Turtles all the way down

From Forbes.com:

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - A dispute between Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) and Orange over commission payments could jeopardize the iPhone’s launch in France before Christmas, French weekly magazine Challenges reported.

Orange is the iPhone’s sole distributor in France, but the French mobile telecom operator is objecting to the size of commission payments being demanded by Apple, said to be more than one-third of each subscription fee, the magazine reported.

Insert joke about mixing apples and oranges…

During orientation week, a 3L advised us on “the two most important things in law school.” The first was to buy one of those laptop bags on wheels, so that you could more easily carry around your books, and the other was to always have a ruler in the bag, for helping you with highlighting or underlining on your commute.

I wrote it off as BS. After all, I’m in pretty good shape, modulo a couple of discs in my back. Law books are heavy but not that heavy. As for the ruler, obviously that was for people without a steady hand.

Five weeks later…I wake up this morning with my back as stiff as a board. My shoulder-strapped laptop case has been packed full since my first class: laptop, power cord, Ethernet, pens, pencils, paper, highlighters, headphones, spare glasses, snacks, umbrella, and yes, not one but usually two huge books. The prime culprit is the 1300 page Torts casebook, but the others are not much better. Not only is my back sore where my bad discs are, it’s sore in other places, as are my neck, shoulders and arms.

As for the inside of these books, you’ll find pages where yellow, green and blue are splashed in seemingly random patterns are I attempted highlighting on a train going 70 MPH around turns and over crossings.

So, he was right. This weekend I’m getting the laptop case on wheels and the ruler.

My commute has gotten interesting. Last week it was a 30 mile drive each way to and from the office. This week it’s a bit of a mess.

Commuting from the suburbs into Chicago means you you either have to drive or take the Metra trains. If you take the Metra trains, you have to get to the train station. Those of us not living within walking distance of one might be able to take the Pace bus. I say “might” because if you don’t live near a Pace route, you’re SOL.

So you can drive to the station, right? Wrong. Parking is notorious in most of the Western suburban stations. There is a six to nine year wait for permanent parking passes. This leaves two types of daily parking options. There are the spots that become available at 6:00 am and are taken by 6:01 am. Or, you can wait for the spots that become available at 9:00 am but force you to take the train that doesn’t get downtown until 10:45.

My classes end at 7:25 pm twice a week and at 8:25 pm twice a week. This means that I have to catch the 7:40 and 8:40 trains, respectively, which means that I get to my home station 8:40 and 9:40. The last Pace bus runs at 8:40. I’m not sure what I’m going to do on those two days a week that I don’t get home until 9:40. I have the equally unpleasant and expensive options of taking a cab home or driving to Chicago and parking there. The third possibility is to use the 9am parking on these days and hope that getting to the office at 10:45 isn’t a showstopper. After all, I can get a lot done on that long train ride, at least in theory.

Or, someone can get smart and build a parking garage by the train station.

The economics in play are revealing. Permanent parking passes cost about $240 per year. Daily parking passes cost about twice as much annually. Taking the bus costs a little more than that. So the option that is most environmentally conscious and produces the least traffic costs the most. In the mean time there is a nine year wait for cheap parking. The city should raise the price of parking and lower the price of the bus to reduce the waiting list while using the additional funding to provide more frequent bus schedules.

Or to build a parking garage.

Most people’s first reaction would be that the programing is difficult because of limited memory and CPU resources. While its true that mobile phones typically have far less RAM and horsepower than, say, PCs, they still have quite a bit and their capabilities are growing every year. It is not uncommon for a device to have several megabytes of memory, and high end devices will have on the order of a gigabyte. Programming in low-memory devices is not that hard, but given the dominance of the PC world, most people graduating from CS or EE programs in the last ten years probably haven’t done much of it. You may have to pay a premium to hire experienced mobile developers.

The bigger issues are platform specific. Focusing on the most obvious example, every manufacturer of J2ME devices has multiple families of the platform, each with different levels of API support, and potentially different input modes, screen sizes, and screen resolutions. Some versions of the platforms will have bugs. You end up having to write device-specific code and build scripts. Along the way you’ll spend time discovering the quirks of each model.

Cross-platform issues are also a problem. Want to launch an application with Verizon Wireless? It has to be BREW. Want it on Sprint as well? It has to be J2ME. These two languages are different and you’ll be able to reuse very little code. Want it on high end Nokia phones as well? J2ME might work, but Symbian will work better. Symbian and BREW are both based on C++ but are different languages with their own APIs and unique challenges.

Then comes getting an operator to launch your application. For anything but something like a simple game, the operator might want to test and certify it on each device. This takes time and money, even if your code works properly on the first try. Then, for most platforms, you’ll need to have your application certified by a testing house, such as NSTL, before the operator puts it on their deck for download. Each pass through NSTL for each device can cost hundreds of dollars or more. If you are developing a branded application, such as a Yahoo instant messaging or email client, you’ll have to get it through their certification process as well. Again, more time and money.

Testing on real handsets becomes expensive as well. You can use an emulator, but emulators don’t emulate all phones properly, nor do they emulate some of the strangest quirks in each device. Buying phones and service plans can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Unlike a server based application or most PC client applications, once you have a mobile application out there and a bug is discovered, you have to go through the whole set of certification processes again. It may be a more cursory certification if the bug fix is relatively minor, but you still have to do it.

Another issue. Unless your application is integrated with the client firmware, it may not be able to run automatically upon launch. For communication applications, this is virtually a show stopper. Given the ridiculous menu navigation that most phone manufacturers have inflicted upon us, you’ll have to have a very compelling application if you expect users to click over to your application every time they boot the phone.

How to avoid all of this? Don’t develop a mobile application if you don’t absolutely have to. I’ve been saying the same thing for years about PC client applications. If you can make it web based, you get the “client” out there virtually for free and can focus on the much simpler task of writing a server-based application. WAP browsers are still pretty primitive but they are getting better each year. You’ll find making your site WAP-friendly much easier that developing a mobile client.

If you have to develop a mobile application, make sure it is a simple one. Otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself in porting hell.

This isn’t to say that it cannot be done. Some companies have made a successful business out of mobile application development as well as associated hosted services. My point is that it is just plain hard, especially given that to many peoples’ eyes, it looks deceptively easy.

No, this is not about economics.

On, my last trip flying out of Beijing, I’m going through security at Beijing International. If you’re traveling to the US, you first have to go through one of the four special “US security” scanners, so that you can be checked for the various US-specific threats, such as small amounts of liquid. Then, since you’re allowed to co-mingle with other travelers after being checked, you get checked for liquids again at the gate. They’ll take your drinks, even empty water bottles.

As my bag is being searched at the gate, the security guard finds my 2.7 ounce deodorant stick. He holds it up, tells me it’s a liquid, and is about to confiscate it, when I point out to him that he’s made a mistake and that it is not in fact a liquid. He says, “No it IS a liquid.” I then take the stick from his hand and point to the lettering which reads “Solid Antiperspirant” in several places. He looks at it again, then looks at me and says, “Sorry sir, this is a liquid and I have to take it.”

I quickly weighed the value of a deodorant stick versus the potential of having to spend time in a Chinese jail for arguing with airport security. Decision made, I smile and tell him he can have it. He smiles back and instructs me to close up my suitcase and proceed onto the plane.

He didn’t bother taking my shaving cream, toothpaste, or mouthwash, which were arguably more liquidy than a SOLID deodorant. Perhaps the deodorant gray-market is on the rise in the streets of Beijing.

Just about everyone who knows me has shown some degree of surprise over my decision to go to law school. It’s only fair to set the story straight here.

On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make sense…I’m walking away from a reasonably solid career. Why make the jump to a totally different field now?

I’ve been involved in patent prosecution for about 10 years. The internal logical of patent law, and many other areas of law, is similar to that of software: Boolean algebra, conditional expressions, rules and exceptions, and so on. The gap between software to intellectual property is not the Grand Canyon; it’s more like a crack in the sidewalk.

The patent business is a pretty good one to be in right now and, barring some radical change of the law by Congress, will likely remain so for quite a while. There’s the RIM / NTP battle and the Alcatel / Microsoft battle, just to name two. Both of these actions required huge amounts of work from lawyers. I’m pretty sure I won’t be bored.

For me, this career change will allow me to stretch my wings in a new direction, while being able to do other things I enjoy: doing research, making formal oral and written arguments, and working closely with small teams.

However the law appeals to me for other reasons. For the last 18 months I’ve been taking care of an elderly parent. I also have a child with severe food allergies. Both have been life changing experiences and the law has a lot to say about these situations. The rights of the elderly and the rights of people with invisible disabilities are protected, but the law is dynamic and unsettled in these areas. With the aging of the population as well as the unfortunate increase in congenital food allergies, this aspect of family law will be a growth area as time goes on. I don’t expect to practice law in this area, at least not any time soon, but I do plan to learn about it and watch it carefully.

The timing issue made this situation tricky. If you go to law school, you have to start in September. If you miss September this year, you have to wait until September next year. I’m not getting any younger. If I wait another year or two, they might turn into five or ten years. At that point I’ll be less motivated to go back to school and do something new, and the potential career benefit will decrease, as I’ll be that much closer to retirement.

So, the time is right. I’m motivated. And I’ve never cared much for being conventional.

My understanding and use of briefing keeps changing.

There are two main purposes that I’m finding for briefing. One is that briefing a case helps you remember it. Reading a case once or twice might not drive it home. Writing about it and pulling out the facts and subtleties forces you to think through it. Your understanding of the case will grow after you brief it and might even be different versus your understanding of the case after just reading it.

The second is that it serves as a good crib sheet for when you’re called on in class. I seem to have a lot less anxiety about this than most, but when I am called on, I’d prefer to have the case well-organized in front of me rather than having to flip pages trying to find the holding or some obscure but critical piece of reasoning.

Briefs are also supposed to be useful when studying for finals, but obviously I haven’t gotten there yet.

Having said all of that, I’ve stopped briefing for one class. The prof assigns a large number of cases but rarely discusses any at more than a surface level. For his class, I’m using the book-briefing technique, which is to write the brief into the text book. I use different color highlighters to distinguish facts, issue, rule, etc., and write other notes as needed directly on the pages. This should save a great deal of time.

For the other class, the prof goes deep on each case. I’ll continue briefing in that class and will be doing so more carefully.

Too many people look at micromanaging as a binary thing, most falling on the side of “zero” or “bad”. The stereotypical example of a micromanager is a control freak who can’t let anyone on his or her staff exhibit any freewill whatsoever.

But that’s just silly. I’m going to try to convince you that micromanagement has a place and is just another tool in the box.

Consider two employees, Alice and Bob. Both are talented, but Alice is a motivated self-starter who figures things out for herself and generally does wonderful work with little guidance. Bob can get things done but has peaks and valleys of productivity. At peak, his productivity might be greater than Alice’s, but he is also easily distracted and loses track of priorities.

As their manager, you obviously want to manage them differently. Check in once or twice a week with Alice to stay on top of her progress and to give her a forum to raise issues. Otherwise, stay out of her way. If she needs resources, you will probably approve her request with little questioning. Same if she wants to change how she’s solving problems in her current assignment.

With Bob, you might want to sit down with him, at least briefly, once a day. Keep a detailed workplan of his tasks with priorities assigned to each. Check his progress against each. From time to time take the temperature others in the organization, including his reports and laterals, on how Bob is progressing. Be ready to step in and redirect him as necessary. The point is to keep him focused on the task at hand. A long-term goal with Bob is to train him how to manage himself better. As he learns to do this, you’ll have to micromanage him less.

Alice and Bob might be individual contributors straight out of school or seasoned executives. I’ve seen the same sort of behavior up and down organizations with all different levels of experience.

Micromanaging is also a good way of ramping up new hires. Sit down with them once a day for their first two weeks on board. This gives you the opportunity to answer their questions (a lot of questions is usually a good sign in this scenario), keep them on track, and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses and needs.

Managing is about getting the best out of your staff. If you micromanage everyone you’re in trouble. You either need a new staff or to take a step back and look closely at your own behavior. If you micromanage no one, you’ve either got a great staff or you’re not engaged with them.

Micromanaging is not binary. It’s a continuum and each individual or group you work with should have a setting somewhere between zero and one.

March 2003.

“Outbreak of a severe and mysterious respiratory epidemic. Highly contagious with several people dead already. The main area of impact is Hong Kong and Guangdong Province.”

This is not, I repeat, NOT good news to hear as your plane is speeding down a runway at 100 miles per hour, getting ready to take off for Hong Kong where you would head off to Guangdong Province for a three-day visit.

Let’s back up a bit. I was working for this company. Over the last two years, the high-tech bubble had burst taking down not just the dot-coms, but other more established businesses as well. It was getting harder each quarter to make money. We sold equipment to telecom service providers, in particular, those guys that make your cell phone work. So we get sold to another company that has a large facility in Shezhen.

So here I am, taking off for a 16-hour flight to Hong Kong, as a mystery flu-like disease is breaking out in said city. Sitting next to me is a Chinese co-worker who was reading the Chinese-language newspaper article to me. We looked at each other and shrugged. You have to choose not to worry about things you can’t avoid.

I’d never been to Hong Kong before, but it and Shanghai have the reputation of being the cities in China that are the best to visit, if you’re a westerner. We were not going to spend much time in Hong Kong, however. We would land at the airport, then take a bus across the border to the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen. Even though Hong Kong was no longer a British protectorate, it is treated as a “country within a country” by China, with its own currency, economy and immigration and customs laws. Shenzhen is a relatively new city developed as part of a “Special Economic Zone” in the Guangdong province.

Did I mention that it’s a 16-hour flight? I’m pretty good at keeping myself occupied and generally sane on long flights, but this was my longest yet and by the end my muscles ached non-stop from all of the inaction. I really wanted to jog up and down the aisles, but I suppose that would be against some law.

So we land in Hong Kong, pass customs, and I can’t help but notice the people walking around in masks. Not for the last time I would think about how much I really don’t want to get sick with whatever is going around. We hop on a bus that takes us to the border with mainland China. Two interesting things happen. First, we have to go through customs twice more - once to leave Hong Kong and again to enter mainland China. The other thing is that we have to switch sides of the road as we enter China. In Hong Kong you drive British style, on the left, whereas in China it’s on the right.

As an aside, ever notice that island nations tend to drive on the left? Is this a British Empire thing? England, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Bermuda… I’m sure there are more examples.

After about three hours of journeying we finally arrive at a Holiday Inn somewhere in the middle of Shenzhen. I get to my room and have problems sleeping not just due to jetlag but also because of the virus that seems to be breaking out in this part of the world. I hop on the Internet and find that it’s called SARS and not only is it mysterious but its also fatal to most people who catch it. Well, that’s going to help me catch some Z’s.

Three days of business goes by. My co-workers are increasingly paranoid about SARS. One of the people we’re meeting with has a bad cough. Of course he insists on accompanying us everywhere, even to dinner. In China, food is usually shared, so the same chopsticks that go into someone’s mouth goes back into the shared food and…you get the picture.

One night we were taken out to an “American” restaurant in Shenzhen. About the only thing American was that we didn’t share food. Quite literally, they screwed up everyone’s orders. Their specialty was steak, which I ordered and promptly dubbed “misteak” as it looked more like ham and tasted like old sawdust.

We made our way back to the Hong Kong airport. No one was sick, though I’d been double-dosing my vitamins, as if that would help. Wandering around amongst the masked travelers, waiting for the plan to board, I come across a TV showing CNN.

President Bush was speaking, but since I had nothing better to do, I listened in. He explained how the US had feet on the ground in Iraq and the bombing had begun in earnest.

Great. Here I am, 8000 miles from home with a mystery epidemic breaking out all around me, and now we’re at war. I had visions of planes being grounded again like after 9/11. I had visions of my flight being delayed hours if not days. My wife was six months pregnant and I could only imagine how much fun it would be explaining any of the above scenarios to her.

As luck would have it, my plane took off on time and the war had little impact on my ability to get home that day. For once, I actually looked forward to 16 hours in coach.

There are some good ideas in the Draft Airline Passenger Bill of Rights that is being proposed as law. I doubt that all of the provisions will make it. In particular, the compensation formulas for when an airline screws up (is late, loses your bags, etc.) can probably be scaled back to something relatively simple that still works. I’m not sure how they will account for bad weather or “acts of god” that are not the airline’s fault. The actual bill as of six months ago is here.

I’ve got a handful of airline stories that I’ll be sharing soon.