Dot Product

Well, as a mentioned roughly a month ago, my old PDA died and I found myself in NEED of a replacement. It was a NEED rather than a WANT, because I relied on my old PDA for several crucial functions, including organizer, password manager, time tracker and notepad.

After careful consideration, I decided on the Sony Clie TJ37, primarily because it was the least expensive WiFi (802.11b) enabled Palm compatible PDA out there.

I chose Palm as the platform over PocketPC because a.) my old apps would run on the new system, b.) Palm OS still has the largest installation base of any PDA OS out there, so that translates into the best software selection, and c.) all the PocketPCs that do WiFi were more expensive.

As you can tell, I have a hangup over the WiFi feature. That’s because I want to be able to SSH to my servers using my PDA from any of the bazillion hotspots in the area without using my #@$! cell phone. Expecially because my cell phone doesn’t do Bluetooth, so a cable would be involved. Blech!

So far I’ve been pretty pleased with the purchase. All my software is up and running. I have mobile access to my organizer, notes and passwords again (whew!). I can also stop using this wretched time tracking software I found for the Mac. For your reference, I’m using TimeWhiz now for billable hours, and Secret! for passwords. I sprung for Missing Sync to handle synchronization with the Mac (Sony only supports Win32 - a shame really), and Documents To Go Pro so I can work on Word and Excel files on the PDA and synchronize back to the docs on my iBook.

Certainly there are some gratuitous features to the device, like the 640×480 built-in camera. It takes OK pictures, but it’s certainly not a feature that would meaningfully differentiate the product for me against the competition. It can also play MP3s and movies as well, but those are gimmicks in my book, not serious apps. Still, it is pretty neat that I can transfer files to and from iTunes onto the device. A headphone jack makes it possible to actually listen to music, rather than suffer the noise that comes from the 1/4″ speaker in the back. :>

It’s a neat tool. If you have $250 - $300 to drop on a PDA, I highly reccommend it.

BTW, it’s fun to think that this device is twice as powerful as the computer that I did my thesis work on back in 1995 (I wonder if it could run AIPS!). It’s also twice as powerful as the first web server that Imagiware offered Web Hosting on (back in early 1996). Wow.

I just finished “Wolves of the Calla”, Stephen King’s fifth installment of the Dark Tower series. It was excellent. If you’re a fan of the series, then you’ve probably already beaten me to finishing this tome, and you’re eager for the next one (”Song of Susannah”) due in early June.

If you haven’t read the other books in the series, and you enjoy fiction with a epic feel to it, I encourage you to pick it up ALL FIVE BOOKS. Even if you’re not a Stephen King fan (I haven’t read most of his other work), I think there is plenty here for everyone.

Here is the dustjacket synopsis: Roland Deschain is the last gunslinger, on his quest to find the Dark Tower. His world has “moved on”, which loosely means it is in a state of decay, both physically and temporally. There are linkages from his world to ours, and he has drawn his companions through these linkages to form a ka-tet to complete the quest. Throughout the books are relics and reminders of past times, when great cities were built, and technology was prevalent. All that has “moved on”, and the world has less-than-gracefully fallen back to the point where guns are scarce, and most scratch a living from their surroundings as best they can.

Stephen King is a masterful writer, and I’m very happy that he’s completed the series before laying down his typewriter. The remaining volumes are due out in roughly 6-9 month intervals, so try to keep up, ok?

Occasionally you’ll see an item on eBay that serves more as social commentary than as a going proposition for commerce. This item hopes to be both, though I’d be surprised if anyone bid on it. It certainly highlights an issue that has been rolling around in my head for a long time: the cost of a college education.

We finished paying our student loans almost two years ago, thanks to the profit from selling our house in Madison and buying an equivalent house in NY that cost substantially less. But for a while we were dropping $600/month to pay for 4 years (each) of undergraduate expenses for Clarkson University. We both went for Physics, which as anyone can attest is not the most munificent of professions. Neither of us stayed in Physics, but that is a story for another time.

While at Clarkson, they did have some liberal arts majors, and I always wondered “why in God’s name would someone drop this much cash to go to CLARKSON for a liberal arts degree?” I’m not saying that the liberal arts program at Clarkson was lousy… I don’t have the experience to make that judgement. But bigger name schools cost less in comparison, so what is the motivation. I never asked anyone about it, but I’m still curious what the answer would have been.

Having not passed through the fires of a VC backed company yet, I cannot speak to some of the issues that Jerry Colonna discusses in this post, but it all sounds like sage advice to me. Judging from the number of links to the article, I think there is alot of agreement. Check it out.

Dan Bricklin (most known for his contributions to VisiCalc) has an excellent post on software licenses and the choices faced by small software houses. If you’re interested in developing software for profit, and don’t want to form an army to do it, this is a must-read.

Everybody laments the plague of spam that abuses our inboxes. But I’d like to point out a less-highlighted aspect of the problem that really needs to be addressed: hackers. Specifically, individuals who attack servers on the internet using a variety of techniques, from rootkits installed through security exploits to worms that punish Windows servers every other month.

I bring this up because we had a hacker problem last week. One of our clients installed some insecure CGI scripts on a shared server, and the hacker found a way to exploit those security holes to gain limited access to the server. The intrusion was detected and closed, but the aftermath took *alot* longer to deal with.

My fundamental complaint is that through careful log forensics, I identified five different IP addresses where the attack was coming from, or that were used in support of the attack (located in Brazil, Norway, Spain, and Korea). I contacted each of the designated “abuse” contacts about the problem. NO RESPONSE from *ANY* of them. No returned voice mails. No returned e-mails. Since I used phone and e-mail, I have to assume that these providers simply don’t care.

I’m not really surprised either. My prior experience with hacker activity has had consistent results, though those reports were for attempted mischief rather than a partially successful breach. All this does not bode well for the fight against spam, since many compromised machines form a network that spammers use to foist their junk upon us. There needs to be a uniform code of conduct in operating online services and responding to hacker activity, and penalties for not followin that code. It’s the only way we’re going to restore some accountability to Internet activity without adopting more draconian measures.

Everybody knows the price of gas in the U.S. is waaaay higher that what americans are used to. While our gas is still cheap compared to other markets (try driving in the UK sometime), it’s much higher that recent historical norms. This is bad news for whatever economic recovery might be gathering steam, because energy costs are a key driver of inflation. Higher inflation will drive higher interest rates, which will lower stock prices. Why? Because stocks are priced based on expected cash flows (dividends + price appreciation) to investors and their required rate of return on their investment. Higher interest rates translate into higher required rates of return. So for the same cash flows in the future, an investor is going to pay less if their required rate of return increases.

Not convinced? Try this little factoid on for size: Each spike in energy prices has been followed by a recession. You might also be interested in what the Department of Energy has to say about the impact of energy prices on the economy.

Ok, enough grousing. I have two questions that are worth consideration: Given that energy prices are going to drive inflation up, and that the Fed has basically played out their major tool for economic influence (ie: interest rates), what will be done to stop the next recession?

The other question I have is tied to the first: If energy prices have such a substantial impact on the economy, why are we placing such control over such a lever in the hands of foreign powers such as OPEC? Seriously, this is a problem that goes all the way back to the 70’s, and nobody has had the cohones to truly address this issue. Every time we start to talk about energy independence and alternate sources, we get just far enough down the road and the prices magically drop to some amazing low that makes those alternate plans economically infeasable. Do you think there is a coincidence there?

We need an energy policy which is not controlled by an oil-man’s puppet. A cornerstone of that policy needs to be a sustainable energy plan that is going to weaken this control over our economic destiny, focused on domestic production AND consumption. We also need to develop multiple competing sources of imported energy. Dealing with a cartel such as OPEC removes competition and weakens our ability to negotiate fair prices. We should be working with the Russians to develop their reserves for OUR market. China is building a pipeline to facilitate the sale of Russian oil in China. Do you think cheap Russian oil will create a sustainable competitive advantage for China. YOU BET.

So, what can we do? Well first, WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON. This is a representative democracy… so REPRESENT! It’s ridiculously easy to do! Next, consider mass transit or how you can carpool or bike to work. I know this is a pain, and if you don’t live in a great city like Madison, WI, you may find you don’t really have a functional mass transit system. Find out WHY NOT.

None of us can fix this alone. But if we all work together, we can get this situation back under control.

So there might be hope for a Spammer Bounty system after all. Via Techdirt, it looks like the FTC is interested in offering monetary rewards to help catch spammers. The wording of the announcement is a bit ambiguous though, so Techdirt’s interpretation might be optimistic. Of course, no word how the FTC would fund such activity.

While they’re at it, a system to snare script kiddies and hackers would be welcome as well. But that’s the subject of a separate post.

Ok, several months back, my Handspring snuffed it at the hands of my 3 year old son. It was an amazingly durable companion that lasted an impressive four years. Since then, I’ve tried to manage without it. After all, plenty of people get by without such devices, so I can too. Right?

Except, I have a bazillion passwords and other access/security related tripe floating around that needs to be managed and accessable. Reverting to my old system of written slips of paper has been tetering on disaster. It’s going to take one good magic-marker fest from the boy to cause some serious trouble.

Add to this the reality that all my contacts and their information are in electronic form on my Mac (not handy at a networking event), and you can see why I’m starting to jones for a new PDA.

So now it comes down to: which one?

The decision basically comes down to whether I need 802.11b wireless networking or not. I think it would be very handy in certain circumstances where internet access woud be useful, but having my laptop is not practical. If I don’t need the wireless, then I’m going with a Ghetto Palm^TM… probably a Zire 71 or something equivalent. The price premium for the wireless is $200, so I need to decide if that is worth it or not.

More when I make my decision.

Ahhh, the old one-two punch. This hiatus started with my trip to Madison on April 30th. Good trip, and some important business was taken care of. My return from Madison (sniff!), catching up on business back in NY, and sitting final exam for Finance & Valuation of Firms devoured my time until late Tuesday night. (For the record, I 0wn3d that exam, and the A for the course was immediately forthcoming).

Needless to say, with all that out of the way, some normalcy was expected for Wednesday… Cinqo de Mayo!

Except my wife went into labor at 2:30am, roughly 3.5 weeks early. Given that our first son was 2 weeks overdue, and our expectations were for an overdue or on-time presentation, it’s easy to see why we were unprepared. It all worked out in the end, with a healthy baby boy born at 2:50pm.

Which brings us through to today. Since we’ve already been through this wringer once, the abysmal lack of sleep has not had such a massive impact as the first time around. But needless to say, I’m pre-occupied.

So the posts will be trickling in for a while…