The Generalist

Reflections on CodeWarrior

I've been working hard at TripIt, since day one - more to do than there's time for, really. Barely even enough time to decide what to do, there's so many interesting, productive things to get done. Which is awesome. But today, I found myself leaning back in my chair, feet up on my filing cabinet, reading... for fun. It was about 11:45 AM.

This midday interlude would probably not go down well in any workplace, especially in one where the person engaging in it sits in the physical center of the open-plan office, the only spot where literally everyone can see him (and his monitor) without so much as moving their eyes. So I can only guess that my choice of literature - Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X 3rd Edition - must explain why most of the staring wasn't from the business people (who expect me to be productive) but from the engineers, who were shocked - shocked! - to find that the business people can read!

I do make a game of pretending that I understand something about programming. Mostly to feel like the thousands of dollars spent on the eight Dartmouth College computer science courses wasn't totally wasted (though, I'll be honest, I didn't get much out of CS 68 - Principles of Programming Languages). But I do enjoy programming - I've been doing it since I was about 10 (when I learned BASIC) and it's sad that today the only programming I do is in Excel - if you can call it that. I think back to those nights spent in front of the white glow of CodeWarrior and wonder... will I ever be as entertained/captivated/held hostage as I was by those lousy bugs?

So, when Andy asked politely for his book back (because he actually gets paid to read that stuff) I realized perhaps I should get all set up so that the next time I steal it I can actually get something done. Xcode is now loaded on my work macbook, and hopefully - unlike my Ruby / MySQL misadventure (where I couldn't ever figure out why MySQL wouldn't boot up on my personal macbook, and eventually threw in the towel after only ever accomplishing the requisite "Hello, World!") I'm ready to roll up my sleeves again and get dirty. Not because I get paid to do it, but just because it's fun.

And even if it isn't fun, it'll be worth it to see the look on the faces of the TripIt engineers (who all sit behind me over my left shoulder) when they see the compiler going on my screen. Or, more likely, when they see me rebooting my mac just like I did four times an hour in college after writing to a memory block that wasn't meant to be written to...

After a long silence... VOIP

When the minidisk player I bought in college turned obsolete about two weeks after I bought it, I sought treatment for early adopter disease. It's been in remission ever since, and life has been good. Without it I have free time to participate in sports, and other activities, and be a social person. I also have beer money. Life has been good. But recently things have taken a turn for the worse: I tried VOIP.

Enter BroadVoice and the Snom 360. I don't even have the energy for a full rant, because it just pains me to think about the 8 hours of my life wasted getting these two supposedly fully featured things to work at all, let alone together - not to mention the $150 the Snom phone set me back. For my $150 I got a pretty cool high-end office phone with a setting disabling it from receiving calls. That's right, it's the "broken" setting. Unfortunately, next to the "o On o Off" selection in the settings page, it's labeled "Call Complete" - which isn't nearly as descriptive as it should be. "Do you want your phone to act totally broken?" would be infinitely more helpful. Six hours to fix that one.

There's also this thing called DTMF, which, for the rest of us, means touch tone type. Apparently there are multiple types, and apparently whichever one my phone is set to won't activate phone menus on, say, the BroadVoice help line. I call BroadVoice to wonder why my phone won't receive calls ("Call Complete = off") or why I can't dial menus (DTMF issues) and the menu says "press 1 for technical support" I press "1" and nothing happens. Eventually it tires of me, says it can't route my call, and hangs up. Good thing nobody leaves me voicemails, cause if BroadVoice won't let me talk to tech support, what do you think the chances are of them letting me listen to my voicemails?  And that's to say nothing of SpinVox not integrating with  the "Call Forward Do Not Answer" feature of BroadVoice at all, let alone as seamlessly as it works with Verizon Wireless. Who'd have thought I'd be holding up Verizon as an example of how to get technology right? Now instead of saving cell phone minutes (the point of this whole VOIP adventure) it's actually costing me more minutes because I need to call BroadVoice tech support on my Verizon cell phone. Time spent: 2 hours. Still not fixed.

This could be another life-threatening flare-up of early adopter disease. I barely escaped college without being consumed by it, and I'm worried. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and there'll be an iPhone next to my bed and I'll have a chumby as an alarm clock. The Horror!

* Update: So the incoming calls aren't working, again. And, upon closer scrutiny of the "Call Completion" option, it isn't as I had suspected. At least according to Snom's online manual. But that was the last setting I changed to make things work... so now I'm totally stumped. Again. 8.5 hours wasted, and counting...

Getting Old, Email and Social Networks

I just realized that I'm old and I don't get it. Or, if I get it, I don't do it.

I could never understand why my parents didn't use email right when it came out, when my friends and I started using it. It was even more useful to them - after all, they used fax machines all the time to communicate with business people all over the world. Why not skip the printing and feeding step (there may have been a third blurring and smudging step, too) and just send the file electronically?

The catch, of course, was that nobody they knew used email. It's a classic  example  of network effects - there was no usefulness to email for them, because there wasn't anyone in the network. So they didn't adopt it. And because they and their opposites didn't adopt it, neither did the people whose adoption of it would have sparked their adoption of it. Ultimately I had to force them to use it (by threatening to only communicate via email from college) for them to actually get computers in their offices and open email accounts. Perhaps everyone's kids did the same thing, and all of a sudden everyone had email and it was suddenly hugely useful.

Interviewing around the social networking and media companies of the present, I realized that the same phenomenon is happening all over again - but it's my turn to be in the late majority or laggard group this time. This time it isn't email, it's social networking. My friends aren't on MySpace, Facebook or Friendster. So why would I use those products? Just like my parents and their friends not adopting email in the early nineties, my contemporaries and I are getting along just fine without social networking. But eventually that will change.

LinkedIn, of course, is the exception - intentionally or by accident it's attracted the 20-something and 30-something professional crowd, and because of that will probably forever have a premium (or at least older) association with its brand. I use it and can see its value (especially when hunting for a job or trying to make a sale). But it isn't an integral part of my life, like MySpace and Facebook are for millions of younger people. It just gives me that feeling of being, well, old. I even think my back aches a little more now and my fingers are sore from typing... arthritis? Ugh.

The fact is that social networking is the next great communication technology, just as email used to be. I might not be on MySpace or Facebook now, but when I have kids and they get on it, I'll have to catch up. Because if I don't, I'll never see the photos they send around, never find out what cool videos they've found online, and generally be an out of touch parent. Just like my parents were with email.

Akimbo v. Apple

I'd like to be the first to start a rumor about an Akimbo hiring freeze. Take it for what it's worth.

On an unrelated (?) note, the Apple announcement could mean big things for Akimbo - good or bad, it's too early to tell. I think that, like Ingenio, they may find themselves well-served by having a major competitor in their space. Apple has the PR mojo and marketing budget to build acceptance of TV over the internet, and that could make Akimbo's marketers' lives easier. Provided that Akimbo can get some worthwhile content to pipe into its box, it might actually be able to provide a good alternative to the evil that is iTunes and owning content. Because what consumer really wants to own the movie? They'd rather just watch it. (Unless it's Caddyshack, in which case, how could you not own it?)

The other development that could be great for Akimbo is Wi-Fi in cities. If people can get Akimbo service over a free wi-fi connection, or an inexpensive one, cable might soon become obsolete just like the land-based telephone is fast becoming obsolete. Why would a consumer pay Comcast or Adelphia $60+ a month, plus a ton in extra charges (extra TV's, DVR rentals, etc.) when they could  use Akimbo for $10ish a month, and pay nothing for the connection? Obviously this would hurt the overall revenue picture in the industry, which is something Akimbo needs to answer if it's ever going to find some solid content partners.

There are many, many challenges in this - as there are with any major new consumer technology. But for the first time in a while it seems like Akimbo has a new catalyst in its marketplace. Who knows, maybe they'll get crazy and do a deal with YouTube, or sell themselves to Rupert Murdoch. Is he still on a buying spree, or was mySpace the end of it?

Segway vs. Go Car

A recent email conversation with my product marketing professor, Ely Dahan, led me to compare the Segway (in its newest incarnation here) and the new fad in San Francisco touring, the GoCar.

Professor Dahan taught me many things - but the one he always harps on is the importance of considering cost when planning new products. The brilliant minds behind Segway missed that detail (and continue to miss that detail, with their latest inventions rumored to cost almost as much as the original flops - on Wired's blogs here). The people behind GoCar figured it out.

The GoCar is extremely cheap to build - from the photos, it appears to be a go cart, built from off-the-shelf parts, with only one drive wheel (making steering much lighter and cheaper) and some GPS software. A new one probably costs less than $2,000 to make. It's proven technology, simple to use, and - while not exactly safe - a fun thing to do. And, while it's no Ferrari, you don't, in the words of one Segway-hater, look like a "geektard" when driving it.

The Segway, on the other hand, is the ultimate geektard ride. Cool people wear helmets - when they're snowboarding, extreme skiing, biking in the Tour de France, or skateboarding upside down over a plywood jungle. Cool people do not wear helmets while navigating their way through downtown sidewalks. Cool people might blow $2000 on a go cart (or rent a GoCar for $20-50ish an hour). But $5,000 for a gyroscope-enabled geektard-mobile? Not cool.

I'm no oracle, and won't predict the future of products and companies - at least not publicly, where I can be humiliated for it later - but I will wonder out loud about how the new off-road all terrain version will sit with the target market - will it enable them to get out and see parts of the world fobidden to them, or will it just put them in perilously contact with cool people doing extreme sports - like hiking - and send them into a depressive self-destructive spiral of doom?

Soonr

I came across an interesting service today. Soonr lets you access your PC from your cell phone in a totally new way. I set it up and was on my first Skype call in under 2 minutes.

The service installs on your PC and lets you link to your cell phone via the browser (I use a Palm Treo 700w). After the install, it sends a text to your phone, with a link to the Soonr page. When you sign in, a browser-based menu shows up. One click and you're on a Skype call to any Skype contact online at the time (or their test service, because all of my Skype contacts were busy when I tried it).

The company has a strong stable of partners (everyone in their business area is a partner - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others) and a great handle on the integration of their products. Their site pitches the service as a tool for business users, but I imagine they may end up with more takers from college kids and other extremely price-sensitive people, especially those who make long-distance international calls. Those users may find the Outlook integration, desktop search, file access, and other features less useful - or they may use them in ways not envisioned by their designers.

In terms of Outlook access and "PC Anywhere" technology, Soonr has a very advanced and seamless UI and will hopefully stake out some territory in the increasingly crowded wireless market. However in terms of using Skype via cell phone, while an incredibly compelling value propositoin and one which they have executed excellently, I think that the jury-rigged nature of the Skype service (using your PC, which must be on) will make competition with cut-rate international dialing plans difficult, especially when others use the same PC. Also, the PC speakers will carry your call - so be careful to have the computer on mute and be careful not to let just anyone have access to it if you plan on Skyping about sensitive topics.

After the inevitable shakeup in the digital lifestyle world, it would be nice to see one company roll up the useful products of these many companies into an integrated - and reliable - suite of tools. Between Soonr, Sharpcast, GoogleTalk and gmail mobile, among many others, my phone is getting a little crowded. I should say, I hope that company isn't Microsoft - the Microsoft Windows Mobile parts of the phone hardly ever work properly.  

Hipness, Technology, and the Life Sciences

I'm trying to be as hip and with it as possible. Sitting here at my computer in UGG slippers, an American Apparel t-shirt (not just any t-shirt, "The Summer Shirt"), Lucky Brand jeans (which I'm told aren't really that hip, anymore, but I prefer to stick with them rather than run out and buy the $175 jeans that are actually hip) and listening intently to a "SkypeCast" re-"PodCast" from TypePad (host of this blog) by Chris Anderson, the author of The Long Tail (the page is here). In minute 6 he's talking about blogs being the long tail of publishing (huge surprise, given the host of the broadcast) and beginning to lose my interest. But I'd prefer this for half an hour to reading his book, which is probably reminiscent of of the sound-byte style penmanship of Malcolm Gladwell.

And meanwhile my attention has moved on, to del.icio.us, which I haven't really spent the time to figure out yet (but have heard it competes directly with my favorite site, Kaboodle). And at del.icio.us I found a very interesting post on how to change your Southwest boarding pass from a "B" or "C" to the "A" boarding group (here). I'm not a lawyer, but I am willing to bet that forging an "A" boarding pass is, well, forgery - and probably illegal. So I won't be doing it. But, hey, if someone else does, as long as he or she isn't cutting me, whatever. Just never say you didn't learn anything useful from my blog.

The skypecast - or whatever you call it - has lost me, as TypePad's host has started in on Casey Casum and how he used to listen to him every weekend to find out what music he should be following. I hate Casey Casum, and the idea that someone tells you what music to like (isn't it top 40 based on radio plays, or music sales, anyway?) and think that music, by and large, doesn't matter (though it's nice to have on in the background at a dinner party). So what if U2 was "the" band of your generation. I like Bono and The Edge as much as anyone, but would my life be different if they had flown into a mountain after Joshua Tree? But I digress.

I heard an interesting NPR piece on lifestyles this morning on KQED (NPR is what older, better educated hip people listen to). The speaker argued that people now define themselves by what they consume - kind of a "you are what you eat" notion, but change "eat" to "buy". So I'm apparently a cool retro kind of a guy who cares about sweatshops and American jobs (remember my summer shirt?) while also being a true Californian (the jeans, or so they tell me, are hallmark Californian - nevermind that I was born in Berkeley). Because I have an IBM ThinkPad, I must be a corporate kind of a guy. I'm sure my Specialized mountain bike has some meaning, as does my off-brand surfboard, Trek road bike, Volkl skis, ...

I find this whole idea that "lifestyle" has replaced simply shopping as a raison-d'etre to be borderline obvious. Napoleon, a consumer of imperial proportions, outfitted himself and his court in court-like regalia so as to appear to be like a legitimate monarch and ruler. Egyptian pharoes perhaps gave the idea its great start, as they acted on the belief that there was a correlation between their rabid consumption of everything - goods, servants, slaves - and the afterlife; they stocked their pyramids and burial chambers with piles of riches, artwork, and freshly-killed servants and slaves so as to be well equiped for the next world.

In more modern times the robber barons spent lavishly on themselves and on philanthropic causes, particularly unversities. Today's equivalents - Bill Gates, Buffett, et al. - seem to have similar consumption habits.

So what in this line of discussion is supposed to be new or interesting? That yuppies prefer Audis and BMWs to Mercedes-Benz? That Lexus is probably the best luxury brand of automobile except for being painfully boring? That Lincoln may stop making Town Cars, leaving the lives of New York investment bankers slightly less vanilla? As they say in Thailand, "Same, same, but different". Sounds like semantics to me. Funny thing, that the speaker is a semantics professor. Wish I could remember his name.

All of this is leading towards two conclusions. First, I loathe hipness. Always have. Always well. Being presentably dressed, driving a decent car (reliable and bland, or otherwise) - all of it really doesn't matter. Better, I suppose, to be well dressed. But being hip for the sake of being hip is, well, shallow. I recall a Zagat restaurant review quoting a surveyor when commenting that the restaurant is "refreshingly hipster free" and I remembered that hipsters are a loathful phenomonon - as is anything obsessed with any shallow and self-serving pursuit (e.g., investment bankers, rats, real estate agents, telesales jockeys, etc.).

Second, it's time to broaden my search because all of this Web 2.0 software nonsense borders on hip for the sake of hipness. Yes, Kaboodle is a great service. And yes, thanks to whatever del.icio.us is, I now know how to forge a Southwest "A" boarding pass (I bet they'll have that loophole closed by Friday, at the latest). But how useful is this stuff, really? Will it change lives like the pill, quinine, penicillin, or orthoscopic surgery? Or will it change lives more like U2? There has to be something out there worth pursuing for a lifetime...

Maybe this rambling is a direct result of talking to the CEO and founder of a medical device firm today... Nah.

Note: U2 was probably a bad musical example, given Bono's activist style (and new firm).

Ubisoft, Wii and Red Steel

Ah, video games. I remember seeing a Far Side cartoon of the classified section of a newspaper - the Nindendo Player, $40,000/year. That was in the early 1990's, when $40,000 was a generous wage. Now it feels like you have to be union to get that much, and the unions are fast disappearing. Or making their members' companies disappear.

But back to gaming: you can imagine the irony, in light of the cartoon, when I discovered that there are real jobs - for MBAs, no less - at places like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, THQ, and Activision. Real jobs, with boring responsibilities like finance, operations, strategy and marketing. And then I met the heads of two of those four companies, and they were real people - not even hardcore gamers actually, just real, normal people. Well, normal for CEOs. And it seemed like their jobs were more exciting than, say, the job of the guy who owns Big Dogs (who I also had the pleasure of meeting - a multi, multi millionaire ex Bear Stearns banker). Not that his job was boring; he just doesn't get tickets to E3 as part of it.

So now I'm interviewing with Ubisoft, for a truly interesting biz dev job. I'm optimistic (one has to be) but I will say that this is a job I could really enjoy. Do deals internally and externally to grow Ubisoft's next-to-nonexistent business in online casual gaming into what it can and should be. They asked me what I needed to be paid in Round 1; thankfully the phone was on mute when I blurted out, "You're going to pay me to do this?!" Just kidding.

Wii and Red Steel have nothing to do with casual gaming, so why are they the title of this blog? Simply because the interview prompted me to check out an article, about how Nintendo shocked the world with Wii being ready for a Christmas release (on Topix, here). And then, of course, I had to check out Red Steel, Ubisoft's killer game for the new platform. Yes, you really do get to swing the sword and point the gun. Not bad, Ubisoft. Not bad, Nintendo. Hey, Sony SCEA (a.k.a. US Playstation department) - for $900, can I swing the sword myself? No? Hmm... but you say you have a physics processor... I guess that's cool. So, does that mean I can swing the sword?

While I am excited at the prospect of wheeling and dealing in the fledgling casual gaming space (it is, in terms of distribution, the future of the industry) I am particularly excited at the prospect of working for a company with that kind of vision. It has always been my belief that playing video games doesn't have to be a sedentary activity; the medium has simply been constrained by existing technology. Viz, Nintendo's gun for Duck Hunt. (okay, who didn't sit three inches from the screen?). Now movement will be required. It's only a matter of time - years or decades - before paintballing is a less exciting and less real alternative to playing a first-person shooter. Imagine World of Warcraft players being active for 10 hours a day while playing, instead of sitting still. They'll make triatheletes look like out-of-shape almost-ran curlers. The horror! The horror!

And think of what Wii style technology would do for the casual in-office gamer. Say goodbye, astro-turf-and-plastic putting green. Say hello, GoldenTee on my laptop + wireless mouse-like-controller!