"...They'll just watch us glow..." -Kelis.

Today marked the end of one of the most interesting and productive weeks for me in a long time. I'm still in the business of reading extensively, and now I've really taken to reading the Wall Street Journal everyday. Today's issue wasn't as particularly interesting as yesterday's, with Carly Fiorina's image plastered on fewer pages today. Her firing to me is not surprising, looking at more details about it. Peter Drucker brought up some valid points that relate directly to something I said yesterday about why she was removed.

As the chief executive, ultimately, through the leadership structure she had set up, all decisions had to pass through her. With this set of circumstances, she didn't have much focus on anything in the company because her hands were in all of HP's various pots. Drucker talked about the idea that a CEO should find two things to focus on and then adhere fervently to focusing on them. When those objectives are done, does one move on to a third objective? No. One makes a new list of two foci and keeps focus on them. Fiorina reportedly worked 100-hour work weeks and handled so very much. Arguably, there couldn't have been much focus there.

I'm no business analyst, but HP seemed like an awkward company with her at the helm. I think the whole Compaq merger arrangement is what made HP seem kind of strange to me. I read a book in my junior or senior year of high school about what HP used to be like, and I finished this book a small period of time before the merger and I was pretty certain that it was going to be turn out to be awkward. And I thought this, not because HP was crappy, but that it would be so because Compaq was crappy. Compaq isn't particularly known for quality, performing computers. In recent times, they've really taken a serious backseat to companies such as Dell that offer better computers through better performance and quality and better technical support. I never had any problems with Compaq technical support, but I found that Compaq computers are typically made of less than quality components...or at least I say that about the Compaq I had.

CLDC Redux.

So, I went to the CLDC volunteer's meeting today and it was...lame, so to speak. I'm pretty sure I will spend more time developing on my new notebook around mid-March when it comes in versus writing anything for them. I really didn't like the emphasis on treating you like an absolute beginner just because your favorite language is Java. I'm not too interested in showing up for a class on how to build computers either. That's something I did when I was 12. I don't need a refresher eight years later.

You know, Edwin calls this cockiness. I'm pretty sure that's not the case. I just like to engage in what I call redundant learning. If I already have knowledge in something, why should I be interested in going back to learn it from the start allover again? I don't know if they're requiring us to go through this little course on how to build a computer, but I'm not interested.

I already said I was going to spend spring break writing a business plan and working on some applications for web services. I didn't talk much about my ideas with the folks in CLDC. I told Claude about my interest in starting a company after I graduate and he gave me some information that I didn't necessarily agree with, but considered for what it was worth. He mentioned that if you work in industry for little, you come out with a sense of perspective that you really don't get as a student. He meant that you start seeing things that companies that you work for don't do that you could pick up on, or things that could be done better. More or less, right now, I'm looking for somebody who would partner up with me. I'm really frustrated with the fact that here, and I may have said this once before, the emphasis is really more on building a career working for someone else. That's all well and good for some people, but I'm barely interested in that. I'd much rather build my own enterprise and work at it and know that that's something I built. It's really not even an ego trip sort of thing. Claude mentioned the amoutn of work it would take; I'd be up for it because I know it'd be something I was building.

J2EE.

Right now, I'm reading the J2EE tutorial. I'll get back later.