Big Brother is watching you!

Just read this pretty interesting / explosive article about a Chinese program called "Golden Shield".  Piloting in the special economic zone of Shenzhen, the program aims to create a total monitoring and government surveillance network.

Linking together biometric scanning, face-recognition software, and a citywide network of high definition cameras, the governemnt is trying to tie together all the data to monitor and protect its citizens.

Its a long read, but well worth it.....especially since it features cameos by good American firms like General Electric, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cisco, and google.

check it out.....Rolling Stone link

found via Brave New Traveler

Are you better off now than 8 years ago?

I was reading a blog post about happiness (link), and it got me thinking. Am I better off now than I was 8 years ago?

To answer this question, I need to rewind to this day eight years ago. Since July 1, 2000, I have:

- survived brain surgery
- began my undergrad education at the University of Minnesota
- transferred to the University of Michigan
- Graduated from school
- Started my career as an IT consultant
- Earned a promotion
- Met and began dating my girlfriend Mona (going on 4 and a half years now!)
- Moved to Chicago
- Traveled to Scotland, London, and Costa Rica
- became an elite traveler in the eyes of Northwest Airlines, American Airlines, Starwood Hotels, and Marriott Hotels

Ok, so there were some pitfalls in the past 8 years...I didn't get into graduate school, I'm still working as an IT consultant, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with the progress that I've made in 8 years.

This leads me to believe that regardless of who's in charge in Chicago (like Mayor Daley is ever going to leave), Springfield, or Washington, I'm pretty capable of bettering myself.

Perhaps through the gloom and doom of inflation, terrorism, oil prices, credit crunch, Iraq, and Bill O'Reily, its helpful and important to know that there are more important things in life...and that you are solely responsible for achieving them.

How have you grown in the past 8 years?

Suggestion for Airlines.....

As an elite business traveler, there is one feature that I would absolutely switch airlines over.

If an airline provided a seating chart to its elite travelers that showed the location of all the babies. That way, I could (as an elite traveler) pick a seat furthest away from them..and could get to work well rested :)

I know that I'm being picky, but this morning's flight was painful. 2 crying babies right behind me = no sleep.....

Book Review - Thunderstruck

Just finished Erik Larson's "Thunderstruck", and I was significantly underwhelmed by it. I loved his earlier "Devil in the White City", and he seems to follow a very similar plot line in this novel. First an innovative product/fair, and a gruesome murder, and then tie the 2 together.

The formula worked in "devil" because of a few things:

(1) The Chicago World's Fair was a much more interesting story than Marconi's wireless kit.
(2) The murderer actually worked within the Chicago World's Fair....so the book was more integrated
(3) Dr. Crippen's murder was pretty bland...

so, if you are really into your Marconi set....or, really into post-Jack the Ripper London....then check this book out. Otherwise, pick up Devil in the White City...its a far superior book in every way!

How will Kevin McHale mess up the draft?

Growing up as a Timberwolves fan in Minnesota, I grew accustomed to watching the Twolves through away their lottery picks.

Here's a rundown of the franchise lottery history:

1989 - Pooh Richardson
1990 - Felton Spensor
1991 - Luc Longley
1992 - Christian Laettner
1993 - Isaiah "J.R" Rider
1994 - Donyell Marshall
1995 - Kevin Garnett
1996 - Ray Allen (traded to Milwaukee for Stephen Marbury on draft day)
1999 - Wally Szczcerbiak
2005 - Rashad McCants
2006 - Brandon Roy
2007 - Corey Brewer

So, ignoring the 1 great pick (KG), what else has the franchise done on draft day? We could have paired up KG with one of the greatest pure shooters of all time (Ray Allen), but instead, traded him for the ultimate headache (Marbury). Also, keep in mind the great Joe Smith debacle. Signing an illegal deal for the career journeyman, which stripped the Twolves of 5 draft picks...most likely 5 lottery choices.

With reports that the Miami Heat are high on OJ Mayo, and not that high on Michael Beasley, Kevin McHale should be working on a draft day deal to grab Mayo, send him to Miami for Beasley.

Instead, here's what I think he'll do:

1) Draft and keep Mayo - you don't want a guy like OJ Mayo in Minneapolis. He'll leave in 3 years.

2) Draft an unknown foreign player, and then keep him in his home country for a few years.

3) Grab a soft inside defender like Brooke Lopez - great guy, total goofball....but not tough inside. the wolves need an inside presence

4) overspending on a Kevin Love / Joe Alexander. Both are great players...both should be in a Minnesota uniform....but both are not worth the #3 pick.

Can Kevin McHale find a way to leverage his #3 pick into soemthing worthwhile....or, will we be watching the pingpong balls during the next playoffs?

Go Turks! (and no, I'm not talking about Chris Turk)

so with today's futbol match between the heavily favored Germans and the injured/crippled/suspended Turks, I felt that it was a good time to post a movie review for the German/Turkish movie Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven).



The movie tells a story in an intense, non-linear fashion....very much like Pulp Fiction or Memento. Its about the search for a Turkish girl. Her mother was a prostitute in Germany, but was murdered by a Turkish national in Germany. The national's son feels the need to compensate the girl, so he voyages to Istanbul to find her....

While that brief synopsis doesn't do the movie justice, its the best that I can do without giving away too much of the plot. Beyond the actual story itself, the timing, pacing, and imagery presented by Fatih Akin (the director) is incredible.

Interweaving scenes from Istanbul, Berlin, and Bonn.....from Turkish, to English, to German....he manages to captivate the viewer into caring about this girl and her dead prostitute mother....

If you are in the mood for a good "thinking" movie, don't mind reading the dialogue (no dubbing....read the subtitles people!), and have a few hours to spare...check it out.....

you'll walk away from it, better for having seen it.....its that good.

Still using AOL?

I'm a huge college football junkie...so when there's an article on espn.com about college football, I'll read it.

The article was Pat Forde's thoughts on the upcoming season...and was a pretty standard article, nothing too shocking in it.

until I got to the end....


Really Forde? Aol.com ? I haven't received an AOL cd in a long time.....so I figured that they stopped operating.....

can somebody send this guy a gmail invite?

Must See TV - Mad Men

The Sunday NYTimes Magazine had a glowing (and ridiculously long 10 page) preview of the upcoming season of Mad Men, on AMC.



I'm about midway through the first season, and I'm blown away by it. Created by Sopranos' writer Matthew Weiener, the show follows the fictitious Sterling Cooper advertising agency, in the middle of its heyday, back in 1959.

granted, I wasn't around in 1959, but from what i've read, the show is incredibly authentic in its set design, mannerisms, and most importantly, the advertising of the day. People back then cared about futuristic things like shaving cream from a can...or if the Russians were coming.

This show is absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend it. It picked up a Golden Globe (Best Actor) and was nominated for Best Dramatic Show.....so the experts are in line too.....

Season 1 dvd comes out july1....

Which Cubs Games to Attend?

So, I travel during the week....and I'm taking a Saturday morning class...so I'm really limited in the games that I go to....

Looking at the list, this what I might be able to attend:

July 13 - San Francisco Giants
July 27 - Florida Marlins
August 24 - Washington Senators - sorry..nationals
August 31 - Philadelphia Phillies
September 21 - St. Louis Cardinals

So...which game or games should I go to? And..which games will you join me at????

RE < C

If you have some spare time, have $5, and are interested in the future of energy, make sure that you pick up the current issue of the Economist.

There's a 14 page section that outlines the various "alternative" energy sources, discusses their pros and cons, and talks about the firms that are making big bets on them.

The google founders coined the term RC < style="font-weight: bold;">Renewable Energy below the current cost of Coal. For some reason, it resonated with me.....and apparently most of hte alternative energy field uses it.......go figure..

of the different options (solar, wind, biofuel, etc.), the coolest idea is geothermal. Just poke some holes down into the magma, and use the heat to boil water, and then use the steam to power a turbine.....way cool......

check it out, you will walk away from it much more informed than you were before....

Amazing Zipcar Deal

Found via consumerist (and via spoofee).....

an amazing deal for zipcar. For those of you that don't know, zipcar is a car-sharing service that rents out cars by the hour. They are all over the place in major metro cities like Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C.

Here's the deal:

Zipcar is offering a year membership + $150 driving credit.

You have to agree to not drive your own car from 07/21~08/15.

During those dates, they ask that you use their zip car, carpool, take public transits, !?walk?!, etc.

The offer is valid in the following cities
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Washington DC

I'm a huge zipcar fan...and I signed up for this. just thought that I'd play it forward....

Brickbreaker

I just passed 300,000 points on my blackberrys brickbreaker game!

I am a brickbreaker machine.

A great list of blogs to add

The Wall Street Journal has published a great list of blogs to add to your reader. Being the WSJ, they are decidedly business orientated, but some of them really stood out for me.

1) The Eco-Capitalist - making money while saving the planet....win - win

2) Seth Godin's Blog - random thoughts from an entrepreneur who sold out to Yahoo

3) Craig Newark's Blog - yes, the Craig from Craigslist.....his random thoughts

and of course, can't leave out Mark Cuban's blog.

If you get a chance, its a great list...check it out free at the WSJ.

G.R.E.A.M. - Google Rules Everything Around Me

I'm a huge Google fan. I've visited their impressive Googleplex headquarters twice, dined in their incredibly tasty (and free) cafeterias, and absolutely drink their "do no evil" kool-aid.

So, what happens if Google starts "doing evil"? The scenario that I'm laying out wouldn't be that far fetched.

Since going public in 2004, Google's stock has done extremely well (why didn't I buy at IPO????, I could have retired!). But, what happens when they miss quarterly earnings a few times in a row? If some upstart comes up with a better search algorithm? Or if (heaven forbid) something happens to Larry, Sergey, or Eric?

Each of Google's incredibly useful (and free) products is designed to do 2 things:

1) make your life easier to live
2) gather more data about your life

Each time you use gmail, google reader, picassa, google maps, google finance, google health, google docs, or blogger, you are updating the massive profile that Google is building about you.

Now, since Google is the undisputed King of the internet, they are sticking to their "do no evil" pledge. Note that they found it necessary to include such a pledge as one of their guiding principles.

But, say one of the items above happens, and they are no longer the King. Do they start mining that data for more nefarious purposes?

Why even earn American AAdvantage miles?

So as a platinum (the 2nd highest level) AAdvantage member, what's my incentive to keep flying on American?

I just received an email with these program updates:

AADVANTAGE AND UPGRADE AWARD CHANGES
Beginning October 1, 2008, mileage levels will be changing for select AAdvantage(R) award tickets and upgrade awards. This change will not impact the 25,000 mile domestic economy MileSAAver(SM) award. Members may book and ticket any of the current awards through September 30, 2008. On October 1, 2008, the new award structure will apply. For more details:
http://aadvantage.info.aa.com/?key=9kS9svbp5k3tnStMd94gvxl976

So in theory, there will still be a 25k domestic mile saver ticket....but how many of them will actually exist?


Also effective October 1, 2008, a nonrefundable co-payment of $150 will be required to claim upgrade awards used with most discount economy fares when traveling between North America and Colombia, Ecuador, Peru or Venezuela. Go to for more details:
http://aadvantage.info.aa.com/?key=9kS9svbp5k3tnStMd94gvxl976

Hm, they must have heard of my plans to use miles to fly to Peru....while should pay to use my hard earned miles?

Effective June 21, 2008, a $5 USD Award Processing Fee applies per person to award reservations ticketed via AA.com. AAdvantage Executive Platinum members using miles from their own account and members subject to AAdvantage Award Fees are exempt from the Award Processing Fee. Learn more at:
http://aadvantage.info.aa.com/?key=9kS9svbp5k3tn19nzlqff93S0l

WHAT? More fees to use miles that you have already paid for? I can understand paying to book a ticket over the phone, but online? What's next, paying to check in online?

Here are some unchanged items regarding their award program:

they are free if you book 21 days in advance.

$100 if between 20 - 8 days in advance

$150 if between 7 - 1.......

Time.com's Top 50 Sites

Time.com's annual list of their Top 50 Sites. I looked through the list, and while the list included a ton of social networking / web 2.0 sites, I found some intriguing sites. Here's what I found intriguing (and why):

• tripkick - similiar to seatguru, but for hotel rooms. helps you find the best room in any given hotel
• Afri Gadget - keep updated on African innovations and inventions. I like innovations and inventions....
• Rate my Professor - as a wanna be MBA student, this site may come in handy.
• Tiny URL - I sent out a ton of links. this will make them easier.
• Mobaganda - a no registration evite...i'm in
• imeem - a new streaming music site...in case you are sick of last.fm
• Kongregate - more free flash games
• Penny Arcade - comics making fun of geeks...me likey
• Apartment Therapy - interior design for renters
• Digital Vaults - for wanna be Nicholas Cage types....search through the national archives
• Free Rice - sharpen your vocab. Help malnurtioned Asians. win-win
• WikiSky - space...the final frontier....while at work!

take a look at the list, what are some of YOUR favorites? Or, ones that intrigue you?

Time.com's 10 Essential Sites

Time magazine and its online component (time.com) has released their annual list of "10 Essential Sites". Some of them I use religiously, some never.....so I have mixed feelings, but I agree with some of them.

Here's the list:

1) wikipedia.com - no brainer, deserves a spot on the list...but the top spot? I probably use this site a few times a week, max

2) yahoo finance - what is this....2003? yahoo finance used to be great, but I've moved over to google finance and haven't looked back. the differences....cleaner interface, interactive charts, and google's search

3) craigslist - no qualms, I love cl....in fact, I listed my apartment on there [shameless plug]. any takers?

4) espn.com - go there every day. need to figure out how to use my espn360 account.

5) yelp - I've heard great things, but I rarely use this site.

6) facebook - I used to be addicted to facebook, but stopped making hourly updates a year ago. of course, starting this site probably just cut into my fb time. I am probably less productive now than I was with facebook....go figure

7) digg - love it. I use it to gather fodder for this site, to find new blogs to read, and to find out about random stories.

8) google - should be on the top spot of this list. it (along with gmail and google reader) is probably the most indispensible site on this list

9) tmv - I'm proud to say that I've never been here. I sometimes catch some of their show when flipping channels, and I always feel dirty afterwards. I really don't want to feel like that at work...

and finally...

10) flickr - people seem to love it. Since I started using Photoshop Elements, I have been forced to use it (easy integration), so I'm not gaga about it yet...but i might still be.

What are some other essential sites that the list left off.....here's some from my daily surfing:

- google reader
- the USA Today & LA Times Crosswords (they are free!)
- orb.com - streaming media from your home pc
- rotten tomatoes - a movie review aggregator. I trust their tomato ranking system, and it hasn't let me down....well, once....I still want my $ back from Atonement.

am I leaving anything off?

The ultimate coach's dilemma...

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I've definitely caught the Euro Cup 2008 bug. I'm sitting here at work, following (not watching streaming vid..couldn't find it...but constantly refreshing a tracker) the Italy/France and Netherlands/Romania matches....and a thought hit me.

Netherlands has already advanced to the next round of the tourney, beating Romania today will not help their stock or seed in any way. However, if Romania beats the Netherlands, Romania will advance to the next round with the Netherlands. If Romania and the Netherlands both advance, then perennial powers France and reigning World Cup Champion Italy are heading home.

If you were a coach, assuming that the game's outcome didn't affect your future prospects, would you take a dive to ensure that a powerhouse did not advance?

Watch out - the Luggage Police are coming!

The Wall Street Journal ran an article this morning about the impending "luggage police" that will be roaming the concourses, looking for oversized bags. The article also talked about reinstitution of a device that would reject large bags from entering the TSA security screen...

As a frequent traveler, I know how much I can pack in order to fit it into the overhead cabin...so this would probably not affect me. But this affects the regular person that doesn't travel enough to become Elite. Since I'm required to be at client sites, I (and ultimately, my clients) are willing to pay for that privilege.

Instead of targeting the regular person who rarely travels, wouldn't it make sense to target Elite travelers who aren't paying their own expenses?

Negotiation Genius Strikes CNBC!

Hey guys...just a head's up

My brother-in-law will be on tonight's "Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" on CNBC. Its on at 10 Eastern/9 Central.....

He's going to be discussing competition, and will probably be plugging his book....check it out!