Thursday, June 29, 2006

Entrepreneurial Philanthropy - More on the Gates Foundation


I'm fascinated by the continuing developments with the Gates Foundation (GF). If you didn't hear, Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world and good friend of Bill Gates, recently announced that he would be donating $37 billion dollars to the Gates Foundation.

The donation itself is interesting since it's not a lump sum. Buffett is splitting the donation over a number of years and requires that one of the Gates actually runs the foundation. The most interesting financial thing is that Buffett is also requiring that the full amount which he donates in a given year must be spent in that same year. This is different than how most foundations work in that they keep most of their money invested and only use a small portion of it in any given year. That's how they survive through the years. The IRS requires that foundations spend at least 5% of their worth every year and that's the percentage that the Gates Foundation has been spending up to now. Not any more - it will have to disburse the regular 5% plus the full amount which Buffett donates every year.


So now why does this foundation intrigue me so much? Well, in addition to what I wrote about in the last post regarding its goal to eradicate so many major diseases, let's start with this new Economist article: The new powers in giving

I suppose some of this analysis makes it seems like GF is simply making a business out of charity, but over the years I've come to realize that true progress can only come from a concerted effort that looks at all angles. Moreover, there is no need to start from scratch if someone else may already have the skills and the capability to accomplish great things. So leverage what's there and as they say so often, don't reinvent the wheel. The Economist analysis brings up some good thoughts on the challenges GF will face as it grows larger and larger, but they've done great work so far. Besides, The Sage of Omaha has been right on so many big bets...why should we think he's not perfectly on track with his biggest bet so far?

I could go on for quite some time about other examples of this viewpoint, but I'll just leave it with saying that I think Gandhi would be very proud of the ways in which GF is tackling some of our world's biggest problems.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Random Rudeness

Just as important an issue as Flag Burning is the random rudeness I face :)

This isn't a straight-up kind of rudeness, but it's just stuff that makes you go "WTF?" quietly...not enough to actually say anything, but enough to make you wonder what people were thinking.

Case in point, I was washing my coffee mug in the breakroom when some guy I had never seen, creeped up beside me and poured his cup of coffee down the drain without asking for a little space. Now, it's not like I need the personal space, but I also don't need coffee to splash on me, especially someone else's coffee. Especially while I'm washing my mug in the same sink at the same time and don't even have time to move my mug to the side. Dude proceeds to pour himself another cup and walk out. No excuse me, thanks, or any other niceties.

WTF?

Proceeding to the counter in the breakroom, people seem to think they can leave their random sugar, half-and-half, and other used packets on the counter. Why? There's a trash can right in front of you. Use it!

And finally, someone I had never worked with scheduled a meeting with me yesterday and didn't show up. No big deal, it happens. So I left the person a voicemail mentioning that I waited 15 mins then left and to schedule another mtg if they need to. Later that day I got a re-scheduled mtg request but no comments about completely missing a mtg. No voicemail reply either. Again, missing the mtg wasn't a huge deal, but a simple comment about it would give me the confidence that this person would actually attend the second time around.

Anyways, I haven't ranted for a while, so there you go...my rant for the month of June.

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The Burning Issues

It's that time of the summer when there's not really too much going on. We're waiting for a nice long weekend (although I'll be working for much of it), but beyond the long weekend, it's just a lot long hot days broken up by a few BBQs and a lot of beers.

But not if you talk to the politicians in Washington. Apparently, they've taken on the burning issues that we're all riled up about because...well because they're issues that need to be tackled.

What issues you say? Flag Burning. Illegal Immigration. Minimum Wage. Pulling tropps from Iraq.

Now, I'm not saying that none of these issues is important, but have you noticed that each of these issues has been quickly brought up, riled a varying number of people, then voted upon by Congress? And once the vote occurs, have you heard anything else about these issues? Unless it's about Iraq, I doubt any of us will ever hear of these issues again.

Until the next long hot summer.

Before an important election cycle.

Get where I'm going? I've known all along that these issues have been brought to the forefront not mainly because the American people are clamoring for closure on the issue, but mainly because our representative want to show they stand for (or against) something. [Ok, so people may be clamoring for some closure on immigration and troops in Iraq, but the timing of the presentation of these issues has as much to do with political needs and the desires of the public.]

And don't think it's just the GOP that's guilty of this non-sense. The Dems are just as shameless in bringing up these topics.

What I don't get though is why this even works any more? Doesn't it seem like the American public is too smart to be tricked by these ploys? It's quite obvious that these issues are only played for the theatrics. They'll be used later on to help market the politicians in their election campaigns.


"Now even more against Flag Burning!"


I didn't even know flag burning was an issue any more and here we are on June 28th and our Congress almost passed a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning! (It would then have to be ratified by the states before getting added to the Constitution, of course).

Minimum Wage? Why did it take so many years to bring this up? And only then, for a week of discussion and a quick vote?

The sad thing is that this will continue to occur, bang bang bang on random issues through the summer. The even sadder thing is that in the upcoming election cycle, politicians on both sides will do their darndest to remind us how they voted on these issues. They've gotta market themselves somehow!

The saddest thing?

The Amercian people are going to slurp it all up. After all, it's a hot summer and they could use some refreshment.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Drinkin Blak

So as I battle the multi-tasking withdrawals (actually the withdrawals aren't so bad if you don't quit), I realized I forgot to update the Coke Blak status. If you'll recall, I blogged about finding Coke Blak at the grocery store. Thoughts?

First of all, it's not cheap! It's like $2 for a tiny little bottle. But on the taste? Well, it's better than Pepsi Tarik, which is what I had a can of in Malaysia. The drugged up Pepsi sort of tasted old. Drugged up Coke has a distinct Coffee flavor.

But I don't think I'll drink it again, unless someone buys me a case for my birthday :P Hint: Please spend your money on better things than coffee flavored coke. Hint: Please give me something other than coffee flavored coke for my birthday. Hint: A New Car! (Just spent $700+ on car repair, singular...fixing a single thing cost $700+!)

There are so many new fangled beverages coming out. A drink for every niche. Hey, if every niche gets it's own cable channel and website, why not a drink, right? That's true to some extent, but I just don't think Coke Blak or any coffee-mix will catch on. Soda is usually really sweet (even if it's calorie free), while coffee is usually bitter (unless your idea of coffee is a 25 pump vanilla latte) with a bit of sweetness thrown in. In fact, I think part of the pleasure of coffee is the mix of coffee bitterness with sugar sweetness. So that would make you think mixing coffee with cola would work really well...but not so much. Cola just doesn't lend itself well to bitter mixers. Cherry, vanilla, lime and the like seem to do really well with cola, but they're all sweet and/or sour. And coffee mixes well with sweetness, but that's usually in some creamy or foamy form of sweetness, not cola.

So never shall the two covort in my mouth at the same time.

Now, let me get back to uni-tasking.

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Uni-Tasking - Counterproductive

I realized today just how antsy I get when I can't multi-task or I have to do just a single thing for hours on end. I've got all-day mtgs this week and I've been trying to pay more attention than I usually do. So I actually followed the "laptops down" rule even kept track of every presentation and conversation. Good stuff.

Except for all the things I didn't get done. So now I'm totally behind on emails, voicemails, etc, etc. What a pain.

I know that paying attention to things is actually a good thing. But doing just a single thing at a time seems like such a waste of time. Yes, it's bad to do a half-ass job of things while multi-tasking, but I think I've gotten so used to multi-tasking that I end up actually accomplishing more than if I just did those same things one after another. Sure that just may be a rationalization, but whatever. I'm addicted to multi-tasking and it's gonna be hard to quit.

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HDTV better than the real thing

So we got a new HDTV last week. I've been wanting one for ages, but never really prioritized it since we had a lot of other things to think about. So now having this huge TV is not just fun to watch, many times it feels better than actually being there.

This is usually the case with sports since TV cameras usually have much better views than what the average person can get in the cheap seats. But with the HD, every detail is amazing. Yes, yes, I know, HD has been around for quite some time. I'm certainly not an early adopter, but when I finally jump in, I'm totally pleased.

What is even more amazing is watching the documentary shows on Discovery and these two channels called INHD (get it? In High Def? Ha!). At the moment, I'm watching "Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime". Or should I say re-watching it? I wrote about the program previously when I first saw it. I specifically recorded it since I knew it would be a different experience in HD.

No kidding. Piven is currently on the backwaters in Kerala and it's exactly like a I remember it from my trip there. Makes me want to return post-haste. I want to return even more due to some discussions we've had around the photography and trying to concentrate more on the art of our work; not just event coverage. More on that soon.

But anyway, it's truly amazing how a higher definition image just takes you away from your living room and places you smack dab in the middle of a Kathakali performance. I'm not surprised by this at all. Afterall, our photography almost always takes our clients away and places them right smack dab in the middle of their memories.

By the way, I've gotta add a few more comments about Jeremy Piven. The program is just wonderful. I wish he had spent more time in India. The interesting thing is that his experience is full of spiritual connection (which is what I usually expect when white people go to India), but he also just acts sort of random. I'd say he acts dumb or demeaning or racist, but it's not that. I suppose I could get offended by some of it, but I'm far from offended. In fact, it makes his trip all the more real. It's not like he's treating India as some cultural oasis. He treats it like a place when people actually live - they're not just religious kooks living in a Land of Culture, they're people! And so I think this makes the show (and Piven) a bit more charming and more real. And ya, the HD makes it more real too.

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Thursday, June 15, 2006

Today it was a good day

Man, today really seems to be a banner day for the benefit of the world as a whole. President Bush announced this morning that the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will now for a National Monument. It's bigger than any other nat'l monument and it's the most intact marine region within US jurisdiction.

Let's leave aside my thoughts on W and his term so far, but I've gotta say that our president has given the world a huge gift here but designating this area as a national monument. In the grand scheme, the war and everything else W stands for may nullify the good things Bush as done, but let's give W a hand for doing this.

President Clinton previous called this same area an ecosystem reserve, but the nat'l monument status guarantees permanent funding to maintain the reserve and it's very hard to change in the future.

Yes, another huge win for the world. Take a second and smile.

:)

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Philanthropy for the rich and famous

Bill Gates just announced that he's going to be leaving his day-to-day role at Microsoft in 2008. He's going to concentrate on the great work that his charities are doing.

If you listen to public radio and watch public TV, then you've probably heard the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the William H Gates Foundation (that's Bill's father). What I've liked about these foundations is that they have been focusing on such basic things, but things which have a huge impact on the global level. Things like Tuberculosis, Polio, AIDS, and vaccines for a multitude of other diseases which are so prevalent in the 3rd World we should be ashamed of ourselves. And then there's all the education related work the foundation undertakes. And this work isn't just a drop in the bucket - we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, the Gates Foundation is the world's largest charitable foundation.

Much of the discussion about Gates' announcement will focus on what happens to Microsoft going forward (in fact, the CNN story hardly mentions a thing about what Gates is moving onto, it just talks about the Microsoft plans). But I think this is a HUGE win for the world as a whole. Many people deride MS for providing crappy products and using it's marketshare to squash everything good in the software world, but it's clear that Gates has had an eye out for what good he can do outside of the sofware world for a long time. Given his success with MS (luck and timing included), I think he'll do much much greater things for the world as he begins to focus on the philanthropic work his foundation can lead.

The current leaders of our world can learn a thing or two from this announcement. Here's to people taking a step back and doing things for the greater good.

Cheers, Bill Gates.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Ergonomics and Industrial Design

Yes, yes, I know, yes another long time between posts. I've just been lazy and have had other things on my mind. I've been pondering some topics to blog about and something I heard on NPR told me I finally had to post.

So NPR had a profile of an industrial design legend named Viktor Schreckengost who is turning 100 next week. This man has designed so many things it's quite amazing that he's not a household name. One of the things he said while being interviewed is that he always thought from the user's perspective and how they would feel using one of his designs. That seems pretty obvious.

So it's funny that I was thinking about the same topic and was chatting with a friend about it just a few hours earlier in the day. I brought up the topic because I just got a new Apple Macbook. While it's a great little machine and I believe it's going to serve my needs very well, I realized within a couple of hours of taking it out of the box that there was an odd flaw with the physical design of the thing. Don't get me wrong, overall, they've done a great job combining good looks with a very useable design. But there are two things which, to me, are glaring mistakes.

The first is the most annoying since my wrists won't let me forget about it. While closed, the macbook looks so sleek it just brings a twinkle to your eye. Open it up and the keyboard looks funky, but it actually works quite well and is very comfortable. In fact, I like it a bit better than the MacBook Pro's keyboard. Anyways, the problem here is not the keyboard, it's the front edge of the machine. It's got a sharp edge which just digs into your wrists while you type. Not a good thing. This is not a matter of how I type, since I believe most people lay their wrists on the space directly in front of the keyboard. When you do this on a MacBook, your wrist just scrapes along this hard, sharp edge.

So if you see me sometime and the inside of my wrists look all raw and ready to bleed, don't worry, I haven't tried to slit my wrists, I've just been using my laptop.

So in Apple's attempts at creating a truly slick (literally) laptop, they didn't think about how the clean line of the front edge would affect a user's ergonomics. For a company that's lauded for its industrial design, that's a a huge mark against them. I haven't heard of any other complaints about this, but I'd be interested to learn about other people's experiences with this.

Ok, so moving on, the other problem with this laptop is the position of the lock receptacle. If you haven't used one of those Kensington Laptop Locks, you really ought to. I've been using them for so long, it's a no brainer for me. So when I take this laptop to work, I immediately lock it up so some random person walking by my cube can't just lift my shiny new money pit. Well, as soon as I put the MacBook on my desk, I immediately recognized something wrong with where the lock receptacle is...it's on the left side of the laptop, but it's the front most thing. Check out this photo. The lock receptacle is the little hole all the way on the right side (on the black MacBook). So the problem is that with the lock in, the cable for the lock (which runs to the back of my desk) covers up ALL of the ports. Dumb. So let's say I run my lock to the side of the my desk...in that case, the cable for the lock would be smack dab in the middle of my desk and block everything else. What if I run the lock over the front edge of my desk and underneath? Well then I've got a cable hitting my knees all day. No matter where I run the cable for the lock, it's gets in the way of something else.

Every PC I've seen has the lock receptacle as far back as possible. This makes sense since the lock is really the last thing you really need to be touching once you put it on. While using the computer, chances are you're going to want to plug in USB devices, a network cable, etc. Whenever I do this with my MacBook, I've gotta push the damned lock cable out of the way. How annoying. And by placing the lock reception all the way in the back, you can just run the cable to the back of your desk and it's out of the way and doesn't impede on your knees or anything else on your desk.

Now...I'm not saying this is the result of something thinking the lock receptacle look cool in this wierdo spot, but it's definitely a sign of someone not thinking about how people use laptop locks.

Of course, Apple has done a great job thinking about other day to day problems of laptop users, like the powr plug. The MacBook and MacBook Pro have a magnetic power plug which will come out if it's tugged too hard. Sure this might mean you lose power more often since the plug comes out, but it's better than the plug staying in and dragging the laptop off your desk and onto the floor when your dog runs by and snags the cord. Believe me, I've had several heart stopping moments when I've had to catch my laptop just as it teeters on the edge of my table since it was just dragged off the edge as my dogs ran by.

Ok, so I'm going to give Apple lots of credit for how well they design so many thing, but when they miss, they miss in ways that really annoy me.

Want more examples?

The Apple Keyboard...While the laptop keyboards are quite nice, the external keyboard looks so sweet, but it's something I really can't stand. Notice the curve on it? From an ergonomic perspective, it's actually the exact opposite of what it should do. They say that you should type in such a way that your hands & wrists sort of hang limp. The Apple keyboard makes you bend your wrists backwards. On top of that, the keystrokes are so long that you have to really punch at the keys to get them going. As a result of this, they make tons of noise too. And not the nice clicky-clicky noise that old school IBM terminals make, It's a really annoying noise. So the Apple keyboard is a definite loser from an ergonomic & user perspective. Looks cool, but looks only go so far.

One more example?

The Apple mouse. Sucks. Let's not worry about the single mouse button thing since the latest Mighty Mouse actually has two buttons, they're just technological buttons instead of a separate buttons. But look at this thing. It's so cool! That should be your first sign :) This geometric design is actually quite bad for your mouse hand. Again, looks very cool, but totally wrong from an ergonomic perspective.

So which external keyboard & mice do I like best?

Microsoft. Gotta love that wave keyboard...it really keeps your hands in the right spots. And the first generation ones actually let you hang your hands in the perfect position. If you've got one of those first generation ones, lemme know and I'll buy it from you :) I also like the nice mice they make, although I don't have a favorite. I'm sure Logitech makes very nice ergonomic mice also. Bottom line though is that Apple definitely doesn't know how to make them.

It's funny...Apple does a great job at user interface from a software perspective, but I've just gone into waaay too much detail about how badly they can miss on the hardware user interface. Apple certainly isn't the only company that misses on their hardware interface, but given how much Apple puts into how much better their products are than everyone else's, they really should address these things by thinking more about the ergonomics of these devices.

In the meantime, I'll go blot my bleeding wrists.