daily travails 2.0

That's what C. said when I told her I had sent in an application to Google the other day.  I guess a friend of hers told her a few weeks ago that they had heard somewhere that Google gets 1,500 applications a day.  It feels like the slush pile all over again, but I choose to be optimistic.

I saw in this morning's WSJ that TiVo and Amazon are teaming up to bring Unbox video to TiVo boxes.  Yet another prediction from my Strategic Planning final project becomes reality.  Interesting, and sometimes unsettling, but always satisfying how that works.

And now it's time for the regular "books I've read recently" section. 

David Kamp, The United States of Arugula
A history of what people in the U.S. eat.  I found the sections on Craig Claiborne and the Chez Panisse alumni particularly interesting.

Charles Seife, Decoding The Universe
An overview of the extent to which information theory underlies our lives and the universe itself, with excursions into genetics, thermodynamics and other branches of physics.  Fascinating stuff.

Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, Hidden Kitchens

Phil Dusenberry, Then We Set His Hair On Fire

C. called my attention to this piece that aired on PRI's The World last week.  It's about call centers in the Philippines and how they train their telephone staff about American culture in order to facilitate their telephone interactions.  I was amused, more than anything else.  My first "real" job out of college was working tech support at an ISP in the Valley, and although my job very quickly turned into training support engineers about the technologies involved, I always thought it was important that they receive soft skills training as well.

"Like, how was your holiday?  Did you, you know, have a good Thanksgiving?"

("For sure, duh!  We spent it with my relatives, and there was lechong manok roasted turkey and palabok and...")

I found it very amusing that today's quote of the day on my personalized Google page was from my AI professor.

We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.

Robert Wilensky, speech at a 1996 conference

After a fair bit of futzing around on my part, the Daily Travails store (powered by Amazon) is now online.  For those of you who followed me from the MT blog, this is the new version of the "Reading material, etc." page.  (The old version is still available here.)

Happy holidays, everyone!

What is your favorite board game?
Submitted by I'm Unique.

This has to be a tie between Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition and Deadwood.

Sosnik, Dowd and Fournier, Applebee's America

Kevin B. Connolly, Buying and Selling Volatility

Barton Biggs, Hedgehogging

Books I've read in the past two months (since it's been that long since I last posted and I'm sure you've been wanting to know...)

John Battelle, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
Great insights into how the business of search marketing evolved, from the founder of The Industry Standard.  Having lived (and worked) through the early days of the Web and search, I found this book a pretty good read.

Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
Intriguing ideas about the true shape of demand curves, market niches, and the future of mass media.  (Well, more than just mass media, but I found that particular aspect particularly interesting.)

George S. Day, Market-Driven Strategy: Processes For Creating Value

David Aaker, Developing Business Strategies, 6e

Corsi and Smith, Black Gold Stranglehold

Linus Torvalds (with David Diamond), Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

Lyle Estill, Biodiesel Power

Uldrich and Newberry, The Next Big Thing Is Really Small
Nanotechnology and its intersection with business strategy.

Marilyn Powell, Ice Cream: The Delicious History
History of ice cream as seen through literature and other written sources.  If you're into books and like ice cream, this one's right up your alley.

And I really need to get a copy of this one for my reference library (although it's good to see that the library in Foster City had a copy available for me to borrow temporarily):

Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

... and the GSB made it to #1 in their rankings this year.  Sweet.  :-)

Check out the article

I'm sure there are a lot of people in Hyde Park smiling this weekend.

C. and I have arrived in the Bay Area, and I have started working.  I can't really talk much about work, so please don't ask me about it here.

After having some really good dim sum in Foster City, we spent yesterday afternoon in the East Bay, revisiting our old stomping grounds and figuring out what's still there, what's new, and what's no longer around.  We also picked up some supplies that we need for the hotel room, which C. is now calling the "cave room".  We stopped in at the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory in Berkeley to check out the factory store and enjoy the intense chocolate aroma, and had dinner at the Genova Delicatessen on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

After that, we took BART into San Francisco to hang out with some of the interns from the GSB who are here in the Bay Area for the summer, and are getting ready to wrap up their internships.  The ones I got to talk with sounded like they all found their internships worthwhile, and were all excited about returning to Chicago as second-year students.  I also got to meet some people whom I hadn't met before, and who share several of my interests, so it was definitely a good night.

As I've said in the past, sometimes it's the small victories that help keep us sane.

The books are off the shelves, and I've taken down one set of them (the shelves, that is).  Packing continues apace, and tomorrow I go to seek out maps to use to continue planning the route of our trip back to California.

Today I read The Apple Way, which is an interesting quick read --  management maxims as seen through the lens of the history of Apple Computer.  It can be annoyingly simplifying at times, and gloss over details to get to a glib maxim, but the rest of it made sense to me, which made it worthwhile reading before I packed the last box of books.  :)

As for a not-so-small victory, it appears that my friend Sorebrek has been admitted to the GSB off the summer waitlist!  It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy, in my book -- certainly not this late in the game.  It was also great to meet up with him again over the last couple of days as he came to Chicago to look for housing.  He seems to have found accomodations which meet his needs, which I can definitely attest is very important.