So, right, Ben is in town today. He arrived last night and spent much of his day in the East Bay with the many many folk of a previous (now incredibly profitable) startup he worked with years and years ago. Since he was around for dinner, he asked around to see who was also available. Most everyone was playing ultimate, celebrating birthdays (totally awesome, Happy Birthday, Megan!), or just out on such a short notice for his visit (we found out on Tuesday that he was coming into town, as he was thinking about if he could make it or not).

Heather and Vinny, on the other hand, were available, with two of the three in their household barely over being ill. Which means, yes, that's right, Daphne Time!

After an awesome dinner with Heather and Ben, we all went over to Heather's to see if Daphne was still awake. She was all of 1 minute in bed when we arrived, which really meant she was all smiles and giggles when Heather went in to pick her up. I swear, as much as Heather claims her kid is cranky and cries a lot, I don't believe her any longer: Daphne is the only kid who *hasn't* cried when I picked her up.

Silly girl.

We had fun, mostly chatting about Daphne and conversations from dinner (did you know that California produces 85% of the world's porn? yeah, I didn't know that either before tonight). I hadn't realized that Daphne was a French citizen, but she is, and that's pretty cool. I particularly enjoyed nibbling on tiny French fingers.

This picture notwithstanding, I would like to state that this seven month old child does not have a head bigger than mine.

Really.

After a short while of giggling on my lap, and my taking pictures of her, Daphne had something to say about the whole paparazzi thing. In particular, she said, "Hot dog!"

I backed the olloclip: iPhone 4 quick change camera lens system project on Kickstarter today. It's a lens for an iphone, which is pretty cool, if it works. We'll see.

The olloclip is a quick-connect lens solution for the iPhone 4 that includes a fisheye, wide-angle and macro lenses in one small, convenient package that easily fits in your pocket. Nestled in the palm of your hand, the olloclip connects to the iPhone within 2 seconds so you’ll be sure to capture the image you want…if you don’t see the picture you’re looking for just flip it over to switch the lens.

The fisheye creates about a 180 Degree field-of-view while the wide-angle is around double the normal view and the macro up to 10X. If you’re looking for that special macro shot, just unscrew the top of the wide-angle lens to reveal the macro lens underneath. Sure, there are apps available that will apply a fisheye “look” or vignette to an image, but it’s impossible to increase the field of view of the original image with any app…what you see is what you get, and we’re confident that once you see what a real fisheye lens can do you will be amazed.

Last night, at SuperHappyDevHouse at Hacker Dojo, I received an email through my contact page (hey, you, too, should contact me, send me a note):

Now, I've been backing a number of Kickstarter projects, yes. I have even received a number of emails sent directly to me from Kickstarter projects, asking me to consider their projects. The first time this happened, I thought, wow, that was smart, I'll reward that smart by backing his project. The second time it happened, I realized what was happening and thought, uh oh, crap, this is like the non-profits that spam the crap out of the people who donate to them, begging for more money.

I didn't support the second project which contacted me. I probably won't support any subsequent ones, either, unless I would have normally supported it.

So, last night's message wasn't surprising to me. While Domino is an odd name to be from Sweden, I could believe that. I have backed over 40 projects, so yeah, he knew to check Kickstarter, and had the numbers correct, so there was a person behind the email. There is something odd about people who back multiple projects, and curiosity was getting the better of me about why other people back more than one project (though, really, I'd love to see the distribution of backers to projects and how it changes over time, if you can see that "oooooooo! this is fun!" moment when Kickstarter becomes addictive to some (read: me)), and thought, hey, I could ask Domino as many questions as he asks me, but after his interview.

This could be cool.

Yet, there's always a hesitation, as there will be for anyone who knows just how fragile systems can be. When he asked me to contact him via Skype, alarms started going off in my head.

Why?

From PCMag http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385044,00.asp:

The Skype client for Apple Mac computers has a zero-day vulnerability that allows an attacker to gain remote control of a victim's Mac, according to a security researcher.

Skype was alerted to the vulnerability about a month ago but has yet to issue a fix, Gordon Maddern reported Friday on the Pure Hacking blog.

...

After accidently [sic] discovering the vulnerability in a Skype chat with a colleague, Maddern said he successfully tested the "extremely wormable and dangerous" exploit on more Macs but found that Skype's Windows and Linux clients were not affected.

The security researcher then used penetration testing tools and was able to remotely take over a Mac through the Skype vulnerability, he said.

...

Skype Limited, the developer of the VoIP software, is based in Luxembourg. The company was founded in 2003 and released the first public beta version of Skype that same year. Skype accounted for 13 percent of all international call minutes in 2010, according to TeleGeography Research.

Riiiiiiiight.

And this?

The email address did not match one normally found in Sweden, but, yeah, you know, people move, right?

Yeah.

No.

The odd catch is that the contact form was submitted using an IP address from Sweden. Lends some credibility, though.

Domino, if you really are who you say you are, contact me via Kickstarter or send me a valid email address.

The Skype thing? Not going to happen.

While working in the living room today, Kris had the Kentucky Derby on the television. There was a woman jockey, Rosie, competing this year, so there was a lot of human interest stories around her. At one point, she was interviewed and asked,

"How would it feel to be the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby?"

She answered something like, "It would be great to be the first woman, blah blah blah something about inspiring women blah blah blah..."

Seriously, her answer was bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.

I started ranting about it. Her answer should have been "Winning the Kentucky Derby would be amazing. It's what I've been working towards for years. And what do my boobs have to do with this race? Nothing. It's about the win."

Kris looked and me and said, "Tell that to the other groundbreakers."

I will.

And you know why?

Because that win is for her. That's why she's in this race. She's in that race to win. She's not in the race because she wants to be first woman to win the Kentucky Derby. She's not in the race to inspire little girls to love horses and become race jockeys. She's in that race because she wants to WIN. That win is for her. She may have something to prove, she may succeed (she didn't, but that's a different story), she may indeed inspire other women in the process, but that "first woman" part is for everyone else.

The win is for her.

Her boobs are irrelevant in that part.

I backed Our Longest Drive on Kickstarter today. It's a film about four friends taking a road trip to the Arctic Circle to play a game of golf:

Two friends and I, all recently retired, want to make a documentary about a road trip we're taking this June from Chicago to Inuvik, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Our drive will cover seven US states, two Canadian provinces and two territories - about 5500 miles by RV. At the end of the 16-day journey, we plan to tee up at midnight of the summer solstice on a three-hole course called Road's End that's been cut out of the tundra. The never-ending light in the Arctic is a metaphor for life ever after.

We three buddies will be joined on this journey of self-discovery by another member of our regular Saturday morning foursome - a recently departed man named Mike, who will travel as ashes in an urn. A sufferer of juvenile diabetes, Mike outlived his expectancy by at least 15 years. He lived the last 15 years on the edge. He would have loved a trip like this.

This is an odd backing for me, I don't really like to back films or documentaries, but, well, this one somewhat called to me, with the friends and the road trip and the just doing it. The Canada angle is also appealing. I'm excited about the postcards arriving, too. I'll find out on May 28th if it funds.

Update: Funded!