Connecting the Dots

This blog runs on the Typepad hosted service (the smartest decision in 2004, IMHO) but I've become a fanboy of Wordpress and quite fond of this project over time.

Like any 'relationship' one enters into -- be it a friendship, love or even a partnership -- nothing is perfect and not without ups-n-downs, but I'm seeing this lack of perfection in Wordpress and other open source projects and wondering how the sheer number of variables with plugins and such can continue.

My other blog, Minnov8, runs on Wordpress. One of my fellow geeks on the team is a Wordpress junkie and knows the platform incredibly well. Since I was out of the country the last week and half, he graciously agreed to upgrade our 2.5.1 installation to the new 2.6.

I was really keen on this upgrade since the image uploader for posting in the admin area of Wordpress didn't work and many, many people were experiencing this issue. Since I had to FTP the images for posts in to our Wordpress content directory and then hardcode a URL link to the image in each post, my fellow contributors were sending me their content and I was uploading and posting. What a pain!

Checking the Minnov8 blog Wednesday evening at about 9pm (in my highly jetlagged state of mind), I discovered that the 2.6-driven site -- which had been working for 24 hours without a hitch -- was no longer displaying the theme! I put up a "closed for maintenance" page and invested three hours trying to get it back online but to no avail.

My colleague and I both invested about four more hours each the next day (yesterday) trolling the Wordpress forums and trying out fixes proposed there, deleting database tables, going through each PHP file with a finetoothed comb, turning off all plugins (and double-checking which were 'version 2.6 compliant'), and rechecking the clean-coded theme we're using to ensure that wasn't the problem.

I finally got so frustrated that I wholesale deleted the entire Wordpress installation and re-uploaded the entire Wordpress software along with my saved content files and database backups.

It got restored and is now working...but neither of us has a clue why and it might as well be magic.

There's a pretty big gap between someone who uses a hosted service like Typepad and Wordpress.com, and those of us who choose our own hosts and install the software ourselves. The amount of "gotchas" in the latter is such that often a person needs to be highly technical or experienced in order to rely upon installed, open source software and the supposed 'support' that comes from a discussion forum most open source projects deliver, but the upside of the installed software (vs. the more run-of-the-mill looking hosted stuff) is too great to choose the former.

With an ecosystem of developers creating plugins, themes and other extensions for Wordpress (and the same holds true for other projects like Joomla and Drupal), one needs to approach an open source install or upgrade with the same attention to detail a programmer and developer would with exhaustive testing before going in to production. Unfortunately, most users don't have the time, the wherewithall or the desire to do so.

If guys like us can't get stuff like this to work without hours of futzing and tweaking, imagine someone with half our combined skills doing so AND having a site offline that they're using for a mission-critical site for their organization or business.

Been in the land down under for two days and I'm delightfully impressed with the country, the people, and the little things I've become aware of in our brief stay.

From our flight crew on Jetstar from Honolulu to the hotel and yesterday's walking trip of the city, virtually everyone we've come into contact with has been remarkably nice.

I've not heard one car horn honking; music blaring or people making a spectacle of themselves. In a city of 3.8M people, one would expect a lot more of all three. Though some graffiti was in evidence, it's pretty clean here too.

But what struck me were the little things I didn't expect:

Yesterday and today is our workshop, tonight a dinner, and then on to a few days of adventure before a looong trip back to the middle of the US. Sure wish I could stay for a month or more, see Tasmania and New Zealand, and have a complete experience in this wonderful place.

Here's some quick advice for all of you folks who want to upgrade to the iPhone 2.0 software, especially if you need a usable iPhone in the next few hours: WAIT!

Apple's servers are clearly slammed (Me.com is virtually inaccessible) and after installing the 2.0 software and firmware, my phone couldn't access the iTunes Store and has been rendered inoperable. Good thing I don't need it right this minute and can retry in an hour or so.

A few others are having the same problem.

Thought I'd give you a heads-up that posting will be either light or non-existent for the next 10 days. Heading to Australia (we're running a workshop there) with a two day stop in Hawaii on the way over.

Still amazes me that we could get all the way to Australia within one, 24 hour period and how long it took people a century ago.

Feeling irritated over fees for checked luggage, having to sit in coach since the cost of business class tickets would equal the cost of a new car instead, coupled with outrageous fees for text messaging and phone calls from there (and internet access), seem incredibly petty when you think of our forebearers who made the trip down under by spending a month or more traveling there on some ship, sick from scurvy and covered with lice.

My only regret is not having a month or more for exploration. Going to Tasmania, New Zealand especially, and the dream I've had since college of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, will all have to wait for a pure pleasure trip at some other point.

Rarely do I watch local news, but a couple of weeks ago I happened to catch a story on our local CBS affiliate's 10PM newscast about Marshall, MN-based Schwans and their amazing propane trucks. This is a lesson in strategic planning for the long term, and how gleeful they must be in a day when diesel fuel is approaching $5 a gallon!

Schwans is a company that got into the home delivery business when in 1952, Marvin Schwan packed his beat-up 1946 Dodge panel van with 14 gallons of his family’s signature ice cream and delivered it to rural families in western Minnesota. At the end of that historic trip, all 14 gallons were sold and the Schwan home-delivery business was born.

Now a multi-billion dollar private company with 22,000 employees and a dependence on trucks to deliver their goods -- especially the sizeable home delivery portion of their business -- they were admittedly stunned and taken aback during the oil crisis of the 1970's and initiated a very long term strategic plan to ensure they weren't in that position again.

This article (and the accompanying video there which I watched that night) says in part, "Our sales were based on the fact that we're driving down the road and going to people's houses, and so that's really where the concern came in and said 'We need to do something different,'" said Shannon Lens, Director of Fleet Acquisition at Schwan Foods.

What they did was take the mandate of Schwan Foods founder Marvin Schwan to find an alternative fuel. They discovered propane being used on a very small scale in Ohio. They eventually bought the propane technology and started converting their trucks. By the 1980s, most of the fleet was propane powered."

This company is now paying $2 per gallon for propane fuel that runs the 5,200 trucks in their fleet nationwide.

Propane is no panacea since it's a byproduct of oil refining. Still, as I've said before in many ways on this blog, there's been a lack of leadership exhibited in the last eight years on finding any alternatives to oil, motivating we citizens to conserve, and going to war to ensure we get the last remaining oil resources vs. those emerging economies China and India.

Strategic planning, risk management and leadership are things one would hope for in our Federal government and not just with companies delivering pizza and ice cream.

Cutting costs and leveraging technology is a smarter play right now than ever before. My bride and I have slashed our personal and business costs, are foregoing major expenditures, strategically planning for tighter times, and are focusing our client engagements in the same direction.

There is a tremendous amount of information about the credit crisis, but this morning I came across this article (scroll down for article) about the size of the problem:

Bridgewater Associates is estimating that the costs of the credit crisis may be a lot higher than previously assume at a staggering $1.6 trillion. At the current time, approximately $400 billion has been accounted for and writedowns taken. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated a cost of just under $1 trillion, Goldman Sachs at $1.1 trillion, and hedge fund manager John Paulson at $1.3 trillion. The analysis by Bridgewater was dug up by this Swiss newspaper.

Gulp.

The magnitude of this problem, its intricacies and the complexities of the global monetary system is beyond my ability to understand or control -- and I'll wager you're in the same boat. What I can control is my preparedness and the strategic steps taken to guard against devastating losses.

We've taken a lot of tactical steps: from no debt, to ordering a 2009 Prius for its gas mileage, to the investments we're choosing and even things like moving from shipment of products to digitally delivering those we can. There are even times we've delivered talks online that previously we would've delivered in person, primarily due to the venue wanting to save money as transportation costs have risen.

With the acceleration of web applications to mobile telephone and broadband speeds, there's no better time to begin to examine parts of your business or personal lives that could be slightly modified and be delivered virtually. I'm not recommending you stop traveling and use webinar technology in its place, for example, but instead replace one trip. The bonus is you'll also learn how to use it, if it is effective (and how to make it so) and whether or not it actually saves money.

The point is to plan....now.

On this day in 1776 when the American colonies 2nd Continental Congress declared our independence from Britain, it was a simple declarative given a year after the American Revolutionary war began but has become more symbolic over time.

Many view this declaration as more than the Colonists officially telling Britain to go pound sand, but rather it was a fundmentally important building block in the formation of our American ideological foundation, a key basis for our guiding principles and the creation of a great nation, and a bold affirmation that we were done with an oppressive, empire-building country.

Its first few lines have resonated with me since I was in grade school: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Those lines in bold were ones I've believed in since I was first taught American History, fighting to stay awake as my buddy Mike F. tried to make me laugh in class, knowing *I* would be the one to catch hell.

As a former Republican and now a fierce independent, I've grown profoundly disturbed over the last eight years as those childish beliefs of mine in "by the people," "liberty," "rule of law," "haebeus corpus," have given way to an adult understanding that power is all that matters, demonstrated by our current Administration who has clearly shown us their belief that "the people" are to be "Governed" and that the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights are nothing but quaint historical relics that they have reigning presidential powers over and can "alter or abolish."

Unless you and I actually do believe in our American ideals and are willing to stand up for them and take back that power (and give "the consent of the governed" to those willing to serve vs. dictate), then the 4th of July is nothing but a meaningless excuse to barbecue, shoot off fireworks and buy stuff on sale.

This blog has been my primary vehicle for thoughts surrounding anything internet, web, technology, and I've loved all the energy and time I've invested in it. Over the last few weeks, I've had several folks ping me on my apparent reduction in post frequency, and I thought a quick note on why was in order.

Though my first love is Connecting the Dots, I'm "having an affair" with another: Minnov8, a blog started by myself and four other geeks and one dedicated to Minnesota Innovation in Internet & Web Technology.

Born and raised in Minnesota -- though with three years living in Chicago and most of my other jobs requiring extensive out of state travel over the years -- I'm still fully invested here raising my family, staying involved with extended family, and enjoying my lifelong and new friendships.

Silicon Valley is the epicenter of technology and I'm constantly struck by the events, meetups, unconferences and other thought leader gatherings I would attend if I lived out there. I've been tempted on a couple of occasions to pack up and move out there (and my bride would be delighted as would my videogame and technoweenie 13 year old son), but there is too much holding us here. We have a business that's 21 years old, several key clients and contacts placing us one or two degrees of separation from just about anyone in Minnesota.

Agitated that I had to connect with others outside of Minnesota in order to push against the membrane of the future to explore new ideas and possibilities, I found myself in a group of guys at MinneDemo, a gathering of startups, entrepreneurs, and interested others, lamenting the fact that there wasn't a publication we could read to stay on top of the twice yearly connection received at this event.

Saying, "Well, maybe we should start a blog?" and having affirmative head nods from my colleagues, we started Minnov8 in February. Built on Wordpress, we know that the next step is to add a participative aspect to the site, but we have no business model, sponsorships or other revenue streams (done so intentionally) and we're realizing now that none of us can devote the time necessary to Minnov8 without some way of having an economic incentive to compensate for time not invested in our other pursuits. Building upon a white label social network, Drupal or some other platform would require time, effort, energy and/or investment that we're figuring out how to make and it's not obvious.

So that's why I'm infrequently posting as well as the order of my priorities: Family is first; clients second; our business third; and then comes blogging, podcasting and other 'net-centric pursuits. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know!

I hate this stuff. One more example of "if it can be scammed, it will be scammed."

Magento Commerce enjoys one of the most active and participative ecosystems I've seen surrounding any open source project...let alone one that started in January of 2007!

Though the software is still in a 1.0x version state -- and is not for the faint-of-heart to install and deploy -- it's moving quickly toward being positioned as the ecommerce engine of choice. Joomla, Wordpress and even Drupal project folks are interacting with the Magento Commerce teams to determine how integrations can proceed and how quickly.

Today sees an email from the team about iPhone support and Wordpress integration. Two positive steps in the right direction.

I tried out the iPhone interface and it's simple, easy and fun. Thinking about my purchase history and online research before buying, I realize that it's relatively unlikely many transactions will occur from a smartphone. But there's no question in my mind that these devices will be the primary internet interface for many of us going forward, and having sites accessible will be critical.

The Wordpress integration is also of particular interest as I'm doing more with this software and the community is crying out for seamless integration and rock-solid ecommerce.

Quite a bit has been written about Tiger Woods winning this year's US Open with a broken leg and gimpy knee. Singular focus, knowing what it takes to win consistently and for decades, pushing through pain, and all the other descriptors of Woods fall short of watching the video below and seeing the delight and joy of his win.

I'm struck daily by my being a jack-of-all-trades and master of but a few....and no Tiger Woods of anything. One of my strengths is 'input' and another is 'learning' so the moment I master something, I am absolutely driven to move on to learn something new. It's at the heart of my value and drives my consulting practice, but it also holds me back from that singular focus on one thing which makes someone a Tiger Woods of their specialty.

Few of us choose one thing and put all of our energy and effort behind it and that's what it takes to be the best at something. I've seen it over-n-over-n-over again from music, to writing, to podcasting, to swimming, to running, to golf. Those who are so passionate about something that they devote ALL of their energy, effort and drive to it are the ones who emerge as the best.

Think about that as you beat yourself up at not being as good as the next guy or gal who seems to be a champion at some given thing. You'll notice that they're deficient elsewhere since they are hyperfocusing on that one thing to the exclusion of most other pursuits.

Consider that as well when you're moving forward in a new job, career or are embarking on a new initiative or project. If it's important enough to you and aligns with your values, purpose and strengths, then throw yourself completely into it and dedicate yourself to being the best.

Today is Firefox 3 Download Day and you'll want to get this browser when it's released at 10am PDT. Why? It's really, really fast. Significantly faster than Firefox 2 and one thing is gone that caused many of us great angst: memory leaks that caused any of us who have 12-15 tabs open in one or more windows as workspaces to experience slowdowns, crashes and things like Flash videos stuttering.

Join people all over the world who've committed to downloading today (1.6M so far) and grab this gem.

As an observer of internet and web innovation, a voracious user of hosted applications and 'Web 2.0' offerings, I've wondered for a long time about something: why have I never used Yahoo products and services in any way and still don't?

Though I own some stock and been waiting for it to rise (fat chance now), it's a company I've never believed in and one that's irrelevant to my life. Most people I know don't use Yahoo either and, out of the tens of thousands of pageviews per month on this blog, a tiny fraction come in from Yahoo....and I mean a tiny fraction (as a point of comparison, Google represents 63% of all referrals with the remainder coming in from blog or website links).

This irrelevancy is one reason why I didn't care much as the Microsoft acquisition adventure was underway as well as after it had collapsed, though my few hundred shares increasing in value would've been nice.

My best guess on why that is can be summed up in one word: beige. In many ways a non-color, beige is the epitome of risk aversion, neutrality, and mass marketing that is the antithesis of where the web is headed. Today's web is all about connection, personalization, participation and a Long Tail and Yahoo, trying to be everything-to-everybody in a mass media sort of way, doesn't do any of that. 

As I watched the streaming video of Steve Jobs' keynote from yesterday's start to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), I was delighted with the capabilities of the new 3G iPhone, the coming explosion of new applications and that this device will be so much more powerful...

...but I also am more paranoid than ever about the unprecedented tracking capability built into it.

Techcrunch's Mike Arrington is simply in love. Josh Lowensohn thinks the server-based involvement provides Apple with a scary amount of marketing data. I'll take Josh one step further and submit that any of we soon-to-be-3G-iPhone-owners should consider the possibility that -- at some point soon or even a longtime down the road -- government intelligence agencies (like the National Security Agency (NSA) currently doing warrantless wiretapping) will gleefully use location and presence aware devices like this for surveillance and tracking of our movements.

Who needs RealID when you've got a tracking device tied to our names, Social Security numbers, and credit records and is a product that we've purchased and love to have with us at all times?

A final update on our experience with Learning Breakthrough (LB) since many people are following along and interested.

No question we received benefit from LB...it just wasn't effective enough. Unfortunately, it became a burden and my son was pulling back from it and goofing around, so we ended up not moving forward after the first five months. We'd read that there was a plateau period and we moved past that, but the benefits we were receiving from LB just wasn't enough of a payoff for the effort we put into it.

Learning Breakthrough (or Dore, in my opinion) is probably as good as having an ADD/ADHD person performing daily aerobic exercise and eating a good diet...and we all know how few of us do the things we know we should, and trying to get a kid to stick to something like LB is quite a challenge.

Then a Doc (Dr. Chuck Parker) who writes CorePsychBlog sent me an email since I'd written about brain SPECT imaging on this blog. Having the SPECT analysis helped us identify the subtype of ADHD my son was experiencing. Parker and I went back and forth, I helped him with his blog, and he ended up offering to work with my son (though a local Doc has to prescribe). Parker's belief is looking at the whole person, the "core" of the psychology, vs. just treating or focusing on one area like the cerebellum (which is the area of the brain positively affected by Learning Breakthrough or Dore).

Here was the big "Aha!" for us: Parker recommended that my son take a genetic test for gluten intolerance and we discovered that he's genetically gluten and casein intolerant (the former is the wheat protein and the latter the one in dairy products). We modified his diet, got him off his current ADHD medication and switched to Vyvanse, and the results were immediate and impressive.

His grades are mostly A's & B's, he's much happier and seemingly more socially adjusted, and a delight to be around vs. the struggles with this exceptionally bright kid that couldn't focus.

Nailing down the specific turning point is tough since we modified his diet, my son had a growth spurt, and he ended up on Vyvanse. While it would be nice to know precisely or to find a complete, holistic solution instead of yet-another-med or diet modification, it's hard to argue with the results!

By the way, this gluten intolerance is fascinating and is something worth considering if you or your child is gifted with ADHD. Celiac disease, an intestinal malady which is the worst-case scenario of gluten intolerance, mostly affects people of European (especially Northern European) descent, but studies show that it also affects Hispanic, Black and Asian populations as well. Though we went through withdrawal from those two proteins (e.g., fatigue for two weeks) both my wife and I feel much better being off gluten and dairy.