New Florence. New Renaissance.

Technology & My Passion: Dennis Howlett and Scale Modeling

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Dennis Howlett, recently retired from Diginomica, which he co-founded.

He is a repeat contributor to this series. Twelve years ago, it was about home brewing. This time, it is just as exotic - scale modeling - mostly tanks and armored vehicles in his case: 

At the end of February 2021, after 51 years working, the last eight of which felt like 24x7x365, I retired. Planning for that event was two years in the making, part of which included picking up a hobby I left behind almost 50 years ago - scale modeling. 

As a Baby Boomer, the second World War was merely 15 years past when I started modeling. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the kit choices available in the UK were Airfix or Revell, predominantly in 1/72 scale, often British and German aircraft with some historic ships like the Cutty Sark and HMS Victory thrown in for good measure. Tamiya, which today is one of the most popular kit makers, only started issuing plastic scale kits in 1960. Firms like Dragon, ICM, RyeField Model, and many others would come much later. 

Back in the '50s and '60s, modeling was very much a child's thing, aimed towards education rather than a craft. Over the years, things have changed out of all recognition. Coming back into the hobby, I was amazed at the advances made in kit quality and the technology available to hobbyists. If you're so inclined today, there is no limit to feeding your imagination or the amount of time and money you can put into the hobby. It's not unusual to buy a kit for $50 and then spend twice that amount on aftermarket components and paint. Sounds a bit like your ERP project - right?

Why scale modeling for someone like myself who's spent a lifetime applying what passes for gray matter? The answer comes in three parts:

First, my father, brother and, son are (or were) artists in their different ways. At the risk of sounding boastful, my father was a world-class mechanical engineer, handcrafting satellite components that are still flying after 30 years. My brother designs and builds some of the world's most sought after ukuleles at prices to match. My son is a top-grade cabinet maker and graphic artist. Me? Art is something I buy. But modeling provides a ready-made, almost paint by numbers canvas on which I can pretend that I am making art.

Second, I'm a lifelong learner, and the prospect of retirement without learning was abhorrent to me and stamp collecting or flower pressing don't cut it.

Third, and building on the learning theme, my father was a 'tanker' at the end of WWII and part of the British Army Of the Rhine, stationed for years in northern Germany in the immediate post-war period. In common with many others of his generation, he never talked about what happened except for the fun parts. At school in the 1960s, history stopped at 1914. If you look at the 1914-45 period, it represented an explosion in military technology. So for me, that period represents a black hole but in which there is a strong family connection. 

Here are three models of different vintages:

British RNAS WW I armored car

German Panzer 38(t) tank

Soviet JS-2 tank

Today, with YouTube, podcasting, and other media, there is a wealth of content available that helps contextualize the military machines used in the last two world wars, providing excellent insights into how technology, economics, leadership, and politics played into the outcomes of those tragic conflicts. 

For instance, modern historians argue that a critical reason Germany lost WWII lay in its inability to standardize armor production. At the same time, the Soviets churned out 'good enough' armor by the tens of thousands. Germany often over-engineered (but under-designed) their armored vehicles, while the Soviets built theirs with a clear, practical expectation of utility at a bargain-basement price. German leadership constantly tinkered with designs, the Soviets had no such issues. The good news for modelers is that Germany's approach is reflected in the bewildering array of panzer variants available today in kit form. I know of a Canadian modeler whose obsession is the Stug III and he has more in his collection than anyone else I have come across. His knowledge is encyclopedic on this subject. 

But wait a minute. If you're in high technology today, doesn't that interpretation pf how armor was developed and deployed sound a tad familiar? Check out this tidbit from Dwight D. Eisenhower that talks to emerging technology from the perspective of someone who had an itch to scratch.

Complicating the problem of the breakout on the American front was the prevalence of formidable hedgerows in the bocage country.

Our tanks could help but little. Each, attempting to penetrate a hedgerow, was forced to climb almost vertically, thus exposing the unprotected belly of the tank and rendering it easy prey to any type of armor-piercing bullet. Equally exasperating was the fact that, with the tank snout thrust skyward, it was impossible to bring guns to bear upon the enemy; crews were helpless to defend themselves or to destroy the German.

In this dilemma an American sergeant named Culin came forth with a simple invention that restored the effectiveness of the tank and gave a tremendous boost to morale throughout the Army. 

It consisted merely in fastening to the front of the tank two sturdy blades of steel which, acting somewhat as scythes, cut through the bank of earth and hedges. This not only allowed the tank to penetrate the obstacle on an even keel and with its guns firing, but actually allowed it to carry forward, for some distance, a natural camouflage of amputated hedge!

How often do we see this today in the world of high technology innovation? I used to hear such stories frequently so, in a sense, modeling feeds into my understanding of how innovation evolves or revolutionizes situations in the real world.

Here's another more rudimentary example and comparison. During WWII, Germany was afraid that its enemies would use magnetic mines to destroy its tanks. It invented a factory-applied coating called Zimmerit, which was supposed to solve the expected problem. It added to cost but turned out to be a solution looking for a problem that didn't materialize to any great extent. 

On the other hand, the Soviets and Americans had good reason to fear the panzerfaust with its ability to knock out armor at short range, as used in urban warfare. The solution? Bedspring armor where bedspring frames were commandeered and welded to the turret and sides of tanks, areas which are vulnerable to panzerfaust attacks. Simple, almost cost-free, and effective. Today, the principle of applying a slat armor layer takes its cues from that 75-year-old idea.

By now, you should see a pattern that is not unique to high technology but reflects what happens when innovation meets necessity, or not, as the case may be.

More broadly, when you consider the history of armor from its first large-scale deployments in the Great War and right up to the present day, there are opportunities for modelers to dive deep into the history of innovation across multiple domains.

On the modeling side, innovation is running at an accelerated pace. For example, in the last couple of years, innovation in paint technology means that the ability to create remarkably realistic dirt and grime effects is becoming easy. Mig AMMO, a Spanish firm, is leading the way. Its latest 'shaders,' which were recently released, can be applied using an airbrush. This is much faster than applying oil or enamel paints, although it is an open question whether the modeler has the same degree of fine control over the effect.

BTW below is my new office. My paint bench and a stash of projects waiting to tackled and below that is my building bench with a Soviet T-34-85 in progress and at the bottom, my display case.

In Poland, VMS Supplies has developed a simple 'paint and chip' system that allows modelers to create realistic metal chipping effects in a fraction of the time needed when using other methods. I like the results I get from this technique, although it's not a 'one-size fits all' solution. In Latvia, Copper State Models produces a line of highly detailed and delicate WWI armor, while in Russia, MasterClub is setting the gold standard for aftermarket soft metal tank tracks.

What strikes me in all this is that many of the most exciting innovations are coming out of former Eastern Bloc countries. The same goes for modelers who are widely regarded as rockstars in the armor hobby community. 

These folk, many of whom are in the Gen Z cohort, make extensive use of modern media and distribution systems like YouTube, alongside Patreon, which some use to turn their passion into a viable income stream. 

Martin Kovac, who goes by the moniker Night Shift, takes this to a whole new place with a combination of incredible technique, art, and attention to detail. Martin goes several steps further, making his videos and Patreon posts both entertaining and educational. But most important is his commitment to answering emails and messages that, in turn, add a human, humble touch that contrasts sharply with some of the prima donnas I've come across in the tech world. I suspect this is because modeling is a dynamic hobby where everyone is constantly learning and keen to get help or feedback on techniques and outcomes. 

How well Martin's model scales is unknown. Right now, he's sitting on 160,000 YouTube subscribers and 871 Patreon supporters. He tells me he's learning how to pace himself and not allow the commitment he's made to become a burden that leads to burnout. 

The modeling world is not without controversy. For those interested in historical accuracy, there are many blogs, Facebook groups, and forums where you can find enthusiasts willing to expound on why a particular kit is 'inaccurate.' 

For example, Border Model - a relatively new vendor - recently produced an amazingly detailed Tiger 1 that is meant to represent tanks that fought in the Battle of Kursk. Purists have jumped in to point out the 'inaccuracies' with this kit. I get it, but then I'm equally aware that historical accuracy is often an illusion. And just where is the intersection between art and accuracy?

As you might imagine, I see numerous parallels between modeling and the world of high technology. It's something where you can go cheap and cheerful but don't expect great results. Or, you can go full-on customization through aftermarket additions, kit modifications, or scratch building componentry to achieve an outcome that shines, all the while having learning opportunities that expand the range of possibilities, even as your pocketbook is being drained. 

As with any IT project, planning, discipline in execution, and attention to detail are vital ingredients to achieving a stand-out result. And once you've got that great project done, there is satisfaction in knowing that you achieved something worthwhile that can be shared and appreciated by fellow modelers. 

Right now I have a Centurion Mk 1 (my father's tank type)(I am holding one in the photo at top) and a Soviet T-34/85, the type that entered Berlin in 1945, on the bench, pretty much ready for paint. They've both been a lot of fun while presenting new build challenges for how I imagine them once complete. I have another 26 armor vehicles to go at so plenty of road ahead. Onwards!

World Autism Awareness Day

Last year, Nancy and Jim Richardson had contributed (with an assist from Stacey Fish of SAP) to the Passion series here. They had highlighted the fact that plenty of focus has gone to the autism spectrum disorder in the young in the last couple of decades. However, as they get mature into adults, society has not paid as much attention to their (continued) special needs both in their living and working situations. With Smart Home and other technologies so much more could be done.

Today on the Awareness Day, the Business Chief publication carries an update from Jim.

Read them both and please help out in whatever way you can. Such kids bring a lot of joy to society and as adults they bring unique skills to a number of employers. We can do much better for them as they move through life.  

Photo Credit

 

Hybrid work!

Lots of people are looking forward to going back to a physical office sometime in 2021. At least for a couple of days a week. For years, we have talked about digital twins. We will get to try out physical twins!

My physical office for decades has been an aisle seat on a plane. I hope I don't go back to that at the same pace. But I don't want to miss out on the hybrid work trend. I could use a physical office where I don't do my Zoom or Teams sessions.

I think I have one. I used the one in the video to write one of my books a few years ago. Margaret has spruced up the ambience even more since then. The oak tree should provide a nice shade, and it is done with its annual shedding.

And I will have an office mate. Shadow, the neighbor's cat, spends plenty of time with us. You can hear him say hello in the video. Along with a few bugs - hey it's the tropics. 

I hope some of you come take advantage of this office. Another way to make sure I don't get on a plane too often.

Good to see Spring is here!

Technology and my Passion: Rob Kugel, Diving and Reef Check

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Rob Kugel, SVP & Research Director of Office of Finance and Business Research at Ventana Research. Here he writes about his diving and the volunteer work he does with Reef Check. 

"I love the ocean. I started with Reef Check in 2010 as a volunteer diver because I fell in love with California’s kelp forest ecosystem. Diving in them is like floating through a forest with fish, marine mammals and – yes – birds (diving cormorants) all around you, some curious, some skittish. And plants and animals unlike anything on land. 

Becoming a volunteer diver requires four days of classroom and in-water training as well as annual recertification to ensure the quality of the data we collect. On the first day of our classroom training our instructor kicked off the session by informing us that all Reefcheckers share a common characteristic: We are “adventuresome nerds.”

Cold water SCUBA diving is a different, more complicated sport compared to tropical diving. In northern California, you need a lot more gear and a lot more insulation to be in water that’s usually 50 degrees Fahrenheit (plus or minus). I wear a dry suit because it’s more comfortable and I’m always wearing a hood and thick gloves. And usually, dive conditions here are “less than ideal,” with limited visibility (25 feet is great; often it’s more like 10-15 feet), and strong ocean surge and currents. Some people find all of this too cold and claustrophobic.

Reef Check dives are a challenge because they’re heavily task loaded. You have to accurately identify and count a range of target organisms (specific species of fish, invertebrates and algae) along a transect and write down the things you’ve found, all in these less-than-ideal conditions and within the time limits of your available air. For me, there’s a lot of satisfaction being able to do all that.

There’s also the satisfaction in supporting California’s Marine Protected Areas by collecting the data that demonstrates that MPAs do what they’re supposed to do. Reef Check is also doing experimental work to help restore the kelp forest. Many people are aware of the threats to coral reefs around the world. Few are aware of the devastation of the west coast's kelp forests over the past decade caused in part by a sea urchin population explosion that was the result from an epidemic die-off of sea stars, their main predator. Reef Check is leading projects in California that are designed to find ways to restore the kelp forests.

Five years ago, I joined the board of Reef Check Foundation and I’m also a member of our executive committee. Reef Check began in 1996 to do the first coordinated worldwide scientific assessment of the health of coral reefs. That work confirmed the rising phenomenon of coral reef bleaching. Reef Check’s mission is to save our reefs and oceans and ensure their sustainable future through education, research, and conservation. We have completed nearly 15,000 surveys in over 100 countries. We train thousands of citizen scientist volunteers every year around the world to survey the health of tropical coral reefs and kelp forest ecosystems along the entire coast of California. Government bodies, NGOs and academic organizations use the data we collect to improve natural resources management. Reef Check programs provide ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions built on partnerships among community volunteers, government agencies, businesses, universities, and other nonprofits.

Here’s a video that I created and narrated to provide a short introduction and explanation of our mission. Most of the technology that we use is embodied in the refinements made of the past 50 years in SCUBA gear. When you watch the video, you’ll see that our survey work is all manual. You have a tablet for securing underwater paper and a pencil to record your findings, a dive light and a 30-meter tape. We’ve tried to find ways to use underwater cameras and video processing software to eliminate or reduce the need for humans but (so far) it’s not practical." 

Technology and my Passion: Alan Alper and Pandemic Positives

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Alan Alper, Cognizant’s VP of Thought Leadership Programs. This time every year he is usually reporting to me from the annual WEF event in Davos, Switzerland (here is last year's). This year, however, he writes about adjustments during the pandemic and how he has learned to see the positive side of so much in life.

"I wrote a version of this at the start of the pandemic. When Vinnie approached me to write in his Passion series, I immediately thought of our black Lab, Nigel. Actually, there is so much more I have come to appreciate.

My wife has an underlying condition, so we have been in extreme isolation for almost a year and will be so until at least our second vaccine shot - we had our first this week. Other than to retrieve money to pick up our pandemic puppy, Nigel and to bring him to the vet for his first checkup, we have essentially stayed put in our suburban Massachusetts home – other than to take Nigel on his four daily walks in the neighborhood. (Three Nigel references in one sentence says it all!)

What a drag; we really miss hugging our kids (although our Boston-based daughter has stopped by to see Nigel, while maintaining social distance), as well as visiting our extended families and friends near and far. As a former hardboiled New York journalist, I tend to be dispassionate about emotional connections as my wife will attest; I am a just-the-facts kind of guy.

But as the prolonged COVID crisis shifts from winter to spring, and soon, to summer … I never thought we’d still be suffering from coronavirus in mid-winter 2021 … I am softening -- or at least more appreciative/understanding/aware of the human condition. As a result (and to reaffirm that we are all in this together), I thought I’d share 10-top learnings about myself and the people I’ve encountered (from afar).

1. People are friendlier. Everyone we encounter on Nigel’s daily bathroom breaks stops to speak with us – from a distance, of course. We are original home owners in our neighborhood and missed the last changeover to a new, younger group. I’ve learned more about my neighbors and their interests in the last few months than I had in the last five years. The same goes for my Cognizant family; amid the pandemic, I’ve interacted with more of my colleagues on issues that extend well beyond business, which is heartening in spite of the adage of how misery loves company.
2. Everyone needs a companion – pet or otherwise. Clearly my marriage of 34 years has stood the test of time, but the COVID crisis made clear that our companionship in extreme isolation wasn’t enough for my wife. She adores Nigel, who worships the ground that she walks on. He tolerates me; and I am learning to love him. He is the talk of the neighborhood; perhaps that’s why everyone (including the little kids) stops to speak with us/him. Nigel has princely status in our neighborhood; everyone wants an audience with him!  
3. News junkie no more. As a recovering journalist, my life pre-COVID revolved around daily newspapers, evening TV news and online news services. I lean left and still read the NYT daily summary, but I am staying away from the doom and gloom of 24-hour cable news! It’s way too disheartening and unhealthy. I still limit my cable news consumption … still reeling from 2020’s never-ending negativity.
4.  Maintaining a stiff upper lip. I’ve worked from home for 15-plus years, but I get melancholy now and again from the monotony of the prolonged lock-down. Feels like #WFH should be #SAH (pronounced, SIGH, for stuck at home) but I power through with positive thinking and the realization that humankind will survive – although we can’t expect a return to anything approximating normalcy any time soon. Nor will business as usual in our professional and personal lives ever return in the post-COVID age. Microsoft Teams helps me to productively connect with co-workers and business partners – although I’m learning that video fatigue is a real thing. 
5. Playing things by ear. I have rediscovered my musical passion; just wrote a new song for the first time in 35 years – Apocalypse (Not). I was a musician in my youth and even recorded a New Wave EP in the day. I will share this song with anyone who is interested – once the scratch track is converted to something a bit more polished. 
6. I appreciate the little things. Blue skies; green grass; budding flowers -- all of nature’s bounty. Self-grooming (beard, until I removed it earlier this year, eyebrows, earlobes, etc.) are my new preoccupations. And there is my new fondness for skin moisturizer – thank goodness there is a salve for my dishpan hands from the incessant washing! Sadly, I haven’t figured out how to cut my own hair and won’t burden my wife with it … perhaps in six weeks once the vaccine takes full effect???
7. Our adult children really care about us! As mentioned, my daughter has visited us periodically since Nigel came on the scene but we’ve had a familial awakening compliments of FaceTime! My son, who lives in LA, is a regular -- when he’s not working. We FT with both kids daily and actually have things to talk about. We miss our families; thank goodness for Zoom, just wish my 91-year-old father could get with the program. My brother bought him an Amazon Echo Show so we could observe him from afar… his mastery of it is hit or miss, unfortunately.
8. E-commerce is our new way of life. Since we can’t go to the store for even essential services like food, we’ve discovered the joys of online shopping and delivery (thanks for the most part, Mr. Bezos) -- from groceries to meds and gardening (flowers, shrubs, etc.).DoorDash has become our go-to (or is it come-to?) for eating in, although curbside pick-up at our favorite local eatery (Bar Athena) is a reasonable replacement for eating out. Instacart is a godsend when it comes to immediacy – got to love the delivery folks who place their lives on the line. Still loving the e-convenience of online shopping; not sure if or when I will ever set foot in a physical store! Or a doctor’s office – unless I am deathly ill. However, I am reserving my first virtual visit until I really need one (our extreme isolation has kept seasonal contagions at bay).
9. Admire/love the first responders. They’ve earned my respect and gratitude during these trying times; enough said. Double -- no triple that – now after a year
10. Sans live sports, I’ve learned to do without TV on the weekends. As a native New Yawker, I love (my wife would say I am addicted to) my NY sports teams. The return of live sports has been wonderful – but I tend to not watch as much as I used to. In fact, my wife constantly catches me dozing off at critical junctures so I rarely watch a full game.

This provides more time for reading, bike riding (at reduced distances since I stay off the clogged public rail trail, which I will resume once the winter snow melts) and regaling to music (both listening and playing), when I am not working around the house or on Cognizant afterhours projects.

And it leaves time for walking and playing with Nigel, because as the old XTC song goes, “We’re only making plans for Nigel”!

Technology and my Passion: Sandy Silverberg as a Broadway Producer

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Sanford (Sandy) Silverberg who as his LinkedIn profile shows has had an amazingly varied career in banking, technology, non-profits and several other fields.  In 2017, he met and later married his late wife, Diana Amsterdam, an accomplished published writer. Through her influence, he continues to pursue an additional career as a New York City theatrical producer. It is a truly inspiring love and life story.

"My wife, Diana Amsterdam, was a writer, an award-winning writer, a Times-reviewed writer. She wrote books, movies, TV. And she wrote plays. Because of her, I now produce plays. My passion is to cement her legacy by bringing one of her plays to a Broadway stage in the next few years.

Though we were not of a generation steeped in technology, we both were confident and comfortable in that world and it was a through-line that ran in our lives.

We met on Match.com, not surprisingly seduced by the words in each other’s profiles. After two months of dating and growing affection, she let me know she had metastatic breast cancer (MBS). MBS is a death sentence despite constant advances in treatment that extend life. She offered to “release me” because of that reveal. I declined.

In the summer of 2018, Diana was lamenting the lack of progress on one of her pieces, The Way Out (previously The Dodgers). The play had had a developmental run in Los Angeles with a star-studded cast and had been optioned for one year by a Broadway producer. But momentum had stalled and she was faced with the decision about renewing the option for another year with the same producer and, likely, another year of lost momentum.

Unhappy with her frustrations, I offered to produce her play in New York if the other producer would relinquish the option. I should note that, while I have had some involvement in the performing arts over the years, I had never done anything like this. Yet, the more I looked into it, the more I felt like my skillsets achieved over four decades as an entrepreneur and as a Board member in numerous performing arts non-profits, fit well with those necessary to be a producer.

In mid-summer 2018, Diana was my girlfriend. By December of that year, we were engaged and in January, 2019, we were married at an intimate ceremony at my sister’s home in Stamford, Connecticut. Diana had had a resurgence in her cancer and was on chemotherapy at the time. Though we raced to get her play staged for her and for the world, she succumbed to the cancer, after a decade of struggle and survival, in November, 2019. She never owned the cancer and it never owned her until the very end. it was never “her” cancer. It was a foreign enemy to be defeated at all costs. This picture above is of Diana and me on her last family outing in September, 2019.

I bought the option to Diana’s play, They Out, in August 2018. I immediately formed Sanford Silver Productions, LLC and proceeded to educate myself on what I would need to know to produce The Way Out. Suffice to say, my background in technology was instrumental in how I built this company from the ground up.

In addition to the standard stack of applications like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, QuickBooks, I also immediately registered my domain, created a website using WordPress and Elementor Pro and created subscriptions to HubSpot as my CRM and Mailchimp as my email communications vehicle.

I used online services marketplaces such as Fiverr to create branding and marketing assets such as logo, fonts and color palettes. I leveraged the often-underestimated capabilities of Microsoft Publisher to create marketing pieces that immediately added a professional, experienced patina to Sanford Silver Productions and specifically the play we were producing.

In fact, I created a marketing campaign which was so original and unique that a number of prominent and successful Broadway Producers have asked to use the materials as a positive  example of creative marketing as they speak in classes and public forums.

One of them, Tony-award-winning Producer Ken Davenport, did a 30-second reveal of the marketing piece on his Instagram feed, commenting “This wins the prize for the best invitation I’ve ever received. Well done”. Mr. Davenport produces a widely-distributed training program for producers called The Producer’s Perspective. He has included this marketing effort in his training course.

I have continued to expand my knowledge and expand my presence in the New York theater community. I was accepted into and successfully completed a training course on all aspects of producing called the Producers Development and Mentorship Program (PDMP.) The course is offered by a 27-year-old theater non-profit in New York City called Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU). Subsequent to completing the Masters track of that program, I was asked to join their Board and now serve as TRU Board Chair.

At this moment in time, we continue development on The Way Out. As a result of a reading in 2020, a young Tony-award-winning production company has stepped up to co-produce the play with Sanford Silver Productions. The script is being expanded and locked down and will shortly be offered for a developmental run prior to its appearance on Broadway. Below is a picture of the cast of The Way Out reading in February 2019.

Because of her indomitable spirit, I nicknamed Diana “Titanium Girl.” During one of her last hospitalizations, Diana and I created a blog site for her called TitaniumGirlFightsCancer.com. Diana wrote and posted relevant and personal perspectives on her fight with cancer to the benefit of others struggling with cancer. It quickly garnered a following and she continued to post sage and useful advice to the benefit of all until just days before she passed. I commissioned a drawing of her to help her visualize the fight and defeat the intruder. She kept it on her wall and we took it with us when she was hospitalized. This is that drawing. It lives on my walls now, reminding me every day of her strength, her will, her lifeforce. It keeps me striving to be the producer she believed I could be."

Technology and my Passion: Susanne Beck and Jigsaw Puzzles

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Susanne Beck, returning to write about her other passion, working on jigsaw puzzles. She wrote about stained glass last year. 

"Jigsaw puzzles saved my sanity during the current pandemic. I was never too passionate about puzzles - they were something to do when it was too cold or rainy to be outside. But last June, while rummaging through a closet I found an unopened puzzle and decided to give it a try. It did not take long for me to realize that while concentrating on tiny, colorful cardboard pieces, the world's troubles seem to vanish.

Then for my 74th birthday, I was given a 1,000 piece Tampa Bay Rays puzzle. OMG - talk about complex! 40,000 fans each the size of a pinhead and a huge green outfield with few distinguishing features. I was intrigued.

The puzzle was so daunting that I realized I needed a strategy. First, I sorted the pieces by category: the outside border, fans in the stands (sub-divided into people facing right, left and in front), the play field and finally the signs (scoreboards, advertisements and Rays logos). I ended up with the dining room table covered with half a dozen Tupperware bowls filled with pieces. Gradually, the puzzle came together. I worked on it for hours at a time only stopping when my back hurt too much to continue.

With this new pastime, I decided to do some research, with some help from Google. I learned that jigsaw puzzles were invented by an English map engraver named John Spilsbury in the 1760s. His goal was to help local school children with their geography lessons. Spilsbury would create maps on wood, then cut out each country with a jig or scroll saw. The kids would recreate the maps as part of their class work. I used to teach so can relate to his ingenuity.

In the early 1900s, Parker Brothers began creating puzzles in the US and there has been steady progress since - interlocking pieces, cardboard instead of wood (accelerated when plywood was in short supply during WWII) and mass production.

Did you know Buffalo, NY was to puzzles what Detroit was to autos? Buffalo produced almost half the puzzles sold in the US. They used to glue photographs on cardboard and feed to a cutting disc. Alternatively, they were stamped with a metal template which used sharp metal edges to stamp out the pieces.

These days, companies use lasers to precisely cut the pieces. Heck, you can even get your own personal laser as this YouTube video shows

 

I am not ready to make my own puzzles but do like to customize mine. Fortunately, you can do so on-line. That is even better given that I was not comfortable going into a store with COVID risks.

Jiggy Puzzles has a small but beautiful collection, and come in a nice 10" round container but cost $50 plus shipping.  

Puzzle Warehouse has a much bigger selection, but many of the pictures - the subject matter, colors, designs or gothic or modernistic art style did not appeal.

If I am going to spend weeks on a puzzle, I want one that I will love when I am done like this of an albatross duo.

If you don't want to wait, don't want to customize, and are comfortable going into a store, Walmart has a large selection costing between $8 and $20.

For Christmas, I decided to get creative and go with photo puzzles. My 8 year old nephew got a 48 piece puzzle and my 6 year old niece got a 30 piece gift. I treated myself to a 1,000 piece puzzle of my two dogs. They all turned out beautifully.

Well, I have to go now - my latest puzzle just arrived and is waiting for me at the dining table!"

Technology and my Passion: Barbara Boardman and Beekeeping

Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.

This time it is Barbara Boardman, who has tried her hand at a wide range of jobs in petroleum land management, aviation, teaching, selling and much more. Her attitude is so positive: "I got by better than most and am succeeding magnificently in retirement and COVID19 isolation."  Here she writes about her beloved bees.

"When Vinnie asked me to write about my passion for beekeeping, I had to pause and think about the word passion. It is true; I am passionate about bees. I’ve loved bees since fifth grade when I was mesmerized by the waggle dance of worker bees during a science film. I have  managed honey producing beehives for two years and harvested my first 80 pounds of golden delicious honey last summer. 

I am proud to be a lifelong learner, taking some sort of course every few years. First after college was ornithology. Then Mark Twain. I’ve never played soccer but became a soccer  coach. And, I got a huge charge from my life drawing class in Hawaii. I must do that again!

I come from a family of outdoorsmen and environmentalists, so community service through Citizen Foresters and Master Composters was natural. But, the science of technology leaves me cowering in trepidation. My dad had a wild bee colony which nested in the wall of his office/man cave. He would retreat to his space each afternoon with his first bourbon to listen to talk radio and the bees. The music of bees was succor to him; their buzzing was solace to his soul. When he shared it with me, I was hooked.

I waded into beekeeping slowly, seven years ago and in my sixties, by attending a few Beekeeper Association meetings. I mustered courage to take a Beekeeping for Bee-giners  class at UT Arlington, yet I’d never been around a bee hive except at state and county fairs. Dad’s bees were never aggressive. There are guard bees which circle in the air 15 feet or higher watching for danger. If I’d make too quick a movement or get too close taking photos, one might zoom down as a warning. Bees do not sting without good reason as it is certain death to the bee.

Technology and beekeeping became more closely connected for me in 2020! Like many of my generation, we love to hate technology. I attend online virtual class and beekeeper association meetings monthly. I take screen shots rather than notes on legal pads. And now, through these meetings, my associations with other beekeepers is strengthened.

YouTube is another vital learning tool and boredom buster. When the weather is too cold for bee work, YouTube beekeeper videos keep  me entertained for hours. 

And the cell phone that we all carry constantly and now take for granted? I journal my hive inspections in my phone. I photograph interesting or concerning situations and share through Facebook beekeepers groups for input from other beeks. (Beeks = Beekeepers). And my favorite tech tool is the phone camera. If I photograph a thick frame of bees, I can  quickly use the zoom magnifier to see a healthy queen or a worker with a defect or check for the presence of tiny eggs in the brood comb. 

I love the structure and organization of a bee hive. The science is inspiring and complex.  Beekeepers find so many paths to connect with each other, be it honey production or trucking crop pollinators, or side lines with honey and wax products like lip balms. Ask a group of beekeepers a question and you will get a different creative answer from each, and all wanting  to support the new beek and connect with each other.

Within the colony, when a young bee emerges from her cell she cannot fly. Her first job for the colony is to nurse the baby bees, next she is promoted to feeding and tending the queen and preparing the honey. As she becomes a better flyer she may advance to scout or pollen gatherer or guard. There is only one queen in every hive, and her job is to mate and lay eggs and if something happens to her, the worker bees will nurture a new queen from the eggs the previous queen left. The only males in a hive are drones whose only job is to mate with queens. They look busy; they really aren’t.

My very favorite thing to do related to my pastime of beekeeper is to just sit near them. To  watch them come and go and listen to them buzz while I lounge nearby is truly a meditation  and can easily lead to delicious napping. 

Do I get stung? Not often, but I have learned to have a firm grip on the hive box or my tools.  Bees do not like to be jostled or startled. They are protected and in most areas it is against the law to kill them with poison. In every community there are people you can contact to cut the bees out of your wall, window air conditioner or water meter. Just Google "bee removal" and make sure they are beekeepers and not pest control.

I have helped cut out three wild hives from buildings. Old houses have lots of nooks and crannies attractive to bees. A friend uses a heat gun, device that uses a Hti HT-18 Thermal Imaging Camera to find the heat and energy of bees within a wall. I helped him with this massive cutout. It is such fun to see the wax comb as it has been made free form by feral bees. 

Honey is naturally antibacterial, antimicrobial and antiseptic. You should always get local, raw,  unprocessed honey. A spoonful in your morning routine can do much to help you fight a virus  or bacterial infection. Many allergy sufferers swear by local honey, made from the same pollen  that triggers your allergies. Eat a dripping spoonful each day to ward off allergic reactions.  Honey never goes bad. All honey crystallizes. To make it liquid again, just put the jar in a hot  water bath (from the tap to a bowl) and never microwave the container. 

To get the most benefit for your immune system and to fight seasonal  allergies, it is most important to buy honey from your local area. Recently at the grocery store, I read the labels on the Texas honey shelf. One familiar brand that I have purchased boasts Texas Honey but is actually labeled in tiny print “product of Texas, Mexico, Arizona and  California.” What? This must be a beekeeper who loads hundreds of bee hives into a tractor trailer and trucks them to pollinate professional food producers, starting in the spring with almond groves in California, then north to apples or vegetable fields down in Mexico. So. Yes, they are bottled it in my local area, but the bees gathered the pollen and nectar from other places.  Not local.

Bottom line: Read the labels. Save the wild bees. Respect the difference between honey bees and other pollinators like wasps. And mind the Queen Bee!

Super Bowl Unique Flyover

This evening, instead of the usual fighter planes, 3 bombers will fly over Raymond James Stadium as the National Anthem ends

They include:

B-1B Lancer from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota

B-2 Spirit from Whiteman AFB, Missouri

B-52 Stratofortress from Minot AFB, North Dakota

Cute little factoid - the total of the numbers = 55 as in the Super Bowl LV

They will fly in from and return to their respective bases. They will be refueled mid-air by a KC-135 Stratotanker from the local MacDill AFB.

From Popular Science

“The most striking thing of seeing those three aircraft together, is that it represents three different generations of bombers, all at once—and it’s a dramatic difference in capabilities,” reflects Todd Harrison, who directs the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Here is a photo of the 3 from a previous run

Super Bowl Commercials Preview

Let's face it - commercials are often the most enjoyable part of the Big Game.

AdAge has been keeping updated all the commercials released ahead of this year's game.

There is plenty of nostalgia - Wayne's World, John Travolta, Michael Jordan, Jason Alexander, Shaggy and many others come back to life

Too bad, missing this year are the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales.

Hey, at $5.5 million for every 30 second spot, it is impressive that more aren't missing it - the national ad inventory "virtually sold out" given we are in the middle of a pandemic and a recession.

BTW - here is a montage of teasers from the commercials

Inspired by Apple. Ruined by Accountants.

So Apple had me hooked with this scene during their iPhone launch event in October - see the extract that kicks off the video below. A herd of wild horses recorded with a 12 Pro Max strapped to the bumper of a truck and another strapped to a drone.

So I put in my request. My 12 Pro was approved. Come on - I was upgrading from a 6. I was long over due. But my request for a dual-motor Tesla Cybertruck was denied. As was that for GEOMAX ZOOM90 drone. Ok, may be I should have aimed lower than the $75K those two items would likely cost.

However, I was not going to be denied my horses. Starting at 0.32 in the video is what Margaret I got. Not as dynamic as the Apple ones, but Brooklyn is 17 years old and Officer Max MacDonald is 62. And quite a pedigree. Brooklyn is a percheron-thoroughbred cross and was donated to the St. Petersburg Police Department when the Boston Police Department dissolved its mounted unit in 2009. Bred by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he was born for mounted police work. He has worked hard enough for Officer Max to hand feed him daily treats of Rice Krispies cakes.

In the meantime, Apple has inspired me even more with other ideas which may not need trucks or drones - see starting at 0.48

Of course, now my accountant comes back with "Your SUV's panoramic roof should allow you to take some great movies. And by the way that is also 6 years old. You may qualify to apply for a replacement".

Thank you. Who said accountants cannot be creative? :)

20 from 20: It took a village

This is the last episode in my "20 from 20" highlights series.

It took a lot of work to review, edit, splice, comment on 3,000+ minutes of video I uploaded in the last few months.

But in doing so, I realized I was excerpting less than 10% of videos, images, notes I accumulated across the 5 series I ran

• 75+ executives shared their heroics and industry perspectives in the Acrobatics during the Crisis series
• 60+ vendor executives and analysts presented on new products and surveys in the Analyst Cam series
• 50+ folks proudly described their hobbies, charities, personal pursuits in the Technology and my Passion series
• 20+ analysts and influencers commented on industry trends in the Burning Platform series
• 25+ Florida towns are profiled in the West Coast on the East Coast series

So many people stepped up to share stories in the midst of so much doom, gloom, fear and anger that defined 2020.  Some of them participated across several of the series. Others came back and updated earlier comments. I felt like I was in an oasis of positive people. I have heard from so many readers and viewers they went wow after many of the episodes.

Some day, someone will discover these archives in a time capsule and say "Wonder why mainstream media never talked about these amazing and positive people in 2020?"

What's up for 2021?  In some ways, I hope we don't have to lurch from one crisis to another like we did in 2020 and deliver heroics for each. I hope I hear more about innovation and drive in calmer times in the Acrobatics series. I hope many more vendors present in the Analyst Cam series. I hope to invite many more tech industry observers in the Burning Platform series. Similarly, I hope people write about ice fishing, jigsaw puzzles and so many other activities which surprisingly no one has over a decade of the Passion series. 

So, thank you again to every one of the 2020 contributors.  Somebody once told me I can make a brown paper bag sound interesting. Not sure he meant it as a compliment - but I strive to improve the message of anyone who shares with me. I will take it in any format. Some shared from their mancaves. Others shared their passion in hand written notes. Good enough for me. Please keep sharing - especially positive, inspirational stuff.

In the meantime, here are the links to the 20 highlights if you want to revisit.

1. The Passion Play 
2. Resilience during the crisis 
3. The year HR finally turned strategic? 
4. Business Heroics 
5. Not your Dad's verticals 
6. Diversity in Tech 
7. Inspirational quotes 
8. Digital Acceleration  
9. Humor in tech 
10. A small, proud accomplishment 
11. The 20 minute digital pitch 
12. The World is still round 
13. Mega-trends affecting IT 
14. More for "Vinnie Vertical" 
15. Never bet against America 
16. West Coast on the East Coast 
17. My Rock  
18. Small (biz) is beautiful 
19. No industry untouched 
20. It took a village

20 from 20: No industry untouched

This is the 19th post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform  and other series I ran last year.

2020 turned most industries upside down. I posted earlier about conversations in four industries here and another four here 

Here's another dozen. 

Jason Blessing, President and CEO of Model N, describes the intensity when 24 out of 25 of his largest customers like Stryker and Gilead have worked on some life-saving COVID-19 related products or services. The longer interview is here 

At 2.52 is Mark Galloway, Chief Commercial Officer at GrandPad which offers a simple and secure tablet computer that digitally connects a senior to their family and friends. Mark describes the speed at which they rolled out the device to nursing homes and elderly care facilities. The average user is 82 years old and technology which most readers of this blog use on a daily basis is a big challenge for these seniors. The longer interview is here 

At 5.54 Phiroz Darukhanavala, who goes as "Daru" is the ex-CTO of BP and points out the oil and gas industry has faced other "shocks" before, usually on the supply side. The sector in the past has bounced back and has been more efficient each time. The longer interview where he discusses industry changes is here 

At 9.48 is Bill Berutti, CEO of Plex talks about the auto industry. He and CTO Jerry Foster cover global manufacturing trends and the effect of COVID lockdowns in the longer interview here. 

At 12.99 is M.R. Rangaswami of Sand Hill Group. He talks about sustainability efforts at the members in the Corporate Eco Forum he runs. He also points how the definition has extended beyond renewables and climate issues to also cover diversity and inclusion. The longer interview including coverage of other communities he runs is here 

At 16.00 is Associate Dean Bill Moncrief at the Neeley School of Business at TCU. He describes the complexities of moving from campus to on-line education in under 2 weeks and the challenges of teaching in hybrid mode - some students in-class and some on-line. I am on the school's advisory board and the longer presentation to the board is here 

At 19:33 is Bob Ferrari of Supply Chain Matters. He describes how supply chains - PPE, global, food etc - came under a lot of pressure but responded amazingly. In the longer interview here, he talks about adjustments most industries are making to their supply chains. 

The sports world had never seen this much disruption since WWII. Yet, it bravely kept us entertained with its bubbles, empty stadiums and shortened seasons, At 22.06, you get a glimpse at the maneuvering from Max Mueller, CEO and Christian Nilson, COO of Daimani, a unique marketplace for VIP experiences in sports, rock concerts and other events. The full interview is here 

At 25.52 Vittorio Viarengo of VMware shares how he brought to life COO Sanjay Poonen's desire to record a rendition of "This little light of mine" using a group of musically talented employees around the world. These are amateurs and the result is amazing - you can see how Taylor Swift and others in the music world managed to do even more with their virtual productions. The longer session with Vittorio is here 

At 31.21 is Rod Johnson, President of Infor. He points out how the TV and entertainment industry has an opportunity to help refine tech and other events in a virtual format.  The longer conversation is here.

Apple, in reverse, promises to reshape physical events and the TV and movie industries with its iPhone 12. At 32.56 is an excerpt of the stunning imagery recorded from the back of a truck and from a drone. The longer coverage of the launch of that device is here.

Sector after sector saw massive changes. Yes, Toto we are not in Kansas anymore. 

 

20 from 20: Small (biz) is beautiful

The pandemic was especially tough on small business - this post is about their heroics and what so many have done to support them like Zoho did with their ESAP program for customers with less than 25 employees.

This is part of a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

Starting off is Michael Pinckney, founder and operator of a gourmet, hand-made cookie store based in Kirkland, WA. He was my colleague at Gartner, and had a long technology career which included stints at Microsoft, IBM and startups. He now makes wicked cookies including some infused with bourbon. He gives us a tour of his "plant" and recounts his heroics. He was squarely in the epicenter of the first outbreak in the US. He had to decide whether to shut down his business. Lockdowns made selling at the Farmer's Market unattractive. He had to switch to on-line selling. For various reasons he describes in the video, business has taken off and meeting the backlog of orders has required more heroics with distancing and talent constraints. See the fuller interview here 

At 4.58 I describe some of the support I provided to small businesses in our community. I have heard of similar from many other colleagues. Not that we ourselves had great years, it comes from a belief that society is better when consumers have plenty of choices especially from entrepreneurial small businesses. I am pleased to report the businesses I profile have survived - some have even thrived - during the last few months.

At 9.10 Stephany Lapierre, CEO of TealBook shares how during the BLM crisis and for diversity initiatives since customers have leveraged their 800,000 certificates for black and minority owned businesses. More impressively they have helped a number of smaller businesses self-certify (she says 95% of them find formal regulatory certification too cumbersome or too expensive) and become more visible to prospective customers. In the longer interview here she also describes how in the first few weeks of the pandemic the UK government and a number of companies desperate for PPE supplies and looking for choices beyond China, leveraged TealBook for information on 60,000 ISO certified PPE makers.  

At 12.43, Sue Fellows, Chief Customer Officer at Workfront describes how their customer, John Paul Mitchell Systems re-purposed their 40 year anniversary celebration budget to create a fund for hair care salons which were particularly hurt by the pandemic. The longer session with her is here  

At 13.48, Jack Barrett, CEO of First Citrus Bank, describes the herculean effort to get SBA PPP loans for small businesses and the outpouring of gratitude that resulted. Many community banks stepped up to help the SBA process these loan applications  - the bigger banks in many ways fumbled the ball. The longer interview is here 

20 from 20: My Rock

This is the 17th post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform  and other series I ran last year.

In many ways, this is the most memorable highlight.

Margaret and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary last year. Importantly, I got to spend 360 days with her. In none of the other 30 years, I approached even 250 days given my frequent travel.

She continued to work in her psychiatric role, though I am glad she reduced her hours. I was blown away with her bravery. Her trips to the clinic and the surveillance she got from her medical colleagues about the COVID virus gave us all more courage to not stay cooped up. It allowed us to navigate cautiously and ignore much of media which created so much anxiety.

Her art of the day trip allowed us to take many one gas tank trips. That gave me fodder to launch the West Coast on the East Coast series.  It also allowed me to get on a streak of 10K steps a day.

The time at home also allowed me to appreciate the museum and botanical garden she has created. At every turn, we have collectibles and flora from around the world. And they keep evolving. I have mostly been using the library for all the videos I have been recording. I should be using all the other natural backgrounds she provides. Fortunately we have used them as "restaurants' for our meals together.

She has been a wonderful mother having home schooled the kids when they were young and counseling them along the way. She helped Rita launch her coaching business this year, and played games with Tommy in Colorado on Zoom. We are foster parents to a neighbor's beagle, Sophie and to another neighbor's cat, Shadow, and we saw plenty of both of them at our place this year.

The travel restrictions and lockdowns in 2020 definitely had a silver lining. I had a chance to spend more time with Margaret and made me appreciate what a rock she truly is.  How could I not include that in my highlights for 2020?

20 from 20: West Coast on the East Coast

This is the 16th post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform,Technology and my Passion and other series I ran last year. 

While most of the other series involved video footage, one only profiled images posted on Instagram.

As she wrote in the Passion series, my wife Margaret is a packing pro - as in lots of activities on a day trip. Over the last few months, on weekends, she has used it to great advantage navigating all the lockdowns. We have gone up and down the West Coast of Florida mostly between Cedar Key and Marco Island - roughly 300 miles of Gulf coastline.

They have been day trips, with masks and distancing precautions. Most were one gas tank trips. FL roads are excellent, and access to many of these places costs only a parking ticket. One of the best investments we made was annual memberships to local museums and botanical gardens. They have opened up access to many other places with their reciprocal arrangements.

Most folks think of Florida as Orlando or Miami. The West Coast of the state is way better - not that I am biased. Some of the places here are still rustic, some are swanky, most offer plenty of history, almost all of them have stunning scenery with the water in the Gulf, in springs, lakes and rivers.

Come visit the West Coast of FL in 2021! In the meantime, enjoy this gallery of 10 photos from each visit.

Caladesi Island

Cassadaga

Cedar Key

Christmas

Clearwater Beach

Crystal River

Dunedin

Eureka Springs

Ft Myers

Ft Myers - Edison and Ford Estate

Gainesville

more Gainesville

Key West

Lake Apopka

Naples

Oldsmar

Osprey

Plant City

Punta Gorda - Babcock Ranch

Ruskin

Sanibel Island

Safety Harbor

Safety Harbor

Sarasota - Celery Fields

Sarasota - Ringling Museum

Sarasota - more Ringling Museum

Sarasota - even more Ringling Museum

Sarasota - Selby Gardens

Sarasota - more Selby Gardens

Sarasota - Tibbals miniature circus

St. Petersburg - Christmas 

St. Petersburg - Crescent Lake Park

St. Petersburg - Dali Museum

St. Petersburg - Edge District

St. Petersburg - James Museum

St. Petersburg - Museum of Fine Arts

St. Petersburg - New Pier

St. Petersburg - more of the new Pier

St. Petersburg - Sawgrass Lake Park

St. Petersburg - Sunken Gardens

Tampa - Channel A

Tampa - Cypress Point

Tampa - Historic District

Tampa - Lettuce Leaf Park

Tampa - River Walk

Tampa - River Walk at Christmas

Tampa - River Boat Parade - Super Bowl 55

Tampa - Raymond James stadium - Super Bowl 55

Tampa - River Walk prep for Super Bowl 55

Tampa - Upper Tampa Bay

Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs - Easter

Thonotosassa

Thonotosassa - Hillsborough River State Park

Tierra Verde

Treasure Island

Venice

20 from 20: Never Bet against America

This is the 15th post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform  and other series I ran last year.

Given the scary COVID-19 stats in the US, the bitter politics, the high unemployment you may snicker at the title of this post. Well, you would be laughing at Warren Buffett.

I excerpted from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in May, where Buffett turned historian and talked about the "American Tailwind" ...how we have bounced back many times, usually much stronger after the stumbles we have had. The longer post is here including a video of the full meeting - fair warning, it is over 4 hours long and mostly procedural given it is a shareholder meeting. 

At 2.37, Ray Lane of GreatPoint Ventures provides more contemporary history. He talks about US dependence on foreign oil in the early 2000s, and how our innovations in horizontal drilling and fracking changed that. He also points out the funds which raised money last year and this will likely be the best performing this decade. It's largely about the quality of the entrepreneur he is seeing. You should hear his reasoning in the longer interview here.  

At 5.24, it is Paul Wright, CIO of Accuride Corp, a major supplier to the truck making world. He discusses how the country is likely to pivot back to "making" more right here and what that would mean to the education system. We cover a lot of ground in the longer interview here 

Finally at 7.08. it is Jeremy Bloom, CEO of Integrate, a B2B marketing software company. Impressively, he is the only athlete in history to ski in the Olympics and be drafted into the NFL. He was also a founder of Wish of a Lifetime foundation, which recently joined forces with AARP. Listen to him talk about how he learned from his parents who had a "healthy disrespect for the impossible". The longer session with him is here

I am an immigrant who has always been grateful for the opportunities the country has given me, but it is reassuring these and so many other business executives I have profiled in the last few months say the best is still ahead for the US. In spite of a very challenging 2020.

20 from 20: More for "Vinnie Vertical"

Another post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

I have been called "Vinnie Vertical" because I am constantly asking vendors about industry specific capabilities. In 2020, countless businesses asked them the same question as vertical edge applications from telemedicine to distance learning to eCommerce/automated fulfillment allowed many companies to survive or even thrive. I posted last week about changes in 4 industries.  Here are four more.

Bob Stutz of SAP kicks it off with commentary on grocery stores and related eCommerce. What used to be a routine, boring shopping experience has become a lifeline for people. He points out how much volume has moved to eCommerce - "every day has been like Black Friday" (SAP's commerce engine handles 561 GMV - Gross Merchandise Volume - that's larger than at Amazon and other online retailers). We talk plenty of other CRM in the fuller session here. 

At 2.41 it is Marty Groover, Partner, C5MI. C5 in the company name comes from his background in the Navy. He also spent years at Caterpillar and is now a big advocate for Industrie 4.0 - digital factories and the industrial Internet of Things. The fuller interview is here 

At 5.35, it is David Watson, an Executive in Residence at Health2047, the innovation and venture arm of the American Medical Association. He describes the explosion in telemedicine after being "in experimental mode" for two decades. During this crisis, the UC San Francisco health system saw 50% of outpatient visits move to telemedicine. It was 2% prior to that. The fuller interview on other big changes in US healthcare are here 

At 7.30 it is Sarvesh Mahesh of Tavant. He talks about seismic changes in real estate as the market moves to virtual home tours, and the mortgage process becomes increasingly digitized. The full session is here

 

20 from 20: Mega Trends affecting IT

This is part of a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

For most of 2020, CIOs and IT teams performed heroics moving millions to work from home, scaling up or down massive volumes, helping their companies pivot to new business models. In background, massive changes have been affecting the IT landscape. Here's what I heard from multiple conversations:

Leading off is Bob Evans who authors the Cloud Wars site. He talks about every company is becoming more of a software company and what that means to tech industry. The SaaS, IaaS etc definitions of the last few years look increasingly dated as we discuss in the extended session here 

Next at 3.23 is Holger Mueller of Constellation Research. He points out that hyperscalers are pulling away with their platforms and why application vendors should refocus on next-gen business processes which take advantage of contemporary ML, IoT and other capabilities. The longer conversation is here. 

At 7.01 it is Tamas Hevizi who talks about the growth of citizen programmers and why "shadow IT" is not unhealthy, it is inevitable, especially in small businesses. The longer conversation with him about Digital Acceleration is here 

At 10.17, Brad Feld, co-founder of Foundry Group talks complex systems thinking he explores in his new book and looks at the recent crisis from that lens. The longer session is here 

At 12.37, Brett Hurt, who is the CEO and co-founder of data.world says "data is one of the least networked resources" as we explore "single source of truth" in the explosion of data streams we saw around COVID-19, polling, the census. The longer conversation is here 

At 18.30, it is Grant Halloran, CEO of Planful which describes its Continuous Planning platform as "marrying finance’s need for structured planning with the business’ need for dynamic planning," We discuss what it would take to make pandemic modeling less chaotic than what we saw in 2020. 

20 from 20: The world is still round

This is part of a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

Over my career I have been to or worked in 70 countries. One minor disappointment in 2020 was I did not extend my tally. Also given the severity of our COVID19 crisis and the rancorous politics it was easy to forget there is a big world outside the US. So, I was pleased to do a number of calls with executives about what was happening elsewhere

Starting off is Peter Maier, President Industries at SAP. SAP has the image of a lumbering giant whose projects take forever. In this excerpt he describes a project where they built a registration portal (Rückholprogramm) within a couple of days for the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswaertiges Amt) to help airlift stranded German citizens around the globe as commercial air travel came to a standstill. He describes another 2 week project to help manage capacity across 25 hospitals in the Heidelberg University system. In the fuller session here  he describes SAP and customer heroics in other markets.

At 3.00 is a very different perspective from Amit Shah, who is CIO of Excelitas Technologies, a spinoff from PerkinElmer. As he describes it, they are "light people" with products which "create light, sense light and bend light". Since they make components for avionics, imaging, temperature sensing and many other applications considered essential, the majority of their global locations remained open. Full interview here 

At 6.17 is Andre Blumberg, Senior IT Director at CLP Power. Based in Hong Kong, he was one of the few executives I talked to last year who was in his corporate, not home, office. In the longer interview here he describes how energy consumption patterns have evolved over the last few months - consumer v. commercial, across Asia-Pacific. He also describes the 3 Ds driving their business - decarbonization, decentralization and digitizing - and how the crisis has influenced their thinking. 

Darren Roos, CEO of IFS, describes from London starting at 9.40 heroics in his UK and European customer base. He pays them tribute with the term "challenger mindset" and calls them "beacons of light in the darkness". Full interview here 

At 11.56, Kevin Parikh, CEO and Chairman of Avasant takes us down memory lane to the evolution of global outsourcing. In the fuller interview here I liked his optimism about using maturing technologies to re-imagine the world as we recover from the crisis.

At 15.03  Phil Fersht, Founder, CEO and Chief Analyst of HFS Research provides a contemporary look at global outsourcing as he contrasts how India and Philippines have handled the crisis. Full session here

Finally, to reassure us the world is still round, at 20.49 Rob Enslin of Google Cloud describes his "round the world" trip of virtual client calls in one day. Full session here

20 from 20: The 20 minute digital pitch

This is the eleventh post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

I launched the Analyst Cam series based on an inspiration from Rob Enslin of Google (starting at 1.08) describing his round-the-world trip of virtual client visits in one day!

The goal is to try to excerpt 20 minute segments from vendor briefings and events. I share the progress in the series.

More coming in the series in 2021.

20 from 20: A small, proud accomplishment

This is the tenth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform, Technology and my Passion and other series I launched last year.

This one celebrates a small personal accomplishment during the year - a streak of 100 consecutive days with 10,000+ FitBit certified steps. Doing that was not easy in year of COVID restrictions and navigating around hours and hours of video recording and editing.

I spend most of the time thanking those who helped me accomplish the milestone.

Not surprisingly, there is a technology angle - I thank a number of vendors including SAP, Google and Amazon who helped. And plenty of sports teams and movie makers.

 

20 from 20: Humor in Tech

This is the ninth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

2020 was a year of so much doom and gloom that it was nice to have periodic humor and I usually found some in conversations with my analyst friends.

Brian Sommer always has a corny virtual background and we usually share wisecracks. I include 3 snippets from our Burning Platform episodes.  

At 2.20 it is Paul Greenberg and Brent Leary who run an entertaining CRM Playaz show. I invited them to talk about their other passion - Sports. That is not spared by their humor - especially the Patriots and their alumni!

Us analysts travel way too much, so 2020 required a bit of adjustment. At 7.04, Ray Wang of Constellation takes us down memory lane when I ask him if United has a plane named after him.

At 8.36, I share excerpts from a Curmudgeon Christmas get together with Frank Scavo of Avasant and Dennis Howlett of Diginomica. Our memory lane goes back 15+ years. You definitely don't want to miss the ending.

20 from 20: Digital Acceleration

This is the eighth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

I heard about acceleration of digital transformations from multiple perspectives. Here are a few

I talked to Jerome Dubois and Rylan Hamilton, co-founders and co-CEOs of 6 River  - they were pioneers with Kiva (now part of Amazon), and now with their smaller, more agile Chuck warehouse robots. Jerome describes how more companies are moving to "micro-fulfillment" to accommodate new models like flash sales, order on-line, pick-up in stores, regionalized inventories, last-mile delivery expectations and constraints. The full interview is here

At 1.45 is Ben Pring, a futurist who leads several thought leadership initiatives for Cognizant. He discusses how the "Future of Work" has rapidly become the "Present of Work" during the COVID-19 crisis. The full interview is here 

At 6.19, Emily McEvilly, Chief Customer Officer at Workday describes how her SI ecosystem is tooling/automating their efforts, how many customers are actually accelerating their projects and often insourcing many project tasks. Fuller discussion here.  

At 9.46, Bill Hewitt, President and CEO of Aternity describes the need for IT agility like how IBM managed to get 100,000 employees working from home over a weekend and how WestPac compressed a 3 month rollout into 5 days. Full session here

At 11.41 Tamas Hevizi, Global Head of Private Equity at Automation Anywhere describes the interest in the 7 C's he is seeing in investor circles - commerce, cloud, collaboration, cybersecurity etc. The fuller discussion is here 

At 17.46, Ton Dobbe, Chief Inspiration Officer at Value Inspiration provides a perspective from Europe on startups in what he calls his 'Tribe" The full session is here

20 from 20: Inspirational Quotes

This is the seventh post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

While most of my conversations I have shared are about business acrobatics during the crisis, there have been countless snippets focused on humanity, kindness, charitable behavior which also deserve to be highlighted.

Starting off is Charles Phillips who many of us know from Oracle and Infor. I interviewed him when the country was at the peak of political rancor as the political conventions were in progress. He volunteers a comment his son makes as he returns from a deployment in Japan, away from all the doom and gloom on US media. The fuller session where he talks about racial trends, helping New York City recover and several other issues is here. 

At 0.43, Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho shares his personal philosophy "Pain is real, suffering is optional". He makes the point that humanity has recovered from far worse calamities than the pandemic. In the longer interview here he talks about rural revival and many other perspectives you don't hear from too many tech executives. BTW, he did this session from rural India on a 4G line. Not a great connection but his humility comes through loud and clear 

At 3.35, Cindy Jutras of Mint Jutras was talking about how gender and ethnic equality has evolved over her 45 year career in tech. I liked that she invoked the NASA ladies from the movie Hidden Figures. The full session is here. 

At 5.05, Bruce Bond of Common Ground Committee shares the episode of a remarkable musician, Daryl Davis, a Black man who has spent the past 35 years on a quest of speaking with, and at times befriending, members of white supremacist groups. He has helped more than 200 KKK members renounce their racist ideology. The whole interview with Bruce where he describes the amazing work they have done to try and reduce the political polarization in the country is here.

At 6.13, Brad Keywell, CEO of Uptake talks about mentorship. Brad is a very successful serial entrepreneur and I like the modesty he displays when he says he uses 'curiosity as a growth edge". The whole session where he also discusses how Uptake has helped customers in many asset intensive industries is here.

At 7.50, Brett Hurt, CEO of Data.world talks optimistically about how tech will help solve humanity's biggest challenges - climate change, cancer among others. The much broader conversation with him about Austin (where he was born and raised and which has gone from success to success), knowledge graphs, Certified B Corporations and many other topics is here. 

At 9.29, Ray Wang of Constellation Research talks about his parents, the work ethic their immigrant mindset instilled in him, leading by example and staying positive during the pandemic. I had a two-part conversation with him here.

At 12.56, M.R. Rangaswami of Sand Hill Group talks about how the Indian-American community stepped up with charitable efforts during the pandemic. The fuller interview where he also talks about heroics in his tech and sustainability networks is here.

2020 brought out the best out of so many, and I am glad I had a front row seat to hear from a few of them. Keep on inspiring!

 

20 from 20: Diversity in Tech

This is the sixth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

Diversity and Inclusion was a hot topic in most sectors during the year, particularly in tech. I excerpt below some of the conversations I had on the topic.

Leading off is Tony Prophet, Chief Equality and Recruiting Officer at Salesforce. Tony has had a remarkable career. I profiled him in one of my books optimizing HP's supply chain. He had also described China's meteoric surge in the early 2000s. I then profiled him in another book at Microsoft helping digitize the education sector. Now he is in an even more influential role at Salesforce, especially with the recent focus on BLM and other diversity issues. The full interview is here 

Next, at 5.48, is an extract from a presentation by Barbry McGann of Workday of their new VIBE product. VIBE is acronym for Value Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity. What is striking from her presentation is the concept of  "intersectionality" so you can filter employee data, for example, by "Native American, Male, Veteran, Frontline Worker". It's no longer sufficient to focus just on individual attributes or just ethnic or gender based diversity. Her fuller presentation is here.

At 9.37 Dr. Patti Fletcher of Workhuman provides some sobering input on how ladies, especially minorities, have slipped significantly in their diversity and equity progress during the pandemic. She quotes a BCG study that women are putting in 15 more hours a week than men on "unpaid labor" as they work from home. She says 1 in 4 are thinking of leaving their jobs. I had reviewed her book Disrupters couple of years ago. More of the conversation with her and Grant Beckett is here 

At 13.08, Rich Karlgaard of Forbes Media, drawing from his book, 'Late Bloomers" discusses ageism in Silicon Valley. He thinks enterprise software, as different from consumer tech, should continue to leverage "grey hair". He brings out how our skillsets evolve as we age. The full session where we also discuss public policy, baseball and lots more is here.

20 from 20: Not your Dad's verticals

This is the fifth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

I have been called "Vinnie Vertical" because I am constantly asking vendors about industry capabilities. Well, in 2020 countless businesses asked them the same questions as vertical edge applications from telemedicine to distance learning to eCommerce/automated fulfillment allowed many companies to survive or even thrive as consumers did everything from home, as the SBA issued 5 million emergency PPP loans to small businesses and so many industries got disrupted during the pandemic. And these projects needed to be done quickly, not over multiple years and done with a light SI footprint.

I have been impressed with the growing number of industries Salesforce and its Force partners have targeted with point solutions. In the excerpt below, Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, EVP, Industries talks about how they helped community banks, in particular with PPP loan processing and several manufacturers as they pivoted to making PPE, sanitizers and other COVID-19 related products. In the longer interview here, she covers many more sectors. 

At 3.22, Ed Abbo, President and CTO of C3.ai describes their work at asset intensive companies like oil and gas, utilities and manufacturers. They apply ML and other digital tech to specific pain points - hundreds of bite size but highback areas without the pain and cost of replacing existing applications. Longer session here. 

Even in the more traditional ERP space we are seeing differentiating wrinkles

At 6.19, Mike Ettling, CEO of Unit4 talks about his people v product centric ERP processes with examples from higher education and nonprofits. The longer interview is here. 

At 8.11, Mark Brewer of IFS does not talk as much about core ERP but more of his field service, asset management, maintenance and support for outcome based pricing at their customers. More of the presentation here and a demo here 

More verticals to come in a later episode.

20 from 20: Business Heroics

This is the fourth post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

We have all heard and seen amazing healthcare heroics in the last few months. Just as impressive have been the business acrobatics with massive scaling up and down, rapid innovations and business pivots in various industries. I had the opportunity to go wow many times a week as I heard executives recount their acrobatics. Here are a few:

To start off, it is Lou Von Thaer, who is President and CEO of Battelle which is a major force in science and technology discovery. You can feel the intensity as he describes how quickly their vaporized hydrogen peroxide-based Critical Care Decontamination System came together and how it scaled when N95 masks were in critically short supply in March. In the 4 months when I talked to him, they had already disinfected and extended lives of over 2 million masks. (he mistakenly said 2 thousand in the interview). In the fuller interview here he talks about other work they have done during the crisis. 

Next at 5.54 is Rahul Samant, CIO at Delta Airlines. We have all heard other execs talk about massively scaling up. This is a remarkable story of rapidly scaling down. As a road warrior, I was in awe of all the heroics he describes as traffic fell off a cliff (like retiring their MD-88s and 777s years ahead of schedule, reducing cash burn of $100 million a day, refunds of $1.5 billion). He discusses the massive compute cycles to reschedule flights, crews and operations. I did not realize they continued to fly a thousand flights a day with medical cargo, personnel and volunteers, repatriating US citizens from around the world, and other essential traffic. In the fuller interview he describes all the activities to make passengers more comfortable about returning to the air (with electrostatic foggers, touchless check-ins, empty middle seats, high energy HEPA filters and other measures). 

At 12.45 is Ray Lane describing pivots at a couple of his portfolio companies at his fund, GreatPoint Ventures. I was particularly impressed with his story of Farmer's Fridge. They sold fresh salads and snacks via kiosks in corporate cafeterias and airports. That market evaporated as travel dropped to near zero and everyone started working at home. The CEO could have furloughed most of his employees. Instead he started delivering food to hospitals and schools, which have struggled to find wholesome food as their cafeterias and meal services have shut down. The revenues are back to near prior peak. See the fuller interview with Ray here.

Finally, at 14.36 is Jack Barrett, President and CEO of First Citrus Bank, a community bank based in the Tampa Bay, FL area. His staff worked nonstop for weeks to get 1,180 SBA PPP loans approved for local businesses. That is several years worth of loans in under 2 months! Many other community banks did similar for their regions. In contrast, many of the larger, national banks fumbled the opportunity. He also shares the outpouring of gratitude he has seen from his customers as a result. See the full interview here. 

Wow - hope you are impressed. I will have more of these heroics to share soon.

 

20 from 20: The Year HR finally turned strategic?

This is the third post in a series of 20 highlights from the Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other series I launched last year.

Remember the scene in the movie, Dirty Harry where the Clint Eastwood character is told he is grounded and being transferred to Personnel? His response is (still) not very flattering to HR. It has been 50 years since that movie came out and we have come a long way. But at the midway point I was a Gartner analyst covering HR processes and started to hear "HR needs to become more strategic". I have continued to hear that since, but HR has mostly continued with more tactical, compliance oriented tasks. The phrase "employees are our most important asset" was glibly thrown around

2020 truly allowed HR to blossom and for executives to treat employees as essential assets. Josh Bersin does a nice job explaining in the excerpt below. My full interview with Josh is here. 

But don't just listen to us analysts - starting at 4.59 is Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri who describes the lengths they went to protect the employee base during the pandemic. He is very generous to his long time mentor and partner, Dave Duffield. (In a nice touch he did his interview with a Zoom background of Giorgio's Pizza. Every mom and pop restaurant could use that kind of endorsement given the impact lockdowns have had on small businesses).  The whole interview with Aneel is here 

And at 6.54 is Jeff Roberston, COO of Maxar, who added "Mr. COVID" to his job description. He describes various people-related protocols in his space tech company which does sensitive work for many government bodies. The fuller interview is here 

I conducted many more interviews about people issues with other C level execs and industry analysts last year. I would say HR has finally earned the right to be called Strategic. While Harry Callahan may still disagree, I doubt he would quibble with at least the designation of Essential after how the function stepped up in 2020.     

20 from 20: Resilience during a Crisis

This is the second in a series of 20 highlights from the last year, documented more fully in a series of posts on my two blogs during the wild year that was 2020.

Acrobatics during the crisis - C level executive interviews across industries and geographies

Analyst Cam - vendor briefings, research, demos 

Burning Platform - conversations with fellow analysts and industry observers 

Technology and my Passion - guest columns about hobbies, charities, personal pursuits 

West Coast on the East Coast - trips up and down the West Coast of Florida

This episode is meant to thank Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront (which has since been acquired by Adobe.)

In March, I was traumatized like so many as the world started to shut down. But I had a revelation. From the New Florence blog, I was already seeing plenty of healthcare and other innovation coming out of Asia and Europe as they fought the earlier onslaught of the COVID-19 virus. I am constantly interviewing C level executives for case studies for my books. Those take weeks to schedule. Perhaps the lockdowns had freed up their schedules a bit more? Would they be willing to talk to me near real-time about their leadership style and innovations they were working on to combat the crisis? And would they allow me to record them on Zoom and quickly share their perspectives with the world? 

One of the first executives I reached out to was Alex. I wanted him to talk about resilience traits from his book, Done Right where he had interviewed several business, military and other leaders. I had reviewed the book here. 

He readily agreed. So did several others like Aneel Bhusri of Workday.

Below is a 2 minute excerpt from the session with Alex. He is excellent - watch the whole interview on April 10 here.  BTW, while excerpting this, I was reminded I had to do the session with Alex on my iPad. My order for a high-res webcam was backordered given all the supply chain issues we were already starting to experience way back in April!

I am grateful to Alex not just for sharing his wisdom, but also for kicking off the Acrobatics series which has led me to profile 75 executives and counting across industries and countries. I cannot begin to say how often I have gone wow while hearing from these executives about massive scaling up or down, pivots, rapid innovations and other heroics. Certainly helped me and my readers stay positive in a dreadful year. 

20 from 20: The Passion Play

I am kicking off a series of posts for this new year. I will share 20 highlights from the last year. It brings out excerpts from these series of posts on my two blogs during the wild year that was 2020, which I captured in a fair amount of detail in over 20gb of videos, images, diaries on Google Drive, YouTube and Instagram:

Acrobatics during the crisis - C level executive interviews across industries and geographies

Analyst Cam - vendor briefings, research, demos 

Burning Platform - conversations with fellow analysts and industry observers 

Technology and my Passion - guest columns about hobbies, charities, personal pursuits 

West Coast on the East Coast - trips up and down the West Coast of Florida

The first episode today celebrates the 50 guest columnists who wrote in the Technology and my Passion series on the New Florence blog. They shared what keeps them happy, I enjoyed working with them to craft their columns, readers enjoyed their positive pursuits during the doom and gloom of 2020.

Thanks so much to each of them!

Look forward to more contributions - contact me for column guidelines.

"The year that hope endured"

National Geographic has a special issue with the Year in Pictures (sub required)

I particularly liked the section "The year that hope endured" and this photo by Charlie Hamilton James of the annual Serengeti migration

"Every year more than a million wildebeests rumble north across the Serengeti in a migration that is one of the world’s great spectacles. In 2020 it was no different. Herds followed seasonal rain from northern Tanzania to Kenya’s Masai Mara. During one summer sunset several thousand wildebeests gathered at the edge of the Mara River and spilled down its banks. Crocodiles awaited them in the water and hyenas on the other side of the river. Fresh green grass did too, and so they pushed forward, as they always do."

Merry Christmas, all!

The mRNA revolution

It's still early days for the Pfizer, Moderna and other vaccines, and the COVID virus keeps mutating, but it's still worth celebrating the progress to date.

First, a layman's primer on mRNA

a more technical discussion with virologist Shane Crotty

Next, the logistics of distributing the vaccines, especially the challenges posed by the Pfizer COVID vaccine which needs to be stored at below -70 F throughout the cold chain

Finally, here is CBS 60 minutes episode last night about how Pfizer and BioNtech developed the vaccine so rapidly

West Coast on the East Coast

Many of my readers have been following along with 4 series of blogs/videos I have run over the course of the pandemic - Acrobatics during the crisis, Analyst Cam, Burning Platform, and Technology and my Passion.

There is a fifth series which has mostly shown up on Instagram and in my notes squirreled away on Google Drive. As she wrote in the Passion series, my wife Margaret is a packing pro - as in lots of activities on a day trip. Over the last few months, on weekends, she has used it to great advantage navigating all the lockdowns. We have gone up and down the West Coast of Florida mostly between Cedar Key and Marco Island - roughly 300 miles of Gulf coastline. A couple of destinations like Christmas (yes!) and Gainesville, are a bit inland. (Some of these posts are pre-pandemic.)

They have been mostly day trips, with masks and distancing precautions. Our roads are excellent, and access to many of these places costs only a parking ticket. One of the best investments we made was annual memberships to local museums and botanical gardens. They have opened up access to many other places with their reciprocal arrangements.

Most folks think of Florida as Orlando or Miami. The West Coast of the state is way better - not that I am biased. Some of the places here are still rustic, some are swanky, most offer plenty of history, almost all of them have stunning scenery with the water in the Gulf, in springs, lakes and rivers.

Come visit when you are comfortable getting on the road again. In the meantime, enjoy 10 photos from each visit. I will be happy to share my notes when you are ready. And many more photos.

In the meantime, I think I will donate a copy of my photos and notes to a time capsule of the pandemic of 2020. Hopefully, in posterity, someone will find them and contrast them to all the doom and gloom they will read about this year in the media clippings.

Caladesi Island

Cassadaga

Cedar Key

Christmas

Clearwater Beach

Crystal River

Dunedin

Eureka Springs

Ft Myers

Ft Myers - Edison and Ford Estate

Gainesville

more Gainesville

Key West

Lake Apopka

Naples

Oldsmar

Osprey

Plant City

Punta Gorda - Babcock Ranch

Ruskin

Sanibel Island

Safety Harbor

Safety Harbor

Sarasota - Celery Fields

Sarasota - Ringling Museum

Sarasota - more Ringling Museum

Sarasota - even more Ringling Museum

Sarasota - Selby Gardens

Sarasota - more Selby Gardens

Sarasota - Tibbals miniature circus

St. Petersburg - Christmas 

St. Petersburg - Crescent Lake Park

St. Petersburg - Dali Museum

St. Petersburg - Edge District

St. Petersburg - James Museum

St. Petersburg - Museum of Fine Arts

St. Petersburg - New Pier

St. Petersburg - more of the new Pier

St. Petersburg - Sawgrass Lake Park

St. Petersburg - Sunken Gardens

Tampa - Channel A

Tampa - Cypress Point

Tampa - Historic District

Tampa - Lettuce Leaf Park

Tampa - River Walk

Tampa - River Walk at Christmas

Tampa - River Boat Parade - Super Bowl 55

Tampa - Raymond James stadium - Super Bowl 55

Tampa - River Walk prep for Super Bowl 55

Tampa - Upper Tampa Bay

Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs - Easter

Thonotosassa

Thonotosassa - Hillsborough River State Park

Tierra Verde

Treasure Island

Venice

Smart garage

The trial project is being led by U.K.-based Fetch.ai and Munich-based blockchain company Datarella and was just launched at one of the central Munich offices owned by Connex Buildings. The goal is to control the pricing and use of the building’s parking spaces dynamically, and to disincentivize people from driving to work by rewarding them with public transit passes for all the time they aren’t using the parking garage.

FastCompany

 

50 years of gaming history

Console makers like Microsoft and Sony are launching cloud-based subscription services even while they continue to develop new consoles. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google are launching their own services that work on multiple devices, mobile included.

After seeing the success that games like Pokémon Go had on smartphones—reaching more than $1 billion in yearly revenue—and Grand Theft Auto V’s record breaking haul of $1 billion in just three days, companies are targeting as much of the market as they can.

Visual Capitalist

click on image to enlarge

 

A "vertiport" in Orlando

The Tavistock Development Corp. said it was constructing a Jetsons-like aviation facility in Orlando's Lake Nona area, the mixed-use planned community it built. Lake Nona already is home to several medical and research facilities.

The aircraft will be supplied by Lilium, a Germany-based aviation company that manufacturers the industry’s only five-passenger “electric vertical takeoff and landing" aircraft. At the moment, the Lilium Jets can travel up to 185 miles (298 kilometers) on a one-hour charge.

Fortune

 

The year of the cold chain

At the start of the pandemic, it became clear very quickly that the cold chain was a priority.

Manufacturers and distributors committed to ensuring the food supply chain would continue working as an essential industry. The focus later expanded to figure out how the cold chain would also be used to successfully deliver a temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccine to billions across the globe, once a viable option was ready.

Supply Chain Dive

Video below of the massive logistical challenge around COVID-19 logistics

COVID-19 Contact Tracing evolves

Covid-19 contact-tracing apps from Apple Inc. and Google are coming to more states, along with evidence that they can help slow infections as long as enough people use them.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., have recently adopted the “exposure notification” technology the companies built into their smartphone operating systems—Big Tech’s most significant contribution to the fight against Covid-19. California, and other states are piloting the technology and could release it soon. It lets people who have tested positive for Covid-19 alert others they have previously been in close contact with that they should take precautions or get a test.

WSJ (sub required)

The future of the MBA?

In recent years the trend has been for MBAs to become shorter with more offering one-year compared with two-year degrees.  Demand for a one-year MBA rather than a two-year degree is again highlighted in this year’s Tomorrow’s MBA report.  The future is likely to find not just growing demand for one-year MBAs, but also for part-time, executive, blended, online and stackable degrees, potentially with the stackable MBA being delivered by different schools at different times in a student’s career.  Just over two-thirds of respondents (69%) in this year’s study also indicated that they would consider a specialist master’s degree such as a Masters in Finance.

CarringtonCrisp

 

Herman-Miller B2C foray

Office furniture company Herman Miller Inc. is trying to expand further beyond selling large orders of expensive chairs to employers with a new bid for individual at-home workers.

Herman Miller this month will open its first stores designed for consumers in Century City in Los Angeles and New York City’s Hudson Yards, and plans to open two more next month in Austin, Texas, and Tokyo. It previously relied purely on large showrooms aimed at business-to-business customers, e-commerce and a presence in consumer outlets such Design Within Reach, a sibling under parent company Herman Miller Group.

WSJ (sub required)

Image credit

The 15-minute city

Taken together, the new trees and cycleways, community facilities and social housing, homes and workplaces all reflect a potentially transformative vision for urban planners: the 15-minute city. “The 15-minute city represents the possibility of a decentralized city,” says Carlos Moreno, a scientific director and professor specializing in complex systems and innovation at University of Paris 1. “At its heart is the concept of mixing urban social functions to create a vibrant vicinity”—replicated, like fractals, across an entire urban expanse.

BusinessWeek

 

The two-liter bottle evolves

First designed in 1970 by PepsiCo and improved into the 1990s, the two-liter bottle is an imperfect mainstay of the soft drink industry. But today, after 30 years of being unchanged, the two-liter is getting a complete makeover. PepsiCo is beginning the rollout of a curvier new bottle that’s easier to grip and balance in your hand, while consuming slightly less plastic in the process. The update will come to all its major soft drink brands.

FastCompany

Image credit

 

If you are missing your daily commute

Microsoft Corp. is developing an update to its Teams package of workplace collaboration tools to replace one of the less-mourned losses of pandemic living: the commute to and from work.

The daily commute may have caused its share of headaches, but it at least helped workers define a start and end to their workday while offering a set time to think away from the demands and distractions of the home and office. That positive side of the commute is what Microsoft hopes to re-create.

WSJ (sub required)

Vaccine Vial Monitoring

While Zebra’s products have been used for tracking samples from mass tracking sites, the company is also being counted on for vaccine distributions in what’s known as cold chain, a temperature-controlled supply chain.

“Our vaccine vial labels,” which can also be used on boxes and pallets “will change color based on the temperature exposure,” Gustaffson said in a “Mad Money” interview.

The labels come from Temptime, a manufacturer of temperature monitoring solutions for the health-care industry that the Lincolnshire, Illinois-based company acquired nearly two years ago.

CNBC

Math education for the data age

The gathering grew out of an ongoing collaboration between (Jo) Boaler (of Stanford) and Steven Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the best-selling Freakonomics books, which apply data science to a variety of topics in contemporary culture. The pair recently co-authored an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that called for putting data science at the center of high school mathematics. 

Levitt, a father of four teenagers, became interested in the issue when he saw the mismatch between his own experience of mathematics and what his kids were learning. They came to see math as “voodoo,” said Levitt, who cofounded the nonprofit Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change (RISC) at the University of Chicago. “They were taught by teachers that these sets of things work, without any real understanding of why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

Stanford Graduate School of Education

Medical transcription evolves

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have all created software to this effect and are increasingly creating tools for healthcare settings, likely in a quest for new sources of recurring revenue.

Even Nvidia, which has traditionally focused more on its imaging technology, has started offering medical transcription. Earlier this year, Nvidia launched a service called BioMegatron, which is built to recognize conversational speech. The data set is trained on over six billion medical terms and is 92% accurate. There are also a host of smaller companies like Dragon, MModal, Suki Ai, and Saykara providing transcription for doctors.

FastCompany

Video of Nvidia's vision for AI in healthcare

 

Venmo personalizes your credit card UX

If approved, your card will be printed with your unique QR code on the front, creating a distinct card design for each customer. When it arrives, you can scan the QR code via your mobile phone camera to easily activate the card, or have your friends scan in the Venmo app to access your profile and send a payment or split purchases. And with five vibrant, colorful designs, you can choose the card that fits your style.

Venmo blog

The Apple M1 Chip

For now, Apple's new M1 chip — fast, power-smart, and literally cool — is just a major hardware upgrade that's winning rave reviews.

But down the road, the M1 will pave the way for new Apple devices that could bridge the divide between Mac and iPhone/iPad computing and transform the devices we use every day.

Axios

 

Zelle in cash-strapped Venezuela

There’s a big impediment to digital dollarization in places like Venezuela. The U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t issue a digital version of the U.S. dollar.

So, Venezuelans have cobbled an innovative way to digitally dollarize. They are using  Zelle, a U.S.-based payments network run by Arizona-based Early Warning Services, to conduct Venezuelan commerce. Early Warning is owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

Coindesk

Image Credit