Snow Days?

Ugh! I have been accused recently of being obsessed with the weather. To be clear – I am no storm chaser! I do admit to having an interest in all places warm. For those who know me, I love the hot weather and don’t like the cold and despite a commitment to embracing the winter, I still find myself longing for the heat of a sunny southern afternoon.

That the world continues to be mired in odd weather patterns has only peaked my interest. Record snow falls in Britain, record cold in Florida.
If you can believe, we actually woke up one morning last week to the same temperature in Toronto as they had in Atlanta (-8C / 18F) and Monday morning, Toronto was again a brisk -8C while Tampa boasted a sunrise temp of -4C (24F). Now that really is crazy! Being cold here is one thing…being cold in Florida is quite another.

Sadly, I think Florida was having a good tourist season and hope the cold will not impact bookings going forward. I hope that things change quickly for all my Florida friends with no heat or insulation in their homes or work places.

On quite a different note, yesterday was an interesting day. I was interested to read a NY Times article (retweeted to me) dealing with the 10th Anniversary of the AOL/ Time Warner merger and (to a lesser extent) why it did not work. With the growing momentum of all social media be it Twitter or Facebook or Kindle etc., etc., it is always worth remembering the past and considering what constitutes real value. Historically, for all high growth industries, the “mushroom of growth” is followed by a rapid revaluation. Only then do the real value propositions emerge - Google a great example for now….

I was reading recently about Google's "cloud computing" which is supposed to launch in 2010. If this is the next revolution in computing (where complete hard drives are stored remotely), does the idea of having only a hand held device as your only computer then make even more sense? Also, should we be even more concerned about security issues? In the end, it will be interesting to watch Google in the coming years to find out if they are able to maintain their momentum, to continue to advance technology and ultimately to grow.

Enjoy your day,
Cheers,
George