Scary Fast, and Green Too!

Innovation: The act of introducing something new.

I think there is plenty of innovation happening at Yahoo!, but it's always worthwhile to take a look outside of your industry for inspiration. Today, some of that was brought to our front door, via a speaker series held on campus. Tesla Motors is a start-up company based here in the Bay Area, but rather than building the latest internet widget, they build cars. But not any cars, mind you-- very, very fast cars that oh-yea-by-the-way, also are electric. The CEO of the company and some of the staff members came into Yahoo! today to talk about their work in progress and allow those of us who are car geeks to marvel at what they have created, and also get the chance to take a look at one of the 10 prototype cars that have been built so far.

It sure looks like a modern day sports car, with many Lotus/British references, but still maintaining a unique look. It is run by a battery that sits in the trunk (that's the white box in the pic to the left here) that is smaller than a car battery, and that is all there is for power. It can do 0-60 mph in 4 seconds, faster than pretty much every sports car out there, including big names like the Corvette and Porsche 911. It has a range of up to 250 miles on one charge, well enough to get around town and for all but the longest commutes. Simply plug it in when you get home, and the next morning, its ready to go- it gets the equivalent of 135 mpg (!) and costs a penny per mile to operate. Amazing stuff, despite the accompanying $100k price tag.

The inspiration for all of this? The desire to want to be environmentally conscious while also wanting to actually enjoy driving that car have thus far been totally separate. Yes, we can all marvel at how nifty the Toyota Prius looks and that it gets 50+ mpg, but by pretty much all accounts, its about as fun to drive as a Corolla. And while all of the sports cars out there are no doubt fun to drive, the sub-teen mpg is hard to swallow for any environmentally-conscious car enthusiast. Thus, the Tesla Roadster.

Obviously there are hundreds of innovations in the design, build and engineering of this car. However as a person who likes to drive cars fast but also would like to be as socially responsible as possible, this car creates a new niche and potentially a new market altogether. Tesla still faces many hurdles to see if it will ultimately work in the marketplace. They won't even ship their first car until next year, and have ambitious plans for a sedan to follow in 2009/2010.

But the innovation of introducing something so immediately understandable yet at the same time so new, to me, is the real revelation of the Tesla. Motor on!

** Read more about the Tesla on their official site

You Gotta Have a Plan.... Or Do You?

Christian and I go back and forth a lot about planning. He is an uber-planner; me, not so much. I prefer to let things happen organically—when things happen you didn’t expect, that makes it even better to me. I’ve been able to get through life so far pretty well this way, but being married to someone who feels the opposite, this has at time caused “strain” on us. With him being gone this fall, I’ve really managed to keep myself busy with lots of plans, so perhaps I’m not as organic as I think. We’ve had a few longer-ranging plans come from when he and I take trips together (ie, the "Bermuda Plan" called for settling down a bit with a dog/SUV/computer, the "Idaho Plan" called for C going to grad school in CA and the "Africa Plan" calls for kids in the next 5 years…) but other than that, I don’t know how much long term planning I really do.

I was lucky enough last week to be invited to attend a lunch with Jerry Yang, one of the original founders of Yahoo! He’s been pretty much a celebrity since he and David Filo famously created the company in trailers on the Stanford campus, on the covers of many, many magazines, and worth well over (yes, say it like Dr Evil), 1 BILLION dollars. The employees of Yahoo! are known as Yahoos, and his title is Chief Yahoo.

So after the company started growing so fast and he stopped knowing everyone’s names, he started this program called “Chat and Chow”, where two dozen or so people get invited to come and have lunch with him in one of the classrooms on campus. We were informed in the email invite that the format is intended to be very open and casual, but you never know how these things are going to go. How many times have all of us been to “informal” events with company leaders that are little more than meet and greets where afterwards mgmt crosses “Employee Engagement” off the to-do list until next quarter.

Happily, it ended up being a really interesting session. There were about 20 people there, all from the UED (User Experience & Design) team, from varying levels of background and experience. The session started with each person saying who they were, what they did, how long they have been with Y!, a cool innovation that they’ve seen at Y! or outside, and a question for Jerry.

It was a neat way to start off the meeting, as the wildly varying degree of innovations that each person saw was really cool. It ranged from a baby book to the Yahoo! Answers product to a new screwdriver design. The questions were also interesting—many centered around the new brand advertising Yahoo! launched this week (see the adverts here—I like the HOUSE one, but the car one is pretty lame to me) to how the different orgs in the company could be more nimble to enabling an environment that encourages more innovation.

Jerry proved to be as humble and down to earth as the press reports him to be. He was almost an awkward speaker, looking at the floor a lot, but still had a lot of good insights to share and was very open with us. He talked about the organizational difficulties of comparing ourselves to start-ups, which are often competitors in certain areas, how the UED organization needs to continue to be stronger, and other interesting tidbits from someone with his level of access. The session was fairly interactive, mostly engaging, and I think most of the group enjoyed it.

He actually closed the session with my question – “Where do you see Y! in 5 years, and how accurate were you in your predicition about what we’d be doing 5 years ago now?” He chuckled and said “not really that close” and went on to talk about the rapid acceleration of social media and other factors that didn’t seem as close in 2001. He postulated a bit about life for Yahoo in 2011 and some things we should focus on, but openly said that even with the maturing of the internet space, its still really hard to know.

So what does all this mean? Is it better to develop a plan and stick to it? Or is it better to just figure it out as you go? I think, as with most things, the right answer is somewhere in the middle. It's important to have an idea of where you want to be, but also be flexible enough to adjust as things happen in life and business. Not a bad message to take away from meeting with one of the biggest celebrities in Silicon Valley.

Mr Fix It

So I am going to admit to something that no man ever wants to: I am very unable to build anything. From the most simple of constructions (putting together a TV stand) and household items like changing a light fixture, I have difficulty even thinking about this stuff, much less actually trying to do it. As Christian says, when we think about renovations, we don’t pick up a hammer, we pick up the phone... for a contractor. Despite being the son of the owner of a construction company, I just never picked any of that up. Call it the fabulous gene, if you will.

And even though I am a software designer, I have largely remained blissfully naïve about anything to do with hardware. Christian was sweet enough to set up our computer when we got it a few years ago, as with each ensuing move we’ve had. Routers? Motherboards? Video cards? Huh?

All that came to a screeching halt over the few days. Our home PC was on the fritz and with Christian away all fall, it was up to me to get it fixed or be without the internet at home. As with anyone else, the fear of not being able to download music, check my email, pay my bills, and, um, oogle at Big Muscle each night was clearly the driver here to get it fixed.

The issue seemed to be something similar to an issue we had before, where the monitor would not go out of power save mode, so I was hoping it might be a simple fix. Well, after an hour of screwing around myself, then checking the online FAQs for about 30 minutes, chatting with an agent from Gateway for another hour, and then a 15 min call that cost $3/min, my cadre of support folks and I seemed to locate the problem- the power source in the PC was blown. The agent told me they were easy to replace, I could go to Best Buy the next day and be all set. I asked him again if it was easy to do and he said it should take about 10 minutes. “Ok, maybe I can do this”, I say to myself uneasily.

So the next night I sit down and open the box of the power supply, hoping there are very explicit instructions. Instead, try a sheet that basically said “see your computer’s instructions”, which of course were lost in the ether of many moves. I was able to find some instructions online and despite a few setbacks that most people would probably breeze through, about an hour later, I had the new power supply installed in the PC—yes!

Not so fast. When I booted up, it worked, but the monitor still did not come on—ugh! So back on the chat site I go, not wanting to pay another $30 to have to find my answer. Again, after about an hour of back and forth, the agent tells me the video card is blown as well, and I need to replace that as well. Um, are those easy to install also?

So after another trip to Best Buy, I feel ready to go again. My video card was in the motherboard, so I had to spend another 30 min chatting to make sure nothing special was required. Let her rip, says the agent, so I try it and about 30 min later, seem ready to go. I boot it up, but nothing. So I open it again, making sure all of the connections are good. Another 10 min go by, and I try it again.

And OH MY GOD, it worked! I literally danced around the apartment for about 10 minutes, Hobbes must have thought I was crazy. I actually did it. Another roadblock would be ahead, as I wanted to back up all of our photos and music in anticipation of getting a new computer (a Mac—hurrah!) and the power source for the external hard drive was nowhere to be found. A little crafty thinking later, I realized the plug for our iPod alarm clock looked to be the same size, and sure enough, it was. A few hours later, everything was backed up and in the next few weeks, I should be getting the new Mac!!

Patience, persistence, and a little ingenuity helped me get through this mess and now the PC is back online. So am I ready to try and start building things? Not exactly. But it feels good to know that if I tried, I probably could.

Of Mushrooms and Princesses

I've never been much of a gamer, but I have loved the Nintendo series of Mario games pretty much from the start. The original Nintendo was released in the fall of 1985 and my brothers and I begged my parents to get it for Christmas, but they insisted that the system and games ($30/game!!) were just too expensive. So it became one of the best days EVER when that Christmas morning, "Santa Claus" delivered a sparkling new Nintendo system and the game that came with it, as we all now know, was Super Mario Bros.

It was a mad scramble to get it hooked up the TV in the family room and thus began the many, many, many, MANY hours I would spend playing this game and its subsequent sequels. Among my favorites were Super Mario Bros 3, where Mario could gain the raccoon tail to knock out his opponents, and of course, Super Mario Kart, where Mario raced against some of his classic opponents in a knock around go-kart style that included the ability to knock off others with heat-seeking mushrooms and banana peels. And of course, Mario's cause was always the noble one-- to flatten the evil dragons in quest to rescue the princess!

After college though, despite the newer releases on Nintendo 64, Game Cube, etc., Mario seemed to leave my life. Until last month, when I was home visiting. I was headed to bed after a nice visit with my mom. I walked by the kids game room, where my 15-year old nephew (Tyler) has all the latest games like Xbox 360, Playstation 24, and Portable Whatever-they-are-calling-it-these-days. But much to my surprise, I heard a very familiar tune coming from the room, so I poked my head in and EUREKA, they are playing the original Super Mario Bros on an original Nintendo machine that he found in the garage of my parents house. Somehow, after all these years, the system and game were still working and my nephew and his friend were playing it in all its glory. Tyler, he who spends many hours playing the latest games with people he doesn't know on the internet, with the infinite layers these games have, said the simplicity of the game intrigued, and frankly, vexed him. I promptly said "Move over kids, let the old timer show you how its done!". And despite the fact that I haven't played the game in well over 10 years, I somehow was able to remember where the secret warp zones and extra coins where! The next day, I told my brother Joe about it, who used to hang out in my room and watch me play, and it was game on like 1986 all over again.

The other instance came this week when my colleague Leslie mentioned she recently received a GameBoy DS for a gift. (that's DS, as in Double Screen, to the uniformed like me) She had the Mario Kart game and I asked if I could play for a bit. I did, and said it was fun, and she told me that I should buy one too so we could play against each other! I was tempted..... But what really pushed me over the edge was yesterday she brought in the Super Mario Bros game for the system. I thought I would play for a few min like I did with the other game, but over an hour and completing 2 worlds later, I was hooked. Its an updating of the game with some fun twists (there's a BIG mushroom which allows you to smash everything on the screen and also a tiny mushroom which allows you to go places you couldn't otherwise, etc etc) but still the same over simplistic yet oddly engrossing set-up-- smash mushrooms, collect coins, save princess.

As it should be.

** For anyone who is into this like me, check out details on the new Wii from Nintendo. Looks prety awesome to me...

Effort

Effort: The use of physical or mental energy to do something.

To me, effort is one of the biggest currencies people have out there. I mean, it takes effort to keep a good relationship, be it with your significant other, or friends. It takes effort to do a good job at work. It takes effort to know what you want and go after it. It's something that we all have the ability to do, but only some really make the effort to do.

So I'd like to share some examples of efforts my friends have made recently that have touched me:

• Brian and I used to live just blocks apart and work one floor apart, but its taken some extraordinary effort on his part to really make us the great friends we've become. After we moved to SF and he moved to Frankfurt, Germany, he took the time to come the whole way here for a long weekend in the Fall of 2004. It it ended up one of those incredible bonding weekends where we talked about all kinds of things we never had before and learned that we had way more in common than previously thought. He's made the effort to come here at 5 times since then, including this past weekend, and ever time he visits, it's always a blast, and I always feel closer with him after he leaves. I know it takes a tremendous amount of effort to come the whole way here, and I really appreciate it.

• Our good pal Lee also come from DC to visit for a weekend last month. Surprisingly, this was his first visit to the Bay Area, and he made the most of it. He borrowed the MINI to drive up the coast as he experienced the stunning scenery of Point Reyes and Muir Woods. He had asked if he could use his iPod while in the MINI, but I sadly reported that I didn't have any connections for the car. It was a brief conversation; I told him I tons of CDs he could borrow and left it at that. So what do I receive in the mail a week later? A hook-up for the iPod that uses that radio rather than the tape player, so now the MINI is all set up for iPod motoring! Of course I didn't expect any kind of gift for hosting him. But he took the effort to not only give me something I will make frequent use of, but something I didn't even know I wanted.

• While we were in Africa last month, Todd stayed at our place for some of the time to look after it and make use of our laundry and cars. We were glad to have someone stay there since we were gone so long and he even picked us up at the airport on time. But there were a few extra "effort" touches when we got home that demonstrates what a classy guy he is. He took the time to wash the car and have our place spotless while we were gone, which was great. Beyond that, we found a vase full of flowers and a nice note thanking us for always making him feel at home. While those gestures didn't take nearly as much effort as the cleanings did, they are they ones that touched me more.

So sometimes it's the big things, and sometimes it's the small. I feel pretty lucky to have such thoughtful friends and I can only try and make the effort to let them know how much I appreciate it.

Movement

** Note to readers-- I'm back online and will be posting much more frequently now, so leave a message and let me know you are still out there! Thanks for stopping by.

I hear a lot about "the gay movement", particularly from the wackos on the far Right fringe, and I wonder what that is. Even as a somewhat-politically minded gay person, I'm not sure I could define what it is. Is it as general as trying to secure equal rights as others? Is it focusing too much on marriage rights? Not enough on what the heck LGBTQQY is? Is it about securing hate crimes legislation? Or maybe just what happens in the gay clubs around the world each Saturday night?

I don't know about that, but I got two really nice reminders of progress while visiting my family in Pennsylvania last weekend. The first came from my mom at funeral for an older family member. After the service in the graveyard, we saw an old family friend who I had not seen since I was very small. She first introduced my brother and his wife, and in then turned to me and Christian. I cringed for a moment in fear of the dreaded "friend" label, but in her next breath, introduced me and "my partner" Christian. This was the first time I could ever remember her using that term for Christian. It may not be a big deal to some, but for my mom to get over the "friend" label hump felt like really good progress to me.

The other, more surprising one, came later that night. I was playing video games (the original Nintendo, playing "Super Mario Bros", another entry forthcoming about that...) with my 15 yr-old nephew (Tyler) and his best friend, Jeff. Christian and I have been together for 8 years and he's been around my family extensively since then. I never really had "the talk" about Christian's and my relationship with my nephew, esp since C has been around for almost as long as he can remember, and I figured that was really up to my sister, his mom. So I was explaining to them about driving down from New York, since I flew in there (about a 4-hour drive from home) the night before since Christian is spending all fall there for training for his new job. After I said that, Jeff says to me with all of the possible sincerity a 15-yr old boy can muster, "But will you guys be able to see each other?".

I was immensely touched and blown away by the fact that the first question a high school kid in the small town that I grew up in was to show genuine concern that Christian and I would be able to see each other over the 4 months that we'll be separated. I smiled and told him that I would be spending a few weeks over the fall working from the Y! offices in New York, and that we were hoping the time would go by quickly until Christian came back to SF. When I was his age, I couldn't even fathom the word "gay", much less what a gay relationship looked like, much less to show concern for someone I barely knew in a relationship like that.

Is that the kind of "gay movement" that will keep Pat Robertson up at night? Maybe not. But it sure felt like moving ahead to me.