I started last session in the metadata talk and left. It's pretty simple, apply metadata where it fits and where it'll have a lot of contributors (if it's user generated). In my opinion, the point was belabored.
I'm sitting in one of the simulcast room watching/listening to Tony Hsieh talk aboutwhat make Zappos a great company. After reading two of Jim Collins' books, I can tell you that this is one of the few true implementations of that school of thought. Zappos was built from one set of core values with everything based on that. For Zappos it's customer service. You find the right people, people who share your core values, and then keep them happy.
Steve Souders, writer of YSlow, gave a talk about making websites even faster. Here's my notes:
I'm going to do my best to post during South by Southwest. I dono if it'll turn out that way, but who knows.
Crowd sourcing has become one of those buzz words. I usually try to ignore such things, but I heard about Herdict by way of The World's Technology Podcast. Basically people can post that they can't view a website. The crowd either verifies or refutes the claim. The podcast coverage was better than I could do, so see that for more info.
Last night we went out to Shaw's Crab House on Hubbard in Chicago. I've heard about Shaw's plenty of times, but it was my first time dining there and I strong suggest the Alaskan King Crab (you can see Emily playing with one in the picture). The crab was delicious and dinner was fun. Happy Birthday Mom.
I got a new laptop today!!! I ordered an Asus EeePC 1000HE netbook last Saturday and it finally (no fault to newegg) arrived this afternoon. I gotta say that I'm really impressed. This little laptop has just the right sized screen, 160Gig of storage, the newest Intel Atom (N280) processor, a multitouch trackpad, realtime performace stepping, and what seems to be a realistic 7 hours of battery. Read the Tech Report review for the details and good pictures.
Erin and I went to Mundial Cocina Mestiza for dinner this evening. I won't get into a full blown review because I could just do that on Yelp.
That said, if you go, strongly consider having their Chile en Nogada. Simply put, it was stuffed peppers, but in truth the flavors were a fantastic, delicious combination. Erin's rib eye entree was very good, but not great. All in all, not a place we would return, but a nice dinner as a one-off.
I've been waiting quite a while for this, but finally, gChat has come to iGoogle. It looks and functions basically like gChat in Gmail did before they added the SMS and video capabilities. Finally iGoogle is becoming the one-stop-shop.
