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PS... A Column on Things |
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By Paul E. Schindler Jr. |
Some things are impossible to know, but it is impossible to know these things. |
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July 5, 1999 |
Hope Your Fourth Was Glorious |
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I have a day job, so I need to make it clear to anyone who comes here that the opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent those of my employer, my family, or your great-aunt Mathilda. Offer not valid in Wisconsin. You must enter to win. |
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Table of Contents:
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General NewsThe Last Couple Of WeeksAs regular readers know, I took last week off. My brother Stephen's daughter Stephanie came up for a long weekend with our family. The whirlwind of family activity just knocked the stuffing out of me. We had a terrific time, sailing the San Francisco bay on a catamaran, visiting the new Sony Metreon in downtown San Francisco, talking and dining and re-establishing contact between my daughters and one of their favorite cousins. The week before, as you know from the column, Martin Heller was a guest. In addition, Phillip Boulding, a family friend who both plays Celtic harps and makes them, stopped by on his way to and from a large concert in Southern California. You can learn more about Phillip, his harps, and the musical group he comprises with his wife Pamela (a high-school friend of Vicki's) at www.magicalstrings.com. On July 1, Marlow left four a month in Europe, Rae for two weeks in Francophone Europe. Plus, Columbia has started raining down paperwork for Marlow's matriculation in the fall. Saturday morning, I spent three hours in my home radio studio, guest-hosting Tom King's Computalk, a radio program syndicated nationally to dozens of stations via satellite. Sunday, I played tenor saxophone and marched with the Orinda pickup marching band in the morning (picking up a rather painful sunburn in the process), then played a 90-minute concert with the Contra Costa Wind Symphony at Moraga Commons in the afternoon. Does it seem hectic? It has been.
The Discipline Of Column WritingI believe that most of you know I write this column for nothing. I send out about 60 email notices each week to people who have indicated a willingness to be reminded of its existence. About 30 of you are kind enough to read it each week. Thank you. I started it because my real job at CMP hasn't afforded me much of a chance to write in the last three years. Even before that, the kinds of things I wrote didn't really reflect me or my opinions, or even much of my skill as a writer. Thus, this column. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of you who read it regularly and diligently and are not the least bit shy about 1) pointing out errors, 2) writing to me with your opinions and 3) letting me know you miss it when it is late or not there. Again, thank you. There have been weeks when you basically wrote the column, and I appreciate that. Skipping the column last week was a difficult decision. I derive genuine pleasure from writing this column, and knowing that you're reading it out there. I do not find writing difficult--I never have. But it is an effort, and sometimes I wonder if it is worth the effort, the discipline, the time. Please, do not feel obliged to write and say, "Oh, but Paul, it is worth the effort." Especially do not write and tell me "you're right, it isn't worth the effort." So many things in my life are mandatory. I hate to let this column become another. And yet, I think if you tell people, "I'm writing a weekly column, come and read it," you incur and obligation to write one every week. If you don't, I think your audience may, justifiably, lose interest and wander away. If I can't be bothered to write it regularly, why should you bother to read it regularly? So, despite ennui, exhaustion, house guests and the press of business, I'll keep cranking them out --as regularly I can--as long as you keep reading them. They may not be quite weekly, but I promise not to skip a column without a really good reason. A Special Note: Take a look at the counter; the first person who reads the column this week will be my 1,000th reader.
Living With Other PeopleMost of you reading this live with other people, spouses, children, or significant others. A few of you, I know, do not. But all of you must have contemplated, from time to time, the nature of the changes we make in ourselves to accommodate the people we live with. I am mindful of the subject today as Marlow and Rae are in Europe and Vicki is visiting her mother in Los Angeles. Nothing about my life remains the same when I am alone, not my sleeping schedule, my eating schedule, my menu, my housecleaning habits, the clothes I wear, nothing. All is compromise. We do it because the benefits of society outweigh the changes we have to make. Still, just to keep things in perspective, I strongly recommend you spend some time by yourself, in your own home, from time to time. It is an enlightening experience, and helps you understand the impact of your social structure on you.
What The Fourth's All AboutThis comes from a mailing list of former UPI staffers I subscribe to: Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? |
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Computer Industry NewsThe IMAC Clone ThingIn case you didn't catch this item in the news, there's a PC maker about to market a machine that looks a whole lot like the Macintosh. Craig Reynolds tipped me to a good story: Apple Sues iMac Clone It has been suggested that Apple should have used "trade dress" as a basis for its suit against Microsoft, instead of breach of contract and copyright violation. If it had, it might have been able to prove in court what everyone with two eyes and a sense of history knows: that Windows ripped off the Macintosh operating system something fierce.
CMP Closes WindowsMy professional home from 1990 through 1996 was Windows Magazine. I am proud to have been the first CMP employee asked to join the staff. E. Drake Lundell, then the publisher, invited me to come over from InformationWEEK to help transition the publication and its staff. Mike and Dan (Silicon Beach) founded it in Carpinteria, Calif. CMP bought it and moved it to Manhasset, Long Island, New York. We worked many long, hard hours in those first six months. I mark that period as the start of my stress-induced weight gain of recent years. But I made friendships that will last a lifetime. There are too many people to mention, and I might leave someone out, so I'll just mention one colleague: Jim Forbes. I am proud to say I collected the bounty for recruiting Jim to the staff of Windows. He left earlier this year for IDG, where he runs the Demo conferences. My role in hiring Jim is the single best hire I've ever been associated with. Although I left the magazine for my shot at TV, and then for the Internet, I still respected the magazine even as it began its death spiral -- a spiral which ended with the closure of the magazine on July 1. This is not the time or place to dissect what went wrong, and whether Windows could have been saved. In any case, it is too late now, and while it will live on as a web site, most of the staff is leaving. Thus is one of the finest collections of technical journalism talent it has ever been my privilege to be associated with scattered to the four winds. Farewell, Windows Magazine. |
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Web Site of the WeekThe Acme Miniature CircusA tip o' the Schindler hat to Richard Dalton, who sent me this URL. I don't know how much, if any of the content on this site to take seriously, but it is so odd I could not help but recommend it to all of you. |
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HumorYour Mob Connected Mayor:
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LettersSilent RunningApparently we're rigged for silent running. No letters. |
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