I hate United... and how Vista got me free WiFi...

United Airlines... voted by me as worst airline on earth...

I'm stuck in their crummy San Diego lounge... with a flight that's delayed nearly two hours for no good reason (they just got delayed earlier in the day, and it's rippled on 'till now)... And of course, with zero notice, so instead of being out an enjoying San Diego for another hour or two, I'm sitting here...
Now on the upside, I installed Vista in Parallels recently. While it's slow as hell (and makes me wish I'd just left well enough alone with XP), it seems that T-Mobile (the guys who run the hotspots for United... that's right, no free WiFi... well done United) has a deal with Microsoft. If you connect to a hotspot using IE7 on Vista, it lets you connect for free.

So, I fired up Parallels, opened IE, connected to the net, and then quit Parallels, and the rest of my Mac is happily surfing the web for free. W00t for Windows.

At eTech

If you're in town, feel free to say hi... or send me an email...

More on ETech soon! (Man, Leila's really kicking my butt on this blog frequency thing!)

You'd think Apple would multithread... right?

My kid sis just had her birthday party, and we hung out (as bro's and sis's do :-) and made a DVD together. It's the first time I've really spent a lot of time working with iDVD (I've used it once or twice before, but nothing fancy).

So as I write this iDVD is crunching away and rendering menus, slideshows and movies... and it's only using ONE of the cores in my laptop... Which doesn't make a lot of sense, given that this whole video rendering process is about as heavy a task as most computer encounter.

Arinell Pizza

Arinell Pizza, originally uploaded by Sutha Kamal.

Clear rules on what you can and can't do... apparently they haven't got ice for crackheads, and the mooing homeless guy in the neighborhood has been asked to keep it quiet in the store...

The Sex-Fu Challenge

The Sex-Fu Challenge, originally uploaded by Sutha Kamal.

Terrific use of text messaging...

Guess I shouldn't be surprised

... to see this handed out in the Air Canada lounge :-)

Social networks = echo chambers

?
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Running more - I need some advice...

Okay, so I've racked up a few more air miles than I'd have liked to so far... and the exercise schedule I'd been working so hard at towards the end of last year has largely fallen by the wayside. I'm training for the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa in May (if you're up for a run and hanging out with some good folks the last weekend in May, send me a note!), and generally also trying to get in triathlon shape by summer.

So to those of you who travel a lot: how do you do it? Is it just dicipline to stop the post-conf socializing early and start the morning with a workout, or is there something more to it? Any advice here would be hugely appreciated :-)

Leading Clever People - More from HBR

What I enjoy most is getting the chance to go out and play with the smart kids, and here's an HBR article Leading Clever People by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (both profs at London Business school) that talk about how a manager goes about leading a team of rockstars. Examples touched on in the article include Genentech/Roche, Google, and Microsoft, amongst others.

The idea that rockstars are somehow different than others is all motherhood and apple pie (my new expression for the week), but the article gives solid suggestions on just how these folks are different, and how to manage them.

If you try to push your clever people, you will end up driving them away. As many leaders of highly creative people have learned, you need to be a benevolent guardian rather than a traditional boss.

Realizing What You're Made Of - Harvard Biz Review article

Was just reading an article in the March 2007 issue of HBR and thought I'd write a quick post (it's been a month since I posted last? yikes!)... Glenn Mangurian, a co-founder of FrontierWorlks a management-consulting firm, and formerly a senior VP @ CSC Index tells the story of his accepting and then overcoming a sudden paralysis.

The general topic of what gives people the strength to persevere through times of overwhelming adversity is certainly an interesting one to me, and I think the article's well worth a read if you've got some time...

The article ends with Mangurian's "Wisdom from Adversity", the headlines for which are:

• You can't know what will happen tomorrow-and it's better that way.
• You can't control what happens, just how you respond.
• Adversity distorts reality, but crystallizes the truth.
• Loss amplifies the value of what remains.
• It's easier to create new dreams than cling to broken ones.
• Your happiness is more important than righting injustices.

"Realizing What You're Made Of" by Glenn Mangurian