Random Non-Sequiters

I don't really need anything.

I'm quite happy with the internet, my gadgets, my tinkering, movies/tv, comics, books, my couch, studio, bed and good conversation with friends.

Yet, you've got do do more than that to be useful and have a sense of purpose.

So if I don't need anything, then I should find a way to be useful to other people and help them with what they need.

But you can't just do things purely for other people 100% of the time, because that removes all value from what you are doing.

Selflessness is nice but over time, humans are built to not value selflessness and view it's practitioners as naive at the very least, and more commonly as stupid for not valuing their time or skills by requesting something in return for valuable acts.

So that leaves a situation whereby you have to find things to do for other people who can in return do something for you, but it also has to be organic and mutually reciprocal lest it become an impersonal business transaction and thereby lose its humanness-- but for the most part, I don't need anything (except of course occasionally money, but that's what my job is for.)

Quandary.

I want to hear your

Random Non-Sequiters

Generalist Blogging I haven't been updating the blog much the last couple weeks.

Normally on the weekend, I go though a large pile of items in Google Reader that I've starred throughout the week for later viewing. The last few times I've done this however, I've been finding that at the end of this catch-up, I really don't find much worth sharing on the blog.

Things move very fast now, and the news cycle on a lot of this stuff is very short. In a world of Twitter and Facebook Updates, blogs are becoming like quaint slow moving newspapers in a 24/7 cable news world.

It also feels like a rough time to be a generalist, because to truly keep up with most of these things, you really have to focus and specialize. In fact the only valuable time to be a generalist is if you are out on the frontier of change in an undefined process zone. Because then the generalist can pull from multiple disciplines to define the new frontier. These new frontiers are getting harder to find and with the ease of coordination today, undefined zones do not stay undefined very long.

Speaking of News

The above analogy of slow moving newspapers vs. 24/7 cable news is actually kind of old. Cable News went out of business as soon as Obama was elected. Switch on any 24 news channel today, you will be very unlikely to find news, you will find two heads talking about their feelings on various topics of the day and other talking heads appling dramatic narrative overlays on one days event or another... but you are very unlikely to find news.

This really bums me out, because putting aside the damage a non existent 4th estate does to a democracy, it gives me no station on TV to play in the background for background noise.

More and more I'm getting my news once again from newspapers as well. (at least their online forms)

Palm Pre

Still really enjoying this shiny new toy.

The new WebOS 1.1 update has really made it snappy. Little clicked up touches of animated pop ups and subtle interface and functionality tweaks. Great update.

The homebrewers are really starting to pick up steam on the Pre too. Just a couple days ago they released both a desktop 1-click homebrew app installing solution, and a Pre App that will from the Pre also directly install apps without the need of a desktop.

When I got my Eee PC netbook there was a similar community of innovation that sprung up briefly for a time. It's fun to find and play with these status quo changing devices at their beginnings when these hacker culture communities embrace them.

I really want to work on my own custom apps for the pre soon, they will have to be eccentric though, because the general stuff if probably all well on it's way to being constructed in the next few months.

Back to Twitter

Two more good “real-life” friends joined Twitter this past week. Love Twitter, it becomes even more useful the more real people that you have real connections with on it.

Throw the Pre into the mix and Twitter becomes even more useful. It's definitly a tech that's been worth the hype... especially as your friends and followers become more connected to you in real space.

Four types of Paragraphs

Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.

I guess the above has mostly been about the the first three; had I been shooting for the the 4th, I would have went with more out-there metaphors, otomotopia and retorical repetition.

I bring up the four types of paragraphs because I've been toying around with them as applied to conversation and activities in the real world too.

Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.

The above is about deciminating information... typing it, makes me think is there a corollary to gathering information?

Reports/Documentation collection, Interviews, Surveys, Focus Groups, Direct Observation, Model Testing?

Interviews

During the analysis process, interviews are conducted for a variety of purposes and with a variety of goals in mind. An interview can be conducted at various times within the process for

-Initial introduction
-Familiarization or background
-Fact gathering
-Verification of information gathered elsewhere
-Confirmation of information gathered from the interviewee
-Follow-up, amplification, and clarification \

Goals of the Interview?

At each level, each phase, and with each interviewee, an interview may be conducted to:

Gather information on the company
-Gather information on the function
-Gather information on processes or activities
-Uncover problems
-Conduct a needs determination
-Verification of previously gathered facts
-Gather opinions or viewpoints
-Obtain leads for further interviews

Media Fragmentation

So many stories to read, watch and listen to. But what aditional: Influence, information, expression or entertainment do they provide if experienced in a vaccuum?

With the possibility of of completely individualized programs encompassing the above 4 where will the commonality come into place. Humans are social creatures and individuals. what a balance to strike, when it's so easy to swing to either side.

fini

...and so ends my random non-sequiters for now.

I want to hear your

Wealthy Theater

Went to the Wealthy Theater tonight and saw The Muppet Movie.Delightful experience. The theater is very charming, the people were interesting and friendly (employees and patrons) And it was all around a really nice time.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on upcoming Tuesday night Meanwhile series of movies.Upcoming showings of Alien, Aliens and Fight Club will probably be must sees. good Times.

I want to hear your

Rick Astley/Nirvana Never Gonna Give You Up/Smells like Teen Spirit Mashup

Pretty cool.

I want to hear your

Video Games I Have

I just made a page with all my PS2 games on it. Yes I just have a PS2. I can't really beat those games, so an XBox 360, Wii or PS3 isn't really high on my to buy list.

Why did I make this list? I've been seeing alot of good discount bins for PS2 games and just wanted a reference on the one I already had.

Here's the list

Leave me a comment on any PS2 games you think I need to add to the above. (Sure they might be old, but they'll probably be new to me.)

I want to hear your

Let's Go Surfing

» Very cool, a car that runs on air! ('course you have to use something to compress the air, but still, neat.)

» The Heinz Beanzawave mini-microwave, charges by USB. Video! This is cool.

» Drinking Battleship game. Neat, but you could probably just make a piece of paper with a prinout of all your ships and put a shot glass on each one and save yourself the trouble.

» Video: U2's Bono Singing on Stage in a jacket covered in 240 lasers

» ThinkGeek has this Mimo extra monitor that runs off of USB for $130. 800x480, this would be perfect to move my twitter an IM off my screens at work. If it worked on Linux (it doesn't) I certainly would have bought one to use as a second monitor for my Eee PC. Still thinking about it though. $99 would would fully convince me if they want to drop it to that price point.

» gdgt.com looks like it could be the next big thing, or maybe not, in the world of gadgets. A social network and wikipedia for gadgets rolled into one. If enough people participate then it could be very very useful, if not, then I'm not sure. Seems to me, they could really use a news site component to drive traffic to this thing. Even without that, it's a place to watch, and potentially if it gets traction, a good first check for gadget info before hitting Google.

» Zambabook.com. Allow customers to schedule their own appointments on the web. Interesting concept.

» Pre-Star Wars, Pre-American Graffiti interview of George Lucas. Interesting thoughts on the movie business, or any creative business really.

I want to hear your

Let's Go Surfing

» Looks like the Crunchpad, a 12" flat Web Tablet will be available later this month.

» Google Voice continues to develop. Which is pretty cool.

» resubj looks to be a simple way to turn email into a message board/discussion space.

» They are making a Galactica 1980 comic book, you have to wonder... Why?

» Buffy/Twilight-Edward Video Remix mashup. Sort of slow, but kind of funny. There is a fight at the end. SPOILER ALERT, Buffy wins.

» Multi-touch on Linux. Isn't the Pre Linux? Doesn't it have Multi-Touch? Anyway, still neat.

» A Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Dep as the Mad Hatter? One Opening Night Ticket Please!

» Flash 10 coming to smartphones in October. Cool.

» Donnie and Marie Star Wars. I couldn't handle most of this, so I fast forwarded thru it, but it gets bonus points for having Red Fox as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and they do appear to have James Earl Jones doing the voice of Darth Vader.

» Optimus Prime and Megatron talk about the Palm Pre Video.

» I love this camera tracking/projection stuff.

» slinkset.com is a neat service that allows you to quickly set up your own private/public Link sharing/voting/commenting page like Digg or Reddit. Only downside I saw was that it does syndication by atom only instead of also having an RSS option.

» VocabGrabber, interesting site, you can paste text in the box and it will create a word cloud that you can then create a mind map of synonyms from. Spiffy.

» Cost of Living City Comparisons Enter your Salary, pick your state and city and then pick the state and city you'd like to compare.

» This Dyson Handheld Vacuum cleaner looks like a Halo Weapon, apparently has world's fastest motor too.

» Scoopler is a real time search engine focused on Twitter and other social media sites. I think OneRiot.com is probably better though.

» This $36 Cigarette Lighter Powered Pizza/Toaster Oven is an novel device. Maybe it's useful if you drive alot? and really like fresh pizza? I suppose if you were traveling you could pop into a grocery store, grab a small frozen pizza and then cook it in your car on the way to your next stop, but really, seems like you'd just be better off going through a drive thru somewhere and pay a couple extra bucks.

» The Life of Steve Jobs so far.

» Tron Guy had to sell his plane. Tron Guy had a plane? A plane that matched his Tron Guy costume? No kidding? huh. Go to link and see the picture.

» untiny.me reveal the real links behind short urls. Useful.

» USDebtClock.org big numbers go flippy flippy, cool.

» Email in Landscape Mode on the PalmPre While on the email homescreen, type in: RocknRollHax

It lasts until you close the app.

» Useful Javascript table, Drag and drop code.

» Intel launching cheaper 320GB SSD hard Drives Slick.

» Twitter for busy people. Interesting site but it doesn't show the protected people and the hover over is actually kind of tedious.

» Wikis in the Workplace Good Article and Reference links.

» Milo.com Searches websites with stores local in your area for products and availability.

» Meeting Cost Ticker Neat site (do not put a $ in the salary field, it didn't work when I did that). It's one of the things I marvel about my job. I can schedule an hour long meeting with a dozen people in it, spending hundreds of dollars of company labor, yet there is no real simple way to spend $5 of comany money without a form, review and multi-week delay. Perhaps your company is similiar.

» I really like this tech space, the idea behind using cameras to monitor physical space and interact with programs seems really untapped to me at the moment, lots of novel potential in this space.

I want to hear your

Fourth of July

Ice Cream, Firework and Sparklers with Adam and Comfort.

I want to hear your

Mini-rant

"That's going to be changing in two months, three months, six months etc."

Running into some challenges where there are some roadblocks to doing things because: we are waiting for the process to be final, or the final people to be in place etc.

The process is never final though. People will never be final either. Both are and should always be changing, tweaking, refining getting better. Learning from each project and having a feedback loop that makes the next project better.

Do what can be done now. See the goal, and steer to it, but if you are waiting to the road to be final, it never will be.

If you have a window of "no change" then those that want no change will stall until they reach that window or the next, and one week slides into the next.

Change needs to be part of every process. Nothing is done, nothing is final.

There needs to be a distant point down the road where everyone can focus on and measure whether they are on course or off course. But that point can not be a small specific idea, that point needs to be a big broad idea.

Google's: "Don't be evil" as an example. Everyone at Google can ask, does this make us more or less evil. It's a big idea, it's a bright star in the sky to guide by. Everyone can look up and see it, and there is nothing final about it. There isn't a point where Google is going to be: in 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, we'll no longer be evil once the non-evil plans are in place.

Google's: "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful..." it's a big idea, it can never be "done" but you can keep steering to it.

Nothing is final... everything is work in progress, bright guiding stars need to be in the sky and they have to be real, and people have to buy into them. You need to get people focused on the same stars that are charting the course.

I want to hear your