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Archive: November 29, 2008
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 So, four days until I turn 50... and I’m doing a bit better. It doesn’t hurt that today I did a nice hard 45 mile ride to Fillmore and back, nor that it was another gorgeous day; bright and clear, crisp, slight breeze... And it doesn’t hurt that I’m working on our Christmas Cards, and on Team Aperio mugs for 2008... And it doesn’t hurt that I've got more football to watch and food to eat.
But what has really helped is realizing that I have so much for which to be thankful, and that turning 50 doesn’t change any of it. Thanksgiving has given me permission to focus on the half full part of the glass, and to notice that it’s more than half full.
(However if you haven’t yet turned fifty I suggest you put it off as long as possible, and try not to schedule concurrent financial meltdowns :)
 I have a lot to be thankful for personally - my family and friends are the most important, of course, and my health - but this weekend I've been thinking a lot about my work. I'm fortunate to live at a time when the intellectual effort of making machines and teaching them to do stuff is valued. And I am especially fortunate that the particular machines we make and teach at Aperio are helping mankind in such important ways. Imagine the awe with which Hooke or Leeuwenhoek or Galen would have regarded a ScanScope system! I get up in the morning knowing that what we do that day matters. Not only can we create business value with what we do, we can create value, period. And that is something for which I am very thankful.
 I’ve just begun re-reading Michael Lewis’ The New New Thing, about Jim Clark, Netscape, the Internet, and Silicon Valley. It was written in 2000, and taps into the incredible sense of optimism and possibility that pervaded Silicon Valley at that time. I was fortunate to live there then, working for Intuit and later PayPal, and the book evocatively brings back the mood. I remember going to parties where every single person in attendance thought they were on the edge of becoming billionaires (myself included :). To give you a flavor of that time, I used to go to the Excite datacenter (pictured at right; remember them? They were Google-before-Google) and they had a spiffy BMW parked in the foyer, one of which was given each month to someone who successfully referred a new employee.
 When the .com crash occurred in 2001 the deflation was palpable. The world didn’t feel that as much as the world feels the current credit crunch, and it is possible this will end up being worse, but if you lived in SV then it felt much the same as this feels now. The main thing for me was that sense of possibility was gone. I no longer felt like I was on the edge of becoming a billionaire. I know, I know, cue the violins, but it was depressing.
In October 2001 Excite declared bankruptcy (along with a myriad of other dot-coms), but the big news was that I joined Aperio. At that time it was based in the founder's garage (!), had two employees, one semi-working prototype, one customer, and was in the process closing a Series A. You could not have chosen a less propitious time at which to start a company, and probably anyone would have bet against us, but I was excited. Not only did it appear to be a sound business opportunity, but the chance to do something important beckoned. The sense of possibility had returned.
It wasn’t a straight line from that point to this one, there were a few bumps in the road. There were days when I feared we would not succeed. But this isn’t one of them; we are still a sound business opportunity – now validated – and we still have a chance to do something important – we are doing important things every day.
I’m going to try to keep this in mind in the days ahead … try to maintain a sense of perspective, and optimism. This is important for me personally, so I can stay focused and have fun, but also for my team (and my colleagues :); we all set an example for those around us to follow. But most of all, this is the best way for me to bypass all the mental crap that accompanies turning 50.
So, T minus 4 to the big Five-O, and I'm A-OK... stay tuned...
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Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend... as the Ole filter makes a pass...
Victor Davis Hanson with some random reasons to feel optimistic. Excellent stuff. [ via Powerline ] 
 Boy, did you see the 'SC game tonight? What a demolition! The final score of 38-3 doesn't tell the whole story, I've never seen a college game at this level which was so one-sided. As great as they are, it is hard to explain how USC lost to Oregon State - yeah, they did, and so they're not going to play for the championship, boo - but what's harder to explain is how bad Notre Dame has become. They recruit well (supposedly) and have great coaches (supposedly) and of course a great tradition, but they suck!
Since Oregon State defeated Oregon (65-38!), if USC beats UCLA next weekend, they go to the Rose Bowl and meet Penn State. And if they win that game convincingly, they could be voted #1. It's happened before, remember 2003?
Side note: it was great to see Marc Tyler in the game in the fourth quarter; he's Wendall Tyler's son, and was also Jimmy Clausen's teammate at Oaks Christian High (Alexis' and Megan's school). Despite playing only one quarter Tyler rushed for more yards (58) than Clausen passed (41).
 David Pogue roasts the Storm; No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry? "Maybe Storm isn’t such a bad name for this phone. After all - it’s dark, sodden and unpredictable." Ouch. I do have to agree, the lack of keyboard is a minus... it is the iPhone's worst "feature", and there was no reason to copy it.
 Here's some important work; the actual size of the International Space Station compared to various science fiction spaceships... it is actually amazingly big.
Stephen Shankland explains Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome. The quick answer: speed. And I agree with him, except that Firefox has Adblock, and Chrome doesn't. Loading all those ads slows the browser down, as well as adding visual cruft. As soon as Chrome has a way to block ads, it will be game over. (Stephen did mention the lack of plug-ins for Firefox, but he didn't mention Adblock; you can understand, since CNet is ad-supported...)
This is pretty cool: Scientists begin to decode whale-speak. "Australian scientists studying humpback whales sounds say they have begun to decode the whale's mysterious communication system. They say they’ve already identified male 'pick-up lines' as well as motherly warnings." Just wait, pretty soon we'll be talking to them... now that would be cool...
 So, I'm pretty proud of the Christmas lights on our house, but thinking about putting them up reminds me of the best lighting display of all time, the magnificent Wizards of Winter from 2005. The perfect song with the perfect light display, which leaves all us would-be house decorators in awe. [ via Gerard Vanderleun, who commented "I guess next year all they can do to top it is to blow the whole house off the face of the Earth" - no word on whether they did :) ] If you haven't seen it - or haven't seen it recently - then please click through. I love it!
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