Einstein was right (again)
December 24, 2005 1 Comment
EurekaAlert posts: “Einstein was right (again): NIST and MIT confirm that E= mc2”.
‘twas the Night Before: The Three Little Words
December 24, 2005 Leave a comment
Way back when, when I was young and slightly more foolish than I am today, the three little words that would strike terror into my (and any bachelor’s) heart were “I Love You”.
As I’ve gotten older, the words changed to “On the Web”, as in a place where I would not want to see pictures of last night’s escapades.
I’m older now, with kids (and grands and greats) of my own. While I’m still frisky enough to be (slightly) concerned about “on the web”, my latest most feared words have changed.
Tonight, they are “Some Assembly Required”
Imagine yourself awakened after the little angels have finally laid their heads to rest, visions of sugarplums, and all that. Now, it’s time to creep out into the living room and raid the closets for treasures you’ve spent the year accumulating. I start a big pot of coffee and hope the electric screwdriver is charged.
About an hour into the four-story Barbie Dream Mansion, you realize it’s not going to fit through the door of the room in which you assembled it. You try to convince yourself that this is okay. After all, your daughter LOVES to play in the kitchen. Muttering, you undo a bit here and there and wrestle it out by the tree.
Thirty more minutes pass and you discover the 3/4” screws are too long for a non-poking-through operation involving an outer surface. Damn them for packing the 1” and 3/4” screws in the same package, and you’re back in disassembly mode again. The coffee pot is half full, but it is looking half-empty. During the reconstruction, the cat decides the little wooden dowels are more fun than terrorizing Sushi and Sashimi (the goldfish) and manages to disappear one beneath the refrigerator. You make a note to get him in his next life.
An hour later, I start to think the little darlings have way too many toys, but I forge on.
The Barbie Whatcamacallit is complete, a terrifying blob of pastel pinks, purples and blues .. listing only slightly to port. Fortunately, they provided a “safety strap”, but I’m not sure if I should attach it to this contraption or to Cassie. Set that aside for the daylight hours. On to the Xbox 360.
In the realm of “I meant to run LAN cable”, I decide that setting up the box in offline mode is adequate. After all, there are a few games to get the oldest started: what more could he want?
In a word: Xbox Live. Two words, actually. I’ll be pulling cable tomorrow. That bottle of Yellowtail Shiraz is starting to look too full.
Well, let’s tackle the computers next. I’d like to install a few of the programs I picked up at the company store before the little delights arise, attention spans almost as long as gnats.
AOE III first, as Hunter is totally keen on this one. Connor is currently engaged in Dungeon Siege (and he’ll be busy with the Xbox 360, I’m sure), so I’ll leave his for tomorrow. Today; I mean later today.
My God, where did all these Half-Life 2 files come from? Don’t answer that: I know it’s the Internet. There’s Garry’s Mod, Ralphie’s Mod, Brainbread, Admin Op and a plethora of others that dare not speak their names. Toolbars? How many toolbars does a seven-year-old need? Umm, I guess the answer to that question is: “four”.
Some scraping, some rebooting, some scanning and we’re ready to go. I’m full of anticipation (and wine), and confident there is a feather pillow in my near future.
Gawd. AOE isn’t too happy with my processor speed and is browbeating me for being a cheapskate. There’s a helpful message box suggesting I call the manufacturer: damn it, I’m the manufacturer of this mutt box. Fueled by wine and the knowledge I’ve installed a large video card and big RAM in this system, I sally forth. If it runs slowly, that’s a good thing: he needs to calm down now and again. Let’s wrap a few presents while we wait for CDs to spin. The little monsters should have some things to unwrap, after all.
The cat enjoys Christmas wrap almost as much as the dowels. I think he’s resenting our moving a shoebox that he decided to call his home for a few weeks and is making this displeasure known. Or, it could be that he’s used to being alone at this hour and wants to make the most of my (obviously) pleasant company. It’s late, and if he’s not careful, he’ll find himself tucked into a Christmas present.
Xbox games are delightfully easy to wrap, and look just like books. I bet the boy opens them last.
:: cackle ::
Wireless Xbox controllers and portable whatsises are NOT easy to wrap. I can make them festive with pretty pink bows and call it done. So much for the surprise of the Xbox (I think he knows he’s getting one anyway .. he reads this blog, and I wrote about it a few months ago).
Where is that bottle of port?
With the software installed, I’m not going to bother to wrap the software boxes. Under the tree with pretty pink bows they go.
Ack. I just found the Barbie Nightmare Mansion Furniture Parental Torture Pack. We can’t very well have a doll estate without furniture, can we? The neighbors would surely talk. Maybe this is a Daddy-Cassie project for later today. I’m sensible, she’ll understand. Did you know they refer to port as “fortified wine”? I think I know why, now. Off to bed.
As if. Ten seconds after settling into bed I figure I should take a stab at a few furniture items. Much to my horror, I discover some of the furniture items require batteries. WHY WOULD DOLL MANSION FURNITURE REQUIRE BATTERIES? I’m not sure if the world will ever know. Snap some things together and call it a night. Morning, I mean.
I feel my most feared three little words are changing to “Batteries Not Included”.
Web 2.0 is Dead; Long Live the Web!
December 20, 2005 Leave a comment
While presenting in my world-wide tour last month, I entered into a discussion with some very savvy people with strong opinions of “Web 2.0”. To further the discussion (and raise the level of emotion in the room), I proclaimed Web 2.0 to be “dead”, as it’s now achieved the level of hype “enjoyed” by SOA as little as 18 months ago. I made this point with the following anecdote:
You remember SOA? I sure do. I still believe in the underlying principles and methodologies that comprise and define a successful services orientation in an extended enterprise. Read that line carefully. SOA is not a noun (although you could refer to your enterprise as a services-oriented architecture-oriented enterprise). Services Orientation is a set of processes and methodologies that describe and manage the transfer and sharing of data between disparate, loosely-coupled entities. I referred to this at length in “Services Orientation – The Architecture Formerly Known As SOA – Introduction”.
So it is with Web 2.0. The mass media is now coming to realize that the phrase “Web 2.0” is a catch-all term, loosely used to describe the proliferation of social networking, user-shared content, aggregation and such. But behind it all is the need for improvement in how the end user accesses their data; the data that matters the most to them.
We snack on our information every day. This “Information Snacking” is part of our routine:
- We rise, shave and shower.
- We check email.
- We check the web for traffic, bus schedules, kid’s school lunch menus.
- We check our stock quotes.
- .. and so on.
As users, we want the data we care about when we want it, regardless of where we are. We want it when we want it, and will accept “lesser” experiences (say, a WAP-enabled cell phone) when we’re in a position where that’s the only (or most convenient) way to snack on our data.
Web 2.0 is dead? I’m kidding myself. Media., marketers, technical sales people and developers will use the term because it’s the easiest way to describe the over-arching idea of the web’s evolution.
The term will be around for a long time. What it actually “means” will mutate at the whim of the market and critical mass of the user community. Those who will benefit need to identify how their applications might meet the needs of these whims.
The Warning Label Generator (whimsy)
November 30, 2005 Leave a comment
While I’m sure this has practical (and intended) applications, this Warning Label Generator was too much fun around my house this weekend:
25 Great Calvin and Hobbes Strips
November 30, 2005 Leave a comment
This list is compiled by Jon, Bill and Nick, who are spot-on in their strip selection: “25 Great Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strips”.
C&H fans; check out “Where in the World is Watterson?”.
Top Ten dot-com Flops
November 30, 2005 Leave a comment
CNet publishes the “Power of 10” article series. I just read “Top 10 dot-com flops”. This clearly comes from the “what were they thinking?” department.
After you read the article, scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the other lists.
My Sleep Apnea
November 30, 2005 Leave a comment
I have Sleep Apnea. For those without exposure to it, it’s the closing of the airways when the body is in a relaxation state (i.e., asleep). The symptoms include loud snoring and frequent (noisy) awakenings, called arousals. In the past, I would snore like a buzz saw; regardless of sleep position.
The closing airways cause me to fight my way back to a semi-awake state. This fight injects the heart with an unhealthy shot of adrenaline, shocking it to an elevated heart rate. These shocks are not a good thing if they happen too often. After a sleep study, the doctor advised me I was having arousals an average of 90 times per hour! More than once a minute, I was fighting for breath and stressing my heart. The study showed I was never getting into REM sleep (where the body recovers from fatigue and clears the mind of pent-up garbage) and never dreamed.
My father also snored like this. To this day, I attribute his early passing (of a heart attack under 60) to untreated sleep apnea that stressed his heart over the years.
When diagnosed (in 2002), my weight was an unhealthy 230 pounds. With this weight, my airways closed frequently, preventing me from getting any rest. After the diagnosis, I gained another 14 pounds in the year following, which would have made matters far worse, had I not been receiving treatment.
The most effective treatment for sleep apnea is the Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machine with a mask that covers my nose. The machine applies a gentle positive air pressure into my nose, keeping the airways open. The headgear is a little wild to see, but easy to use: I forget I have it on. Once I started getting better sleep, I was able to awaken in the early morning to go to the gym on a regular basis. I didn’t feel like dozing off in the afternoons and was generally less crabby.
Losing weight also helps your airways from closing as well. I’ve dropped 44 pounds in the past three years, at a healthy rate through diet and exercise. I find that if I don’t use my CPAP I sleep and dream (evidence of REM sleep, which is good). However, I still use it nightly. At one point, my body weight will drop below my IQ (see my post on “IQ and Cholesterol Level”). At that time I might consider dropping it entirely, but it’s too soon to tell.
Mine is a happy story. If you snore or cannot sleep, talk to your health care provider and get a sleep study. Find out now.
Where in the World is Watterson?
October 31, 2005 1 Comment
Ran across a CNN article “Where’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ creator?”. Calvin and Hobbes was (and is) my favorite comic strip of all time, and is a big hit with my Connor and Hunter. While we’re glad to have all of his collections, we miss his hijinks.
Thanks to Bill for such a wonderful creation.
Einstein Lectures YOU
October 31, 2005 Leave a comment
One of my favorite things to do: get a lecture from Einstein courtesy of Heetmeel.com.
Original Posting: October 31, 2005
Search: MSN and Google, et. al
October 16, 2005 1 Comment
I’ve been watching the chatter going on about search these days. Lots of voices have joined the conversation, and out of it, I think we’ll all be better searchers.
Robert Scoble writes: “There goes Scoble again talking about search”, a follow-up to several of his search-related articles. However, it was in one of Robert’s earlier posts, “Search for Toshiba music player demonstrates search engine weakness” he hit on a lot of what’s “wrong” with search, citing issues with the relevance of the results.
Robert found some support and took some good-natured hits from others in the blogosphere, but more importantly, he got people thinking about search and relevance. MSN has been keeping Robert posted on search developments, and he’s kind enough to share on his blog. Oh. MSN Search has a blog; in one post they discuss “Where’s my instant answer?”.
I’m actually pretty happy with the way I search: I don’t expect miracles from it. Like anything else, it’s a tool, and like any tool, can make the work easier or harder, depending on your use. “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” is among my favorite quotes. It applies here as well.
The engine cannot possibly derive your intent for a search unless you give it enough information. Simply putting in a product, like “HDTV” or “Toshiba Gigabeat” isn’t enough to tell an engine what you’re planning on doing with the information. In these cases (mostly because of sponsored links), you’re likely to get link intermediaries. This MSN Search for HDTV returns two manufacturing sites and one retailer (your mileage may differ as MSN is continually improving their relevance).
Including something more specific in MSN Search like “HDTV specifications” is a little better; it returns one retailer who actually links to a find and compare page. Not bad, but have we yet asked the correct question?
What are you doing with the HDTV? Buying? Getting repair? Learning about it? The simple inclusion of a verb works wonders for a search. Check these out:
- BUY HDTV returns three retailers in the sponsored links section and several links on “How To” below.
- REPAIR HDTV returns an HDTV repair service, although it’s on the OC.
- LEARN HDTV returns an HDTV learning course from HP.
My search methodology (simple and potentially flawed as it may be) is to include the item I’m searching (a noun) and a verb identifying what I want to do and a location. You can see the fun I had with MSN search in my “Cool Treats with MSN Search” and “Cool Treats with MSN Search – Part Two” posts. Want to know one of the best things about MSN Search? Location, location, location.
MSN is detecting the location of my IP and using that as a component to search relevance. Hence:
BUY HDTV LAKE FOREST PARK gives me a helpful linked statement “Were you looking for ‘buy hdtv’ near Lake Forest Park, WA”, which, lo and behold, gives me a long list of retailers, some of whom are near Lake Forest Park. It also gives me a new web form, containing my ‘buy hdtv’ in the search box and a ‘local’ box containing ‘Lake Forest Park, WA’. But wait, the filter is set to “all”, and there’s a handy-dandy “Business Listings” link. Well, since I’m looking for someone to sell me an HDTV (hence the verb ‘buy’), I’m sure I can find a business to help me with this.
Whoops. Now the wind is out of my sails. The link returns “we couldn’t find any results”. How can this be? I know there’s a Best Buy, just up the road from me, right across the street from a Circuit City and down the block (I’m not kidding) from Video Only (which is where I bought my HDTV last December).
So, a few more clicks, a few more browser windows and I’m at the store locators for each of the companies. This should be easier than this.
Original Post: October 16, 2005
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