Radical Immersion

Modern engineering is mindblowing. http://www.pcplus.co.uk/node/3059/.

How sand is turned into the chips that power nearly everything.

Pay to play? Proof enough that social media matters as a way to shape the conversation around products and services in the traditional economy. See http://tinyurl.com/lbs75z.

This blog -- and more specifically, a big ramp up in my use of social media tools like Digg, Facebook, and Twitter -- began as an experiment. For 40 days, I used it as much as I could and more importantly, actively tried to learn how the various platforms interacted and the social mores of the different communities.

Going forward, my near term aim is to use this space to highlight and to explore what I'm reading. I don't want to blog simply to blog. I do want to use this space and medium in a way that adds value to my life, and perhaps, the lives of others.

Right now, I'm into The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace. I'm also slowly making my way through two Harvard Business Review articles, The Making of a Corporate Athlete by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz and Overloaded Circuits by Edward M. Hollowell.

What I'm reading now: There is No Alternative -- Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.

Of course, there are always alternatives but when the right alternative is presented convincingly as the only alternative, a great deal can be done. In fact, according to Berlinski, a nation and even a whole civilization can be turned from is present course.

Yesterday I ran 10 miles from Mt. Vernon to Old Town Alexandria. It was not pretty, but I made it.

Before the start I saw Randy Mah -- a talented young man who interned for me some dozen years ago. I also was stopped by Sarah Talbot -- although I don't know if that is still her last name. We swam together at Catholic University more than a dozen years ago. And, somewhere around mile four I crossed paths with Brad Blaise. He too was a fightin' Cardinal back in the mid-90s.

So how do you explain a gathering with thousands of people and I run across three different people who I haven't seen in a such a long time?

For those who are interested, unofficial one mile splits are posted below.

Mile 1 -- 9:54, Mile 2 -- 9:13, Mile 3 -- 9:14, Mile 4 -- 9:17, Mile 5 -- 9:47, Mile 6 -- 9:39, Mile 7 -- 8:52, Mile 8 -- 10:04, Mile 9 -- 10:30, Mile 10 -- 8:43. Total 1:35:18.

A report on security problems for the Internet for the six months ending December 31, 2008. Yikes, while overall number of reported vulnerability disclosures is down, the proportion of high risk problems and "rogue" security software are both growing.

The report is here.

TechCrunch is pumping up the idea of a Google acquisition of Twitter. Kara Fisher pours cold water on the idea.

Back in February the same idea was briefly noted on this blog here.

My key question -- beyond the personalities and dramatic cat and mouse game with GOOG, MSFT and other digital leaders like Facebook, Twitter and their financiers -- is about the potential integration of these companies. There is more to an aquisition than APIs and additional cubicle space.

At least superficially, Twitter is innovating its search, Twitpic, Twistori and related product lines and compelementary services precisely because it is small and can do so. With only 7m members and a relatively "new" feeling at the company, innovation can flourish in a hyperspeed Darwinian fashion. At Facebook or Google, the massive installed base of users and the -- relatively speaking -- maturity of the firms, their internal processes and culture are in a different catagory.

This article was featured by my colleague, Patrick Rogan, and is worth the three minutes it takes to read it.

One week ago, I stopped myself by slamming my left shoulder into a fence.  I had been making a right hand turn off of the Mt. Vernon Trail to head toward Four Mile Run near Reagan National Airport in Alexandria.

Is anyone out there reading Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler? If so, please email your thoughts. It vexes me.

I'm a sucker for these articles.  Noam Scheiber on uber policy wonk Larry Summers.

This is worth 2 minutes of your time if you are interested in futurists, the Internet and digital communications technologies.