Update Number N

A friend from Lancaster complained that my blog isn't consistently about Lancaster. My tech freinds complain it's not consistently about tech. My political friends complain that it's not enough about politics. And my friends complain that it's just not enough of anything. They are all right, but I'm not likely to change it much. Maybe. I just haven't had the inclination to blog daily like I used to. And I'm so focused on building the company that I'm not very interested in thinking about politics, at least not until I can do something that might actually change the way things are. So I focus on what I can control. And Lancaster, well, Lancaster needs a hell of a lot more than my blog. I'm more likely to comment more on Lancaster than anything right now. With surveillance cameras going up all over the place, nobody in high places talking about poverty (21%) or unemployement (15%), or drop-outs (33%), I'm inclined to focus on those issues, plus healthcare as always.

So if I don't blast Google's slow online apps, or talk about strategic developments by us vs Adobe or Microsoft in the Hybrid Web Platform, or fail to talk about Obama or Clinton or Kucinich or Edwards, it's because I don't have the time or the inclination in this forum.

So onto the lame brief update:

• I'm working more on product than usual, which I like, but it took me a while to get organized so I can work efficiently, and to get comfortable with the product enough to explain it well in documentation. It's called SalesWorks, and it's going to rock.
• Amy and I took a drive around Lancaster city today, looking at possible garden space. We'd like to maybe develop a city farm. Sometime.
• 45 more cameras are going up, run by a private corporation (nonprofit) with no mandate from voters or City Council. The mayor is happy about them, which surprises me given his civil liberties backgroud, but I guess when you're in the hot seat and people are getting shot in your city, the ends justfiy the means. Not to me, but to him. It's still wrong, bad for the city, and will hurt us in the long run.
• Organic watermelon is terrific; given it is more than 90% water, it's nice to know it's chemical free.
• The city's baseball team (well, it's located here but not owned by the city or community) has an arrangement to set off fireworks when it wins. I'm happy for the wins, but the noise at that hour is terrible.
• Gotta run. Family affair over at mom's--my niece's first birthday and we're bringing the fresh salsa. Not that I lifted finger to make it, but I still gotta run.

Update

Not much time to post--working on SalesWorks...trying to ship this week.

• The bay water at Tim's in Wareham is warm--just right for summer swimming. The should held up the should held up, though I didn't try freestyle.
  
• A pit, hot embers, seaweed, lobster, clams, corn, potatoes, more seaweed, and a tarp make for a great beach cookout.
  
• Lancaster needs a community radio station. Some cool people are working on it, but it ain't easy, from what I can tell. Will try to help.
  
• Mission Research has a tech platform called the Hybrid Web, which is basically a website running on your desktop, connecting to the internet but able to run offline or online. We've been building it out for 5 years, and now the concept is getting popular. But we don't promote it, and haven't released an SDK for it. When it comes to making choices about what to work on, serving customers through features and products has always won out over exposing the platform, but we'll likely do it this fall.
• Gotta run.
  

Google Docs

I've been using Google Spreadsheet for about a week now, and I don't like it. It's very slow, and doesn't support some of the keystrokes I'm used to, and I haven't had the inclination to look up how to do things like a simple line break in a cell.

The response time is the biggest problem for me; I need to work quickly and it's just not quick.

I don't think it's ready for prime time.

Update

• Spent Saturday afternoon with Amy at a picnic for the co-op customers held by the Amish farmers who formed the co-op. The farmers were generally shy but needed to mingle with the customers, who were mostly from Philly and most of whom had never met an Amish farmer, let alone 12, their wives and kids. It was great fun helping Amy get the farmers to mingle.
• Apparently there are more than a gagillion uses for zuchinni, 20 of which were brought by the Philly crowd.
• A few of the kids who work with us packing back at the co-op were there; I avoided one of the water balloons making its way in our direction.
• There are more surveillance cameras in the city. The website for the LCSC, the private nonprofit corporation installing and running the cameras, no longer shows its board members. But you can see a list here at the wayback machine. This internet thing is going to be big, I tell ya. A number of friends have said the cameras creep them out and won't come into the city now unless necessary. I'd at least like a public map of the camera installations; the city and the LCSC are very short on details.
• Things at work are great--product stuff moving forward nicely, organization feeling a bit tighter, and sales are up, which is a superficial but important measure of success.
• Walking to work again--good time to clear the head, see the neighborhoods.

Update: Packing Veggies, Using Google Docs...

So I've been really busy planning a big family event for the fall, and took this week "off" to work at home, get things fixed up around the house, catch up on personal stuff, and, of course, work on SalesWorks. It's technically a vacation, but you know how it is.

But for the past two weeks I've been helping Amy pack scrumptious organic veggies down at the co-op for the CSA members--275 shares last night! We were short on tomatoes, but a late night call to a generous farmer and we covered it.

The farmer's kids working with us were great--worked hard, didn't complain, behaved well, and took initiative and responsibility. When things started to slow down given the tomato deficit, they kept working on other things. Really great contributors. I haven't been exposed to that kind of work ethic among kids for a while--it was refreshing.

So, on to the update:

• Google Docs--trying out the spreadsheet. I don't have MS Office on my home computer, so I'm using the online spreadsheet at Google. WIll let you know how it goes. For the work I'm doing I definitely don't need Excel's 3 million lines of bloatware.
• Sicko was great--spot on. We need national health insurance, but that's a long ways away without a leader with any political courage, including Obama. Kucinich isn't a winner, but he's right on with his support for HR 676, a single-payer system.
• I put "Ad astra per aspera" (to the stars by hard ways) on one of my early records. I still love that phrase.
• Taking a week off isn't a week off if you're working. Who knew.

Sicko

Tonight Amy and I went to the Regal Cinema over in Manor Plaza to watch Sicko. See it--it's worth it. And last week, the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act was introduced in the PA House; I helped write and name it. So big things are happening in healthcare. You'd think it would get coverage.

I'm home now catching up on news, so I'm reading through Lancasteronline.com, the local newspaper site. It features the following:

iPhone exceeds expectations for local teen