My secret passion: board games from the 1960s.
Don't judge! But out of all the many wonders that the Internet has created, surely one of them is that I can play board games on their boards from the 1960s, thanks to eBay. The best of these is Acquire. In the Games Hall of Fame (yes, there is one) Acquire came out in 1962 and was released by 3M. It's technically about hotel chains on a grid-like board, but that's only a small part of the story. Like many good games, even when it's not your turn, the other player's action has a direct effect on you (as opposed Read more…
Shift Happens
I knew we were moving fast, but … This 4:46 video gives a pretty good overview of the profound changes that have happened in the last couple years. One interesting note: The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful, and about a hundred thousand times smaller than the one computer at MIT in 1965. Another: more video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than if ABC, NBC, and CBS had been airing new content 24/7/365 since 1948 (which was when ABC started broadcasting. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8?wmode=transparent] It’s all Read more…
Soderbergh’s “The Informant!”
Steven Soderbergh's new movie The Informant is a lot of fun. With a soundtrack like circus music, the movie's depiction of its real-life hero Mark Whitacre is humane, interesting, and very funny. Damon's performance is really good. And as we get deeper and start to peel back just exactly what kind of man Whitacre is, it's hard not to shake your head. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's pretty unbelievable. And yet true! Here's the preview. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR-YaikU_x4?wmode=transparent]
The “Ryanverse”
I've recently read both The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, and I'm currently planning on going through the "Ryanverse" as I guess all of the Jack Ryan books by Tom Clancy are called (or at least, the books that take place in the universe of Jack Ryan, whether he is featured or not. We'll see how far I'll make it. Awhile ago I read Clancy's Red Storm Rising, which is his take on what World War III would look like (circa 1988). It's a really great read. Red October was similarly good, but I found Patriot Games rather Read more…
New Tacoma Tech event coming up in October!
We've put together another Tacoma tech event coming up next month–"Side Project Demo Night!" Here's a chance for techies to show off their "work that's not their work"–their side projects that keep them up late programming. Whether its a twitter app, a Firefox plugin, an iPhone game, or the next Google, these kinds of projects usually start out "on the side." I know of at least five presenters so far. If you're interested in presenting or in just coming to see what Tacoma's working on, please send me an email to get on the RSVP list! Basic info: Thursday, October 22, Read more…
Toward a “long now” view of Tacoma’s technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
There's an interesting discussion on Exit133 about the status of Tacoma's "entrepreneurial ecosystem." Mainly: do we have one? Principally, do we have a technological entrepreneurial ecosystem? Considering that two companies have recently announced their departure–first Russell then a small tech start-up called Blue Box Group–this is a particularly relevant question. What do we have in Tacoma right now? My knee-jerk response is, yes there is an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tacoma. Thanks to my work on the Steering Committee of the South Sound Technology Conference and putting together some tech-related events, I've met some of those budding entrepreneurs. But they aren't Read more…
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