Jim Goings

Spike was recently MIA for about 36 hours.   He went missing for a day once before and just like then, he came home with a little blood on his fur.  We don’t see any wounds, but he is limping like his has a sprained paw.  Crazy cat.  We’ve kept in inside since and he is quite upset at us about it.

He was very dirty so we Rebecca gave him a bath:

Spike Gets a Bath from Jim Goings on Vimeo.

The video was shot with my iPhone under very poor lighting conditions. It’s crappy quality, but ultimately useful in being able to capture a moment instantly.

We took the kids and two of their friends on a bike ride along the Spring Water Corridor.  Lovely.

I was thinking about the future of social software and it’s place in the enterprise this morning.

1. Internal social networks will become the lifeblood of companies.  Connecting thousands of employees and housing a majority of their thoughts, plans, and processes will be paramount to success.  Social software will not be optional to survive in the business world, much like email today.
2. Social software will become just as important and complex as ERP and CRM systems.  We need to learn from these massive software systems… what to do and what to not do.
3. 1. It will need to be stable and capable of scaling to huge sizes
   2. We will need to connect to other systems (ERP, CRM, etc)
   3. Reliability will be critical.   Clustering, backup/restore granularity, etc.  Restoring should not mean “reload the entire database from yesterday” and ideally does not involve making a request to someone in IT.
   4. Security will be paramount.  Encryption of stored data, secure transactions with other systems, regulatory compliance, etc.
4. Social software will shift to include a greater focus on content creation. We already see this trend in full swing with Google Docs, Zoho, Buzzword, and others, but I honestly think that content creation will become closer to Microsoft Office with complex publishing capabilities including databases and cross system data sharing.  Users will look first to create their content with the social system itself.
5. 1. This means that there will be ways to share this information outside of internal networks.  We also need to be able to view and access content created with other systems.
   2. Document creation and management is just the first step.  Data storage and manipulation will also become important.  I already use DabbleDB for storing information (inventory, software licenses, purchase history, etc) and doing this with in house social software seems like and obvious requirement.
6. Profiles will become huge. Personal and work related content will need a closer interaction.  Specifically, we need to hook into things like Twitter, Word Press, Blogger, etc.  When you visit someones profile, you will see their personal blog, work blog, flickr photos, facebook, myspace, linked-in, whatever all in one place.

Clearspace has already become something I cannot live without at work.  Word Press, Flickr, and Twitter are my personal addictions.  Now to just make them talk to each other…

Michael Knight is now a James Bond type character, except he’s like 25 years old (or looks it).  I didn’t buy one minute of his attempts at being suave.

Our first view of KITT is in his “attack mode” configuration.  This means that he has ground effects, spoilers, and some ridiculous looking blowers on the hood.  So much for subtle.

KITT is now a mustang… or a F150 truck, or probably anything Ford makes.  I expect next episode KITT will go into “stealth mode” by turning into a Ford Taurus.

In one scene, the two heroes jump into the bed of KITT truck and it transforms into a car while they are shifted to the front seats somehow.  It looked as ridiculous as it sounds.

KITT is struck by a missle that has some chemically enhanced napalm or something on it that prevents the flames from going out.

Despite the fact that KITT is now going 377 miles per hour in CITY STREETS, the flames continue to heat up the car, threatening the lives of Michael and Sarah.  Oh noes!

What do they do?  TAKE THEIR CLOTHES OFF.  Sarah tells Michael to not get excited and that it’s “just the heat of the moment”.  Ugh.  KITT confirms that taking their clothes off is a good idea. (it’s a bad idea to remove the insulation between your body and the heat)  Fireman don’t go into fires in speedos for a reason.

Meanwhile, back at the Knight Industries command center, there are literally tons of people moving around, pushing carts, sitting at computers, and generally looking very busy and concerned that Michael and Sarah are about to die.  It all looked ridiculous.

When KITT makes it back to the command center (after a ridiculous scene involving oxygen removal to put the flames out), our two heroes are unconscious and need to be revived with special blue glowing gun things.  They awake instantly and are back in action.

We are introduced to two new characters, a tech geek who portrays every geek stereotype and valley girl hottie Smith Cho who speaks 9 languages and enjoys taunting the geek with her body and saying things like “we should make babies” and then laughing at him.  Ugh.

KITT spent too much time analyzing hormone levels and discussing the love relationship between Michael and Sarah (his sidekick apparently).

There were several driving scenes where the green screen was poorly done.  Also, Michael spent a bunch of time driving while looking everywhere else but the road.  I suspose KITT could have been driving, but why were Michael’s hands on the steering wheel then?

The cliche lines were over the top.  Here are a few choice ones:

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way” (villain says to Sarah while threatening her with a syringe of glowing green liquid)

“KITT, we’re bringing you in hot!” (referring to the fact that KITT was on fire at the time)

“Mike, you have to get his thumb back at all costs!” (referring to a severed thumb that contained DNA they needed to unlock an encryption algorithm)

Oh, the good points about the show

Val Kilmer as KITT is pretty sweet actually.  His performance as KITT is panned online by most reviewers, but I actually liked it.

The CGI on the transformations wasn’t as good as the Transformers movie, but darn good for a TV show.

Seriously who uses these things anymore?