We’re considering three new book-related initiatives through FED. The first one is a paperback version of The SAIC Solution. We will be talking with the publisher about that soon. The time scale on this is probably about a year, after we have sold the remaining stock of hardcover books. The second book is the story of Network Solutions — from the early days of the ARPANET, through to today. This book interests me greatly, although I fear that it will not be easy to write since there will be so many political constituencies which must be treated with an even hand to avoid hurt feelings. We will try to involve Emmitt McHenry, who started Network Solutions; myself; Mike Daniels, who discovered Network Solutions and did most of the negotiations on the acquisition. We will talk with Bill Roper, who now runs VeriSign, which acquired Network Solutions and now runs the registry. It’s one of the registrars, but not the only one. We have begun to set up a framework within which we can operate and with any luck the book will be done in about a year. The third book is Employee Owners Speak Out, which will initially be based on a series of articles submitted by former and current SAIC employees such as Bill Scott, Carl Albero, Jim Russell, Matt Tobriner, and any others who might like to contribute. This book will be dedicated to establishing convincingly the power of employee ownership from the employees’ perspective, which is unique. We will be providing additional details about this third book — and invite your participation — in a future blog posting.
I had an interesting long Memorial Day weekend. I spent some time with John Ellis and Bob Freedman discussing the new sailing adventure Craig Venter plans for later this year. We have given them some money to help plan the adventure, and the question now is if we want to participate more in future activities. As you know, I have taken an interest in genome research. If I could go with them part way on the trip, I might be able to have some fun while learning how to prepare samples along the way, which is suddenly interesting me. It’s not that I am no longer interested in the other topics I have studied all my life, it’s just that this new area of knowledge presents me with a new challenge and is an area where I would like to make a contribution.
This past week has been busy. I’ve spent my time doing some tasks that were very interesting, and some tasks that were kind of mundane. As for the interesting tasks, I spent Monday morning working with my daughter on the DARPA SBIR program, helping her examine — with the aid of some technology consultants — companies for development and transition funding by the government. We reviewed about 15 companies. There were companies that specialized in new power sources, ones that had new software algorithms, and others that offered new computer network security and intrusion detection technologies.
On the more personal side, I have been practicing for my driving test, which they don’t make easy for an 83 year old. Saturday night we attended a large event at the beach home of Saleh Hassanein and Zandra Rhodes. Saleh was celebrating his 87th birthday and he was alive and well with lots of enthusiasm. He spends a great deal of his time working with a wide variety of charities in San Diego and I know him through the Cardiovascular Center at UCSD, which has been very helpful to me.
Last Thursday Ron Arnold, Bill Proffer, and I took the boat to the Coronado Yacht Club and rented a cab which took us to the Brigantine Restaurant. Coronado is a tremendously beautiful place and I always like going there. It was a good adventure and very stimulating.
As for the mundane tasks, as I write this, I’m not sure how I’m going to get home today. Ralph’s car is broken and I didn’t drive mine because of a doctor appointment in the morning. I’ve learned, however, that things have a way of working themselves out. I have physical therapy this afternoon which I look forward to since it has such a profound effect on my physical well-being.
Now you know absolutely everything that’s happened with me in the last couple of weeks. We had more than 400 visits to this blog last week, but only one message. Why don’t you tell us what you are doing? It’s probably more interesting than what I just told you.
P.S. Since MA and Betty didn’t bring me back a nesting doll from Russia, I have discovered that a selection of nesting dolls is available through Amazon.com in case any of you are interested.