Monthly Archives: April 2011

IIW: Investors Invitational Workshop

We’re doing something different at next week’s IIW: inviting investors. So here’s a pitch that should resonate with investors — especially in Silicon Valley, where IIW happens (appropriately, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View)… Here’s a chance to … Continue reading

Posted in Berkman, Business, Events, Ideas, Law, Links | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Overlooking Detroit

Got my first good clear look at Detroit and Windsor from altitude on a recent trip back from somewhere. Here’s a series of shots. What impressed me most, amidst all that flat snow-dusted spread of city streets, a patch of grids … Continue reading

Posted in history, infrastructure, Past, Photography, Places, Travel | 3 Comments

Royal pains

The Royal Wedding isn’t my cup of tedium, but olde blog buddies Eric and Dawn Olsen will be covering the show for The Morton Report, so I urge you to follow it there. I’ll do my best as well. Not … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Fun, history, Places | 1 Comment

Making the basket (ball) case

As a (literally) old basketball player, I have always hated dealing with net-less hoops. Full satisfaction for a shot well made requires a net. But nets do wear out. Schools and cities fail to replace them. So I sometimes take matters … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Awesome, Sports | 2 Comments

Let’s move tweeting off Twitter

Blogging, emailing and messaging aren’t owned by anybody.  Tweeting is owned by Twitter. That’s a problem. In all fairness, this probably wasn’t the plan when Twitter’s founders started the service. But that’s where they (and we) are now. Twitter has … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging, Ideas, infrastructure, problems, Technology | 20 Comments

Define the Internet

That’s my Idea For a Better Internet. Here’s what I entered in the form at http://bit.ly/i4bicfp: Define the Internet. There is not yet an agreed-upon definition. Bell-heads think it’s a “network of networks,” all owned by private or public entities that each … Continue reading

Posted in Berkman, Business, Harvard, Ideas, infrastructure, Places, Research, Santa Barbara, Technology, UCSB | 8 Comments

Overlooking Chicago

I know Chicago well — from the air. I’ve flown in and out of O’Hare countless times, always enjoying the view from my window seat. I’ve also flown over Chicago a lot, en routes from cities east and west. And … Continue reading

Posted in Aviation, Geography, Places, Travel | 4 Comments

Twitter failings

The first time I went to Twitter this morning, I got this: Before that, the computer had been asleep all night. I still haven’t tweeted anything this morning. There must be some meaning behind the message, but the message itself … Continue reading

Posted in Business, problems, Technology | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

World Wide Catacombs

What started as plain old Web search has now been marginalized as “organic”. That’s because the plain old Web — the one Tim Berners-Lee created as a way to hyperlink documents — has become commercialized to such an extent that … Continue reading

Posted in Berkman, history, Ideas, Journalism, Places, problems, Technology | 21 Comments

Dorothy Parker quote question

So I’d like to find authoritative sources for two Dorothy Parker quotes. Here’s the first: “I prefer the company of younger men. Their stories are shorter.” No idea where I got that one. It’s too right not to be real, … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Quote, Research | Tagged | 3 Comments