Jun

29

On Oil

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Hubbert peak graph showing the world's oil production peak.

Image via Wikipedia

A while ago, George wrote about the new fees for flying. Lacey pointed out how the price of oil affects the cost of running an airline. Thoughts about these have been lurking in my head ever since. Today I have watched a couple times a speech given by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett on how oil production is about to peak. The transcript helped the second time through. (Wikipedia on Hubbert Peak Theory) I also watched A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash on Netflix’s Watch Instantly.

Bartlett quoted Thomas Friedman:

Our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy, then you want to raise taxes on the things that you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

(Bolded for emphasis; even though italics is emphasis.)

While this may not be a strategy, Bartlett does not point out keeping our economy in a positive growth direction has been the emphasis for the past 30 years. Cheap oil keeps factories running, keeps transportation moving, and forms the basis of our plastic-based society. Without cheap oil, we could not maintain the wonderful society we have today.

In Europe, they discourage the use of oil by much high taxes on it. The cost of this approach is we would almost certainly also enter into a recession for some time. Would it be the end of the world? No.

I don’t think our leaders completely ignored the problem as Bartlett suggests. They gambled on the choice technology would make alternatives cheaper by now and conservation would bridge the gap. They wanted their party to remain in power, so they would not have Instituted policy which would cause voters short-term pain with long-term benefits (despite the long-term benefits once through the pain).

That may be the kind of leader we need, but I would be surprised for such a person to get elected President of the United States.

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Jun

14

Lost in Communication

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Would you believe United States employees cost their employers $650 billion in productivity costs in the seconds it takes for them to return attention back to the task at hand? The time spans lost are the same amount of time required to interpret a CAPTCHA. E-mail, instant messaging, Twitter, etc. are all distractions from getting the work done. Those who choose to disconnect or limit the distractions improve their productivity. At least that is what the technology corporations studying the problem have decided. I have my doubts. This sounds like a restating of “all employees with access to the Internet just surf all day and get nothing done.”

What I like about instant messengers is they are more efficient than email but cheaper than a long distance phone call. By marking availability status, employees alert others not to contact them. Employees also may ignore messages until they have are done concentrating on the task at hand. Another article, also from the New York Times, supports this view employees using instant messengers effectively are not distracting.

Looking at an alert just to decide whether to respond would “waste time.” Then again, so would talking about a cool movie, the family, or any of the standard means of bonding which establish trust between individuals (without which far more time would be wasted in mistrust).

Guess there will be more research to debate what is really the problem.
:)

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Mar

2

Ultimatums

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Do ultimatums really work? The recent Screen Writers’ Guild delivered an ultimatum that all their members would stop work unless the production studios met their demands. Months of non-work before both sides… What? Compromised….

Apparently the “kids” on Facebook has a ton of ideas about what ultimatums ought to be issued.

Feb

23

Blackboard Won Suit Against D2L

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Blackboard acquired patent ‘138 and brought a lawsuit against Desire2Learn. I would say 80-90% of the commentary about this case has been from anti-Blackboard crowd with about 90% of the rest from the let’s-wait-and-see crowd. Blackboard very much has been mum on the subject. I do not recall a blog of a single Blackboard supporter saying how great it will be for them to win this case. All I have seen are assurances from Bb they do not intend to sue into the ground open source (after EDUCAUSE got on Bb’s case).

I understand motivations for filing a patent request. I understand why they started the lawsuit after getting the patent. What I don’t understand is the reasoning for why the patent was awarded. Also, I don’t understand why Blackboard won the lawsuit. In truth, I probably both have more and less information.

  1. Examiner’s notes would describe the other bases of information about the decision.
  2. Transcripts of the trial would describe what information the jury heard.

Lacking, this information, I cannot really put myself in the shoes of the people who made these decisions to understand why they were made.

In the realm of public opinion, Blackboard certainly has given its vocal detractors very strong ammunition. Mainly the complaints are about using lawsuits to suppress smaller companies and establish dominance rather than innovation to win over new customers. It is about fear and uncertainty.

Drink the Kool-Aid!!

Jan

25

Solve Problems With a Prize

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I wonder if maybe we could use the prize process to get a solution to some of our problems? Decide how much its worth and offer the money to whomever solves the problem. Right now we hire consultants.

The X-Prize uses this model. Are there others?

Dec

15

Maybe Now We’ll Be Heard?

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Its funny. Apparently its time consuming for companies to conduct brand analysis (just know what is being said about them). So a niche has been filled by Scout Labs and others. (Hopefully Scout is paying attention and is reading this. Maybe Umbria will also comment their product is better. :D)

On the one hand, I think more companies ought to pay attention. In addition, I hope through honest reflection they use the reactions exposed online to make improvements. For example, I will pick on Blackboard (the company I pick on most). A complaint about documentation from Laura Gekeler’s blog resulted in a contact from a senior director offering help. There are dozens of people who blog about their experiences with Blackboard. I doubt most of them are on the radar of Blackboard’s marketing folks.

How many of these posts help to sway the impressions to Blackboard brands? My readership is tiny. The same compliment issued on my blog, Laura’s blog, and a top blogger would help the brand most coming from the top blogger. So far, except for the patent rumble, the top bloggers and sites like Slashdot have remained mostly silent. The profile of the typical blogger who will mention Blackboard is that of a user. Students mention having to use it for a class. Faculty members mention putting something up for a class they teach. Instructional designers talk about building classes. The smallest but most vocal group are the technical behind the scenes people (like me) who have to make this stuff run. None of these build a huge following. At best we read each others’ blogs so we influence each other than the masses.

Something that used to bother me is the appeal to being a publicly traded company as the reason why they are mostly silent. That is quite okay with me. Just fix it and don’t say anything.
:)

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Nov

16

Open Letter to HP / Mercury Support

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Hi,

Your Mexican hold musak shows your obvious great taste. Why interrupt it every 30 seconds with, “Please standby. Your call is important to us.”? I know its important or you would not have let me stay on the line for 23 minutes.

The lady in India who talked to me handled to the case with the upmost professionalism. Thankfully suggesting maybe she try the incident number helped her find the case. Likewise, providing the product number helped her determine what monitors I need because it wasn’t clear from the receipts or saved download page. Keeping all the emails helped ensure I had all the documentation she needed.

I am most grateful she pronounced my name correctly. That seems difficult for Americans?

The case was only open 16 hours before calling you to ask for help. Your support site emailed me to let me know someone looked at the case three hours or so after it was opened. Too bad no one sent an email or anything in the 13 hours later.

I thought Behind the Blackboard was horrible for a support web site. Now, I appreciate it as a gem compared to your HP support site. When the decisions were made to both investigate and buy LoadRunner, I visited the Mercury support site to determine what we would need. Information was decently easy to locate. Contacting support led to talking or writing to individuals who helped educate me as to what I needed. If we were making the same decision now, then I would have communicated to those making the decision my concerns about your ability to support this product.

Ezra

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Nov

14

Public Performance and Universities

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Since restaurants get sued for not paying royalties for public performances of copyrighted music, it seems likely playing a song at an athletic event is a public performance. I wonder how much the UGA Athletics or just UGA pays ASCAP for the ability to do this? Certainly, its not academic use.
:)

Youuuuuuu - Red & Black Sports

In a craze that has swept much of the nation, the “Soulja Boy” dance has caught on in a big way with Georgia football. During home games against Ole Miss and Auburn when the Bulldogs were down, the song has cranked through the speakers and pumped up the players on the sideline, to the delight of the fans.

In an unrelated note: if the RIAA gets its way through a US House bill, then universities will have to pay millions for monthly subscription fees whether or not individual students are or are not downloading music. Plus, they have to prove they are stopping students from downloading illegally. The repercussions of not doing these being the loss of federal financial aid.

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Sep

24

Cell Phone Madness

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In case you haven’t noticed, I have have a new cell phone. Give me a call if you have my phone number. Actually, if you can find the number, then I’d even more love for you to call. :) If only to congratulate your mad skillz.

Back in December I read online Amazon had fantastic deals on cell phones with purchase of a plan. So I looked. It occurred to me I ought to be at the end of my 2 year agreement. I checked and sure enough I was. However, did I really want a new phone? What features did I want? Maybe I should switch carriers? The iPhone announcement surely didn’t help.

There wasn’t a straw. There wasn’t a deal. It just dawned on me that if I didn’t take the plunge right at that moment, then I probably would still be using the same old phone until I broke it. Maybe I’d even be that guy carrying a phone from 1985. in 15 years (assuming I didn’t break it). I did realize one of my apprehensions was visiting a store. So I looked online a couple times, dithered, and finally, I went with the Samsung SYNC.

New phone, new manufacturer, new menus, new features, new cables, new problems.

Problem 1: I made the move. AT&T’s web site didn’t say what would come in the box. Probably I could have found this out with some research. At the worst, I could have gone to the store. The whole point was to avoid the store. So, I ended up ordering accessories about an hour after getting the phone out of the box. Two of the three arrive today.

Problem 2: Profile timers are “teh win”. I am lazy. A feature I enjoyed of the candybar was the profiles could be set to expire at a specific time. So every morning I could set it to silent and expire after the end of the work day or after a movie.

Problem 3: Put MicroSD card in slot, try to format card, see “Error”. No, really. Just “Error”. What does THAT mean? I thought maybe the capacity of the card was more than the phone could accept. So, I looked on the web. Eventually, I did find that my card is of the right size and made by the right company, so it should work. Then I read that one of the cons of the phone is the springs have difficulty ejecting the card. Maybe they also had trouble in seating it? So I tried reseating it a couple times, eventually choosing to use a point object to push it more than in the slot. Bingo!

All that said, I am more than happy with my new phone.

Awesomeness 1: It feels right in my hand. The buttons are not made for 10 year old kids.

Awesomeness 2: The convenience of a camera in my phone.

Awesomeness 3: The brick contributed to the potentially illegal sagging pants.

Jun

22

Open Letter RE: Bug Fixes

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Dear computer software companies,

Its a waste of my time and yours to bring to your attention a bug in your code of which you are already aware. Several of you are good about disclosure. Several of you really annoy me.

You know who you are.

Ezra

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