The next web revolution – Web 3.0 – is going to be centered around real-time data and search, so say the tech media mavens. Leading the charge is of course Twitter (now available in your search in both Google and Microsoft form), but everybody else is jumping into the fray too, saying how awesome it is to report locations, in real-time, and otherwise leave a conspicuous digital trail ripe for exploit.
When CNN and Fox News are holding regular news segments that consist of nothing more than reading prescreened online posts, you know traditional media is desperately trying to speed up the news cycle too.
I say it’s going in the wrong direction.
Having a household pet is akin to having a baby without the DNA connection: they’re messy and needy and hungry, crash around the house, and wake up when you sleep. For three weeks, though, I was catsitting for my vacationing uncle, so I guess it can be practice for the real thing (baby, not a litter of cats).
The cat is Tabby: a chubby, unusually timid (even for a cat) animal who specializes in hiding in dark corners. I had looked after him once prior, and back then he found in the laundry room and a niche behind the microwave to be his shrines of solitude. New place, new comfort zones; after locking him for a day inside my current laundry room (), we fished him out of the corner and into the bottom of the couch. Once we grabbed him from that hiding spot, he went crawling under the bed.
Sui and I took a brief trip to Washington, D.C. for a few short days of conference (on Sui’s part) and sightseeing. Being complete noobs to the town, we stuck to the tourist attractions; that is, we wandered up and down the National Mall and peeked into various government buildings.
We did find one or two decent restaurants courtesy of Yelp and Chowhounds, and the pocket camera was there to take appetizing snapshots amidst the more typical monuments and architecture. The capitol building was especially boastful of its storied past, though probably still infantile in the grand timeline of human cultural history.
I’ll make an effort to write a full post later, but for now, enjoy these pictures.
Breaking my month-and-a-half post hiatus to give my praises to Zappos – y’know, that online shoe store – for their awesome customer service.
By my reckoning I’m only about two years late to their site, yet I was still struck by their service-first business model that strives to do the right thing for the customer yet somehow lets them remain profitable. Sure, my “shoes are too small, need to exchange for something slightly bigger” story isn’t much compared to the heartwarming tales floating around, but it was enough to prompt some research into what lets them get away with pampering the customer.
Lesson learned: dedicated people + efficient processes are a viable alternative to the bureaucratic, overhead-laden, penny-pinching customer “care” that most companies employ. Just wonder how much it takes for a company to maintain this ideal, especially in light of these economic conditions.
Of course, million dollar views around here cost two million dollars.
I haven’t had much time or energy to post lately. It’s been a pretty hectic 2-3 weeks, starting with learning that my roommates – both of them – don’t intend stay past New Year’s Eve. Suddenly, instead of comfortably relaxing in my chair leaking crumbs on a carpet I don’t own, I’m running around scouting out a new location to plant the colonial flag of Allenstown, population one. With a stewing rental market resulting from a dismal housing market, I figured I ought to finally look at home ownership.
A few days ago, Sui linked me an inspiring lecture by Randy Pausch on Time Management, and I think it’s worth a watch. A little background: Randy is a professor in Computer Science (automatic + points for me) at Carnegie Mellon with only months left to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and became famous after contributing to CMU’s figurative “last lecture” series with his own literal last lecture. ()
While that speech is famous for its own right, I found his subsequent talk on time management interesting and resonant with my own experiences:
The next web revolution – Web 3.0 – is going to be centered around real-time data and search, so say the tech media mavens. Leading the charge is of course Twitter (now available in your search in both Google and Microsoft form), but everybody else is jumping into the fray too, saying how awesome it is to report locations, in real-time, and otherwise leave a conspicuous digital trail ripe for exploit.
