Let them geek cake, including a baked re-enactment of the Enzo crash.
Muppet matrix – welcome to the real world.
As if break dancing wasn’t a good enough way to hurt yourself…now with added wheels
Neil Hopcroft
A digital misfit
Book review: High Stakes No Prisoners by Charles H Ferguson
A winners tale of greed and glory in the internet wars.
Charles Ferguson was a founder of Vermeer Technologies, the company that created Frontpage, technology now owned by Microsoft.
This book is in two sections, first covering the rollercoaster ride of Vermeer, the second, smaller section an analysis of the potential future(s) of the big players in the industry.
The first section describes both the creation and growth of the company and the background against which the company was being made. It contains many insights into the strategic decisions involved in manouvering a company through internet time and into the bright new future we were making back then. Along side some good information about the paucity of strategy from some of the upstart startups of the day. Netscape, for all the furore they were generating, were unable to really think about what they were doing, they were run by arrogant but inexperienced engineers.
The story takes us from initial idea, through putting together a team, getting first round funding, creating the technology, mezzanine funding, developing the technology, hunting for a CEO, generating buzz, second round through to eventual exit. All done with enough analysis to explain how and why he took the choices he did.
I got the impression he is quite full of himself, somehow, but to some extent that is justified, he’s clearly got a better idea of how the industry works than I have. How much of it was retrofitted after some years of thinking about it rather than thoughts at the time is difficult to tell.
The second section explores the outlook (as seen from the year 1999) of the big players in the internet industry. Again this is an interesting strategic analysis, if a little tainted with the arrogance of the armchair CEO.
A very worthwhile read for anyone in the tech industry, especially those with an eye on setting up their own company.
Perhaps its a little unfair to blame all my current malaise on my my job, but making a move toward getting out of there seems to have lifted my spirits somewhat. The question becomes one of what happens next? I’m reasonably sure that my long term future doesn’t see me staying in the Cambridge area, this is not something I can really explain, except to say that I don’t really feel like I fit in. Short term, though, its not a bad place to be.
Something I do want is to do more travelling, and I don’t want to get stuck in a job where the paperwork is the biggest part of the job rather than the actual work I’m supposed to be doing. Going to conferences or customer sites would be interesting, but how do I find a job where I get to do those things? That would imply a permanent job rather than contract, but then its difficult to find somewhere where you aren’t bogged down in the mire of buearocracy.
Also feeding into this lassitude is my social situation – I’ve been somewhat slow at reintegrating into British culture after returning from Japan. This, maybe, is related to the feelings about Cambridge, which causes which I don’t know. Maybe thats something I need to sort out, but I suspect that fixing the job situation will make most of the rest of it fall into place one way or another.
Themail – a visualisation interface for email
Post punk junk – at last podcasts that contain something worthwhile, I have a feeling I’m going to be going through everything here downloading it all.
Linkblast – reprise
Revisiting a couple of links from previous posts:
Scumball 2006 – now with dates, July 6th 2006 ~> July 10th 2006
Linkblast
“We’ve decided to let this auction go until April 20th, the anniversary of the Columbine shootings. We would also like to make note that we are not trivializing the incident or disrespecting the victims or their families”
Innovative lofts with a garden and a garage on each floor
From “Furry fandom” to “Anna of Russia” via California and Imperial Russia
Break the 4th amendment to search this luggage
Augmented Reality becomes a reality (for small values of reality)
Currently less than a human wreck
http://neilh.livejournal.com/261142.html – a very good meeting
http://neilh.livejournal.com/284382.html – quiet
http://neilh.livejournal.com/287118.html – time to move on
http://neilh.livejournal.com/292917.html – what happened to the future?
http://neilh.livejournal.com/299530.html – headache
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en.aspx?articleId=127§ionId=6432
So, looks like all the pieces are fitting together. At least I know whats happening. The first thing to do when trying to get out of these kinds of situations is to recognise you’re in them.
Given that, I’ve taken the precaution of resigning, on the basis that the uselessness pretty much corresponded with starting this job, and abated somewhat while I was away from it last week. Theres no immediate plan for what happens next. But thats not worrying me too much at the moment, finding a future I’m able to look forward to is more important at the moment, if that means taking a break thats what I’ll do.
Sorry I’ve been a bit of a useless friend over the last few months, if it happens again remind me of this before it gets so bad.
Linkblast extra, holiday special
Minifig Famous People # 17: Dick Cheney
Human Conducted Tele-Vision Apparatus
URBAN EYES is a critical design concept combining RFID technology, CCTV cameras and pigeons to create a unique service for urban spaces.
I have no idea what this is but I think it needs to be shared