At 3AM this morning, the NYC Transit system--the subways and buses--shut down, as thousands of MTA employees walked off their jobs.

So, I'll be biking in.  Unless it snows, you cannot stop me. 

You can't even hope to contain me.

Bike this.

On our way, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

All I can think of is...



Its 106 miles to Chicago...  We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.



Hit it.



New Orleans, here we come.

We have a blog going for my 5 year Fordham reunion.   (Yeah, yeah, the template looks suspiciously similar...   I've been busy and didn't have time to do a new template.)

People have been updating the class with stories about what they've been up to.  One guy wrote about what it was like to be the Fordham Mascot.  That was pretty good, but I think it might just been topped by the best wedding story I've ever heard...

Someone very sweet sent me some going away popcorn today.  :)

Matt wrote a follow up post to his popular "New Media Deal" piece and I just want to comment on one particular part of it.  Matt writes:

"A big part of peer production is that most people fundamentally, if quietly, want to belong to any bit of community they can find."

I disagree. 

I'm in the middle of reading Bowling Alone in America: the Collapse and Revival of the American Community.  Granted I'm only up to the collapse part, but so much of this story rings true to me. Participation in groups is generally on the decline.  Sure, there are "membership" groups out there like the AARP that are growing, but they're not actual groups, they're more like mailing lists.

I'm talking about real communities, both on the web and offline.  I think the average person is just more concerned with paying bills, raising their kids, etc.  Its really unfortunatel, but I don't think we are the society of "joiners" that the web makes us out to be.  (I hope I'm wrong, and maybe Meetup is proof of that.) Even on the web, most people spend most of their time with applications just meant for them.  Even e-mail isn't a way for most people to find new communities, its something that enriches their own small circle.

If peer production is all about depending on people's explicit interest in belonging to a community, I don't think its going to work.

In fact, I think the really successful "peer" efforts, like del.icio.us, wikipedia, last.fm, and flickr, hell, you can even through in Amazon's "people like me" engine" only work because they understand that people don't really care enough about communities to join them. 

• I don't have to care that there are hundreds of thousands of other people using del.icio.us.  It works for just me... its a better place to store my links. 
• If I see a wikipedia article, I don't care who wrote it, and if its wrong, I'll just fix it.  I don't need to be an editor or talk to other wikipedia editors. 
• last.fm shows a user what they're listening to and makes recommendations.  Frankly, if the recommendations were good, I think people wouldn't care of a person powered them or a computer did.
• Flickr being such a cool community was largely an accident.  I didn't join it because I wanted to be able to interact with all the other people who go to LVHRD parties and take photos... I just needed a place to store my photos and be able to blog and share them.

Now, of course I'm being extreme here.  Being single and in my 20's, I'm probably more interested in community than the average person, and meeting new people is still very important to me, but this seems to decline as people get married, have kids, buy houses, etc.

Depending on people to choose community over just caring about their own little world is a very tough proposition.   Now, if you help me to augment the communities I'm already in, that's helpful, but that's not quite the same thing.

So I'm going to change Matt's statement and offer a new thesis:

"A big part of peer production is that most people fundamentally want the benefits of community, but are not willing to invest much, if any, social capital to get it.  Successful peer production involves leveraging communities and providing value without the explicit intention of the individuals to contribute to a collective."

That's how mesh networks are going to work, for example... because its built into the phone/wifipoint/laptop/whatever...   and the default is on, not because I'm going to download something because I want to help fight the telco's and help my community get free wifi.

Link: New York Daily News - Mets - Bob Raissman's Tuning In: Mex marks spot in Met booth.

Make no mistake, Hernandez, who will work about 110 games, is the star of this show. In TV baseball the main analyst always is. Hernandez has earned top billing. It's not just about his knowledge of the game. Anyone who played big-league baseball for 17 seasons knows the ins and outs. It's his ability to communicate what he knows with clarity, passion and honesty. Hernandez has developed a style.

It ain't white bread and butter.

This is obviously the before picture, and to be honest, it came out so good, I totally forgot to take a picture of it after it came out of the oven.

My grandparents and I used to make pizzas all the time when I was younger.  Both my and my grandfather both liked anchioves and we'd eat them straight out of the can.  We'd also eat a good deal of the cheese before it got to the pizza as well... you know, to test it.

Ingredients:

My homemade sauce with garlic, fresh basil, oregano

Grated locatelli romano (grated the block in a food processor)

lightly salted mozzerella

green peppers

olives

sundried tomatos

anchiovies

mushrooms

onions

hot red pepper

This team isn't going anywhere.  Fast.

And you know what?  They haven't been going anywhere, for a long time.  This has got to be, given the kind of resources that have been available, the most mismanaged franchise in sports ever.  Now, keep in mind that my knowledge of sports franchise management really only goes back about 15 years, but in that period, since 1990, I'd put up this team against anyone. 

It all started in 1990, when they fired Davey Johnson.  That's when the Mets, in my era, started making decisions that had nothing to do with on the field performance whatsoever. 

Under Johnson, the Mets never finished lower than 2nd, and they won two division titles and one World Series.  That was before realignment, when you basically had to win at least 96 games to get into the playoffs.  Competitive baseball... year in, year out. 

And for that, he got canned.  Right about then, the wheels came off the track.  In came the high-priced flops:  Vince Coleman, Bobby Bo, Bret Saberhagen, Eddie Murray, etc. etc. so on and so forth.  We all know the story there.  Then, a few years later we go to the World Series on the back of a catcher and no outfield.  Oh, and the pitch before Kenny Rogers' last pitch to the Braves?  That was a ball as well.  He couldn't throw a strike with the season on the line TWICE. 

But let's talk about now.  Let's talk about how ridiculous this team is now and what really kills me--the fact that the best players aren't the ones getting the most playing time.  Its become management by politics and it drives me nuts. 

Mike Piazza is batting .243.  Remember Jason Phillips?  He's up at .287.  Now, granted with the few meaningless homeruns Mike's hit, his OPS is within a few points of Phillips, but Phillips is throwing out about 20% of the runners than run against him... and A LOT less people run against him.  Mike is tossing them out at a 10% clip, which means my grandmother has a shot on the back end of a double steal at least.  Oh, and the big difference.  Jason Phillips is making about $300k.  Piazza makes $300k a week... not just during the season... all year. 

But, he's still probably better, at least offensively, than half the catchers in the league.  The problem is, we have him batting 5th.  How about flip flopping him with David Wright, who, out of the regulars, leads the team in slugging, total bases, and is 2nd in RBI.  Plus, the guy draws walks and has a .400+ on base pct.  Well, but you can't do that, because then poor Mike and his $15 million feelings are going to get hurt.  You know what?  For $15 million, they could bat me 10th.  New York City teachers make what Mike makes in a day.  He has no right to complain if they move him in the lineup, move him to another position, or trade him to the Orioles for a bucket of baseballs.  I'm sick of watching this guy leave 5 on a night and ground out into a double play with runners in scoring position.

You know who else they're afraid to bench?  How about Tommy Glavine?  Seven guys have started games for the Mets this year.  Glavine has the 2nd worst ERA and the worst WHIP out of any of them.   After the All-Star break last year, Glavine posted a 4-7 record with a 5.06 ERA.  So, the fact that Aaron Heilman isn't a permanent fixture in this rotation, ahead of Glavine, is a joke.  But, he's Tom Glavine, so you can't send him to the bullpen.  So, we're stuck with him for as long as he wants to keep losing to the Braves.

Speaking of money pits...  How about Kaz Matsui?  First of all, and I brought this up at the time, Miguel Tejada (the Miguel Tejada that drove in 150 runs last year), is making about $12 million a year.  Matsui is making $7 million--a guy who had never batted before in the US, and for $5 million more we could have had the 2002 AL MVP.  A lot of good that extra $5 million did.  This is a guy who, when it was obvious that he couldn't play shortstop in the majors, wouldn't give in on the clause in his contract that said he could only play short.  So, we had to wait until the offseason to switch his position.  But, what's spent is spent, and now we put this yahoo out in the field just because we spent the money.  If it were up to me, I'd hand Cairo the job now and Matsui would never bat again.  Does it say in his contract that we have to play him at all?

Bat Wright 5th.  Trade Glavine, Piazza, and Matsui to anyone who will take them.  Let Heilman pitch every 5th day.  Get Rickey Henderson back...  to teach Jose Reyes the strike zone and how to draw a a walk.  (Hell, he could teach Ishii and Zambrano where the strike zone is, too.)   Health Bell should always come out of the bullpen before Manny Aybar.   

And for the love of God, please let Carlos Beltran run.  I don't care who bats behind him.  What the hell is the point of spending all this money on a 30-30 guy if you don't let him steal?  Did I mention I'd like to manage the team?

On Saturday, I'll be heading down to New Orleans for a week on a community service trip sponsored by the Fordham alumni office.

I could have probably just ended the post right then and there and you'd have a good sense of what that all means.

And actually, you'd have just as good of an idea of what that means as I do.  The reality of this trip is that contact with the place we're volunteering at has been understandably difficult, and the scope of the damage there is so great that its hard to say specifically what we'll be doing.  I mean, when a city nearly gets wiped off the map, where do you start?

Well, our group will be starting (and staying) at Project Lazarus, which is a home for people with AIDS--the first residential home in New Orleans to address the need for homeless people living with AIDS.   None of the residents have been able to move back in yet, so basically we will be restoring the home back to a livable condition to help them reopen in the next few weeks. 

I will definitely be using this blog as a fundraising mechanism for PL in the coming weeks, but I decided that I'd go down there first to be able to share the story firsthand before I do anything like that.  So, I'll be going down there with my cellphone and video camera.  I have no idea if I'll be able to e-mail any of the photos, but if I can, I'll be photoblogging while I'm down there.  Videos will come up after I've returned on the 21st, so stay tuned.  I'm sure it promises to be some really interesting and emotional footage.

Am I nervous?  Not really.  I decided to clear my head of any expectations, because I know I'm going down there with a great team and whatever we find down there, we'll do what we can to help and go through it together.

Wish us luck!

Right now, I have never been so bullish on the technology industry in my whole life.

Why?

Because, today, at 11:48AM, my dad, for the first time in his life, used call waiting... and successfully, too! 

Truly a landmark moment in the technology revolution.

Yesterday was Howard Stern's first day on Sirius, and it looks like the huge bet that Mel Karmizan made on the shock jock might have actually paid off.  With more than 2 million new subscribers at $12 a month, Stern has created a Sirius windfall.

Could any other personality have accomplished that?  Oprah might have had a similar effect, but it would be unlikely that she would ever leave TV for radio, although I do think a lot of her audience only listens to her show anyway, while cleaning, cooking, watching kids, etc.  Whatever the case, the amount of content that people find so indespensible that they are willing to pay for it after having received it for free is pretty small. 

As powerful as these content franchises are, they are as equally fragile.  Martha Stewart's company nearly went under, and remember how popular Michael Jackson once was?  OJ Simpson anyone?

Personality differentiates content, making it more valuable, but also more risky.  What would happen if Stern got caught in some kind of sex abuse trouble?  Sirius stock would sink like a stone, and Karmazin would go from genius to fool.

Still, I think we're going to find a lot more celebrity convergence as we go forward.  When the music publishers have trouble selling you CDs, they'll try to start selling you Gwen Stefani's iTunes Playlist of the Week.  How about Qwentin Tarantino's bittorrent of a movie you've never heard of of the week?  Emeril recipes and ingredients on Fresh Direct?

You want to work in a growth business?  Be a Celebrity 2.0 agent and specialize in using celeb pull to get people on new technologies.  At the same time you would be assuring celebs that their place in the ubiquitous wifi cloud in the sky is just as secure as their star on the walk of fame.  So, Scarlett Johansson, if you want to start blogging, let me know.  I'm your guy.

I'm standing on the subway again.  Rein Raus is blasting in my headphones.  There's something amusing to me about overlaying all of these Brooklyn bound commuters with their su doku, sneakers from under their desks, and their copies of the News or the Post with German industrial music. 

Bam was the word of the day today, by the way.  Whenever  something good happened, I'd turn to Kerri and day bam.  Bam!  I even texted her bam after a good lunch on the way back to the office.  I'm sure she thinks I'm nuts.

Evanecense is on now... Perhaps Rammstein could use some female vocals, too.

By the way, why isn't mining automated?  Its 2006, and yet we still send people deep into the earth to pull rocks out of it.  Seems like something that should be done with robots.  Build some robots and give all these guys jobs running the robots via remote control from the surface.

First impressions are tough because you always think of them as "only" impressions.  I see it with entrepreneurs.  Some entrepreneurs are confident that you've done your homework and that you'll  follow up with questions, but others try to squeeze every single tidbit of info into a meeting that its a little bit overwhelming.  I used to be that way on dates.  I thought that if I could just tell my whole story, they'd like me, but getting the whole story in is hard.  "Wait...did did I tell you I mentor students?  I play dodgeball, and marzapan...  I like marzapan, oh oh, and I go to the philharmonic, too.  Did I mention that?"   I'm sure going out with me must have been like drinking from a firehose.  You live and learn.

I'm really warm in this fleece, but with the iPod, its just too complicated to take off right now.  I bit my tongue yesterday and it still feels weird.  Its amazing that doesn't happen more often.

So in the last three days, I found out that two of my ex's are getting married.  Actually, one is already married.  This year is going to be my five year college reunion...  I guess that kind of thing is going to come up a lot in 2006.

SANY0008, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Fred found himself in reception this afternoon.

Amen, sister...

Link: ::HorsePigCow:: life uncommon: Maryam, there are plenty more reasons to date geeks....

Is this the Chinese Delicious?   I had some referrer traffic from here and it looks like you tag and comment pages on it.

Or, it could be vertical search for fish.

My manderin is a bit rusty.

Link: 网络书签首页_免费的网络书签、网络收藏夹服务 - YouNote.com.

Matt Blumberg reminded me of something I noticed the other day.

The Downtown Boathouse at Pier 26 is gone. 

Both Pier 26 and 25 are being demolished as part of a staged plan to renovate all of Hudson River Park and we knew it was coming.  We got evicted in October, but we also moved to the new Clinton Cove Boathouse at Pier 96 and also to the south end of Pier 40.  Still, the boathouse at Pier 26 had a lot of charm and a lot of memories, so its really sad to see that its finally gone.

I biked over there this morning before work.  Its all fenced in, so I couldn't get closer, but I may go back again and ask the construction guys if I can get a closer look.

Here's the before (from '04) and after.  Also gone is the River Project building (the brown one.)

Hopefully, we'll be back in a couple of years, but there's no guarantee.  Still, I'm sure the local community will come together and be supportive when its time for us to fill out the RFP for the new pier.