Saturday, July 28, 2007
Late delivery
At SDP2007 this past week, Ben Peters talked about close reading of text (and also about too much reading, another worthy subject). This comes to mind as I read Jos Schuurmans' The Cluetrain Manifesto on the rebirth of conversations, wherein he excerpts a long series of quotes that remind me of three things: 1) I haven't read the book in years; 2) There's a lot of good stuff in there; and 3) The future, as William Gibson said, is not evenly distributed.
It's funny, when we posted Cluetrain in the first place, we asked people to 'sign' it by posting remarks. That page swelled to a size so large that opening it over a dial-up connection could take up to several minutes. Since I was working at dial-up speed or worse in those days (remember Ricochet? that's what I used), I hardly ever looked at it back then, and not at all since.
Now, of course, the page loads quickly. Looking through the long pile of comments, most strike me as overly optimistic... and now, anachronistic. More to the persistent point is what Dom DeBellis says here:
"If I hear one more company talking about 'responsive customer service' or 'solutions built around you' or some other marketing happy hogwash, I'm going to have to hit something--hard. Cluetrain is articulating much of what we (normal people) have been saying for years: listen to us. We're you're customers. What you call your 'target market.' Don't talk down to us. We know our needs. You don't. Try to spend less time talking and more time listening to us . . . Um, are you listening?"
In too many cases the answer is still "Not yet".
Extra broken
Back when I lived in the Bay Area and flew mostly out of SFO, I kept a running tally of how many moving sidewalks were down at any given time. It tended to run at about one in five.
When I flew out of SFO on Wednesday, we had a two-fer on the long United Concourse, out among the gates in the upper 80s. Both sidewalks were broken.
When I looked at the sign, however, the story was even worse than it appeared. So I shot it. As for why these things keep breaking and not getting fixed, I can only guess. I almost don't want to know.
Asymptotic living
Here's the idea.
First, get HalfaLife.org. (Or .com if you want to pay the squatter.)
Then build Second Life.
On Day Two, take away half the geography.
On Day Four, take away another half.
On Day Eight, another half.
Keep going until all you're left with is a rug or something.
Further proof of life after birth
So this is my last day at age 59.
The Governator has two days to go. I did the math once, and found that I am actually less than one day his elder.
And, as you can see, we are the same. Proof that astrology is correct.
Speaking of which, the first words my future wife heard me say were "I'm a Leo, so I don't believe in astrology". She thought I was funny, which helped her overlook my shortcomings. (Such as, being shorter.) Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it's pretty good prosthesis.
Anyway, Dr. Weinberger gave me some kind words, almost making up for saying 60 is "just freaking old". Which is true for most species, I guess. About people, I'm not so sure.
I'll let you know in a day or so.