My Fellow Americans

Here on election day, I want to encourage all to vote and to sum up my views on voting with respect to and for our own and others feelings and beliefs. I do think it is undeniable that some groups, especially the more fundamentalist right AND left, engage in politics to promote non-political agendas, societal reforms or legislate morality.

This is something I fundamentally disagree with and feel polarizes debate, pointlessly prohibiting progress.
Abortion, education, stem-cell research, healthcare, same-sex marriage, Irag and taxes. All clearly issues where many have strong categorical beliefs. I would only caution that national politics is not an effective place to champion single causes.
I have cast my vote for Barack Obama and find that Obama's strength and what I hope he brings to the nation and the debate is devaluation of the oversimplified, sound bite politics of the binary argument and promotion of the pursuit of alternatives, a third path. World, national and political issues are never black and white and we need leaders and discourse that weigh the costs and benefits of varied alternatives.

Due to gross deficiencies in the legislative process, bills that become law are often lengthy, complex and filled with unrelated clauses and amendments. Our politicians must weigh all the alternatives and aspects of an entire bill and vote for the greatest good in an often very flawed context.

This is very similar to what we must do in an election.
There is no black and white and the entire spectrum of issues matter more than any single one. We must choose a candidate, a party and a packaged platform of issues based upon the greatest good of the whole for the nation. In the end, any current platform of issues is no more than a yardstick.

Optimally, we choose one to lead based on their intellect, capacity and perceived ability to make sound choices and lead us into the future.

G'Obama!

The Shade of Palin

Re-blogged from barackobama.com:

I agree with those who find the vice-presidential nominee an interesting move by McCain, one which may give insight to the way he would govern with a little out-of-the-box approach.

It is rather difficult though to see it as much more than electioneering, an explicit appeal to the disappointed supporters of Hillary Clinton and a pandering to McCain's wobbly religious conservative base, which rejoiced over the selection of an anti-abortion evangelical Christian.

In the final analysis, I don't see Sarah Palin as an outstanding choice, as Focus on the Family Action founder and chairman James C. Dobson proclaims. In fact, I think the choice appears more a cynical and self-serving maneuver by McCain, which serves only to improve his own chances for election. It does not, in any way I see, strengthen the ticket or ensure the future leadership of the country, should something happen to McCain. An aspect, which I believe Barack Obama's choice in fact fulfills well.

Personally, this closed the deal for me. Such squandering of myriad possible strengthening choices, focussing only on his own election strategy at the expense of the strength and integrity of the office itself is so contemptuous as to disqualify him for consideration to the office of President.

One may not agree and one need not agree with every single point of Obama's platform, but it is more and more apparent that he is a more intelligent choice and that McCain is ultimately controlled by the party that has led the country to the state it is in today.

My hope is that all, the Christian right-wing conservative included, will find it in both heart and mind to cast a vote that considers all the broad interests and concerns of the political race for government of America, and not focus on casting a vote to promote the positions of one of America's many religions.

3 Steps to Growth: Focus - Simplify - Elevate

Image courtesy of tsevis

After reading Steve Rubel's post on lessons to learn from Steve Jobs, I decided to put it into practice immediately. So here's my takeaway summary.

• Focus: develop your core genius
  
• Simplify: get lean
  
• Elevate: continually improve

Now read, rinse, repeat.
Enjoy.

Address ,

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Loose cannon in Republican strait-jacket

Editorial - Absence of Leadership - Editorial - NYTimes.com


From a footnote in a recent, decent rant on the omnipresent financial crisis:

Mr. McCain’s idea of postponing the Friday night debate was another wild gesture from a candidate entirely too prone to them.

Like his choice of Palin for V.P., I'm not sure this is a great idea either --and while the previous felt like cynical electioneering, this smells a little like avoidance.
I have liked McCain in the past but the closer he gets to an election the more he resembles someone playing loose cannon in Republican strait-jacket. A not altogether unfamiliar routine.

Cool graphics design resource

When you've got a project that needs inspiration or have time on your hands to follow some video tutorials check out this site.
Lots of great collections and how-to's on almost anything digitally graphic.

clipped from www.smashingmagazine.com

Simplicity is power

A web2.0 rehash rediscovery of the less is more design dictum up on Mashable.
An interesting read, that focusses on -surprise- Twitter, Stan Schroeder makes some well thought-out points that I can only agree with.

The only necessary caveat is to remember that this is very topical. This is the approach that is gaining applications traction on the web today, where the Internets as a Platform is learning to crawl. I find it entirely likely that this is a characteristic of a growth phase rather than a natural law of the web.

Napping: The How-To

This almost just in...... Naps are great.

If you feel you need it, further justification and instructions here.

Set a Guinness World Record

Spread Firefox | Download Day 2008

The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 is June 17, 2008 and they are trying to get Guinness to create a most downloaded in one day category and win it for 2008. I think it's a great way to draw even more attention to this most successful open-source project and a great product. Consider signing up and definitely upgrade.

For example: Radiohead - Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box

Cool - a lyrics site with a video widget to show the band playing the song you looked up.
I like it. =)

Blogging from Imified in GMail

This is a first try to post to this blog from the GTalk client in Gmail using Imified. I find the IM client as service consumer / app frontend a fascinating idea.

Bear Stearns Follow-up

If you've followed the Bear Stearns story (link in the text of the last post) you'll enjoy this.


Technorati Tags: bear_stearns idiot

SubPrime mess, Stocks, Economy > A good look at what's going on right now

As the economy teeters between bad and worse, one question looms:
What's the best course of action? Here's what can be done. And what
can't

This is a pretty level unbiased view of what's happening in teh Economy.
It feels like this is a particularly sensitive point in time right now.

(...if you're not sure take a look at what happened to the valuation of Bear Stearns over the course of a week)



Technorati Tags: economy

You are narrow, different, casual, picky, self and user centered, greedy and tiny, but agile and balanced! I'm wary.

Ten Rules for Web Startups

Use a prep card to remeber the important points at an informal meeting

Your Prep Card: Don’t Leave Home Without It at LifeClever ;-) Tips for Design and Life

Make writing out a Prep Card an integral part of your preparation for every meeting. It’s a great habit to get into so never walk leave home without a Prep Card:


Take a 3” x 5” index card and write down 3 key points you want to mention in simple clear language, nouns and verbs.
At the bottom, give yourself 2 reminders to avoid your bad habits.



Here's an example:

• Bill got a raise in half the time, with an inferior track record.
  
• We will match our competitor’s best bid.
  
• You’d agreed to a 10% discount over the phone.

—

• Sit up straight.
  
• Talk slowly and take a full breath after every sentence.
  
  

That’s it. In any discussion, you’re almost certainly not going to have time to process and deliver more than 3 important points. In The Elements of Style, E.B. White writes, “The act of
composition, or creation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to
go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain
the mind but supply it, too.”

Technorati Tags: lifehack notes

Bringing magazines into the digital age.

Exact Editions

Exact Editions makes magazines, books and other printed documents accessible,
searchable and usable on the web. The Exact Editions system processes PDF files
supplied by the publisher and stores images and text in a database. The goal of
this content management process is that the web version of the printed title should
look exactly the same as the printed version. The Exact Editions system also
offers publishers a variety of distribution options: titles can be freely sampled
by any web user, or individual subscription can be sold, or 'controlled'
circulation accounts provided to registered individuals. Exact Editions also now
supports institutional access through IP-address-based accounts sold on subscription.

Within the Exact Editions system each print page becomes a web page, so printed
pages can be bookmarked, cited and referenced by other users or web applications.
The platform also delivers a range of useful enhancements to the printed page:
email addresses and urls are rendered as clickable links, ISBNs and
telephone numbers (provided that they are in international format) are rendered clickable,
and Tables of Contents and Indices are also enriched with live links.

Technorati Tags: epublish magazine

one GREAT presentation

TED | Talks | Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law (video)

Wow - take 20 minutes now and watch this presentation by Larry Lessig. He 'pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.'

Great intro to the free culture, creative commons arena as well as a superb demonstration of masterful presentation -no animated powerpoint bulleting here.

A great Quote from a good article by Christian Rasmussen...

FedTech: Government Social Networking: The Next E-Chapter

It will help to keep this quote from Henry Ford in the back of your mind while moving forward with all of this:

If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they would’ve said a faster horse.

Take it to the next level.

WHOA! Microsoft offers $44.6B for Yahoo

An ambitious move to breathe down Google's neck, this would certainly have been disallowed if Google was doing the buying.
My bet - Microsoft will take a long time to capitalize, if ever.

In the meantime, this could be the best day in over the last half-year to buy GOOG, while the corresponding day for YHOO was I guess yesterday ;-)


Technorati Tags: microsoft, yahoo, google