Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:42:38 GMT | 1 comment
I was having breakfast with my friend Bill Hyatt the other day, and we were talking about how important it is for startup businesses to have a very narrow focus, but also to be flexible about new opportunities. Bill called this “Ready, Fire, Aim”, which I found amusing.
However, this reminded me of the first business I started, Micro System Designs. I started this business with the idea that it would be cool to write software to backup a hard drive onto floppy disks using a disk auto-loader, because it was such a pain to have to keep changing the disks by hand when backing up a hard drive. I developed the software and got a little bit of interest, so then I needed to duplicate the disks. At that time, the duplication software that worked with an auto-loader cost around $500 and there was no way that I was paying that, so I wrote a duplication program myself.
It then turned out that my backup program wasn’t doing very well, but there was a lot of interest in my duplication program. Voila! I changed directions and had a successful business.
So I do believe that a startup should have a very narrow focus but be willing to change it when a better opportunity presents itself – just like Ready, Fire, Aim.
Posted in Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:32:09 GMT | 2 comments
I should ride my bike more. It is good exercise and saves the environment. However, I don’t like to ride my bike on everyday errands.
I was reminded of this today when I got new tires for our car. Like usual, I threw my bike in the back and rode home after dropping off the car. It isn’t far, about 2.5 miles, but I was hot and sweaty when I got home. I was smart this time and brought a piece of string to wrap around my pant leg. Usually I forget this and wind up getting chain oil on my pant leg.
When the car was ready, I rode back to the shop to pick it up, and I was a bit tired.
So it certainly worked out fine to ride my bike, but it isn’t something that I would normally do. Also, for the same reasons, I don’t think we can expect many Americans to forgo their cars and start doing a lot more bike riding either. Good thing I have my electric scooter to scoot around on!
Posted in Random Thoughts, Electric Vehicles, Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:37:42 GMT | 2 comments
I had my first bout of chronic fatigue in 1983. Back then, it was thought to be Ebstein Barr virus and I had to drop out of school for 6 months to get back to the point where I could function. Since then, I have continued battling my chronic fatigue and found something that has allowed me to control it – Vitamin C.
If I take 1000 mg of timed release Vitamin C sometime before going to bed (9 pm seems to work well) and then wake up at 2 am and take another, I can get a good night’s sleep. Otherwise, I usually wake up at 3 or 4 am and can’t go back to sleep for at least 2 hours and then will be exhausted the next day.
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Posted in Random Thoughts, All About Me
Posted by Max Dunn
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:34:04 GMT | 3 comments
When my kids ask if they are too fat or too thin, I tell them not to worry about their body shape or size. Instead, I tell them to eat healthy, get plenty of exercise and sleep, and let their body do whatever their body does.
Posted in Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:45:24 GMT | no comments
Do you know what would make the world a better place? Better storm drain filters! While this wouldn’t be as dramatic as solving AIDS or world hunger, clogged storm drains cause a surprising amount of damage. This point was made evident by the recent storms in California where clogged drains caused many road closures, flooding and water damage. We live in an advanced society where technology has solved many problems – why can’t we develop better storm drain filters that are able to filter out leaves and debris and still allow the water to flow through? Solving a simple problem like this would greatly reduce the economic storm damage in urban areas and make the world a better place.
Posted in Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:07:56 GMT | no comments
When trying to discredit a scientist’s work, critics sometimes simply note: “They received funding from XYZZY corporation.” It is interesting that often nothing more is said, as if it is apparent that taking any money from a party with a vested interest will inevitably skew the results. This seems like a pretty harsh position, but there is some basis to this claim.
For instance, new research looked at drug studies and found that while the results of the study were not likely to be biased, the conclusion from those results were. In particular, they found that studies funded by a single drug company have a 55% rate of favorable results that is transformed into a 92% rate for favorable conclusions, representing a 37% gap. The gap shrinks to 21% (57% to 79%) when two or more drug companies provide support. Yet the gap vanishes entirely for studies done by non-profit institutions alone or even in conjunction with drug companies. These findings suggest a disconnect between the data that underlie the results and the interpretation or “spin” of these data that constitutes the conclusions.[1]
So it is apparent that receiving funding from a particular source that has a vested interest in the outcome will likely affect the conclusion of a study.
But are there other biases besides funding sources that can affect the results or conclusions of scientific work? What if a researcher isn’t taking any outside funding but has a passionate belief about what they are researching – will this affect their work as well?
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Posted in Random Thoughts, Global Warming
Posted by Max Dunn
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:36:22 GMT | no comments
When talking to people about religion, you have to be careful. Many people don’t want to hear facts or ideas that contradict their point of view; they are only interested in hearing things that reinforce what they already believe.
This same phenomenon also happens when talking about global warming – most people have their minds made up on this issue and aren’t willing to consider any evidence that would challenge their beliefs.
Posted in Global Warming, Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:51:50 GMT | 9 comments
What makes a good president? Who should we vote for in 2008? Neither of these are easy questions. In this blog entry, J.R. Tozer and I will debate these questions and hopefully come up with some interesting insights.
Posted in Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:11:07 GMT | 3 comments
Surboards are a lot like your wife dressing up for a winter evening party: she will put on a beautiful dress and look really good but then wrap herself up in a coat so you never see the dress anyways. Surfboards are the same because you put a layer of wax on top, and then can’t see it again.
WoodyW loaned me this beautiful Hap Jacobsen surfboard and it needed new wax. So after I took the old wax off, I took some pictures of it before I re-waxed it. Isn’t it beautiful?
Posted in Random Thoughts
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 30 Aug 2006 02:13:06 GMT | 12 comments
Sprinkler systems are really dumb. The majority of the water gets blown away as mist, lands on the sidewalk or runs off. And since it is so difficult to get even coverage, most areas are over watered so the few drier areas will get at least some water.
After struggling with my sprinkler system and trying different heads and sprinklers to get even coverage, and fixing many leaks so water is not wasted, I realized that there must be a better way to water my yard. Here is the story of that quest.
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Posted in Random Thoughts