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Friday, May 04, 2007
PSA, Spring has Sprung, Motorists should watch out for Cyclists
Just read about a very unlucky/lucky occurance where Microsoft's Josh Ledgard managed to avoid major injury, but crunched a bike and suffered some scrapes and bumps due to the carelessness of a motorist.
More and more folks are taking advantage of the nice weather by biking to work, and motorists need to remember that we need to share the road properly, and stay alert. A 150 lb cyclists on a bike is no match for a 3,000 pound car or 5,000+ pound SUV, and Josh is lucky to have come out as well as he did.
If you want to read the harrowing account, head over to Josh's blog. And if you live in the Seattle/Redmond area, be on the look out for a dented "older, dark red, Nissan or Honda, with a huge dent in the right front passenger door", since the driver left the scene of the accident.
Friday, May 04, 2007 9:50:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random
Friday, December 01, 2006
Convergence of Ideas and the Internet Singularity
Recently I noticed a strange convergence of ideas show up through my Blogroll, so I wanted to call out a few posts.
Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, writes that if he could fix one problem in the world, he would give everyone the ability to understand when someone had more expertise than us on a given subject. In another post he writes about making complicated decisions where many of the influencing factors are effectively unknown.
Malcom Gladwell (The author of Blink) writes about expert systems and how sometimes algorithms can be used to increase the probability that the average decision maker will make good choices.
Thirdly, and this is a bit older, Gary Flake often talks (and writes, and presents) about the idea of an Internet singularity, where humanity achieves a sort of critical mass that enables rapid forward progress.
All of these ideas seemed to mesh together in my mind. Scott Adams' "Universal Fix" is the event horizon to the internet singularity. People already have access to more information than they need. The big problem is that they have way too much information. They don't know who to trust. Was that Amazon review written by a paid shill, or is this product really the best? Gladwell's post shows how we will likely get there from here. What we need are expert systems that are designed to sift the BS from the good information. When I need advice on how to clean a juice stain on my carpet, or get an eyelash out of my eye I need to know that I can go to a single location and find what I need.
The good thing is that they have been working on the BS filter for a while now. Google has a pretty good one built. Microsoft is getting close to feature & relevance parity with Google. Other players are keeping pace.
The winner is going to be the company that manages to build a brand that is no longer associated with searching the internet, but rather with finding knowledge and information all over the world. It's a subtle distinction considering how much of the world's knowledge is making it's way onto the internet. The problem is that internet search is all about research, and research isn't always fun. While I enjoy reading specs while considering buying a new computer, most folks would rather just be able to provide information about how they plan to use the machine and get good solid recommendations back. I know Dell and Gateway and others say "Just call us, we'll tell you what you need", but that is advertising, not good advice.
Most people go to the search engines because they have a problem to solve. The research that entails is a means to an end, not the end itself. Instead of spewing out pages and pages of indexed text, I need a search engine that gives me concise, correct opinions, or which points me to experts, and/or expert systems that can solve my problems better than I can. And I need to be able to trust that no one is paying for the privilege of getting to be my "expert" so they can make a profit off me.
Friday, December 01, 2006 9:02:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random | Search
Monday, September 11, 2006
Things the search engines can't help you find
Tonight I have something stuck in my eye. I'm guessing it's an eyelash, but I don't know for sure because I can't get it out. I figured that the internet would yield some tips for me, so in between opening my eyes under water and dousing with saline drops, I decided to hit up Google and Windows Live Search. I tried various combinations of "eyelash", "eyelid", "stuck", "remove". I even through some desperate pleas at the search engines with plain language queries.
Almost every result I found had to deal with fake eyelashes, makeup, or contact lenses. The internet failed me tonight. The problem is that the search engines still see my queries as keywords, and they don't know what I really mean. Either that, or there really are no tips on the internet for getting eyelashes out of your eye. I can't really believe the latter. The internet is supposed to know everything.
I know I've had several of these "the search engines are useless for this" moments in the past. I'll try to remember some more. Does anyone else have any experiences with situations like this?
Sunday, September 10, 2006 11:49:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random | Search
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
More Customer Service Praise: Automated Pet Care Products, Inc., Litter Robot
One other positive customer service experience. We have 3 cats, and this past Christmas my wife bought me a Litter Robot, which was a great present since I take care of all the litter-box chores. After years of jam-prone Littermaid cat-boxes, this thing was a dream. Never jams, easy to remove the waste, easy to clean. It's a great design. Everything was working great until this past Friday night. We noticed that there were piles of litter on either side of the unit. Closer inspection showed a large crack in the gear track.
Late Friday night I emailed the customer service address from the website with digital pictures showing the damage, and a PDF of our receipt. Mid-morning on Saturday, I received an email saying that they would be mailing us a new replacement dome, and a refurbished base, since the new domes had a design change that wouldn't be compatible with our original base. Both pieces arrived today and our cats are back in "business". And looking at the new design, the problem we experienced won't be happening again.
Like I said in my Verizon post, taking care of your customers with expediency and respect can go a long way toward making up for inadequacies in your product.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006 7:40:42 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Remembering Katrina
That I know of, none of my relatives or friends were directly affected by hurricane Katrina. I just read Sara Ford's latest post on the subject, and it's a stark reminder of the long-lasting affects of Katrina. Since the disaster, Sara has catalogued her efforts to try to help rebuild her hometown of Waveland, MS. The rest of her blog is focused mostly around Visual Studio Powertoys. It's a good read if you develop under Visual Studio, or if you just need a reminder about the destructive nature of hurricanes. Take a minute to read through, and then think about how you can keep yourself and your family safe in the event of a natural disaster.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 6:37:09 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
Virginia Tech Requiring TabletPCs for Engineering Freshmen
Looks like my Alma Mater is riding the cutting edge of computing once again. Incoming freshmen are being required to purchase a pretty heavy duty convertible TabletPC. In my four years at Virginia Tech, I took programming classes that required Fortran90, C, Java, and C++. They're not afraid to evaluate the landscape and make choices that they think will give students an edge coming out. I remember talking to some students that went through a few years before me, and they had to purchase DEC workstations. My brother who went through 3 years ahead of me had to get a PC, a 386. I had to get a Pentium (at least 60MHz). They make decisions each year, and those decisions live for the 4 or 5 years until the incoming freshmen graduate. It's got to be tough to make technology choices based on what skills will be needed 5 years later, but instead of playing it safe, Virginia Tech tends to go out on a limb a bit. Even if their crystal ball isn't perfect, I think it breeds in the students a willingness to go out on a limb, try new technologies and see if they help you build better solutions. Just my 2 cents, but I'm proud of my school for taking the chance on the TabletPC platform.
The article Loren links to is critical of the choice. Students have always been critical of the computer requirements, so this doesn't surprise me. In Engineering especially, they require some pretty heavy specs. Both my brother and I probably spent a good 50% over and above what a reasonable "family PC" would have cost at the time. Looking back, it was a good choice. After seeing how long Autocad would take to render simple drawings, I almost wished they would have required even more horsepower, but they do pretty good at keeping costs reasonable, while still giving you the tools you need to learn.
Friday, April 14, 2006 10:39:16 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random | Tablet
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
If you see this van, say cheese...
I'm not sure if anyone has posted similar images yet, but if you search around in the world of Live Local's Streetside, you can find images of the van taking the pictures reflected in buildings. Credit for the idea goes to Lucas Curley of Intellitronics. I pointed him to the preview and within minutes he said that he was trying to find a glass building to catch a glimpse of the van. I managed to find a reflection first. Here's the clearest shots of the van I could manage:
(images captured from http://preview.local.live.com/ )
Wednesday, March 22, 2006 8:02:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Mapping | Microsoft | Random
Monday, March 13, 2006
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The Nuclear Option for Network Neutrality: Eminent Domain
I’m reading stories all over the blogosphere and technology news about how the big network players are trying to leverage their control of the internet and do away with network neutrality. Daniel Berninger asserts that this development will destroy the internet as we know it. Many others are chiming in.
While I’m sure many are sensationalizing this, I’d like to put forward an option.
Throughout the history of this country, the government has had no qualms about using its power of eminent domain to build infrastructure that will serve the common good. That’s why we are able to have highways, decent roads, schools, public buildings, and many other institutions fairly well spread out through the country.
The argument goes like this: The internet is infrastructure that serves the public good. It enables commerce, communication, government operations, pretty much anything that requires communication can leverage the internet to make services more accessible and interoperable. If the actions of the owners of the network are beginning to threaten the public good, then the government has a responsibility to step in. This is even more relevant because the government has subsidized many major improvements to the buildout of the internet.
Now I’m not sure that I’d want the government taking over the internet. I could see it falling in the lap of the FCC, and I just can’t imagine that would serve the common good (No offense intended to the fine folks at the FCC). But the recent Supreme Court decision on eminent domain makes that a mute point. We just need a couple of private development corporations to propose to some local or state governments that they could better serve the public good than the current owners of those assets. The government, even at the local or state level could step in and condemn and transfer the assets to a new, more responsible steward.
Now, like other nuclear options, this one might server better as a threat than through actual implementation. If a few heavyweight locals (NYC, LA, etc.) let the networks know this option was on the table, I’d be willing to bet that it would never have to be implemented. The downside to this option being on the table is that it might discourage investment in new infrastructure, but I think that it would be better than letting the network degrade into a disjointed, fractured, and much less useful internet.
Update 6/19/2006: Mike at TechDirt links to a Weekly Standard article by Andy Kessler exploring this same idea. Interesting additions to the discussion at both sites.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006 7:53:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Consumer | Internet | Random
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Search Champs v4 Redux
Search Champs was a great experience, and I wanted to capture a few thoughts:
- The Microsoft employees that we interacted with are very passionate about making great services, and part of that is listening to criticism. They invited folks who were very likely to provide hard critical feedback, and they received plenty of very vocal feedback.
- If you put a bunch of geeks in a bar, the conversations can be pretty interesting. The evening after we all arrived, they took us all out to a bar in Seattle for a reception. It was weird to be shouting over the music, discussing technical details of this or that service. The next evening, it was the same story at the restaurant.
- Search Engine Optimizers (SEO’s) and Search Engine Marketers (SEM’s) are people too.
- Robert Scoble is NOT an edge case. Just ask him ;-) ( I was two seats over when this audio was taken ). As a corollary, Robert Scoble is a good sport.
- When they say to meet your driver at 7:00am, don’t wait until 7:02am to be in front of the hotel. I ended up taking a cab to the airport.
My brain is still full from the experience. I’ve got some thoughts on Live Labs, Expo, and MSN’s stance on privacy. Hopefully I’ll find some time to get those written out soon.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:56:24 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) MSN | Random | Search
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Do Bloggers Catch More Flies With Vinegar?
Want to get a link? Complain… I was looking through some of my old posts, and I realized that the times that I have received links from other bloggers are almost exclusively on complaint or suggestion posts.
There is an upside to this. I know if I complain about a Microsoft product, my logs will show at least a handful of hits from Microsoft IP’s over the next few days. (This effect is even more pronounced if I include Robert Scoble’s name, coincidence?) I’ve also seen hits directly from other companies whose names have appeared in my posts. This is cool… The consumer has a voice, and the same search tools that are finding posts in my blog are indexing MSN Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournel, etc., so the barrier to entry is low. Still, I can’t help feeling a bit guilty for the fact that I get more traffic from negative posts than I do from positive posts. I even looked back and found that (in my opinion anyway) my postings have become more negative as time has progressed. I always hated the negative slant of TV news, and I feel bad that I fell into the same traffic/link-hungry rutt.
How can this get better? Well, I’m going to try to post about more positive topics in the future, and I’m going to make an effort to link to some positive posts as well. I know this isn’t going to even come close to changing the blogosphere, but at least my little neighborhood will have some glimmers of light.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:18:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Blogging | Random
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List
Everyone and their blogger is linking to Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List, so I figured I would as well. Scott has some awesome tools listed here. A lot of my favorites made the list (Windows Desktop Search, Notepad2,SysInternals,SyncBack, Del.icio.us, Paint.NET).
One of the listed xml tools, XmlSpy, solved a data conversion problem that I had been fighting for over an hour in just under 5 minutes. If you are doing anything with Xml: authoring, data conversion, whatever, you need to check out this tool.
It's going to take a while to digest the full list. Thanks to Scott for bringing this together on one place!
Thursday, June 23, 2005 5:19:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Development | Random
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Welcome to the world...
My second child, and first son, was born March 3rd at 3:26PM. Mom and baby boy are doing great!
Welcome to the world!
Friday, March 04, 2005 2:53:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) Random