Monthly Archives: April 2008

New Favourite Blog

April 26, 2008
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I read but a few blogs but I’ve added a new one to my favourites list: Why does everything suck?”. Great name, eh? It’s got a definite entrepreneurial bent but also has some interesting opinions on various technologies. Well worth reading and after reading his articles repeatedly for the past few months via linkage I figured I’d just go to the source straight away. For those interested check out Hank Williams’ blog. With a name like that I wonder if he’s into country music? For the lazy type unwilling to wander through his site to find the gems, here are some of my favourte posts of his: Who Takes More Risk, The VC or The Entrepreneur? Paul Graham Says VCs Not Bold Enough. I Say None of Us Are. Chris Anderson’s Voodoo Economics of Free. A favourite whipping post for Mr. Williams. Free Is Killing Us. Blame the VCs. Why I Hate VCs. Most of the Data We Save Won’t Be Useful Again. The Death of the Relational Database. His blog seems to only have been up since the start of the year, with one lonely post in 2007. Somehow, it looks like it was simply misarchived. No matter. His

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Fostering Innovation

April 25, 2008
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Running a startup, a research group, or any other group of people who are trying to create something out of nothing is fun, difficult, trying, and a slew of other things. But what it primarily is is intense. Many times folks ask me how to keep people motivated and I’m typically at a loss. I don’t know how I do it. Maybe I’m just super charismatic. Or maybe I spin a good yarn. I really don’t know. But I seem to do something since folks follow me about and many have said they’d still like to work with me — and some still do, even two or three jobs/companies later. But what is it that folks most enjoy? Often I’m told it’s the notion of “fostering innovation” or of “not suffering fools” or being “brutally honest”. Perhaps. I’m just too enmeshed to notice. However, Brad Bird of Pixar was interviewed by The McKinsey Quarterly and had some deeply insightful things to say that echo many of the things I’ve said. Of course, Bird says them so much better than I ever have so read his interview here. For those too lazy, here is a list of his Ten Lessons, all

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Sanity in Ontario

April 18, 2008
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As those who know me can attest, I’m no greenie. However, I have never understood the stupidity of the clothesline bans some municipalities and communities enacted. Some people find them “unsightly”. Really? Why? It’s just fabric blowing in the breeze. Rumour has it that Primer McGuinty will announce that Ontarians can dry their clothes outside. Finally. A bit of sanity. And why did it take this long? You’d think one of the first things the green types would have demanded would have been the elimination on the ban on drying clothes outside. It’s an easy way to save money for families and environmentally friendly to boot, especially in the summer when it’s hot outside and the electricity would be better spent cooling us down as opposed to heating up our clothes — something the sun can do for free. So a hearty thanks to the Premier for doing something sane and long overdue.

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Reality and Fake Steve

April 11, 2008
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You know, Fake Steve makes more sense than most real people. And that’s just sad.

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Bummer: Charlton Heston Died

April 6, 2008
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I’ve always been a fan of SF films, but some just stand out as my favourites. They include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes (the originals), Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, Twelve Monkeys, and some of the Star Wars and Star Trek films, to name a few. But Heston helped bring SF films to the masses, allowing it to be respectable instead of just B rate fare as it was before Planet of the Apes. And Heston uttered one of my favourite quotes: “I’ve played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses – and that’s probably enough for any man”

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Bread experiments

April 6, 2008
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Bread experiments

I’ve started experimenting with bread recipes again. What got me going was two books by Richard Bertinet: Crust and Dough. Both are amazing books complete with a DVD of Bertinet making dough for bread. Unlike how I was taught, Bertinet’s method does not use a lot of flour and instead makes the dough elastic through kneading alone. I spoke with a friend of mine who was trained as a pastry chef and she said that Bertinet’s method is very French and the way you make many French doughs, be they pastry or bread. I’ve tried a few of the recipes and they’re simply awesome. It’s money well spent. Plus, within his book he describes a variety of starters, including those started with spelt flour instead of regular flour. I tried this recently and it was a great success. In this latest recipe I opted for a variation on what I’ve been experimenting with of late with starters. Instead of a regular starter I made a sourdough starter from spelt. I then created a dough that was 40% spelt and 50% white flour and 10% semolina. The bread was fantastic. The crumb was very fine, most probably due to the spelt.

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Musings

A blog of my musings. Some folks find it interesting and so I continue. Hopefully it will remain fairly interesting. At worst, it'll keep me writing orthogonally to my day job.

Month at a Glance

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