Category: Uncategorized

Pandemic flu thing. Not sure what to do yet, but it is on my list. This thing is probably going to influence the equivalent of the home bomb shelter of the Cold War era.

Update (11/13/05): Scientific American article/cover story here.

If you like various parties naming people thieves, losers, and potential libelers, then you might want to check out these links.

AOL-Weblogs Inc. – here
Creative Weblogging – here
SiliconBeat – here
Other – here, here

Note Weblogs Inc. recently got together with AOL.

When I saw this stuff going around this weekend, I am glad I did not eat the eggs I purchased. I probably would have lost it …

Disclosure: I am a former Creative Weblogging author (The CIO Weblog). I am a hired gun of 21Publish, and 21Publish co-founder Stefan Wiskemann is also an investor in Creative Weblogging.

This weekend I tried buying some eggs from a convenience store/pharmacy (like a CVS or Walgreens). It was a probably a first for me for buying eggs outside of a grocery store.

Some of the egg cartons were labelled "04 11 04" and the others were labelled "10 12 10".

I could not parse what this meant. It neither looked like an international date (e.g., day month year) nor a domestic date (e.g., month day year).

I figured I was just confused and so I went to ask the cashier.

Steve: I having a hard time determining the date of freshness on these eggs. Any ideas?

Cashier: Date?

Steve: Yeah. The side of this box has a stamp here, but it doesn’t look like a date stamp at all to me. I also looked inside to see if there was a stamp on the eggs … but nothing …

Cashier: Date? What kind of date would be on eggs? (blank look)

Steve: Hmmm. (squinting a bit while sizing up the cashier and deciding what to do ; long pause) …

In the end I got the "10 12 10" eggs. My rationale was that they would probably be healthier for my family than eggs from November 4, 2004. All said, we didn’t have eggs this weekend, and they are still sitting in our refrigerator.

I had a post here, which seemed to indicate based on the comments that people value ethics .

But Mike McLaughlin, who I interviewed here on the management consulting industry, points out some (sad and funny) stats that indicate wez hypocritical.

In no particular order:

• You can’t get toilet paper as income, but you can get private company stock as income and get taxed by the IRS at 34%.
• You can pay less than a 35% premium for extra soft toilet paper, but calculating the preferred stock premium over common requires a PhD and ten venture capitalists to weigh in.
• You can wash off toilet paper, but if you hold common stock you can get washed out.
• You can get scented toilet paper, but the sniff test on common stock is harder.
• Toilet paper is liquid and you can sell it on eBay, but you can’t find accredited investors to purchase your private company stock there, and you’d probably be the laughing stock of the world if you tried.

More on the predictability of toilet paper, from the Seinfeld episode where George Castanza is relating the discussion he had on a date:

George: We discussed toilet paper.

Jerry: Toilet paper?

George: Yeah, I told her how toilet paper hasn’t changed in my lifetime, and probably wouldn’t change in the next fifty thousand years and she was fascinated, fascinated!

Jerry: What are you talking about?

Elaine: Yeah.

Jerry: Toilet paper’s changed.

Elaine: Yeah.

Jerry: It’s softer.

Elaine: Softer.

Jerry: More sheets per roll

Elaine: Sheets.

Jerry: Comes in a wide variety of colors.

Elaine: Colors.

George: Ok, ok, fine! It’s changed, it’s not really the point. Anyway, I’m thinking of making a big move.

J. Rextor has an interesting annecdotal comment at his b-school blog at BusinessWeek, where he is using his blog to recount the experience of searching for a new executive position within a firm. The comment is:

… I did receive an email back from one of [executive recruiters] that stated it takes
approximately 3.2 years for most executives to find an upwardly mobile
executive position in another company.

I have not really had much appreciation for the personal value and legitimacy of executive severance clauses until the past few years where I have seen a number of friends have to find new jobs at senior levels. If one is faced with the situation of having to leave a situation of a good fit with a prior firm, it can be hard to get the balance right again when looking for a new job. At higher-levels, awesome positions can be scarce to come by, and severance compensation can be viewed as consideration for longer job search times for like-level positions. That said, and while I’m no compensation expert, 3.2 years does seem pretty high to me. I’d have to sample some other executive recruiters for feedback, but I’m pretty certain that their cycle time must be shorter than this for placement of executives (guessing 12 months?).

See the post over at Susan Mernit’s blog. No direct connections to blogging as far as I can tell (upon cursory analysis), but there is a strong connection to internet and online businesses in the referenced articles.

The title of the blog post is Art Hutchinson’s. He has a very touching post about the recent loss of his brother to cancer at the young age of 39. Posts like his really put life into perspective. It also sheds light on the importance of early diagnosis and the rapid attention to changing health conditions of loved ones. Finally, for those who have not had to go through such an ordeal, it sheds light on the hopes at stake (in fact, on the line every day) for better, faster research. My condolences to Art and his family. I’m sure that many others, like myself, would only hope to have a supportive extended family like his in times of need.