Monthly Archives: September 2008

"Impression Of A Normal Guy"

Jake and Amir from JakeandAmir dot com nailed it in their most recent video "Impersonation" where, after first bickering about whether or not it would be better to have an infinity amount of chicken nuggets or an infinity amount of money, Amir goes on to give what he calls an "impression of a normal guy".  I don’t want to ruin it for you, so you should probably give it a view before reading on.  You’ll want to form your own opinion about it before I prattle on.

Fair enough.

I don’t know what it is about normal that I find so uninteresting, or what it is that makes it so easy to poke fun around.  (Unless we’re talking about the normal vector, which is a line perpendicular to a plane.  That’s not easy to poke fun around nor is it uninteresting.  However, it is completely off topic, so save your advanced math questions for another time.)  And in finding it so uninteresting, it thereby becomes very interesting.  Strange how that works, right?

It’s true, though, as Amir displays it — normal people give boring monologues and aren’t terribly great for dialogues either.  Reminds me of a conversation I was having with a woman just the other day, where I was going on and on about this and that only to realize I was talking nonsensical circles about life in a far away future, so when I finally paused long enough for her to respond all she could ask was, "what are you doing in the woman’s restroom?"  Seems I was too busy talking to notice I’d lost track of the person I was following.

Not the point.  Watch the video.  Throw these guys in your feed reader.  Enjoy the show!

###

“Impression Of A Normal Guy”

Jake and Amir from JakeandAmir dot com nailed it in their most recent video "Impersonation" where, after first bickering about whether or not it would be better to have an infinity amount of chicken nuggets or an infinity amount of money, Amir goes on to give what he calls an "impression of a normal guy".  I don’t want to ruin it for you, so you should probably give it a view before reading on.  You’ll want to form your own opinion about it before I prattle on.

Fair enough.

I don’t know what it is about normal that I find so uninteresting, or what it is that makes it so easy to poke fun around.  (Unless we’re talking about the normal vector, which is a line perpendicular to a plane.  That’s not easy to poke fun around nor is it uninteresting.  However, it is completely off topic, so save your advanced math questions for another time.)  And in finding it so uninteresting, it thereby becomes very interesting.  Strange how that works, right?

It’s true, though, as Amir displays it — normal people give boring monologues and aren’t terribly great for dialogues either.  Reminds me of a conversation I was having with a woman just the other day, where I was going on and on about this and that only to realize I was talking nonsensical circles about life in a far away future, so when I finally paused long enough for her to respond all she could ask was, "what are you doing in the woman’s restroom?"  Seems I was too busy talking to notice I’d lost track of the person I was following.

Not the point.  Watch the video.  Throw these guys in your feed reader.  Enjoy the show!

###

Link Juice And Other Stuff

Last week, before I disappeared into the real world to deal with things that have nothing to do with my online persona, I changed the site’s commenting policy.  Previously, all comments here were labeled "nofollow", but now after you meet the minimum number of on-topic comments you’ll get the link love you deserve.  Which is also to say, if your comments are completely off topic I will have to remove them.  And while I understand the reasons for leaving the "nofollow" tag, I can’t stand when bloggers don’t share the love for thoughtful and worthwhile comments.  Total bummer.  (Don’t worry, the minimum number here is very low, and the criteria is not terribly strict.)  The policy is retroactive, so some of you may already have the new status.

In other news, while migrating my employer’s web site to a new hosting company as well as switching registrars, I accidentally, and somewhat embarrassingly, created a DNS redirect loop that ultimately resulted in this blog appearing on the presentation screen in our board room while trying to demonstrate the company’s new site layout to a group of colleagues.  Which is to say, my very large face was up on the wall when it shouldn’t have been in front of people who have no idea I keep a blag.  I was shocked, to say the least, but quickly put this site into maintenance mode until I could correct the DNS issue for their company site.  Thankfully propagation times are much faster than they used to be.  Still, hearing a co-worker unexpectedly shout, "Hey, Justin, it’s you!" during the middle of a presentation, is kind of a strange way to start the day.    I chuckled.

Continuing on, I noticed that my writing here is directly related to the amount of journal writing I do with pen and paper in the real world.  (I’m a fan of ink on paper.)  Which isn’t to imply that I outline my ideas before I bring them here, just that if I’m not actively keeping my writing mind working, then all my outlets suffer.  Just ask any of the people I email on a regular routine — last week was quiet across the written board.  But we’re back.  I spent a good portion of the morning putting pen to pad and, not surprisingly, here we are.

###

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer – 6th Year Participants

Making Strides 2007

It’s that time of year again when team captain Bernadette and I put together a group of folks (Keepin’ 2nd Base Safe) and start raising funds to support The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.  This is our sixth consecutive year participating, and we hope to beat our record of $2,200 raised.

Click the “DONATE” button below and Help me and my team reach our goals! Every bit helps — no contribution too large or too small.  Whatever you can spare to support the cause is greatly appreciated.

If you’re local to the Sacramento area, or will be in town, please feel free to join us on the walk through downtown and Old Sacramento.  The event is October 19, 2008.  Start and Finish lines are at the Capitol, and we’ll probably start walking around 9AM.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer – 2008-2009
2008 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer - Sacramento, CA

Thank you.

Mobile Mania, Which New Cell Phone To Buy?

There’s a lot going on in the mobile world these days.  Big names want our attention, and they’re hard pressed to keep it for more than the two seconds it takes for the next best mobile thing to arrive.  Well, not quite that quick, but you get the idea.  The latest addition to the group is the much talked about, supposedly highly anticipated,  Android from Google.  Which technically isn’t a cell phone but the software used by the cell phone.  A minor detail.

Research In Motion continues to dominate the enterprise world with its Blackberrys; Apple’s hanging with the cool kids on the corner sporting iPhones; and I think there are a couple others, but their names elude me.  Which is to say, who cares about Nokia and Microsoft?  Although, Nokia does offer a worthy alternative with its N95.  Still, no one is talking about Nokia.

There’s more to it than just a bunch of big hitters stepping up to the plate with new gadgets, we also have to consider what’s tied to these phones when it comes time to get one.  The iPhone is stuck to AT&T at the moment, but has an awesome Apps Store.  Google is stuck to T-Mobile and HTC (for now, at least), but is offering an open platform for cell phones which includes Chrome.  RIM isn’t stuck to any of the carriers, but they’re losing hype and recently decided to partner with Microsoft.  (Microsoft’s way of staying relevant in the mobile world, by offering its services via RIM’s Blackberry.)  All these groups see web use moving to your hand held device and they want in on the action. You definitely see it in the geek world with more and more web services offering mobile apps or SMS connectivity, but so far only the geeks are really using mobile services like Twitter or BrightKite.

Whether or not there’s a real demand for this much competition in the smart phone world remains to be seen, but for those of us fascinated with new tech toys, we’re enjoying the show and anxious to see where all this is going.  What will be the ultimate deciding factor, and is there one?  Applications?  Network speed?  Device performance?  Or really slick design?  If I had to guess, for most people, it’s being able to make a call.

Leave your number after the hash.

###

Feedly Says What?

I don’t understand the service Feedly is providing.  As best I can figure, it’s taken my feedreader links and rearranged them into some kind of magazine-like layout on a web page, but I’m not sure why I need that.  The other thing it did was mess with the categories in my Google Reader which, admittedly, I approved, but still — it bothers me.  I don’t like it, and now I either have to leave it as it is or take the time to go back and put things back the way there were.  (I should have planned ahead and backed up my settings.)

Feedly is a slower, less efficient way for me to get my daily feeds.  Not a good thing when I’m trying to consume as much as possible over breakfast before I have to make way to the office an hour away.  If I wanted slow, inefficent delivey of my news and whatnots, I’d pick up a newspaper.

I’ll give Feedly a few more days, but if I can’t find some value in it then I’ll be forced to remove its addon from my Firefox.  We’ll see.

My Blog Post Was Stolen

Honestly?  Yeah, it’s true.  I’ve had a post completely republished on another site without my consent and without any credit.  I’m not sure how to feel about it.  Initially I was shocked and upset, but what does any of that matter?  I went through a brief bit of flatteredness, then back to being upset, then off to do things in real life.  It’s all very funny.

I think it’s great that anyone would want to re-post something I’ve written.  Heck, I read some of my stuff and I want to re-post it.  But to re-post without crediting me or my web space is kind of silly.  Especially since I offer the re-use of my content for free under the creative commons license.  Why not throw back a little love?

But what really gets me riled up about all this is that the villainous site is ranking higher for my post in google searches for specific search terms.  Which shouldn’t bother me, because those search terms were not the point of my post, but I don’t like being out ranked — anywhere!

So I’ve written the site owners through the comments, as it seems that’s the only way to contact these people, and if there’s no reply then it’s a formal written complaint to the site owners citing sections of the DMCA and then another letter to the site’s hosting company citing more sections of the DMCA.

It’s tiresome.  All I really want is my name on the post; I took the time to live through the experience and then spent the time to write about it.  In any event, I’ll keep creating and they can keep stealing.  But no, I’m not saying where my post is published.  I don’t want to send them any more traffic.

You’ll want to read it hear first!

###

A Relatively Quick Hello

I want to say welcome and thanks for stopping by to all of you whom I’ve encountered in the last 8 or 9 days.  Be it in real life or virtual, social-media life.  I’m happy to have you over, and I aim to keep you as mostly entertained as possible, even if it means I have to sell sea shells by the sea shore to do so in front of a video camera with a half broken lens.  I’m here to please, and pleased that you’re here.

To keep this as simple as possible, and brief — the drum we’re to be with marching is not what you’d expect from your usual run of the mill beta tester.  Which is to say, “don’t expect what you’d typically expect.”  The name tags are real.  The lies are real.  The laughter is legit.  The smile was purchased from a friend I used to know back in middle school.  Still, I trust that you trust me to share with you, and I appreciate that.  I am clearly obvious and obviously clear without being blatant about wanting to meet, greet, and chat with all you fine people.  We’ll have to exchange cryptically coded memos as the year wears on.

All that aside, I’m looking forward to further exploration with all of you.  And those things I told you, they’re almost all true.  We’re gearing up to make seven documentaries about the long lost soul of a great underground statistician known as the unknown.  Equivalent to forty-two hours of gut wrenchingly good and somber times.  You’ll have a hard time and be well pressed to find anything like it anywhere else on the InterWeb.  I mean it.  I really do.  My producers are getting upset that I’m even saying anything about it right now, but that’s of no concern to us.  So stay tuned and stick around.

###

Microsoft's Gates And Seinfeld Is Something To Talk About

I’m not sure who exactly they’re aiming to target, and I don’t really care because it doesn’t change much for me one way or the other.  Still, there’s a ton of chatter coming across the line about the latest from Gates and Seinfeld.  I’m a fan of the two working together, and I’ve found the content to be more than mildly entertaining.  Still, not the point.

It’s not a very big secret, it’s no secret at all, when it comes to what computers/software people are using that it breaks down something like this:

  • Only fanfolk are using Apple
  • Only geeks are running Linux
  • Everyone else is using some version of Windows and Internet Explorer
    • 99% with default settings and outdated software like IE6

The problem with this is that the 99% in the everyone else group isn’t interested in what computer or operating system they’re using.  They just want it to work when it’s time to check the email or surf the web, right?  So why, in their minds, do they need a new whatever from whomever?  They don’t, and so they continue to use things like IE6, even though we have Chrome and Firefox 3.

Which is to say that no matter how cool, great, and awesome the next Microsoft products are or aren’t, they’re still going to be out there and that 99% isn’t going to jump on board.  It will have to be forced on them like the latest OS coming bundled with a new computer.

What Microsoft is doing with Gates and Seinfeld is giving all the people a chance to start talking about what’s happening in the tech world.  People, regular and tech junkies alike, are walking around saying “I don’t understand what’s going on.  What are they doing?”  The regular people know they should be paying attention because “whoa, two of the most accomplished guys in their respective fields on Earth” are appearing together in front of them .  Might mean it’s time to start paying attention.  Meanwhile, the tech junkies know they need to pay attention because Microsoft has the resources to change, for better or worse, the computer world as they know it.  Change is scary.  Commercials are fun.  But whatever the case, regular or junkie, they now have a common ground to start from thanks to Microsoft.

Talking is a good thing.  Talking about Gates and Seinfeld is a great thing for Microsoft.  But enough talking.  Check out the clip.

Microsoft’s Gates And Seinfeld Is Something To Talk About

I’m not sure who exactly they’re aiming to target, and I don’t really care because it doesn’t change much for me one way or the other.  Still, there’s a ton of chatter coming across the line about the latest from Gates and Seinfeld.  I’m a fan of the two working together, and I’ve found the content to be more than mildly entertaining.  Still, not the point.

It’s not a very big secret, it’s no secret at all, when it comes to what computers/software people are using that it breaks down something like this:

  • Only fanfolk are using Apple
  • Only geeks are running Linux
  • Everyone else is using some version of Windows and Internet Explorer
    • 99% with default settings and outdated software like IE6

The problem with this is that the 99% in the everyone else group isn’t interested in what computer or operating system they’re using.  They just want it to work when it’s time to check the email or surf the web, right?  So why, in their minds, do they need a new whatever from whomever?  They don’t, and so they continue to use things like IE6, even though we have Chrome and Firefox 3.

Which is to say that no matter how cool, great, and awesome the next Microsoft products are or aren’t, they’re still going to be out there and that 99% isn’t going to jump on board.  It will have to be forced on them like the latest OS coming bundled with a new computer.

What Microsoft is doing with Gates and Seinfeld is giving all the people a chance to start talking about what’s happening in the tech world.  People, regular and tech junkies alike, are walking around saying “I don’t understand what’s going on.  What are they doing?”  The regular people know they should be paying attention because “whoa, two of the most accomplished guys in their respective fields on Earth” are appearing together in front of them .  Might mean it’s time to start paying attention.  Meanwhile, the tech junkies know they need to pay attention because Microsoft has the resources to change, for better or worse, the computer world as they know it.  Change is scary.  Commercials are fun.  But whatever the case, regular or junkie, they now have a common ground to start from thanks to Microsoft.

Talking is a good thing.  Talking about Gates and Seinfeld is a great thing for Microsoft.  But enough talking.  Check out the clip.