Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Fred Wilson: "Entrepreneurs and VCs need to be able to play in the consumer electronics space." Must-read. 

Confession: I am now addicted to the TV show Lost. I've watched the whole first season and am working my way through the second. By the time tonight's shows air, both re-reruns, I'll be in synch, but I'll probably skip ahead via BitTorrent. I have mixed feelings about the show. It's a bit too bloody and a bit too simplistic and there's too much yelling and blaming, but the characters are interesting, and I'll keep watching because, like I said, I'm addicted.  

Congratulations, you made it to the shortest day of the year. They all get longer from this point on. Good work. 

Read prediction #14 on this list. Go ahead and laugh. It's funny!  

I'm looking for a web-based small business accounting app. 

Ernie the Attorney, my gracious host in New Orleans, is back in the US after traveling to Panama. Interesting contrast, the third-world country is far more accomodating than the first-world. My heart is still in New Orleans. California seems unexciting in comparison. I was shopping yesterday at a local supermarket and everyone was so unhappy. This wasn't at all like New Orleans, where the line at the supermarket would be buzzing with news and ideas and hope. And humor too. There's nothing like a good disaster to remind you of your frail humanity and how important we are to each other. It reminds me a little of what it was like in the Bay Area after the earthquake. Life was an adventure. Why can't it always be so? Why do we, who have so much, appreciate it so little? I walk around Berkeley and revel at how well things work. In New Orleans they're proud when a new traffic light comes online. Now, will it last? That's what I want to know. I envy Ernie because he knows what he's doing, he's rebuilding an important and beautiful city. In comparison, my life feels so humdrum. I want something glorious to do! 

Congrats to Dan Gillmor on his new institute for citizen journalism, a joint deal between the University of California School of Journalism and Berkman Center.  

In the last episode of The West Wing to air, Leo McGarry says, prophetically, "You're all trying to kill me." Amyloo noticed this, I did too. It's sad, because since the airing, the actor who plays McGarry died. File this under "Be careful what you ask for" and "Famous last words." Now, selfishly, I wonder what the writers are going to do. They're in the middle of taping the current season. McGarry is the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. What will they do? Pull a Bewitched and substitute a different actor, and try to pretend nothing changed? I sure hope not. Better to let the party deal with the problem of the death of a candidate. Get Hoynes to come back? How about Josh? CJ? They could surprise us and have a groundswell for Toby Ziegler. Heh. So many possibilities.  

Another great Scott Rosenberg piece tries to puzzle out why the President broke the law so blatantly, so tranparently. He says breaking the law was the point. I think perhaps they broke the law because the surveillance techniques they're using are so insidious that either: 1. They don't want us to know about them and they're afraid they'd leak if they tried to get a court order or 2. They don't think they'd actually get approval to use them. Scott hopes it's just because they're arrogant and stupid. I share his hope.