Hunter disapproves of my latest “earworm”

August 12, 2011 1 Comment

You know about earworms .. that bit of song that gets stuck in your head. Legend has it: the only way to rid yourself of one is to give it to someone else.

I’ve been humming “The Golden Age” by the Asteroids Galaxy Tour lately .. this is the kitschy ditty featured in the Heineken “Entrance” commercial .. the one with the “second most interesting man in the world” (my riff on the Dos Equis commercial series).

Anyhow, Hunter disapproves. His email to me from late last night:

From: hunter@opsan.com
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:31 PM
To: Michael Coates (opsan@opsan.com)
Subject: READY! TO PREVENT DAD FROM HUMMING THAT ANNOYING TUNE (SORT OF)

No offense, but dad, I’m getting really sick of you humming that song. I’d love to provide whatever lies in here (look in any of the sections if you have to) or maybe this article.

I’ve found examples of okay Ear Worms that I apparently manage to enjoy:

Sing A Well from the Guitar Freaks and Drummania series
Boom Boom Dollar from DDR 2nd Mix (ATTACHMENT: REMIX)
Let the beat hit em! (CLASSIC R&B STYLE) from DDRMAX (this one’s the full version, thus making it APPARENTLY from DDR 4th Mix (for the PS1 in Japan, obviously))
Team Fortress 2’s main theme
If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler On The Roof
‘Flash‘ by Queen
almost anything in Grease
not too many songs in Rent (I’m gonna stick with Seasons Of Love and La Vie Boheme)

…I’m pretty sure that’s everything.

In a word: hysterical.

Filed under Fun and Games

Customer Perceptions: FAs and Airline Passengers

August 10, 2011 Leave a comment

This, from an interesting read in the Orlando Sentinel: “Do flight attendants really hate their passengers?” .. it’s interesting to note that five of the top ten worst-rated companies for customer satisfaction are airlines.

Granted, ‘hate’ is probably too strong a word. I’m not even sure ‘dislike’ applies. People who work in industries that accommodate other people are bound to hit some interpersonal snags, or have some moments they’d like not to repeat.

You can read the original June 2011 report on the American Customer Satisfaction Index site.

Filed under Fun and Games

My Getaway Car is .. a Bus?

August 2, 2011 Leave a comment

A Tacoma man entered a bank with a handgun, robbing two tellers before fleeing.

Deputy Sheriffs followed a tracking signal attached to the loot to a bus stop. A bus pulled up, picked up passengers and pulled away. Noting the tracking signal getting weaker, the deputies stopped the bus and made the arrest. A short foot chase and they took the man into custody.

The Tacoma News Tribune blog headline reads: “Tacoma man charged with robbing two banks”.

Two banks?!?

Seems the defendant is charged with another robbery, just a few days ago. As he escaped the first time, I’m guessing he took a cab.

Filed under Fun and Games

Newsweek is on Fire!

July 26, 2011 Leave a comment

I am going to keep this issue forever! dsk-maid-nafissatou-diallo-FE01-wide

It has everything:

  • The debt looms
  • Both parties flop
  • Dogma wreaks havoc
  • The Maid speaks
  • Anne Sinclair repairs
  • Oslo rebuilds
  • Juan Williams Muzzles
  • The US melts
  • The UK boils over
  • Arab Spring sears
  • Rebekah resigns
  • Mr. Murdoch melts down
  • Mrs. Murdoch strikes
  • Obama turns 50
  • Mr Cameron turns dazzler

What a week!

This issue is so hot, I’ll be lighting my barbeque with it for the next ten years.

Filed under Fun and Games, Leap Frogs

Why is it ‘share’ rather than ‘post’?

July 11, 2011 Leave a comment

Well .. we’re more inclined to share with our selected audience than post to the world at large.

IF .. we control our selected audiences, that is. Right, wrong or gray .. let’s look at a proto-social map:

  • I have close friends and family
  • I have friends with whom I have personally interacted on projects, or through connections
  • I have people I ‘know’, due to a mutual introduction or reference
  • I have people of whom I am aware, because of a mutual interest.

These audiences have different attributes. While some overlap, there are items I’d share (or avoid sharing) because of mutual .. or lack of interest.

Is this a privacy issue, or something else? Quick tangent: ‘Social Networking: The “Third Wave” Explained’ tells an interesting (and relevant) tale.

Back to topic .. it’s both .. and more:

  • Privacy dictates content (location and status .. what and how I might word something to a particular audience).
  • Context dictates a “who cares” attribute. My non-game playing friends aren’t too keen on my Mafia Wars posts, so I send these updates to a special list of MW players.
  • Timing dictates when I’ll share a particular item .. I might hold a business blog post for the wee hours to ensure it’s above the fold when the business audience logs on.
    Whoops .. did I just introduce a temporal aspect?

Why yes, yes, I did. A significant component of ‘Information Snacking’ is when you are where and what you seek to do:

  • During the day, I’m in work mode .. I don’t want to be disturbed with notifications from the Gap that my jeans are on sale.
  • From Friday at 6pm to Midnight and Saturday from 6pm to Midnight, I’m in ‘party’ (such as it is) mode .. where I want to hear about special deals in my vicinity.
  • I’m in church (or should be) from 6am to Noon on Sunday, so don’t bug me.

Yah; there’s not much granularity for the general public here .. deal with it. I’m trying to prove a point. The ‘ideal’ system is expected to provide you with a level of control over what you will share; on what you will be alerted as you go about your day .. regardless of the daypart in which you find yourself.

The ‘ideal’ system will also apply the context of your location and your ‘mode’ (as defined above):

  • where you are dictates what you want to see / do
  • when you are dictates in what you might take an interest
  • what you seek (selecting ‘mode’ carefully) helps a system tailor results to your current (temporal and location-based) interests.

Food for thought. Let’s discuss.

Filed under Leap Frogs, Social

Seattle to Portland 2011

July 11, 2011 2 Comments

ThePatchSTP2011I’m never taking this patch off ..

.. I will wear it until it wears out.

I’m a one-day rider of the 2011 Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. Granted, it took me nearly the whole day (17.5 hours) to complete, but I finished. All 206.44 miles of it (should have been 202, but ..

.. I got lost trying to find the finish line in Portland).

I should have paid better attention to the STP 2011 Route Map (it was quite dark by then).

imageEndomondo captured my STP 2011 Ride on my Android device.

I was using low-power mode to ensure the battery would make the trip. As a result, some of the GPS is a bit choppy.

The weather was perfect; deliciously cool in the morning and 72 degrees all afternoon. Cascade Bicycle Club support .. thanks to the many volunteers was astounding. The riders were amazing; everyone played nice, collaborating and teaming to make the ride a joy for all.

Special thanks to my 24 Hour Fitness trainer, Dana for the stretching advice and new (and painful) core workout. I am sure it contributed to my endurance and stamina.

I rode The Beast .. a 2008 Schwinn Midtown ..

TheBeastSTP2011

.. for which I received a number of compliments:

  • “Dude .. you rock, pushing that Big Iron”
  • “You are so strong on that bike”
  • “Whoa. Hey look! It’s a guy doing the STP on a mountain bike!”
  • “Not many can say they did STP in one day on a mountain bike!” Note: I cannot say this either; The Beast is a hybrid. It has large, but non-knobby wheels and a significantly lighter (and flimsier) frame than a mountain bike.

Thanks to all for their compliments .. which they gave right before they passed me. I kept up well enough though, averaging 11.8 miles per hour for the duration (including stops). An amazing experience, overall.

I sent Tweets in real time of my progress, with GPS and a few photos:

TheFinishSTP2011It was a very good (and long) day. Considering I am such a fair-weather biker .. and as this year has been the wettest on record, I did very little training.

Endomondo tells part of the tale .. Google Maps tells the rest.

Will I do it in one day again?

While on the ride, I was pretty convinced that I would not. After all, I had proven it to myself.

Next year, I think I’ll do it in two days, seeking shelter in Chehalis on Saturday night .. enjoying a beer, some barbeque and a hot tub.

Of course, something might change .. I might replace The Beast with a more STP-worthy ride .. and then I’ll need to prove it to myself again.

Where do I sign up?

Filed under Fun and Games, Weights and Measures

WordPress Android Blog Client

July 6, 2011 Leave a comment

Pretty spiffy, actually; taking it for a test drive tonight.

While it supports text formats, like bold, italic and underline, getting to those enhancements is a little kludgy. They work nicely though, even in edit mode. Drafts can be saved locally and uploaded in a review state (online, but not public). Once approved on WordPress, review posts are visible to all.

Categories are supported, as well as text to voice. Media and images, too .. but I don’t see a way to do formatting on the device. Links are also supported as well, requiring a bit of fine fingering.

What about quotes? yes.

Uploading as review to finish online.

As expected, the image just positioned itself .. in this case, the top of the post at the center. I removed it, but I do see the ability to send the post to the blog as a draft that includes an image as a good thing; gives the author the opportunity to capture the image on the device and position it in the post on a PC later on.

Saving as online draft in the WordPress web client (WordPress calls this ‘pending’). Opening in Windows Live Writer to complete.

I was able to open the online draft, but it was slightly tricky: click the ‘Open Recent Post’ button, and when the ‘Open’ dialog appears, click on the blog on which the draft is saved .. this gives you a list of any ‘pending’ posts you’ve saved. Note: when opening a ‘pending’ post, the content comes down to the device in HTML format .. may make positioning images a bit easier (fine fingering challenges apply).

I’ll do another test when I’m off-offline and send up some text-only posts.

All in all, a very nice tool. Available on the Android Market, and the version I am using is free.

Filed under Fun and Games, Mobile

Smart Phones and the Accommodation Industry

June 29, 2011 2 Comments

Most of us (in the 13-55 range) are carrying nifty little digital devices that keep us connected most everywhere we go. Of course exceptions occur: I go off the grid in August to hike in the weeds .. but the rest of the time, my mobile is a life device, keeping me in touch wherever I go.

I was blogging in my favorite sushi bar the other day. I noticed patrons occupying themselves with their toys .. oblivious to a severely impacted level of service during happy hour. Not a complaint, mind you (the kids take very good care of me). However, it raised this thought:

Is the service community (the great folks who handle our food and beverage requests) delighted or disturbed by the preponderance of smart phones .. are they a bane or a blessing? Let’s ponder:

  • Blessing: Customers had something to do whilst waiting for their order to be taken and delivered.
  • Bane: Customers are spending too much time posting to Twitter, Facebook and He-knows-what-else, preventing them from sorting their order..

We are now connected .. anywhere, everywhere, and wherever we may be .. what do you think?

Filed under Fun and Games, Mobile

iPad – iOS + (HTML5 + Safari) x Facebook =

June 23, 2011 Leave a comment

Developer opportunity!

Hmm .. someone should check my Algebra. Moving on.

In light of Android’s sales figures outpacing the iPhone (ZDNet), it’s no surprise that “iPhone Developers start to work on Android” (Mobile Dev Pro Online). Advanced skills may be necessary to put your apps on the map.

It’s not the first time developers have looked at other platforms. In the past few years, they chased iPhone projects to ride the consumer wave. Prior to that, they moved enterprises to the Windows platform (see “How to store and access (a lot) of protected content” for my thoughts). Developers have gone from moving the enterprise market to chasing the consumer .. with that kind of motivation and a decent universe of reasonably-priced devices, an Android option could really move the needle.

Other motivators? Well, Facebook, Planning an iPad App, Looks to Work around Apple. Their 700 million users (aka, consumers) could establish a significant beachhead on the iPad device. Rather than coding in iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system), Facebook is encouraging developers to write HTML5 code that will run in the Safari browser .. a nifty way to get dynamic code onto the device. When you leverage HTML5 and the Facebook platform, you have a ‘runs-on-PC and runs-on-Apple’ code line for the target market.

The target market? In a word: Huge.

Note that the lack of Flash support on earlier iPad devices may have impacted sales .. without Flash, the iPad could not run FarmVille (or my favorite, Mafia Wars). In the news: iTunes now offers a version of FarmVille by Zygna (the release date was June 2011) for the iOS devices. Somebody got wise.

In the realm of “follow the money”, HTML5-plus-Safari may pilfer sales and the margin Apple collects from the AppStore.

In the realm of breaking chokeholds, leveraging the popularity of the device and combining it with the reach of Facebook gives game and application developers a whole new playground in which to play.

Filed under Leap Frogs, Mobile, Social

Facebook of the Future?

June 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Well, not just yet. Extrapolating here. Online PhD has information about advanced programs that could provide you with the info you need to compete in today’s Internet market. People who think they could be person to develop the software or site that would bump Facebook out of its top slot may be interested in increasing their skills.

I just read “Using Facebook: One Teenager’s Story” on ExtremeTech and arrived a few interesting thoughts:

  • The student generation is beyond connected .. they’re embedded.
  • Facebook and the social lives / networks of students are so intertwined, those who choose not to participate “fall off the grid” in social interaction.
  • It’s not just just social: Facebook represents the conduit for a wide variety of student activities .. from Senior Skip Day (I remember mine .. there was beer) to school-sanctioned events, oh, like graduation.
  • As to graduation, some schools are distributing information to their students solely via Facebook.
  • It’s not just school activities: students are learning about current events at a pace and participation level not before seen .. students who cannot vote are getting involved. Remember Rock the Vote? This generation wields boulders.

While some of this may sound frivolous to an adult reader, there are some very interesting use cases and situations to consider .. things that didn’t exist when today’s adults were in their teens:

  • We passed notes, met in the cafeteria and made phone calls from our homes.
  • We heard about things from flyers, bulletins and garish signs in the cafeteria (well, it was the 70s).
  • We avoided the table with campaign signs and student volunteers (well, it was the 70s).

So .. what does Facebook (or, insert social network name here) look like in the future? I’m guessing:

  • Always connected, perhaps with surgically-implanted connectivity chips (okay, I’m kidding). Suffice to say that I don’t think the future will suffer a disconnected (or at least, a de-synchronized) user for long.
  • Always relevant to the user. This plays into my “Information Snacking” paradigm, where tomorrow’s home and personalized pages will truly be their own, containing information that is relevant to the page’s owner.
  • Insanely simplified interactive-ness .. the ability to “poke”, alert and engage with other users as a matter of course.

Functional expectations (read: demands) of the embedded generation will drive application development to include services from a variety of sources. if Facebook provides all the content and functionality to meet these demands, then Facebook wins. If they don’t, someone else will.

Original Post: August 20, 2008

Filed under Leap Frogs, Reference Posts, Social Tagged with

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