A very senior Microsoft developer who moved to Google told me that Google works and thinks at a higher level of abstraction than Microsoft. “Google uses Bayesian filtering the way Microsoft uses the if statement,” he said. That’s true. Google also uses full-text-search-of-the-entire-Internet the way Microsoft uses little tables that list what error IDs correspond to which help text. Look at how Google does spell checking: it’s not based on dictionaries; it’s based on word usage statistics of the entire Internet, which is why Google knows how to correct my name, misspelled, and Microsoft Word doesn’t. [Link]

On the good side – most props deployed, all foggers working, all lighting deployed. 

Yet to be done – test DMX control, finish pneuma prop deployment.

On the bad side – blew a Dove Dimmer.  Water and electricity are not friends.  I am hoping that maybe just a fuse blew in it, but it was a pretty dramatic blow.  I wish there were some outdoor friendly dimmer products.

The 10 core philosophies of Whole Foods – great outline.  I love the food at Whole Foods – but the whole thing about “Grocery Shopping as Theatre” is bunk.  I don’t go to Whole Foods for the transformational experience, I go to buy food.  The thing I hate most about the stores is the stupid non-linear aisle layout.  I am sure some genius somewhere thought that it was really creative but it just creates cart traffic disasters.  There is a reason why other stores all have straight aisles – they work.

The Pure Networks guys have launched v2 of Network Magic with an updated website.  Congrats guys!

They’ve also started a blog to talk about home networks and exchange info – Network Garage.

(I am on the board of Pure Networks).

Article on the sawstop safety system for tablesaws.  I’ve heard good things about.  I’ve been too afraid to ever buy a table saw.

They’ve turned their corp website into a blog – UnionSquareVentures.com.  We’ve been talking about doing this for a year but just never got there.  I love their motivation:

We realized that our [investment] thesis evolves incrementally as a result of our dialogue with the market, and that the best way to manage that was to accept that we would never get to an answer, so we should just publish the conversation.

Boy this space seems to be heating up.  RocketPost is doing great things as far as simple usability – I’ve been trialing for a week and am really impressed with how easy it is to create links to websites, old posts, etc.

Elicit which I’m also trialing has a great calendaring interface and some neat ways to integrate commerce/affiliate programs.  And Qumana looks like it is doing some cool stuff for ad insertion.

It is nice that we are moving past simple wysiwyg editting and really trying to make the blogger’s life better.  Great innovation.

Shawn sent me this – right up my alley.  Easy to make, except for getting the hair.

Like some other well known schools, we shouldn’t be too depressed about our results this season – we are playing a tough schedule.

OK this guy spammed me with his blog articles but they turned out to be pretty interesting – Your Idea Isn’t Good Enough To Keep Secret, The Myth Of The Great Idea.  Good stuff.  I’ve always been puzzled by entrepreneurs who aren’t willing to be open with their ideas.  The smart guys I know are generally very open, they have new ideas every day, they know they can give away their ideas because they will always have new ones.  And they know it is all about execution, not ideas.

Phil points to Alan Steele:

Imagine the situation in which the release bucket is actually half-empty of features, that there is actually “spare time” in the release. … what would you do?

Naturally, you’d scramble to fill the release bucket with enough work from the 1700 programmer-decade queue to keep those developers busy for the next little while. Wrong. The correct answer is: Do Nothing. A half-empty release bucket is a golden opportunity for innovation….

I’m sure I’ll get one of both, but I have to agree – I have to have HD downloads or I won’t bother with the video service.  And I don’t have a subway ride to allow me to watch videos (though I admire the use of [removed site] to fill up the ipod).

Can I just download the FrontRow software for my mac mini?  Doesn’t seem like I can.  Bummer.

Per ABCNews.  Seems like the blood is in the water around AOL, something is going to happen with some partner.

Man wish I lived in Keller TX and could try out Verizon’s Fiber TV service.  Wonder when Qwest will get its act together, if ever.  And Comcast, well, their HD service sucks – lots of signal dropouts, a/v synch problems, etc.

This set of observers feels like Texas is just about ready to jump SC in the polls.