three pattern mixup

Today’s wardrobe: pinstripe suit, striped shirt, rep (diagonally striped) tie. That’s right, triple stripage.

I’ve been doing this intermittently, venturing into the dangerous three-pattern mixing zone. According to Lisa Cunningham, board member of the Association of Image Consultants International, “it takes talent, great skill, and confidence to pull this off. But it makes a very strong, very fashion-forward statement.”

And, amazingly, I’m pretty sure my three stripe approach is actually working. I’ve pulled a few compliments and have yet to hear anyone snickering loudly as I pass. Next time, I’ll be kicking it up a notch by wearing striped boxers as well.

|  

competition

While I know of handful of people who have previously transitioned from high tech to film (witness the highly successful Kip Hagopian, a founder of the iconic Brentwood Venture Capital, who later produced Mel Gibson’s Ransom and a handful of other major films), apparently I’m not the only one currently making the switch.

According to the nearly infallible IMDB, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been cast as Mr. Fantastic in next year’s Fantastic Four. Despite the site’s usual accuracy, I’m a bit dubious, as, while my cartoon memories are a bit hazy, I seem to recall the character being named Reed Richards rather than the listed Richard Reed. Still, anyone lucky enough to catch Ballmer’s infamous “monkey boy” dance video or his stirring “Developers, developers, developers” monologue can imagine the dramatic potential Ballmer would bring to the role.

|  

rfid update

A few weeks back, I fawned over what I saw as an important trend: RFIDs (radio frequency identification tags) in the supermarket. Since then, a variety of readers have pointed me towards breaking RFID news, the most exciting of which includes:

Wal-mart has begun testing RFIDs in a pilot program at the Tulsa, Oklahoma Sam’s Club (the pilot covers all Bounty paper towels, Mach 3 razors and cases of Coca Cola sold through the store). The company is using the tags to track everything from supply chain inventory and shipping, to on-shelf product availability and check out. As the prices of tags drop, Wal-mart hopes to quickly scale up throughout the entire firm.

To help push down those prices, Alien Technologies has created a new process for building RFID tags: fluidic self-assembly creates very small RFIDs (as tiny as a millimeter square) for a fraction of the cost of current tags (under 5 cents, versus today’s 50 cents).

Demonstrating another of RFIDs many potential uses, Invensys, which builds the controls for GE, Maytag and Whirlpool appliances, has begun testing the use of RFIDs in lieu of washing instruction labels in clothing. A ‘smart’ washing machine could read the tags of all the laundry in the load, then optimize water temperature and spin cycle for the best possible wash.

|  

the kentucky recap

An excellent weekend in Louisville, celebrating Thunder, the kick-off of Derby season. The trip involved: a stealth bomber, the world’s largest fireworks display, a transvestite cabaret, and (most importantly) Lindsey and her fabulous housemates and Louisville Science Center co-workers. While I won’t be moving to Kentucky any time soon, I’ll definitely be heading back to visit at some point in the near future.

|  

into the bluegrass

I’m off to Louisville, Kentucky, for a quick visit with one of my best friends from college, Lindsey Tucker. Until I return on Monday there won’t be any new postings.

|  

an ode to google

Without a doubt, Google is taking over the world. Mainly because it was the first company to understand that search matters. Back in 1999, the Yahoos, Excites and Altavistas of the web were busy positioning themselves as portals, not search companies. CEOs weren’t apologetic about it either – one famously explained “as long as we’re 80 percent as good as our competitors, that’s good enough. Our users don’t really care about search.”

In the end, though, the CEO was wrong – users do care about search. Portal companies are drying up and pure search is having a renaissance. Competitors like Teoma are springing up to give Google a run for the money. But the original is already miles ahead. While Google has a reputation for being laser-focused on search, that’s only partly true. Wisely, Google has defined its mission in the broadest sense: helping people find information on the internet more easily. Hence the addition of features that any religious Google user (and the number of self-proclaimed Google zealots grows daily) depends upon: the dictionary links in the blue bar, or the ability to find stock quotes or maps just by searching for tickers or addresses. And with the ability to search within the web’s Word documents, PDF files and newsgroup postings, Google’s reach and power continues to grow.

Beyond all this, Google has been banging out a number of other features – ones that have yet to go mainstream. Check them out now, and glow with the smugness of the early adopter:

Google News

News aggregation and a news-specific search.

Google Catalogs

Google-powered catalog shopping.

Google Compute

Distributed computing project to put web surfers’ unused processor power to work on a cure for cancer. (While this isn’t yet available to the general public, you can sneak into the beta here. )

And, of course, you shouldn’t miss the best piece of Google fiction ever written.

|  

achoo

I returned to New York yesterday to find the city had decided to skip over May, June and July, going instead directly to August. Temperatures cracked 90 degrees and humidity shot through the roof. Every pollen-bearing plant in Manhattan, apparently in celebration of the unexpected burst of summer, put love in the air, pushing the pollen count to 11.7. On a scale of 12. Blissfully unaware of the pending pollenic disaster until mid-morning, I arrived at work unaided by Allegra 180 and was left sniffle-nosed and itchy-eyed for the balance of the day.

To be honest, allergy drugs are still fairly new to me. While I’ve doubtless had seasonal allergies for some time, I only realized so last year. I was watching TV when a spring Claritin ad came on: “Runny nose? Burning eyes? Coughing and sneezing?” Check. Check. Check and check. The symptoms kept rolling across the screen, and I had them all. The proverbial lightbulb appeared over my head. By God, I had allergies!

One might wonder why my father, a pulmonologist, had never noticed this, though I credit his lack of diagnosis to a sort of ‘shoemaker’s children going barefoot’ effect. Still, his ability to write prescriptions at the drop of a hat has since more than made up for his lack of speed on the draw. With fexofenadine hydrochloride running through my veins, I can see clearly and breathe freely. Medicine, I realize, is a wonderful thing.

|  

next steps

My switch to the world of film is nearly official. This morning, I spoke with most of the people I work with about putting tech research on hold – while the details are still sketchy, it appears I’ll be doing Cyan full time by the start of next month. I’ve also brought on a first confederate, Colin Spoelman, Cyan’s new VP of Development.

Note to self: Kick fundraising into high gear. It looks like this is really going to happen.

|   

clarification

Actually, I won’t be dropping high tech completely – I’ll still be actively involved with the non-profit Paradigm Blue Foundation, which funds social entrepreneurship initiatives and the innovative use of new technologies. I just won’t be doing high tech as a job. But I’ll still be posting rambling tech entries here. And I’ll still be reading Wired, the closest thing we dorks have to the New Yorker.

|  

refocus

So busy. So very busy.

Somewhere in the past week, I made the major decision to put my high tech work on hold, to focus full time on making motion pictures. I’ve spent the last few days banging out the details of that switch, the near- and long-term strategy for winding down my immediate involvement in tech and ramping up my film production company, Cyan Pictures, towards a film in 2004 and a second in 2005.

So much to do. So very much.

|