soapbox

at least mine does.  hopefully i get a job and move out soon.  something she’s never been able to do.

This list is tricky because you have to do a little digging.  For example, I could go with “the guy who introduced Richard Cheney’s parents” but only if I actually figure out what his name is.

so, I’ll start with Timothy Labouf.  other submissions are requested.

I have to give a bunch of points to everyone at Dartmouth on this issue. We all had/have a very wide range of expertise. The thing in particular that comes to mind is the croquet project when I was trying to figure out how to join the faces to the mallets. People (namely Michael and Tim) jumped in with good glue suggestions that they had experience with, it went out to an expert, and we ended up with a good plan. (Of course, we’ll ignore the fact that all the mallets ended up breaking… that’s a side issue.)

I’m not sure if there’s just something about how people are selected to come here, but real working knowledge in things other than astronomy is really lacking. Yesterday at lunch, there was a conversation about building houses and how American houses are all crap because they’re made out of wood. The ideal building material? Concrete. Now, none of these people had ever built anything, but that didn’t stop them from being authorities in building homes. There are lots of other examples too, it’s just the I have a PhD in one field, so I must be an expert in everything problem. (I, of course, am not immune.)

Just wanted to give props to the folks at D for keepin’ it real.

(Oh, and if anyone from “The Institute” reads this after getting here from Google, I like you folks.)

A buddy sent me this, and it’s worth a laugh or two: “101 Ways to Save Apple“, dated June 1997.

Key selections:

71. Become a graphic design company and dominate your niche the way Sun and Silicon Graphics do. Umm, bad idea guys, we know how well that worked out for Sun and SGI.

1. Admit it. You’re out of the hardware game. Outsource your hardware production, or scrap it entirely, to compete more directly with Microsoft without the liability of manufacturing boxes. Again, not so much. Where would Apple be without the iPod? (That’s not necessarily the hardware being discussed, but still….)

50. Give Steve Jobs as much authority as he wants in new product development. Let Gil Amelio stick to operations. There’s no excitement at the top, and Apple’s customers want to feel like they’ve joined a computer revolution. Even if Jobs fails, he’ll do it with guns a-blazin’, and we’ll be spared this slow water torture that Amelio has subjected us to. Wow, creepy-good prediction there.
14. Do something creative with the design of the box and separate yourselves from the pack. The original Macs stood out because of their innovative look. Repeat that. Get the folks at Porsche to design a box. Or Giorgio Giugiaro. Or Philippe Starck. We’d all feel better about shelling out the bucks for a Power Mac 9600 if we could get a tower with leopard spots. Okay, spot-on with that advice. Real computer people may have laughed at the jolly-rancher color scheme, but it worked.

for those of you struggling with quals studying, here’s a little bit of cuteness to cheer you up, in the form of my friend’s new puppy for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.  pup’s name is roger.