Douglas L. Ross - My Personal Reflections

So do I really look like any of these people? Facebook's facial recognition software thinks so but I think it leaves something to be desired. However, it's an indication of what might be possible some day. I really want some kind of software that identifies people in pictures so that I can organize the mess of pictures that we've taken since the invention of the scanner and the digital camera. I estimated the other day that we have something on the order of 20,000 pictures. At the rate of say 30 seconds each to; identify who is in the picture (likely multiple people), when & where the picture was taken, record that information so it's associated with the picture file, etc. would take approximately 168 hours (the number of hours in a whole week working 24/7). That will never happen without some way to automate the process. I'm still looking for a good way to do it.

Having reached the age when I could get Social Security if I chose to and where the probabilities start working against you for continued good health and an active lifestyle, I decided it might be wise to think more seriously about retirement sooner vs later. When you approach the retirement decision, it leads you almost immediately to the question of can you afford it? For example, Google the word retirement and you get about 90 million hits where the top 1000 or so are almost all about the money. (Curiously, Google hits on retirement seem to vary between 88.5 million and 91.5 million. I wonder if there are 3.0 million of so out there who are like me and just can't make up our minds?) So I did the retirement calculator thing and I'm OK, I can afford to retire when I choose to. Check, that's not the problem? So what is the problem? The problem for me is what to do with my time and my mind in retirement. There is a surprisingly large ontology of topics associated with or rea...

I recently bought a Kindle from Amazon via my Amazon account. (It's Amazon's amazing new wireless e-book that uses electronic ink, really cool. And worth the 4 week delivery backlog when I got mine earlier this year.) I love the concept of potentially hundreds of books, blogs, daily newspapers, etc. just showing up (for a small fee to Amazon & partners) on my Kindle when I get up in the morning. I also love having nearly infinite degrees of freedom in directing the Kindle's wireless delivery service (initially free) to send me just the stuff I want. The Kindle'e product hardware is still rough dispite it's $500 price tag (e.g. the Kindle freezes up quite frequently and has to be rebooted manually) but by and large it's worth the price. But, the Kindle is also a little dangerous. It enables easy access to certain online media (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) via the "Kindle Store" which is a subset of the real Amazon store. The Kindle store has been modifie...

I discovered a great election news blog today [called Dow Jones Insight Election Pluse] that shows off some interesting visualization technology which Dow Jones sells in conjunction with Factiva and other info sources.

I'm a huge fan of Marc Andreessen and I have no doubt that his thoughtful endorsement of Barack Obama [ blog.pmarca.com: An hour and a half with Barack Obama ] will have great influence. However, I suspect that many who follow Marc were already persuaded by more emotional "anything but Republican" feelings and had made up their minds anyway. I can relate to that, that's how I felt after eight years of Clinton. What I like about Obama is that, with McCain, for a change after nearly sixteen years he gives us two decent candidates that we might actually be proud of. In my mind, both could be acceptable leaders. I sincerely hope that they have a thoughtful and civil debate which helps us all sort out the right way forward for America. Marc's characterization of Obama made me think about why it is that I support McCain and I'm grateful to Marc for that. Of course I was not fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to meet McCain personally as Marc did wit...

At the end of her WSJ column today mourning the passing of Bill Buckley, Peggy Noonan said something that resonated with me: I share here a fear. It is not that the conservative movement is ending, that Bill's death is the period on a long chapter. The house he helped build had--has--many mansions. Conservatism will endure if it is rooted in truth, and in the truths of life. It is. It is rather that with the loss of Bill Buckley we are, as a nation, losing not only a great man. When Jackie Onassis died, a friend of mine who knew her called me and said, with such woe, "Oh, we are losing her kind." He meant the elegant, the cultivated, the refined. I thought of this with Bill's passing, that we are losing his kind--people who were deeply, broadly educated in great universities when they taught deeply and broadly, who held deep views of life and the world and art and all the things that make life more delicious and more meaningful. We have work to do as a culture in brin...

Zach and Noah both started playing basketball at our church league this year and both of them were really great. I think I've got a couple of future basketball stars on my hands.