A rare morning summary post, what can I say; last night I got in at 1:00AM after our sales awards dinner, and associated post-awards-dinner-party, and there was no way I was blogging, and today I am going into the office but later, so I have a few minutes of peace and quiet.  I've just worked out - the hotel where I'm staying has a nice room featuring some elliptical trainers, which I really like, good for flushing out last night's poisons - and am contemplating breakfast.  So.

The less I write about taking the sound system from our meeting room up to the party suite, the better, and I certainly shouldn't mention the volume at which we played Whitesnake :)  But if I did, I'd say it was sufficiently loud.

Powerline on the pork / spending / bailout: Kill the Bill.  "Politico acknowledges the obvious, that Obama is 'losing the stimulus message war,' but fails to articulate the obvious reason: the Democrats' bill is simply awful. As more and more Americans realize that fact, support for the bill dwindles; hence the hurry to vote today."  Hard to believe we're really going forward with this; spending a bunch of money on random port projects in the hope spending = stimulus to recovery. 

Scott Tempesta interviews the coolest cat, Hobie Alter (inventor of the Hobie cat and pretty much the whole idea of catamarans as off-the-beach sailboats).  "We were just too small to be a public company! There was nothing but problems and headaches - people trying to tell us how to run the business. It got to one point where we were in a board meeting with five other people who don’t get their feet wet except to take a shower, and they were telling us how to design boats – and I just couldn't do what they wanted."  As they say, read the whole thing. 

Getting ready, mentally, for the Tour of California, which kicks off a week from Saturday.  The great news is that Versus are covering every stage, and now in HD!  Tivo at the ready.  Plus I plan to visit the ITT in Solvang and the final climb up Palomar in person.  The team sponsors have changed over last year, and Velonews helpfully tells us more.  (With all the turnover, I'm pretty sure Rabobank are now the longest-sponsored team.) 

This is pretty cool: 'Seuss-like' Sea Creatures Discovered.  "A newly identified species of carnivorous sea squirt lurks in the deep sea off Australia, where it traps and devours meaty prey swimming past."  Whoa. 

Awesome!  Penn and Teller explain sleight of hand.  Looks simple, doesn't it? 

Greg Linden of Amazon notes that Speed Matters.  "In A/B tests, we tried delaying the page in increments of 100 milliseconds and found that even very small delays would result in substantial and costly drops in revenue."  [ via Daring Fireball ]  I totally believe this and preach it daily.  Software must strive to be instant. 

According to Jeff Atwood, you're doing it wrong.  "When faced with an impossible problem, identify the real constraints. Ask yourself: 'Does it have to be done this way? Does it have to be done at all?'"  A clear application of W=UH :) 

Tempest in a D-Cup: Wired remembers Victoria's Secret's first webcast, 10 years ago...  Weird to think now what a big deal that was, but in 1999 it was a big deal... 

Steve Jobs meets the Kindle.  It didn't really happen, but it sure feels like it could have.  "Sorry, I needed that. No one can tell me I can't do something like you can."  The Kindle is working because readers like it.  Full stop.  Jobs is not a reader, he wouldn't have known. 

PS the Kindle 2 is going to be announced Monday.  People say it will look like this.  Nice.  Especially the smaller buttons :)

Meanwhile, the NYTimes reports digital pirates winning battle with movie studios.  "Hollywood may at last be having its Napster moment - struggling against the video version of the digital looting that capsized the music business."  The solution is already at hand: iTunes + AppleTV.  Just the pricing needs to be fixed a little, and availability relaxed.  Then it will be off and running...