Category: Things I Like
In the mid 1990’s I used an email client that did a pretty good job of “threading conversations.” The UI was kind of crummy, but it did some interesting things. It was called Lotus Notes. I also invested in a company called NetGenesis that made the first threaded web discussion software based on a construct that had been deeply implemented in BBS’s and Notes; in fact, we referred to it as “bringing Lotus Notes like threaded discussion functionality to the web.” That product, net.Thread, was acquired by another company I was an investor in (eShare) which went on to be have a very successful acquisition by a public company called Melita. I have no idea where net.Thread ended up but as a master-emailer I’ve always wondered why the very simple concept of a threaded conversation never became a standard part of the email UI.
Suddenly, it’s everywhere. It started being talked about a few years ago when it threaded conversations appeared as a core feature of Gmail. A conversation view existed in Outlook 2007 but it sucked. When I upgraded to Outlook 2010 I was pleasantly surprised that the conversation view was excellent, although it was bizarre to me that it wasn’t the default view.
On Saturday when I started my month of a diet of only Apple products, I immediately found conversations in Mac Mail. It’s implemented perfectly. Then, when I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 4 voila, conversations again!
Within a year, a UI construct that has been bouncing around for 15 years but never really crossed over into the mainstream took hold. And it makes email much better to deal with, especially if you are part of an organization (or group of people) that have a heavy “reply-all” culture.
Ironically, it’s a pretty simple feature conceptually, but the UI implementation makes all the world of difference. I can’t figure out if the Gmail implementation set the baseline that everyone is now copying or if email conversations just entered into the zeitgeist. Regardless, it’s an interesting example of how a simple construct can lay dormant for a long time and then suddenly be everywhere.
I only hope someone doesn’t get a patent on this next year. That would just be stupid.
My post yesterday titled Rethinking The Laptop resulted in three very specific pieces of feedback followed by me taking one specific action. The feedback was:
- Dump Outlook
- Get a solid state drive
- Get a Mac
After mulling things around for 24 hours, I decided to once again try my annual switch to the Mac. Fortunately, I have a very nice Mac from last year’s effort (a MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz with 2 GB) so I fired it up, configured Mail and iCal to work with my Exchange server, downloaded Chrome, Xmarks, and Tweetdeck, and away we go. I’m still getting used to the option key and trying to learn all of the key sequences that my cool Mac friends use, but I’m enjoying the screen and so far haven’t reached for my Lenovo x300 once today.
While I was swimming I decided that since I was going to be in Alaska for July, I’d bring only my MacBook, my iPhone, and my iPad. As much as I like my HTC EVO, I figure that if I’m going to really give the Mac a try, I need to go cold turkey (or – well – cold non-Mac) and see if I get over the shakes during my four week exile. I’ll either come back a Mac user or not.
As one of my friends tweeted, “get a Mac – friends don’t let friends use Windows.” So – be a good friend and remind me of all the fun apps that I need for my Mac to be extra cool. And where’s a tutorial for all those fun keystrokes that make the windows fly around the screen? Oh – and is there a great blogging client for WordPress or do I have to use WordPress’s web UI? And what about Digsby – is iChat good enough or should I try something else for all of my various chat accounts. Yeah – the list goes on, but what the hell.
Ross (my IT guy) bet me $100 that I’d beg him to ship my Windows desktop to me within a few days of getting to Alaska. Help me win the bet.
I hurt my back three months ago. It is a stupid injury – I lifted a printer out of the back seat of my dad’s car and as I was straightening up I turned to the left and twisted my lower back. Three months later I’m finally feeling almost better. My marathon plan for 2010 is trashed; I’ve reset and am now looking toward an October marathon in Detroit.
There were two positive things that came out of this. First was my realization that I can no longer fake the core / non-running stuff. I’ve always been a little too heavy and I’ve done almost no upper body stuff. The result – monster legs and skinny jewish boy upper body with a flabby core. That’s got to change – I’m hoping P90X will kick me into a different gear. The other is that I’ve rediscovered my love of swimming.
I’ve always been a good swimmer. I learned young – probably at four or five years old – in Dallas. I have vague memories of splashing around in the pool at the North Dallas Racquet Club (where I also played serious tennis from the age of nine to about fourteen.) I’ve always been comfortable in a pool and like to swim, although I never built it into my routine.
Over the last six weeks I’ve been swimming a lot. I don’t have a completely rhythm down because I’ve been travelling and many of the hotels I’ve been in don’t have swimming pools. But I had a special experience last night.
After a long, two board meeting day (Gnip and Zynga) I got back to the Intercontinental in San Francisco on Howard Street. I’d skipped dinner – the Zynga board meeting ran late and we just nibbled on Zynga-snacks as we talked (physical ones, not virtual). I got back to the hotel around 8pm, called Amy to say good night, and then took the elevator down to the sixth floor and the indoor pool. It’s a beautiful pool – 20-ish yards – and while it had a few kids splashing around, was big enough for everyone. I settled into a lane and was in a great zone after ten lengths. I finished up about 35 minutes later and went back upstairs, took a shower, and went to bed. I then slept the sleep of the dead; I woke up completely refreshed at 6am and am now on my way to LA for an Oblong board meeting.
I can’t run late at night – it ramps me up way too much and it takes several hours for me to cool down to fall asleep. Swimming seems to have exactly the opposite effect. I imagine it’s because of my core temperature (I’m always hot and sweaty, even when I’m sitting in a 65 degree room); when I get out of the pool I feel totally chill. I’d never realized this before – partly because I hadn’t thought about it and partly because I avoided swimming at night because I was worried I’d have trouble sleeping.
I love it when I discover something totally new and unexpected. I see a lot more night swimming in my future.
I’ve always been a huge Van Gogh fan. Starry Night is one of my favorites and is also regarded as one of Van Gogh’s best (or most) important works, even though he apparently didn’t like it very much.
This morning, when cruising through my Daily folder which includes the Astronomy Picture of the Day site, I came across a new reproduction titled Starry Night Scavenger Hunt. Using Starry Night as a backdrop, it includes a bunch of stuff including a comet, a spiral galaxy, an open star cluster,a supernova remnant – well – and the rings of Supernova 1987A, the Eskimo Nebula, the Crab Nebula, Thor’s Helmut, the Carhwheel Galaxy, and the Ant Nebula. And some other stuff.
Deeply awesome.
There’s a huge profile of my mom (Cecelia Feld) in this month’s Texoma Living Magazine. She’s one of the five highlighted artists for their third annual art issue.
If you’ve ever been in my office or in my house, you’ve seen a lot of my mom’s art. As a kid, I was completely surrounded by art. In addition to my mom being an artist, both of my folks have an incredible nose for collecting and have built an amazing collection. Whenever we travelled, a big part of our trips were visits to art museums and galleries. As an eight year old, this often got really tedious and boring, but it sunk in and today one of my favorite things to do is stroll quietly thought a museum or gallery.
One of the things I’ve always loved about my mother’s art was how she used colors. She’s got a great line in her interview that reflects this – “I have a sense of how color works with color.” I’ve never really thought hard about this, but I love colorful stuff and would always rather be surrounded by colors than by black and white. I guess I’ll start attributing this to my mom!
If you are interested in art and want to see more of her work, take a look at her online gallery at Studio 7310.
A few years ago, several friends started a company called Evergreen IP to help inventors commercialize their consumer innovations. I participated in the financing as an angel investor (it was during the period of time between funds where I was once again making angel investments) and since then they have commercialized several products and spun off several companies, including my favorite, TrashCo, which makes a product called Flings.
First off, how could you NOT love a company named TrashCo? Seriously, what a great name. While my talent around my obsession with the product is limited to products made out of bits, I can appreciate a good product made out of atoms.
In this case, Flings’ Pop-Up Recycling and Trash Bins are sweet. And they are available at most Safeway stores in Seattle, Portland, and Northern CA; at most Vons in Southern CA; at most HEB’s in Texas; and at all Price Choppers in New York State/Western CT. And, of course, on Amazon (enter coupon code EARTHD25 and get 25% off through the end of May.)
Do my friends at TrashCo a solid and try ‘em out. I wonder if they know that one of the early names (at least in my head) for Foundry Group was VentureCo.
Props go to The Form Group. Deeply brilliant.
These people are way cooler than I could ever be. At least I have something to aspire to.