Oracle and Sun

Sun recently agreed to sell itself to Oracle. There has been much speculation about how Oracle can make money from Sun. My guess is that Oracle will start charging for Java. Java has become entrenched in enterprise software development, so there are no worries that cost will slow down the adoption of Java. Additionally, the enterprise market is used to paying for software and services, so Oracle would not have to break new ground to get that market to pay for Java.

Oracle has managed to extract money for database products even though there are several free (and open source) databases that are popular. It uses the feature richness and performance of its database product to compete against the free offerings. It also takes advantage of its incumbency to charge for a product because free competitors are not free due to switching costs.
It could use the same model for Java and probably with the same customers too.

amazon and the importance of core competency

How importance is core competency? I first knew about Amazon.com as online bookseller. Then it expanded into other categories like music and electronics. Eventually, it started to sell all kinds of products. It dabbled in other kinds of retail endeavors like auctions, but it seemed to be sticking to selling products to consumers.

Then Amazon introduced EC2 and AWS. Suddenly, it was selling computing resources to developers which seemed far afield from selling books on the web. Then, it developed and sold the Kindle, an e-book reader with wireless access.

These seem like separate lines of business that are not very connected. What happened to the idea of core competency? It's an important concept that businesses need to consider when choosing what to do. Now, it may be possible to come up with a core competency for Amazon that encompasses all these businesses, but I would expect that explanation would cover almost any other business too. Such an all-encompassing purview seems to defeat the point of articulating a core competency.

The demise of Conde Nast Portfolio

Conde Nast's decision to shut down its business magazine Portfolio received a lot of attention. One common viewpoint was that the magazine's monthly publication schedule was not appropriate for a business magazine. BusinessWeek wrote, "It came at a time when business is a moment-by-moment bloodsport uniquely unsuited to being chronicled by a leisurely monthly frequency."

I understand that things move quickly in the finance world. For example, the day I started writing this, the stock market opened with big gains only to close with a small loss.

However, many of the important business stories of the past few years developed much more slowly. The housing boom lasted for years. And, the housing bust that followed took years to manifest itself too. There is plenty of room for a monthly publication to explore important developments.

In fact, a monthly publication has an advantage in that it can ignore the hour-to-hour, day-to-day fluctuations that the cable news and weekly magazines drown the viewer/reader in. It is too easy to lose the forest for the trees. The thinking that "a moment-by-moment bloodsport" can not be covered by a monthly frequency is not right and should be changed.

Why is Columbia Park boys and girls club in the mission?

I've walked by the Columbia Park boys and girls club many times. It's located on Guerrero Street in the Mission, and there is no place called Columbia Park near it. I've often wondered why it was called that.

The answer turns out to be fairly straightforward. The boys and girls club used to be located near Columbia Square. Columbia Square is a park in SOMA, near Harrision and Columbia. At some point, the club moved to Guerrero Street but kept the name of the old location.

This information came from "San Francisco: As it Was, as it Is, and how to See it" by Helen Throop Purdy. From that book, I also learned that Dolores Park used to be called Mission Park and used to have a wading pool. It's available on the internet at Google Book Search

The reason the Cowboys lost

During this football season, I have seen a soda commercial with the Cowboys many times. At first, the ad skated by, seeming insignificant. It took on more significance with more airings, and now after the excessive number of times it was shown, it explains the Cowboys' failure in the playoffs -- they are very stupid.

First a recap of the ad. The offensive coordinator is calling the next play, but he is tired so the last part of the play call is mingled with a yawn, something like "red twenty four blue thirty-yaaaah". The head coach hears the play call and is confused by the yawn at the end of the play call. Nevertheless, he repeats the play call to the quarterback the same way. The quarterback is also confused when he hears the play call, but he still repeats in the huddle to his teammates. The play is run, but it fails. Then the Cowboys' owner, Jerry Jones, walks into the offensive coordinator's box and gives him some soda. It's mountain dew ultra or dr. pepper mega or something like that, a soda with extra caffeine, sugar, and maybe other stuff to keep people awake. After giving him the soda which will help him stay awake, Jones takes the playcalling headset away from the coordinator presumably keeping it himself. Note, the head coach and the quarterback in the ad are played by the actual head coach and quarterback of the Cowboys. I don't know what the offensive coordinator looks like, but I think that role is played by an actor.

This ad raises so many questions. Why doesn't the offensive coordinator repeat himself? Why doesn't the head coach ask him to repeat the play? Why doesn't the head coach change the play to something real? Why doesn't the quarterback ask the coach to repeat the play? Why doesn't he realize it's a bogus play and change it? Why don't his teammates tell him it's a play they don't know (because it's not a real play)?
Why would the real head coach and quarterback agree to be in ad where they look like incompetents? Is Jerry Jones taking over playcalling? Why would he want to do that? Is he that meddlesome?

Either the Cowboys can not discern how silly they appear (which means they are not very smart), or they really are not very smart. And Jerry Jones is either really meddlesome or so greedy for a little ad money that he would appear that way. Not a good look. No wonder they Cowboys lost so early in the playoffs. Next year, smarten up and make better ads.

Scripting plays and No huddle

Many teams in the NFL like to script the opening offensive plays of a game. The idea is to use the week before the game to develop a sequence of plays that takes advantage of the opposing team's defensive weaknesses. The offense can be poised on the opening drives because it knows exactly what plays it will run and because the players have practiced those plays during the week.
It seems like a good idea, though I don't know if it has been proven to make a difference in the outcome of the games.

I've watched many games where the offense is said to be a following its game-openening script, but I have not seen many where the offense is going no huddle. The consensus is that no huddle helps offenses by giving defenses less time to prepare for the play. By moving quickly, the defense can't substitute players as well and becomes more tired and frazzled. The frenetic pace of no huddle can also unhinge the offense with the players going out of sync. That's why most teams don't run no huddle often, but those downsides should not occur with scripted opening drives. The players on offense will know all the plays that they are going to run, so there should be no confusion. Since defenses will still be disadvantaged by no huddle, it seems like going no huddle on the scripted plays is an obvious benefit for the offense. Why don't more teams do it?

The Smell of New Pavement in the Morning

What's not to love?
One of the better things that's happened lately has been the repaving of parts of 101. The beginning of the work was annoying because the road surface was gouged and uncomfortable to drive. Now, that the new surface is in place, it's a pleasure to drive. The road is so smooth. The contrast between the new surface and the old surface is very noticeable. As if to remind us without relying on our fragile memories, Caltrans has left patches of the old pavement interspersed with the new pavement in a few places like overpasses. They needn't have done that since a bigger contrast is further south on 101 where the road is the crummy old pavement. That can't be repaved fast enough -- some of the lanes seem to have ruts in them.
Hopefully, this new road surface stays smooth and shiny for a long time.

Some good sandwiches that are no longer with us

I used to eat turkey meatloaf sandwiches at Specialtys all the time, and they were awesome. For various reasons, I stopped eating lunch at Specialtys, but I kept meaning to go back and eat the turkey meatloaf sandwich. I finally had the chance recently, and I discovered that they no longer made it! It was quite a disappointment.

Now this wasn't the first time that a good sandwich has disappeared from the menus of Bay Area shops. It was at least the third time which calling to mind the famous Goldfinger quote means it is enemy action. But who would do such a thing?
In case it helps you, the other two times were the cuban sandwich at Bi-Rite and the Vietnamese sandwiches at Yucatasia. I miss them too.

The Patriots Spying Brouhaha

One of the scandals of the early 2007 football season has been the revelations of spying by the Patriots. It's been dubbed CameraGate since it involves illegal videotaping during games. The Patriots videotaped the signals of the Jets during week 1; the league caught them and punished them.

The media was riveted by this story, but I somehow managed to avoid paying attention to most of the ensuing controversy. My primary exposure to the media hype has been through the writing of Bill Simmons, a Patriots fan who has been fed up with the way sports commentators have piled on the Patriots. I can see his point, but I have some doubts about his defense of the Patriots. For example, he said on September 17, "If this pattern of inappropriate behavior had been happening for six years, wouldn't they have been caught before Sept. 9, 2007?"

I thought the Patriots had been caught before illegally videotaping during games and had been warned not to do it anymore. They may not have been stealing signals earlier, but that seems unlikely. It would be nice to get clarity on this point.

Are Molly Shannon and Paulette Goddard related?

I watched the Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times recently, and I was struck by the similarity between Paulette Goddard and Molly Shannon. They looked similar, and their characters acted similarly as well. Maybe it was the way the Gamin character in Modern Times danced and leapt wildly that reminded me of Shannon's characters on Saturday Night Live.

As for the movie, it was good though I didn't enjoy it as much as other Chaplin movies. The set pieces were pretty funny and well executed. However, the Little Tramp character was too bumbling to hold my sympathy throughout. The epitome of his incompetence was when he worked as a mechanic's assistant and managed to get the mechanic jammed into some machinery. I still laughed, which is probably what counts.

Bay Area Newspaper Stars

It probably doesn't make sense to have a newspaper column called Bouncer written by someone who doesn't work at a bar, but that's about the only quibble-worth thing about the column by Katy St. Clair. It's not the first thing I read in the SF Weekly (since it's in the back), but I'm less happy when I get to the back and discover it's not there. Luckily, it's there most weeks, and she usually has some interesting stories from visiting Bay Area bars. Sometimes, there is even pathos like when she talks about her autistic clients.

The Bay Guardian has a food section staffed by stars, Paul Reidinger and L.E. Leone. Their writing entertains and enlightens with wit, grace, and humor. Plus, they're both capable of writing about more than food, and often do, sometimes even while writing about food.

Bay Area Radio Stars

I'd like to take a moment to recognize two stars of Bay Area radio.

Jerry Newman (spelling?) is an announcer on KQED and he livens up the seemingly boring task of announcing the current program name and the upcoming programs.

Gary Radnich and Tony Bruno make Bay Area sports talk radio fun. Their conversations are not always about sports, but they always drop "good knowledge".

Q: What do Danielson and How I Met Your Mother have in common?

A: Blinders!
The character on the super bowl theme episode of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) gave them a fancy name, but their intent and design was very similar to the Good Eye Blinders that Danielson used to make.

It was surprising to see overlap between the two. I wonder if some of the writers of HIMYM are Danielson fans.

Wells Fargo ATMs: Now 10% less useful than before

Wells Fargo ATMs no longer have an option to display balances. Why is that?
The ATMs used to have this option. It seemed to disappear fairly recently. Is it going to come back?

Printing an account statement is still an option, but that's often overkill.

Update (2/8/07): The display balances option is back.

Gates (foundation) in a rush? Oh no!

The Gates' foundation is rushing to spend the money that Warren Buffett is giving it. This is a scary prospect.

Bill Gates has been pretty mediocre about predicting the future. In fact, his most well-known prediction is the hugely wrong '640K of memory should be enough for anybody.' [1]
He failed to signal the importance of the Internet in his book The Road Ahead despite it coming out a little bit before the popularization of the Internet.

Microsoft's success is due more to relentless tactical warfare, but the downside of that is the company's shady monopolistic behavior and technically unsound decisions. For example, Microsoft pushed ActiveX controls in order to maintain the supremacy of the Windows desktop even for Internet applications. However, it did not do a thorough job of implementing ActiveX in a secure manner. That's why we still see bugs for Internet Explorer due to ActiveX.

The world does not need to see Bill Gates in a rush to vanquish enemies again. Even if the enemies are malaria and AIDS instead of Sun and Netscape, Gates should move deliberately and carefully. There have been mistakes by philanthropists in the past, and we do not want to look back in 20 years and rue the decisions made by the Gates foundation.

[1] A Wired News article indicates that he didn't make this statement, but it does agree that he's not much of a visionary.

The DP DP

Motley Fool published an article called "Openwave: A Closed Book" expressing disappointment in the behavior of Openwave's management.

There are other troubling issues to deal with. During the quarter, CEO David Peterschmidt exercised a significant chunk of his options in company stock, then immediately sold the shares. It happened to take place on the same day that Openwave was accused of options backdating, halfway into the quarter. Again, this makes me wonder whether Peterschmidt knew something the rest of us didn't.

This should not have been a surprise. Dave P. has historically had really good luck with his options. That's why he could make gobs of money from Inktomi despite giving away the search market to Google and falling for the hype in the network infrastructure market.

The unbearable crumminess of NBA refs

Why isn't there (more) controversy over the Lakers-Suns game on Sunday?

I guess people are so excited by Kobe's game winning drive that they will overlook the sketchy circumstances that led to it.

Why didn't the refs give the Suns a timeout when the Suns' players were calling for one?
Why didn't the refs call a foul on the Lakers' defenders who seemed to be fouling Steve Nash while trying to trap him?

I saw the replay several times, and it very strongly looked like that Nash was fouled and that his team called for a timeout. Somehow, in the feeble world of NBA officiating, that led to a jump ball pitting Nash against a taller player.

Kobe's basket was a dazzling display of skill, but that doesn't excuse the fact that Nash should've been shooting free throws instead of losing a jump ball.

As to the "refs shouldn't call fouls late in the game because the players should decide the game" argument. That's a weak argument at best, but somehow the refs were willing to call fouls on Shawn Marion until he fouled out. His fouls didn't look worse than the uncalled fouls against Nash.

Until then, the Lakers-Suns game was fun to watch, and I was excited for the next game in the series (as well as the rest of the playoffs). Now if I don't watch another NBA game, I won't feel bad.

Thanks Flaming Lips for the great music and film you gave us

If Wayne Coyne started a cult, I'd consider joining. Based on Fearless Freaks and the Q&A after the Noise Pop screening of Fearless Freaks, he's charming, articulate, clever, and inspiring. Listening to some of his answers, I thought he was a motivational speaker. "Everyone can be creative ... do what you love ... work hard ... I live in a van down by the river".

Why no secure Blogger login?

How come Blogger doesn't have a secure (https) login page?

Update: It does, but there's no visible link to it from the main or sign-in page. To make signing in use https, manually convert the protocol to https in the url of the sign-in page.

"badness" indicator more important than phishing alerts

There's been interest in having browsers display a phishing warning. What would be more useful is if browsers displayed a badness warning, especially before the user followed a link.

"Be careful where you browse". That's popular advice, but how does someone know what the bad parts of the web are? It would be useful if the browser itself gave some clue, e.g. a "bad" link could be in a different color, or the browser prompted the user before displaying/processing the contents of the risky link.

The browser could consult a database of "bad" links, preferably a database that is updated frequently to catch problems like "good" sites being hijacked or newly created "bad" sites.
Browsers could also preprocess the content of the link to gauge it's safety. Of course that means browsers would have to have a mechanism of checking safety that doesn't cause them to do "bad" things.