I’ve replaced my trusty 700MHz G3 iBook with a new 12” PowerBook. Between doubling the CPU clock speed and upgrading to a G4, the difference feels like night and day.

The OS X Setup Assistant made short work of most of the transition, but then it was time for the finishing touches.

hardware upgrades

Memory and an external Firewire hard disk (I resolve to have better backups in 2005) from Other World Computing.

disk partitioning

To partition or not to partition - not an issue with my iBook’s 20 GB hard disk, but an attractive option with the PowerBook’s 60 GB. After much dithering back and forth, I settled on 3 partitions.

emacs

Panther includes emacs 21.2.1. Unfortunately, carbon aware emacs is slated for 21.4 and currently needs to be built from the CVS sources. Alex Rice has made an Emacs.app Bundle available, but I like to build my own.

zsh

Panther ships with an up to date zsh 4.1.1. Unfortunately, there is a bang completion bug in 4.1.1 when run in a process buffer of a natively windowed emacs.

uControl

You can’t use emacs without the control key and that means you need uControl to put a control key where it’s meant to be. I needed to tweak the installer’s InstallationCheck script to force an install on 10.3.7.

It was hard to get excited about a dry run. Yes, it was a must-win game for the Broncos. But it was a who-cares game for the Colts. And all that was proven is that a motivated Broncos 1st team is better than the Colts 2nd team at Invesco.

We have been here before. Last season, the Broncos dominated the Colts to clinch a wild card spot. And were then trampled by the Colts in a quick playoff exit. It’s commonly believed that game was the prime motivation behind the Portis for Bailey trade.

Now it’s the Broncos at the Colts redux. A chance to see whether Champ Bailey is a difference maker. And a chance for Shanahan to demonstrate that he’s still the MasterMind.

I hate advice to Fire your bad customers. I think that it misses the true point: Cultivate great customers, fire your failures. Because concentrating on failure can often stand in the way of success. And failure is often your fault as well as your customers.

Venky Ganesan writes approvingly of an Amazon venture to [suck] “profitable” customers away from Netflix by placing a cap on monthly rentals. I’m a bit sceptical myself:

1. Never underestimate the lure of unlimited. We thought we could watch 8+ DVDs a month when we joined Netflix. The reality has become more like 5 or 6. How many customers are lured by the unprofitable and then settle into a profitable steady state?
2. What’s your identity? Netflix has laid claim to all the DVDs you want - No late fees. What will Amazon be?
3. Your abusers are apt to also be your evangelists. How many good customers has your so-called bad customer steered towards your service?

Cultivate great customers, Fire your failures. Some customers will never be great, but you won’t know until you try. And if you focus on firing your bad customers, you may never find your great ones.

I understand that excess inventory is wasted money. But it still torques me when I need a staple product and the store is out.

I made my standard run to the local pet store conglomerate today. They receive shipments on Saturday and Wednesday, so I try to shop on either Monday or Thursday to insure adequate supplies. Today, I needed some house brand unscented clay litter. And they were out.

How can a pet store run out of kitty litter? I resent needing to know my store’s delivery schedule. I really resent needing to make a second visit this week to pick up more. And trust me, as a CSI: Connecticut, kitty litter is not fungible.

15 Jan: Litter Crisis Averted

I’m running a bit late this week, as I’m watching the Colts-Broncos season finale as I type. The game played to form - a team needing a win defeated a team depleted by injuries 37-16.

The Broncos played to form as well. The good defense, the good offense and the Good Jake showed up for most of the game. And the bad special teams and the Bad Jake made their appearance as well. If the MasterMind could actually get the good Broncos to play complete games, then the Broncos really be something.

With the Colts not needing a win and Peyton not needing a TD to break Marino’s record, the Broncos are in good shape to make the playoffs.

Mark joined our family a year ago today. Here, he examines some of the presents that Santa Cat brought.

Looks like everyone is getting on the bandwagon. My most recent copy of the Microsoft Business Insight Newsletter included a link for Blogging for Business: 7 tips for getting started. I just wish that the list included Rule 0: Don’t do it if you don’t mean it.

Ouch. I keep hoping that it was a bad dream. The Chiefs blasted the Broncos 45-17 in a game that didn’t seem that close. Everyone contributed to the loss. The special teams gave up a TD return to Dante Hall on the opening kickoff. The offense gave up 3 turnovers. The defense created 0 turnovers while giving up 410 yards. And the TV station that I was watching left for a more competitive game.

Despite the MasterMind’s offensive virtuosity, Shanahan has not shown the ability to find and groom a top-flight NFL quarterback. Brian Griese self-destructed after a promising beginning and Jake Plummer continues to exhibit an alarming immaturity in big games.

The Denver Post reports that Plummer will return in 2005. The Broncos do not have any other quarterback options if they intend to return to greatness while the MasterMind remains. But part of me feels that it is time to blow up the team and begin the rebuilding process.

The MasterMind hasn’t shown an ability to win big games without a big-time QB. He hasn’t shown an ability to groom a big-time QB. Perhaps it is time for a new Master Plan.

He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That puts it not unto the touch To win or lose it all

I expected to lose one of the big three. So while I expected it to be Zito who was moved, I accepted the trade of Huddy to Atlanta. Then I read that Agent Mulder was going to St. Louis. And I began to waver on the issue of Billy Beane: Genius or Idiot.

But upon further review, I think that Studes said it best:

… You’re sitting around your Oakland office, looking at all the shenanigans in the Free Agent market. Now, you don’t have enough money to pay a free agent, but you’ve noticed that starting pitchers seem to be in high demand this offseason – overvalued, even. Plus, you currently have three of the best young starters in baseball on your staff, and you know you’re likely to lose at least two of them in the next two years. What do you do?

Even more, Beane has a rare gift: the courage of his convictions. No one trades away two of the best young pitchers in the game. No one except Billy Beane. A man with a plan on how to win an unfair game and no fear of proving himself wrong.

No one is going to compose an RFP response, research report or a marketing analysis using weblog software. Personally, I find it challenging to write a 250 word blog post - much more than that and I switch to another tool and paste it in.

In the real world, documents are authored in a word processing application and stored in a document repository (local disk, share drive, or document management system). What you find in the knowledge blog (k-blog) is a description of the document along with a link. Link analysis could then be used to create metadata describing the linked document.

I would love to see k-blogs replace email for standard project communications. But I don’t see corporations implementing that change anytime soon. We could copy email contents into the k-blog, but it might be preferable to link to the underlying email just as we link to documents within the information repository. That would preserve the relationship between the email in a thread.

For a knowledge management solution, we need integrated search that spans the k-blog, document repository and email archive. If there is a true DMS as document repository, then it makes sense to use the DMS as the underlying content store and as the search engine. Otherwise, it makes sense to handle it as an internet search with spidering of the document repository.

BTW, it may be legal to search the corporate email archives. But I don’t think that anyone wants all their email searchable by colleagues. At the very least, search should be limited to publicly exposed email threads.