boat graveyard

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Phil's Sign

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our neighbor billy

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The Internet Needs Your Help (SOPA)

I posted a link to the White House Site (please go there and sign the petition) tonight on Facebook and Twitter. I, like many others, who spend so much time on-line are shocked at the implications of a bill to shoot now and aim later as it pertains to content on the Internet. The view of its necessity to me is summed up in some tweets by Jim Cramer: "We all kid ourselves about the web. It is just a way to destroy great media institutions and steal value from the good guys. We know that." and previously, "I wish people really knew how corrupt the web is. How it is all a game of search engine optimization and intellectual theft. Do you think the truth will ever come out about the web? People pretending to be others, Stealing from others. Gaming everything? I am simply saying that all of the papers i applied to or worked for are hurt or killed by the web."

Techmeme rips headlines and curates one of the most read site on-line. Jim's point it seems. He rightly points out: "I can be Seeking Alpha. All i have to do is report what Jim Cramer says and then misquote him, grade him, trash him, praise him."   

I see it differently. 

My friend Aaron Breden on Facebook said, "between the national defense authorization act and this (SOPA) and some of the other actions the government is taking it leads me to believe we are in deep shit."

I have a sense of the same thing from time to time.. then I think SOPA is nothing more than big business acting out of pure self interest. Knowing that there are principled leaders running companies with reasonable ideas about competition and success, not acting out of pure greed, is small comfort. This bill is a grab. The Internet still represents freedom. Yup.. it's so overly commercial and noisy. Trolls all over the place and individuals cowardly posting under assumed names etc..I asked a reporter (@acarvin) to stop with the non-stop tweets ("write a blog dude") tonight (he dominated a list of "journalists" which is very active-has 69 members). He YELLED at back at me and told me to "unfollow me" (spell check unnecessary).. then caught a troll who was posting under "URaDouchbag" with no avatar giving me the clear view of a pimpled 16 year old virgin on meth about how freedom is being able to say and do whatever you want. It's a graceless age. Maybe the Internet doesn't matter. But hidden in all the noise is a great deal of our collective intellect.. That's what I came here for. Not success  measured by followers, users or readers but in the quality of the search (thanks Wikipedia, BING and Google). Google+ has it right. Publish under your own name or at least be visible.. this is no place to hide. I'll write my confession about how I got tossed out of chat rooms on the original aol in the late 80's.. maybe early 90's? It was dial up at 9600.. that was fast!

I was one of the first 100 guys with ISDN at dual 128. WooT!

Maybe we just need to learn some manners and reread the 10 commandments.

I helped build 10,000 route miles of the westcoast Internet backbone in the 90's. Between the Phone Companies with their greed and the trolls it's sometimes hard to feel good about that. 

Now and then I hear a story of information saving a life or communicating vital information to better mankind.. just more of the same thing.. the yin with the yang..the ocean keeps wearing away the shore.. see below and keep breathing.

Moss Landing, CA Beach Pano

Taken at Moss Landing with iPhone4S and the Pano app. Touched up with Picasa.

neighbors

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floating

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Google Evolves

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116899029375914044550/albums/5680923598455113089

https://plus.google.com/u/0/116899029375914044550/posts

Looking East from the Top of the Hill

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View from the Treehouse.

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Goat at Dusk..

Taken at The Gate

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Practice Compassion - Narayan Krishnan, a companion to the forgotten

Bounty

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Haute Enchilada

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Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

First Awakenings, Salinas

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my only Steve Jobs memory

I spent a lot of years attempting to create the best sounding audio system for our living room. I bought most of my stuff at a place called the Audible Difference in Palo Alto across the street from Stanford. One Saturday afternoon I walked in and on the floor was Steve Jobs and John Doerr. They were looking at the first Sony Plasma TV and were ordering some B&W speakers. Discussing how to drive the TV, how great Alan Parson's new recording was and so forth. John was disturbed by the sound of the fans and said he would take "two if the fans were disconnected" and any warranty issues were somehow "taken care of".  Steve would not allow a tape player of any kind in his house. They both bought a few things that added up to well over $200,000... Steve drove a large, older light blue Mercedes with no license plate that was parked haphazardly in two spaces right in front of the entrance to shop. Both were laughing and very friendly. When John's wife came to fetch him she asked what this little shopping trip cost. She was told not to "worry her pretty little head" about it. I was told during another visit that most of the "orders" were cancelled because their demands could not be met. "He doesn't get it", said the salesman about Steve. Right! The only way to drive the TV at that time was with a VCR. Yup. Steve Jobs died too young. He saw  the future. His Life? He didn't waste it.

1955-2011

Vines and Red Flowers

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King

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Just one question...

Taken at Greenphoneservice.com

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Google + ..notifications

Short and sweet.. I have my gmail web client open all the time ...love how there is a little box in the upper right hand corner of the page that "notifies" me when and how many "things" have happened (someone commented on a thread I'm in or added me to their circle etc..etc). Great feature. The offer remains.. email me with a request (pegoss@gmail.com-the same place to make a donation to the eco-charity currently raising money for water conservation and delivering clean water to places on earth where there is none). I realize many do not have access to G+ yet, but you're gonna love it! There are some improvements needed and they have been noted on various sites. There are a bunch of tech geeks on G+ providing great feedback to Google on the platform. 


Wall Street seemed to like it (today).. Dow up 1.25% and GOOG up 1.77% to 506.38

Best of all, Google senior management/founders are active and accessible.. for now.. what a great way launch a product with everyone pushing.. hearing that next week Facebook with release something awesome... no kidding? There is a lot of buzz around G+.. one of my friends has received over 1900 emails asking for an invite... my buddies do not understand.. only a few have jumped on. This is how Mark Zuckerberg has responded: 

"Things have changed."

Monday Notes: the "Walled Garden" is Apple's strength ..along with Apps

I borrowed it. Sure.. been thinking about profits and distribution in tech. The Apple stores and the "walled garden" and now HP is introducing tablets with WebOS (it's Palm's right?)..

In October 2009 John Gruber wrote on his blog Daring Fireball:

"Operating systems aren’t mere components like RAM or CPUs; they’re the single most important part of the computing experience. Other than Apple, there’s not a single PC maker that controls the most important aspect of its computers. Imagine how much better the industry would be if there were more than one computer maker trying to move the state of the art forward."

@thorn_waite and I were chatting about the next iPhone on Twitter this AM  noting how an analyst can create a lot of blog hits for various tech sites by claiming to know what's going on inside the apple ecosystem. Thorn believes "Apple will have 2 phones in September, but they will be the 4S and the 4. Those analysts are rarely right, but they generate very bloggable copy.... Apple's "walled garden" is a fair price to pay for a safe, easy app ecosystem." think the point is being made. We have Chromebooks made by Acer and Samsung. Not the same thing but man is there a transition going on. All about mobility and thin and light.

Steve said: "This is worth repeating. It's in Apple's DNA that technology is not enough. It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it's the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive."

Saw my good friend Pete Cochrane working on a beautiful pen and ink piece (pictured below) at Starbucks in Prunedale and I noticed he was watching a movie on his Mac Air.. looks like that's a device that will be another another home run with additional horsepower..we chatted about the ultimate mobile device.. any thoughts?

Slides?

Taken at Greenphoneservice.com

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Chandler

Taken at The Treehouse

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Rory McIlroy

So much written and said.. much of it gratuitous of course.. my thoughts from a tweet by Eamon Lynch who is the

Executive Editor at Golf Magazine. Born in Northern Ireland, lives in NYC. He tweets his own opinions, not those of his employer.

http://www.eamonlynch.com

Eamon has been known to express an opinion or three over good scotch. He doesn't drink poor scotch and knows where to play his golf.. loves Bandon!

@eamonlynch Every compliment paid to McIlroy this weekend - gracious, humble, friendly - has a glaring subtext: that Tiger Woods is none of those things.

I wish Rory luck.. we need a new world order in golf.

Here's another good piece written by Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) who writes some great stuff, lives nearby and knows where the pirates buried the treasure at Spyglass Hill. His latest book is: 
The Swinger.. with Michael Bamberger (amazon link)

With U.S. Open rout, Rory McIlroy feels like second coming of Tiger Woods - Tours & News - Golf.com

Nine Field

Taken at Salinas Golf and Country Club

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Peace of Mind: Hard to say... I say..

What's new here? anything? Hard to say.. real hard to say.. markets go up and down. Hang on long enough and everything grows ..a little.  
Somewhere out there (or is it in here?) waiting on a hunch there is an ocean of wisdom. Enlightenment. I muse and have caught glimpses for 40 years while meditating, running, singing, playing music. A sense of DejaVu (CSNY). At one with. We grasp for and reach out for and never seem to get it.. whatever it is. But every now and then there is this sense of peace. And I'm grateful I've experienced it so many times. It sure seems there are many who have no idea what I'm trying to say. Tell me what you know. Thanks!

Up the Hill to the 6th

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Seeds

Taken at Home Sweet Home

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Eco-Friendly Home and Long Distance Service

We going to use it.. why not use it responsibly? A telephone system that runs on low-eco impact servers comprising a less than 30m2 footprint and a web-site that is 100% windpowered. 

Green Phone Service is working hard toward the goal of a FULLY WIND-powered telephone network. Meanwhile, what little energy used is recovered by carbon offset credits and the significant donation of net proceeds to organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society. Customers already help counter the release of approximately 2,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to planting nearly 2,390 acres of trees or cutting 6.1 million miles of fossil fuel driving per year. All billing is similarly digital only, no paper; if paper is used, it is hemp or 100% post-consumer recycled printed with soy-based ink.

Worth a look! Click here for more info. 

2nd green

Taken at Salinas Golf and Country Club

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What did I learn about running companies?

On the other side of management for 10+ years I struggle to communicate the same things executive leaders, presidents and CEOs. Same issues: Understand basic principles of sales, finance, leadership, management and especially IT as it pertains to marketing. The disciplines that we don't know from our experience. Everyone nods their heads and goes off and does what's familiar and not what works. It's the human condition. It's what we do. I remember being interviewed as a SVP and Managing Director/President. As an SVP of Sales and Business Development, I knew these consultants were great at running meetings but really thought (and I told them so-carefully) that they had little understanding of the nuts and bolts of running a $500 million division of a Billion Dollar public company.. But I do. Now. I hear the same things: "I get it". "I agree". "We're gonna do that" .. and then back to business as usual. Death. The slide down to mediocrity.. It takes time. There is no time to make all the mistakes ("You'll learn from your errors" is the name of a horror movie). We need to read and learn from the mistakes of others and go fast. No choice. And I can keep up now...
Here's where we are: Link to LVI

Committed...

That's it.. May 15th and I miss the issues and answers that made this blog grow. Been dormant too long. That is a warning to both us of. Express Yourself my friend. Tell us how you really feel and what you think. There is of course a difference. Remember there is such a thing as more than you can handle.. Stay as far away from that as you can.. Take good care of yourself and know that good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. Sooner than later, but better than never.

ChromeOS

there is a buzz in SF this morning and it comes from a tweet: @pgoss: Chrome OS: Everything can be saved to the web. That's crazy! I could throw this into a river, and I won't lose my stuff. No need for virus protection. No annoying updates. No patches. No patches for the patches. Man, serious blow at Microsoft. But it's true. -Engadget. More on this but check out the video and know that Businesses can get Chrome hardware AND software for $28/mo per seat. Education & Gov users $20/mo. 
I have long been a "G" adapter (gmail, blogger, wave(!), android (which I think still should run on an iPhone) etc.). This is disruptive and will change everything.
Chromebook: built for the web. Good stuff! "The web is what you make of it."

Seve...

Much has been written by far better reporters and journalists than me. He was a legend to me and I have been thrilled (again) by the stories that have been told. Again the SI guys at Golf.com have contributed some good thoughts here. 

Noticed Greame McDowell and Luke Donald changed their avatars in his honor on twitter. 

Azinger noted that they went after each other on and off the course and when Paul got sick, Seve was the first to call. Class Guy.

Something is missing today!

Our Ocean.

Our Friend David Potigan at Gallery Sur sent these. 

Osama Bin Laden is dead.

@marwilliamson Tonight is a night for sober and mature reflection, not glee. Mindless celebration is both spiritually inappropriate and politically naive.


The end of the war on terror? We could only hope. Historic. Extraordinary.


From the New Yorker: Obama & Osama and some links to thoughtful articles about our apparent relief. You can feel it. And while our relief is real it might be remembered that Al Qaeda is much bigger than Bin Laden. The days ahead will reveal much about the dedication of his followers.  

A Royal Wedding

@joanwalsh The world is divided into people who see kitsch/romance/optimism in royal wedding, and Irish Catholic feminist curmudgeons, apparently.

There are tornadoes killing people and here's the answer for what ails us:

@TheBloggess So #royalwedding is just barely beating #shewantsthedick on twitter topics. Also trending? #whatsthepoint & #strawberrycheetos


Postscript: @DannyBrown  The Royal Wedding Live 4am CST http://twrt.me/t9ty via @ChicagoDesign

Renewed Enthusiasm

LagunitaVentures (our excellent business consulting service) provides developmental support for emerging companies. We have recently wrapped up an assignment with a company that will fail. It will fail because the owner is incapable of doing things differently. We refinanced his receivables, gave him step by step instructions on how to reorganize his business for success. He said to me one day at lunch (we are hands on usually), "you guys think I'm really slow, don't you?". My response was not YES! but that's what I thought. Instead I explained that while some of our vision had been accomplished it was not because he had shown courage and made the necessary cuts and changes. It was because he refused to address the issues and hid them in a corner or in some cases the employee went away (with customer lists and contacts and real bad feelings). He could not understand why they all want to "hurt" him. I learned a long time ago that some guys were a lot smarter than me and I'd be wise to surround myself with them and not hope for the easy way out.. How about you?

How are we doing? Let's start something!

Read the news today.. Oh Boy! Hotel rates have gone up in SF.. maybe LA but here in paradise we are still slipping. We are in a phase of dispersion.. we are selling ourselves short. Can't seem to get around the corner and a new poll says there is deep pessimism about the economy in the country and Obama is to blame.. It all seems to easy to me. We swing from self indulgence to self denial. Everyone seems nervous. We forget to tell ourselves the real truth. Time to start something. Do Something. That's my solution.. we have two start-ups going now. Looking for investors (again). That's my solution.. Start something. No complaints!

Fireworks

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Callaway razr tour irons

Taken at Salinas Golf and Country Club

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Scooter ...again!

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So you still think the internet is free...

So you still think the internet is free...

Bahrain violence out of control

Another Moss Landing Sunset...

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Apple and the future of Apps vs Microsoft, the PC and Andriod

In the past when I was silly enough to get pulled into the pc vs mac discussion (not always friendly-because guys and gals have to justify what they spend their money on) I had only one thought.. "there are programs I use that don't run on a mac". "Macs are cool and beautiful but I use quicken". Today I have an iPad (with mint) and some accessories to make it very functional (another post maybe). I could ditch my laptop if the Pad had flash without a workaround (I'm told it's possible)... but  the iPhone has taught us a new way to look at things.. 

Software used to dictate my purchases of computers and apps will replace software in the future. When you measure the functionality of a blackberry, an android phone or an iPhone you can let a few different ideas color your analysis.. but for my money it's all about apps..and apple's app store has a few more (thousands) than anyone else.. and you've read Rob Scoble's latest comments about apps and Nokia and so forth right? 


It's all about apps.. not just on our phones.. I'm thinking it will be about apps on our computers as well..

Developers hold the cards.. not one but thousands of them... many just shortcuts to web-sites. But that's where it is at. In the cloud. Ultimately developers will write for the platform that lets them have a chance at a decent living.. and that may be windows and iOS for our phones but it also will mean that apple will harness the apps and they will find their way to the desktop and give the mac the boost it needs. I see a future where bloated programs like Office will give way to nimble programs/apps and google docs.. a few years ago I started to open all attachments in Docs and it dramatically changed the way I manage my workflow. So I'm ready. I know I can buy a dell xps with specs that are much better than a loaded mac book pro for less dough but it will never be as cool looking and if you like the apps concept, the apps will be on the mac first.