I'm baaack!  Tired, but back.  Tired and happy and way behind on email, blogging, etc., and back.  Whew.

Project Q: zero cycles all week.  And a board meeting tomorrow, and important partner visit Friday.  This is not working people...  crap!

So today I had a flight booked back from Seattle at 6:30, on Alaska, and was standby on an earlier flight at 4:30.  Turned out the only seat available on the standby was in first class.  Oh well!  Alaska's new motto is "North of expected", and they certainly exceeded mine.  Happily enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay (well, okay, two :) and blogged!  No WiFi but plenty of room for a laptop... 

I've flown Alaska before and found them unremarkable.  This time they seemed to have a different, better spirit.  From an admittedly insufficient sample of two flights, it appears the motto has had a positive effect on the employees.  Interesting how that works!

Back to Project Q, well, sort of; the interestingly named InfoQ asks: Is Five the optimal team size?  And goes on to discuss whether it isn't really seven (but certainly not eight).  These discussions never seem to yield genuine insight to me, as the actual workings of a small team are so dependent on the individuals involved.  I guess we can all agree that fifty is not the optimal team size, nor twenty, and perhaps I am discovering that one isn't either... 

Microsoft courts startups to build the next big Windows Mobile app.  Good luck with that.  This is not a situation where 'if you build it, they will come'.  This is a situation where 'if they come, you will build it'.  E.g. see what's happening with the Pre.