New Florence. New Renaissance.

Guest Column: Technology and Scrapbooking

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Debbie Brown who is a Senior Sales Executive in the IT Services sector. Here she shares her memories via her scrapbooks.

“Don’t let the word scrap fool you. Though they may seem casual, scrapbooks have been around for a long time and require serious commitment. Mark Twain is said to have devoted his Sunday mornings to updating his.

Modern scrapbooks owe their credit to Alex Haley whose book and subsequent TV series Roots in the 70s caused a spike in interest in tracing genealogy. Then a lady named Marielen Christensen showed off 50 of her volumes at the World Conference on Records in Utah in 1980 and really got the hobby going.

I give credit to my interest in scrapbooks more to Eastman Kodak. From an early age I was our family photographer and I always loved to sit and hear stories about the people in the pictures and look at albums.

When I first found out I was having a baby (my son Kevin, some of you may now know as Carlos Santana - his Spanish name in 7th grade), a friend invited me to a Creative Memories party in Minneapolis, where we lived at the time. I thought I was going to watch her buy everything, and we both ended up with all the fixings.

Of course, I only took 8 weeks off,  and had delusions of grandeur that I was going to work full time, and simultaneously compete with Marielen’s huge collection!

I did keep up the baby book up until age 3 with the some basic technology - scissors! It was a labor of love and I hope Carlos Santana appreciates it.

Technology has impacted my craft since in many positive ways. I am not sure I could have done the next 2 projects without the new tools.

My mom turned 75 this past year and we decided to do a family trip and give her a “your life” scrapbook. I encouraged all family members to send pictures, and write stories on Facebook. I also emailed her high school friends. I started off wondering if many of them even have email accounts. At the end of 3 months, I had an overwhelming amount of stories, pictures, and embellishments! Timely investments in a MacBook Pro with iPhoto and a Canon printer/scanner helped me considerably.

We used the web for layout ideas – many great sites, though my favorite is  archivers.com. Michaels also has plenty of merchandise and books. The look on my mom’s face when she went through the pages of her life (like the photo below of her 14th birthday -friends, Cokes and smiles were gift enough back then) and all the stories people wrote was truly priceless- the best gift we could have given her.

I am now on my next project. My in-laws 64th wedding anniversary is this fall. They are de-cluttering their house and were going to throw away their pictures!!! (I asked them for all of them) . We went through some of them together and I wrote down their comments. I am using their comments as subtitles in my new project I hope to give them for their anniversary

This time I am using the Cricut – check out the video below. With this tool, you can cut letters and shapes out of any kind of paper or vellum. The shapes and letters come in different cartridges including ones with Sponge Bob Square Pants and Hello Kitty fonts.

My father-in-law proudly showed off a few photos which inspired the “that’s my bride” page above. My mother in law kept telling me how much she loved a few photos of them tucked away in an envelope. I asked why? She said she wanted her grandchildren and great grandchildren to know that they were young once!-So those two pages are going to be framed for their kitchen wall. I am also working on picking out all their vacation pictures for a scrapbook for their trips they went on since my father-in-law retired (he was a lifer with GE).

Watch out Marielen, I may still beat you!

Everyone who knows me well, knows I love pictures! They tell wonderful stories, and everyone who knows me knows I love stories !!  I have enjoyed the pictures and stories in this hobby series and glad I can contribute with my own way of preserving pictures and stories”

Guest Column: Technology and Asian Fusion Cooking

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Sameer Patel who consults to companies on performance acceleration via social computing technologies (also known as Enterprise 2.0) and muses on the Pretzel Logic blog. Here he writes about his love for cooking.

“I’ve been cooking for 18 years ever since I left Bombay (Mumbai). I’ve always been a food fanatic and have fond memories filled with visions and aromas of tantalizing stuff from the streets of Bombay to Lama Island in Hong Kong to the Kopitiams of Singapore and the floating market in Thailand (photo below). As a competitive swimmer and subsequently squash player growing up, 5-6 hours of training a day resulted in a voracious appetite. Thankfully, somewhere along the way my interest in sheer quantity evolved to curiosity around what went into creating the very best that I had eaten.

My style of cooking had two influences: my grandmother who lived with us when I was young and my multiple stays in Hong Kong during my teens. 

Most of my grandmother’s recipes were from her childhood on a farm, which now makes them 120+ years old. No zip drives back then to share recipes with others:) Cooking then involved taking whatever the land gave you and making one hell of a dish with it. Along with my own mother’s creations, many of these gems remained in our home in commercial Bombay where I grew up. Like good BBQ or original French cooking, you got amazing end-products from what we might refer to today as “tough cuts” or seemingly obscure ingredients.

I entered the working world at a young age with stints in the Far East, Australia, the UK and Australia that included multiple longish stays in Hong Kong. And that brought a strong Cantonese influence.

Both these influences means lots of traditional Indian (read: not curry powder from a package) and Cantonese cooking, still prevalent at the Patel household today.

Over the last 5 years, I’ve been drawn to perfecting certain ethnic cuisines that are for the most part an amalgamation of local methods and ingredients, and colonial/ immigrant influence: Singaporean and Malaysian food, and the French influenced Vietnamese cuisine. I love feeding of the fact that for 100+ years, home cooks in these countries experimented and then perfected the blend of hand pulled noodles, soy, and spices such as turmeric and cumin. And many more combinations.

When I use a new vegetable or a cut of meat, I often sauté a small amount with just salt and pepper to really understand what the meat or vegetable is trying to tell you (corny and low-tech, but true). Then I work my way up using the right cooking method and a few of over 150+ spices, seasonings and acids in my pantry. In my opinion, that’s how you respect the original version whilst still adding dimensions, where needed.  Looking forward, I hope to migrate my techniques and skills to Spanish and Creole cooking. Had this been a technology engagement, I am sure some privacy advocate would be warning me about the risks of that data portability:)

I try to be a minimalist in the use of technology. My toolkit includes Global Knives only (touch them and you’re dead meat), a well seasoned cast iron skillet, a pressure cooker, a wok, a grill and a braising pot. One thing that gets my goat in a kitchen is a spinning blender and so one of these will be my next purchase.

My time in the kitchen and on my workbench complement each other. To me, cooking, much like the pursuit of business acceleration via social computing constructs, is more craft than art. No canned recipe (or in business terms, a case study) ever produces the same results twice. No two ounces of coriander or legs of lamb are the same. Likewise, no two customer environments, circumstances, opportunity and appetite for transformation are the same. On one hand you need to embrace and feed off of inbuilt characteristics. And on the other, you need to know how to use additional flavors to enhance the experience. Oh and both require the presence of mind and objectivity to change course and rescue the final product should that perfect plan unravel.

Talking of social networks, I think this is an area where technology has been helpful. I far prefer Chowhound to Yelp when looking for restaurants. And my new favorite ways to discovering food related content are LazyFeed for blog posts and MicroPlaza for hottest links on Twitter, by ingredient.

If teleporting was a more mature technology, I'd love to have readers try out the establishments in Silicon Valley that make all of this happen for me. I procure most of my meats, seafood and spices and cheese and produce from Dittmer’s, 99Ranch, Madras Groceries and The Milk Pail, respectively. My butcher and friend, Mark and I put aside a small portion of anything new we might create, for the other to enjoy.

I’ll leave you with 2 tips. First, on the issue of chicken. With a few exceptions, I generally consider chicken to be God’s version 0.5 of a flavorful duck. For me, chicken brings little flavor to the party on its own. So, when using ground chicken (or turkey for that matter), use powdered spices and grated onion instead of chopped/whole seasoning. This gets the flavors into the meat giving you more control over the end product. Second: A little acid lifts the blandest of dishes. If you like making a curry that uses coconut milk or dairy, consider using tamarind instead of lemon or lime for acid. This brings the needed acid and a slight sweetness adding another dimension to the end product. More importantly tamarind, unlike lime, will not curdle the milk. In technology terms, a pretty impressive mashup!

Some folks prefer to do business on the golf course. Me? I'd do it over Pho or Daeji Bulgogi any day of the week!” 

Photo Credit: Pixdaus

Guest Column: Technology and Parenting

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is David Axson - author, speaker, consultant on business strategy, finance and technology. I met David over a decade ago when he was at AnswerThink and it's always a pleasure to hear him talk in that rich accent of his. Here he writes about the joys of teenagers.

“I have many passions: golf, reading, and being English figure prominently but ultimately being a husband and father tops the list. There is nothing I am more proud of than my marriage (approaching 25 years) and my children (Eleanor, 16 and James, 14).

In the bottom left hand drawer of my desk is file folder stuffed with letters and notes (and yes Kodachrome photos as at bottom) dating from almost 30 years ago. They start off rather formally with recitations of events at school and home before progressing to more emotional and personal commentaries on life and emotions. They document one side of the progression of a love affair that is now in its 30th year. My wife has a similar file somewhere. What will my children share? Archived text messages, embarrassing Facebook posts and YouTube videos? It seems that today’s relationships are long on quantity of communication and short on quality. The exchange of letters with my sweetheart was a weekly event, should one be late the angst set in as my insecurity took hold; now a simple text has replaced both the “Dear John” letter and the telltale “lipstick on the collar” as markers of a relationship’s prospects.

Phone calls had to be planned. The script was planned in advance to ensure my ten pence was spent wisely; and the call itself required queuing patiently to use the single pay phone in the college apartment block. Today the concept of waiting to communicate is as foreign as the telegram -- its texting or IM’ing all the time. The subject matter is almost always banal but how I would have loved to stay connected and, yes, share the trivial, in real time, back in ‘82.

I have learned that getting a response from my offspring requires a text not a phone call and that the only way to find out what is really going on in their lives is to hack their Facebook account. The GPS in their phones allows me to check on the location of the handset; this may or may not equate to the location of the kid. The GPS in the car allows my daughter to navigate successfully – what is a map anyway? Bluetooth means she is hands-free when calling to demand I order pizza for dinner. On the golf course a third GPS system allows my son to gleefully inform me that he blew it 20 yards by me and only has 87 yards to the pin located just 4 yards over the front bunker.

At home, sharing iTunes libraries is the dominant connection with my offspring. I introduce them to the delights of AC/DC, Def Leppard, and The Kinks, they reciprocate with Disturbed, Godsmack and Good Charlotte. Pandora and iTunes Genius makes for interesting new discoveries, a long way from relying on the impact an LP cover made in the split second my eyes alighted upon it while flicking through the racks at the local record shop. And I am pretty sure I did not express approval with my thumb back then.

On the road, midnight texts and early morning video Skype keep me connected – most of it for free. A far cry from the $2.50 a minute I paid back in 1988–free is better. In March my daughter flew to meet me in Frankfurt for a week of take your daughter to work (photo on left is from that trip) She texted friends while on the Rhine, emailed her French assignment from Prague and posted pictures of Checkpoint Charlie, before we reached the Reichstag. While traveling she found that she had left one of her assigned novels at home. No problem, a few clicks and the required text was on my Kindle and her GPA was safe for another day. Neither child is sure what Kodak does, has no comprehension of dial up, and prefers shopping online to hanging out at the mall.

I was lucky in that I shared some technological connection with my Dad. In the late-1970’s we sat together in his study staring at the screen of a Commodore Pet waiting for the BASIC program to load from the attached cassette tape player before engaging in a titanic game of Hangman while huddled over the keyboard. I think my son and I get a better workout, well our thumbs do, from an intense session of Halo or Call of Duty on the Xbox. Being an accomplished multi-tasker, he manages to discuss his Latin homework while laying waste to another wave of Nazi zombies.

As I look to the future, webcams for the car look are must, particularly one focused on the back seat! Retinal scanners should govern access to the drinks cabinet and my credit cards. Looking further out, I fully expect my wife to master the text message sometime in the next decade but for now I love that she still calls me up and actually talks to me. I hope my children get to experience the thrill of real communication and the pleasure of waiting rather than the instant, but often meaningless, gratification that technology enables.

Of course the benefits outweigh the costs and to date we have barely scratched the surface in the terms of technology’s ability to improve the quality of life - from medicine to education to environmental stewardship there is so much more to come. I hope to see some of it.”

Guest Column: Technology and Rafting

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Richard Hirsch who works for Siemens SIS in Austria, having grown up rafting some really wild rapids. Today he does it at a much more relaxed pace.

“On many a weekend you will find me rafting on a local river that is 5 minutes walking from my house. I can carry my raft by myself to the put-in spot (yes, the raft is that small) and the run lasts about 20 minutes.  There is one Class 1-2 rapid and the rest of the ride is fairly smooth water.

It’s a long cry from my younger days when a group of friends would head to the Sierras on the weekend to run the rivers.  I also participated on commercial trips on rivers with Class V rapids, such as the Tuolumne (as in the video below) and the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho.  These commercial trips were usually multi-day affairs where you slept on the river shore in tents.

I’ve been in rafts that have flipped in Class V rapids and ended up swimming under the raft as the water boiled around me. Exciting experiences with an adrenaline rush unmatched .

What’s the difference between Class I and V? This site defines Class I as “very relaxing” and V as only for “adrenaline junkies”, just shy of VI which is “Niagara Falls in a barrel” :) 

Even in the much tamer rides of today what I really enjoy is experiencing nature’s unpredictability. Interaction based on technology in my day job - either with others or with machines - is always under your control.  You can always step away from your laptop. Because of nature’s unpredictability, what happens in a rapid is always a little bit of a surprise.

But while I do it to get away from technology, technology has influenced rafting in different ways including:

• More durable rafts with the latest material (such as Hypalon)  has improved the safety of rafting by reducing the likelihood of punctures on the river. Such modern rafts are often self-baling (like in photo on right) which means that waters drains without you having worry about it.
• Lighter rafts means that portages - having to carry rafts overland to avoid difficult rapids - are easier.
• Lighter and sturdier helmets -always recommended when rafting more difficult rivers - increase comfort (think moisture and cold on these trips) and safety like the Pro-Tec Ace Wake Water Helmet in photo on left.
• Mobile technology has improved safety by allows rafters to get assistance when  injuries occur.
• The latest mapping technology such as GoogleMaps, Navigation devices, etc  provide rafters with information on how to get to locations that were previously inaccessible.

One of the more recent uses of technology is in the social networks that have been facilitated by the web. Rafting has always been a social sport.  Although it is possible to raft by yourself, usually you are in boat with others. This characteristic means that the sport involves group dynamics. Furthermore, your raft is usually not alone on the river.  On a particular day, depending on a river’s popularity, there may be up to 100 or more rafts on the river.  The interactions that take place between these rafts - either in the form of water fights or an information exchange about  upcoming rapids - are also what makes rafting so much fun.

Via rafting communities and social networks (such as River Guides) rafters are able to share their experiences about rivers.  This sharing can take the form of textual description, pictures and videos.  There are usually trip reports that have current details about conditions on the river.

Here is an example of such a description

“The Upper Wind starts off pretty mellow until Initiation, which is pretty much a class IV- rapid that just lasts a really long time. It culminates at Rams Horn, a class IV drop with a big hole at the bottom. For the next few bends there are numerous class III and IV moves and a rapid called "Balls to the Wall" which, on this day, was a center line with little consequence other than getting stuck.”

Inasmuch as rivers and their rapids change constantly, having an online source of information that reflects the most current conditions is very useful.

It is this unpredictability that often frightens us - which is one of the reasons rafting is such a popular sport.   Everyone enjoys a little kick of fear and then the sigh of relief when the scare is over.

Getting accustomed to this unpredictability and not being frightened by it is one of the reasons why I try to take my kids with me when I go rafting.

At its heart, however, rafting is a water sport with all that this implies. On a hot summer day, nothing beats lounging in a raft letting the current drag you downstream, waving to the occasional person sunning themselves on the shore and drifting under low-lying branches from trees hanging precariously on river banks. 

And in this environment, I have little need for technology irregardless of its form."

Guest Column: Technology and Cruises

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Edgar Moore, Professor of Music at San Jacinto College in Houston, TX. Edgar’s interests are varied; he is music director and conductor of the Sons of Orpheus men’s chorus, and he enjoys rebuilding classic cars in his spare time. Today we have his thoughts on technology in cruise travel.

“My wife Gretchen (who wrote about soprano singing in this guest series) got me hooked on cruising. She and her mother had taken a Western Caribbean cruise out of the port of Galveston and reported a great time. She started cajoling me to join her on a cruise to other ports of the Caribbean. Cruise lines have made it so easy to visualize the experience with virtual tours (as in picture below of a solarium deck) and to reserve via their web sites, specialized travel agents and even airline sites. Still, a whole week at sea sounded like an awfully long time to be away from the comforts of home, so we compromised on a five-day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale.

I’ll admit I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed that first cruise. The onboard Internet café made it easy for me to stay in touch with the departmental chair at the college, and the cell phone connectivity gave us the peace of mind knowing that we could check in with the dog sitter periodically while we were away. Onboard the ship, the theatre where the main stage shows were presented seemed well-equipped with the latest in sound and lighting technology, and we enjoyed the evening shows featuring singers and dancers in musical revues, comics, and sleight-of-hand artists.

Gretchen had showed me how we can look up the shore excursions available at each port on the cruise itinerary. In addition, there are a lot of cruise discussion boards, such as those on Frommers.com, where cruisers post their feedback on what to see and do when in port.  So even the time away from the ship was enjoyable.

Back on land I was in awe of all the technology on and around these floating islands – and every cruise we have taken since has raised my curiosity about what makes these giants tick.  I am far from being a technologist but have some sense of the satellites and routers which would allow us to stay connected while at sea. I can only imagine the sophisticated gear the captain utilizes to keep ship from harm’s way from weather and increasingly, pirates.  Cruise lines aimed at families likely have far more digital entertainment than we would know what to do with. The Disney cruise ship (photo below) has an interactive play space—a scaled replica of the ship's bridge—which lets children steer a virtual ship, play videogames and a bunch of other stuff.Bet they become cruise fans for life!

The environmental and sanitation systems work flawlessly most of the time – bad PR around that would travel too fast. The kitchen and restaurant systems allow cruise lines to provide an amazingly customized set of meals – twenty years ago, the most choice was around dinner sitting times! And increasingly, there is emphasis on “green” – so next-generation waste treatment, more efficient heating/cooling. And so much other operational technology patrons are blissfully unaware of.

Last month, we took a Mediterranean cruise, sailing from the port of Venice, Italy, which called on ports in Croatia and Greece.  We had completed our check-in forms online before leaving home, and the on-boarding process  at the Venezia Passegieri Terminale went very smoothly as a result. We were out of there and on our way to lunch on the ship before Gretchen could even finish the glass of prosecco and canapé she’d been offered in the Preferred Customer exclusive check-in area. 

I wonder how easy it would be check into the new Oasis of the Seas (see video below). with her 16 decks and ability to carry up to 5,400 guests. Can you imagine the architectural technology which went into designing the themed areas on the ship mimicking Central Park, the Boardwalk, and the Royal Promenade?

On our recent cruise, I noticed more passengers than ever taking advantage of the Wi-Fi hot spots on the ship. We did not bring a lap top with us, but we had no problems checking email or updating Facebook and Twitter at the onboard Internet café. One slight glitch was that the CPUs on the onboard computers were in locked cabinets, so USB ports were not accessible. When the ship docked at Mykonos, Gretchen had to go ashore and find an Internet café in order to upload a photo from her digital camera to an online personalized post card service she had read about, HazelMail.com. I suspect that she will buy one of those small netbook computers before we sail from San Juan next May.

Yes, we have already booked our next cruise! We booked it with the “Loyalty Ambassador” onboard the ship. His computer had access to our entire cruise history, so he could see the kind of cabin we like to book, the dinner seating and table size we prefer, and our member numbers and status levels in the frequent cruiser club. Having all of that information made it easy for him to get us booked in one quick appointment. He had a confirmation of the booking and credit card deposit sent to our cabin the next day, and we were set.

And after that cruise? I know that, having conquered the rock wall on the last cruise, Gretchen is eager to try the onboard zip-lines offered on some of the newer ships - The Oasis described above has one 9 decks high.

Brave lady - I will stick to mini-golf!

You can safely bet that the cruise lines will continue to bring new technologies  - adventuresome and less intense - to the world of cruising to enhance the customers’ vacation experiences and bring them back for more.”

Guest Column: Technology and Cricket

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is my good friend, fellow blogger and Gartner analyst Thomas Otter. Years of living in Germany have not taken the South African or his love for cricket out of him. Or the use of “s” where it should be “z” – so credit or blame me for those edits:)

“Some of my earliest memories are of playing cricket in the garden with my younger brother. At junior school, I was never a particularly gifted player. At the age of 10 I bowled a ball, and the batsman drove it back down the wicket. The ball, a Kookaburra, hit me on the eyebrow. I can still feel the dent today, 30 years later. It was shortly after that that I decided to be the team scorer instead. 

If I were to live in America, I would become a baseball fan. In many ways the games are different, but both games are bound by the common thread of bat and ball.  Also, both games rely on extensive use of numbers and stats to provide both real time and historical data. By the way in the photo I am holding what seems to be a hybrid cricket/baseball bat – it’s actually something I carved to size for my 4 year-old son.

The shirt, if if you are curious, represents the Kolkata Knight Riders of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Cricket is a global sport, though interestingly, mutually exclusively from countries where baseball is played.

If someone mentioned that England were 34/5, it would enable me (or any cricket fan)  to make a precise judgment about the state of the game.  Several hours of play summarized in 2 numbers.  From this, I can make some deductions about the wicket, the bowling and the brittle state of the English batting line up. It is this clever use of numbers to create an immediate summary of the game that makes it easy to follow a cricket game while getting on with the rest of your day.   A test match can last 5 days, but cricket allows and encourages one to get on with other things while at the same time feeling part of the action.  Cricket is the master of continuous partial attention, long before the phrase was invented.

As junior schoolboys our technology came in the form of a sneaked-into-class radio and a scrap of paper with the score passed around when anything happened. I think the teacher knew what was going on, but he understood that knowing the cricket score was a vital part of a good education.

But enough of numbers, I bring you my favourite cricketing moment, ever. Jonty Rhodes of Pietermaritzburg v Inzamam-ul-Haq  in the 1992 World Cup.

As I'm now living in Germany, I have not been able to see much cricket on television. There is more chance of the above mentioned  Inzamam-ul-Haq running a cheeky second than there is of German telly covering cricket, but thanks to the Internet, I have been able to listen to test match special (TMS) on the BBC.

TMS is an institution and cricket has a language of its own. Duckworth-Lewis, which you may know as a rather good band, is a statistical technique used to determine the required run rate in a rain-shortened game. The fielding positions have odd names, but to those who know them, when the commentator mentions 3rd man, silly mid off, gully, cover, cover point and short square leg and deep mid-wicket  they can imagine the game in action. Flipper, googly, chinaman, doosra, leg break, off break, reverse swing, yorker and bouncer are bowling techniques.

Baseball sounds so bland in contrast with terms like curve ball and fast ball.

Cover drive, late cut, reverse sweep, hook, and the switch hit are batting strokes. A well executed cover drive is profound elegance. Front foot to the pitch of ball, high elbow and firm but balanced follow through. On right is Sachin Tendulkar in action, one of the finest batsmen in the history of the game.

Cricket can enjoyed via twitter, as Boycott, Aggers, Blowers and several players are now twittering.   Here is Blowers, commentating on Australian Shane Warne's 700th wicket. Cricinfo has ball by ball text commentary, and when a significant game is on, it will gently inform me of a significant incident. The 2.0 version of the scrap of paper from my classroom days.

I'm still amazed how good umpires actually are, and unlike many sports, the players almost always respect the authority of the umpire. Referrals to a TV umpire are now allowed, for run outs and  with catches close to the ground. I think the cricket governing bodies doing a good job of using technology without destroying the spirit of game.

Technological enhancements such as hawkeye on left give commentators and fans an awesome insight into the game - and at times second guess the umpires

In Cape Town earlier this year I attended a 20/20 game.  This new form of cricket takes about the same time as baseball game. It is fast and furious, and it requires different tactics to the longer forms of the game. It is now big business, and it enables the best players to make serious, baseball like, money.

In lots of ways cricket is so different today than a century ago - 5 day, 4 day, day/night, 50 overs and 20/20, on the beach, in the street, and in a hotel corridor.

I enjoy them all. 

But in other ways, little has changed, as my 1902 piece of memorabilia pictured below reminds me:

“In a word the spring of the coronation year found the British public on the  tiptoe of expectation with respect to the doings on English grounds of the Antipodean cricketers who has so manifestly outclassed our representatives on Australian grounds.”

The Southern Hemisphere continues to be dominant :)

Guest Column: Technology and Restoring Cars

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Oliver Marks who takes a break from his job as an 'Enterprise 2.0'consultant and blogger to write about the joy of restoring auto beauties.

“My antidote to looking at the screen you're reading this on is lying under old cars and trying to get rusty nuts undone while road dirt and oil drop on my face.

I've been obsessive about cars ever since I can remember - I grew up in Coventry England, home of hundreds of motoring and engineering manufacturers creating everything from parts to complete vehicles.

I moved to California, easily the best place to live in the US for all things automotive, in 1991.  No one seems to know how the desire to collect old cars builds up as motor heads get older, but after having things reasonably under control for most of my life I embarked on making a CD Classic Jaguars Interactive in partnership with Jaguar Cars in the mid 90's and set up a motoring multimedia company

Jaguar's golden years were very much centered around my hometown Coventry and I got some of the important historic cars out of the museum there to film and photograph and had full access to their archives. Although I subsequently got sucked into the silicon valley dot com boom which was more lucrative than the motoring CD niche something triggered in my brain and I started lusting after owning old iron rather than just admiring it at shows.

I've got a pretty big circle of acquaintances internationally focused around obscure cars and trucks - the internet since its debut has been a godsend to car guys, and I know many more people through that medium. Forums and FAQ's are an invaluable form of shared collaboration between owners of specific types of vehicles, and the level of shared knowledge amongst people you'd possibly expect to be technologically illiterate if you met them in person is astounding.

While most people think of collectible classic cars as beautifully styled vehicles with glossy paint and lush interiors, it's the restoration and modification of projects that interests me. I don't have anything shiny at the moment although I am hoping to paint the 1957 International Harvester Metro van I'm focused on right now in early October - outside Rod's Radiator in Pacifica, a small town south of San Francisco right on the ocean. Rod recently boiled out the Metro gas tank for me. I have a friend who recently retired from his Jaguar garage who I got a lot of Jaguar parts from including a rebuildable XKE radiator so Rod will be doing that for me soon.

I think the 'change is as good as a rest' problem solving part of futzing with old cars is a great way to switch gears from thinking about business and technology issues, and I've actually solved business problems by thinking them through while pounding away on some mechanical problem or doing bodywork.

Of course, there is the physical workout factor of wriggling around under, inside and over cars, often with some vocalizing of ancient anglo saxon epithets. Admittedly, the dust, rust and solvents aren't conducive to the best type of aerobic workout.

My father used to rebuild the carburetor of our family car on the dining room table when I was a kid. These days we're at the mercy of electronic warning lights on the dashboard telling us to go somewhere with a dealer only software package that can read the error codes in order to have a technician perform repairs. In the 1920's stranded motorists used to take the sump off engines with big end bearing issues and wrap bacon around the crankshaft between bearing and piston rod and it would get them home!

I am lucky to have a basement shop space in San Francisco's Mission District under a commercial garage, but it makes far more sense to live somewhere rural where you can display your lawn ornaments (non moving car projects) instead of keeping them in the center of a large city down a steep ramp.

The upside is I can walk to my workshop and back from home, plus it's a good place to hang out. I just got back from dealing with rust traps on the Metro and have a few new problems to solve. Replacement parts aren't available so I'm going to have to fabricate a new version of the door jam that just disintegrated into fragments of rusty metal and road dirt. A lot of complicated curves and beading...but what a beauty!

Here's a tip to finish this post off: if you can't get a screw out of something because the screwdriver head jumps out of the head (or has mashed up the slot) use a cutoff wheel in a Dremel  tool to cut a larger slot in the head of it. You can then use a heavier screwdriver to exert more pressure on it and unscrew it. Ideally soak the screws with penetrating oil (Kroil, Gibbs or WD40) and use a bit of valve grinding paste on the screwdriver tip to help it grip. A whack with a hammer on the screw via a punch can help knock it loose from a rusted thread.  If the screw's head shatters you were going to have to drill it out anyway and a lot of the metal is already removed...

Now, what was that question you asked about Microsoft Sharepoint? :)”

 

Guest Column: Technology and Nutrigenomics

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Jeff Ventura, Director of Marketing for MiPro Consulting, a nationally-known consultancy specializing in PeopleSoft, Workday and Business Intelligence. Jeff is also the primary author and overseer of MiPro’s popular and eclectic blog, MiPro Unfiltered, which mixes industry news with web culture and general nerdery. Here he writes about his other passion – health research.

“If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now – meaning, if I wasn’t a web nerd – I’d be a functional medicine specialist. Since my early 20s I’ve been drawn to health, fitness and the role of nutrition in our lives, and today, with the very ground of medicine changing beneath our feet, these ideas are literally the beginning of a renaissance.

I spend a great deal of time reading some very good books about nutrition and the latest in preventative medicine, and at least once a month I attend lectures about food quality, functional/integrative medicine and the latest in nutrition. Coming soon will be my new personal blog, simply named Jeff Ventura, which will focus on nutrition and health.

Why is this so interesting to me? Ever since the human genome was decoded by the Human Genome Project in 2003, we now have insight into the software – our DNA – that runs our bodies and governs our health. The importance of this technological breakthrough cannot be overstated.

But we should back up a bit.

Generally, today’s medical establishment views the body as a collection of independent parts and areas of concentration, which yields a specialist-dominated medical market. If you have joint pain, you see a rheumatologist. Skin disorder? Dermatologist. Digestive issues? Gastroenterologist. If you ask your ENT doctor about your stomach pains, he will almost certainly direct you to a specialist. Doctors have their specializations and are reluctant to step into the waters of another specialist’s domain. It’s a world of referrals.

Our medical system is built on the diagnosis model, meaning that if doctors can provide a name for what’s wrong with you, they actually know what’s wrong with you. You know how it goes: a patient goes to the doctor, describes his symptoms and the doctor in turn diagnoses the condition and looks into his bag of treatments to address the symptoms. Nine times out of ten, this treatment is in the form of a prescription. These medications interrupt or relieve symptoms, but often do not address the root cause of why the condition arose in the first place.

We can take that further with a relatively disturbing thought: increasingly, a diagnosis is simply a categorization that is used to group people together with similar symptoms. A diagnosis has almost nothing to do with why each person has the symptoms. As an example, the director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, Thomas Insel, M.D., says the DSM-IV (the psychiatric diagnostic reference guide used by doctors) has “100% accuracy but 0% validity”. Meaning: the names we have for illnesses help us describe groups of people with common symptoms, but tell us nothing about the basic underpinnings of those diseases, let alone the treatment for their causes.

This is why the majority of people over 65 are taking nearly 10 medications a week. As we age and fail to address root causes of illness, we must rely on increasingly robust drug cocktails (whose interactions are poorly tested) to “manage” our symptoms.

Fortunately, as I’ve come to learn, this does not need to be our fate.

One of my favorite authors, Dr. Mark Hyman, (see video below) notes that today’s doctors receive almost no training in understanding how the body works as an interconnected series of systems that depend on one another. Because they don’t view the body through this systems lens, they have very little education in truly identifying disease root causes.

The new frontier of medicine is called functional medicine, and it has been brought about by recent technological and clinical advances. Functional medicine is simply the science of looking at the body as an interconnected series of systems and moving beyond the diagnosis-based model to find and treat the underlying causes of illness. Think genomics. Think high-res imaging. Think nutrition-as-medicine.

I’m not talking about quackery, but instead a fundamental change in how we understand our own biology and health.

From a personal interest perspective, one of the most exciting advances to come from the Human Genome Project is called nutritional genomics, or nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics is the science of how nutrition influences health depending in each person’s unique genetic makeup. We will know what genes need to be flipped on or off for optimal health and disease resistance given a person’s genetic makeup. No longer will we be strictly bound to the DSM-IV or ICD-9 to treat our illnesses.

It dawns on me that when we can treat each person as a genetic individual, we’re talking huge disruption. What this means for health and aging is tremendous.

Slowly, the macro views of diagnosis and treatment will give way to genomic-based analysis and treatment for each individual person. Instead of putting someone on psychotropic drugs for ADHD or autism, we will be able to know that the root cause is a lack of omega-3 fatty acids or improper vitamin B12 levels or a yeast infestation in the digestive tract or heavy metal toxicity.

I have about 900 words here, but could write 9000. Technology has provided us with roadmaps and techniques that can dramatically and permanently reshape human health and aging as we know it. For me, this is about as exciting as it gets, and I devour everything I can on the subject.”

Guest Column: High-Tech Horse

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Dave Morrison, CFO of shop.com who writes about horses. Unlike Mark Galloway who wrote about how his horse gets him away from technology, Dave describes how tech has got him closer to horses.

“Even though I began riding in earnest just 15 years ago, horses hold a very special place in my life and in my heart. I met my wife because of horses, and we spent much of our honeymoon in Italy on horseback, learning to jump cross country.

My relationship with horses began in September 1994 on Catalina Island. For those who are unfamiliar with Catalina Island, it is located off the coast of Southern California, 26 miles from Los Angeles.  Avalon, the only developed part of the island, and its ballroom were a popular destination for cruises and private yachts in the early 1900’s, particularly during Prohibition. The island was purchased in 1919 by William Wrigley, Jr., who decided that the island should be protected and its natural beauty preserved. Today, approximately 90% of the island is uninhabited and undeveloped.

During that first trip to Catalina I participated in a five day riding and camping “trek” on the island which is held annually by Los Caballeros. Los Caballeros was founded in 1943 by a group of Los Angeles horsemen who shared an interest in horses and in preserving some of the traditions of the early California horsemen. During the better part of a week, I got to play cowboy with a group of guys, many of whom are now among my best friends. (If you think the movie “City Slickers” you wouldn’t be too far off.) During the five days on the island we travelled everywhere, slept under the stars at “Black Jack,” swam with our horses in the ocean, and rode at night with a roof of stars and a floor of sparks from the horses’ shoes as they struck the rocks on the ground beneath us. It was a transforming experience.

I returned to Catalina every September for twelve years, got married and went to Italy to ride all before I finally “ponied-up” and bought my first horse three years ago. Now, my wife and I own three horses and without digital technology it is quite likely that we wouldn’t own any of them.

The “digital revolution” is the best thing that ever happened to equestrians. We regularly use the internet to search for horses for sale, research characteristics of different breeds, trace bloodlines, find breeders and trainers and even share medical records.

We actually found the first horse we purchased together somewhat by accident. My wife had been researching Irish sport horses online and came across a promising gelding in Napa Valley. After several phone conversations with the owner of the horse and its vet, we decided to have him trailered down to Carmel Valley near our home in Carmel to try him out in person. Although we ultimately decided not to buy that horse, we did end up buying an appendix breed (half thoroughbred, half quarter horse) named Grace from the same woman.

Back then, it was typical for owners and trainers to make a video tape to send to prospective buyers. Nowadays, videos are digitally uploaded onto trainers own websites or put up on YouTube and linked back to the trainer’s website (see below for a link to a video we viewed before buying our newest horse). One of the trainers we know here in Monterey County records every competition and most of the lessons that her students take and later uses the videos to evaluate the progress or performance of both the rider and horse. With inexpensive digital video devices like The Flip, it is very easy to record, upload and share these digital video files, and YouTube provides unlimited storage for free.

By the time we bought our newest horse Winnie (a four year-old Hanoverian, Thoroughbred, Clydesdale mix) 4 months ago, we had learned how to use the web and all the related digital technology to its full advantage. We not only searched across the US and Canada for several months and viewed countless videos online, we had digital X-rays taken of the horse legs. These digital images were sent over the web to our own vet and then to the veterinary school at UC Davis. Mobile, truck mounted X-ray equipment is now used all over the country to examine horses where they live, and these images can be shared over the web alleviating the need to put a horse in a trailer and haul it long distances for specialized medical care.

Equine medicine has seen phenomenal progress in recent years. With the advent of new medical technologies there are many options in treating an injured or sick horse. At the Steinbeck Clinic, a leading specialist care facility in our county, there are all kinds of ultrasound and laser equipment for routine care and for advanced surgeries – which as the photo on right indicates takes some special handling! 

We also use the internet to buy all of our tack, feed supplements, riding clothes, etc. online. Which brings me to saddles. Talk about technology enhancing tradition – the Tucker saddle that I own is equipped with all kinds of innovative features . As you can see from the photo on left, gels and chemical carbonization and ergonomic design principles have enhanced the old leather and wood western saddle quite a bit over the years.

We even have researched and booked equestrian oriented vacations online. So, the wide spread development of technology really has transformed the way people interact with horses… in a very positive way.”

Guest Column: Technology and Surfing

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Karen Watts, CEO of Corefino, which is pioneering Accounting in the Cloud as she wrote on the Deal Architect blog. She writes about how she relaxes with surfing.

“When I moved to Santa Cruz 10 years ago, learning to surf came with the package.  Like golfing in Carmel, wine in Napa and fresh vegetables in Watsonville - Surfing is what you do in Santa Cruz – especially at “The Hook” as the video below shows.

For me, even just one or two afternoons spent surfing works like nothing else to unplug and relax.  Every time my feet leave the sand and I push off into the water padding out, I am literally stepping off of the continent and into a new world.  Each paddle stroke through my hands puts a next layer of distance from me and whatever urgencies that were waiting for me back on shore.  Like a bird on a tree branch looking at the frustrated house cat on the ground below, when I am sitting out on the water and floating on my board, the view back to the shore is a welcome chance to exhale as much as it is a chance to put it all at a distance and back into perspective.

Surfing and surfers are not especially known for either the wide use or early adoption of new technology adopters.  We are seen much more as Spicolis vs. Jetsons.  However the past two decades of technology have not only dramatically altered not only surfing as a sport but also sent some of surfing most enduring icons, mythologies and traditions into the sunset.

From the adventure and magic of surf travel captured with the release of Endless Summer more than forty years ago, there has always been a romantic vision of intrepid surfers traveling coastal roads checking the swells and looking for ideal conditions and “secret spots”. Within a tight knit community of “true believers”, these secrets and mysticism were handed down within an enduring oral tradition and earned each day driving the coast. 

Like the image of a cowboy on the open range, this icon of the traveling surfer in search of a perfect wave is as charming and iconic as it is long gone.  Today’s surf cams and forecasting tools can not only tell you exactly what is happening at hundreds of breaks around the world, but tell you what they will look like for the next 3-7 days. 

Meteorological data and oceanographic models that used to be the province of only the top universities and government teams have been widely democratized across the web for surfers with sites like Surfline.  If you want to get a buoy reading off of the coast of New Zealand from your office in San Jose, you can get it.  If you need to know how that buoy reading will produce rideable surf for the next week to ten days, there are web sites for that too.  More still, if you want more personal opinions or a local insight the blogosphere is teeming with independent surf reporters offering daily assessments of the local surf if not up to the minute tweets for the more impatient. 

Technology has effectively transformed finding surf from an art to a science.  Though traditionalists and local surfers complained wildly against surf cams in the early days, their protests faded away in time.  That these new tools made finding great surf a near certainty has more than outweighed any disadvantages of a having a handful of new faces at their local break. 

Whether its professional big wave surfers flying to destinations to compete in huge surf on 24 hours notice or friends planning an extended weekend, finding is now simply clicks on the screen vs. miles in the station wagon

I have yet to personally witness a waterproof smart phone while out in the water, but I know its only matter of time before I will be able to download not only the latest conditions but also a photo of who rode the last wave at my favorite break. 

The surfing lifestyle at its core is about being at the right place at the right time.  When a great day comes, it’s rare, it’s special and it’s meant to be seized.  No different than great business teams that work each day to see new markets and seize opportunities as soon as they appear and well before they vanish.

Like to the enduring image of traveling surfers, there is the enduring charm and traditional appeal of a handcrafted board shaped by a known master.  Surfers used to seek out shapers who could work with them to create one of a kind masterpiece that could best match not only the unique style of the surfer but also the unique requirements of the local waves they were planning to ride.  The hand shaped board has been a longstanding symbol of the soul of the sport and I am a proud owner of an original Hobie and yearn someday to find a handmade Noll or Yater.

However I am well out of date on this one.  Wide accesses to sophisticated computer design tools and marine modeling software have unleashed a torrent of new deign approaches and creativity into board designs.  In a steady progression, digital design and manufacturing technology has driven today’s equipment to produce more and more refined designs and opened new possibilities in board shapes and capabilities. 

These new innovations have also demanded new approaches to materials and more narrow manufacturing tolerances than ever before.  As little as a quarter inch off from an intended template can make the difference from a board that works vs. one that doesn’t. 

At all levels, hand made boards have been almost entirely replaced by digital manufacturing systems that can shave boards exactly to the intended template of the board for the exact height, weight and style of the surfer.  Though these automated systems began initially as a cost saving device, they have quickly evolved as the core foundation for making advanced board design concepts become actual boards in the water.

However much technology is changing surfing, there’s still plenty of room for art and magic.  A day in Hawaii still stands out in my memory when one of the old men in the line up peered out the horizon then paddled about 20 yards deeper into the ocean than all of the other surfers.  With a minute, easily the best wave of the afternoon rolled through and he was on it.  Pure magic.”