Category: Tech

  • Web-Based Industries Promote Dualism

    There are thousands of people right now spending all their time viewing one website or another, engaging in social networking, writing code, designing pages, writing copy, buying links, selling ad space, etc. Thousands of people. Imagine that. Imagine the millions if not billions of dollars being spent on fluff right now. Yes, I just called the Internet “fluff.”

    It is nothing, after all. It is the perception of something not really there. And it promotes dualistic thinking among its users. It invites all web professionals to spend their entire professional lives engaging it, focusing upon it, learning about it – and it offers next to nothing tangible in return.

    Take me for example. I am a writer who happens to perform search engine optimization duties for a living. I spend a minimum of nine hours per day staring at a computer screen, hopping from one website to the next. That’s not all I do, of course, but I do spend the majority of my day engaging the Internet. If I spend the majority of my waking hours on the Internet, then I must also be spending a minority of my waking hours observing and engaging the real world.

    That means that I am more influenced by technology than by nature. That means that I am unbalanced.

    I’ve always had a confrontational style about me. I’m actually quite mellow now in comparison to my teenage years. I call things what they are (or at least what they appear to be) without feeling that I should change the truth to avoid exposing someone else’s lie or faulty belief systems. Some of my corners still need to be smoothed out, but stating my perception of truth without compromising is part of who I am.

    That’s why I can say that the Internet will turn out to be a huge waste of time. Sure, people will make millions. Sure, thousands of people will have jobs and support their families. Then again, if we amassed a million man army and took over the world we could still get plunder and support our families… so obviously these ends do not justify every means.

    The simple truth is that man is out of harmony with nature. I am out of harmony with nature. The most “real” physical sensation I have right now is tired eyes from staring at this screen. I walk out the front door and stand in the fresh air and all I can manage to feel is how much I want to go back inside. Something about the “real” frightens us. Something about the lack of control – the realization that men are not gods. Nature proves that man is limited, finite, and most definitely not in control. Technology is man’s attempt to control as much as possible.

    Call it whatever you want. The way I see it, Ecclesiastes is correct: all is vanity…


  • What is Second Life and How Did It Get Compared to MySpace?

    I’m doing my thing the other day, reading my RSS feeds to catch up on the news, and I read this article about War Games and MySpace. I think to myself, that’s an odd phrase… hmmm… and I decide the title alone makes the post worth reading. Turns out there’s this group of smart kids at Harvard, MIT, and London Business School who annually participate in this conceptual business challenge. They select a topic and each group involved takes on a different business to calculate which business moves the company is likely to make and which company is likely to become the most profitable.

    Late last night, I decided to visit SecondLife.com and see what the buzz is all about. I quickly learned that participation with the site requires a software download and the option to insert your credit card or PayPal information for a bonus number of mythical online currency. I declined to offer my credit card info and proceeded to enlist as a free member.

    A few minutes later, I was in an online video game. I was a person walking around in a world filled with other online users. It’s crazy! Of course, it was late and my wireless speed slowed down the character movement, so I quickly lost interest for the night and turned off my computer.

    From what I gather, you first select the basic appearance of your character. You then walk around these informational areas, learning functionalities before actually entering the world of Second Life. I still don’t know what to expect from the game, and I doubt I’ll be spending much time on it, but I see definite potential for people in their teens and 20s especially, finding this the perfect escape from boredom or routine responsibilities.

    There are currently only a few million members on Second Life, so MySpace doesn’t have to worry about the competition just yet. However, I think Second Life may have figured out an alternative way to retain users online for long periods of time. I’ve yet to see proof of the actual potential to make money with this site, but it’s at least interesting enough to warrant a casual visit (though download time and such aren’t exactly conducive to someone interested in only snooping around for a few minutes).

    If you’ve tried Second Life or have heard a lot about it, feel free to fill in the gaps.


  • COBOL Programming Jobs are Scarce

    I hadn’t realized the state of the union (in Texas, at least), but North Texas apparently never recovered from Y2K job bubble. Programmers flocked to this area to cash in on the Y2K scare. But when it was all said and done, we had a plethora of programmers and too few positions. There are computer geeks who have been unemployed for a year or more. The time comes when you learn a new or updated trade if nothing swings your way.

    Seven years later, the situation doesn’t seem to have changed much. Database programming jobs do come available, but they’re descended upon by a pack of ravenous wolves. Of course, if it’s what you love, you try for each and every job. But if it’s not, you send your resume out, but you also come to the point when you have to branch out… learn something new, take a few courses, work part-time, etc.

    If you have the inside track on a job opening for a COBOL programmer in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, contact me and I will only recommend the best people.


  • German Scientists Scan Brains to Predict Decision Making

    If you thought that the uses of technology couldn’t get any creepier, you would be wrong. With a “donut shaped” MRI machine, German scientists are scanning people’s brains during the process of decision making. The subjects are given a choice between two options: to add or subtract, or to push this button or that. The MRI shows the scientists what is going on in the brain as the people go through the process of making a decision. Scientists are hoping to be able to predict the outcome of an individual’s decision with greater accuracy.

    These experiments are phase one. Let’s be real. Whatever is made will be abused. Imagine the implications. Accurately predicting a person’s decisions before they are made or before the outcomes have been announced could shape world events.

    But scientists are making enough progress to make ethicists nervous, since the research has already progressed from identifying the regions of the brain where certain thoughts occur to identifying the very content of those thoughts.

    “These technologies, for the first time, give us a real possibility of going straight to the source to see what somebody is thinking or feeling, without them having any ability to stop us,” said Dr. Hank Greely, director of Stanford University’s Center for Law and the Biosciences.

    “The concept of keeping your thoughts private could be profoundly altered in the future,” he said.

    Security is the excuse for most major poor ethical decisions these days. Sad as I am to say it, George W. Bush has participated in paving the way for the future of legal privacy invasion. I cannot fathom what would be his or any other president’s ulterior motive for the advancement of privacy invading technologies, but that doesn’t mean the motives don’t exist or even abound.

    It’s interesting how we’ve allowed ethics committees to exist, yet we rarely pay them more than lip service. As a species, humans do not stop to consider the consequences of industrial and technological development. We appear to be driven to pursue the furthest reaches of possibility regardless of the consequences.

    When do we ever stop? When will enough be enough?


  • Digital Flaws

    Heather and I had a wonderful anniversary. We took lots of pictures, and as I uploaded them to the laptop last night, I realized that digital cameras aren’t very forgiving. Let’s face it: they’re down right rude. They do not cover blemishes or forgive leftover crumbs. After seeing myself in these photos, I fear that I must hire an image consultant to redeem myself. Either that or a personal trainer.

    A photo journal of our day is on the way. Looking back, I regret that I didn’t take pictures of the places we went, to serve as chapter headings. Oh well. Guess we’ll have to live with pictures of ourselves!

    Honestly, Heather is a doll! I cannot believe my supreme luck at landing a hottie like her! This only leads me to wonder: what the heck was she thinking?!?!?!


  • CBS Returns to Music

    After surrendering its music label to Sony, CBS is once again in the music business. CBS had found it increasingly difficult to arrange for new artist/song “visibility” in the highly competitive American market. Sony had folded the CBS label into its own, and has since failed to use the label name for any constructive purpose.

    It’s a new day in marketing, however, and CBS officials have raised their expectations of artist exposure and popularity. CBS plans to play music from the CBS label as soundtrack pieces for the shows airing on CBS, CW (formerly the Warner Brothers Network, WB), and other CBS owned stations. Primetime television soundtracks have exploded onto the scene within the past few years. The first show I remember seeing that both played real songs and promoted the artists was the alien / sci-fi show, Roswell, on the WB some five or six years ago. Perhaps there were other shows doing the same thing at the same time or before, but I cannot recall.

    In addition to television promotion, CBS will make label music available for download via Apple’s iTunes and also on CBS’ own website. More plans and strategies are expected to help the now fledgling sub-company get back on its feet.

    Television companies seem to hold a serious edge right now compared to all other non-radio forms of music advertising. People watch their favorite shows, and a good producer will tie in good music to enhance the feel and attachment from viewer to storyline. A well-placed ad at the end of each program (as done by Roswell) informing the audience of the name of the songs and artists included in the episode naturally persuade people to want that music.

    I bought Remy Zero’s album The Golden Hum, strictly because the song “Save Me” is the title song on the Smallville soundtrack. Of course, I previewed the rest of the album before purchasing because I can always buy songs individually on iTunes if the rest of the album isn’t as good. But this album had enough to persuade me to buy.

    It all began with watching a television show, and recognizing that the title song was a real purchasable song (though I don’t recall ever seeing advertising on the band during the show – I probably just wasn’t paying attention). I actually searched iTunes for Smallville because I wanted that song. That is the power of television episode soundtrack advertising.



  • Thoughts on Time and Turning 30

    I am much too young to be writing a blog under this title. Aren’t I? Mere months away from the big 3-0. That point doesn’t actually bother me. It seems a milestone, but that’s merely a human contrivance based upon nice round numbers with zeros. The truth is that any day of any year is the same as any other day of any other year except for the titles and values we as people assign to them.

    Point in case, people living in third world countries could care less whether it is Tuesday or Wednesday. They don’t even care if it’s January or August. Time effects them as the seasons change and the moon moves in it’s cycle. When every day isn’t marked by such auspicious responsibilities as “meeting client X at 10am on Thursday”, Time really isn’t so important.

    The more activity one deems necessary to perform in a given day or time period, the more one cares about the clock. Time is important because it enables me to meet you at location X on January 13, 2007 at 3:15pm. We will both arrive at the same place at the same time (assuming we’re “responsible” people). It enables us to fit more tasks into a shorter period of time because we can schedule meetings with other people and not spend our time waiting for them to arrive.

    Imagine what it must have been like for people back in the day to be expecting a visit from friends or family and not know which day they will arrive! Nearly impossible for us to conceive. Our schedules are too demanding. If you come to visit and I don’t know when you’ll arrive, I have to rearrange my life on a moment’s notice. All the other people and/or activities I’ve scheduled will be put off at the last minute because you arrived.

    Having said all that, turning 30 drives me to consider my position in life, in career, in relationship, and in purpose. I am compelled to evaluate my position in regards to my goals and desires, and to make a fair and accurate judgment upon my rate of progress. Turning 30 means no more young adult. It’s family time and transition time. What was excusable for a newbie is no longer acceptable behavior. Part of maturation is knowing better.

    Time becomes a little more important. When you start to measure life in decades, you realize that you might have put as many years behind you as you have in front of you. Of course, I could live another 50 years, so I’m not predicting anything just yet. But one should be aware of the possibilities. If my life were half spent, I would want to spend the second half making a difference where before I was too shy, too embarrassed, too insecure, too lazy, or too naive.

    Childhood, teenage years, and 20s. Three decades. Wow. I don’t feel old, and most people will remind me that I’m not old. But there is something to be said by marking one’s life in decades and to have more than two to remember.

    I suppose the question now is, what will I do from here?

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  • Google Search Handles MySpace

    It’s pretty amazing what all Google has accomplished. From Blogger to YouTube, and I think even Flickr, Google is snatching up companies left and right. And they’ve got their thumbs in even more pies. Google is involved in a project with NASA. I’d give you more details but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Then there’s Google powering search for MySpace. We all knew that was going to happen eventually. MySpace search was pathetic and it’s simply too powerful of a site to allow such high levels of suck.

    It still doesn’t do anything for my grudge against MySpace, though. One of my coworkers talks about Google like they’re the devil. He prefers to avoid all things Google including Analytics, Search, Maps, Blogs, and Video. He’s like those people who refuse to shop at Target or Barnes & Noble because it’s not fair for the little shop down the street trying to make an honest buck. He’s like that except he doesn’t support any little shops on the corners of streets trying to make an honest buck….

    So Google continues to make headlines. GoogleChat, GoogleEarth, GoogleTalk, Googlethis, Googlethat, Googleeverything.

    I’m all Googled out.


  • My Relationship with the Ever Changing Giant, AT&T

    I am not a big fan of the corporate giant. I do remember seeing an AT&T commercial in junior high for cordless phones, and thinking that if I had money, I would buy stock in AT&T. The company has taken quite a few turns in the past fifteen years.

    AT&T is now the name behind my DSL service, once called SBCYahoo. I never liked SBCYahoo, and I was kind of glad to see AT&T come in. I honestly have no idea who is actually at the helm, technically. Companies these days buy other companies, absorb the employees and the name, or fire the employees and retain the original name. You never know what these clowns are going to do. Corporate business is so complicated.

    But I’ve always liked AT&T. My first cell phone service was Sprint. I was underimpressed by the reception my phone got. I switched to AT&T. That service was turned off simply because I was in college and was poor. My next service contract came through T-Mobile, whom I now use. I have no real reason for not choosing AT&T except for their notoriously poor customer service. When I had one problem with my AT&T cell phone service, it me forever to get an actual human on the phone. Everything was so automated because they are too cheap to actually employ enough customer service reps.

    I won’t hold that against them, though. At the time, I never dropped a call. They had excellent coverage. I really chose T-Mobile for the minutes/price package. With an advertised special, I got 1500 any time minutes per month for $49. Of course there is tax and fees, but that’s not bad. Only in my two busiest months did I exceed 1500 minutes.

    I’ve developed a sort of trust in AT&T, though. A tech is coming out to my house tomorrow morning to check my Internet/phone line. Now, I may be singing a different tune if he/she tells me that the problem is the piece of crap modem SBCYahoo provided me when we signed up. I won’t be as happy then, since I learned tonight that a decent modem in the store can cost $200-300. I’m not into spending all that money on something I should already have received from my Internet Service Provider.

    That’s not the point of the story, though. The point is, I wish I had invested in AT&T when I was in junior high. I would have a nice chunk of change by now. Back then, I thought they were going to lead the technological revolution, which they may or may not. Still, AT&T has stood the test of time. It is a company worth respecting, even if it is just a name now run by Cingular.

    That didn’t make much sense. That’s my cue. Time for all good little boys and girls and kitties to sleep in their beds.


  • Internet Replaces TiVo

    From ABC’s video player to CBS’ Innertube, the major networks have done away with most people’s need for TiVo. Go to abc.com or any of the other television network websites and you will find a media player allowing you to watch this season’s episodes of your favorite shows. Miss an episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Catch up on back episodes online. Don’t mess with programming a digital recorder or VCR.

    Why worry about it when the network provides the shows for free? I never get to watch NCIS any more. NCIS comes on at the same time as Standoff on FOX. I watch Standoff because my wife prefers it. Now I don’t have to miss my shows again. I can catch up on NCIS on lazy weekends. I might even start watching back episodes of Jericho, though it doesn’t interest me enough to watch during the week. I like the convenience of it. There are times when the Library is closed and I want to watch a movie or show.

    The library has become a valuable Blockbuster-esque resource. You’d be amazed at how many recent DVDs I can get ahold of for free. Still, as I said, the library has business hours that don’t always fit my schedule. Now it doesn’t have to matter. I can go online and catch up on my shows or start watching a new show from the first episode of the season. Pathetic, I know, to care so much about television. It’s all rot in the end, I suppose. But it is entertaining.