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| Thursday, May 13, 2004 |
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Voice recognition 
| | There are topics I semi-follow, but can't stay on top of, because there are too many others that grab more of my attention. VoIP is one of those. Still, what Ted Shelton says here makes sense to me: |
| | Translation can replace standards as long as the standards are transparent and processor speed is cheap and plentiful. This is true for all open protocols -- think currencies, human language translation... But not so for closed, proprietary protocols. As an open-source VoIP offering, Asterisk makes it easy for anyone to support since their protocol is published. Translation for Skype, on the other hand, might prove much more difficult. |
| | On another front, I spoke to someone who was told by Global Crossing that they are now doing tests to certify Asterisk. If they decide to formally support Asterisk, this will be an even stronger indication that we are on the road to wide adoption rather than oblivion... |
Because it's so damn bright that any screen is too dim
| | I'm writing outside for a change. I figure, hell, we've got this beautiful patio, these decks, this view... why not? |
Usually they laugh
| | The themes of "we die", authenticity, individuality, community, storytelling and connecting all resonated within me, speaking to me of my past and my future. While The Cluetrain Manifesto is not explicitly a spiritual book, it is one: it describes the state of the human soul, the longing and desire for connection, to be who we really are with each other, to laugh and love, to fight and play, to make mistakes without fear. It's a book about hunger. It's about honesty. And it's about hope. |
| | los angeles and specifically hollywood is the only town other than possibly new york where you could seriously find a table of 3-4 extremely beautiful women who in their hearts are not happy with their looks and therefore unsatisfied with themselves because of some unattainable physical goal that theyve convinced themselves that can be reached. |
| | the belief is, once theyve starved themselves into the size zilch lil black dress they will feel better about themselves, the men will come pouring out of the woodwork, the women will be jealous and envious, and everyone will want to either hire them love them or want to befriend them. |
| | first thing women need to do is quit competing with other women. whats the point? and how does anyone know who won? |
| | Two things about that. First, Tony's right about Hollywood. Or hell, greater Los Angeles, including this very here town of Santa Barbara. When I get off a plane in L.A. (which happens at least once a month), I'm always amazed at how many stunning babes just seem to be wandering around. Not sure about the unhappy part, but the looks thing is a Major Feature here*. Which I enjoy because I'm aged so far beyond temptation and eligibility that I've faded to backgroud noise. Furniture. A gawk in the crowd. |
| | Second, there is at least one other place with a high density of EBW (extremely beautiful women), but I'm not sure they feel bad about how they look. That's Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Czech it out. Speaking of which, there might be something about Czech women too. Back to Julie: |
| | I told Ted about Tony's post and tonight we read it together on his monitor. |
| | "Is it about competition with other women or attracting men?" I asked Ted. |
| | I wanted to know what HE thought - do men(okay, in this case, Ted) really want these little black dresses and Revlon wrappings? Do men care about this stuff? Or why do we women do all this? |
| | My question launched us into a little discussion about sizes and measurements, about competition, about our histories. |
| | I made some out-of-character catty remarks about someone else who used to be in Ted's life. Of course I was just teasing. Really. I was. |
| | Ted caught it: "Well, then it is about competition, isn't it?!" |
| | That would be this Ted here, I believe. When he "plays doctor," he's a pro. Envy Julie. |
| | I only wrote about the man/woman thing once, I think. It was for The Sun. I doubt the piece made any of their anthologies, because it probably wasn't very good. How could it be? I was young, divorced, stupid, and one more divorce away from a lasting and loving relationshp, much less a modicum of wisdom about these kinds of things. |
| | Anyway, I remember submitting this clever, speculative, delusional and highly intellectualized BS of an essay to this EBW ex-girlfriend who also happened to be a Wise One. |
| | "It's easy," she said. "Women attract. Men attack." |
| | I still don't know what to do with that. |
| | *It was at LAX, in fact, that I first saw a t-shirt that said It isn't who you are, it's how you look. After all, who cares who you are? |
The answer is 25
| | Blogenstein is a blog ranking tool that its author, Michael, calls a weblog ranking system that uses user submitted and web site hosted OPML files to determine the number of subscribers. Interesting effort toward "a true ranking system." OPML is the key. Blogs lacking it don't show up. |
Just be sure to catch the fly ball with the mitt and not the laptop
| | After reading this and seeing this, I have to go, l have to go to a Giants game. |
Staying new
| | First, have a list of regular authors, with links (to bios or blogs) in one of the margins. |
| | Second, have humans sign all blog entries. Where a team or a department is involved, put their signature there. Readers understand that there is such a thing as corporate speech. But you can humanize it by saying "The Legal Team" or "The Marketing Group" or something like that. (I'm not sure anybody does this, by the way, which may make it nuts, worth trying, or both.) |
| | Third, put up directional links to other Google services. There's still that context. If I see Google in the usual five colors at the top of the page, I'll want both the logo and other links around it to go to various Google places. |
| | Fourth — and this is a toughie — be ready to talk out loud, and in human voices, about corporate decisions that don't sit well with other people. It's hard for a big, successful company to engage at the human/human level about Official Business (especially in such a public way), but it has to be done. If not on this blog, then somewhere. For some guidance , look how Microsoft is outsourcing many of its market conversations to its own blogging employees. Look at the public sides of internal projects, like Channel 9. Which makes me think... |
| | Fifth, you should have a list, or a link to a list, of employees who blog. Read what Dr. Weinberger wrote about Fort Business (gotta scroll down) five years ago. The danger for every big company isn't inside or outside... it's in the urge to maintain a wall between the two. Replace the wall with a table for two. Not easy, but worth trying. And re-trying. |
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