Archive for the 'technology' Category

Establishing rules for blog sentiment scoring

July 3, 2008

Agree upon the rules before you get into the content -decide how to decide up front.  I learned that once upon a time in a class about leading groups of people involved in decision making…
Now suppose you are monitoring and scoring customer comments for your brand, ACME Acorns.  You have devised a clever strategy to categorize [...]

Decoding animal language - a “Web 2.x” opportunity?

June 24, 2008

I awoke this morning to the sound of our malamute mix barking out an exchange with some other dog in the distance.   The number of barks, the timing, and the characteristics of each varied, yet seemed purposeful.    Some started out rather guttural - a bit of a hesitant growl turned bark, while others were shorter and [...]

Conference day one

May 22, 2008

A number of interesting discussion sessions.  My eyes seem to know it’s 3 hours later than the clock says, but frequent trips to the coffee urn have staved off travel weariness otherwise.
Lot of technology discussions, and out of it I can see that for all the cool widgets, technology hasn’t yet bridged from reporting to [...]

Instant messenger ESP

March 21, 2008

 It’s 5:53 pm and you’ve got a hot issue to resolve.  You pull up your list of colleagues, double click the one you need an answer from and start typing your urgent message.  A dozen keystrokes in and their window greys out - offline.  What?!! 
 
You double click them again only to be informed that they [...]

Wireless connectivity = digital crack

September 14, 2007

 Recently, I setup a wireless router for our home’s network, and it has tremendously changed my work habits.  In the past, I tried to keep work at work,  and had only a single system connected to the outside world here at our house in the office.  But, now with the wireless, computing is becoming more “pervasive”.   [...]

Age of the Tube

August 13, 2007

   
Recently, this antique radio and phonograph came into my possession.  It belonged to my grandparents, and I remember it well as a child.   Now as an adult, I have the enjoyment of the piece and upon contemplating it, a number of thoughts rush forth.
First, I reflected upon the construction.  The cabinet is made of [...]

Clean it up before sending it in for service

August 1, 2007

  Whether it’s your car or your laptop computer, be sure to clean it up before taking it in for service.   What?   Shouldn’t the dealer or manufacturer clean it up before they send it back to you?   Sure,  that would be a hallmark of good service, but it’s the way your car or computer arrives at [...]

P1545

June 15, 2007

That OBD II code has become the bane of my existance.  Last week, Leslie’s Audi A4 alternator gave up the ghost after 130,000 miles, and I sucessfully replaced it.  Though that operation was more complex than it needed to have been, it saved me a trip to the dealer, and should have been the end of [...]

My days in tech support

June 1, 2007

     Somewhere circa 1993-1995, I was working in a support call center taking calls on computer hardware issues.  The product line I was supporting was venerable and had been around since the late 1980’s and while PC compatible, it was advanced and proprietary.    As such, there was a fairly limited (by today’s standards) set of [...]

Inside the C6 Z06

May 25, 2007

My friend Jim is at Indy this week - think Indy 500.   Equipped with a bronze medalion, he’s touring the pits and blogging his impressions on Indy.    Aparantly, automakers are capitalizing on the venue  and race excitement and have rolled in some inspiring exhibits.  Chevrolet, has the new C6 ZO6 on display, minus it’s skin.  Fittingly, [...]