Tong Family Blog: Reseller RAtings

Kerry’s Call for Energy Independence – i never blog on political issues but this one struck me as just odd. Why all the hoopla over oil? What about electronics independence, or timber, or food, or any other good we happen to import? And do we think more government involvement in the energy market will make it more efficient? And do the numbers even work out, could we realistically and economically ever be energy independent? I just think this is a weird platform plank to pin your hopes on. It may be a good thing to do but it has no emotional resonance with me.

PC Magazine’s Coming Attractions: CMS Velocity Series – building my first sata machine over the holidays, this looks interesting.

BBspot - Reviews: Digital Music Stores

ONLamp.com: The Best of ONLamp 2003 [Dec. 23, 2003]

Joi Ito’s Web: VoIP enables ambient virtual co-presence – needs a better name.

ComputerZen.com – very interesting. I have a tablet PC that is not doing much, i may try this out.

I keep thinking I should set up a Wiki for my use or Ignition’s use, tho I don’t really know why. If I do, I like the look of the Furrygoat Wiki and might start with that.

For a long time I’ve thought that I was unlikely to ever put a PC in my family room next to the TV, because a PC was so unfriendly. And the PC really hasn’t gotten a lot better.

But I read this article – Easy as a TV – and my recent experience adding HDTV, a PVR, a new DVD player, and a media receiver to my family room is starting to warm me up to the idea of a PC in the room.

While a PC is still a pain in the ass to use, the aggregate user interface of my home-theatre receiver, dvd player, pvr, media receiver, game box, etc is WAAAY worse than any PC experience. The inconsistent terminology across devices, modality, crappy remotes, etc – I can’t imagine how regular human beings ever make all this stuff work. I could drop in a PC and wipe out the need for a dvd player, pvr, media receiver, game box, etc. And a nicely done integrated PC could have a much more consistent UI across all these.

I think the real challenge here is for the CE industry to realize that they are on the brink of being wiped out by general purpose computing platforms, and getting their act together quick to simplify the experience for traditional CE equipment. Or the battle will be over.

LinkedIn: Home – OK I am faced with a moral dilemma. Two invitations in the past week to add connections. One from a guy I don’t know that well and who has only a modest number of connections – the benefits in our connection may flow mostly to him. And one from a guy I know perhaps a little better, and who is very well connected – the benefits in our connection may flow more to me. Accept both? Neither? Split the hairs and accept the guy who I know a little better and who has substantially more benefit for my network connectedness? I am very confused about what the criteria should be for accepting connections as I know most people are. A LinkedIn connection is so binary…

inessential.com: Weblog: Comments for “On shipping software” – good summary. One of my first mentors at Booz-Allen summed it up for me – “Your strategy IS what you ship”. Nothing matters if you can’t ship.

hit-or-miss quicklinks: Shopping Maps by NY Neighborhood – great site, would love these for every city we visit.

I am starting to find these discussions of applied microeconomics to be fascinating – for instance ProfessorBainbridge.com: The Starbucks v. Subway Puzzle and all the links it includes. I always enjoyed micro in grad school, and you can argue that my 4 years at Booz-Allen were an extended exercise in applied microeconomic analysis. Whatever, good stuff.

The Problem With Presentations – pointed to by many blogs – “It’s the story, stupid”. Great guidance – the points about making it personal ring very true. I’d also add one more piece of guidance – think hard about your audience, where they are coming from, their hopes and fears, and make sure you are connecting to their concerns.

Citrix Acquires Maker of GoToMyPC – wow, this is a pretty big price. I am a little surprised, I don’t know many people using GoToMyPC, but obviously it must have had a strong base of users and a good growth curve.