http://william.telemuse.net/archive A list of prior entries and information on this site: http://william.telemuse.net/archive/dream-becomes-nightmare So DreamWorks Animation totally botched revenue forecasts, and stuck with them when the DVD glut maxed out the entertainment industry. So much for the post IPO move south ... I have much riding on this, as heavy media automation is what made this a great story. You can't be off forecast these days. If you'd like to hear the story in full, watch [media] . http://william.telemuse.net/archive/doctor-lawyer-indian-chief- Lately lot of interest in legal stuff. Tandem sent me back to Berkeley for legal and business, so I could properly do M&A work - here's a paper I did (see Jurisdiction and the Information Superhighway). While anyone who knows me knows I've done a lot of different things and enjoyed them all, it can be hard to communicate this at a time when people don't do a lot of different things. They get wierd if you haven't been doing one thing for 20+ years. It's as if you're not serious about a profession, or worse, not serious about them when what you've done is in their field. But no matter, being an entrepreneur these days seems to take everything to pull-off. (if you wondered how well the paper did, sneak a peek here). http://william.telemuse.net/archive/im-a-software-developer-again So c|net went and published my opinion piece (see Misplaced software priorities) and suddenly ... I'm a software developer again! Its kind of nice, like going back in time 15-20 years. Perhaps I should celebrate by cutting another 386BSD release just for fun. Sure beats some of the less fun times of wrangling with lawyers, holding together a divisive board, hiring a sales exec, or having to negotiate a term sheet in a down market. I've enjoyed both, having been given more opportunities than most have in a lifetime - thanks. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/randy-komisar-on-fear Heard Randy Komisar speak on the emotion that's clogging the lines right now - fear. This guy's a fantastic force for change, and I'm both surprised and ecstatic that Kleiner dared to get him. For they are caught up in it, to the point of forgetting about innovation rather than renovation, to paraphrase Ray Lane. Dealing with fear is the single biggest issue holding back true innovation. Can't duck it. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/bay-area-law-school-technology-conference- Unusual thread noticed running through many of the panels of the Bay Area Law School Technology Conference, 2005. Seems like another kind of bubble is about to pop. Ironically, as the online ad revenues, overdue for 5 years, have trended in for the 'dot.com's of the prior bubble burst. Those taking advantage of promoting extremes in thought, politics and law are having a tougher time of it. Seems that the well is running dry to afford this peculiar luxury. For example, in the track on eDemocracy, Mike Krempasky, conservative activist/businessman behind RedState.org whose focus with blogs is as a matchmaking service for political contributions. Mike - You'd be surprised by how a distant contributor gets taken by finding a like minded candidate/issue they can tightly identify with elsewhere. Apparently, dollar competition for mass movements isn't where the action is, but for the millions of one-on-one cases. You see effects like these when a market dries up. Credit the effects of The Case of the Vanishing Dollar. Turns out someone was preceint. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/open-source-vision Was asked opinion of what to do with open source in the current, given the past. Looks like its all about facing up to realities - hard thing to do for all concerned. Big question is not if but when and whom. You can read about it here (We invented it ... lets finish the job) http://william.telemuse.net/archive/open-source-and-russells-paradox At UC Berkeley, my adviser kept pushing me into more and more esoteric math courses. Many years later, after he passed, his admin mentioned to me it was because he felt that's where my calling was - although never mentioned it to me! But it often helps in understanding difficult problems, like that faced by open source. Open source is now in a form of Russell's Paradox - if any coherent condition may be used to determine a set, then the self-reference of open source implies collecting all elements of itself regardless of propriety and correctness. This explains the need to collect all source elements - good, bad, indifferent, proprietary - under the rubric of open source before any modification of the set is allowed. It is continually self-referent and indeterminant. The state set is not properly formalized. So perhaps my adviser's interest for me was not wasted. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/philosopher-ceos Business groupthink has its roots in good ideas that get mangled somewhere along the way from genesis to commonly accepted knowledge. Like fish, they are best consumed fresh and otherwise discarded after the shelf life has expired. Here's a fresh one: Should Your Next CEO Be a Philosopher? certainly underscores the honest pragmatism of these times. Far from the hired killer view of CEO that one famous venture investor personally told me was the ultimate CEO of the 90's in Andy Grove of Intel in the 90's. Instead, it gets to the roots of what makes for current greats in the changing culture of the moment. Check out what Gideon Tolkowsky has to say about: Technology is being subsumed into eveything, including consumer goods/servics markets. Decisions to embrace/reject a technology is affected by abstractions embedded in life philosophy. Managing corporate culture includes the art of belief management of these concerns. He gives great examples in robotics and space, getting right the impact of Burt Rutan's approach to popularizing space. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/investment-use-of-the-google-test [Presented at Web Montag November 6.2006] Bandwidth driven business models have arrived for Internet megaventures - will they displace Moore's law? Web 2.0 fav's after YouTube acq. Bandwidth Driven The Google Test - what makes big deals work. Web 2.0 What to look for following YouTube: Following YouTube The Google Test http://william.telemuse.net/archive/the-hollow-men T.S. Eliot - The Hollow Men I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Reomember us - if at all - not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men. II Eyes I dare not meet in dreams In death's dream kingdom These do not appear: There, the eyes are Sunlight on a broken column There, is a tree swinging And voices are In the wind's singing More distant and more solemn Than a fading star. Let me be no nearer In death's dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves In a field Behaving as the wind behaves No nearer - Not that final meeting In the twilight kingdom III This is the dead land This is cactus land Here the stone images Are raised, here they receive The supplication of a dead man's hand Under the twinkle of a fading star. Is it like this In death's other kingdom Waking alone At the hour when we are Trembling with tenderness Lips that would kiss Form prayers to broken stone. IV The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the perpetual star Multifoliate rose Of death's twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men. V Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear prickly pear Here we go round the prickly pear At five o'clock in the morning. Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow Life is very long Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom For Thine is Life is For Thine is the This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. http://william.telemuse.net/archive/avaricious-and-envious Aesop's Tale: Avaricious and Envious Two neighbors came before Jupiter and prayed him to grant their hearts' desire. Now the one was full of avarice, and the other eaten up with envy. So to punish them both, Jupiter granted that each might have whatever he wished for himself, but only on condition that his neighbour had twice as much. The Avaricious man prayed to have a room full of gold. No sooner said than done; but all his joy was turned to grief when he found that his neighbor had two rooms full of the precious metal. Then came the turn of the Envious man, who could not bear to think that his neighbour had any joy at all. So he prayed that he might have one of his own eyes put out, by which means his companion would become totally blind. Vices are their own punishment.