I'm going through a phrase...

By I.J. Hudson

As my profile suggests, I love words – and the language those words give life to.  I’ve always found it amazing that we have so many words that mean different things.  Of course, I’ve heard that other languages may have as many as 12 words that mean different kinds of ice – BUT, I don’t know those languages. I am feintly familiar with hours. (couldn’t resist). 

I do remember my grandmother – (her mind was a steel trap until her death in 2001) – using the word, “grip” to describe a suitcase.  I looked it up and found baggage, suitcase, luggage – just to get started. Those words were just openers.Words that sound the same but mean different things are called homonyms.  Maybe there's a word that describes one phrase that means several things.  I don't know.

More recently, I noticed several meanings for the phrase, “put you down.” 

1)       Lower to the ground/floor

2)      Make disparaging remarks; e.g., “you scumbag!”

3)      Ummm – take you out, turn out the lights, etc. (Theme from “The Godfather”)

This is not a short post to remind you that words and phrases can take on different meanings, but to underscore the need to be precise in the words you’re thinking about using.  Weigh them carefully – just as potential candidates for a presidential nomination do.

----

Wait ---- please be a bit more careful than that. Choosing the wrong word is not mitt-out its risks.

Chase: Opt-In switcheroo

By I.J. Hudson

I can remember all of the talk about opt-in/opt-out – which was the “fairer” way to treat consumers?

It was kind of a no-brainer.  You shouldn’t have to change anything to keep companies from sending you stuff.  If you want to receive emails about their latest offers, new products or a newsletter you should opt-in.  Do nothing, you get nothing.

Along comes Chase.  Yes, I have a credit card with them so there’s a “relationship,” but what I received in the mail is a little disturbing, if not disingenuous.  Chase mails me a cleverly crafted form that tells me I haven’t been receiving stuff from them and they need to update what I receive.  I’m instructed to block out the circles of things I do NOT want to receive, sign it and return it in the enclosed envelope.  If I don’t do anything I may start receiving things.  I admit they did underline do not.

The letter goes on to say whatever I decide will remain in effect for five years.  After that, or if I move to a new residence, “you’ll need to renew all of your mailing options.”  I will have to renew my options!

I presume there is nothing illegal about this, but I don’t like it.  It’s certainly not following “permission-based” marketing that is supposed to connect with customers and build loyalty.  I wonder what would happen if I sent a letter to Chase that read, “unless you fill out the attached form and fill in the oval that my interest rate will not go to 0%...it will.”  Obviously nothing, but I wish I could get away with that.

I did have the option of going online to make my choices.  Oddly enough, I elected not to receive anything from Chase.

You get the picture.  Does Chase?

When a Link isn't Quite Enough

By I.J. Hudson

I’ve written before about the differences between reading a news story online and reading it in the “paper.”  I won’t bore you with a repeat, but I did notice something interesting yesterday that adds another element in the pixel v. paper arguments.

Often, people send me links to stories, or the stories are included in a “clips” format.  You just follow the link, or in the case of clips, just read them.

Earlier this week, I reached a particular story through one of the supplied links.  When you do that, all you see on the display is the story.  Pretty simple. In this case, I knew the background on the piece and when reading it by following the link, the story struck me as “reasonable.”

It wasn’t until I saw the print version that it really hit me.  This had been the lead story – the front page story in a local publication.  Following the link had eliminated the “placement” or importance the publication put on the story. 

What’s the point?  If you generally go to the homepages of news websites, you can get a sense of placement - what their editors think is important, and what people are going to see/read first.  But if you merely follow links, provided either by a friend or something like “Google Alerts” you can miss something. Not the words, but a part of the visual context others are seeing.

Just a thought.   

Is My Filter Too Tight?

By I.J. Hudson

A frequent topic these days is TMI, too much information.  How do you cut down on the stuff coming in so you can really focus on the things that are important?

I’m going to take a slightly different position:  filtering the content coming to you is a wonderful and dangerous thing. 

          Filtering can improve the odds that you see only what you think you want to see.

          Filtering can improve the odds that you will NOT see things that are not of immediate interest, BUT could be important to your long term goals, just fun or a new, previously unknown interest.

Let’s fast backward to a time when bandwidth was slim, storage was sparse, and you were still fighting between buying the morning paper or reading online.  Services like PointCast let you choose sources within categories/topics of news to be delivered to a “ticker” on your machine.  The warning back then, as it is now, is that you shouldn’t “check” too many boxes or you’ll be flooded with information.

It’s a little like using a net to catch fish.  You catch the big ones, the fish you really want, but all the little ones get through.  Sometimes the little ones are really important – spark a new interest or mesh with a bigger objective.

I’m not saying filtering incoming stuff isn’t important, I’m just suggesting that occasionally we need to adjust the filter to let some “new” things come through.  Many important discoveries have begun with a search for a solution to problem A, only to have that search produce a great product that solves an entirely different problem.

Filter for your future. 

2001: Texting, DVDs, ServerVault and More.

By I.J. Hudson

2001 was a busy year for technology – heck, they have all been busy.  But 2001 planted a lot of seeds that spawned technologies we use a decade later.

iRhythm was a 2001 transceiver that picked up Internet radio or mp3s from your computer and transmitted them wirelessly to a stereo system.  Now, we can do that with Netflix and other video sources.

Security was all the rage.  ServerVault was getting ready to open in Sterling, VA. It would be a 10,000 square feet bunker for servers – protected against weather, power issues and cyber terrorism.  Even the servers were protected by Lampertz (a kind of Kevlar) to keep projectiles out – if anyone ever got inside. It was acquired in 2009 by Carpathia Hosting.

For local Washington, DC area folks, Cable TV Montgomery was ushered aside and Comcast took its place.  The new guys promised download speeds of at least 1 megabit-per-second, and no phone line would be required for the upstream side.  Amazing!

Zairmail served as a bridge for those who had email to those who didn’t.  At the time, perhaps half of Americans didn’t have email.  Now Zairmail seems to be all about direct mail.  Send us your message, your address list (or we have lists) and we’ll send out the direct mail for you – not to inboxes, but to mailboxes.

Hey, did you ever hear of texting?  Verizon started pushing it in 2001 with “free” texting over Valentine’s Day (and a few weeks beyond) to let your “fingers do the talking.”  Looks like after a decade it may have caught on.  According to the CTIA, in 2010 Americans sent about 187.7 billion text messages a month. 

Under the category of something that’s taking longer than we thought – paperless Dr.’s offices.  The promise was quicker diagnosis, notes translation, bills, insurance submitted, tests ordered and set up.  And perhaps, most importantly, it would produce a legible prescription.  Some doctors I know use tablets to look up drug interactions, take notes, etc., but few are totally wireless. 

And the transition from CDs to DVDs was underway.  Software folks realized DVDs could hold more than movies – and that a few DVDs could replace dozens of CDs for programs and storage. Of course, we now have thumb drives that hold more than our early computer hard drives.

And that's just at the beginning of the year.  More to come.

May I Have a Word(s) With You?

By I.J. Hudson

I’m going to begin this post by saying there is no point I’m trying to make.  I’m just putting down a few words as they come to my mind.  I’ll figure out how to arrange the words later.  Maybe I’ll actually put some thought into what I’m writing.   

That’s as far as I’ll go before saying….when trying to make a point (or sell something):

Start with a blank sheet or screen.  Try to make every word, every phrase, every image you add earn its space.   Anything that doesn’t bring strong support to your message doesn’t belong.  

Sometimes an image is stronger than words. We may remember an image longer than words.  But it’s not really a matter of a balance between the two.  It’s a matter of effect. Which combination works best at telling your story?  Maybe it's only words.

When you’re competing for attention, it’s all about getting the message across accurately, concisely and making it memorable enough to make it worth passing along.  

Anything extra just gets in the way. Often, saying less is actually letting MORE come through.

I can write all day ----------- but that won't hold your attention.

But a few well-crafted phrases can.

Speed Cameras - Not So Fast!

By I.J. Hudson

It was one of those moments.  It was the intersection of technology, law-abiding citizen and the fear of being caught speeding.

It’s about those pesky cameras along the highways that can catch you speeding.  It’s widely publicized (and the law in MD) that the cameras give you 11 mph OVER the speed limit before the “flash” and ensuing ticket in the mail.  No points, just a ticket for 40-dollars.  11-miles OVER. Did I mention, OVER!!

Okay, here’s the thing.  Even though we’ve been told we get 11 mph to spare, many of us are afraid to put that into the equation – at least by the way we drive. Introduce a speed camera and we freeze up. 

(hushed)  Maybe they lied.  Maybe it’s really set for 10 mph over the limit and they’re playing us. Or 5. 

Let’s say the speed limit is 35.  That means you would have to be going at least 47 for the light to flash and to be “caught” breaking the law.   

Paranoia sets in.  Maybe "they" lied.  The technology could measure when we’re only ONE mile over the limit.  My speedometer is probably wrong.  I’m going to get a ticket.  I’ll slow down to 34…33…32…31.. I’m NOT going to get caught. I'll have to hit the brakes.  My car does 35 all by itself.  Oops.  Almost a rear ender.

If an officer (my son is a cop) sets up a speed trap, he/she would probably give you at least 10 miles over the limit before pulling you over.  Some will even give you 15 mph over the limit just to make sure you don’t challenge the ticket in court.  And if you saw a real speed trap, you would slow down to 5 miles or so over the limit. No biggie.  Most of us drive over the limit all the time.

And face it - on the big highways, you set the cruise control to at least 5 or 6 miles over the limit – maybe 10!! And don’t worry about getting a ticket. You don't even pop a bead of sweat when you pass an officer just waiting for that special speeder doing 25 over the limit.

So why do people approaching speed cameras S-L-O-W down to 5 miles below the limit??!! 

Beats me. 

Technology scares us, while real speed traps don't???

CueCat, Internet Radio - Pandora and Digital Photography Takes Hold

By I.J. Hudson

Only 11 years ago, the fight to transmit 100 channels of music/talk from geosynchronous satellites to your car or home began.  Let’s have launch.  The New York based Sirius put the first of its 3 satellites up.  XM was a little late putting up its two birds, but on the ground was building a gorgeous set of studios in a converted printing plant in Northeast Washington, DC.  As the saying goes in The Highlander, “there can be only one.”  And now, after a lot of struggles, there is – only one.  XM Satellite Radio dissolved early in 2011 and was merged into Sirius XM.

Speaking of music, the progression of Internet Radio is certain worth a mention.  I remember visiting an Internet radio station operating out of a very, very small studio in Alexandria.  If I remember correctly, it was a room off a store. Early Internet radio was a bit on the sketchy side – audio quality not so good at first because of noisy phone lines, etc.  Obviously, things sped up and quality improved. While a little thing like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act muddied up the waters, Internet radio survived the tumultuous changes in the music industry.  Then Apple’s iTunes came along in 2003…and more sea changes followed.  Now, if you mention Internet radio, names like Pandora come up.  Cool.  The quality is good, wide selection. I’m listening as I write this.

Digital cameras were starting to take hold.  Digital quality didn’t match film yet, but you still had the advantage of deleting a bad picture and taking another bad picture.  Storage was on floppies or super disks.  Owners bought stock in battery companies.

External hard drives to store all of these pictures and the coming video revolution were coming of age.  Maxtor offered a full 80 GB of storage for only $360.  

Privacy was being debated at every level.  Website that would protect your identity popped up – anonymize.com and zero knowledge were a couple of them.

I close out the year 2000 with CueCat.  Some of you who remember this little device will smile.  The short story is CueCat (attached to your computer) was a scanner that read a bar-coded hyperlink in a magazine or cat-alog. And when you saw the perfect BMW in the auto magazine and ran CueCat across the bar-code, your browser would be taken to the “landing page” for the Beamer you were looking out.  It was also used to take Olympic fans to pages specific to events they were reading about.  Radio Shack, Forbes and Wired magazines were major partners. This cat did not have nine lives…….

I apologize for the number of posts today.  Once I got started reviewing my scripts from 2000, I realized that I had to keep going. It was a big and busy year for tech.  It brought back a lot of memories about the seeds of change along the Information Superhighway (remember when we used it call it that!!!)  Some of the seeds grew; others didn’t – but, it’s a very wide and very fertile field.  And we just keep planting more seeds to see what survives.

The Maturing of the Net and the Pluses and Minuses That Came With it.

 By I.J. Hudson

As the number of websites exploded so did the amount of information to sift through and to gauge its credibility.  The Internet was no longer the exclusive domain (sorry) if the white male geek.  The rest of us were joining the party, and by 2000 half of the netizens were female.  They used the Internet a bit differently from men, and in particular, were interested in health information for their families and themselves.

A group called the Alliance for Aging Research had been around for a few years and served as a clearinghouse for reliable health info. A lot of bad info promising cures for this and that was all over the place.  The Alliance is still around today.

It may not have been the first use of social engineering, but the “I Love You” virus certainly caused a stir. people were apparently eager to believe someone actually loved them, so they clicked on the email attachment.  That triggered a little program that sent the virus to everyone in the person’s Outlook Contacts.  Ah, sharing the love.

I interviewed a young CEO of an internet security firm about viruses.  The company was RIPTech; his name, Amit Yoran.  One of his quotes from my story: “We need to be ready to protect our infrastructure.” Yoran went on to become the National Cyber Security Division Director for Homeland Security, and then on to other things.

Cell phones, wireless phones, smart phones – whatever we call them ---- we had about 92M of them in the U.S. in the year 2000; now it’s more than 300M.  And about 26% of us use only a wireless phone – no landline. You can get more stats at the CTIA’s website.

AvantGo was an interesting mobile service that was trying to bridge desktops with the “almost” wireless world of Windows CE and Palm organizers.  Believe it or not these devices could store email and news.  When you synched – you got new stuff from AvantGo sources.  AvantGo is no longer in this bizz. 

In 2000, the music industry was busy shooting itself in the foot - and suing Napster.  The suit charged Napster was enabling piracy.  My, how the business model for online music has changed. 

Vision III Imaging is still out there.  I saw some of the neatest video at their place in Northern Virginia.  They developed MOE, a Moving Optical Element.  The iris of the camera was computer controlled for exposure and scanning – and the frequency at which the iris moved determined how much information would be picked up in the frame.  The results were impressive.  I would love to catch up with these guys….

Shave and a Haircut - Two Bits of Social Media

I got a haircut this morning.  It’s a Saturday morning ritual that happens about every three weeks.  Not a big deal in my life, but often my time in the chair at this Darnestown, MD shop does three things.

1.      It gives me a chance to talk to George (my guy) and to look and listen as others carry on their conversations. The guys that own the shop are Greek-Americans and the home language is spoken to some customers who come from far away to sit in the chair and chat.

2.       It gives me the chance to observe small things, including acts of human kindness and marketing (intended or not).  As many of you know, I spent many years watching and listening, and about 1:30 each day talking - (TV stories)

3.       It takes me back to my boyhood days when the barbershop was full of cigarette smoke, sports and “other” types of magazines – and gossip.  This was back when the Coke machine was a cooler with metal guides.  You lifted the bottle slightly to move it to “exit.”  If you had put in a dime, the “exit” was unlocked and you could pull one coke straight up….and out.

Item three is mostly nostalgia, but Items one and two actually merge.   This morning, an older gentleman got out of the senior barber’s chair.  The senior barber is the Dad of the family that bought the shop several years ago.  As the customer went for his wallet, the barber just waved him off and very quietly said, “next time.”  The customer was stunned for a moment and then left.  Fifteen minutes later he was back and said, “it bothers me, please take something.”  The response:  “Naw, get out of here!  Next time.”  And the man said “thanks” and left with a smile.

This, in my opinion, is a combination of a nice man being nice, a random act of kindness – nothing more than that.  But for anyone paying attention, what they saw was a reason to tell people about this shop.  They already had reasons to come here themselves: The haircuts are good, prices haven’t changed in several years ($15) and they even shave your neck like the old style barbers.  Now some of the customers who saw this exchange will pass it on to friends (Facebook and otherwise).  

That wasn’t why the barber gave a free haircut this morning, but it is something that makes a shop stand out and prompts “fans” to tell others, whether by word of mouth or by word of pixel. 

Social media.  It’s free and is practiced even when you don’t know you’re doing it. It’s not even your choice.  I saw something in real life and said, “I’ve got to write about this.”   My choice.  I’m sharing observations with those who will bother to read what I’ve got to say. 

Sometimes you can just be yourself in business, and let others observe and pass it forward.