“The iPhone will flop because it doesn’t work with corporate email.” Yep, that’s a problem. For some folks, not for me. I don’t use Outlook outside of the office. If I want to check my corporate email from home or on the road, I log in to our Exchange server from a web browser. At tonight’s Mac user group, George logged me in from his iPhone and –while you can’t sync– you can check your corporate email from the iPhone.
Category Archives: Science & Technology
Missouri’s Gaming Lab
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Met up for coffee with old friend (and former Learfielder) LeAnn McCarthy last week. She’s a PIO (Public Information Officer) for the Missouri Gaming Commission. I think I knew this is the governmental entity responsible for some kind of oversight of Missouri’s casinos, but that’s about it. As LeAnn explained some of the things the commission does, I became more interested and when she told me they have this room where they test and measure and check-out all of the gaming devices, I asked if I could get a look.
It’s called the “Gaming Lab” and it’s filled with what I (a non-gambler) would call “electronic slot machines.” As well as a crap table, a roulette table, and a couple of Black Jack tables. [flickr set]
LeAnn introduced me to Clarence Greeno, the Gaming Enforcement Manager for the commission who was kind enough to answer a few questions and explain some of the commissions many functions and responsibilities.
Clarence showed me another, smaller, room that was filled with surveillance monitors that displayed real-time images from above the gaming tables in the first room. This is exactly like the gear the casinos use (and you’ve seen in countless Las Vegas heist movies).
Several large metal cabinets were filled with chips, dice, playing cards and a variety of scientific-looking instruments for measuring and weighing it all.
Missouri has eleven casinos and the Missouri Gaming Commission is tasked with seeing that the games, the people run them and the people who play them are all on the up-and-up.
I regret not being more prepared but I had no idea of what’s involved. Our chat lasted about half an hour but there was easily another half hour of interesting stuff I missed after turning off the recorder: RFID chips in larger denomination casino chips; ever more sophisticated games designed to appeal to younger players that have grown up with computer games; “Minority Report” games that recognize individual players and “market” to them based on their personal interests and history.
“Hello, Mr. Mays. Back for another run at the Black Jack table. We’ve got a couple of new games that we think you might enjoy. Shall I reconfigure my interface so you can take a look?”
My thanks to Clarence Greeno and LeAnn for their hospitality and a fascinating tour. Before I left, I urged them to consider a weekly podcast about gaming in Missouri and the commission’s role in seeing that everyone plays fair.
New scanner
Dave Winer bought a new scanner recently. He didn’t say much about it… just that it had arrived. My scanner was two or three years old, so –with hardly a thought– I clicked the link (to Amazon) Dave provided and purchased the same scanner.
I had a high level of confidence that Dave knows more about scanners than I do and I couldn’t go wrong following his lead. And I was right.
The CanoScan is fast and produces sharp scans. My favorite feature, however, is the software that enables me to scan four or five photos at once and wind up with individual files. I hate to think of the hours I spent chopping out individual images in Photoshop. And I’m sure I’ll discover many more wonderful features.
I’m sure Canon spends millions in marketing and advertising. But none of those efforts could ever be as effective (for me) as knowing it’s the scanner Dave Winer is using. I have no way of knowing, but I’ll bet he didn’t get a nickel (or a free scanner) from Canon for mentioning their product on his blog. I guess my point has something to do with blogs and trust.
I’ve made a couple of imaging purchases in the last week or two. As I scan more (old) prints and take more digital photos, I need to be sure these images are as good as I can (practically) make them.
Let’s say I took 1,000 photos over the next two years and they weren’t quite as good as they might have been. There’s no way to fix that. I can’t re-take those photos.
At the same time, I’m willing to accept far less than "perfect" images. That’s where Henry works and lives. I make some practical trade-offs.
But the scanning is going much faster now and iPhoto makes it easier to tweak the images and get them on flickr.
Six degrees of Robert Scoble
I think I knew that Robert Scoble once worked with/for Dave Winer at Userland Software, but completely forgot writing this “thank you” to Chris Pirillo, waaaay back in 2002:
“We’re always quick to talk about poor service or support, so I’d like to be equally quick to report a wonderful experience. Based on your recommendation, I purchased a copy of Radio from Userland Software. Total impulse buy. I’d been playing with Blogger and when I saw that you liked Radio, I bought it.
Fact is, I really didn’t need the program and had a little problem getting going and wound up emailing the company for some help. Which I quickly got. In my first email to the company I mentioned that mine was a poorly thought out impulse buy and it would be great if I could “back up” on the purchase, never expecting the company to go along.
Today I got a very nice email from Robert Scoble, refunding my purchase. I immediately sent along my thanks and –in his reply– got an invite to Gnomedex 02! Just a nice way to end the day. You can’t go wrong dealing with the Lockergnome community.”
Small world.
Everything Is Miscellaneous
David Weinberger’s latest book —Everything Is Miscellaneous— is a philosophical look at “the power of the new digital disorder.” A few nuggets:
“Individuals thinking out loud now have weight, and authority and expertise are losing some of their gravity. It’s not whom you report to and who reports to you or how you filter someone else’s experience. It’s how messily you are connected and how thick with meaning are the links.
It’s not what you know, and it’s not even who you know. It’s how much knowledge you give away. Hoarding knowledge diminishes your power because it diminishes your presence. (p.230)
“A playlist is an important means of self-expression. The motivation is to say, ‘This is who I am, and you can find out who i am by knowing what I love.'” Attributed to Rebecca Tushnet, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. (p.159)
“Physical limitations on how we have organized information have not only limited our vision, they have also given the people who control the organization of information more power than than those who create the information. Editors are more powerful than reporters, and communication syndicates are more powerful than editors because they get to decide what to bring to the surface and what to ignore.(p.89)
“Facts are that about which we no longer argue.” (p.214)
“A span of expertise is about as long as a shelf in a library.” (p.205)
Seth Godin: “Blow up your home page”
“Do you really need a home page? Does the web respect it?
Human beings don’t have home pages. People make judgments about you in a thousand different ways. By what they hear from others, by the way they experience you, and on and on. Companies may have a website, but they don’t have a home page in terms of the way people experience them.
The problem with home page thinking is that it’s a crutch. There’s nothing wrong with an index, nothing wrong with a page for newbies, nothing wrong with a place that makes a first impression when you get the chance to control that encounter. But it’s not your ‘home’. It’s not what the surfer/user wants, and when it doesn’t match, they flee.
You don’t need one home page. You need a hundred or a thousand. And they’re all just as important.”
This post by Seth Godin perfectly says what I’ve struggled to communicate to clients and friends as I try to steer them away from traditional “home page” websites… and toward blogs. It’s a hard sell because it’s easy to throw up some bull shit copy from those old corporate brochures we spent so much on, and really hard to engage with your customers in a fresh, timely and relevant way.
Bringo: Talk to a real human
Call a customer service phone number and end up in automated operator hell. With Bringo, you don’t even need to dial your phone. Just find the company you want to talk to in their directory, type in your phone number, and a couple of minutes later Bringo calls you and connects you to an operator at that company. [via Tech Crunch]
Branding Yourself
“Personal branding is something I get a lot of questions about. People often ask me what they should do in order to get an established name out there and be seen as a major influencer in their industry. The reason they want this is because the second you accomplish this, the opportunities will come your way and you’d be amazed at the kind of business or money that just lands in your lap.” — Neil Patel at Pronet Advertising
I don’t remember hearing much about “personal branding” before blogs and podcasting. But if there is an “smays brand,” you’ll find it here.
I had lunch today with Chuck Zimmerman and it would be hard to find a better example of this concept. He and his wife Cindy work too hard to say the money “just lands in (their) lap,” but they’ve certainly created a unique brand in the world of agriculture marketing. I’d love to share some of Chuck’s amazing success stories but before he pays for lunch, he makes me sign an NDA.
What’s your brand?
NASA intros offbeat video podcast
Podcasting News: “NASA has launched a new video podcast, NASA EDGE, that provides an offbeat look at the nation’s aerospace program. The hosts of NASA EDGE offer an unscripted take on the latest events at NASA.”
How easy it would have been for a big old gov’ment agency like NASA to do a boring, lame-ass video podcast. Real easy. I don’t know if this will catch on but somebody gets it.
Unexpected uses of iPods
Like all good lists, there are 10 of these but my favorites are:
- Train Doctors to Save Lives: iPods can double interns’ ability to identify heart sounds
- Bring Criminals to Justice: using iPods to hold copies of wiretap transmissions in a large drug-conspiracy case.
- Record Flight data: iPods as flight data recorders in light aircraft.
- Flashlight: For about $13, you can purchase Griffin’s iBeam, an attachment that will quickly turn your iPod into a combo flashlight and laser pointer.