IBM to Buy Cognos

Wow. M&A in my industry, my area of expertise just keeps on going. What will Microsoft do now?

R.I.P. Bobby Byrd

Sad, sad, sad.

The shit

Sometimes I forget
Chicago is the shit
Don't fake or front
ChiTown
What, you didn't know?

The best day in a long time

I just had the best day I've had in quite some time. I love my friends and they love me. Stv and J have a beautiful boy. I love spending time with them. It was so great to catch up with them and Buddy. These are the days I wish would never end.

Two words: Whistler BITCHES!!!

You can never go home

I'm home again.
I'm here to stay.
I've never really left.

Chicago welcomes me back with open arms.

So many things to see and do.
Everything I never said I'd do.
Everything I thought I'd never have the chance to do again.
So nice to be here again.
So nice to be home.

Chicago

My city
My friends are here
My family is here

Being here gives me energy
Energy I seem to have lost or forgotten
Is it my friends and family
The familiar buildings, comforting street names, knowing how to get around with out maps?

June and the city is in full bloom

I'm home

Hip-Hop Lives: KRS-One & Marley Marl

Fresh for 2007! A new album from the two pioneers who provided the first beef in Hiphop. The pre 1987 BDP led by KRS-ONE and DJ Scott LaRock laid down what they thought of the Juice Crew in the song "South Bronx." This was a reaction to Marley Marl and MC Shan's "The Bridge" which was bigging up Queens Bridge. BDP then crushed the Marley's Juice Crew with "The Bridge Is Over." The ORIGINAL crew rivalry between BDP and the Juice Crew spawned scores of diss records and hurt feelings for those who rep the Bronx and Queens. It also provided the template for which crews could fuck with each other to take a share of the spot light.

In the mid '80s Rap was a fringe genre and the beefs seemed real. Reputations and careers were at stake. From LL v Kool Moe Dee to East Coast vs West Coast, I can say my purchasing decisions were made based on who was dissing who and who was the REAL MC. Cooler heads generally prevailed and beefs were squashed but the winners usually gained popularity while pioneers like MC Shan and Kool Moe Dee were left behind. Modern beefs don't have this winner take all risk. Nas v Jay Z, Aftermath/Shaddy/G-Unit vs Murder Inc/Ja Rule, oh, who gives a fuck about rap today anyway?

But I digress. The end result was KRS-ONE had proven his dominance. Needless to say, when you go to a KRS-ONE show today people are still loosing their voices while rhyming along to BDP classics from the Criminal Minded album. I should know...

Although the beef has been dead for a long time Hiphop Lives is about reconciliation. To prove a point the Blast Master spits lyrics while QB's finest drops the beats. The BX & Queens together... brings a tear to my eye.

Hurry up and get yours, cuz I got mine. Hip-Hop Lives: KRS-One & Marley Marl

Pug recall

Dog Breeders Issue Massive Recall Of '07 Pugs

WASHINGTON, DC—While pug owners are accustomed to chronic dog malfunction, the latest animals are prone to more than the usual overheating, seizures, and joint failure.

Web 2.0 is here.

Here's an interesting and brief interview with Tim O'Reilly regarding the future of the web from Wired on line. He makes some interesting comments regarding the concept of owning data. And the true companies to watch in the next wave of internet companies.

WN: Are there any trends among the companies exhibiting at Web 2.0 Expo, the kinds of services and technologies being shown?
O'Reilly: Well, obviously this is a market with a lot of froth in it already. I have to say there are a lot of me-too products and companies. Yet another social network, of the 15th flavor -- that's common in every new technology revolution. There are imitators who have marginal improvements.

Working for a small consulting company, I see this all the time. People who think their dating site will be the one that catches on. People who believe having a successful web business is just a matter of putting up a page and watching the traffic roll in. I hate to say it, but while you were out, 20 other people came to the party with better ideas, business plans, experienced management teams, marketing plans, funding, and technology. And most of them left, shifted focus, or went bankrupt. If you're are depending on a photo site, dating site, portal, or social networking site to make a big splash you'd better be prepared to answer the question, What's your innovation? These sites were done 100 different ways three years ago and there are now clear market leaders. The next question is, What will keep the market leader from adjusting their business to address your innovation before you gain traction?

Later...

WN: So you think that (control of data) is actually more characteristic of web 2.0 than social networking or Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) interfaces?
O'Reilly: Absolutely. Anybody who thinks that this is about Ajax is completely missing the boat. I do think building rich internet applications is an important part of web 2.0. I don't want to dismiss it, because we are able to build richer application platforms today. But it's ultimately about network effects, and where do you build services that get better the more people use them? And it's also about the databases that get created as a result of those network effects.
As far as I'm concerned, web 2.0 is still in it's really early stages, and the reason is because the data isn't all owned yet. The network-effects play is about how you get increasing returns by everybody using your stuff, which is really what Microsoft did on the PC. Here we see it again, where these are winner-takes-all games. The internet looks like an open platform in the beginning, but once somebody gets a lead, their service gets better fast enough, if they've harnessed all the right levers, until it becomes a real barrier to entry. Why, despite many attempts, have we seen nobody able to dethrone eBay? Well, it's because there are network effects at work in auctions. You have a critical mass of buyers and sellers.
We're seeing that with Google AdWords -- it's just a bigger and better marketplace. There are these tipping points where these services really become monopolistic. We're still trying to move people toward really understanding what that new world looks like. I don't think a lot of people are there. A lot of people still think, "Oh, it's about social networking. It's about blogging. It's about wikis." I think it's about the data that's created by those mechanisms, and the businesses that that data will make possible.

So, what are we going to do with all that data? What service will you provide after you've have people at your site? What have you learned from your users?

R.I.P. James Brown, 1933 - 2006

I boycott $tarbuck$

  - Starbucks Is Way More Than Just Lattes - AOL Money & Finance

I have a few personal boycotts. What can I say? It's just a personal issue for me. I'm not on a crusade, I would just prefer not to spend my dollars in certain stores. Aside from overpriced coffee of questionable quality, I take issue with $tarbuck$ and any company that has too much control over what we consume. My other boycotts are just as futile; McDonalds, The Gap, Coca Cola, Ticket Master, and Clear Channel to name a few. I'll save the rants about these other companies for another time and just focus on the buck$.

The most interesting note in this article is the table on the side which lists how many $tarbuck$ there are per state.

Got Starbucks?
State No. of stores
Alabama 33
Alaska 24
Arizona 246
Arkansas 13
California 2004

CA has a whopping 2,004 of the almost 8,000 US $tarbuck$ stores, by far the most in any state. I can attest most of the California stores are in the Los Angeles area. Maybe even all in my zipcode. I'll have to google earth it... Being new to LA, I can say that people really, really love their $tarbuck$ here. I've seen a $tarbuck$ the size of a sit down restaurant in a building that may have been an old Denny's. I've seen two $tarbuck$ stores kitty corner to each other. (this is a gag in Shrek 2?, but it really happens.)

The only good thing I can say about the buck$ and McD's is that there's always one when you really need one. I'm a runner and although I don't buy anything at the buck$, their bathrooms are always ready and willing to be soiled when I need them most. In fact, I know the nearest $tarbuck$ and McDonalds for each of my running routes. Not that I need them all the time, but when you run, it's better to be safe than sorry.

So join me. Or don't. If you like overpriced milk and over-roasted coffee, feel free to support with your buck$. My personal favorite coffee is from the fine folks at Intelligentsia in Chicago. The coffee from their shop is soooooo strong you don't need to order espresso. If there were a shop in CA I would brave the worst 405 traffic to get it morning, noon and night. They roast a blend for Charlie Trotter, so it's got to be good, right? Order online.

It's Peanut Butter Feder Time!!!

This is to good to pass up. Enjoy.

Anatomy of A Sell Out

I must have missed this last summer, but I've finally seen the Mos Def ad for GM. I was shocked. This article sums it up nicely. Anatomy of A Sell Out- Why is Mos def Selling SUVs?

Tis the season to be scared witless

A Bit late for this post, but some of these pics are just too much. Classic. Enjoy!
SCARED OF SANTA GALLERY: Tis the season to be scared witless

Strictly for the Paranoid

Is Your Cell Phone Tracking Your Whereabouts? Good point made. Is this something we need to worry about?

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Wow. Talk about a way to kill time... enjoy YouTube.com

Yahoo undercuts Skype, telcos on voice call rates - Yahoo! News

Interesting news on VoIP services in messenger clients you probably already have installed.

New Favorite Web Sites

Here are just a few of the web sites that have sapped my productivity on this holiday-hangover-day and made me a useless slug. Enjoy.

dvdtalk.com

trent.blogspot.com

egotastic.com

I guess you can buy anything these days.

Town votes to rename itself Secretsanta.com

Blue Ball Machine

Sent in by the Buddster. Fascinating. The Blue Ball Machine