I learned something interesting the other day. Santa Clara County uses a private-sector model for it's k-12 schools. This increases efficiency and enables a draw of best practices from the private sector to make the most of our tax dollars.

Here's how it works. The Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) provides services to 32 school districts in Santa Clara and San Benito counties. These services include HR, payroll, assessment, IT, etc. As I understand it, the school districts may choose to use these services or not. And the SCCOE is run as a for-profit organization. This drives a management and operational model that strives for efficiency and customer satisfaction.

I find that to be extremely interesting. It's a model employed in only 3 other counties in California. I haven't been able to determine where else in the country the model may be used.

I think that's very forward thinking and an excellent way to leverage the strengths our country's approach to private business brings to most aspects of our life.

I'm having a great time using dokuwiki. The thing about wikis is they make creating content within a site really, really easy. Check out our Komacke music site. Of course this site is based on wiki software.

What makes wiki software so great? Once you have a wiki deployed (which in and of itself is pretty easy), creating content, pages, etc is really easy. Want to make a new page? Type it in. Page doesn't exist? Click the “create page” button.

A shortcoming is that no wikis seem to come standard with a WYSIWYG editor. However, the idea with a wiki is that it isn't really all that flexible in its formatting. Which is the strength of a wiki. So you write up something, you use the handful of wiki syntax rules, and you've got a new entry that fits the format of all your other entries.

To create this blog entry, I go to my blog summary page, I type in the topic title, and I write up my entry. A summary is automatically made. It's automatically added to the monthly archive. And I've got a specific page for reading and that has a discussion function built in.

That's it. Want to know more? Ask me.

It's an interesting situation. We are working hard on Tribal Shout, getting funding and such. Usage is the key word on funding so we are pursing all the angles we know to increase registered users and usage.

Until then, I need an income. The consulting game has been fun. Recently I did an evaluation for an investor of one of his portfolio companies that spent all their money. The question was whether or not good money would go after good or bad money.

My partner in Tribal Shout brought me in along with another friend. I was responsible for evaluating product, technology and technical team. They were doing some great open source work and had a solid product and a strong, efficient team.

I think we did a great job of analyzing the current situation. It appeared the investor was going to move forward but in the end the investor and the founder didn't see eye to eye.

There's a lesson here. Money isn't easy to come by. When you've got someone willing to fund you, treat them like gold.

Gin is clear. That might lead you to believe that all gins taste the same. Not so! Gin is flavored with essences that dramatically affect the taste. Don't believe me? Order a gin&tonic and a Tanquery&tonic. Just smell the glass.

Tanquery makes a nasty martini. Bombay sapphire makes a good standard martini and it has the advantage of being available everywhere (at least in the US). Just order a sapphire martini.

If you can find a high-end liquor store or grocery store, you'll probably find more than 3 choices of gin. I find frequently that high-end wine stores carry liquor, and therefore a pleasing array of gins. It can take a while to experiment - you won't exactly finish off that bottle in a weekend. But give it a try.

I've landed on Junipero - a gin distilled by Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. Am I partial since it's a rare local gin? Maybe. Try it out and let me know what you think. Anchor's Junipero web site

Learn more about the martini.

Many people enjoy a beverage. Some enjoy libations. Personally, I prefer wine, beer and gin. When it comes to gin, I think it's best served as a martini.

I imagine if you've ever reviewed a martini menu at an upscale bar or restaurant, you've seen all sorts of scary variations on the martini. The davek might be considered a bastardization by some, but I urge you to read on.

I like salty flavors. The caper is a misunderstood pickled garnish, perhaps sister to the unstuffed pickled olive. One day, being out of olives, I considered these two facts. I added 3 capers, along with the 1/2 teaspoon of juice that comes with them upon extraction from the jar, to my nearly completed martini. The result was my new fave.

Let's step back a second. First, one has to appreciate the martini as a seasonal drink. If you want gin between Memorial Day and Labor Day, make a G&T. So let's say it's past Labor Day, and you're in the mood for gin. Time to experiment with the davek.

In another writing, I'll discuss gin. For now, take a bottle of your favorite martini gin. Chill according to your favorite method. Make the martini very dry through one of the following methods. Either rinse a clean martini glass with dry vermouth or, after pouring the gin, use a mister to add an essence of dry vermouth.

Add a couple of drops of Angostura aromatic bitters. Finally, use a teaspoon to liberate 3 nonpareil capers (not caper berries) from a jar and accidently end up with about 1/2 teaspoon of the juice. Add to your marini and voila, you have a davek. Sip and enjoy. And make sure you call it a davek (pronounced da-vek - da like dapper and vek like trek).