Listening to: Silver Palomino - Bruce Springsteen

Woke up to a bit of a surreal
story this morning… Steven Colbert presenting at the White House Correspondents
Dinner. He’s relentless… so much so you sit there and question the reality of it:

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White
House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration
is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging
the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Crooks and Liars have a video of
Colbert’s speech.

All is not lost when that type of lampooning is allowed.

Listening to: Maria’s Bed - Bruce Springsteen

The Register as an insightful interview with
Tim O’Reilly and Amazon’s web services evangelist Jeff Barr on how they see the REST
vs WS debate:

What of the idea that simple approaches like REST are fine for non-critical
websites but won’t work in the enterprise?

I think it is misguided. Doesn’t that remind you a bit of “PCs will never work
in the enterprise, the personal computer is a toy?” I feel that disregarding the simple
bottom-up stuff is a recipe for companies to fail. Simple bottom-up stuff is a driver
of the future. You need to figure out how to layer more complexity on top of that
and add value to it, rather than present this big heavyweight solution that is theoretically
better.

Listening to: Price Of Gasoline (Automato Remix) - Bloc Party

Rod Oram’s article in the paper this morning was a real breath of fresh air… it’s great to have some one write about the opportunity that is there for the taking AND provide an idea of how to get there:

While we face decades of endeavour to achieve these towering goals, none of it will happen unless we significantly change our view of the world in six significant ways.

Realism: We need to be far more realistic about the opportunities for us in the world, about how hard but do-able the challenges are, and about the serious consequences for not taking up these challenges.

Ambition: We need to be far more ambitious in the goals we set ourselves and in the standards we demand of one another. We have to be absolutely world class in all we do.

Environment: We need to have real commitment to the environment. Our lip service gives us air, land and water unconscionably polluted for a country so thinly populated. Our clean green image is a myth waiting to be exposed.

Sustainability:We need to build a sustainable country, not just in the environmental sense but also in terms of economic, social and cultural values. Only if our businesses, our communities and our cultures work hand in hand in enduring ways will we realise our extensive, distinctive potential.

Commonality: We need commonality of purpose across all cultures and communities. This does not mean some grand, national strategy, rather that we acknowledge each other’s aspirations yet find common ground on which we can build together a new New Zealand. Moreover, our cultures serve us poorly when we try to resolve conflict within and between communities. Business and politics are particularly prone to letting unresolved tensions build within organisations until they wreak havoc on the people and institutions.

Leadership:We need a new kind of leadership. New Zealanders have tended to respond best to dominant individuals. But two dangers arise -of us being led astray and of our lack of commitment to their grand plans. Better would be leadership that springs naturally from within each small group, business, industry, family, community or culture.

Listening to: Black Shuck - The Darkness

O’Reilly Radar has a set of matter-of-fact
articles about the database systems that sit behind some of the biggest Web 2.0 systems:

• Web
  2.0 and Databases Part 1: Second Life
• Database
  War Stories #2: bloglines and memeorandum
• Database
  War Stories #3: Flickr
• Database
  War Stories #4: NASA World Wind
• Database
  War Stories #5: craigslist

Listening to: Orozco - Dubphonic

Zef forwarded me a link to a series
of great CHI videos…some seriously cool and interesting stuff.

Listening to: Busenfreund - Dzihan & Kamien

Otis has posted some of his new
works:

Listening to: Boss On The Boat - Greg Day, Damian Stanley

From news.com:

WASHINGTON–President Bush’s no-longer-secret surveillance program
employing the National Security Agency came under a two-pronged attack this week on
both political and legal fronts.

First, a key Republican
senator said Thursday that he was contemplating pulling the plug on the NSA spying
program by cutting funding–unless, that is, the Bush administration comes clean on
how the program works and whether it complies with privacy rights guaranteed by the
U.S. Constitution.

“When you’re withholding funds,
here you’re talking about real authority,” Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters at a press conference at
the U.S. Capitol. Specter said he met with Bush on Wednesday but was unable to find
common ground.

Listening to: Annanas - G-Corporation

The Wall Street Journal discusses the
characteristics of the Google management style that have been put in place to give
the company a more Darwinian outlook:

• Evolutionary risk factor #1: A narrow or orthodox business definition that limits
  the scope of innovation. Google’s response: An expansive sense of purpose.
• Evolutionary risk factor #2: A hierarchical organization that over-weights the views
  of those who have a stake in perpetuating the status quo. Google’s response: An organization
  that is flat, transparent, and non-hierarchical.
• Evolutionary risk factor #3: A tendency to overinvest in “what is” at the expense
  of “what could be.” Google’s response: A company-wide rule that allows developers
  to devote 20% of their time to any project they choose.
• Evolutionary risk factor #4: Creeping mediocrity. Google’s response: Keep the bozos
  out and reward people who make a difference.

Listening to: Busenfreund - Walkner Moestl

The Apple OS fixation continues (fine
by me ):

Over the past three weeks, we’ve laid out in this column a sequence
of clues and events that suggest Apple is planning to next year take on not only Microsoft’s
hardware OEMs, but also possibly Microsoft, itself, by leveraging a vestigial legal
right to some portion of the Windows API — in this case, literally the Windows XP
API. This bold strategy is based on the high probability that — if something called
Windows Vista ships at all next January — it will really be Windows XP SP4 with a
new name. Microsoft is so bloated and paralyzed that this could happen, but what’s
missing is an Apple application strategy to go with this operating system strategy,
because Microsoft’s true power lies not in Windows, but in Microsoft Office. Fortunately
for Apple, I believe there is an application plan in the works, and I will describe
it here.

Listening to: Busenfreund - Baby Mammoth

PingMag has an article about
the sublime design work done by Takeshi Ishiguro:

How could someone wrap up Takeshi Ishiguro’s work in one sentence?
The former product designer for IDEO now works on his own back in Japan, dedicating
his full time to experimental technology, conceptual products and beautiful installations.
PingMag was very lucky to talk to him about screaming drinks, emotional trees and
a performance in almost zero gravity.