I showed up late to drones. A few weeks ago it was my father’s birthday. The reason I am an engineer is that my father is an engineer. (Aside: The reason I am a leader is that I watched all of my mother’s moves as she wrangled my father the engineer.) For the 4th of… more
I still have not worn the Oculus Rift kit and I’m certain there is a holy shit moment in my future, but this (pretty cool) video only re-enforces my concern: do I want to spend my time pretending how to fly or learning how to fly.
Stephen was a hired gun at my first start-up. His contract started a year before I arrived, but he was long gone before I walked in the door. The story goes that when Stephen started, he found a small, solid team of five engineers, a QA lead, and a project manager. They were slowly and… more
The brother-in-law lives in the ‘burbs and needed five trees removed. Not big trees — 10 to 15 feet tall, six-inch trunks. Not a problem. I live on the edge of a redwood forest in Northern California. There are sturdy oaks, playful maples, lovely madrones, weed-like bay laurels, and, of course, giant redwoods. But the… more
The lesson of the Holy Shit is that when you stumble upon a truly revolutionary idea, you have the ability to recognize it. There are lots of people who, when they first saw a web page, thought, “I can order pizza on the phone with a live person. Why would I do it on the… more
Lunch at Don Giovanni’s with Phillip. He’s amped. We haven’t even seen our waiter and he’s already cleared the table and is scribbling furiously on the white paper table cloth. “See, we needed to speed up our release cycle which is, of course, insane, but we figured out a way! We call it Train releases.… more
The size of the fervent rush towards the Ajax reminds me that folks are dying to discover the Next Big Thing. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Netscape-magnitude holy shit and while there are have been many false positives… has any Internet technology in the past two years seriously knocked your socks off? Well,… more
Back when I first got wind that George Lucas was going to do the prequel trilogy, I had a holy shit moment. I realized what the last scene of the third movie was going to be. Here’s that shot: FADE TO BLACK. SFX: A strange mechanical breathing begins and repeats three times. FADE TO HEAD… more
First, the Flickr related tag browser. It’s a mouthful and also a potential holy shit. For my second trick, I will magically take away, at least, one hour of your life. Possibly more. Click at your own risk. [4/1/05 Update]: Details regarding the Mahna Mahna video. Obviously, this is a Muppet production, but a bit… more
I need a place to hold the various holy shits I stumble upon and this is that place. If you’ve had any recent holy shits, please feel free to add as comments. As the year comes to the end, I’ll likely reflect back on the year, tidy this list up, and figure out who actually… more
