Where's Perry?

One of my kid's favorite shows right now is Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb. The show's about a couple of young boys that have outrageous adventures (seemingly in secret) while their sister tries to get them in trouble with their mom. The boys have a new adventure every day during their summer vacation. They also have a pet platypus named Perry. A story-within-a-story is Perry's secret identity as a secret agent. While Phineas and crew are off having a grand ol' time, Perry is battling the Evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Shortly after the show begins, Perry sneaks off unnoticed as his alter-ego and then Phineas utters, "Hey, where's Perry."

OK, that was kind of a long lead in to what I really wanted to comment on. My point is that no-one pays attention to the platypus doing the real work. They don't miss him. They don't go off searching for him. They don't put up wanted posters. They even greet him with a nonchalant, "Oh, there you are Perry," when he returns home at the end of the show.

It's the quiet ones (OK, I know platypus can make some sounds) that are getting the work done -- saving the world. Sure, the ones that like being on the stage get the credit. There are those that suck up to the boss, always appear to be busy, but never get anything done. There are those that are always choosing the "glory" project so that their name is on all of the important emails and lists. But... Without the silent majority, those that just go to work and dutifully do their job, do their job efficiently and effectively, fly under the radar and avoid the public praise, the people taking the credit wouldn't have anything to take credit for.

As the US economy continues to suffer, and managers must determine where to shed costs, I only hope that they know the truth behind the true productivity of the workplace.

Uncle URLs

A coworker of mine (the one who buys up cool domain names as a hobby) noticed the other day that the top-level-domain (TLD) ".me" was available now. [The TLD .me is the country indicator for sites registered in Montenegro, in the same way that .ca is for Canadian sites] Actually, I think it's been available for a while, but he had just received an email from a registrar advertising it. That got him thinking (he really never stops), "there have to be a lot of cool words that could be made into domains -- words ending in 'me'."

We consulted OneLook that allows wild card dictionary searches and came up with quite a few. I don't want to give away any potential targets of his, but some of the ones that hit me were:

• http://www.call.me/


• http://www.read.me/


• http://www.tag.me/

It also got me thinking about other TLDs that have been used like this... The first one that came to mind was the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. Another is the Interes.tingness site mentioned a few days ago. I'm sure I've seen many, many others, but for some reason none of them are coming to mind. Can you think of others like these? Leave a comment...

Politics

Detroit Politics are so absurd they are mashing up songs about it's mayor... This is the clean one of the bunch -- Take A Bow, by Rihanna, mixed by a local radio station.

Remember when...

BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES ANNUAL MINDSET LIST FOR THE ENTERING COLLEGE CLASS OF 2012

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned i Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

NEWS ALERT! Google and Microsoft merge!

I don't usually make fun of people for their lack of knowledge (I STILL have to write my Domain Knowledge versus Common Knowledge post), but I heard something this morning on a conference call that I thought was REALLY funny...

It was a conversation about Microsoft Sharepoint needing (in this particular implementation) a separate search function than the Google Enterprise appliance currently in use. Google simply couldn't index and return search results from any of the Microsoft SharePoint content. The speaker said in very frustrated tone something along the lines of "It's the same company! Why can't they just make them work together." After a brief moment of "did she really just say that" silence, someone finally tried to clarify if she did indeed think that Google and Microsoft were the same company. She was educated on the extremely competitive nature of the separate corporate entities and the conversation moved on... I wonder where this person gets their news from.

Someone to watch over me...

About a month ago I started taking a different route to and from work. A co-worker of mine turned me on to it talking about it as a much faster route. Though it was a couple of miles out of the way, it was about 10 mins quicker! The faster, more continuous speed was also better on my fuel economy.

On the way home, I pass under a pedestrian overpass. I think that there's a school or something on one side of the street. several weeks ago, I started noticing that there was s guy standing in the middle of the overpass watching cars pass underneath on my way home. At first I thought he was just taking a break on his way across the bridge. Then I started to wonder if there was something else going on. He was there every day for two weeks on my way home -- even when I left 1-1/2 hour earlier, or 1/2 hour later than normal. What was this guy up to? There was full fencing on both sides of the overpass so he couldn't be waiting to drop something on the cars below. Is he homeless? Or bored? He doesn't look like he's doing a traffic survey for MDOT or even waiting for someone to meet him from the school.

Then, on the way home last Friday, he wasn't there. I actually started to worry about him. Why wasn't he there? Had something happened to him? Was he alright? Had he finally been told to "Move along?" Why was I worrying about this total stranger?

He wasn't there on Monday either... Then he reappeared tonight. Like nothing had ever happened. In the same place on the bridge. Did he know that people were worried about him? Geez! How about a phone call once in a while or a letter to say you're still alive or something?! :-(

I gotta start paying more attention to the radio (or the road) on my way home or something...

Have you seen this one?

How many digital pictures do you have stored on your hard drive? I have over 25,000! And those are just in the directory that they're supposed to be in --not the ones that have managed to stay hidden elsewhere on the drive. They're not all award winners, but there are some really good shots in there.

No multiply that 25,000 by the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Flickr users and there's no way you can catch all the good ones. Even if you tried... Flickr helps a little by indicating a number of images are "interesting" each day. Their algorithm is their own secret sauce, but sometimes the secret recipes are the best ones...

A Daily Dose of Interesting Photographic Inspiration from Flickr provides an entire, artistically delivered screen of these "interesting" Flickr images. It's interesting [pun intended] to just site back and watch as the images flicker before your eyes. Like other photo gallery sites, a simple click on the image will enlarge to show more detail and citations. The images change daily (or by a randomize button) so enjoy a changing glimpse into the world through other's lenses.

It's a small world...

Search is pretty much done. So says Google. Sure, they'll continue to get incrementally better, but until it knows what you're searching for and delivers it before you ask for it, it's still gonna be search. All that's left is to deliver the actual results a little differently, provide a little niche that can grab a few users every now and then.

That's what Tag Galaxy is attempting. OK, it's limited to Flickr images, and may be a little slow at times, and not a complete index, but what do you want then you're trying to slog through the millions of images tagged on Flickr? What they do is present the search results (and maybe more importantly, the search refinement process) in a unique way. You start off with an initial tag -- a keyword representing an image you are looking for. It then it finds related tags and presents the whole search process as planets (or satellites) around a central object -- complete with celestial texture overlays on the orbs. The size of the sphere represents the relative quantity of shared tags. You refine your search by clicking on any additional tag you want to add until you have your search terminally defined. When complete, click on the central orb and you'll be presented with your selected images pasted on a 3D sphere like a mirrored disco ball. You can spin the gallery with your mouse and click on an image to enlarge it.

Is this the end of Google? Hardly, but it's another search site worth looking at...once...

Visual word search

OK, I know that any word search is visual, or they'd call it sound search or touch search, but just give me a sec to explain. I was trolling the labs sites (Yahoo, Google, etc) and happened across this really cool Flickr game on Yahoo. You give it a tag (word) and it grabs pictures from Flickr that match taht tag and puts the tags themselves into a world search, but... instead of providing the tags for you to find, it provides the pictures as the clues.

It's called PhotoSoup, and unfortunately, it looks like you might need a Yahoo account to play (I had to log in). There's a time limit, and a hints button which provides the text tags. Not quite as addicting as Google's Image Labeler, but fun nonetheless.

Stop wasting it!

As Americans we've been a consumer nation. We're extremely affluent as a nation when compared to other nations. As such, we've become a little sloppy in our conservation of resources. Some of that's finally changing as people adjust to massive layoffs, the cost of gasoline and everything else rising, an invigorated Green movement, and more and better education about what we're leaving behind for our next generations.

One thing that we're still working on preserving is human mind power. As the UNCF states in its slogan, "The mind is a terrible thing to waste." Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University must agree because they saw a lot of that mind power being wasted on necessary, but some might say frivolous, CAPTCHA responses. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. In plain English, it's those pesky little distorted letters or words that a lot of web sites put up for you to type in before you can get to where you want to go, or do what you want to do. They're really hard for computers intent on spamming sites to understand and reply to, but, for the most part, easy for true humans to interpret.

Carnegie Mellon had a large collection of images that looked just like CAPTCHAs. Problem was, they were not computer generated, but rather text from old and decaying books they were trying to preserve by digitally scanning and converting to text. So, in a classic academic move, they made a game out of it and released it to the public for assistance (remind me of the Google Image Labeler project). Another great example of crowdsourcing -- getting a bunch of random people to do the work normally reserved for an employee.

You can read the full article on how they enlisted major Internet players to utilize their "CAPTCHA" images to do what computer scanners could not effectively do in this arstechnica article.

Those academics are really pretty smart after all... :-)

Still amazing...

I think I've posted about this before, but it amazes me every time I see it...


You can read more about this amazing photo touring application if you're interested. Simply amazing what you can do with enough data, computing power and ingenuity.

Ah, the good 'ol days

I remember in high school, I thought I had big ears for some reason and so I used my hair (I had a lot more back then) to hide them. I didn't have long hair, I graduated in the late eighties, but it was longer than it maybe could have been. I gained a little self confidence after that and cut it shorter and I've been losing it more and more quickly ever since.

I haven't' looked at my own yearbook in quite a while, but if you have a recent digital picture of yourself you can relive those glory days regardless of when you graduated by visiting the Yearbook Yourself site. Upload a face shot and it adds the background (big hair and all) for the last several decades worth of graduation pics. Wow and I glad I didn't graduate in an earlier decade... :-)

Fontasy

I'm no doctor, but sometimes my handwriting is just as bad. I'm strong enough to admit my weaknesses, that's why I type everything I can instead (auto correct and spell check is a handy side benefit). My creativity comes in the mental arena, solving problems, out of the box thinking, etc, not the physical side of things like building, drawing, designing, etc. If I was more adept at that side of the arts, I might fancy a site like the FontStruct site at FontShop. That site allows you to build an entire font from scratch, online, for free! Let your right brain go while and get a little crazy, or simply express your own personal style. The site is full of powerful tools, some of which are demonstrated int eh video below. Make your own characters, pictures, etc and assign them to standard keyboard letters. Once done, save your font as a normal True Type font and use it to show the world how creative you are.

Do you hear what I hear?

There are many radio stations to listen to, plus satellite, plus MP3 players, plus CDs, and more while driving in your car. Tonight I happened to be listening to the radio and looked back to see the girl driving behind me dancing around and singing. That's not the unusual part. Though I listen to 2 of the top 4 radio stations in this market and have for as long as I can remember, I have never caught someone listening to the same station as me... This time, though, I was able to match her singing (or the movement of her mouth anyway) and bobbing to the song on my radio. That's a first for me. Nothing that notable, but a first nonetheless.

Have you caught this before?

I'm pregnant!

OK, well not really, but someone thinks so. I've been getting free formula, coupons, etc. for about a month now from different companies. Initially I wrote it off as having accidentally checked the wrong box on one of my "free" sites, but the strange thing is that all the stuff is coming to me using my "real name" not the name I go by. Strange. I NEVER use that name...

I'm putting all the stuff to good use though anyway. You're welcome Lily! I bet Thomas Beatie is getting a lot of free baby stuff about now too...

Say that again...?

In my searching for stuff to post here for your perusing enjoyment, I stumbled upon the Useloos site a little bit ago. Problem is, there's a lot of stuff on the site that I can't understand. Some things are pretty obvious and can draw my attention with a little bit of English or a picture, but the site itself is in Dutch. I know I'm missing some really cool stuff because I don't know what they're talking about. NO MORE!

I hadn't bothered with it before tonight, but... GOOGLE to the rescue! Google will translate entire web pages for you (once you figure out what language the site it in). Take a look at Useloos in English. Granted it's machine translation, but still a lot better than I could do even with a dictionary :-) (You can improve Google's translation of a page if you're fluent in the language as well -- just hover over the text with your mouse.)

Have another site that you need translated? Head on over to Google's Language Tools. In fact, I get a lot of visitors from all over the world, so, if English isn't your first language, try the translate button in the lower right corner of this page.

Happy translating!

More Presidential coverage

It's been so hard to get any information on the current presidential contenders here in the US. The news media just refuses to cover it... NOT! Even so, I thought you could use some more political information

According to The Book of Useless Information, by Noel Botham

• More presidents have been born in the state of Virginia than in any other state.
  
• David Rice Atchinson was president of the United States for exactly one day.
  
• George Washington had to borrow money to go to his own inauguration.
  
• Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address consisted of just 272 words.
  
• Herbert Hoover was the first US president to have a telephone in his office.
  
• Jimmy Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital.
  
• Ronald Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

I profess no political affiliation in this blog, just thought the above were interesting...

Great Shot!

My daughter starts a digital photography class this week. She won the week-long class while attending a Radio Disney event last spring. She really likes taking pictures and has an eye for creativity. This picture of two bugs enjoying an afternoon tea in the garden is but one example. I hope that the class gives her a chance to learn some of the mechanics of photography -- lighting, composition, special effects, etc. One thing about digital photography is that it's all about the numbers. The more pictures you take, the more good pictures you'll get -- whether you're a good photographer or not.

Useloos has a gallery of other kids that have been bitten by the photography bug. These are really amazing -- not only for their stunning image, but that these kids were able to place themselves in the position to get the shot!

One step ahead

When you're walking up, or down, stairs the next time, think of the people behind these creative staircases. Even the lowly step can become a work of art. 10 notable staircases from the folks over at Mental Floss. Want more mental enrichment? They have a Mental Floss magazine too! Keep that mind agile!

STOP!

When you hire a consultant, you're not supposed to be just hiring someone to do your "dirtywork." Hire a "dirtywork" company for that stuff. When you hire a consultant, you're hiring someone to consult with you -- hence the consult-ant. They consult because they have the knowledge and skills that you and your company may not have internally.

Sometimes, though, the consultant company is geared too much to just doing the "dirtywork" -- whatever that may be that the company wants, despite their best judgement -- and not sharing, or on occasion, enforcing the right thing to do. I'm sure that you've run across a company like this one that caves to the whim of a demanding, though uninformed, client...

glumbert - Stop Sign Re-Design

The true skill and talent of a consultant is knowing when to say STOP! even if it's not what the client wants to hear. A consultant's job is to use their knowledge and skills in the best interest of the client, not just bow to their uneducated demands if it will be detrimental in the long run.

Am I off-base here? Watch the video to see how far this can go if not checked...