Sunday, February 15, 2004

Three weeks ago, but it feels more like a century ago because the press of work and one of the worst colds I've had in many years, I spent a few days at the Goldminer's Daughter at Alta. The highlights of the trip were a day backcountry trip to Solitude and back with Russ that found some really nice snow even after two weeks of drought, and then a storm that made Alta very nice for the next two days. The picture shows Russ finishing East Bowl on the North side of Davenport Hill. Yes, it was a bit tracked for backcountry, but there were still some untouched turns higher up on yummy sugar snow. I want to go skiing again! 10:04:54 PM

Friday, I ordered a light shell on sale from Patagonia, with FedEx two business days delivery. Here's its trajectory so far (some repetitions edited out): Feb 14, 2004 10:28 pm Left FedEx Sort Facility  NEWARK NJ  1:40 pm Arrived at Sort Facility  INDIANAPOLIS IN  8:11 am Left FedEx Sort Facility  OAKLAND CA  5:53 am Arrived at Sort Facility  OAKLAND CA  12:22 am Arrived at Sort Facility  MEMPHIS TN  Feb 13, 2004 8:49 pm Left FedEx Ramp  RENO NV  6:48 pm Arrived at FedEx Ramp  RENO NV  5:08 pm Left FedEx Origin Location  RENO NV  2:33 pm Picked up by FedEx  RENO NV  On the one hand, it's amazing that a humble package is so well tracked. On the other, it's intriguing to think about what distance metric makes the route from Reno to Oakland via Memphis shorter than the actual road distance of 213 miles, 3 hours off-peak, no snow (snow on I-80 could make the Memphis detour worth it...). The next question is whether they'll go from Newark to Philadelphia via, say, Memphis. Stay tuned. 9:21:58 PM

Globalization and technology are amplifying the impact of outsourcing, ranging from call center operators to computer programmers. [New York Times: Technology] The first several paragraphs don't say much new, and the story seems to be destined to repeat the usual unproductive non-debate between extreme free-marketeers and protectionists. But later, some interesting nuggets pop up: The people in demand, says Hershel Harris, vice president for strategy in I.B.M.'s software unit, are those who are fluent in technology and in how technology can be applied to solve problems in particular fields of business or science. Mary Trombley, 27, was hired last year by the I.B.M. software group as an engineer in San Jose, Calif. She was an English major at the University of Michigan, which she attended from 1994 to 1998, making her part of the first generation of college students with wide-open access to the Internet. She got enough of a taste for technology that she decided to change course. "It looked exciting and I jumped in," she said. At I.B.M., she is a "human factors engineer" who helps tailor software tools for companies in the life sciences, retailing and financial services industries so they can more easily sift through vast databases to quickly mine useful nuggets of information. She works with programming languages, C++ and Java, but her main focus is a level above the code itself. "It's understanding a customer's needs and business strategy, and then translating that into solutions," Ms. Trombley explained. This hits the nail on the head. Jobs that have well-defined interfaces to the rest of the organization and society — certain types of programming and customer support, for example — are easy to move offshore, in the same way as well-defined software interfaces allow modules to be replaced without apparent effects (leaving aside issues of efficiency and reliability; both in software modularity and outsourcing, both issues could be fatal). However, a growing number of jobs require a deep, creative engagement with the inner workings of organizations and societies that is not at all modular. Programming and other information-technology tasks are social activities, as design in general is a social activity, even though the popular understanding and the practices of many software vendors still pretend otherwise. As software moves from widget to integral part of social systems — in business, social organization, science, planning and resource allocation, even political activity — we will need an increasing number of people that understand software and information systems in context, and can address the demands of the context productively. It is hard to imagine that such a role can be given a well-defined interface and be exiled from its cultural and political context. 5:51:49 PM

With Singles Emerging as Music's Preferred Currency, the CD May Soon Go the Way of the LP: Looking on my iPod, there's no physical barrier between Maxwell, Melvins, Messiaen, Metallica, Miles Davis, Mouse On Mars, and Mozart. They are peers. They're all songs on a global album. This is promising--and weird. [...] But so, this iPod. When I buy CDs, I immediately transfer them to the iPod and then shelve them, where they sit untouched. My vinyl is long gone. The album as a discrete unit containing 10 or so songs feels increasingly dated. [iPodlounge] My As: Aimee Mann, Alban Berg Quartet, Ali Farka Toure, András Keller, Anouar Brahem. My Rs: R.E.M., Radio Tarifa, Radiohead, Ron Carter, Rosalyn Tureck. I still listen mostly to albums, because I like the musical unity of the best of the genre, but it's a choice rather than an imposition. My only teeny gripe is that my 1st generation 5G iPod continues to work well, but I have way more music than can fit into it. 3:15:48 PM