Dog beach
stuarthall's posterous
Hanging out
Friend and I hanging out at Altitude during a Padres game.
Books: 4 Hour Work Week
The 4 Hour Work Week was an interesting read. The author, Tim Ferriss, proclaims to run his business in just 4 hours a week, take multiple mini retirements and to have completely automated his income.
I like his writing style. It is somewhat in your face. At the same time I think I wouldn't like Tim in person. That's a weird comment, but I kept getting that feeling while reading. I enjoyed the book, don't know that I would enjoy the author's company over a beer.
The first part of the book covers his philosophy, some background and a fair amount of boasting. The second (and boring part for me) covers how to make your own business automated. Interesting, but nothing ground breaking.
What I did like was the challenge to not live your entire life in a cubicle. The world is a big place. Don't work for 20 years then rely on retirement. Take time off now (he was doing up to six month or longer "retirements").
I support that idea. Travel now. Why wait? Perfect timing for me as I leave in less than 2 days for ITALY!!
El Camino for breakfast
(download)
Duck!
Business of Happiness
I just finished reading The Business of Happiness by Ted Leonsis. I recommend it! Check out the website to get some background on the author and book.
To summarize, Ted grew up in Brooklyn the son of immigrant parents. Through hard work and fortunate timing he was very successful at a young age. But he wasn't happy. A near death experience opened his eyes to his second chance at life and he decided to dedicate himself to being happy.
Ted's theory is to not confuse being successful with being happy. He was successful, but not happy. Ted theorizes that successful people are not happy because they are successful, they are successful because they are happy.
Ted is an interesting guy. He's done a lot! His insights into his time as Chairman at AOL gave me new found respect for that company. His story shows that hard work does pay off, but that there's more to life than just achieving financial and professional goals.
After his near death experience, Ted creates a "list". 101 and things he wanted to do before he dies. He admits many items did not generate happiness (own a Ferrari), but that he created the list at 28 and he's been faithful on following through. The fact that he did follow through on his list when given an opportunity to achieve one of his goals fortuitously protected a large portion of his wealth during the dot com bust.
The book is broken in two parts. The first part is mostly autobiographical. An interesting read. The second half the author breaks down the six things he believes creates happiness.
This was a good and quick read. I recommend it!
I'm done with Facebook
This was a response I posted to a thread on Google Buzz about why I closed my Facebook account:
2010 Books update & thoughts on VMware
52 books in 52 weeks may be a bit tougher than expected. I read a lot of non-fiction and technical books which tend to be longer and more dense. Novels are a luxury.
That's OK. I'm just acknowledging that fact and will continue to post reviews as I finish books. So...onward.
I went to Big Bear last week expecting the opportunity to get some quality snowboarding out of the recent storms in Southern California. Instead we had freezing rain and hail most of the day. As a result I had the opportunity to do a lot of reading and I finished VMware vSphere 4 Implementation.If the title didn't give it away, VMware vSphere 4 Implementation is a technical book. It's difficult to review a technical book in the same manner you'd review other books. This book was middle of the road in all areas: readability, helpfulness, tips and tricks, references. That's the book review in a nutshell.
Let's switch to VMware as a technology. I've been a big fan of VMware for a long time. The new features, especially VMware View, look amazing. With the addition of PCoIP I think VMware finally has the key to delivering a streaming video capable desktop over an Internet connection. Eventually we'll all have Gigabit Internet to the desktop, but in the meantime it appears only VMware can provide a high fidelity remote desktop experience.
2010 52 books January recap
Four weeks in and I'm at 2.5 books for my goal of 52 books in 2010.
My pace has slowed because the current book I'm reading, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, is so good I am rereading each chapter. I am also attempting to apply some of the lessons to my business which is basically amounting to homework. It's a process which does not allow me sit down and consume 100 pages in a sitting. I read about 30 pages and then need to think about it for a few hours.
I don't plan to "go back" to make up time. 52 books is a stated goal, but even more it's a guidepost. A beacon to guide my behavior for this year.
Plus, I'll be going to Italy in March. I imagine with 40+ hours of scheduled travel time I'll be able to tear through a few novels for pure enjoyment.
Oh, and I ordered four more books from Amazon today. These books are all VMware related. I'm sure those reviews are anxiously awaited!
52 books for 2010 tag: books
Inspired by this blog post about How to read a book a week in 2010 I've decided to take the challenge. I'll track my progress in this blog post.
Review:
Great book on building a marketing plan. Just like it says, very practical and effective. Marketing always has a certain pop psychology aspect. This book delves into that gray area only when necessary. Instead the book focuses on actionable steps for any sized business. I enjoyed this book very much.
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Review:
Love or hate Social Media this is the book to read. It's not strictly a Social Media book. I'd say it's effective business communication in a new world covering how dynamics have changed. Even if you are part of the Twitter generation this book is so well written it's like having a long conversation with two guys (the authors) who really know their stuff.
Rating: 4 of 5
Picasa for photos
Google's photo application Picasa is blowing my mind.
I dumped years of photos into Picasa and it began scanning the pictures to find faces. This capability is not new, but I was surprised at how well the application works. It accurately identified people in my photo albums even if the photos were years, or even decades apart.
As an example, here are two photos of my Grandfather that Picasa correctly identified. The first photo is from 1943 and the second photo was taken in the early 90's.
I recommend giving Picasa a try. I prefer it over Flickr and other similar photo applications.
