Author: Brian

Cold and warm, I have called countless owners, executives, professionals, engineers, technologists, technicians, representatives, agents, staff, and unfed students (where professors took our mother’s money!).

Like all of us, I’ve leaned and I’ve waited on too many countertops.

Why counter retail?
Who invented counter retail?
When is counter retail good for customers?

“Overconsumption is no longer a signal of success…”;
“conspicuous abstention” is emerging.

…hungry for a connection between the things they buy and the lives they want to be leading — and recognizing that sometimes the best thing to buy is, simply, nothing.

FutureLabs says,
“Indeed, I think this hunger for more life rather than more stuff is at the very heart of a transition to a bright green future.

Many of us are already valuing experiences and relationships much more than toys and tools.

Recognizing that the stuff we buy can clutter our lives as easily as compliment them, many of us are looking for ways to engage with products and services that offer us the straightest line between ourselves and the people and experiences we value, and that same search is exposing many of the bedrock assumptions of marketing and advertising as pathetic ploys, making us more savvy about brands and the ways they manipulate us.”

The California legislature has passed a law requiring the manufacturers of WiFi products to put warning labels reminding users to password-protect their networks, and the state’s governor is expected to sign it.

While the bill doesn’t outlaw piggybacking — the practice of simply using an available, open access point — some are wondering if this is the first step towards making it illegal, since it notes “there is disagreement as to whether it is legal for someone to use another person’s WiFi connection to browse the Internet if the owner of the WiFi connection has not put a password on it”.

Securing on open access point isn’t too difficult, and the Wi-Fi Alliance is introducing a new program to make the use of Wireless Protected Access even easier to implement — so if someone doesn’t want people to access their network, it’s not too hard to keep them from doing so. There’s little ethical concern about using an open access point, and a lack of security is typically understood to represent tacit approval that it’s okay.

There have been a few cases of people being arrested or prosecuted for using open WiFi, but the legality of it seems somewhat clear, particularly if the network is being accessed from public property or if the radio waves from one person’s AP have traveled over to someone else’s property.

It’s unclear, though, why California politicians see the need for a law here — if people want don’t want others accessing their WiFi, they have plenty of options with which to lock down their network. They don’t need special legal protection.

Furthermore, if piggybacking is outlawed, where would it leave people who actually want to share their WiFi, whether it’s just an individual, or a business? Things get awfully messy there. If I want to share a network connection over WiFi, how do I communicate to others that I approve of them using my network? Physical signs aren’t a perfect solution by any means.

Overblown security fears shouldn’t prevent people who want to share their WiFi from doing so; for those who don’t, plenty of means exist to limit access without inventing another crime, let alone one that would be ridiculously hard to enforce.

via techDirt

Although the capitalizations seem to be inflated, there is no doubt in my mind that gas station convenience stores can be converted toward larger markets. Coke, Pepsi, Budweiser should be ashamed of their approach to this sector. 1000s and 1000s of customers are captured at every location — and they are underserved.

Any competent investment firm would easily expand independent regional prototypes into a new model. Conversion would follow.

Why drag these horrid cash cows into the future?

A business is not about shareholder value, or about making gobs of money. A business is about believing in something big and important and worthwhile, an idea that compels you to share a piece of yourself with the world.

It’s finding opportunities to work with great people pursuing similar dreams; people desiring to make their world just a little bit better.

It’s about realizing that your life has been blessed with amazing gifts and talents, and understanding that the highest purpose of those talents is to help others.

mantra at BuildV1

The people we work with are forward-thinking idealists – people probably a lot like you. They approach their companies with the same passion we approach ours with.

They believe that anything worth doing is worth doing in a remarkable way.

They understand that their business is a reflection of themselves, and they project the best of themselves into the company that they love.

Their businesses are a means to a livelihood for themselves and their employees, but they are also much more.

The west, it is sadly said, has lost confidence in the Enlightenment. It is quite common to see intellectuals state as a fact that the Enlightenment project has been tried and failed. This is a lie.

There never was one single Enlightenment project, and of the Enlightenment projects that there were, many have succeeded beyond the wildest hopes of their proponents. The Enlightenment provided the matrix I have talked of, in which scientific enterprises could flourish.

Now, our understanding of the world is better because of physical science. Our understanding of ourselves is better because of biological science. We live longer, and we feed ourselves better, and ‘we’ here includes not only people in first world countries, but countless people in the third world. We look after the environment better, and in time we will manage our own numbers better. Outside the theocracies of the east more people have more freedoms and enjoy more education, more opportunities and may even have more rights than ever before.

We owe this progress entirely to the culture forged, in the west, by Bacon and Locke, Hume and Voltaire, Newton and Darwin. Humanism is the belief that humanity need not be ashamed of itself, and these are its great examples.

They show us that we need not regard knowledge as impious, or ignorance as desirable, and we need not see blind faith as anything other than blind.

there are many things in which the world wishes to be deceived

Dust.
Animal.
Mankind.

Then we got lucky.

Space.
Design.
Thought.

if marxscared then hitlerspew
if mabutotake then osamattack
if devildare then doyoucare?

no one is lookin’ out
no one lookin’ out for me

blues in see

From Architectural Week Magazine:

Creating an edifice draws on an almost mystical process of imagining and materializing something from nothing, of developing original thought forms and manifesting them in the physical environment. Swiss-born Mario Botta provides a unique perspective on this creative process. He is best known in the United States for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is considered one of the world’s foremost architects for churches and museums.

Crap.

So many designs are mere pencils slipping on napkins.

Were architecture smart, landlords would be equitable. Land would share bounty. Effort would be our prize not our function.

Architects are whores.

I erected an expensive exhibit for the American Institute of Architects 1973 national convention at the famous Oakland Museum called “Americaville”, about 100′ by 60′ diarama of township and transportation in our 200 years.

After having the opportunity to build this exhibit with 10s of 1000s of historical artifact, records, photos and articles in research, it seemed to me that opportunism and patronage builds our cities.

Little was original. Less was designed. It was clear that neither architects nor designers were thoughtful, creative, or mystical. We fractured community and isolated commonwealth. Our cities suck.

Mystical.
Creative process.
Ha!

Cocktails build our cities.
Six inch shrimp maybe.
Hold that thought.

Despite the success of opensource, despite everything we have learnt about the way human networks operate, despite everything we have learnt about man’s make-up, drivers and emotional intelligence, I keep meeting people who just cannot accept the concept of altruism.

As far as they are concerned, man was born to be selfish. Period.

What a great rant.

The BBC reports that Chad has softened its demands for a stake in the country’s oil consortium, but is still insisting that two firms involved owe $500m in taxes.

Taxes may be one source of local revenue for Chad.

The President said Chad should have a 60% stake in Petronas and Chevron holdings – the same share that the two firms now hold.

He has now launched a commission to renegotiate a stake with the firms.

Government officials, MP’s, trade unionists and others will sit on the commission, local media reported.

There have been other sources of income to Chad over the years.

: a dilemma without redemption

This is an excellent title that outlines criteria required to capitalize acquisitions. It’s not extensive. It’s merely a journal article. Garry Barnes conveys insight in his writing and provides advice for leadership and personnel.

A bank customer wishes to purchase a going concern. By agreeing to grant the loan, the lender says, in effect, “This is a good business, and you are making a wise decision.”

Is it?

160,000 “proven winners”
503 “sex leaders”

Googlesez polygamy doesn’t add up

Years ago I bought zipcode domains until I couldn’t afford it anymore.

I wasn’t the first.

A party I do not know bought 100s maybe 1000s of .com zipcodes.

I took up some remainders in the .net, .org.

I had hoped community sites would be built. Where better than where community?

But something else happened. Folks followed fire.

The noise of the new has taken our senses toward selling.

And who bought craigslist? eBay.

Years ago before we had forgotten, there was ‘Community Memory’: get some

Dirt is dirt and we’re mud.
It’s likely unless we’re shut that as we get older issues will expand.

There was a clue I heard once:

“Older men carry out what younger men think will take too much time.”

As if to say, our mind grows, not shrinking; We are not a spending model but an expanding wonder we must learn to share.

Be prepared for bigger and bigger stuff to think.

This is part of why relations are challenging. It’s not always that our mates, friends and allies are less than we had hoped, but also that when we were younger we asked so much less and were pleased in any case.

My word for the day, today, ‘tolerance’.

skipping stones
pebbles
path

For years and years I tease onlookers, bystanders, guiletists and greedaholics:

“I’m nowhere nirvana.”

HA HA

get it?

HA HA
HA HA HA HA

A 25 year ally and friend asks if I can start importing a probiotic animal feed supplement (bags or bulk) into the USA, Canada or the Americas.

We’ve carried on as trade representatives and developers including major term agreements in coal, ore, tech, food commodities, but not technical agriculture products.

This Korean product is a powder containing various cultured beneficial bacteria.

An ISO Japanese firm owns purchase contracts. There are other important customers in Asia.

Studies indicate beneficial “starter bacteria” reduce or eliminate the use of antiobiotics in weaning animals– starting a strong intestinal flora quickly and displacing problems.

Large firms in the USA seem to contract and control formulations in house but it also seems that medium and smaller mills and growers may be interested.

I’m no expert. Can you assist?
Are you raising cattle, pork or poultry?
Are you working in our great feed market?

Can we distribute in the Americas?
Global business logistics isn’t necessary.
I’m asking if you will join with me to build new options.

Is government reactionary? Why isn’t government pro-active?

Finding cash to fund TV commercials is “the only thing that matters in American politics now”, Al Gore says. “The person who has the most money to run the most ads usually wins.”

But there’s something more important.

Gore continues, “…the average American watches television for four hours and 39 minutes a day. Astonishing, really. That’s why candidates spend 80% of their money on advertising campaigns.”

But wait, there’s more.

And he claimed the power of modern advertising had led to the ability to create demand for products “artificially”.

TV commercials lasting 30 seconds were “not thoughtful statements of policy” but were “usually emotive” and “well-tested” on focus groups, he said.

“Now you sometimes see, in extreme cases, advertising created before the product, and then the product is based on what looks as if it’s going to succeed.

“That same phenomenon has now happened to democracy,” he said, suggesting that too often, political parties made decisions based on reactions to their advertising campaigns.

Covered at the BBC

As we react to political advertising and news, popular strings and memes become marketing data for campaign policy and promoting candidates. Is this what our leaders do?

Miners unearth the coal and railroads must move mountains over the next few years to match the demand.

Union Pacific, the largest U.S. railroad, and second-ranked rival Burlington Northern Santa Fe are hauling record amounts of coal in trains longer than a mile-and-a-half.

Power utilities are unimpressed. The demand rises. Yahoo News

If there’s two on top, are they rivals?

A man in Dallas watching a live webcam in the United Kingdom stopped a burglary after spotting thieves trying to break into a store.

The Beatles fan was watching a webcam on Tuesday of Liverpool’s Mathew Street, location of the Cavern Club, the club made famous by the band.

On his computer screen, he saw a group of men climbing a ladder and removing property from a store, reports BBC via CBC News.

He called police in Merseyside County and told them what he saw. Officers went to the scene and arrested three men on suspicion of burglary.

Ontario has a much-heralded mining history. Prospectors are required under Ontario’s mining law to actually walk around the area they plan to stake, placing wood posts at each corner. If several people want to stake the claim, a race can break out. Whoever completes the circuit first and writes the finish time on the starting point would win the claim.

“We’ve actually had some new claims come open where companies have hired track athletes to stake their claims…”

story

How can we show that life is not predictably unfriendly?

When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were, and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him… For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth. Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

Coal has been the world’s fastest growing energy resource in recent years, and demand is projected to climb more than 50 percent in the next two decades, according to the International Energy Agency.

Demand for natural gas is forecast to increase 89 percent, while oil use will grow 57 percent. High prices for natural gas and oil coupled with limited supplies, give coal leverage.

Chris Preston, head of the research cooperative Australian Weed Management, was cited as saying that growing weed resistance would one day push up food prices for consumers.

Dr Preston said the first herbicide-resistant weed was documented in 1982 and the problem had been building over the past 24 years, stating, “Some farmers are down to their last one or two herbicides.

It’s not going to get any better – there aren’t many new herbicides coming along, and as farmers continue to use herbicide they will continue to get resistance. It’s a real problem for farmers and ultimately if nothing gets done, we’ll see a change in the price of food.”

The story says that new research had shown 33 different species of weeds had become resistant to standard herbicides.

About 18 of the 20 weeds that were the most serious problems for farmers had some herbicide resistance, Dr Preston said, with annual ryegrass, wild radish and wild oats the worst.

And resistance has been found for 10 of the 13 families of chemicals used to control weeds.

Farmers are stuck in a catch-22 in which many of the producers battling the increasingly tough weeds were making the problem worse. “The fact they are a problem means farmers target them with herbicide, which means they are more likely to get herbicide resistance – which makes them more of a problem,” he said.

“It’s almost a no-win, unless you can find other ways of managing these weeds.”

While obviously what we do — and who we are — on the Net keeps surprising us, we would be fools not to learn from our experience as selves in the real world. So, here’s something I think the real world teaches us.

The term “anonymity” has a bad connotation because it’s used primarily where there’s an expectation of identification. We don’t say that someone entered a movie theater anonymously unless we’re implying that the person had reason to hide her identity, even though, in truth, anyone who pays cash for a theater ticket is entering it anonymously.

So, because we use the term “anonymous” mainly where identification is expected, this may lead us to think that being identified is the usual state — the default state — in the real world. In fact, the rarity with which we use the term actually indicates that the opposite is the case: Anonymity is the norm in the real world.

Anonymity (including pseudonymity) does much good online.