Recently in tidbits Category

Living Small on Battening Down the Hatches, while Charlotte has a freezer full of pork, I have a freezer full of lamb (from the OC Fair).

Wendell Berry's Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front poem:

"Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years." - Wendel Berry, exerpt

Anina goes to the TechCrunch Beijing Disrupt and comes home to write Girls in TechCrunch

From a photographer living in Iraq, 5 Tips for Safely Photographing a Dangerous Event

Brian Fling has decided it is time to write Book #2:

"At the heart of all of these transitions is mobile. I've seen it have a transformative impact on some of the biggest and oldest companies on the planet. I've seen geniuses become dumbfounded. I've seen great intentions fail miserably.

I want to explore and share those stories. I do not talk want to talk about the virtues of native apps or HTML5 apps - or any other irrelevant discussion that revolves around the technology of today. Mobile is no more about the technology, as the printing press was about paper.

Instead this book will be as much a manifesto of 21st century experiences as it is a guide to using century old tools to solve the problems of today, even the ones we may not be able to define yet."

@Jyri tweeted: "If I had an angel credo it'd be to invest in quirky solutions to big problems: e.g. Valkee treats depression with light http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8877185/A-bright-word-in-the-ear-for-those-with-winter-blues.html"

Last but not least, Timo Arnall posts Three films on communication and networks. It is worth it to watch the videos/films.

Three thoughts floating around my head this morning while eating breakfast and reading the weekly Seal Beach Sun:

1) For all of my gushing two days ago, after spending some time with the Nokia N950 the camera is very good but not great like the N8. The resolution, color, and clarity on the N8 is definitely superior but the N950 has a nice look to the photos that I do like.

2) At Mobile 2.0's end of conf cocktails, I had a conversation with Mike Rowehl of Mobile Monday SV and Churn labs about wanting to develop for the mobile web or native apps. Mike said that the stop up on developing for the mobile web for many devs was monetization. I made a joke that I was satisfied as long as I wasn't living in my car or had moved back home at 40-something. We both laughed, but I could see that monetization meant something else to him entirely.

The conversation keeps coming back to me when thinking about the mobile web: why right now devs prefer to create native apps and what in the heck does monetization really mean any way?

Does monetization mean that I can be self-supporting as an app developer and not have to be taking on clients (my definition)? Does it mean the dev can use the money to buy a house and hire a few employees? Does it mean turning the app(s) into a full blown business? A business that then gets sold to a larger business for a large sum and then you get to join the big cats in Los Gatos?

What thinkest thou?

3) Once again the Seal Beach Sun's Crime Log has produced a pick of the litter winner this morning:

"Monday, Sept 5, 2011 - Rossmoor - Suspicious Person or Circumstances - 10:55am - Kensington Road - The caller requested a patrol check for a man wearing a hoodie who was walking on the Gertrude side of the elementary school. The caller said there has been a recent increase in crimes, including a robbery involving men in dark hoodies. The caller that it was suspicious for someone to be wearing a hoodie at all in September."

Now before you get all upset about hooding profiling, please remember that this is September in Southern California, our hottest month of the year with temps in the 90s to 100s and higher. And the caller was right, anyone wearing a hoodie with the hood up in 90+ temps is cruising for a minor Darwin Award in the heat stroke category.

Wed 04.27.11 - Many thoughts have crowded into my head today and then fled just as fast as the miasma of jetlag has descended on my brain.

A few of the fleeting thoughts that I either can recall right now or have repeated on my brain:

1) I really do want to get back to daily photo and/or text blogging. I want to reinstate the multiple year daily blogging that got disrupted in February. One of the things I thought about while in London, is how much I do love blogging and that this is my place. It is time to reclaim it. Please encourage me.

2) The complete disconnect in big big big companies between the executives and the teams that actually do the work astounds me. Last week in London, I heard a true account of one Big Company Making a Big Contract with another Big Tech Company of which it is due to be executed contractually by this June, yet the Big Company to do the work decided to lay off the workers to do the work a few months ago and then when the executives realized that without the workers that the work wouldn't get done and they would be in breach of contract, much LOLs followed. Ha ha ha. F*cking Executive Idiots. Ha ha ha.

3) So Nokia + MicroSquash deal got signed in the workers' blood this last week. Hope the 7,000 employees that are to be laid off aren't the workers who are to actually do the work to make the contract happen, like in tidbit #2 above. Wouldn't that be LOLs?

4) If a certain Mr. Elop is to wield the hatchet, hopefully he will lay off the multiple layers management between him and the teams that do the work. Wouldn't it be big time LOLs if he keeps all the management that have throttled innovation & execution the last five years and lays off the teams that actually do the work?

5) In between bouts of jetlag brain, I did a big spring clean of my house and found the Angry Bird furry slingshot toy that Adrian Parker won for me at CTIA. Adrian, I will mail it you tomorrow.

6) Glad to hear that folks are rescuing Delicious from a certain death by starvation, hope that some passionate social photographers with $$$ will rescue Flickr from Yahoo neglect.

Photo of Ms. Jen reflected in the seat back entertainment screen in hour ten of the plane ride between London and Los Angeles on Tues 04.26.11 with her Nokia N8.

The internets are on FIRE with rumors, rumors, and more rumors about what will happen on Friday Feb 11, 2011 at 10am GMT when Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, gives what may be either the usual dull quarterly report to the investor style humans or a completely non-dull throw down and strategy session. Folks are certainly talking.

The Rumors start...

Engadget on Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest 'burning platform' memo?

All Things Digital on Nokia's Stephen Elop Didn't Start the Fire-But His "Burning Platform" Certainly Lights One

And then the real fire gets lit:

WSJ on Nokia, Microsoft Talk Cellphones

All Things Digital on Nokia Appears on Verge of Adopting Windows Phone, as MeeGo, Android Fade From Consideration

Google's Vic Gundotra weighs in: "#feb11 "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle"."

Engadget follows up with Google's Vic Gundotra on Nokia: 'Two turkeys do not make an Eagle' (updated)

Tomi Ahonen enters the fray swinging:

Mr. Ahonen on The Nokia CEO 'Burning Platform' memo at Engadget, doesn't ring true to my ears..

ReadWriteWeb summarizes Tomi in Former Nokia Exec Claims CEO's "Burning Platform" Memo a Hoax

Other prominent Mobile Bloggers come out with thoughts, opinion and a bit more gasoline to throw on the fire:

Ewan on That Nokia memo; How Nokia can still screw it up; and what I want to hear on Friday

Jay Montano on The Burning Platform Memo: Elop supposedly on transforming Nokia:

"Real or Not, I want MeeGo to have a frikkin chance to do what it has been planned to do. I don't want an either/or situation. I can't wait for most of the speculation to be resolved on Feb 11. Then wait and see what happens at MWC."

Ben Smith injects a bit of sanity in to the rumor brush fire with It doesn't matter if Nokia launches a Windows Phone...

The Rumors breed more Rumors, and a Wave of Humor breaks on Twitter:

@MattMiz: "Nokia stock up 14% on rumor that Elop plans new Antarctic HQ run by robot penguins running on LISP OS" ;)

Photo illustration #1: Meanwhile at Nokia HQ...

Photo illustration #2: Nuke from Orbit

@ChanseArrington: "Less than 36 hours until #elopocalypse = less than 36 hours left of binge drinking. #excited #scared #pumped #bringit"

Finally, Eric Zeman sums up my hopes on this matter in a most precise manner:
@phonescooper: "Dear @Nokia and @Microsoft: No. Just, no. Don't do it. DON'T. #dont"

Whatever the outcome of Friday's Capital Markets Strategy Report by Mr. Elop will be, this is the best press run up to an event that Nokia has held in years... almost Almighty Holy Jobs style press/marketing run up. A burning media platform, in word and deed. Good job, Mr. Elop!