Simon Wellison notes taken during the Joshua Schachter, lecture at the Carson Workshops Future of Web Apps Summit today:

Nice pointers on building Large Web Apps (particular: folksonomy-based)

Irish Developer Network - Things to Look For When Building Large Apps

The Time Barron’s Investing Thesis is as follows.

* Step 1: Buy Barrons and Read Barrons
* Step 2: Do whatever Barrons says to do.
* Step 3: Wait.
* Step 3: Scan Time Magazine Covers; if a given week’s Time Magazine Cover agrees with Barron’s investment decision see Step 6, if not return to Step 3.
* Step 6: Exit the position you entered into in Step 2.
* Profit.

Long or Short Capital » The Time Barron’s Investing Thesis

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and everyone knows that's one of the most chocolate-centric holidays around. This year, though, there will be no treating your sweetheart to a Chantico after the big Valentine's Day dinner, because Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) has discontinued the decadent drinkable chocolate.

This is a real pity. A couple of weeks ago I was in a Starbucks (rare event) that offered it (also fairly rare). I ordered it and found it to be wonderful. Yes, I know it has an insane calorie/ounce ratio. At 6oz it was more than enough, quantity-wise. I am not a coffee drink but I am a coffee house addict. Chantico is an ideal drink for someone like me (if I ended up at Starbucks). Or, was.

Chantico and Coffee Don't Mix? [Fool.com: Motley Fool Take] February 13, 2006

This is a must read story on Google, explaining how competition is heating up, advertisers are actually leaving the Google 'pay per click and search' fold, and how Google reminds Barron's of Amazon back when it was selling for $400 per share and Blodgett was making a case for it to be $800. (One of the interesting asides in the story is how Henry Blodgett is now making a case where he could see Google hitting $100 per share.)

Overview of the recent Barron's post, summarizing the Google risks.

Fool.com: Mishedlo [Post of the Day] February 13, 2006

As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around.

800-CEO-READ Blog: Quote -- Leadership

When You Make the Cover of Time

The shark has been jumped.

John Battelle calls it.

John Battelle's Searchblog: When You Make the Cover of Time

the Data Fortress, a steel-encased hard drive that can hold up to 640 GB and is completely fire-, water-, impact-, earthquake-, and ninja-proof. It can withstand heat up up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes and looks like a great way to keep backup data safe and sound in deluge, mudslide, and fire-prone areas

The Data Fortress - Gizmodo

So what is it, do you want be transparent about what you are doing or do you want to be opaque? How come the Time interviewer doesn’t say “hey, you just said you don’t want to confuse anyone and now you are saying you do? What’s up with that?”.

Jeff Nolan has the same consistency issues I have with regard to Google making claims about best practice business ideas and yet working in a different direction.

This is a clean example. If a business is transparent, it means we can see what they're doing, what they're going to do it, and why they're going to win. In Google's case, this is -- or was -- totally possible. They've lost some of the karma and mindshare, but previously if they had said "we're going to take over video distribution, with the intent to roll out IPTV"... IPTV companies would fold. Maybe not that directly, even.

But with Southwest, JetBlue, NetFlix, etc: you get a pretty solid idea of what they're up to, how they make decisions, and even how they operate. The Southwest business model is very well documented and they haven't really deviated from it in their 30 profitable years. They win because they're in the better position, with better technology, more reasonable decision makers, and an appreciation for what it takes to own their space. I don't get that confidence, as much, from Google, and I certainly can't deduce which of the directions (people have sussed out) they are going to take (except, most likely "all of them"). Are they aiming to be The Internet Connection? The Advertising Sales company to all media? The Distributed Operating System/Application Platform? Yes.

Venture Chronicles

Maybe I was the ideal person for the job, seeing as I was not distracted by issues that would have troubled the common fan, such as how faithful/unfaithful the film was to its previous incarnations. (None of which are faithful to each other, so I’m told.) Unlike the majority of viewers, I would be able to evaluate the film according to what it attempted to be—the drollest of droll outer space comedies, what Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs would have been had it been funny and made by the Brits. More to the point, however, I believe my ignorance also allowed me to see something in the film that I never expected to discover, something that may have escaped everyone’s attention until now. In short, I think I have discovered nothing less than The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Gospel.

Ford Prefect as Lord and Saviour? It is an interesting interpretation; the nice thing about cultural criticism is that it doesn't matter if Douglas Adams was even a Christian.

explore faith : Focus on Film - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

While I don't use the handle that much anymore, I decided to search for some images based on my long time online name: Corvis. Here's what I found.

Looking through my logs... that's my dog!

Thoughts from the Oasis amidst the Corn: February 2005