Authoritative, but not Illuminating
I almost returned “Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson” to the library unread. Dave Winer’s Why Jobs chose Isaacson and Thomas Q Brady’s Steve Jobs picked the wrong guy had created doubt in my mind. It was a library book, so I had no skin in the game. But Jobs was a totem for my generation of developers and I started leafing through the pages.
The pages pulled me in. I knew the main story. I knew much of the back story. But the biography depicted a depth and nuance that was all new to me. And so I inhaled the book over the weekend.
In the end, Winer and Brady were right. The Isaacson biography was authoritative, but not illuminating. Worth reading, but not worth a spot on my bookshelf (digital or analog).
Stalk WebCam
It’s hard to maintain eye contact in a web chat. If you look at your correspondent in your screen, then you’re not looking at your web cam. And if you look at your web cam, then you’re only seeing your correspondent in your peripheral vision.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could buy a web cam on a stalk. Then you could place the web cam within your field of view while looking at your correspondent. Or how about some mirrors to shift the built in web cam focal point from the top to the interior of the screen.
Add in some software to move your correspondent’s picture into alignment with the webcam location and you have a complete solution.
iPhone Battery Woes
Troubleshooting a battery-sucking iPhone 4s [via Daring Fireball]
I wish that I had known about “Settings → General → About → Diagnostic & Usage → Diagnostic & Usage Data” before. My iPhone 3GS battery would drain quickly on road trips to my best customer. My “solution” was to delete and then add my Exchange email, calendar and contacts. I might have found something useful if I had known where to look.
Pick Two
- Fast, Cheap, Good
- Schedule, Scope, Resources
Once upon a time, I wondered whether there was a natural law dictating three choices. Now, I understand that three is the minimum number to graphically demonstrate the need for compromise. Two makes it look like you’re pitting one against the other and four makes the choices too complex.
The bottom line is that any commercially desirable goal requires compromise. The sooner you accept the need for compromise, the sooner you can make some decisions and get on with it.
Dig This
Note to self: reserve time at Dig This next time you’re in Las Vegas.
The 10-employee park has five pieces of machinery, including a pair of Caterpillar D5 track-type bulldozers and three Caterpillar 315CL hydraulic excavators. Dig This sells three-hour packages that consist of a 30-minute safety and operation orientation followed by two hours of maneuvering either a bulldozer or excavator.
Hat tip to Tyler Cohen
Donate via the IRS
There are numerous deserving charities that need our support. Especially now. But make a donation and you can expect an unending stream of solicitations for more donations as your reward.
So wouldn’t it be nice if we could make anonymous donations via the IRS. That way we could get a tax receipt without revealing our identity.
Farewell Faithful Steed
After 16 years of service, it is time to say good bye to my 1995 Infiniti G20.
I had been debating between the Mazda 626, Acura Integra, and Infiniti G20 for a while. And I made my move when when the Hendrick Auto Group ran an ad for a white 5-speed G20 in the Sunday Examiner.
My G20 carried me on a painful commute from the San Ramon Valley to Silicon Valley for several years until I couldn’t endure it any more. It waited patiently in my CA garage for the year or two that I spent in Manhattan. And it rejoined me in Connecticut when I shifted stakes from CA to CT for good.
Sixteen years is a good run for a car. And it still runs great. But my wife upgraded her car and I’m upgrading to her 2005 Subaru. At least I’ll still get to see the G20 when the new owner (a colleague at work) brings it to the office.