Anyway, this morning I woke to this drawing, emailed to me from my daughter.  She drew it on her Wacom tablet.

My daughter is always thinking of me.  She will make a great artist (and perhaps even a great wife and mother, should she decide to push her skill-sets) some day.   Love her to death.

Later my kids did the grocery shopping, and fixed me a wonderful meal, which they insisted we ate at the table together (at 18 and 20, my kids are rarely home for meals, much less eating together!).

My son has recently started cooking – and he has a knack for it.  Love him as well!

It was a wonderful day.

But not for everyone.

This conversation, which my friend Robert Scoble started, explains why.  Hard to enjoy this day when so much of the world is in pain.

If you can stomach it, here is the before and after photos of one father’s daughter on Father’s Day.  Don’t click if you are squeamish.  She was shot and killed while walking in a peaceful protest with her father.

I am proud that I served my country, and am inspired by all of those in Iran who are doing the same.  Sounds like a cliche, but freedom really isn’t free.

Ask Neda’s father.

Because we can’t ask Neda.

I’ve even got a post on the new site.  But it isn’t my site.  It belongs to the community that builds it.  You can join that community.  Learn how here.

It’s been a blast working on the site.  This is something completely fresh – from the graphics to the design.  The content and the idea behind the site – all new.

My employer, Rackspace, is backing the site.  It is an interesting challenge.  It has been from the day we decided to hire Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica.  Interesting because the idea is so unique that it is hard to describe.  A site that has no revenue model.  No marketing message.  It exists to help people use the new Internet to improve their own websites.  Particularly businesses.  If we help a business increase sales 10-15%, perhaps they will hire another employee.  Perhaps the increase in their sales means on of their vendors needs to hire more help.

Perhaps we can help the struggling economy one helpful post at a time.  Who knows?  Since it’s not been done in this way before – nobody knows.  But we have sure busted ass trying to find out!

I encourage you to go look at building43.  I am very proud of what the team has built.  I am proud to have my name associated with it.  And I am very, very happy that Robert and Rocky are with us on this project.  On paper, they work for me – but in actuality, we all work for the same purpose.  We all have a burning desire to build something truly meaningful – something truly helpful.

Let me know what you think!

Rob

I lost ownership of my domain name, lagesse.org for several weeks.  I won’t go into the ugly details, but I could certainly have prevented this.  Now I have the domain locked, set to auto-renew, and the email address I have the domain registered under is NOT an email address hosted on the lagesse.org domain.

It took a LOT longer to get my domain back because of (I assume) the Holidays.

What really sucked is my entire family has email on the lagesse.org domain – so I wasn’t the only one affected.  Bummer, family – and sorry about that!

So, the blog is back, the email is back, and I won’t make that mistake again

And that is all (for now)

Thanks,

Rob

Read it and enjoy the goodness

It has been an amazing four years for me – I have been able to spend time with my kids as required – but mostly I have been able to spend an inordinate amount of time learning.  Ten years ago I learned by reading books – today I learn more by surfing the Internet – it is still reading, but it is so much faster, and so much more available (and “find-able!”.

One of the things my time in consulting has taught me is that I miss people.  I miss the challenge of building teams – not just hiring people, but building functional groups that work well together to build more than any single persons could have done.

So, taking stock of my life, as I am often wanton to do, I asked myself, “What is next”?  In a year I will have two kids in college, and perhaps neither of them left at home.

It was time for me to answer the question, “What does Rob want?”.

So I looked back in my life experiences and tried to zero in on what made me the most happy – what did I love to do so much that I could do it for the rest of my life?  Raising children certainly tops my list – but I can’t raise them forever – in fact, I am already being outsourced in that position – by my children themselves.

Raising children is like building good teams – the end goal is that eventually they won’t need depend on you anymore.

I decided I needed to go back to work with people – preferably young, energetic people, and certainly people smarter than I am.  I have always been lucky in surrounding myself with people smarter than I am (and please – PAUL! – no comments that this should be easy – it isn’t).

This realization came over a several month period – I didn’t wake up one day having come to this “epiphany”.

I missed building teams.  I need to work with smart people.  I MUST work for a company that understands that I am a unique person – I am opinionated, passionate, determined, outspoken, opinionated, and outspoken.  And I am sorry if I repeated myself.  And I am sorry if I repeated myself.

I need a company that doesn’t exist outside of startups – I needed security, because I will have two kids in college.  It must be nimble.  It must be willing to listen, and learn – even as it teaches.  But I also needed the excitement that keeps me engaged.  I need to constantly invent.  I need to work with smart people that will make me smarter.  I needed to be someplace that allows me to make a difference every day.  I needed to build something that affects a lot of people, because after helping build WiFi – it takes a big project to be a “big deal”.

And most of all – I need to be able to help.  My work must have value – to me, and to the people I work with.  And to the customers – who I never shy away from or refuse a conversation with.

In the next day or two I hope to share with you the company that is all of that, and more.  How much more is something I expect to find out soon – and something I hope to grow over time.

But don’t worry – I won’t change my blogging style/habits.  I wouldn’t work for a company that thought they could control my freedom of expression outside the office.

The list of companies I wouldn’t work for is rather large.  So I’ll save you that and instead share with you in the next couple days who I would work for – and I will tell you exactly why I made that choice.

I sold a blog post today – literally.  Some time ago (I won’t get specific) I wrote a 32 word blog post that had a random (seemingly) phrase in it that recently caught someone’s interest.  The phrase was also the blog post title. 

It was a “catch phrase” that I just made up – but now, (some time later), a company is launching a product that uses the same catch-phrase I coined (some time ago).

Since the way my post used the phrase was contrary to the goals of the company, and since it was unique, and it had good “Google Juice”, the company very politely, and without any threat or fear of threat (they acknowledged that I had “coined the phrase” long before they had) offered to pay me to kill my blog post.  They just wanted “clear title” to the phrase – and they wanted to be found if someone searched for it.

I cannot go into specifics about the post (now deleted) or the terms.  But it was substantial enough that I elected to delete something that I alone created and controlled.  It would not buy a car, or allow me to retire.

Sure – that info is still “out there” somewhere – in Google Cache, for example.  But in a very short time the Google Juice I have for the phrase will be dead, and the new owners of the phrase will get top billing on the search results. 

Which is what they wanted.

I didn’t delete anything significant – there were not even any comments on the post.  It was, like many of my posts, just “something weird I thought of and posted”.

Did I sell out?  I sure did.  But I didn’t sell anyone else out, so I am comfortable with my decision.

Did I get rich – no.  Would I sell another post for money – I doubt it – this was a very unique situation.  You could not, for example, pay me to delete any of the negative posts that I have written about any company or service here.

Some of my most popular posts are ones that I either praise or punish some company that I think is worthy of my opinion about them.  I would never consider selling those posts.

If you are shocked by my actions go look through your blog history and tell me there isn’t a single insignificant post you wouldn’t sell to help put your child through college.  I am sure you have a meaningless post or two that nobody would ever miss.

I traded a useless, silly, and ignored post for a chance to get my kid through college.  Judge me if you wish.  I have no regrets.  

At the very end of this episode we manage to get in a tribute to George Carlin – "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television".

I manage to get all of the words in, and Tina Gillmor did not edit them – as a tribute to George.

Those words are, “Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits.”

You can hear the entire episode here.

If you just want to hear me swear, cut to the last 3-4 minutes.

NewsGang Live is a daily podcast I have been doing for some time – although lately I have been cutting back in favor of doing real (paying) work.  I will still be an occasional guest caller, but I don’t think I will be a regular, regularly.

It is a quirky podcast that is currently focusing on politics, but also covers a wide variety of issues, including Tech issues (a lot of Twitter talk).

Our host, Steve Gillmor, just got his own Techcrunch property at TechcrunchIT

Spend a few minutes looking at the Seadragon Technology in use with Surface – then fast forward to 11:24 in the video and watch something really cool – wait for the coke can!

What an amazingly well-spoken young man.  His father would be very proud of this interview.

I never go a day without telling my kids I love them.

Babble Soft, an Austin, TX based company, has teamed up with EmailOurMilitary to provide free accounts for Military Active Duty Dads this Father’s Day.

I like Babble Soft – I wish they were around 17-19 years ago when my kids were born.  I first learned of them just about a year ago, and they have been very kind and friendly.

And I love EmailOurMiltary – an organization that makes it easy for anyone to get involved directly with service men and women on deployment.  They offer a ton of value for our servicemen and women, and even more value to those who feel as if they should be doing something more to support our troops.

So if you are a young military parent go check this out – what a wonderful way to allow our troops to follow the lives of our youngest Patriots – and to see their children grow – no matter where they are.

Father’s Day is this weekend, June 15! I’d like to wish all the fathers out here a very happy Father’s Day filled with love and laughter. I’d also like to extend an invitation for new dads to try Babble Soft’s baby applications.

Times have changed. Now more than ever before, fathers are taking an increasingly hands on approach in the care and nurturing of their children, especially while they’re little.

For all those new military dads who can’t be there when their babies are born or who’ll have to ship out soon after, we’re proud to partner with BabbleSoft.com to offer FREE subscriptions to their applications. These applications are a great way to stay connected with your baby back home and keep up with its routine.

 

Active Duty Dads Get Free BabbleSoft Memberships

Even more scary – it could be a Trojan Horse.

I wrote a short story a few years ago about an enemy state using just this mechanism to disrupt communications during a crisis.

Be careful if you are buying networking gear off of eBay – you may be getting more (or less) than you think you are!

SAN FRANCISCO Counterfeit products are a routine threat for the electronics industry. However, the more sinister specter of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer or a network router and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the F.B.I. and the Pentagon. The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. Over the two-year operation, 36 search warrants have been executed, resulting in the discovery of 3,500 counterfeit Cisco network components with an estimated retail value of more than $3.5 million, the F.B.I. said in a statement.

F.B.I. Says the Military Had Bogus Computer Gear – New York Times

We’re pretty fortunate – a lot of our jobs are Military related, our housing values have  continued to rise while most of the rest of the nation is falling, and we are the host city to many large company headquarters (ATT, USAA, etc).

Nationally, home prices are falling, unemployment is on the rise and the economy is expected to grow slowly–or even contract–in the first half of the year.

But some cities are doing just fine.

Take Oklahoma City, Okla. With falling unemployment, one of the country’s strongest housing markets, and solid growth in agriculture, energy and manufacturing, it looks best positioned among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas to ride out the current crisis.

San Antonio is right behind. It also features solid employment figures and affordable home prices that continue to rise. Its industries are growing; it can’t hurt that the new AT&T (nyse: T – news – people ) was formed when San Antonio-based SBC Communications swallowed the old AT&T Corp. and BellSouth.

America’s Recession-Proof Cities – Forbes.com

Taking an iconic image of sacrifice and determination and using it for pure publicity is poor taste, to me.

But I am not bent out of shape over it. Even though it is the image the US Marine Corp War Memorial is based on.

I can understand why some people are upset though.

Also, everyone that was already in the beta will be upgraded to a "Pro" account as a way and thanks.  Cool!

Since we launched our private beta program in September, Dimdim has been used in 165 countries by over 350,000 people.  And thanks to your feedback we have upgraded our service to provide better screen sharing, dramatically enhanced our video and audio chat and introduced the MyDimdim meeting portal where you can host, schedule and search your meetings.
We thought you would like to know that tomorrow, April 10, we will open our Dimdim public beta to the rest of the world.  Now anyone will be able to host their own Dimdim Web Meetings for free. We hope you will tell everyone you know that Dimdim – the easy, open, and affordable web meeting – is now available for free at Dimdim.com.
To thank you for helping us achieve this milestone, every private beta tester receiving this email will have their account upgraded to the same feature set as Dimdim Pro.  You will be able to host meetings with up to 20 people, customize your meeting room with your own logo, and more.  This is just our way of thanking you for helping us make Dimdim even better.

We have more exciting features coming, including recording and archiving, Mac and Linux screen sharing, and cool meeting widgets. So stay tuned and thank you again for telling everyone about Dimdim.

Unlike my water company, I actually have a high regard for my local power company.

It is a city-owned utility, making it one of the least expensive power companies of major US cities.

It also produces 40% of it’s power emissions-free.

And now Texas is the largest supplier of wind energy in the US, and San Antonio is the leading supplier in the entire country.

I can’t wait until people are accustomed enough to wind-turbines that they’ll let me put one up in my back yard.

Not one quite this big!  But maybe something like this.

CPS Energy is the No. 1 ranked supplier of wind-generated electricity among all municipally owned utilities, according to figures released by the American Wind Energy Association. CPS Energy currently has the capacity of supplying 501 megawatts of wind power to its customers. Austin Energy earned the No. 2 spot nationally at 274 megawatts. MSR Power Agency of California ranked third with 200 megawatts. Seattle City Light ranked fourth at 175 megawatts and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District ranked fifth with 106 megawatts of power.

CPS Energy is America’s leading supplier of wind power – San Antonio Business Journal:

Should be fun!

Rob

In any case, this was a huge deal, and now it is a done deal.  So I am pleased.  And I can see by the server logs that we established a lot of interest.  Hits are coming in from all over the world.

We are building an Enterprise Application with some social networking aspects.  It is really focused on companies, and not individuals – otherwise I would share the link here.  We have plans in place to make the site more “user friendly” for individuals, but until then we’re considering this a “soft launch”, or a “closed beta”.

In any case, the demo is over, and now more work lies ahead.  But not under the pressure of a looming demo.  Back to the ordinary level of stress now

“I give that guy props, but in some respects he’s not smart enough for his own IQ,” says Jered Morgan, a phone phreak known as Lucky225.

This 17 year old blind phone phreak may have been responsible – but he hasn’t been arrested (yet). He turns 18 on April 7, and many expect the FBI to be at his house for the event. And not to sing Happy Birthday.

It is amazing that phone companies still have such gaping holes in their security.

This is a long article but it was an interesting read.

Identifying himself as John Defanno, the caller claimed to be armed with a .22 caliber handgun, and said the hostages were duct-taped, and the father injured. “Defanno” warned dispatchers not to send armed police into the house. “I will shoot,” he said. In an effective touch, he seemed to address someone in the room “Shut up!” he barked.

The Sheriffs Office responded quickly. They called Gasper’s number, and Gasper told them about the phone calls and the bomb threat. But they didn’t believe him. Shortly after 4 a.m., deputy sheriffs showed up at his house, ostensibly to take a report. When Gasper stepped outside to meet them, he was taken into custody while police stormed the house. His daughter and his parents were inside, but, of course, there was no gunman.

The next day, Gasper’s phone was mysteriously forwarded to the FBI’s office in Washington DC.

Teenage Hacker Is Blind, Brash and in the Crosshairs of the FBI

Next – we’re just a few days from launching the project I have been working on since last May.  We launch in a limited Beta at CeBIT – where “ones and zeroes turn into billions”.  Let’s hope.  Anyway, the last minute bugs and feature crawl is kicking into high gear – so as you might imagine, I am busy!  It’s a good busy though.

The cool thing is that very, very soon I can start telling you what I’ve been working on, and a little bit about my boss/partner, and now friend.  I won’t be doing most of that here – we already have a blog for the new product – but I hope you won’t mind me linking and/or cross posting to that news.  What I do, and who I choose to work with, is a great part of who I am.

And as part of that effort, and news – I’ve already committed to giving 1%  of the current valuation of the company – not just 1% of my share of the company – to charity.  Sure, the valuation will perhaps change and eventually that 1% may be diluted.  But maybe not.  And even if it is, I think we are talking about a very cool contribution.  Details on the charity to come in the future, but it will be a charity that focuses on helping third world businesses start, and grow.

It hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t always been fun.  But I absolutely love what I do.  That’s probably why I do it for 18 hours a day. 

And yes – I have had several requests from people asking me to describe exactly what it is I do.  Look for that post soon.  Its not a short answer.  It is actually pretty complicated

Ok, sorry for the jumbled post.  Time is short, bugs are many, and launch is immanent!

Marfa is making itself famous (again) by being the backdrop in two movies that have garnered 16 Oscar nominations this year.  It was also the location where Giant was filmed, 50 some years ago.

But in South Texas Marfa is known more for being the coldest place in Texas.  Often it has the lowest temperature in the state.  Not liking cold, this isn’t the time of year I would choose to go to Marfa.  Of course, the summers are brutally hot, so that is a bad motorcycle option as well.

But there are a few weeks in the Spring and a few weeks in the Fall where Marfa is a wonderful motorcycle destination – if you don’t mind the 5 hour ride (who does!?).