worrying about all the shit I have to do, not worrying about anything.

This has been a great week. I am happier, I think healthier and I feel better than I have in a long long time. I wish everyone could have a week like this from time to time. I think it's a luxury for sure, but it has been worth it for me. I wish this kind of happiness, relaxation and rest on everyone...

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Twitter and Email

So I went to bed early today, and woke up late. It was a white out in Chicago and just felt like a good day to sleep.

When I got up, my blackberry was blinking like crazy. I had 80 unread message. But not all these messages were created equal. I had 34 emails, 44 twitter SMSs and 2 other SMSs.

The first thing I read were the direct SMSs, one was friend in Chicago who wasn't acting like an 80 year old man last night and wanted to see if I would go out. The 2nd was from a drunk friend in Med school who had just finished Finals.

I then went to the twitter messages, I had a bunch of replies from some heavy twittering I had done last night. There were a lot of twitter feeds regarding the TARP and auto bailout and there were a few friends musing about the bailout.

After I sorted through the twitters, I went to the email.

Of the 34 messages, probably only 4 were to me. I replied to 2 of them, but then instantly deleted 30 of them without reading. These emails were various kinds of spam, sale notices and so on.

My point here is that email might be a somewhat damaged, if not broken model. I feel like email used to be a lot more exclusive. If you really wanted to get a hold of someone, you sent them an email. You knew they would check it, you knew they would reply.

Now I still read all the emails from my friends, and I try and respond to all of them. I'm not too important to respond to email like some of my friends think they are. But still, I think that twitter is fast becoming how I prefer to communicate. It forces you to be succinct, brief, pithy and all the things good messages should be.

I'm just talking about personal communication here, I don't expect @replies to become a corporate mainstay. But what I am saying is that the way I (and many others I feel) is changing. It's great to see change and I definitely saw it in my own actions this morning...
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HTML

Just venting here. But I can't seem to find out how to put in custom HTML widgets on the blog anymore. I had them on my old one, but I can't find the tool to add them now. I thought it might be format driven, so I changed the format, but that didn't help. Frustrating. I hope google didn't take that option away.
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Oil

Oil down below $40? GS's target is $25? That seems to be scary stuff. Despite shoveling money out of a B-52 we are still looking at deflation? I know that core is pretty much flat. But even still...

Oil was at, what $140 this summer? Does that mean people think that there is nearly 4x's less demand in the economy? I don't see how you can oppose Keynesian policies in a time like this. If there has ever been a case for a lack of demand, that time is now.

No fear of too much crowding out, cause no one is in. BHO's $775bn infrastructure investment is spot on. He gets it, and that's a very very good thing.

Good luck to us all...
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New Blog

I have decided to restart a personal blog. I have been posting to www.studentnerds.com/blog pretty regularly, and plan on continuing to do so. That site is slick and Klear and Prassel have done a great job getting it up and running. I appreciate them letting me post there.



But I also wanted a less formal and more personal outlet for writing. I've missed posting ever since I took my first blog down. But I didn't post regularly enough to the original. I think that blogging, like twittering, is something that you have to do regularly to really get the benefit of.



So while I plan on cross posting of course, I also plan to keep most of the tech focused, formal posts on Student Nerds. Posts here will be less formal and if I do it right, more frequent. Hopefully there's some value there too.



I haven't decided whether or not to publicize this blog to my friends yet, I want to wait to see if I stick it out, and if I can keep the posts interesting. But I am making it public, so maybe people will stumble upon?



Wish me luck.

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