Media update
I have a New Years Resolution to read more books--at least one per month.  I'm currently one month behind.

Pure Drivel by Steve Martin:  a collection of New Yorker essays that pretty much are all about the non-sequitur.  Probably 75% of of them were laugh-out-loud funny and the other 25% were over my head.  Steve Martin is way smarter than me.

Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan: anyone planning to start their own business should read this book.  The company in question failed miserably at the "get big fast" strategy of most startups who are trying to grab market share before larger competitors (AKA Microsoft) can sneak in.  Some Amazon reviewers complain that Kaplan babbles a bit at times but I don't think that detracts from the story.  Also fun was the fact that the book examined a bygone era now replaced with Web 2.0 and the similarities between the valley in the early '90's and now are striking.  Do they never learn?

Rules For Renegades by Christine Comaford-Lynch: mostly mindless drivel.  Books like this remind me that with the right agent and editor, anyone (myself included--sigh) could write a book.  I'm going to guess that most of the people who buy this book are interested more in the author's descriptions of her liaisons with Bill Gates and Larry Ellison than any self-help or management advice.  Sex sells.  But mostly, the author comes off as someone who read "The Secret" and believes she can get herself anything she wants through sheer force of will.  Those types of people exist, I'm sure, but I think they are born, not trained.