Whew, back in the saddle, in more ways than one... spent the day in Vista and everyone at Aperio was "back" and back to work...  Fortunately we had a relatively quiet December (in terms of development and manufacturing anyway, the sales team were busy, of course, and we ended up amazingly strong considering the economic conditions).  But now it is a new year with new challenges and stuff to get done, feels like we are behind already!

So, did you see the Fiesta Bowl tonight?  Hope this isn't a spoiler, but what a great game!  I was rooting for Ohio State, and we came -> <- this close to winning, whew.  Colt McCoy and Texas pulled it out at the last minute, actually at the last 0:16.  I must tell you I thought Ohio State's defense on that last touchdown was awful, how can you not have a safety back in that situation?  What do I know...  anyway I did enjoy the game, most of which I watched on my laptop, via my Slingbox from my Tivo. 

I like the way ESPN recaps football games with a "drive chart".  Check this out (at right), it really encapsulates the game.  You can see the ebbs and flows, the momentum changes.  To me this is more revealing than, say, a box score for a baseball game.

The Economist's The World in 2009 says No more Business as Usual.  "Nobody is expecting business as usual in 2009: for many firms, the top priority will be survival, while for others a tougher economic environment will provide unexpected opportunities."  The chart at left shows business investment in 2006-08, and predicts 2009.  There will be opportunities in 2009, but it is a very different business climate.  In a way this is more "normal" and the last twenty years have been the abberation...  there will be a flight to value. 

Health care will be affected too, there will be an Intensive Scare.  "Health care has long been a cosy industry dominated by monopolies in the provision of service and lumbering giants in the provision of pills. Profit margins have historically been fat, growth prospects rosy and disruptive innovations rare indeed. But all this looks set to change in 2009. Thanks to a swirl of new technologies, business models and, possibly, a push from the American government, the established dinosaurs of health care may well be forced to dance."  It remains to be seen whether this business climate will be an opportunity for new technologies like digital pathology, or a setback. 

Queen Rania of Jordan writes about Closing the Knowledge Gap.  A great article which makes a great point, by a rare charismatic and pragmatic "Arab" leader.  (And I must say, any blog post is automatically improved by including a picture of Queen Rania :) 

Philip Greenspun: Auto sales down 35 percent; the economy must be in pretty good shape.  "Why? There is hardly a single person in the U.S. who actually needs a new car."  Interesting point. 

Russell Beattie has stopped Twittering and then tried "posting" via Facebook.  Now he's back to blogging.  "A few days ago I decided to stop updating Twitter with random thoughts. I turned to Facebook status updates as an outlet, but that seemed much more limited for some reason. That doesn't make sense as I was updating Facebook via my Twitter account before, so it should have been the same, but mentally it wasn't. This is a good thing, as now, a few days later, there's been a slow insatiable desire to express myself building that finally made me log into my blog again."  I predict this will be a trend. 

In re Facebook, Doc Searls thinks it is The Borg aka AOL 2.0.  "I avoid the place, but that’s getting harder. On this current visit I see 7 friend suggestions, 273 friend requests, 6 event invitations, 5 good karma from debo requests, 1 good karma request, 220 other requests, 4 new updates, 235 items in my inbox, 7 pokes and 522 friends to start with."  I know just what he means.  I go there, I spend time, but I come away confused and feeling like it was wasted time.  Yet sometimes I find out stuff about friends I really wanted to know.  Huh.  There's definitely more there there than with, say, Twitter... 

From the amazing Onion, the MacBook Wheel.  With Macworld this week, who knows, they could be closer than we think.  Cute idea!  (Is it just me, or are the production values at the Onion every bit as good - if not better - as MSM?)  [ via Dave, via email, thanks... ] 

Tonya Engst: A Mother's letter to to Apple about Macworld Expo.  "Macworld Expo is our family's annual reunion. You don't go to reunions because they are convenient, or because they are cheap. You go to reunions because you are a member of the family, and that's what families do."  Yeah, but Steve Jobs is not sentimental; I'm guessing he doesn't go to his real family's reunions either... 

ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes tested the latest Win7 build against XP and Vista and came to a surprising conclusion: Win7 performs better than the other 2 OSsin the vast majority of the 23 tasks tested.  Even installation.  Cool!  [ via Slashdot ] 

Finally, if you're feeling stressed, don't worry, January 5th is the most stressful day of the year.  I am not making this up.