Maison Fleury

Interesting result reported from Arizona State University. Scientist at ASU have used artificial mutations on existing proteins that bind ATP (the body's energy source) and rapidly selected the results. Rinse and repeat increase selection so you see the best at "survival of the fittest". This way they improve on nature's natural rate of mutation and selection. In no time, they found a protein that is extremelly stable and binds ATP twice as much as the natural one . Interesting... Even more interesting is that they start thinking they can probably do this for any protein in the human body, today. So they could find better ways to speed metabolism, transport oxygen, increase mental capacities by just tuning existing proteins. The 10 million dollar question becomes: how do you bring those protein blueprints back in your body? You are talking about serious tinkering at this point. Sign me up Scotty! marcf

I am a bit of an avid reader of "fake steve", an online impersonator of Steve Jobs. This particular entry is shady though. I have always thought "fake steve" was a "covert PR" operation. Possibly a collective of Apple marketing guys/gals. The quantity and the quality is puzzling. If not from Apple, the guy or group of friends is/are an industry insider with a quick wit and relentless energy. In any case, he is funny. But the entry above is a give away. It leaks news in great marketing details that "led zep" is going to be sold on iTunes. It is either a/ false. In which case there is nothing interesting about this entry, nothing funny, witty or anything else. It is just a long marketing entry when FSJ likes short 2 paragraphers. b/ true. In which case it is just PR from a regular mktg dept. Time will tell. But this one is a real test, either way I learn something.

I was introduced today to the legend of Leeroy Jenkins. For those of you familiar with World of Warcraft (WoW) I am sure you have already run into this. So this guild plans an attack for ever then this guy decides to run in yelling "LEEEEROY JENKINS!" and they all get slaughtered within 20 seconds. Apart from being the funniest thing I have seen in a long time it is also a great life lesson for every aspiring entrepreneur. Forget safety, plans and "odds of survival". Your odds of survival are 32.3333(repeating of course (sic!)) so you might as well just do this. In this particular case they all die a quick death. Funny as hell and already an internet phenom. If you have already seen it, sorry for the repeat, if not you have a candy in store waiting for you, it is the funniest video in years. marcf

Like the cheesy Cher classic, "life after love", this TSS thread featuring former employee Shaun Connolly, wanna-be rival Cameron Purdy and your occasional TSS smart ass (Douglas Dooley and no it is not me astroturfing) is just begging to be sampled. How gratifying it is to see former employees spread their wings and release their inner aparatchik. In this interview , Shaun Connolly appears to achieve therapeutic release and Fleury exorcism by telling a random, unsuspecting journalist how good it is since I've been gone. It is nice to have one's contributions reduced from "founder and CEO" to "provided great sound bites". This is followed by money quotes from a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Cameron Purdy who is still pinching himself at his good fortune at having unloaded his piece of shit company on an unsuspecting Oracle. First he talks about "how great life is working with all them geniuses over at Oracle" and how they are soo "in ...

I belatedly discovered, albeit with great interest, the writings of Paul Graham . For those of you who don't know the guy, I highly recommend you take 2 hours one day and go and read some of his essays. He apparently wrote the seminal book on LISP, founded and sold an early internet company called Viaweb and more recently is the dynamo behind "ycombinator" a modern version of the incubators of yesteryear. I mostly recommend reading the guy because he has a pulse on the "geek zeitgeist". I believe he correctly represents a large portion of what geeks think. Some of it is right, some of it wrong. In 2003, he wrote, a wonderful entry called " why nerds are unpopular " which is a must read for every geek in America. It completely captures "geek angst" I witness in teens in America. He is full of hope and optimism. Paul Graham has recently caused a bit of a stir by writing a hugely popular entry called "why Microsoft is dead". His the...

Paul Krill of Inforworld reports on Rich Green of SUNW muses on Professional Open Source at a recent netbeans event. Rich "gets it". He wasn't born "getting it" as he is not, was not, a developer. But as far as "execs" go he strikes me as a "common-sense" kinda guy. So he works hard at getting it. It is bearing fruit. Money quote: "OSS is like a Robin Hood in reverse, you steal from the poor to make the rich richer". Lol, brilliant. What would Marc Fleury do? come out and say just that! More seriously, Rich basically expresses concern about the "sustainability" of the model and says that the economic underpinnings have got to be healthy, meaning developers paid, for the model to be viable long term. I think that statement went right above the heads of most of his audience. I am sure it annoyed many of the more communistic bent communities out there. Let them be annoyed! Basically Rich is restating the case for "P...