Monthly Archives: December 2009

Happy Early Year

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Doc Searls

It’s almost 3am in Zermatt, which turns into one huge party town for New Years. First we rode in from a nice day in Lausanne on a train packed with rowdy party-goers. Then we found Zermatt turned into one wild-ass … Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Places, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Matterhorn by Moonlight

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Doc Searls

There are mountains, and there is the Matterhorn. It’s all a matter of sculpture and presentation. Great art, great framing. The Matterhorn is ice sculpture. It was carved by ice out of rock pushed to the sky by a collision … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Fun, Geology, Life, Past, Photography, Places, Science, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Skiing is believing

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Doc Searls

The shot above is a pano taken by The Kid with my iPhone, which isn’t good for much else here in Switzerland. (Click here or on the shot to see the original, including larger sizes.) On the left is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Photography, Sports, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Progress

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Doc Searls

Back when I started coming over to Europe for work (mostly to France), in the mid-90s, I listened almost every night to U.S. armed forces radio (then called the Armed Forces Radio Service, or AFRS) on 873KHz on the AM … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, Past, Science | 5 Comments

Earth to Hollywood

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Doc Searls

Please get rid of the @#$%^& region coding. See, our family meant to bring along some movies when we came to Switzerland for our holiday vacation. Forgetting them was my fault. But not being able to watch other movies, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Still lacking in DIY ease of use

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Doc Searls

I want to give some linklove to Mike Warot, and point to his latest post, Indeterminant Intermediaries Imminent. Mike has been a stalwart contributor to the VRM conversation, and a thoughtful dude. A teaser quote: The future of the live … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, Live Web, problems | 1 Comment

And the longest night of the year

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Doc Searls

We passed the Winter solstice at 17:47 today, universal time, or 12:47pm Eastern time here in the U.S. It’s 4:02pm right now in Boston, as the Sun enters the horizon at the lowest angle of the year. From now until … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 1 Comment

Amazon runs dry

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Doc Searls

So I ordered a bunch of gifts from Amazon for my sister to open on Christmas. Did it all last week so we’d have time for screw ups. Turns out we needed it. I won’t go into the details (including … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, problems | 3 Comments

Do we want “smart” utilities?

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Doc Searls

‘Smart’ Electric Utility Meters, Intended to Create Savings, Instead Prompt Revolt is a New York Times story that perhaps suggests a deeper truth: People don’t want their utilities to get smart on them. Except, occasionally, on request. Like, when a … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Ideas, infrastructure, Life, Politics, problems, Science | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Building better markets. Not just better marketing.

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Doc Searls

The comment thread in my last post was lengthened by Seth Finkelstein‘s characterization of me as “basically a PR person”. I didn’t like that, and a helpful back-and-forth between the two of us (and others) followed. In the midst of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Future, Journalism, VRM | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments