When
· Naughties
· · 2003
· · · June
· · · · 04 (2 entries)
Washington DC and Chairman Mao · I’ve been enjoying the last couple of days here near DC, talking about Homeland Security and Visual Net to government people, a lot of them really smart and pretty senior. We Antarcticans are relative newbies in the local culture and language, but have had the advantage of excellent local mentors, people who are part of the culture, have illustrious track records and get things done. I can say without a shadow of cynicism that it’s a pleasure to watch these people work. Weirdly, I’m continuously reminded of Jan Wong’s wonderful writing on the differences between China in Mao’s time and after it ...
What’s the RSS Soundbite? · The problem is, it’s 1994 again. Back then, I would meet someone whose business or life or project would really work a lot better with this new Web stuff, and I’d try to tell them about it, and they’d get this blank look and say “Well, we really don’t have time to investigate speculative new technologies right now, we have to get the job done”—or something of a similarly “go away, don’t bug me kid” nature—and this would make me crazy. It’s happening again, twice in the last month, only what I was telling them about was RSS. The question is: how do we explain it to people who don’t need know that they need to know? ...
