Autumn Marathon
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Bought a CD at a Record Store
…possibly for the last time ever. I spent about 20 minutes in J&R “Music World” this afternoon listening to Santana, browsing CDs (even a few LPs), and checking out what other people were buying. It reminded me what a great hangout well-curated record stores are. In general, I believe that information technology and the internet have added to the experience and enjoyment of music: it has become much easier to learn about new music, find out where to buy/download it, interact with other fans, and attend concerts. So, the short visit to J&R reminded me that we have lost something with the disruption of old-line music industry. I myself was there only because I happened to be picking up something at the J&R computer shop next door. And I purchased the new Sade on a CD only because the disc was cheaper than the download price on either iTunes or Amazon. The store was noticeably emptier than it was a decade ago. J&R is a very well-managed business: it will be surprising if it continues to devote so much of its expensive real estate to what is rapidly becoming a niche product.
Silly Love Songs
Thought I would post a song for Valentine’s Day and before I do, will indulge myself for a moment. Probably three-quarters of rock/pop/country consists of love songs: so there are a lot of great ones out there. When I woke up this morning, one of my favorite DJs was playing a cover of “Ring of Fire.” That song probably captures being “head over heels” better than any other pop song. My first idea was to post the Johnny Cash original. But I decided against it. Then I thought about playing the nostalgia card, as I have been doing a lot lately, and the song that came to mind was “Silly Love Songs” from Paul MacCartney’s Wings’ days. It doesn’t get nearly as much play as McCartney’s Beatles songs, but it is a great one nevertheless. Alas, I don’t own a copy of the song, so I can’t post it. The image of Cupid has been pretty vivid for me this Valentine’s Day and I haven’t listened to much Sam Cooke lately…so what I decided finally, for my listening pleasure and yours is to post his 1961 hit “Cupid.”
Turn,Turn,Turn (to everything there is a season)
Couple of big tech news items last week. Most prominently (absurdly prominent given other major world events) was Apple’s introduction of the iPAD.
I like it. It’s effectively an oversized iPhone/Touch and, in this case, size does matter. As some of my Silicon Valley tech friends observed, developers will be able to do new kinds of things with all that touchscreen space. As an eReader, it will blow Kindle away as long as Apple procures the right content. As a music/video platform, it will be excellent. For standard email/business apps, it will be only ok - but that’s not really a primary use. On the other hand, there’s a good chance that those developers will find different business uses in areas where the desktop/laptop paradigms don’t work. Importantly, I think Apple got the price point about right: consumers will buy the device, developers develop, and a new value will be created.
As someone in the market for a converged device, I’m not sure iPad is better than the $400 Win7 netbooks currently flooding the market. There are tradeoffs in each case. I’m writing this blog on a my new netbook. It’s the perfect companion for business trips, but I can see things that an iPad will be better at. Fortunately,at these prices, it’s possible to get both.
All of these devices are proof that “the network is the computer.” Which is to say, that the devices would not be very interesting if it weren’t so easy to access interesting content, interact with people, buy/sell and learn on the internet. ”The network is the computer” was a slogan of Sun Microsystems, Inc: it was coined back in the 1980s! I worked at Sun for over 10 years starting in 1997. Shortly after I joined the company, there were strong rumors that Sun would acquire Apple, then viewed as being on its last legs. Not long after that Apple brought one of its founders, Steve Jobs, back as CEO. More than a decade later, sadly, on the same week that Apple announced its new iPAD, Sun was swallowed by Oracle and no longer exists.
Running On
Today was the first day since New Year the daytime temperature got above freezing in WB. Was able to leave work a little early, during daylight, and after a quick errand, I decided to stop by Kirby Park to see if the paths were runnable. The park paths were clear, so I decided to climb up onto the levee to see if the riverside path was ok. It looked pretty dry, but on my way downhill to the car I slipped on a patch of black ice and fell right on my ass. Scraped the hell out of my right arm.
I did motivate myself to do a 6 x 1/4 mile interval workout on the treadmill back at the hotel. Not a lot of fun, but having the intervals as goals make the time go by quicker. Ran 4-miles total. Showered, then sat in the whirlpool and swam a few laps. I rarely swim - must have been inspired by “Up in the Air.”
I gave this blog a running name, but have rarely written about running. The name is only obliquely about the sport - the title is that of a wonderful Russian/Soviet movie of the 1980s. The film is Chekhovian in more ways than one. At the time I started the blog, I had run for many years, but wasn’t sure if the sport would sustain my interest. In the past year, I ran over 1300 miles, competed in a bunch of races, found a great running team and generally started feeling less like a guy who exercises and more like an amateur athlete. Not sure when, but maybe someday, “Autumn Marathon” will be a more literal title.
Prospect Park, Brooklyn 1886
Amazing photo! As someone who spends lots of time in Prospect Park, even I am not sure that I know where it was taken. Could it be main roadway bridge very close to Grand Army Plaza?
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Ten Years
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of our family’s move to Brooklyn. We moved into a rented apartment and the kids started at PS 29. Economically, NYC was enjoying a bull market and the dot.com boom. I had just started a position at a dot.com myself. The IT world was concerned about overcoming the “Y2K problem.”
People didn’t know it yet, but all of these things were contributing to an inflationary bubble which would burst over the subsequent 18 months. It was an exciting time. Folks made big plans to celebrate the turn of the century. December 31 turned out to be an interesting day for many, including the virtually unknown Vladimir Putin who, judging from the expression on his face, was just as surprised as the rest of us by the New Year’s eve resignation of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.
It has been an eventful decade for all of us and over the next several posts, I’ll devote some thought and a few words to reflecting on all that has happened.
Brooklyn Mohawks →
Excellent post on neighborhood history from the premier Brooklyn history blog, Brooklynology published by the BPL.
Shea Stadium Captured in Google Maps
Marker of Shea Stadium Home Plate Site
Home Plate View of Mythical Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium “lives” in Google maps even though it was dismantled and demolished with “amazing” speed after the 2008 MLB baseball season. The Mets have commemorated it with plaques marking the bases (strange how small the infield feels without a huge superstructure surrounding it). There was some controversy in the blogosphere about whether the plaques were positioned correctly, but according to the GPS in my Blackberry they are indeed in the right locations. In June, while my son tried out to be a US Open ballperson, I stood on second base and tried to imagine the Beatles performing in exactly that spot.
How We Work Now: Input Requested!
Globalization has garnered particular attention in the high-tech fields for a number of valid reasons. First of all, the high-tech workforce in the US is particularly diverse in its international origins and has been since the 1960s. Second, the nature of the work, particularly in software development, lends itself more easily to remote or distributed work, than many other kinds of work ranging from manufacturing to provision of services which require an “on-site” presence. These two factors helped lead the information technology industry to become a kind of standard bearer for “outsourced” and or “offshore” business models.
My long-time employer, Sun Microsystems, was not unlike many companies in its adoption of an offshore product development model. Founded in the early 1980s by a quartet that included an Indian and a German, it employed a cosmopolitan engineering force in California for its first 10 years before initiating product localization in Japan. During the talent shortages occasioned by the dot-com boom in the late ’90s, the emphasis moved to accessing hidden talent in places like India and China. After the subsequent “dot-bomb crash,” cost savings that could be realized by employing engineers at roughly 1/4 the Silicon Valley rate became a major motivation. Recently, the idea has been that by developing products in emerging economies, particularly in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the company would enjoy greater success accessing those markets.
Since leaving Sun, I have been surprised at the degree to which the smaller businesses, non-profit organizations and political movements with which I have worked are also globalized. Ever wider availability of free software tools have made it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to give a professional and very “big” impression. In just a couple of years, we have moved from free email to telephone and video conferences, project management and CRM tools, custom web domains, blogs and wikis. Small organizations are now just as able to access remote talent and work with specialized vendors (outsourcers) as large companies.
These technologies have enabled very positive trends. They allow (even require) a degree of agility greater than any before - companies and movements are able to get off the ground in a matter of days. The technology also enables collaboration among individuals and groups in different countries which, in the long run, makes nations themselves more amenable to collaboration and diplomacy than to more hostile interaction. That’s a bit of a political aside in this article, but I strongly believe it to be true and worth noting.
Yet, as widespread as these technologies and work practices are becoming, my observation is also that organizations do not think through the reasons for deploying them. They almost always exaggerate the cost savings as lower wages are offset by communications, travel and other expenses. They almost always overlook the need for implementing a different (and usually more heavy-duty) form of project management. They tend to overlook the human dynamics of working in a distributed fashion i.e., are people in one disadvantaged in terms of effectiveness, visibility, enjoyment of work, career advancement, etc.?
For these among other reasons, globalized projects often fail to achieve their business objectives: I am writing a book chapter about global teams working on software projects. There are plenty of examples from my own experience that I will draw on, but would really appreciate some input from my friends and colleagues. Do any of you have stories that illustrate the points made above? Or do you disagree with my ideas and have others points to make? If so, would really appreciate your leaving them in the comments to the blog or writing to me directly.
