Chaos Tamer
The SCAA, Specialty Coffee Association of America has pretty cool conventions (for coffee geeks). I haven’t been to one of these since I left Starbucks. However, I’m quite tempted to make my way down again. I love coffee and coffee sector. There is still the desire that someone else pay the registration fee, but oh well.
Anyway, here’s a little video introducing the SCAA membership to Seattle.
“Adventure, excitement: a Jedi craves not these things”. Wise word from Master Yoda. Have you ever wondered about the roots of this wisdom? Why is this wise?
Craving adventure to cure boredom is this problem, the weakness of personality. Making others responsible for your entertainment externalizes problem solving, makes it harder to solve issues, weakens your personal power.
Interest and excitement can easily be found through exploration, through learning. Boredom’s cure is easy. Simply own the results, the process. Make it yours, embrace it deeply. That’s the path to a fulfilling and rich life.
I first stumbled upon the Piano Guys with the video below. I find their work well done and fun. They clearly enjoy performing.
And, lo, I see that they’re in town this week (Thursday the 6th) at the Paramont. However, the sticker shock along with the fact I’m already heading to Spam-a-lot this weekend will force this off my plate. However, if you’re looking for something to do Thursday night, give them a whirl. I highly recommend them. And enjoy the song below.
I was recently engaged in an online debate about sexual shaming as a response to “disagreement”, or a dislike for reporting. In the discussion, the focus, Amy Harmon with the NYTimes asked me to look at her GMO story with fresh eyes. And so I tired.
A bit of background is important at this point. I have years of experience on the “con” side of this issue. I’ve worked in environmental affairs, been involved with myriad environmental action groups; hell, I drive a Prius. And I’ve read over the years the stories about increased cancer risk, Monstanto’s seed police, contaminated soils, and myriad other concerns. Yet I also recognize science evolves, that what we understand about any particular subject gathers more information, different analyses; that the scientific consensus may change. Plus, I’m willing to admit that I am often within an political echo-chamber, where truly hearing other voices can be rather difficult.
With that, I decided to read the article with as open a mind as I can muster. Ms. Harmon does a great job providing in-depth research that challenges my mindset. But, also, I see that this issue is a giant, freakin’ muddle. I’ve spent a little time digging, exploring and counter-exploring. The main thing I’ve learned at this point: this is no easy project. I found this quote over at Nature perfect:
People are positively swimming in information about GM technologies. Much of it is wrong — on both sides of the debate. But a lot of this incorrect information is sophisticated, backed by legitimate-sounding research and written with certitude. (With GM crops, a good gauge of a statement’s fallacy is the conviction with which it is delivered.)
I found another writer looking to make sense of all of this, over with my friends at Grist, Nathanael Johnson. He started a series on GMO foods, starting with “The genetically modified food debate: Where do we begin?” If you have an interest in this subject, I suggest you give the series a read.
I intend to continue my dive into this. Feel free to follow my reading via my Delicious account. This will serve as something of a bibliography on the matter for me. As of right now, my brain is full. And, ultimately, I really want to do the subject justice.
I groaned when I saw this come through my Twitter feed:
Jumping straight to the Nazi/Hitler comparison’s really streamlines the descent to trollish online discussion. No need to wade through all that high-falutin, intellectual discussion; jump straight to the trash talk! Weak rhetorical technique, I’m afraid. I won’t bother with deconstructing the analogy Mr. Perkins presents, Tim Fernholz did a good job at that on Quartz. I do, however, want to explore the main point: the growing discontent at our income disparity.
Mr. Perkins statement brings to mind a misconception that’s paralyzing the income inequality debate. “You’re just jealous of our success”, generally rattled off defensively. Now I’ve grown weary of this. It’s simply knee-jerk defensive justification that serves no purpose. Simply, it’s folks’ like Mr. Perkins way to avoid dealing with the larger issue. And, of course, the role they play both in the causality of the situation and any solution.
There is a growing groundswell of discontent at the ever widening income disparity gap. From the Occupy Movement to efforts to raise the minimum wage, we’re seeing a populist swelling of “dislike” for the current status quo. There are a number of articles on the subject of the income disparity between CEO and Average Worker pay, some stating it’s as much as 400 times more. But let’s take a more conservative number, From Bloomberg, “Across the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of companies, the average multiple of CEO compensation to that of rank-and-file workers is 204…”. What’s more telling, though is that this is growing, “…up 20 percent since 2009”. Economic growth is concentrating in the hands of a very few, while the work is done more broadly. That’s the root of the discontent. And, with that, I don’t feel there’s a great demand for a Robin Hood-eque income reallocation. To take the campaign to raise the minimum wage as an example, the statement really is that more of the profit from that burger (or whatever minimum wage product is being produced) needs to go the cook, and less to the CEO (and other executives) of burger company X.
Personally, I have no issue with some income differential. And I imagine that most people in the US, at least, don’t. However, there comes a point when the rewards of work and initiative are not shared justly that people rebel. It looks like people are feeling these rates are exploitive, and hence morally reprehensible. That’s, ultimately, what needs to be addressed. Whining that progressives aren’t being nice to you adds nothing the debate, and, actually, makes the 1% look crass and uncaring. Mr. Perkins’ op-ed comes across as a temper-tantrum, which is sad. The larger, and more critical, debate will now be lost in the Twitter backlash. At least, for now.
I’ve been spending more time on Google+ lately (here’s the link to my Google+ page). Twitter has been my biggest site of late, with Facebook being a solid second. However, I’m beginning to see some solid value in the Google+ platform.
The main thing I like: larger posting sizes than Twitter. Twitter was designed around SMS limiting factors. The character limits don’t, as a general rule, bother me. However, there are times I like the larger posts and Google+ seems to fit the bill better.
Also, especially when compared to Facebook, filtering content and controlling what you see, and who sees your posts, Google+ is clearly better. The interface is cleaner and more straightforward.
It also helps that Google has stated on multiple occasions that it is prioritizing Google+ posts and content. One does need to consider SEO value as well.
Lastly, and most important to me, Google+ is still pretty new. The feeds I see are still quite free of trollish behavior. It’s a much more pleasant experience. Will that change if/when the platform takes off? That’s my concern. But, for now, it’s a fun world with interesting discussions delightfully free of troll-bait.
The past few years I’ve worked in real estate. One thing I’ve noticed: a general dis-trust, or at least dislike for many technological solutions. The slow adoption of e-Signatures are one that particularly get me. It’s hysterical to me how many institutions refuse to accept them. Many of the government owned properties as well major banks amongst them. It’s so much easier to forge a ink signature compared to electronic, that I really am not certain that’s the reason for the refusal.
These institutions tend to have very rigid, and exacting, contract terms, what they want signed and all that. I’ve wondered for quite some time why they don’t each build their own website for the offer and contract process. Electronic forms can be set to demand a signature/initial for each item, with prompts set up and refusing to advance in the process until completed. It seems so much cleaner to have folks go to a website and fill out the form with prompts than to email me information, I enter into a website, the site prompts negotiation points, email those to other party (redo until agreement reached), print a contract, email the contract, print it, review it, sign it, rescan it, email it back, then upload to some site. If nothing else, these multiple steps violate the basic principles of data normalization. Which, to me, is begging for trouble.
I expect that technology will make real impacts in this space soon. Now that e-signatures are part of our MLS, many real estate services provide that complimentary, the demand will clear and straightforward. Hopefully, the better security will become more obvious, too. And I see some great innovation opportunities (easy and simple idea: dialog box pops out to highlight a key contract term…just a simple, easy example). Slow but steady evolution will come, surely.
My started with a few chums wishing me a happy birthday. Problem? It’s not my birthday (October, if you care). Turns out, my Skype profile was displaying today is my day of happiness and aging acknowledgment.
My profile in Skype was right. So, after a brief, and fruitless, web search, it finally occurred to me, “check the website”. Sure enough, my profile at Skype.com was pretty weirdly messed up. My full name appeared in my First Name spot, my picture was gone, and my birthday was today. Oddly, I made the edits, clicked save, then pinged a friend to see if they’d taken. Nope. Then I tried the slow approach. Changed the profile pic. Saved. Clicked out, then back into my profile. Edit. Change Name. Out. Then back. Change birthday. Out. Back. I’ve logged out, then back in. The changes seem to be holding. We’ll see.
My theory is something got mucked up during the port over the Microsoft. Perhaps with the interconnection with my Hotmail account. Or, well, who knows. Just, hopefully, it’s fixed.
Technology makes your life better…when it works.
Cheers!
After reading this TechCruch piece on Coin, I’m wondering if, someday, credit card companies will stop producing the plastic throw-away cards. This future would see us using our cell phones with NFC functionality or tools like Coin. That should reduce the amount of plastic added to our waste stream, and, I expect, lower costs for the credit-card industry. They won’t need to manufacture, much less distribute cards.
I also hope gift cards will evolve this way. One example: I get a number of Starbucks cards as thank-yous for various efforts. The first thing I do with them is transfer the balance onto my iPhone’s Starbucks app, then toss the card. Usually, the plastic card is in my possession from a few minutes to a day. It’s really rather wasteful.
So, green benefits and cost savings; what a better win/win combination, right?
I’m suffering a bit from Android Envy, centered around the app Mighty Text. This makes Android phones more compelling to me. And, sadly, there isn’t an iPhone version, nor competing product…well, at least not on Windows. Now I get Apple, and understand why they haven’t/won’t make a Windows version of the product: Apple’s drive for their products integration. Perhaps, though, there’s a way for Apple to build a tool and expand their market-share of another Apple product: Safari.
My idea: integrate iMessage functionality with Safari. Let me send/receive SMS messages via my iPhone from my Safari browser. That would drive me to use Safari nearly exclusively. Right now, on my work PC, I use (in order from most to least used) Firefox, Chrome, IE, then Safari; on my Mac, Chrome, Firefox then Safari. I tend to only use Safari extensively on my iPhone.
So, here’s a way to expand Apple’s hold in one market, increase the functionality of a key tool, and help make iPhone’s that much more usable. Apple, what says you?