This has got me really steamed — as the news unfolds after this latest air terrorism attempt, it turns out that the guy who is accused of trying to blow up a jet over Detroit was actually ON a US Terrorism Watch List. His own father even contacted authorities with concerns about his son’s activities — and he was still allowed onto an airplane without hassle.

Alrighty them. What exactly is the watch list there for if we don’t use it?!?

Even better, the TSA seems to think that punishing the entire traveling public with laughably stupid yet very annoying in-flight restrictions is the correct response to this massive cock-up.

The solution to this issue is not a mystery. You need to screen people better BEFORE they get on the plane. Yes, it’s hard. But it’s the right thing to do. Telling people they will be safe if they cannot use their iPod for the last hour of a flight is utterly pathetic.

It’s like the guy who, on noticing he’s lost his wallet, starts looking for it under the next streetlamp because that’s where the light is. You need to go where the real problem is, not where the easy fix is.

So this morning, up pops in my feed reader a blog post by my friend Jason about a Halloween Bar-B-Q Bar Mitzvah.

OK, nice post about the food at a recent Bar Mitzvah he went to and how much more fun it was than the standard Bar Mitzvah (the menu is definitely much more interesting than the standard Bar Mitzvah!). The brain-twisting part (for me) was that I also knew the mother of the kid involved; Laura and I went to high school together and we recently reconnected on Facebook. She’s been posting updates about the party planning for weeks. I knew that she and Jason knew each other (they’re both NJ-based foodies with an IBM connection) but it didn’t occur to me that he was actually going to the party.

Most of the people who actually read this blog will probably just shrug and say, so what? For the segment of people that have adopted social media tools and integrated them into their lives, this kind of public intersection is pretty much a non-story. Having spent my last weekend back home in NY and talking to a lot of people who are not part of the adoption curve, though, I’m reminded that there are plenty of folks for whom blogging a kid’s Bar Mitzvah or finding intersections between different worlds via Facebook is completely alien territory.

So last week was Adobe MAX and this week I headed off to Las Vegas for BlogWorld Expo. Talk about a study in contrasts and two very different conference experiences.

One week, I’m working the show and surrounded by so many people I know that I spent the entire conference talking and still managed to miss connecting with some folks. As much as it’s a ton of work and exhausting, it’s also inspiring and just plain fun to spend the week surrounded by a few thousand of your company’s most passionate customers. However, if you’re not mindful and self-aware, all that attention can go to your head.

Then the next week, I’m just an attendee. I knew some of the people at the show and even a couple of the speakers, but by and large I was on my own when it came to finding people to connect with and things to do. If I wanted to enjoy myself and get the most out of this conference, I couldn’t coast; I’d have to work for it.

In a way the relative anonymity was refreshing – for one thing, I actually had the time to have in-depth conversations with people without the pressure of having to constantly run off to say “Hi” to three other people. I could attend sessions other than just the keynotes. I could enjoy relaxed meals with some really cool people like Kyle Flaherty, Aaron Straut, Jennifer Leggio, Stephanie Schwab, and Lindsay Lebresco. As an added bonus, I could do it all without having to spend all day killing my feet on the show floor.

Most important, I got outside of my day-to-day life and got to hear about how other people are addressing some of the same issues we’re grappling with, like: how to connect to always-on, global, engaged and intense communities of customers. Or how to stay on top of the torrent of voices that increasingly defines the Internet today and still have time to get some work done.

The longer I work for Adobe, the more strongly I feel that it’s critical for me to keep a sense of perspective and stay connected to life outside the Adobe bubble for me to be at my most effective. Spending time at events like BlogWorld is one way to do that.

If I’m totally honest with myself, though, I’d have to say I preferred my MAX experience.

PS: I’m testing out a new tool called Zemanta with this post – I got a demo of their stuff at BlogWorld and thought it was worth a try.

But it is about music.

One thing that technology has done to music is the decline of shared musical spaces. Years ago, it was habit for me to bring a boom box and a pile of tapes or CDs to the office & play music every day. Music was a shared experience — coworkers would bring in and trade CDs, vote some stuff on or off the playlist, even make office mix tapes. It wasn’t a paradise — especially when your co-workers had very different musical tastes — but it was more social.

Now, each of us sits at our desks plugged into our own private music streams. Nobody has to argue about whether or not [Band X] is good work music, or negotiate a preferred volume level — but also we’re more isolated from each other.

On the whole I’m not sure it’s a step in the right direction.

Because freedom isn’t free.

Point (Thanks Mike):

Here’s the rule: If you even suspect that you’re at risk of becoming complacent, you probably already are.

Counterpoint (Thanks Richie):

Inspiration is not linear. There is no map to find it by. That book that lit your fire a year ago might seem completely foreign to you now. But the constant pursuit of inspiration is what’s going to make you better. You have to search it out.
…
If you’re not inspired, it’s your duty to seek out whatever it is that gets you going. Re-visit. Talk. Laugh. Read. Listen. Love. Fight. Debate. Get angry. Feel elation. Let pain in. Just don’t deny any moment that might move you forward. At the end of the day, inspiration might be what ends up getting you through.

Now here’s an argument you don’t hear every day:

A decade ago Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in Britain argued that excessive home-ownership kills jobs. He observed that, in Europe, nations with high rates of home-ownership, such as Spain, had much higher unemployment rates than those where more people rented, such as Switzerland. He found this effect was stronger than tax rates or employment law.

If there are few homes to rent, he argued, jobless youngsters living with their parents find it harder to move out and get work. Immobile workers become stuck in jobs for which they are ill-suited, which is inefficient: it raises prices, reduces incomes and makes some jobs uneconomic. Areas with high home-ownership often have a strong “not-in-my-backyard” ethos, with residents objecting to new development. Homeowners commute farther than renters, which causes congestion and makes getting to work more time-consuming and costly for everyone. Mr Oswald urged governments to stop subsidising home-ownership. Few listened.

As always, it pays to remember that correlation is not necessarily causation, but Oswald’s observation is still food for thought.

I was struck by something when looking at some website analytics today.

This is the image I was looking at:

Notice that line of dots across the middle of the state? That’s no accident. Here’s why:

The Erie Canal was a major engineering feat of the early 1800s and was a key transport path for over 100 years, although after around 1950 or so it stopped being a significant part of the commercial transportation network.

It’s kind of neat that the canal is visible from cyberspace.

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4.

Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20, 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage.

We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I’m going to try my hand at creating a New Year’s Meme & see if it catches on. Here it is:

The Three Threes

First, write down:
1) Three things that have changed since the beginning of the year
2) Three things that didn’t change
3) Three things you want to change next year

Next, tag either three, six, or nine people.

To start the ball rolling (or dropping as the case may be) here’s mine:

Three things that have changed since the beginning of the year:
1) New job! I can’t possibly overstate how much of my life this has changed (and for the better).
2) Finally got a smartphone. I still wish my Blackberry had a better web browser but otherwise it rocks.
3) New haircut. This one is not as life changing but it’s been way too long since I had a decent stylist.

Three things that didn’t change:
1) Still living in San Mateo. I’d like to move back to SF at some point.
2) Still renting. But at least I am not underwater on a mortgage.
3) Still not exercising regularly. Working 12-hour days makes finding the time hard, but even so, it’s a failing of will more than anything.

Three things you want to change next year:
1) Stop listening to my fears.
2) Take a photography class. I love photography but don’t know jack about doing it right.
3) Do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I was going to sign up last year and didn’t. This time I’m going for it.

Feel free to jump in if you’re so inclined. I’m also tagging a range of folks:
Jennifer Leggio
Michelle Oshen Feldman
Warren Sukernek
Mike Rohde
Michael Ashby
Craig Froehle
Seamus
Laura
and BTC

Blogging has been scarce around here lately. I’ve been busy, but it’s not just that — I’ve lost the habit of remembering to blog. I do have a shiny new iPod Nano that I’ve just loaded with a batch of music, so in honor of that, I might as well dig out an old meme: the Friday Random 10.

Superman — Five for Fighting
Time of Your Song — Matisyahu
Silent Legacy — Melissa Etheridge
Following — The Bangles
In Your Eyes (Live) — Peter Gabriel
Born To Run — Bruce Springsteen
Find A Way To My Heart — Phil Collins
Starry Eyed Surprise — Paul Oakenfold
Tikvah — Subliminal & the Shadow
No Woman No Cry (Live) — Bob Marley & The Wailers

The rules are simple: Randomize your iTunes and write down the first 10 songs in the playlist. Feel free to add your own 10 in the comments.

A little earlier today, in the Adobe MAX Day 2 keynote, was the formal launch of Adobe Groups, the project that’s been eating my life these past 4 months or so.

I’m exhausted and thrilled and really proud of what the team and the user group community has in Groups. More than 400 groups and 2000 members are on the site as I write this, and the number of registered profiles is increasing every time I look.

There’s a lot more that the site needs and I’m sure it will be keeping me very busy in the weeks and months to come, but it’s also good to take the time to stop and admire how far we’ve come just to get to this point.

Viva Groups!