Disqus - Latest Comments for lewis

Re: Posterous Turns Anyone Into a Blogging Powerhouse

lewis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:08:12 -0000

I took the cheek's advice and set up an account and posted one post with it. Everything you say was true, however.... I think it depends on your blogging style & cadence. I'm not as rigorous about regular posting as you guys, and tend instead to stew over a blog post... I have seven or eight long pieces in draft in WordPress right now. I doubt the world holds its breath of course :) By the way, is there a way in Posterous to have a link be embedded, i.e. have the text "read about it in this article" actually be the link, without having a long URL appear like nytimes.com/news/tech/alsekgho03i4u0iv193562095809dfkhlvolitlsdhlksjhfjReadTheWallStreetJournalInstead0894teigkdholahrgoi ? Don't know why I'm asking you guys, unless you're volunteer Help Support :)

Re: John Stewart Examines and Explains Twitter

lewis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:07:09 -0000

Boy, didn't take Viacom long to bring that down!

Re: Social Media and the National Security Professional

lewis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:39:01 -0000

Man, again with the "click on Lewis's head" !!!
You know that gets painful, don't you? I'm all doped up on Excedrin...

Re: A look ahead: Some technology developments to expect in 2009

lewis — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:47:09 -0000

Bob - just checked out the new site - VERY nice. Looks very clean, very professional. Well done.
Now you just have to keep writing :-)

Re: Tips for the new CTO: How to engineer a miracle

lewis — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:25:40 -0000

has the CTOvision movie review team seen the new Quantum of Solace? two thumbs up here...although the first Daniel Craig/Bond film got three thumbs up!

Re: CTOs, Global Cyberwar and Our Collective Future

lewis — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:49:16 -0000

Bob - here's hoping plenty of Beltway residents (including those just moving here as part of the new Admt) will read the report. I think our buddy Harry Raduege and my MS colleague Scott Charney did a great job as co-chairs.
One point I would temper your remarks with is on the level of federal R&D; - you're right, the level of federal spending is low, and should increase, but it is dwarfed by the amount of private-sector (tech company) R&D; investments in security.
best - lewis

Re: The Technology Implications of the Obama Win

lewis — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:56:18 -0000

Not sure I'd be as optimistic on this point: "Most, if not all, unauthorized intrusions into federal systems could be prevented with a strong CTO in place."
We'll sit down in 4 years and do a retrospective analysis on that score.

Re: Wall Street Crisis, Enterprise Technology and Cloud Computing

lewis — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:56:05 -0000

Jeff, I was speaking about GAE, but also about the other suite of online apps Bob mentions. I observe that the TCO of Google's online hosted apps exceeds that of other *already adopted* enterprise-class apps, once you factor in the absolutely inevitable human-heavy costs of making their use fit your enterprise. There is emerging evidence of buyer remorse (and remember, enterprises *do* have to pay for use of Gmail etc) per seat; that adds to TCO but my point is on actual and usually unexpected maintenance costs; just because it's not maintenance in the same sense as an Exchange server doesn't mean all that wrapping code for custom uses is free, and it's generally for features that were coded into your SAP or Oracle or Microsoft years ago...

Re: Wall Street Crisis, Enterprise Technology and Cloud Computing

lewis — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:17:40 -0000

Agree with most of your comments (including the career advice), with the minor exception of the "run towards Google Apps." In fact I think most enterprise CIOs are going to realize they can't hire the large numbers of humans they'd need to integrate/maintain/tweak open-source apps, and will instead rely on the lower-maintenance cost of established enterprise-class apps (Oracle, Microsoft, etc)... these are typically on existing licenses of predictable costs, with low-overhead maintenance, not requiring increased staff to go "free" ... underlining the old truth "You get what you pay for" and in down times being the safe option.

Re: Thin Client Laptops: Functionality, Security, Mobility

lewis — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:49:36 -0000

Bob - way cool. Did you happen to test any (a) computationally complex apps/processes, or (b) high-end visualization apps with the laptop? Wondering about the impact if any of sync & latency, refresh rates, etc.
You're so right on the cost & flexibility arguments. For most users in most enterprises, this is a solid and defensible alternative.

Re: The greatest new technologies (and great drama too!)

lewis — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:03:32 -0000

I've been to DEMO once before, and would have gone, and I got invited to TechCrunch50 also - but have both the WIRE/ICES conference and a JFCOM meeting this week so couldn't do it... since then laughing at the inane and juvenile "controversies." These guys need to get over themselves. Most significant is to remember that the ACTUAL hit startups of the future are likely too busy to attend anyway, based on past experience. Great post, Bob.

Re: I hope to see you at the Synergy Conference

lewis — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:44:10 -0000

Ha ha - Bob, if anything you're understating the impact of your statement - it was a hilarious moment, and a rightful come-uppance for the AE's of the world. God forbid we actually allow warfighters and their analysts rapid access to important technical capabilities...
Please do twitter from the conference, I won't be there and would like to keep up. You may remember that on your panel, I asked how many people had a blog, and remonstrated those who didn't :-) This year I'd do the same thing about Twitter....

Re: Adm. Stavridis: Think, Read, Write and Publish, and Blog Too

lewis — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:29:34 -0000

Great post, good point to drive home in the current & upcoming generations of leadership. Come to think of it, an excellent way (as in your case) to identify new leadership.

Re: Standards Organizations CTOs Should Track

lewis — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:29:12 -0000

That's a helpful list, thanks for posting. As you know my company Microsoft is getting much more standards-hip (okay, standards-based), and it's almost humanly impossible to be aware of, and current on, such a broad panoply of standards...

Re: The Future Is Changing Again

lewis — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:40:48 -0000

Nice summary, good questions. I've been thinking of getting one of these (via the "Buy 2, keep 1" deal).

Re: Zettaflop Supercomputers and Moore’s Law

lewis — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:11:41 -0000

Glad to see you're back on the Moore's Law train! -lewis

Re: LinkedIn, Plaxo, Spock, SecondLife and Facebook

lewis — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:02:38 -0000

Great summary - deserves a trackback.

Re: In-Q-Tel Portfolio Gadget for the CTO

lewis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:07:26 -0000

Bob - very nifty and useful gadget. Makes me think that another thing you could do (with Popfly, Dapper, or Pipes... but best with Popfly!) would be to take the same info from several VCs, acknowledging that not all of them list their full portfolio in a timely manner, and chart out the graph over time as some startups get added to portfolios and others dropped... Useful B.I. for some of us :-)
great job!
(I find myself using more exclamation marks all of a sudden...)

Re: Contest: MacWorld Announcement Predictions

lewis — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:20:29 -0000

Even though i now work for Microsoft, I still can't help getting that eager feeling each New Year, itchy anticipation for the Jobs Keynote (TM).

Prediction:
- Tablet sub-notebook. Not only do all signs point to Yes, but I really want one, and will instantly load Vista on it :-) so I have both next-gen OS's running in parallel.

Re: Why Microsoft’s preference for mirror worlds signals it doesn’t get it

lewis — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:33:45 -0000

I think you're missing a bit of the point. When Microsoft produced Word (yes, the word processor), it didn't stop anyone from writing poetry on a notepad; didn't stop the writing of graffiti by hand; didn't stop sky-writing by airplanes. All of these are really useful and socially valuable aspects of writing, but they're not a part of "business" Microsoft is interested in supporting with software. Mirror worlds are the same - they're designed to be useful for the segment of society and commerce that can make use of them, not to replace the floating-penis, purple-sky world of Second Life. If people want to dream and do outside-the-lines bizarre things, more power to them, and they can use a virtual platform for that. Microsoft may choose only to be in a different (but healthy) business of providing more prosaic mirror-world capabilities. Maybe that's boring, but yes they can certainly coexist. A company choosing to do one and not the other isn't a measure of "not getting it," but I think rather it's a company saying, "Okay, we get it, but we can't be all things to all people, so we'll focus on this piece over here and see what pops up of value."

Re: 2008/08/05/government-2-an-insiders-perspective/

lewis — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:46:40 -0000

Mark - excellent article, and I believe enlightening for three different audiences: 1) government managers who believe they "should" be using 2.0 approaches but aren't fully clear on what those are, or why; (2) government worker-bee fans of Web 2.0 tools and practices in their private lives, who need to advocate for their use to their managers; and (3) the skeptical or uninformed citizenry, who after all are paying for government through taxes and deserve to have it adopt and follow best practices in whatever form - who deserve a government able to communicate and to listen (as enabled by social media). Again, well done.

Re: Great Conversation

lewis — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:10:38 -0000

Hi Bria (DeDe!),
Just a positive story to encourage you. I was just like you - I mean JUST like you - as you describe yourself, particularly in this post and the one from a couple days ago "I'll Wait" ...

I dated like crazy, went through several up-and-down relationships, was engaged twice (once for a year, once for 17 hours!), but it just never gelled. Never met that right "One" and definitely began to despair of ever doing so. At the age of 32, I gave up. Told my best friend, "That's it, forget it, no more dating till I'm 50, I can't take it."

That very night, feeling liberated, I went to dinner at a nice restaurant with him and his wife. I noticed a woman across the room. One thing led to another, and I ended the evening in a long, funny, brilliant conversation with her, alone. And guess what? I wound up marrying her!

I was (and am) very very very lucky, because I did indeed meet "the One" and am so happy because of it. And she's brilliant, easily the smartest person I've ever met - man or woman, and I've met the world's geniuses. She has never hidden it either, as far as I can tell.

So don't hide your mind .. or your heart ... from those you meet, and especially from those you like. The man you're meant to be with is going to want to have that long intelligent conversation with you, and he's going to realize very quickly that he never wants it to end...
:)

Re: Microsoft’s real problem

lewis — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:38:55 -0000

Robert, your leadership analysis is forgetting Craig Mundie. To my mind he's fairly central and more future-oriented than anyone save Ozzie; that pair has a pretty savvy grasp on where MS will be in 5 years... (and where others will be falling short over that time, enough said).

Re: The story of 2009? Enterprise disruption?

lewis — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:08:53 -0000

If the strawberry sat stagnant, molding away, I'd be pessimistic re Microsoft's chances and would agree with you. But it's a moving target, improving its own web platforms (Azure, Mobile, other semantic stuff to come). I'm biased, but genuinely optimistic. But I definitely agree - the enterprise space in 09-10 will be enormously active battlespace.