Second Life: $ and Sense

$: Linden Lab hires its first CFO

Sense: Wired's October issue (not yet online) has a travel guide to SL, calling it the coolest place on the web

Songs that make me cry: You Got Me - The Roots

Continuing my manly theme of tunes that produce tears (maybe the rain in Zurich is prompting such memories), another song that has to do with love and commitment. Or love and loss. Or love, commitment and loss. Any sequence of these items seems to leave me susceptible to some emotional times.

I've enjoyed The Roots since their original albums 'back in the day' and I think this was their first single to get substantial airplay. They've had a few more minor hits but never broken out to the mainstream. And that's fine with me because it equates to less of chance to hear "You Got Me" on the radio which would produce nothing but embarrassment.

The story behind this song? Lots - not all of it connected. A time, a place, a woman. You know.

NPR's On The Media covers Second Life

One of my favorite NPR shows On the Media did a set of stories on Second Life, including a great interview with potential presidential candidate Mark Warner (stream here, 34 minutes in). Also featured, my friend and former Second Life embedded reporter James Au.

Songs that make me cry: Everlong (acoustic) - Foo Fighters

Yes, I know this is a little bit of a music cliche. Rock band unplugs, takes one of their hard charging hits acoustic, and displays a softer side, winning more female fans in the process. And how can something ping my tear ducts that was first heard on the Howard Stern show with the refrain of "Baba Booey, Baba Booey"” repeated prior to the first chord (if you've heard the clip, you know what I'’m talking about)?

I try not to analyze it, just succumb to the dulcet tones (well, somewhat dulcet, and a bit raggy) of Dave Grohl as he sings of love, loss and longing. It'’s my poison. If we're listening and I turn away, it wasn't that I thought I heard someone call my name. And if I brush my upper nose softly with a knuckle, and it looks like I'm itching, you might just notice that the back of my hand has grazed ever so slowly against my eye lash. And that a bead of moisture has joined the hair and freckles, small evidence that my mind is elsewhere and not coming back for a full 4:13.

Fight back, bite back

Interesting column in NYTimes about Audible CEO Don Katz's decision to fight back against a patent troll (reg req).

"Although Digeo was asking for only $400,000, Audible refused to pay. So, in 2005, Digeo sued. Mr. Katz went to the Audible board and explained that it was undoubtedly going to cost more to fight the suit than to pay the fee, but he felt that the company had to show that it wasn’t going to roll over. The board agreed."

Good for Don and good to the Directors for supporting him.

Before there was fire...

As a result of the recent Second Life dB hack, I needed to change my password for my account just like every other user. Couldn't get it done online so needed to call for assistance. Customer service rep looked at my profile and said "you don't have a secret question" (not knowing that I was one of the founding team members). In response I got to utter: "I pre-date security."

Didn't work, still had to have him go find someone in the office who was there in the early days and have them vouch for me.

The "fake pump" is not sufficient

In a restroom at the Aspen airport this weekend i saw something amusing - the "fake soap pump." A guy was washing his hands after doing the business and make a fake pump attempt on the soap. He sorta made a touching motion on the pump top while quickly swiping his hand under the dispenser. Barely making contact with the pump top, certainly not hard enough to generate a soap emission. It was like a phantom move designed to convince onlookers that he'd soaped his hands. Fascinating.

Starfish, Spider, Starbucks

Introduced via mutual friend Auren Hoffman, I enjoyed a morning coffee talking with Ori Brafman, co-author of the forthcoming The Starfish and the Spider. This curiously named book discusses decentralization in organizations, a hot topic applied to everything from user generated content to al-Qaeda.

Ori and I overlapped a year at Stanford Business School but didn't know each other before today. He gifted me a galley copy of the book and I'm going to see if he wants to visit Google for an Authors talk later this fall.