clock … watching time, the only true currency

A journal from John B. Roberts

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Entries from April 2004

Opening eyes to the Wiki

April 28th, 2004 · Comments Off

Several weeks ago, my team started using a Wiki (collaboratively edited website… more. While it took longer than I expected to get going, the results have been more than I expected: it really is (slowly) changing the way we communicate with each other.
This morning, I introduced the Wiki to a large group internally. I wondered [...]

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Tags: Tech

Music from the past

April 28th, 2004 · Comments Off

I went to an alumni event for my high-school this evening, and Chris Gallagher was playing some of his new music. I haven’t seen or heard from Chris in 15 years (literally), but I remember him singing “California Dreaming” a cappella in morning chapel back in 1987. Seems he did several things along the way [...]

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Tags: Everything

Congratulations or apologies?

April 28th, 2004 · Comments Off

If you were baby Trixie, do you think you’d be touched by your website, or embarrassed? Since Trixie is less than a year old, she has no say in the matter. I’ve been delinquent in keeping my kids’ websites updated, but I certainly have tried to make sure I embarrass my children even before we [...]

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Tags: Family

Free is such a powerful word

April 28th, 2004 · Comments Off

There’s no price like free. Killjoys tell us that nothing is free, you just don’t know what you’re paying since it’s not cash (they’re right, but let’s skip over that inconvenient fact). But watching the buzz about music.download.com start to build, it’s obvious that the appeal of free isn’t dead. What’s on offer? Free music.
Of [...]

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Tags: Everything

“99% of everything is crap”

April 27th, 2004 · Comments Off

Dare Obasanjo defending Microsoft employee blogging, in response to Joel Spolsky:
I do agree that like most things there are high quality blogs from Microsoft employees and others that aren’t as useful. But that’s life, 99% of everything is crap.
Words to live by?

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Tags: Tech

“Rove versus Way”

April 26th, 2004 · Comments Off

From Sunday’s SF Chronicle, a column decrying the dumbing of America. Nothing new here except the specific examples, which are funny and sad at the same time. One short clip:
Only nine out of 31 know who John Kerry is. A couple of students think he is an actor, and one thinks he is a serial [...]

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Tags: Everything

Links4U (and me)

April 25th, 2004 · Comments Off

From the Safari windows I left open last night because I wanted to read/skim:

Quoteblogs vs. Linkblogs (Inluminent) – Some probing questions (no answers) on the legality of some blogging styles and aggregators… think copyright.
National Geographic MapMachine – Mix of street, satellite, population, topographic, and more more.
Doc on Disclosures and the blogosphere as editor
eWeek interview with [...]

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Tags: Everything

More details on DRM for email

April 24th, 2004 · Comments Off

Two weeks ago, I noted with mild surprise that Microsoft offers a way to control the distribution of individual emails (digital rights management, DRM). Earlier this week, News.com dove deep on these technologies in “Software makers ready desktop lockdown.”

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Tags: Tech

Milestone: stairs

April 24th, 2004 · Comments Off

The girl, at 10 months, climbed the stairs on her own twice today. First time she’s gone all the way up. Of course, she doesn’t know how to come down, but so far, she hasn’t tried much, which is probably a good thing.
She’s also standing on her own a lot now, for 20-30 seconds at [...]

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Tags: Family

ClickToAddTitle.com

April 22nd, 2004 · 1 Comment

Not quite Office Space, but workplace humor all the same. All hail the mighty PPT. I read about ClickToAddTitle.com from Anil Dash, who’s more fixated on Excel’s opportunities. Too bad the PPT stakes stopped after three rounds. Maybe the new attention will renew the competition? (My favorite remains the Gettysburg Address.)

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Tags: Everything