The game got boring, so I checked the blogosphere, and what do you know - there's Dave Winer blogging from seats at the ballyard, with people commenting from their couches all over the country. A little strange, but cool. Sort of a blogcast.
One background topic keeps running in my brain these days - the choice between (1) keep going as an "independent" consultant, or (2) join up with a bigger firm. It's burning up a lot of personal CPU cycles.
Perhaps it's harder to reverse 20 years of habit than I thought. There are things I miss about the corporate life. I miss some of the people. I miss my old assistant, Kelli (sorry, perhaps I should say my "previous assistant"). I miss the feeling of being on a large team, and the opportunity to be a star player on that team. I miss the richness of interaction, the occasional brush against a good idea. I miss the debate. I miss taking customers out to play golf on someone else's budget.
But there was so much wrong with it. There's a longer list of things I don't miss:
The commute
The infighting among managers and corporate politics
The endless rounds of poorly organized, unproductive meetings
Business travel on crazy schedules
People arguing over who gets which office, with me as arbiter
Complacent acceptance of shoddy work
My tendency to believe that by working harder and harder, I could fix all those flaws
So how does it all net out? I'm happier now (and poorer, financially). I work less. I think more. I play more golf. Sounds pretty great, so why I am still in conflict?
I never, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought I would find myself agreeing with Senator Robert Byrd of WV, the pork king himself. But this NYTimes piece on the impending war decision has me shaking my head yes. Democracy works in the US because of checks and balances among the three branches. As lame as Congress may be, taking Congress out of the "declaring war" decision is a terrible idea.
Here's a surprisingly complex issue, deep linking, well-described in New Architect. The issue involves protection of brand, copyright, and spells trouble for news aggregators. The article convinced me that policies against deep linking have validity, and may be inevitable. Hopefully, there's a middle ground.
Once again the net mirrors the physical world. After all, even our friends use the front door to enter our home. Can't have them just materialize in the bathroom, can we?
I've always wanted to join the Churchhill Club. With SD-SF airfares so cheap these days, I think I will. Looks like a good investment in time and career.
Smart Fatigues Hear Enemy Coming. What's better than a bullet-proof vest? How about one that warns you that a bullet's coming your way? Special fabric could soon alert soldiers to pending danger. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]
This is a new twist on wearable computers. I like it!
