Ed Martin's Blog

Power to the People!

Ed Martin — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:16:58 GMT

Back in March, I blogged about a bad community housing project going up near my neighborhood. This past Thursday, Nicki and some of our "activist neighbors" went before the Napa Planning Commission to present their opposition to the project. As reported by the local Napa paper, the Planning Commission was empathetic to our position and effectively delayed the project for the year in order to research alternatives.

A few of the salient quotes from the article...

Commissioners again sided with neighbors who said the proposed three-story building is too tall and 30 apartments too dense for a one-acre parcel near their one-story homes.
Commission Chair Michelle Benvenuto took the developer, Napa Valley Community Housing, to task for not being willing to shrink the number of units.

“It’s so obvious that this project does not fit the neighborhood,” said Benvenuto, who favored a two-story cap as residents had requested.
“The neighbors feel a three-story monster is being crammed down their throat” ... and they’re right, Commissioner Gordon Huether said.

Benvenuto said the problem is that the housing non-profit paid too much for the property at 535 Coombsville Road, then asked the neighborhood to live with their mistake.

“We screwed up and now we’re going to sue you,” said Benvenuto, alluding to the pressure on the city to comply with state affordable housing dictates.

Neighbors strenuously objected. They presented a model showing the proposed apartments dwarfing their homes like a cruise ship among dinghies.

Even though he supports the housing project, Commissioner Basayne agreed that “the traffic situation is abhorrent and a threat to that neighborhood.”

Now we have to find a lawyer to help us.. probably a good land use attorney.

Social Networking as a Presidential Campaign Tool

Ed Martin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:22:43 GMT

I was on LinkedIn a couple of days ago and found Barack Obama had posted a question: "What ideas do you have to keep America competitive in the years ahead?".

Curious, I had to check out his profile. There he was. US Senator, Presidential Candidate. He was a super-node, i.e. he had 500+ connections. And over 2900 people had answered his question.

Of course, I had to invite him into my network. I used the default LinkedIn invitation, plus a sentence indicating I'd be voting for him in November. I wasn't sure if I'd get a reply, but today...

I think it's cool that our future president is in my network (though I'm sure it's a team of campaign lackeys handling all the the friend requests). It further validates what I've seen of him thus far: he understands technology and how to use it strategically (of course he was going to accept my invite!). He's asking a fairly well educated crowd their opinion, and there are some good answers in there (this exercise is left to the reader to find the good answers -- that's not what this post is about).

If you haven't read Marc Andreesen's post about Obama, it had left an impression with me, especially Obama's line "Watch how I run my campaign. You'll see my leadership skills in action." I've been impressed with his ability to manage and lead and his, or at least his campaign team's, creativity. His use of LinkedIn to solicit feedback and his non-use of public campaign financing are two good recent examples. He's going to run circles around McCain.

I figure there were hundreds of thousands that would add him to their networks. I would think it would affect their friend updates feature, expanding it exponentially. However, I've not yet received any updates that says who Barack Obama has added as a friend, so I'm guessing his network privacy settings are maxed.

For those that didn't think to add him as a friend, there's also a Barack Obama LinkedIn group, as well as links to his web site BarackObama.com.

For any of you McCain supporters out there, does he really not know how to use a computer?

More on Ubuntu

Ed Martin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:01:19 GMT

"Ubuntu" has entered the American lexicon. It means "I am because of you", or something like that.

I just blogged a few days about the restaurant Ubuntu (which is getting some fabulous press), and the also about the Boston Celtics (who didn't??). Now I read that Ubuntu was the theme of the Boston Celtics' championship run. The post explains Ubuntu in more detail.

I find it an amusing coincidence.

Ubuntu - Would you like some yoga with your meal?

Ed Martin — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:37:34 GMT

Ubuntu is a yoga studio/vegetarian restaurant that opened up in downtown Napa in the last year. That's right - a yoga studio and restaurant. I'm not into yoga, but I'd been to Greens and Millenium in San Francisco a few times, so I'm not totally opposed to non-meat meals. But only once in a while.

I had actually walked by the restaurant when it first opened, took one look at their menu (and their yoga studio), snickered, and walked away. I read a review about the restaurant recently (I thought it was in SFGate, but I can't find it -- all I found was this.), and it said the menu had improved. It went on to describe some meals, and it sounded interesting. Also, the chef's once worked at Manresa's in the South Bay, so it couldn't be that bad.

And it wasn't. In fact, it was pretty good. I personally don't think it's better than Greens, but it was definitely better than Millenium. If you read the review, there are some dish comparisons to Chez Panisse and French Laundry. Some of the things I've had were on par with some courses I've had at Chez Panisse, but way off the mark from what's served at French Laundry.

The best thing I had was the fried chick pea fries and romesco sauce. As for the other plates, there were some interesting combinations, and everything was highly aromatic and flavorful. We had Carrot and Lemongrass cold soup, Panzanella (bread and green salad with grilled peaches and cheese), Musica (curried cauliflower stew in a cast iron pot), and dessert we had was cheesecake in a jar and corn pudding.

One gripe I had was the menu selection. One third of the menu was dedicated to a tasting menu, and I thought the waitress said we could select things off the tasting menu a la carte. We couldn't. And while the tasting menu looked tempting, it was $85 per person. All I could think was, "I'm not paying $85 for a bunch of rabbit food".

As good as Ubuntu is, I don't think this restaurant is going to survive. It will get by for a few years, but the fad will pass. If it were in San Francisco, Oakland, or Berkeley, I'd give it a much longer lifespan, since there's more of a market for good vegetarian food (and yoga). For a restaurant to survive in Napa (the town proper), you've got to get locals coming back during the slow times. The rest of the time, it will rely on tourists, and I'll boldly say that most tourists are not vegetarians.

On top of that, most tourists visit Napa for the wines. I know after a day of wine tasting, I do not want an all vegetable meal. I want a filet with that nice Cabernet Sauvignon I just shelled out all those bucks for.

All the same, I'd like to try Ubuntu again. I didn't get a chance to try their pizzas, and they looked really good. But Pizza Azzuro makes excellent thin crust pizzas and costs less. And they serve meat, sans yoga.

Bad Boss Behavior

Ed Martin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:55:02 GMT

Came across an interesting article from BNet on Bad Boss Behavior that's worth a read. Real quickly, here's the run down on the behaviors:

Chronic Micromanagement
Vague Priorities
Explosive Temper
Absurd Expectations
Belittles You in Public
Avoids Difficult Decisions
Demands Unreasonably Long Hours

I've witnessed all these, and have personally experienced most. I'm even guilty of a couple of them. The article comes with advice on handling the behaviors. Most makes sense, and I've certainly used some of the advice (but have not had any used on me!).

The one that hit home is the vignette on how to handle Vague Priorities:

"When I was younger, I was scared to ask the boss to clarify things because I was afraid of looking stupid. Now I know that there are two questions that are never stupid: 'Why are we doing this?' and 'What is the outcome you want?' In other words, if you don't know what's expected, it's your job to get a clarification."
—Ken Evans, former VP of sales and marketing at Waste Management, currently a management consultant at CP Strategies

Earlier in my career, I'd never thought to question the priority, but for different reasons than Ken Evans. I always figured the boss was boss for a reason (I blame my strict Asian parents who inculcated me to respect authority figures). I've long since purged that naivete out of my system.

Asking for the desired outcome is something I will start doing, and it seems like such an obvious thing to do. Although I don't think I ask this question because I believe the outcome should present itself as part of trying to understand the priority. However, I think the real challenge will be trying to determine if the desired outcome is the correct one and convincing your boss otherwise if it's not.

Going Green

Ed Martin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:26:03 GMT

Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for winning their 17th championship. Having grown up a Laker fan during the Showtime years, I found it odd that I was actually rooting for the Celtics.

Partially, I like that Boston has Pierce, Garnett, and Allen -- 3 classy, all-star players who have been at it a long time without winning a championship. Those 3 guys deserve a championship. Mainly, I think it's because I don't like Kobe Bryant.

Don't get me wrong, Kobe is an excellent player -- probably the best there is right now. But I think he and Shaq blew it because they couldn't get along. They could have been better than Jordan and Pippen, but their massive egos got in the way. With Showtime, Magic at least acknowledged it was Kareem's team, and the torch was clearly handed to Magic later on. Shaq and Kobe could have done the same. Sigh, what could have been.

Speaking of green(s), that was an amazing US Open championship, with Tiger sinking 2 clutch birdie shots on the 18th green. It was probably the best golf competition I'll have witnessed in my lifetime. And Tiger's legend continues to grow.

But on to my last, and totally not-sports related green topic...

TechCrunch, the quintessential Silicon Valley technology blog, posted an article about Greenopolis, a green social networking site I wrote about back in April. I found it odd that Greenopolis even came up on their radar, since TechCrunch typically focuses on technology startups and companies, not on billion dollar, non-technology Fortune 100 companies. But I guess that's what a good PR firm does: they get the word out.

The TechCrunch critique was that Greenopolis was an advertisement for WMI, and it should have been done on Facebook or MySpace. Maybe. Given what I know WMI wants to do with Greenopolis, having some control of the social networking app may be better. Besides, they can always hook into Facebook or MySpace.

BTW, my Greenopolis badge is on my home page. Based on my activity, you'll see my current level is "Yellow". And you thought I was going to say green.

Loyalty Lab press from Microsoft

Ed Martin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:11:46 GMT

There's some nice coverage of us on Microsoft Startup Zone. As a founder, I was involved in many of the things written about in the article.

On the decision to go with Microsoft vs. Java, I remember being questioned by some of our early advisers about this choice, and while we defended our position pretty well, the fact that our application has withstood this long is probably the best proof we made the right decision.

I was also involved in the Microsoft Architecture Review down at the MS Technology Center down in Mountain View. The biggest piece of advice we got there was to go to the 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005. Excellent call.

The HSBC news is a big deal. We've had a partnership with them for over a year dealing with one aspect of their credit card business. With this new deal, it's going to get interesting.

One correction: Virgin America is our client, not Virgin Atlantic.

Goodbye Ferry (or Vallejo is run by idiots)

Ed Martin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:33:33 GMT

You've read the headlines from last month. Vallejo has filed for bankruptcy. That's sign #1 that the city council is incompetent. Sign #2 is the ridiculous fare hike they've imposed on ferry riders. They have upped the monthly pass from $270/month to a whopping $320/month. And on July 1, if the price of fuel is $4 per gallon or higher, they will add another $20 to that price. Seeing as how the national average for fuel is currently $4 per gallon, the price is almost certain to go up.

I have been riding the Vallejo Baylink Ferry for over 4.5 years. It is one of the more relaxing ways to commute. The ride is (usually) smooth, the commute length is consistent (no traffic jams on the bay), and I can buy beer (or wine or Scotch for those bad days) and snacks on the boat. Given the price increases, I had to re-evaluate my options.

Being a geek, I had to break down all my commute options in Excel to see which was most cost effective. Most of the results seemed obvious, but my final commute choice was unexpected. Here's how it broke down in terms of annual costs, most expensive to least with door-to-door round trip times in parentheses...

Ferry - $5700 (200 minutes)
Drive/BART - $5300 (180 minutes)
Bus/BART - $4600 (200 minutes)
Carpooling - $3300 (140 minutes)
Casual Carpool - $1520 (180 minutes)

Mind you, I've tried all these combinations before making my final decision. Staying on the ferry was clearly out. Either BART option was clearly cheaper, but there are a lot of crazies on the Richmond BART line, and even more on the bus to Vallejo. Due to safety concerns, BART was out. Ditto for Casual Carpool (Not only is Vallejo run by idiots, there seems to be a pretty good number of whackos living there, too. Note: I have good friends who live in Vallejo, and they *seem* sane).

Sadly, carpooling was my best option. Although I don't get to drink on my commute anymore, it is cheaper, safer, and a lot faster than all the other options.

$3300 seem low to you considering most garages in the financial district charge $30/day in parking? Well, I found a $8/day lot 4.5 blocks from my office. And even at $30/day parking, it's still cheaper than the ferry!

So, armed with a simple spreadsheet, I was able to quickly determine that EVERY commute option was cheaper than the ferry and almost all were faster. Who in their right minds would choose a fare hike without analyzing other ways of dealing with the rising fuel costs? Advertising the ferry more to increase ridership? More ads in the boat? Ads outside the boat? Negotiated fuel costs? Add a mast and sail to the ferry???

I can only conclude... Vallejo must be run by idiots.

Napa Valley Recommendations from a Local

Ed Martin — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:32:57 GMT

Living in the Napa, I'm regularly asked by out-of-town visitors where to go in the Napa Valley. Going through some old emails today, I found one of my more decent responses, which I'm posting here:

Happy to provide recommendations to visitors.

I don’t stay in hotels in Napa Valley to really know, but the top recommendations I always hear about are these:

Auberge du Soleil – expensive, but really, really nice
Napa River Inn – this is in downtown Napa, but the hotel is really nice. Right on the Napa River
Carneros Inn – I have no idea why this is so popular, but it is. The restaurants at this hotel are pretty good.
Sonoma Mission Inn – Not really in Napa, but still in wine country. My sister-in-law has stayed there several times and loves it.

Restaurants:

French Laundry (Yountville) - Good luck trying to get a reservation, but probably will be the best dining experience of your life if you get it.
Brix (Yountville)
Bistro Jeanty (Yountville)
Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena)
Market (St. Helena)
Martini House (St. Helena)
Go Fish (Rutherford)

Good Wineries if you’re a wine newbie

Robert Mondavi (if you want a really good tour)
Sterling (if you want an attraction)
V. Sattui (if you want a picnic)

If you like architecture with your wine…

Quixote
Artesa
Darioush
Villa Amorosa

If you like art with your wine…

Hess Collection
Clos Pegase

Now if you really just love wine…

Silver Oak
Opus
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
Nickel & Nickel
Duckhorn
Chateau Montelena

Catching Up

Ed Martin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:48:36 GMT

Ok, friends and family. I know I've been a bit of hermit for a while, and I've hardly posted anything, so this is what's been going on in my life for the past couple of months.

Work is busy. I've been to New Hampshire and New York in the last 2 months, leaving Nyssa and Nicki for a few days at a time. New Hampshire was cold, and it looked a lot like an L.L. Bean catalog. I did some work there with WMI, one of our clients. They're launching a green social network called Greenopolis, and Loyalty Lab is powering some of the back end computing platform for it.

New York was a lot more fun, because I got to stay near Times Square, at the Paramount Hotel. I got to dine at a couple of good restaurants: Blue Fin at the W hotel and Porter House at the Time Warner Building. Oh yeah, I also spent time with a couple of clients -- 1800Flowers and Jones Apparel Group.

Tomorrow, we have our user summit/conference, and I'm giving a brief presentation on some of our product's capabilities. It's been a while since I've presented to a group of people face-to-face. Most of my presentations are done over a GoToMeeting session. There are also some crazy-large clients that we're trying to go after. You'll hear about some of them soon, but it's shown how far along we've come as a company.

In my personal life, things are still busy, but having a 6 month old can do that to you. Yes, Nyssa is 6 months old! We bought her a jumpy chair, and she's an absolute maniac on it. We also had her baptized last month. Her sleep pattern has been a bit irregular, so I've not personally slept well either. I also haven't been working out as often, but I've signed up to do the Wharf-to-Wharf in July, a 10K from Santa Cruz to Capitola. I need to start getting back in shape. I've done this run almost every year since 1995. I missed last year because I had my appendix taken out.

Lots of stuff going on around the house and neighborhood. We just had our house painted, and we need to put a new roof on. We also had some work done inside the house - improvements to Nyssa's room, some bathroom work, and some new door handles. Nicki hired someone to do it, because I never seem to have the time.

In our neighborhood, a bunch of us (well, more Nicki than me) are fighting to stop a low income housing project from being put in. I'm for low income housing, but they're making it too dense in an area that has bad traffic problems already.

I played in a golf tournament hosted by my brother this past weekend. He and his college buddies host 4 tournaments a year, and the course is selected by the previous year's winner. Lucky Engel, he won last year. He smartly decided to host it at the Callipe Preserve Golf Club in Pleasanton, where it was played the previous year. It is an absolutely gorgeous course, with amazing views, and a very challenging layout. I shot a 108, but I played many of the holes very well, including some pars and bogie holes. My goal for next year is to shoot 100 or less.

Cheers!

Our latest crusade...

Ed Martin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:16:58 GMT

This opinion article, taken from my local paper, The Napa Valley Register, is from Lance Burris, one of my neighbors. It discusses why a 30-unit low income housing project in a 1 acre open lot in my neighborhood is a really bad idea.

I am writing this article as the owner of a house in Fairview Terrace that has been in my family for nearly 50 years. For those not familiar with this area, Fairview Terrace is a stable, established neighborhood of modest but respectable houses which have served the needs of young families and retired citizens for more than six decades.

This community recently learned, by sheer luck, of a 30-unit affordable housing project, which Napa Valley Community Housing proposes to construct on a 1.1-acre parcel on Coombsville Road, less than a block away from our single-family homes. As presently conceived, “Fairview Heights” is the poster child for bad planning and a complete misapplication of “infill development.” It is precisely the kind of project which gives infill a bad name in neighborhoods throughout California. As such, it represents an ominous precedent for the future of a city in the process of reinventing itself.

As residents of this modest neighborhood, we completely understand the need for affordable housing. This is not an “us versus them” issue. Our neighborhood has been drawn reluctantly into this debate at the very last minute, due to the failure of the proponents to give adequate notice and seriously involve us in the planning process. At issue are density and scale, as they relate to our health and safety, and the project’s incompatibility with the small-town character of our neighborhood. No less important is the lack of respect the proponents have shown us as taxpaying property owners. In spite of assertions to the contrary by NVCH and Napa city staff, there is no question that the proposed project, if constructed, will have severe long-term environmental, social and economic consequences for our neighborhood. As presently conceived, the Fairview Heights project applies a big-city solution to a small-town problem, the predictable consequences of which will be to create big-city problems where none presently exist.

The Fairview Heights project is infill gone wrong! It is a complete misapplication of an otherwise sound planning principle. Infill, when properly executed, need not threaten the character of existing communities and the health and safety of its residents. Unfortunately, the proposed project turns its back on the concerns of its neighbors. If built as planned, it will loom large as a stand-alone “housing project” which violates not only the city’s General Plan and infill regulations, but may also be in conflict with state environmental law. In spite of these and other shortcomings, the Planning Department found the project would have no significant impacts and recommended a categorical exemption from environmental review. The Planning Commission did not concur with this conclusion and refused to recommend approval of the project’s required permits.

Napa County has largely shifted the burden of providing state-mandated affordable housing to the city of Napa. This has created legal and economic incentives for the city to shoehorn as many units as possible onto the few lots permitting such use, doing so at the expense of the host neighborhoods. This is the very heart of the problem. When the NVCH representative was asked at the Planning Commission hearing if the density and height of the Fairview Heights project could be reduced, she replied that it was impossible because of “economic constraints.” How many times have you heard that response from private developers who have either paid too much for the underlying land, spent all their planning money in unjustified anticipation of approval, or simply wish to achieve some unspecified return for out-of-town investors — all in the face of legitimate community concern. Neither Napa nor any other responsible municipality would approve a private development as conceptually flawed as Fairview Heights. Surely, as taxpayers and residents, we should insist that the same “good planning” standards apply when evaluating private, public, and non-profit development projects. Therefore, the Napa City Council should reject the Fairview Heights project and future use of its inappropriate planning template in single-family neighborhoods.

To do otherwise will force existing neighborhoods to conclude that their interests and the city’s economic development objectives, including the construction of affordable “workforce” housing, are incompatible. That would be most unfortunate, now that Napa is well along in establishing its economic niche after more than 40 years of searching for a new identity and function. Poor planning at the city level might also influence voter attitudes toward future land-use measures and elections throughout the county. Yes, there are consequences that extend beyond the adjoining neighborhoods.

Successful economic development requires change, and change is usually perceived as threatening by established communities. Therefore, it is essential that local government and business interests do everything possible to establish a trusting relationship with the existing neighborhoods by demonstrating that the character of their communities will be protected and that infrastructure deficiencies will be remedied as demonstrable benefits of new development. Failure to establish this bond of trust at the outset will result in political and legal wrangling and frustrate everyone’s best efforts to make Napa the kind of balanced and economically successful community it can and ought to be.

Nicki is fighting very hard to get this stopped.

The Dark Side

Ed Martin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:30:01 GMT

So I'm officially in our Sales Department now, reporting to our SVP of Global Sales, George Wright. The title of this entry is straight from George, who announced at the last company meeting that I've gone over to dark side. After working pretty much all of my career in engineering, there's a vast contrast in the kinds of people I'm dealing with on a day-to-day basis, especially since I'm dealing with a lot of marketing people.

Some generalizations I've observed...

Engineers are pessimists. Marketers are optimists.

Engineers are trained to pick apart flaws in solutions and technical implementation. Marketing people are eager to find solutions, and implementation doesn't matter much.

Engineers are introverts. Marketers are extroverts.

Engineers are detail oriented. Marketers don't care so much about the details, as long as the solution achieves their goals.

Engineers tend to think in terms of efficiency and reusable algorithms. Marketers are much more about creativity and effectively communicating, without much regard for efficiency and reuse.

Marketers are very friendly. Engineers, not as much. Mind you, engineers are not rude in general. They just don't go out of their way to be friendly.

I can't impress marketers with any of my technical knowledge, whereas I've impressed a number of engineers in the past with what I knew.

The converse: I've impressed marketers with things that are easy to do technically with our tools. Engineers would point out that all I've done is change a configuration, and, duh, of course that was easy to do.

What's all this mean for me?

1. It's a lot easier convincing marketing people of the viability of our solutions. Mind you, I spend a fair amount of my time dealing with CIO's, IT managers, CSO's -- trying to convince them our technical implementation is sound. But since I spent most of my career on that side, I know what their issues are, so I know how to deal with them.

2. In college and the beginning of my career, I thought Marketing, as a discipline, was a joke. Now that I've been working with people who have to work with the software I've helped developed, I have gained a newfound respect for them and the problems they have to solve. Yeah, part of it is that I'm working more with direct marketing, which has gotten more systems focused as a result of the Internet, thereby making it more process oriented and programmatic. But I'm also noticing that they have interesting problems to solve.

3. I have actually found myself getting friendlier. By virtue of my day-to-day interactions with friendlier people, I myself have needed to get friendlier. My wife notices.

So, it's not so dark here after all.

But, the devil doesn't show his horns and tail, carry a pitchfork, and wear a red suit. More like Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled.

Still is nice, though.

Dude, where's my pizza?

Ed Martin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:02:53 GMT

From USA Today, Domino's is now allowing users to track the status of their pizza order.

Highlights from the article

Domino's, (DPZ) the pizza-delivery kingpin, on Wednesday will unveil a technology, Pizza Tracker, that lets customers literally track their pizza from the moment they place the order until it leaves the store en route to them. What's more, Domino's vows that its online tracking system — for phone or online orders — is accurate to within 40 seconds.

"We're filling that black box of uncertainty — 'Has my pizza been forgotten?' — with information and entertainment," says Chris McGlothlin, technology chief at Domino's.

Black box of uncertainty?? If I don't have my pizza, I'm not looking for entertainment. I want you to tell me, "Your pizza is late. For your troubles, we'll discount your pizza | throw in some cheese stix | give you free soda | give you your next pizza free."

The system goes up Wednesday at 3,400 Domino's outlets and will be in all stores by June 30, he says. It even gives folks the first names of the workers who take their phone order and deliver their pizza — and asks customers to rate them.

Any customer comments about inappropriate behavior by order takers or delivery staff will be investigated, spokesman Tim McIntyre says.

Hmmm.. which minimum wage employee should I fire?

In a nation ever eager to track delivery of everything from FedEx packages to Amazon.com orders, it's now come down to tonight's pizza. The move by Domino's is aimed at its youthful target: consumers under age 30 who spend gobs of time online.

Sadly, there are probably a bunch of people who will be enamored of this, says Christopher Muller, director of the Center for Multi-Unit Restaurant Management at University of Central Florida. "I guess they'll sell a ton of pizzas to people with no social life who are sitting in front of computers."

This might appeal to the World of Warcraft crowd. How big is that market? There are plenty of doubters, and rightly so.

... "It's an emotional roller coaster when you order," McGlothlin says. "Customers wonder: Did they get my order? Are they taking care of me? Will it show up?"

Again, missing the point. Just get the freaking pizza there on time, and compensate me if it isn't.

Alas, a key part of the pizza's journey cannot be pinpointed: the drive from Domino's to your home. But Domino's can tell folks when their pizza left the store, and officials say it should arrive within nine minutes of that time.

Such a bad application of technology.

Back in the 80's (or was it the 70's), one of the big 3 American automakers implemented a system like this to be able to tell exactly when their car was going to arrive. Do you know what Toyota did? They implemented a system that told their customers the date their car would be delivered, and worked like crazy to make sure they consistently met that date. And we know who the more successful car company was.

Opting Out of Junk Mail

Ed Martin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:36:24 GMT

Finally, a way to stop getting all those unwanted catalogs and credit card applications. From my neighbor and friend Floyd McGregor...

"Many of you may already know this information, but to reinforce what you already know, I feel compelled to share. So sorry for the mass e-mail, but this is too important to our planet not to encourage you to help stop the excessive crap we get in our mail boxes every day. In this month’s Napa Garbage billing was a flyer that talked about ways of stopping the enormous amount of Junk Mail we receive. What alarmed me was that 100 Million Trees fall to become 100 Billion pieces of Junk Mail to American Household.

If you get a catalogs you like, you can go to the business website and signup for e-mails. This will allow you to surf the same information in the catalogs. If you are not comfortable shopping on-line, you can call customer service and order the items you have queued to your shopping cart.

Here are the Organization:

To stop Catalog’s coming click on the link and setup an account to manage. They have nearly every catalog listed that comes to your door.

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

This site is for the Direct Marketing Association. The cost is $1.00 to set up and manage your opt-outs and mailings you receive that you no longer want or get unsolicited. When you arrive at the Home Page click on the Consumer Information link about 6^th down in the list. Follow the step to setup your account.

http://www.dmachoice.org/index.php

This link is for Opt-In and Out-Out Options. This one will require you to provide you SS# and Birthday. This site hit many of the Credit Agencies who provide your information to the Credit Card Companies.

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

Opt-In:	Your name will be eligible for inclusion on lists used for Firm Offers of credit or insurance.
Electronic Opt-Out for Five Years:	Your name will not be eligible for inclusion on lists used for Firm Offers of credit or insurance for five years.
Permanent Opt-Out by Mail:	Your name will no longer be eligible for inclusion on lists for Firm Offers of credit or insurance (In order to complete your Permanent Opt-Out election, you must print and mail the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. See FAQ - What is Permanent Opt-Out)

This site will provide sample letter to mail along to Junk Mail Senders who you can’t otherwise get off their list.

http://www.stopjunkmail.org

A few of the letter templates available.

For Direct Marketing Association (pdf) Online form
For ADVO Consumer Assistance (pdf)
For Harte Hanks/Pennysaver (pdf)
For Val-Pak (pdf)
For Catalogs, Magazines or Credit Card Companies (pdf)"

Christmas List

Ed Martin — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:32:04 GMT

For my family, who wants to know what I'd like for Christmas. Friends (or random strangers) who are reading this, feel free to purchase any of these items for me at any time.

A fly-fishing vest. Something quick-drying with not too many pockets.
A new fly-fishing reel with a sinking line.
Wine - I really like New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs -- something from the Marlborough region. Diageo does not own any New Zealand wineries.
Socks - I can never seem to own too many of them
Workout clothes -- shorts, dri-fit type shirts
If you're not sure, gift cards from any of these fine retailers will suffice

Starbucks
iTunes
REI
Banana Republic
Orvis

And some things that I'd really like that I don't realistically expect anyone but myself will get me

A widescreen HDTV with service. I don't have a particular one in mind, but perhaps if you have any recommendations, that would be really nice to have, too.
An XBox 360, just so I can play Assasin's Creed (which I also don't have)
A Xootr Scooter (see my previous post)

Merry Christmas all! Hope you get what you wish for, too!

New Digs

Ed Martin — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:17:37 GMT

Loyalty Lab has moved again! This is the 3rd time in our 4 year history. We are now at 111 Sutter St.

We are currently occupying the entire 13th floor. The space was previously occupied by the Body Shop, and the yellow and green color scheme prevalent throughout the floor.

The verdict so far? Not too bad.

Here's what I like:

- The building itself is beautiful. It looks very art-deco -- like something Howard Roark would have very much despised in the Fountainhead.
- It's light and airy, with open style seating
- There seems to be way more cheap, good food choices here
- It's a lot closer to my gym
- It's pretty close to Union Square
- It has views of San Francisco's better hotels: The Palace, St. Francis, Top of the Mark, & the Fairmont

Here's what I don't like:
- It's further from the ferry building (time for me to invest in a scooter)
- The company is split up with Engineering/Operations/Product Management on one side and Creative/Sales/Marketing/Client Services on the other. There's a long corridor in between.
- The yellow and green mirrored conference room (more remnants of the Body Shop)

Our location in Pier 1 was my favorite by far. This location is a distant 2nd, with our last 2 locations coming 3rd or 4th.

Kindle and other random book thoughts

Ed Martin — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:52:35 GMT

I first learned about Amazon's Kindle through Techcrunch, and my first thought was.. this has got to be a joke. $400??!! Black and white??!! An electronic book reading device???. $10 a book??? Pay for subscriptions to newspapers and blogs that I can get on the Internet for free??? Why would anyone pay for this?

Ok, so it's got a nice form factor. It's connected to the Sprint EVDO network (which being a Sprint broadband cellular subscriber, I know is very fast), and there's no monthly service charge. However, that's not compelling enough for me. Knock it down to $100, and maybe I'll consider it.

What would be really interesting was if Amazon opened up some API's so that other applications could be written as virtual Kindle's, e.g. I'd like an application that could go on my iPod touch, or better yet my laptop so I could read books on my 1 hour ferry ride. Sony PSP anyone? These applications could download the books in the background (a la Windows updates). It could have the same "features" of the Kindle, sans form factor.

While I'm on the subject of books, it occurred to me the other day that there is still a great demand for Harry Potter stories. If I were J.K. Rowling, I'd take the same approach as George Lucas took with the Star Wars universe. He basically allowed other authors to write tangential stories about characters in the Star Wars. With all Star Wars books, George Lucas had the final word on whether or not the book got published. As long as the stories stayed consistent with the franchise i.e. enhanced the universe without contradicting any of the movies and provided good entertainment, the book was published. Showing my geeky side here, but the X-Wing series, the Han Solo trilogy, and the Darth Maul books were highly entertaining.

I think J.K. Rowling should do the same. Not that she needs more money, but I'd bet there would be a high demand for other stories in the Harry Potter world contributed by other authors. Off the top of my head, several stories could be written, such as the history of Hogwarts, Deatheater chronicles, or even stories about the other schools and their students. As long as Ms. Rowling had the editorial control and final say, it would probably do very well.

Intelligent Design on Trial

Ed Martin — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:47:11 GMT

There's not a whole lot of things that get me up in arms, but one thing that does is teaching Intelligent Design as science. I even posted something about this 2 years ago.

A couple nights ago, I caught the first half of a Nova show: " Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial". It's a story of the trial between a group of parents and a Pennsylvania school board over the teaching of Intelligent Design in a biology class.

In my post 2 years ago, I argued that there's no way Intelligent Design can ever be proven correct or incorrect. Therefore the scientific method can not be applied to it. I did catch enough of the show to see that same argument was used.

What was more fascinating though was learning how much more about evolution was being proven correct by modern day genetics. The explanation on how humans have 23 chromosomes vs. apes/orangutans/chimpanzees have 24 was something I'd never heard. I'm curious to see the second half to see what else is new in evolution I've missed since learning it in high school.

It's airing again on November 17. I have it set to record on my Tivo.

A new beginning

Ed Martin — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:37:34 GMT

I haven't blogged in a while, mostly due to the new parenting thing. I'm finding myself awake at odd hours, e.g. 3am on a Thursday morning. Since I'm up, may as well blog.

Lots of people have asked me where the name Nyssa comes from. The truth is that Nicki and I had tossed some names back and forth, but we found it hard to agree on names that we came up with on our own. So like any good modern couple we turned to the Internet for answers.

There are dozens of baby name sites out there, and I don't even remember the exact one we used. However, each one has names listed in some alpha order. The algorithm we followed was simple. Starting alphabetically, we eliminated common names, then the names of people that we didn't like (e.g. Nicki hates Angelina Jolie!), and finally eliminated porn star/stripper-like names (e.g. Jenna was out). Eventually we got to the letter "N" and found the name Nyssa.

The name has a Greek origin, meaning "beginning". Highly appropriate, considering she's our first child. It's a brand new chapter to my life. It's all true the cliches around parenting: My priorities have changed. I've developed (and continue to develop) more and more patience. My life is no longer under my control. It's up to this tiny stranger who wakes up every 2-5 hours to eat, poop, and cry. She is, however, very cute, and I'm completely enamored by her.

But this post isn't just about being a new parent.

Coincidentally (or not), I've started a new role at my company, as VP of Client Technology. If you've never heard of this role, you're not alone. It's a hybrid position, focusing on two things: sales engineering and client retention. I'm probably uniquely qualified to do this because a) I'm one of the founders, i.e. I've seen every client implementation and know where the bones are buried, b) I've got the software engineering background of our product, and c) I can stand in front of clients, explain the advantages of our technology, and not sound like a complete idiot.

I didn't arrive at this position naturally. I was running the engineering team, and it was the most challenging job I'd ever done (and I liked that). However, there were "forces" at work beyond my control. I'm not going into the details here, but suffice it to say, it wasn't pleasant for me. If you were fast, you actually saw my blog entry stating I'd resigned. I've since taken the post down, and I'm still at Loyalty Lab.

What's interesting to me is the process has had some parallels to being a new parent: The changes came quickly. I've had to adapt. I'm "learning on the job". I'm likely to make mistakes along the way. Patience comes in handy. And I've also been forced to think a lot more about the future.

So the following year should be very interesting -- both personally and professionally. As I reread this post, I'm leaving a lot of details out, but not everything is fit for public consumption. What I can say is the name Nyssa is highly appropriate for this time in my life. Here's to new beginnings.

Nyssa Elizabeth

Ed Martin — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:19:28 GMT

Born October 16, 2007, my adorable baby girl. We've put up her baby book on BabyStepz.com: nyssa.babystepz.com. If you're family or friend, email me, and I'll give you the password.