techno.blog("Dion")

I actually got to listen to some podcasts as I flew back West to California (and my wife and son were in front of me!).

As I went through the list I came across the latest TalkCrunch: Interview With 2008 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

I like Mike. Ajaxian started to take off right when TechCrunch did. I feel like Ajaxian is the developer version, and TechCrunch is the business version. Of course, TechCrunch is now huge and Ajaxian… well it is doing well, but it ‘aint no TechCrunch!

Ben and I setup a little dinner with a tech journalist form the Wall Street Journal a few years back (right after Ajax/Web 2.0 was taking off) and Mike graciously showed up and was a lot of fun. That was the first time I met him. Mr. Gomes was a liberal, a touch ashamed of the editorial page in his paper (god knows what he thinks of it now it is FOX!), and I quickly learned that Mike didn’t lean that way…. and that I should never talk politics with him.

Fast forward to today, and I see he has a 10 minute chat with Mitt Morman Romney. The questions are softballs and the transcript could read like this:

MA: Mitt, would you raise taxes?

MR: Mike, no. Americans have to pay too many taxes.

MA: Mitt, Do you think we should abolish the H1-B visa limits?

MR: I can’t exactly say what I would and wouldn’t do buy I believe in the American people and we want smart people in the country paying taxes… but not too many taxes.

MA: What about capital gains taxes for VCs?

MR: Erm, erm.

MA: PC or Mac?

MR: PC, but 6 out of 12 of my kids use Mac’s and swear by them. The other 6 love PCs. I love all types.

My favourite question was about what Mitt has on his iPod:

Country (and Western?), 60s music (Beatles, Stones), and “inspiration music”.

Wow. cover the bases my friend. I wonder how Mitt and Mike got in touch? Does Mike contribute to the campaign? Is Mitt a fan of TechCrunch? Will Obama be on TalkCrunch next?

The small print is really getting quite bizarre. Every year the small print seems to infringe on the actual content. Whenever I am back in England I try to work out what has changed since my last visit. These changes are often impossible to detect when you are living there every day, as they are too subtle.

One of the random observations is courtesy of the BBC news. Before every bit of video footage the anchor would say something along the lines of: “There is some light in this footage, so be warned”. It is as though the country has all become epileptic and any flashing lights would result in gibbering wrecks. Do we really need to tell people that there is a bit of flash photography? It seems like the culprit is the awful London 2012 Olympics logo that has been known to flash.

Of course, the US tends to be king of the disclaimer. Why do shows on radio and tv has to always tell you that whatever is being said, it isn’t necessarily the opinion of the station owner. Nooooo. Really? When you show Sadam at his trial, he isn’t speaking for the station? Wow, thanks for making it really obvious.

Where does it all end!

I am enjoying my time back in London. I am staying next to the Google London office in Victoria for now, and move to the Docklands tomorrow to speak at the Future of Web Apps which looks like a great show.

Back to the hotel…. you know it is international when you get this power to plug into:

As per usual I got in early in the morning. Victoria is great if you fly into Gatwick, as you can get the express train right there. Painless.

However, I was knackered after a non-sleep flight and wanted to shower and crash. They didn’t have my room ready though so I was told to hang in the lobby and they would grab me as soon as they got a room. I waited, and waited, and … When I finally went up again: “Oh yeah, we have your room”. Thanks.

After some clean up I hit the local store to top up my uk mobile. It is painful using a 5 year old beast when I have my iPhone in the other pocket (I know, I could have jailbreak-ed and put in another SIM….).

I was really happy to see a Nandos as soon as I walked outside. The peri-peri chicken + sauce is fantastic, and I think it will do great in the states.

I also knew I was back home when:

• It rained… a lot
• The trains went down

Anyway, it is fun to hang in the Google office here (very open plan), and I am looking forward to meeting interesting people at Sam Sethi’s bash (Sam does Blognation).

My son has always loved Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins.

He also loves Monk-E-Mail (a great advertising platform for CareerBuilder IMO), and ever since my Dad sent him one, he associates a computer with monkeys. I am sure people think that he is nuts when he runs up to them at a coffee shop shouting “monkeys! monkeys!” and pointing at their laptop.

I decided to put things together, and made his favourite monkeys, read his favourite book:

I used to read a lot as a kid. I can remember going through Beano’s, books, and ZX Spectrum games.

The first series that I loved was Malory Towers, a book about a children’s boarding school. For some reason I closely related to the main character, Darrell Rivers, who read to me like Dion Almaer. ASIDE: I related to Fred Savage and The Wonder Years too… probably to do with the hair, and due to the fact that Winnie seemed all too fresh.

I remember finishing the last book in the six book series. I cried. It was over. We all know that the journey is the fun part (happiness isn’t a destination, it is a journey and all that jazz). When you get to the end of a fun journey things can fall a little flat. Finishing this book was a mini-version of finishing up at a school and knowing that you will never go back. It brings an emptiness to it.

Why am I blabbing about this? I just finished the Harry Potter series. I won’t put any spoilers in here, as the reason that I wanted to read it in short order was due to NOT coming across any spoilers. I tend to read a few feeds and such, so I thought that I was bound to come across something.

I lift my glass to JK. I can only imagine the possible feelings she must have gone through as she wrote the last page. What a journey she has gone through. How her life has changed from when she wrote the first page of the book, to the last.

We do live in a magical world. It is in front of us, and if you don’t see it, you are a muggle.

Part one of the summer Harry Potter mania is over. The movie was decent enough. It was solid. It did the job.

It wasn’t special though and you felt like you were speeding through things the entire time. Almost everything was covered, but all in a very light way.

It was also very dark. My nephews went to see this, and I don’t know if I would want them to :) I know that the books get darker and darker, but the movies are even more-so. In the book there is time for some fun here and there, but the speed y movie bypasses all of that and just leaves the mainline darkness. Ebert was right when he said there was never a gleam in Harry’s eye. No fun quidditch here.

I was amazed at how they cast Laura Bush as Dolores. The “I look nice but deep down I am medievally harsh” character that will do anything for the president^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hminister of magic.

I love how the books mimic the times.

Now we can get to what people are really going to get into. The final book. Noone cares about the Sopranos ending in comparison!

Lessons from a true pro:

• People should know some of the words, but not all of them (so they listen to you)
• There has to be some slow parts and some fast parts
• There has to be a speaking part
• There has to be some instrumental time so you can talk to the crowd.

I got to watch the wisdom of crowds in action this weekend.

A good friend is getting married this summer, and had the fun idea to get friends together for a wine testing. The aim was to choose the wine for the wedding.

By having the party, people could bring their favourites, a good time could be had, and a solid wine would be served at the wedding itself.

Before the tasting began, everyone had a score sheet, and were asked to rate the wine (1 – 5) and give thoughts on it (spry, smokey, acidic, to name a few that came up).

Surprise, surprise. As the night went on, people ranked them better. My hypothesis throughout was that we may be able to weed out the truly poor wines, but that this is pretty random. If you tasted a wine that had a bad aftertaste, it would affect the next wine (people weren’t even attempting to cleanse the palette).

The a-ha moment was when the same wine was sneaked in twice (all of the wines were hidden, and numbers associated with them).

People gave the same win VERY different scores, and wrote very different thoughts about them.

Well, at least we met the “have a good time” aim of the night.

Ah, Ricky.

With the cricket world cup upon us in the Caribbean the usual classic pub-like song has come up.

It is playing on their myspace page and you can tell their genius from the lyrics.

Don’t make us pray for rain

Watch out for Monty he’s gonna make the ball bounce, Nixon’s behind you and he’s ready to pounce

Kevin Peterson is as English as the rest of us, the Aussies wont get him out for a duck billed platypus.

Michael Vaughn Is our skipper Plunkett bowls a dipper won’t try the local herbs but might smoke a kipper

The wicket might be sticky, bowling will be tricky, .

If you wanna watch the match gonna have to throw a sickie

The ground might be slippy

The Aussies might get lippy

They’re gonna need some help, they should send for Skippy

So come on now lads, time to pull on your pads

don’t’ put us through a months worth of pain

Aint won it before time to even the score

Don’t make us pray for rain

Remember hit the ball run and then we will all have tea!

Freddie flint offs a hero, he says it’s no biggie

But he can bowl and bat while rolling a ciggie

Anything’s possible if you follow your dream

Even Scotland have got a cricket team

The ball will be spinning, throughout the innings, And up in the stand Fletcher will be grinning

No heat rashes No rash dashes come on everybody let’s forget about the ashes.

You score there’s no kissing can’t argue with dismissing In the commentary box Geoffrey boycotts reminiscing

So come on now lads, time to pull on your pads

don’t’ put us through a months worth of pain

Aint won it before time to even the score

Don’t make us pray for rain

We don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain, don’t need, the rain