They just don't get it

Just a quick post this morning about Sarah Palin. After scanning the news articles, television reports, and bloggers, I have to laugh at their attempts to point out Sarah's flaws. (the best was Michael Moore on MSNBC - the dude can't form a sentence to save his life - let alone a coherent thought that actually makes sense.)

It further proves how they just don't get it.

All of her "flaws" are the reasons many of us like her.

But best of all, in her "limited" governmental experience, she's been in leadership positions. That's more than anyone else on the presidential ballot can claim. And while many CLAIM to be a straight shooting, "do what's right" leader, she's the only one who's actually DOING it and standing up for whats right. Regardless of party lines.

I'm not worried about her straying from that course - and I'll bet there's a whole lot of folks in Washington who DON'T want to see her as VP just for these reasons.

That's why we need her. ;-)

Go girl!!

(and did you see the video of her on CNN shooting the AR-15 with the troops in Iraq? Nice!)

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT

Now that Rush is off the air and can't slam me for this, I am proud to announce that I'm throwing in my hat for President in the 2008 election.

Woohoo! (was : Bad tactics (was : Who?!?!?))

Ok, MAJOR EDIT! Now that I had a chance to research her and see her speak, I'm very PRO on the VP pick. Hell, I like her more than I like John. (not that I liked John all that much, but still...)

Do you want someone who will REFORM? I know I do, and she's a reformer. Check out her history here. This gal rocks!

As for Barack - sheesh, where do I start?? On the plus side, I think he's being a great role model for young blacks, albeit misguided. Typical symbolism over substance. But hey, the masses seem to like it regardless if they don't really know what change is needed.

Oh well, politics as usual. Nothing to see here. Move right along. ;-)

Not a good image

So, here's a shot of Woz and a lady friend watching some sort of event while still astride their beloved Segway's.

Lets make some observations - everyone else walked to the event from whatever sort of transportation they came in. Woz and ladyfriend didn't.

Everyone seems to be pretty in shape while Woz and ladyfriend could use a little less intake and some exercise.

What image does this give to Segway?

Perhaps this is what will happen to us all as we head toward the singularity?

Oh, great....

The US Patent Office continues its reign of terror with idiot patents.

This time they award Microsoft with patent 7,415,666 which effectively is PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN.

I'm not sure if this is a joke on Microsoft's part since it was applied for in March of 2005, but the USPTO awarded it even though I'm pretty sure there's a bit of prior art on this one.

Neat, eh?

The RIAA sucks

Ok, we all know that. So what?

Well, check out these guys. People are going to share music. Get over it.

These guys figure as songs move around, why not make it a viral revenue stream?

I really like the idea, and while its not a solution to the intelligence handicap that the entire music (and video/film) industry has, its a step in the right direction! (which means, by default, that the RIAA will try to kill it...)

New Dragonflyer

I've been a longtime fan of the DragonFlyer series of R/C helicopters. These things are really neat, small and robust.

Their latest creation, the X6 is a whole need breed of cat that I think would be a helluva good time to mess around with on the UAV front.

Way cool!

But did it matter?

It is reported that 2.9 million people received/signed up for Obama's VP announcement via SMS. That's pretty impressive, however, if you look closely at the news, you see that the 2.9 million subscribers received the txt message over "Friday, Saturday and Sunday".

If you get "breaking news" 12, 24 or 48 hours later - just how "breaking" is it? While I'm impressed with the campaign's collection of 2.9 million SMS subscribers, is SMS really the method to distribute time sensitive information to a mass audience? Don't get me wrong here, the 2.9 million SMS capability is HUGE - when used to its advantage. In this case getting a txt message on Sunday about the VP pick would be kinda annoying. Heck, getting it 12 hours late would annoy me.

In general, I think the Obama campaign is being super smart with the use of internet and mobile technologies in their campaign and I think savvy marketers should pay close attention to how its utilized and the effects on the subscribers.

I think the GOP is missing the boat on this on, big time. Not that I'm surprised by this - its amazing to see how poorly they run their campaigns every election - and YES, I'm a conservative. (Note - I'm not a "republican", but more of a constitutional conservative.)

(image from GigOm's original posting)

UPDATE - An employee who signed up for the SMS alert never received it - so, how many others didn't as well? Not receiving it had a negative effect on her and I'd bet it did to others as well.

New blog

Hey folks - I've created a new blog, EpicSesh for all of my lifestyle activities to keep this blog focussed on all things tech/business.

So, point your browsers over to the new blog if you're after my relentless search for the Epic Session. ;-)

Garage startup aims high... really high

Check out this project. Yup - this guy has built a flight test vehicle spaceplane in his garage with help from Intel and others.

Too cool!

His initial flight test program looks a lot like the lifting body flight tests from back in the 60's and 70's - though his planned balloon drop flight test isn't something that NASA tried. (they had dropships to carry their test vehicles up high).

Over design is similar to the Dyna Soar project - and as it should fly like it too. Though landing a lifting body really demands good depth perception for the pilot and I'm not convinced that his "virtual cockpit" that he'll pilot the craft from the ground with will give him that visual aid.

Aside from that - I can't wait for him to start flight testing it!

Lightning strikes twice

Sure it wasn't the greatest idea to sail tonight after work, but it was really, really good in the backyard. I spent a good amount of time working on protecting the stitches and figured I was good to go.

What I didn't count on was a second accident as the same fin bit me again in the back calf just inches under the original bite.

I was stunned. Twice in one week!? At least I was right in Herb's backyard and I came ashore and walked home leaving a trail of blood down the street.

No trip to the hospital this time. Callista sterry stripped the wound and I'm patched up and ready for more.

First thing - I'm sanding down the fin a bit. This thing is obviously out to get me. UPDATE - via Facebook, Chris thinks I should just destroy it. I'm inclined to agree.

UPDATE 2 : Of course its going to be windy again soon. South 15-25 Friday and SW 15-25 Saturday. Cripes - at this rate I'll be on crutches by the time I head to Maui in October for the Magazine board tests!

Cherry on top

The best way to top a Wilson's sundae is with a cherry on top. And the best way to close out a killer weekend is with an amazing sunset.

And no - this is NOT a re-edit from a previous photo. I shot this one tonight with my Canon HF10.

Crash and burn

I raced home upon hearing tales of good winds and fun... I was catching the end of a decent afternoon of sailing and after a quick re-rig, was out on my 7.0 KA Kult and RRD Twin Tip having a nice freestyle sesh when things went wrong .....

If you don't like deep tissue wounds, then STOP right now...

Oh hell, you're this far .... go the distance! ;-)




Lets just say that my freestyle fin on my spanking brand new RRD Twin Tip 110 (not the stock fin, mind you) has a VERY sharp trailing edge.....

Ginsu sharp.....






The ER doc was all, "really, what did this to you??"

And, "Ok, stay off the water for a few weeks...."

Yeah, right.....






UPDATE - A few have asked : No, I don't need surgury. The doctor said I was a hair away from cutting into my meniscus but somehow I didn't damage anything REALLY important. WHEW!! After a lifetime of not quite injuring my knees, this would have been a total bummer had I ripped into that with the fin while screwing around with new moves.

UPDATE 2 : I'd like to shout out to the Human Catapult for showing Josh and I how to sail properly and avoid future injuries. Heartfelt thanks! LOL

Any other option?

The current issue of Fast Company has "Designed to Win" on the cover.

As apposed to what ... Designed to lose? Designed to fail? Designed to suck. Designed to kinda sorta do well, but not actually win?

Someone show me a product designed from the ground up for anything but to win. Really, please do.

A victim's perspective

Ever wonder what it would be like to have a MIG 29 come up to your aircraft and shoot it down with a missile?

Networking from nowhere

A few days in the northwoods with no network made me think about, well, networking. I had an iPod Touch and my iPhone with me, and everyone was curious about the apps for the iPhones. So naturally I had Charlie demo them - but one thing struck me as I sat there watching Charlie show off his gaming prowess - there's no network game play on the platform.

Heck, there's no networking at all on the platform. By networking, I'm talking machine to machine. Even without real WIFI peer to peer, there's no server based network play.

What gives??

Seems to me that this capability is child's play and would take the apps (which I think are 99% lame at this point) to a new level of maturity that would spur sales/development and more revenues all around.

UPDATE - Seems that Michael Arrington and I had the same idea this morning.

Come on by!

Today the massive Airbus A380 landed at JFK with 489 passengers. Very cool.

I dunno if its been extended, but I'd like to extend an invitation to have them bring it to Oshkosh.

Heck, even a flyby would be fine. ;-)

The best reviews money can buy

Vallywag just ran a little piece about how (gasp!) you can buy your way into a Gartner "Magic Quadrant" report.

Sorry boys, no news here. This has been going since, well, since reviews and analyst reports were invented!

People ask why MailFoundry hasn't been in big magazine reviews or in the analyst reports. Simple - we didn't pay for them.

These reports are 100% advertising - no bones about it. And while we do a lot of advertising, we don't (usually) do these sorts of things. Why? Because the bulk of our market doesn't read them.

Yup, you heard me. And yes, its true. Don't get me wrong, its not like people don't read these things, but the part that does are a small section of the total market.

Now, I'm not sure how much credibility people put into these things when they read them - I know how much I do; none.

I'd much rather read about actual customer experiences with products/services and that's where a lot of our base groundswell marketing has focussed on over the years.