Category: Uncategorized

Evidence of interaction

I was looking at a Google result page, and noticed a time listed to the right of a link and wondered “am I in the News section?…No…Oh!” The time is when I’d visited that link. I’m sure this feature has been there forever, but I just noticed it. I like it.

visiting people in Plazes

Today I was checking my friend Ed Vielmetti’s blog, and noticed that his Plazes gadget on the side of his site had him listed as being at a cafe less than a block away from me. A few days before we had been talking about neighborhood informatics, and having had a few more thoughts on the subject, I decided to wander down to the cafe and see if he really was where Plazes claimed.

I’ve used Plazes a number of times to announce my whereabouts to other people using Plazes, but I’d never really taken any action based on the location information that the service provides by opting to make the face-to-face connection. As I walked through Nickels Arcade and turned on State Street, I was wondering what the social protocol was for going to say hi to someone when you know where they are, but they don’t know that you know they are there… Maybe it is polite to IM them first, and let them know you are stopping by? I decided spontaneous was fun and part of the experiment that is Plazes – and spotting Ed at a table inside, I ducked into the cafe to say hello.

I was a guest on Design Critique

I had the pleasure of being on Design Critique, a podcast with Tim Keirnan and Tom Brinck in which they – and sometimes a guest – critique usability and design of a product or service, with an eye to highlighting elements that have to do with delivering a good customer experience.

We talked about recommender systems (such as: Amazon, Netflix and Last.fm), and the first of 2 parts is now online.

Coin Relay: new phrases I’ve heard

Here are two words and a phrase that I’ve recently heard, which are contenders to enter my lexicon:

  • “string”, a replacement for the general term “word”, which is used as a positive indicator in a conversation, or as a greeting, as in “string up?”. Where string is a data type that is more encompassing than word.
    The original form had a bling modifier: “$tring”. [from Chris Duhl at Pfizer]

  • “straw fire”, as in, “Playing music with those folks was very exciting, but it was just a straw fire, I haven’t played any guitar since then.” Meaning that it was a short lived, powerful event, that doesn’t have much staying power, or fuel for continuing the activity. [from Daniel Noël at Lenny and Nan’s house]

  • “ttyt”, for “Talk to you then” when you’ve scheduled a time to meet with someone, and need a quick way of closing the interaction through chat or email. [from Emory Emrich at Pfizer]

Lord Dick DeVos

An interesting article in the Nation, back in Sept/Oct, titled, Blackwater Down. It’s about the unwise privatization of security forces, such as the mercenaries that had armed troops in New Orleans after Katrina – specifically the Blackwater USA group, and its socially conservative founders, including billionaire Erik Prince. It includes this paragraph that mentions our new GOP candidate for Michigan, Dick DeVos.

Prince, a staunch right-wing Christian, comes from a powerful Michigan Republican family, and his father, Edgar, was a close friend of former Republican presidential candidate and antichoice leader Gary Bauer. In 1988 the elder Prince helped Bauer start the Family Research Council. Erik Prince’s sister, Betsy, once chaired the Michigan Republican Party and is married to Dick DeVos, whose father, billionaire Richard DeVos, is co-founder of the major Republican benefactor Amway. Dick DeVos is also a big-time contributor to the Republican Party and will likely be the GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2006.

Dick DeVos must be so very in-bed with our current federal administration. Go Aristocracy, Go!

Will the people vote this guy in, like they did George W.? Will the people stop listening to the words of the politicians and find a way to evaluate the actions of politicians? Stay tuned…