I gave a presentation to a small group yesterday. Normally, that wouldn’t be anything to write about, but of the ten people in the audience two were VPs, one was a director, and two more were senior managers. At the onset on the one-hour meeting, the most senior VP in attendance stated, “I only have 45 minutes.” An hour later, he was still present. Hooray for captivating material!

I was going to write about my feelings when I see people play the lottery (-EV, big time), then I thought about discussing the confounding joy expressed by people who think that getting a huge tax refund is a good thing. I’m not going to do either. Instead, I will let my jaw drop in shock at nascent Geni‘s $100 million valuation. Wow. On a similar note, I wonder how Scribd will do?

The only people on the roads were pizza deliverymen and plow drivers.  Even though the clock was barely past 7:00 pm, everybody else was hunkered down at home.  I was out driving to Caribou for a caffeine hit, which made me the exception that proved the rule.

As I drove on the unplowed streets, headlights struggling to pierce the heavy falling snow, I surveyed the parking lots in my community’s commercial hub.  They were virtually empty, and for good reason. Upon closer inspection, almost all of the stores were closed.  It would seem that my company was not alone in its decision to send employees home early.  Everything was eerily quiet.

The Outback’s all-wheel drive handled the snow with aplomb, so I aborted my journey for coffee in favor of a more circuitous route. I guided the Subaru down white lanes and through billowing drifts. The Bimmer loves curves, but snow is the Subaru’s element, and so we bonded — an understanding between man and machine. It was supremely peaceful. I felt like I had the world to myself.

The current forecast through Friday for Minneapolis: 22 inches of new snow. The Twin Cities have spent most of the winter in a snow drought, but the last two weeks of storms have done a lot to right that situation. More than that, this snowfall might set a record for February.

UPDATE:

I was at the office for couple of hours this morning before deciding to spend the rest of the day working from home. Guess what I just received in an email?

Due to the heavy snow predicted for this afternoon and later today, all [company name removed] locations in the Twin Cities will officially close today, Thursday, at 1:00 p.m. This is based on recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Transportation that travel is becoming hazardous as the storm moves into the metro area. Please use caution as you make your way home. Employee safety is our main concern.

Snow day!!!

I enjoy reading the prognostications of outsiders.

In the March 2007 edition of Wired magazine, there is a well-written article by Steven Gulie about deep-brain stimuation for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In it, the author presents a first-hand account of his experience being implanted at Stanford with a neurostimulator. What he fails to mention is the manufacturer of that neurostimulator; it was almost certainly made by my employer.

I was particularly interested in these two paragraphs of the article:

“The system can be fine-tuned after the operation by activating various electrodes, shifting the affected area by a millimeter or two. The doctors can also tweak the frequency and amplitude of the electrical stimulation, modify the pulse width, and make other adjustments to the software through a remote control. Wireless? Software? Now that’s brain surgery 2.0.

I asked Henderson [the physician] about features still on the whiteboard: What will be in rev 2.2 or 2.5? He thinks the next release of the stimulator will sense chaotic activity in the brain and turn itself on only when needed. That’s on a par with current heart pacemakers, which no longer mindlessly zap you with a steady pulse but actually look for a problem to fix. The next-gen device will also probably be transdermally rechargeable, so you won’t need surgery to get new batteries.”

I am proud to say that I drew on that whiteboard and worked on that next rev today. I know exactly what will be in the next stimulator, so I find it very amusing to read his predictions. Will it be rechargeable? Will it incorporate a sensor?

Maybe — I’m not telling.