Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog

Jørn Utzon, the architect behind the Sydney Opera House has been invited to help update his masterpiece in an attempt to "reunite the man and the masterpiece" as the Opera House announcement put it. Utzon resigned from the delayed project ten years into it as the complicated sail-like project became more and more expensive and controversial and has not seen the building since its completion according to this New York Times story by Ada Louise Huxtable:

But the story gets even better. Mr. Utzon was asked to formulate a set of Design Principles -- as they are officially described and capitalized in Opera House documents -- against which all future changes or proposals will be measured. The purpose of this unusual step, according to the chairman of the Sydney Opera House , Joseph Skrzynski, is to "retain the integrity of Utzon's vision," providing "insight into the design, and guidance for the building's conservation and management."

Integrity? Vision? Insight? Guidance? These are not words or concepts frequently heard or honored by the boards and bureaucracies that build our most important monuments and institutions. One would hope for echoes in Lower Manhattan, as the dealing and juggling on the World Trade Center site continues. But there's more. A foundation has been set up by the Opera House in Mr. Utzon's name that will promote programs and prizes in the performing arts, inspired by the pioneering, expressive spirit of the building.

What's the deal with the current US government run from the George W. White House? It seems intent on cannabalizing its own. First the pointless Iraq War that has killed countless young Americans who's caskets and funerals or the White House honoring them we never see. OK, it isn't completely pointless if you consider creating a US state in the middle of the Muslim world which just so happens to be sitting on top of some of the world's largest oil reserves [see DamonLeigh's Stop the Wars blog] an important reason...after all, how else will we drive our Hummers? Now this (according to an AP story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required)). Is this behavior what the Republican leadership means by patriotic?

The investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's name is likely to expand to other Bush administration agencies, including the State and Defense departments, officials said Thursday.

...The FBI has assembled a team of about a half-dozen experienced agents to handle the investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA officer married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. Mr. Wilson had accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq.

...An ABC-Washington Post poll found 69% of Americans, including 52% of Republicans, believe a special counsel should be appointed. A substantial majority, 72 percent, said it is likely that someone in the White House leaked the classified information, but only 34% think it is likely President Bush knew about the leak beforehand.

Interesting Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) about the formula for network TV sitcoms...and how one new sitcom, Happy Family, is trying to modify it just a little:

The set has a living room with a sofa in the center and a staircase behind it, an arrangement that dates back to "Father Knows Best" and has been used countless times since. But the creators of "Happy Family," David Guarascio and Moses Port, wanted a way to assert their independence over the form. Adding a space off the living room with a dining table "was a big one," says Mr. Guarascio.

Thus the alcove. Sitcom producers discovered long ago that living rooms offer a ready excuse for characters to gather, and the staircase lets characters enter and exit while talking. Writers are loath to monkey with what works: This fall, 67% of sitcoms on ABC, CBS and NBC feature a living room with a sofa and staircase.

It appears that sexual misconduct is only a problem when a Democrat is involved as the Republican frenzy during the Clinton era proved, and is now reconfirmed with the Arnold situation in the CA recall circus. According to the LA Times as reported in this AP story on the WSJ site (subscription required):

Three of the women told the Times that Mr. Schwarzenegger grabbed their breasts. Another said he reached under her skirt and grabbed her buttocks.

Another woman said Mr. Schwarzenegger tried to remove her bathing suit in a hotel elevator, and the sixth said Mr. Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.

Which prompted Arnold to finally admit to some "playful" (read "sexual" in non-Republic terms) misconduct:

Mr. Schwarzenegger said: "Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people."

And this outrageous comment from Arnold's campaign spokesperson:

"We believe Democrats and others are using this to try to hurt Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign," Mr. Walsh said. "We believe that this is coming so close before the election, something that discourages good, hard-working, decent people from running for office."

Uh, didn't Walsh mean it discourages "playful" people from running for office? May be a good thing too!

I always find facts and stats interesting...even random ones that convey what we find important in the world or ones that reflect the changing landscape. And in personal or business matters I find it hard to make decisions without relevant facts or stats right in front of me (more on that and our attempt to buy a loft in the city recently).

So, of course, I have to share the following numbers with you from the Boston-based leader in paper record storage (wasn't the Internet supposed to reduce how much paper we used and stored?) according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Iron Mountain Corp., the world's largest provider of storage for paper records, plans to add another leg to its business by developing a digital-records archiving operation.

Richard Reese, chairman and chief executive, said the company hopes managing other companies' digital storage will be a "couple-of-hundred million dollar business in five years." This year, Iron Mountain expects revenue of $1.48 to $1.55 billion.

A very interesting CBS MarketWatch.com story that says that recent estimates put privately-held Google's valuation at $18 billion, almost as much as publicly-held Yahoo and Amazon, which it can be argued are much more mature companies:

Google's valuation came from sources who say the popular search engine is using the price to make potential purchases of smaller Internet companies.

As of Monday, the market cap of Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart) stood at about $21.7 billion; Amazon.com (AMZN: news, chart) at $19.5 billion; EBay (EBAY: news, chart) at $35.3 billion; and InterActiveCorp (IACI: news, chart) at $24.9 billion.

Google's revenue is driven by its core search technology whereas some of Yahoo's sales have come from HotJobs and Overture (OVER: news, chart) . Some of EBay's revenue has come from PayPal. Arguably, a company with organic growth is worth more than a company that has to buy it. Revenue at Google is expected to hit $700 million to $1 billion in 2003 from advertising and search services, according to U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.

Isn't it about time we funded health insurance for all people rather than spending hundreds of billions abroad on frivolous wars? Isn't it only a matter of time that the poor who have nothing turn into home-grown "terrorists" because they're driven to a life that's beyond despair? According to this New York Times story:

The number of people without health insurance shot up last year by 2.4 million, the largest increase in a decade, raising the total to 43.6 million, as health costs soared and many workers lost coverage provided by employers, the Census Bureau reported today.

The increase brought the proportion of people who were uninsured to 15.2 percent, from 14.6 percent in 2001. The figure remained lower than the recent peak of 16.3 percent in 1998.

...The proportion of Americans with insurance from employers declined to 61.3 percent, from 62.6 percent in 2001 and 63.6 percent in 2000. The number of people with employer-sponsored coverage fell last year by 1.3 million, to 175.3 million, even as the total population grew by 3.9 million.

Bowling for Columbine really puts things in perspective when Michael Moore heads north across the border to interview Canadians and why they think Americans are so much more violent...what was it, some 1500 murder a year compared to a few dozen (I think it was) in Canada. Unbelievable!

My friend Steven B. alerted me to this amusing article in the Sunday New York Times since it reminded him of us...about the influx of people from the country (more like the suburbs!) into the city on weekends in an increasingly reverse-commute trend:

Most people can't wait to escape the city on the weekends, heading out to a second home on the beach or in the mountains. But for some, who already live in such bucolic surroundings, a reverse commute takes place, as they seek the excitement of the city in lofts and apartments they have bought to provide an urban retreat.

...The concept of a pied-à-terre has largely remained foreign to Americans beyond the East Coast, but in recent years, a number of cities — including Atlanta, Denver, Portland and San Diego — have been revitalizing their inner-city cores by turning old warehouses into lofts, bars and restaurants, and building new condominiums on old rail yards to attract residents and tourists alike. Ballparks, theaters and aquariums are opening where it used to be lights out downtown on Friday afternoons.

Interesting admission from Tony Perkins, who founded Red Herring and now AlwaysOn Networks:

While AO is built using “blogging” software, it is not a blog in a pure sense. AO is really a combination of professional editorials, reporting and interviews. The difference is that we use our blogging software set-up to encourage participation.

...The bottom line as I see it is the original blogging community represents the early-adopters of a movement that will eventually radicalize the entire media industry. Some time off in the future, if major media brands do not open up their content to more participation, readers will just not trust them, and they will go elsewhere.

If things weren't complicated enough for visitors to the post-9/11 US, now a virus in the system used by embassies worldwide before they issue visas brought everything down according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 12.8 million records from the FBI, State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names in the files are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists.

The State Department has invested heavily in the CLASS system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, more than doubling the number of names that applicants are checked against. One provision of the Patriot Act, passed just weeks after the attacks, added FBI records, including the bureau's violent gang and terrorist database. The list also includes the names of at least 20,000 people accused of serious customs violations and the names of 78,000 suspected terrorists.

As more and more companies do away with free services, MSN makes this move according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

In most of its 34 markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia, Microsoft MSN has chosen to simply shut down the service, the Redmond, Wash.-based software company said. However, MSN will continue to offer chat services to users in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Brazil. Microsoft will post the changes on its Web site.

Eliminating and curtailing the service will help curb inappropriate uses, MSN spokeswoman Lisa Gurry said, including pornographic spam as well as pedophiles or other sexual predators. "We recognize that it's a common industrywide problem," she said. "We've taken a look at our service and how can we make efforts to step up our efforts to provide a safe environment."

With the success of Friendster leading the way, social networking is the next big thing since WiFi, Web Services and Web logs (or blogs as most of us here know them) seemed to create tons of post-dot-bust buzz. Last night at Stanford business school, a sold-out crowd of 300+ people, was supposed proof that companies like LinkedIn (which I quite like...and who's CEO Reid Hoffman was especially good in describing the social networking space and his idea of several "graphs"), Plaxo (by one of the Napster founders), and of course Friendster, are part of this new consumer Internet revival.

A great writeup from Stewart Butterfield is complete with quotes from the mostly tongue-in-cheek panel discussion and completely glib generalities from Friendster CEO Jonathan Abrams who had almost nothing of significance to say...and made it quite clear that Friendster is just like any other dotcom from the boom years. Create buzz and get big fast and then figure out what you'll really make money on.

Ross Mayfield, another one of the panelists, aptly described SocialText's efforts at bringing wikis to the corporate world...and has an excellent blog here.

With mortgage rates beginning to increase again, the real estate market may not be able to lead the so-called recovery any more. And mortgage delinquencies are on the rise again according to this SF Chronicle story:

Mortgage delinquencies, which measure the number of borrowers late on their payments by 30 days or more, rose from 4.52 percent in the first three months of the year to 4.62 percent in the second quarter. In the growing sub-prime category, which serves consumers with lower credit scores, mortgage defaults jumped to 12.99 percent from 12.4 percent.

...As a result, Duncan said the total number of loans in foreclosure may increase for the current quarter. Of the 34 million or so loans in the MBA survey, 1.12 percent were entangled in foreclosure in the second quarter, down from the peak 1.20 percent last quarter and 1.13 percent in the second quarter of 2002.

With the November 24, 2003 deadline approaching for cellphone number portability -- which allows you take your cellphone number along when you switch wireless providers -- cellphone companies are getting into a frenzy of promotional offers to keep their current customers according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Now people will be able sign up for a new carrier without worrying about having to print new business cards or alert all their friends. The change is expected to spark an increase in "churn" -- the rate at which customers hop between carriers; currently, about 25% of wireless customers change providers every year.

The impending deadline is already giving customers a powerful bargaining chip. Wireless companies are scrambling to lock their existing customers into new multiyear contracts, offering everything from free color camera phones to hours of extra talk time. The upshot: It's a good time to call your cellphone company and request a better deal. "The offers are getting bigger, and the carriers are getting more proactive," says Adam Guy, a wireless analyst at Yankee Group, a technology research firm.

No, not upgraded to one of the expensive broadband options. Have you simply signed up for an "accelerator" that can make your existing dial-up up to five times faster according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

While accelerated services have existed for years, recent technology has made them much faster. The accelerators, for example, now do a better job of compressing Web pages and images, which means they can be transmitted to users' computers more quickly. They also store data from Web pages on users' computers and on disparate Web servers, meaning information that hasn't changed -- like logos and sidebar graphics -- doesn't have to get downloaded twice.

...United Online, which runs low-priced dial-up services Juno and NetZero, has been pushing acceleration aggressively. The No. 4 national provider says more than 200,000 users have signed on for the faster service, which is $14.95 a month. The company has rolled out a television ad campaign dubbed "The HiSpeed Challenge," modeled on the Pepsi Challenge, which compares a standard dial-up line to an accelerated line.

...But some analysts question the long-term impact of accelerated services. "It's more of a stopgap to hold onto a subscriber base than a true alternative to broadband," says Michael Goodman, analyst for the Yankee Group. The Boston market-research firm predicts a steep decline in U.S. dial-up households, to 34 million in 2007 from 55 million in 2002. (It says there were 16 million broadband households at the end of 2002).

Evite, one of the companies in Barry Diller's InterActiveGroup, is finally trying to take advantage of its sister companies such as Citysearch according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

"Evite is trying to become more of a place to come plan events versus just some tool to manage RSVPs," says John Foley, president of Evite, a Los Angeles unit of InterActiveCorp's Ticketmaster. He says additional services are planned over the next couple of months. He declined to elaborate but said Evite would have "all things for getting together in your local area."

....Ticketmaster doesn't break down Evite revenue but about 200,000 evites have been made a month this year.

From volunteer-created Switch2Dean.com, an Apple-like testimonials site featuring people who've switched to Howard Dean, to all kinds of other bells and whistles mean that the Dean Campaign is taking advantage of the Web and the Internet like no politician ever has before according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

In fact, at this point in the campaign, the Dean online operation is doing to political campaigns what Amazon.com did to retailing. For example, in the old-fashioned world of bricks-and-mortar politics, campaigns would send in a crew of advance people several days before a big event to drum up crowds. Dean staffers just send out e-mails, and thousands of supporters materialize.

...One of their biggest jobs is just keeping up with rapidly growing traffic. Another is coming up with new features, like "Deanlink," which allows supporters to meet each other. It was inspired by Friendster.com, the social-networking site that is a word-of-mouth phenomenon.

Scattered throughout DeanForAmerica.com are other novelties, like a feature that lets supporters print customized campaign signs on their home printers. And there is "Troll Goal," named after the folks who post inflammatory messages on Web sites. Whenever a troll flames a Dean blog, a Dean booster donates more money. The troll realizes he is only helping the candidate, and stops.

For many the primary purpose at Friendster has become counting how many friends(ters) you have rather than taking it seriously as a way to meet and date new people, and few will pay to use the service when Friendster begins to charge for some features, according to this Washington Post story (survey required):

Mike Nguyen admits he's addicted. Nearly every day for the past five months, the 27-year-old in Tysons Corner has logged on to count his friends and the friends of his friends. And their friends. At last check, he was up to 210,185 in all.

Asked whether he would pay, Greeneltch replied, "Not a chance," a sentiment he shares with former bandmate and friendster Gregor, who said she has "no intention of paying someone to keep track of my friends for me."

"It's in its heyday," Greeneltch predicted. "I don't see it lasting longer than six to eight months. Once you become popular, what's the point?"

After resisting the opening up of all IM (Instant Messaging) systems so that they can be used in concert with each other, AOL has signed a deal with Reuters to link their IM systems according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

The agreement, which will be implemented with a new version of Reuters's instant-messaging system in the first quarter of next year, is designed to link Reuters's financial-services clients with the far broader user base of America Online's instant-messaging systems. Those systems carry 1.5 billion messages a day from about 200 million registered users, 60 million of whom are active users.

...America Online's messaging systems are known as AIM, ICQ and AOL, and together have about 54% of the workplace market, according to America Online. Reuters implemented its messaging system only last October, and now has nearly 300,000 registered users, of which 50,000 are active users.

A court has ruled in favor of pop-up ads according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Both Gator and WhenU offer free software, such as screen savers or video-playing programs, that come bundled with programs that monitor people's Web surfing and then send them ads based on their apparent interests. As a result, a person calling up the U-Haul site might receive an ad from one of that company's rivals, delivered by Gator or WhenU.

Mr. Lee ruled that the WhenU software doesn't "copy or use U-Haul's trademark or copyright material" and thus doesn't infringe on the company's trademarks or copyrights.