Global Warming: The World Is At Stake

CNN, Washington Post, LA Times, NYTimes. No matter where you went looking for information on the Global Warming hearings at the Supreme Court that started yesterday, it was if it was second-rate news... the news that nobody wants to read about. I guess it shouldn't be surprising, considering that among the Justices who are hearing the case, you could hear Antonin Scalia stating the obvious:

"Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist... That's why I don't want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth."

Or this:

“You have to show the harm is imminent... I mean, when is the cataclysm?”

One last pearl, this time by Chief Justice Roberts:

Roberts questioned whether regulating American vehicles would be able to remedy any harm by reducing greenhouse gases worldwide. That "assumes there isn't going to be a greater contribution of greenhouse gases from economic development in China and other places that's going to displace whatever marginal benefit you get here," he said.

So here's the deal, more or less, as framed by Scalia and Roberts. Since there's a chance that someone else (in this case, the Chinese) may screw things up with the environment, why should Americans bother about doing the right thing? Plus, even if there was some damage being done that we could do something about, what's the rush, if it's so far in the future... And ultimately, I don't want to talk about it, because the whole topic of Global Warming is flat out boring to me and I ain't a scientist.

But these people are losing sight of the big picture. This is not just "some" ruling they are supposed to make, or your average lawsuit by a bunch of blue "treehugging" states that should be dismissed as frivolous or a waste of time. Even if they are not scientists, the Supreme Court should consider scientific evidence and not get hung up on semantics discussions like they seem to be at this point.

Greenhouse emissions are serious business and if they weren't, why would would G.W. Bush have pledged to regulate them back in 2000 when he was campaigning? (though he to sadly reversed his position on this once in power).

This is the world that is at stake and to see such delicate things in the hands of people that in spite of being smart, seem to prefer to look the other way and ignore an imminent problem (hoping that this is the case and not one of conflicting interests...) just breaks my heart.

I wonder if any of them have seen An Inconvenient Truth or if they just discarded it altogether because it was based on an environmental pursuit by Al Gore, a former Democratic VP and Presidential candidate...

Borat With Jon Stewart

People seem to either hate him or roll on the floor laughing at his routines. I am one of the ones who laughs. Here is Borat, during a recent appearance he made with Jon Stewart.

Best Music of 2006

Though the year is not over yet, by now most of the good music has come out (anything good that gets released between today and the end of the year, I will be adding in here).

Here's my list of Top 10 Albums for the year.

10) TV On The Radio: Return To Cookie Mountain
09) Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings The Blood
08) Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium
07) The Mars Volta: Amputechture
06) French Kicks: Two Thousand
05) Robin Guthrie: Continental
04) Lisa Gerrard: The Silver Tree
03) Michael Brook: An Inconvenient Truth OST
02) The Dears: Gang Of Losers
01) Hammock: Raising Your Hand... Trying To Stop An Echo

What were your favorite releases in 2006?

Social Networks and Shopping

I was surfing through Mathew Ingram's work blog and ran into a very interesting post on shopping and social networks.

He made some excellent points, analyzing a recent USA Today article on the topic, which pushed the concept of shopping as an opportunity being left on the table in some of the large Social Networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) At the end of the day, we gotta realize that not just because something hasn't been done, does it make the best sense to do it.

The concept of shopping and social networks makes sense in my mind as long as you are not only giving the people the tools to buy things, but mostly in terms of empowering individuals to help each other out to make the best shopping decisions. For years I've been a loyal Amazon.com customer and always found that they had a fantastic opportunity to give tools to enable their community of users to interact and discuss beyond the ability to just post reviews about items they offered for sale, that they were not leveraging.

They took a long time to open up the site to comments under each review posted, but eventually they did it and now there's more than the shopper intelligence they have translated in the form of their recommendation engine ("Customers who bought this item also bought...") available to people on the site. They are on their way to transforming themselves into a Shopping Social Network of sorts, to a certain degree, coming at it not from the Social Network side of the spectrum, but from the shopping side... and it's picked up quite rapidly.

Things they are still missing: among other things, mainly connecting people with similar "profiles" and "shopping backgrounds", the way Last.FM does with their "neighbors" concept. Amazon has long offered the concept of "Friends" and "Interesting People", but it's people you have to know yourself or find out about, by reading their reviews or comments, rather than folks that Amazon presents to you as close matches for you to get to know. That would be a great tool to make the Social Network come around for shopping, the way I'd envision it, at least in the case of Amazon.com

And how do you see shopping and social networks blending in?

Japanese Toilet Training Video

Your problems potty training your kids are over. The Japanese have got it down, now!

Watch this Japanese Potty Training video.

It's personal, it's business

My friend Rafa always makes me think. He is one of the few people I know (and pride myself for it) who has an incredible ability to see things clearly and imagine things outside of the box.

He just posted something brilliant (again) where he questioned the validity of the statement we hear so much: "It's not personal, it's business," making you think how wrong we've had it for so long. It IS personal... it is business.

Read his post (it's in Spanish -if you need it translated, I will help you out with it).

How To Handle Interruptions

Interruptions are a matter of everyday life both at work and at home. There's no such thing as a day that turns out exactly like you planned it (remember: "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans", like John Lennon said). So how to cope with them?

My friend Frank, from Getting Things Done, suggests the use of a nifty little desktop application called GyroQ that in essence lets you log ideas that you were in the middle of at the time of an interruption, so that you can revisit them. Sounds like a basic concept, but the power it has is how it ties into MindManager, a tool that I can recommend openly since we've been using it at the office for a good 2.5 years now with excellent results for doing Mind Maps and brainstorming.

Besides these, Frank has a some more really cool tips on getting things done that you may want to check out for ideas to streamline your office life. Most of them, when you read them, seem intuitive, but common sense is not the most common of senses. ;)

Not-so-Good Link

A little while ago, at work they added a service called Good Link from Good Technology that allows me to have permanent access to my e-mail, calendar, etc. and any changes/replies/etc. I do to items on my Exchange server account using Good Link get synchronized through the airwaves. I was beginning to need such connectivity as I was heading into a project that was demanding more of my time, so it made sense to take the leap.

What I wasn't expecting was the effect that the software would have on my Pocket PC. Rebooting the poor thing has now become a daily routine, and one that certainly was not necessary before being so permanently connected. So, though the words "Pocket PC" should be scaring almost anybody away these days (read: go with a Treo or a Blackberry, if you have the option) having Good Link installed on it, seems to be a load these PDAs are in no shape to handle.

Recently it was announced that Motorola will acquire Good Technology, so I can only hope that the acquisition will translate into more stability in the application's support of my poor ole Pocket PC. In the meantime, we'll continue to deal with the not-so-Good Link.

Norwegian Deer: Breathtaking Video

I just landed on Brightcove for the first time, a fascinating video-centric community, and what did I find on the home page? The most amazing video of a raindeer in Norway shot in astounding High Definition. Enjoy...

Kaspersky AntiVirus Works

Want to know the recipe for success in this commoditized world of computer software? Good prices, performance that delivers on the promise... and solid customer service! As for prices, the world of AntiVirus software doesn't really offer much of an option: pretty much all the options out there start at $39.99 a year. So the difference has got to be in performance and service.

When it came down to these two items, as some of you may recall from an earlier post I wrote, my experience with Symantec was worst than what I'd experienced with just about any other software company in recent times (yes, including Microsoft too). I should add to my previous comment about them that I had to call them this past weekend in order to get my money back, since they hadn't processed the refund for the piece of buggy software they sold me, which they planned on troubleshoot "for me" on my penny.

Enter Kaspersky. Russian-made, this new player in the AntiVirus space offers amazing things that the longtime leaders have forgotten about: it protects your computer from viruses, Trojans, Internet worms and other "malware", with virtually instantaneous updates. But even more important, they offer impeccable and quick customer service. I had a question on how to allow my VPN application to communicate back with my office, wrote to them through an EASY-TO-FIND Contact Us form (not something that took screen after screen of FAQs that didn't answer my question, like Symantec does) and within 24 hours I had a reply from a human being in my Inbox. Now THAT's customer service!

Wii-rd Guy Waits In Line

Is this what happens when you don't sleep for five nights, or when you just glue your eyes to a screen playing games non-stop?

This is a Wii-rd guy that was in line for hours to get his new Wii, the new gaming console released by Nintendo last week.

Google Sued (Again and Again)

When I read the headline, I clicked. Since the purchase of YouTube by Google, everyone began to expect the law suits to pour in... and they've started, but not the way most of us thought they would.

The producer of "The World According to Bush" has taken legal action against Google for distributing the film for free.

What's "special" about this event is that it's not YouTube that was hosting the infringing movie, it was Google Video! And if you think that is an isolated case, consider this other case against Google in Italy, that made headlines last week. Again, not against YouTube and coming from Europe.

Makes you think, considering the significantly smaller "inventory" Google Video had, what's in store in the coming months for Google, in terms of law suits for content on YouTube. Anyone want to put a price tag on that? I don't know, but my bet is that we'll be seeing this headline quite often in the near future.

Leu Gardens, Orlando

Sea of roses
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

We finally decided to visit Leu Gardens today. It was a fairly non-expensive way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday, while we enjoyed the views and calm that the setting around Lake Rowena (in the border with Winter Park) had to offer.

The highlights (at least at this time of the year) were definitely the Wyckoff Overlook (where you are expressely told NOT to feed the aligator -singular, no "s", since there seems to be only one in the area!) and above all, the Rose Garden. There were tons of flowers with roses ranging from the strongest red you can imagine, to the most unexpected shades of orange, yellow, salmon and white.

Something away from the crowds, for a nice time, totally worth checking out in Orlando.

Lo Ultimo de Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho
Originally uploaded by bracho_jesus.

Hace un tiempo atras, leia en el blog de una panita venezolana como ella no habia nunca leido ningun libro de Paulo Coelho. Como admirador de su trabajo, acudi a la cita, mencionando mis libros favoritos del escritor brasileño.

Fue entonces cuando descubri que Coelho saco a la venta un nuevo libro llamado La Bruja de Portobello, parte del cual ha puesto a disposicion de sus lectores en su blog.

Voy a esperar a que venga mi cuñado de vacaciones en Diciembre, para que me lo traiga (ya que aun sale mas economico alla que aqui), pero en base a todo lo que he escuchado y leido sobre el nuevo libro, tengo muchisima curiosidad de leerlo...

La Oreja de Van Gogh en Vivo

La Oreja De Van Gogh Concert
Originally uploaded by celikins.

Anoche tuvimos la fortuna de ver La Oreja de Van Gogh mientras pasaban de gira por Orlando, en Hard Rock Cafe. Nuevamente tuvimos la suerte de ir a un segundo concierto esta semana. Esta vez pudimos ir Andre y yo, gracias a Arlene, una amiga de Andreina del trabajo que lastimosamente estaba enferma y no pudo ir con su esposo.

Aunque llegamos tarde al concierto, desde el instante en que entramos se sintio la energia de la banda de San Sebastian y como conectaban con el publico. Quizas esto se hizo mas evidente cuando interpretaron "Rosas" (el mismo tema del video al pie de este post), y el Hard Rock completo coreaba la letra del tema clasico a todo pulmon. Hacia mucho tiempo que no veia ese nivel de emocion y alegria en la audiencia!

Desde "La Playa", pasando por "Puedes Contar Conmigo", "20 De Enero" y "Vestido Azul", tocaron canciones de sus albumes anteriores, asi como temas de su cuarto y mas reciente album, Guapa.

El grupo encarna perfectamente lo mejor del pop español hoy en día, con una música que fusiona habilmente reggae, rock, new wave y hasta flamenco, con la voz de la cantante Amaia Montero recordando en mas de una ocasion a Ana Torroja de Mecano. El resto de la banda tiene un sonido compacto e integrado, lo cual no es casual luego de diez años tocando juntos, liderizados por Xabi San Martin, quien recuerda a una suerte Peter Jackson, entregandose en los teclados y coros antes de y durante cada tema.

Fue una linda experiencia que recordo los buenos tiempos de conciertos en el Poliedro de Caracas, con una audiencia integrada con los artistas, llenos de emocion, saltando y coreando juntos.

El video a continuacion es del tema "Rosas" y fue grabado durante el concierto que dieron en Chicago, un par de dias antes de pasar por Orlando.

An Inconvenient Truth: A Must See DVD

I just had a chance of watching An Inconvenient Truth, which was released on DVD earlier this week. I tell you: no matter what side of the political fence you are in; no matter what you think about the environment. This is a movie you MUST see. After we saw the movie, which depicts former VP Al Gore doing a slideshow presentation about the current situation and outlook of the global warming crisis, we scratched our heads at how careless we can be about a topic that our very survival as a species depends on.

The movie gives hard data in a visual way, that is compelling and easy to understand, showing how bad the current situation with global warming is, compared to our entire past history. It goes on to elaborate in terms of particular geographical areas, how they are doing today and their outlook in case certain (not too unlikely) environmental events unfold. It presents the US in the context of the world, what we are (not) doing about the problem, and most importantly, it gives lots of tips of things we CAN do, to make a difference, along with directing viewers to the movie's web site.

There is no way that you can watch this movie and not care about this issue afterwards. All you need to do is get yourself to watch it. Click on the animated banner below, and pledge to see it and do something about global warming afterwards.

Ilan Chester Acustico

Ilan Chester, el musico de Venezuela, siempre ha sido un gran interprete y compositor. Con su tibia voz y su maestria al piano, siempre fue uno de mis musicos favoritos. Aqui lo ven en un performance que dio este año.

Disfruten y recuerden...



Lastima sentir un tono tan prepotente en los comentarios que hace sobre su propia musica en su web site. La humildad es una vaina importante, amigo Ilan.

Vancouver: A City To Love - Part 4

Andreina y Manuel en el Aquabus
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

I hadn't written about Vancouver for a few days. In case you missed them, here you have links to part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the story. There's still a little more I wanted to share. I think I can pack it into a nice post, consisting of the last three days. Here we go.

Day 4 (what was left of it)
After leaving Chinatown behind us, we headed into Gastown. Think industrial neighborhood facing the port, gradually getting revitalized, and you can form a mental picture of what it is like. They have a fun water vapor clock there and the stroll from Gastown to Downtown Vancouver is quite the tourist-y one, with plenty of little shops at both sides of the streets.

Downtown Vancouver is a bit like your proverbial North American downtown, with the high rises, etc. But there are a few differences:

-Coffee shops: there's tons of them, and though Starbuck's rules the landscape, there's a lot of different options. Coffee is like a culture back there, and I mean good coffee. A place where we had coffee twice was called Caffe Artigiano. They do this thing with the milk as they are pouring in on a latte, to accomplish true masterpiece coffee drinks with the tops shaped like leaves.

-Mosaics on the street: I haven't quite figured this one out, but almost everywhere (not only in Downtown, but all around Vancouver), you find mosaics on street corners. It's not like they are set up in a certain pattern, but you run into them and they actually offer a special experience when you encounter them in a place typically forgotten and ignored like our good old street corners.

-Canada Place: Canada Place has one of the most special cruise ship ports I've seen, and then some. A huge convention space (they are building another one in time for the Winter Olympics, I believe) and an IMAX Theater, all sporting the legendary sail-like structures above, which make the port look like an actual ship.

That night, we ended up in Bin 942. Labeled a Tapas Parlour, it was a fun little spot where hung out, had some wine and tapas and wrapped up the day.

Last two days
The remainder of our trip we continued to explore Vancouver metro. We visited Granville Island, a very special island enclosed by False Creek. In the island, there is a public market, lots of places to eat and shop and the 80+ year old Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. We had a chance to see some amazing student works that were exhibited there.

From the island, you can take a little ferry, called the Aquabus, that will show you around the creek for about 15-20 minutes and eventually take you to the other shore, which was our goal, so we could wrap up the day closer to the hotel. The night, we visited the Lookout! (like Seattle's Needle), which is recommended as the best first stop in Vancouver. We did it last, and it gave things a very

Graffiti
As some of you know, I am a lover of urban art. So much so, that I have my own separate urban art blog, which I feed with contributions of people from all over the world. Vancouver offered some amazing pieces for us to enjoy and take pictures of. Perhaps the most amazing piece I found (by pure coincidence) was this one (around Gastown), featuring Leonardo and a host of other great artists.

The People
I couldn't wrap up the tale of our Vancouver trip without talking about the people.

It was the friends I'd made through LinkedIn, that joined us for lunch or coffee, setting time aside from their busy schedules to just chat and give us tips about things to do, places to check out and plain simple share the pride they have of living in Vancouver.

It was also the complete strangers we met on the street, that asked us (we found one almost every day) whether we needed help or directions, while we looked like a couple of lost tourists standing on a street corner. And it also was the nice people at the hotel who treated us so very well.

Of course it was too the bus drivers who had the patience to answer our silly questions: "Does this bus go to...?" when the SIGN for the bus said so. Or the girl who rode with us in the Aquabus and ended up being a nutritionist from upstate BC, who was coming back from a 3-month trip around India... we learned her story and she learned ours.

The people of Vancouver were easily the nicest thing we found, and we want to thank them for making our visit beyond pleasant: you made us feel welcome.


Links to previous posts about the Vancouver trip
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

NuBlackMedia: A New Approach To Content & Community

My friend Mechie is launching NuBlackMedia (NBM) along with two friends of hers this coming January. They have embarked on a trip to offer a new, refreshing approach to delivering content and building community with online African-American consumers.

They plan to set the bar high for other communities currently targeting niche audiences and fully believe that eventually NBM will gain credibility and respect with broader audiences as well. In order to accomplish this, they've surrounded themselves with the talent of many professionals from the industry to ensure the final product's success.

I've had an opportunity to be exposed to some of the work they are doing as they gear up for launching the new site and have contributed my two cents as well. So far, I am very impressed and if the startup stages are anything like I've seen, so full of amazing ideas and enthusiasm, I can only imagine what the community moving forward will be like: a force to be reckoned with, I am sure.

If you are interested in contributing to this concept, please contact Mechie.

Google Trading For More Than $500

This past Tuesday Google stock started trading for more than $500. That equates a growth of over 25% in the course of a year, which would be amazing in and off itself. But it becomes more mindboggling when you compare it to the S&P500, which grew a little over 12% and their closest competitors, Yahoo! who dropped over -31% and Microsoft, who actually gained almost 7% in the same period.

It's amazing. If you look at Google, they've been breaking news left an right about acquisitions and deals almost on a weekly basis... it's like they will never run out of steam! I leave you with this quote from the BBC article, for you to ponder what this all means for Google:

The increase also means that Google is now valued at more than $155bn, making it America's third largest technology firm behind Microsoft and Cisco Systems.

Anyone feeling the heat up in Redmond? ;)

Zumbatres: The Best Latin Jazz Today

Surrounding himself with a new ensemble than in his previous Gathering in Blue project, Venezuelan-born and New Hampshire-based Jose Duque, comes back with a great new album that brings out his Latin roots to the surface.

In spite of the nostalgic theme of the album, where he longs for friends, family and city, the overall feel of Zumbatres (available for sale online through CD Baby) is much groovier than Jose's previous work.

Six new studio tracks cement his love for Latin and Venezuelan grooves and blend them impeccably with his equally powerful influences stemming from Bill Bruford, Pat Metheny and other jazz legends. Three live tracks recorded earlier this year wrap up the album in style leaving you with a fun flavor in the mouth and itching for getting up and dancing. When you listen to Zumbatres, you just feel you are listening to some of the best Latin jazz today.

You can read more about Jose's newest work in this interview with him publishing in The Wire, from New Hampshire or in Jose's Blog.

28 Days Late: A Funny Video

I guess we all have known someone like the character on the video at some point in our lives. For instance, I had a guy who worked with me who missed over 30 days of work... and I couldn't fire him because of the crazy Venezuelan labor laws.

I think you will enjoy this 15+ minute long comedy short. It was directed by Shaun Kendall, a Film student at Full Sail, whom I had the chance of working with early in his time at school: he was a student writer for us in the Student Portal I manage.

Life Project, Life Philosophy

A while back I was writing about roadmaps. Today, I read a post by my friend Rafa, and the whole topic came back to mind...

What is your life project? What do you want to be remembered for? Tough, huh?

Let's take it down a notch. How about this? We all have some rules that guide us, that drive our decisions. What are yours? What are the guiding principles in your life ?

I summarize mine as:
-Respect everyone.
-Offer to help others.
-Smile, even in tough times.

What do you say?

INXS Rocking The House Of Blues

INXS
Originally uploaded by aardvark..

Last night I had the fortune of attending the INXS concert at the Orlando House of Blues. It was a bit or a surprise, since Luis came up with tickets due to everyone else at his home being sick, but I said "yes" right away.

As Fast As opened for them and they were amazing. With a sound that ranged between Paul McCartney and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the four guys did an awesome job.

The new singer does an amazing job. Except for a couple of songs ("New Sensation" and "Never Tear Us Apart"), where the original singer still did a better job, you couldn't complain and could totally enjoy how the new band is blending together. The musicians, though not virtuosos, did a fantastic job and sounded tight, playing all the classics that everyone loved.

At the end of the evening, we left satisfied, and I will make a point of getting myself their new album along with the one of the openers, which was -once more- another very nice discovery. :)


P.S. It's kinda funny that people still post those "No Cameras Allowed" signs in concerts and concert tickets, yet people can take amazing pics (and videos) with their cameraphones. Not the case with my phone, though: I tried but the quality of the built-in camera is not too good.

So I borrowed the nice pic you see in this post, which was taken by this other guy a few days ago, from his Flicrk page (it's a Creative Commons pic, so it's OK to do so, in case you are wondering). There were 164 other INXS photos I found in Flickr. Here are some other pictures that were not supposed to have been taken... get my point? The world is no longer the same.

Full Sail Hiring Web Developer

A few days ago I posted news about Full Sail hiring an Interactive Content Developer. Today I want to add to it, we're also hiring a Web Developer. Experience with ColdFusion would be ideal, but extensive knowledge of PHP or Ruby will be viewed favorably in lieu of extensive ColdFusion experience.

If you know anybody, you can shoot me an e-mail at mannyh at fullsail.com.

What, Who, When?

This very nice timeline shows what portal bought what company and when did the transaction occur, starting back at the beginning of the century. :)

2 GB Are Better Than 1

The Mac Pro is now officially running on 2 GB of RAM. We hope to see an improvement to the performance of Adobe CS2 programs.

I will let you know how that goes.

Wine, Anybody?

A group of researchers in France found a substance in red wine found to combat obesity and diabetes. Granted that it's not rare to find studies that support just about anything under the sun, when I read about this one, I was happy... because I love wine! :)

I (don't) have hair

Too bad the video was not captured from the start, but here is a little skit Luis (my boss) and I did last night before reading the nominees for Full Sail's 2006 Technical Achivement Award. We started off my saying:

Luis: "Hi! I am not Manny."
Me: "And I am not Luis."

As crazy as it may sound, people actually confuse us in Full Sail. :)

Have a Merry Little Bronchitis!

Seems like it's everywhere: the library, the mall, the supermarket, the school. Anywhere you stop and listen, you can hear someone coughing like there's no tomorrow. I am one of them these days. For the past three weeks, I've been battling a cough that won't go away, so I decided to go to the doctor today.

After diagnosing me with bronchitis, the doctor prescribed the strongest antibiotic in the roster, and proceeded to share that only two of the people he had seen today did NOT have the same symptoms. Go figure! So much for bird flu. Have a merry little bronchitis, this holiday season...

On a side note, in the midst of this whole cold/cough business, it really annoyed me to see a person at a registrar in Panera Bread today, handing out a cup to another customer, touching the inside with her bare hands (the same ones that she counts money with). What was already unhygienic enough was compounded by the fact that between customers, she kept on coughing into her hands. How's that for a nice spread of the germs? (In case you are wondering, I did point it out to the manager)

Web 2.0 Getting Tired?

I just read this post by a very smart guy I had the chance to meet recently. He had the opportunity to participate in the recent Web 2.0 conference. Apparently it was a bit dissapointing, Michael reports.

However, there's still hope, he says. And I don't doubt it. As long as there is a healthy level of curiosity and creativity somewhere, there will be great ideas sparking all over the place.

Maybe we just need to reconnect with the children in us to have those ideas fly...

Raising Your Voice... Trying To Stop An Echo

Best of 2006: Hammock Does It Again
For sale in Amazon.com (and other stores) Nov. 21 and already available through iTunes, Hammock's latest album (titled Raising your voice... trying to stop an echo) becomes another jewel in an impeccable string of albums and EPs they have released since their debut release, Kenotic.

Hammock continues to do what they do best: produce beautiful music for the soul that will take you in a trip of inner discovery. The follow up album of the Nashville-based duo continues to integrate thickly layered guitars in shoegaze fashion (think Slowdive), producing soundscapes much like they did in their previous works, in a very organic way.

Raising your voice... trying to stop an echo goes beyond the work the meditative/instrumental sound they've gotten us used to, bringing in the angelical voice of Christine Glass Byrd and the sound of piano, strings and occasional percussion to balance the work of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, resulting in eighteen tracks that will be just as appealing to fans of shoegaze and ambient as it can be to those who are into post-rock (Sigur Ros, anybody?) or plain and simple GOOD music.

In the meantime, if you want to sample some of their music, check out Hammock's MySpace page. You can also talk to the band through their blog. I am sure you will end up loving their work. As for me, guess what I play every night before I go to bed... ;)

RSS Feed for Amazon.com Reviews

Finally, after no less than 3 years of having first asked them for it, it's happened. Amazon.com started offering RSS feeds for your Public Reviews.

This is the Amazon.com page of my Public Reviews, and this is the corresponding RSS feed.

While it took a while, I will still say thanks to Amazon for making it happen. I will look for a way to integrate this to the blog.

Link From O'Reilly

Recently I contacted the O'Reilly folks to begin reviewing their books. It seemed like a natural thing to do, considering they publish the type of book that I am likely to read in the world of web development, web design, etc. and the fact that I write reviews in Amazon for fun.

Yesterday, I was glad to see that they added a link to my blog from the product page of Designing Interfaces, which I reviewed recently. It feels very good! :)

Les Luthiers: Warren Sanchez y Ortega

Que gran recuerdo! Afortunadamente tuve la oportunidad de ver este segmento de Les Luthiers hace años atras, cuando se presentaron en el Teatro Teresa Carreño de Caracas. Disfruten.



Cuando terminen de ver el video, la parte 2 es tan buena o mejor.

Este otro segmento llamado "Vote Por Ortega" tambien lo interpretaron en el mismo show:

The Dears - Gang of Losers

Best of 2006: Picks up where No Cities Left stopped

I was exposed to The Dears late in early 2006, almost two full yers after the release of their biggest and best work to date, No Cities Left. That album was close to an epic that would prove to be tough to follow... and it was. But their 2006 follow-up, Gang of Losers does the trick: it picks up the band's sound right where No Cities Left stopped and it continues to tell stories in a way that only Murray Lightburn can deliver, with the sound of his unique voice leading the songs into their climaxes and his ingenious guitar running straight through the heart of each of the melodies.

While the theme of ostracization prevails throughout most of the album, it does not drag and turn into a redundant and painful tale of complaint and negativity. Lightburn and his crew are able to turn things around with a catchy tune here and there, ending up with a positive outlook as the album comes to a close with the epic "Find Our Way To Freedom". The result is a musical work that retains a certain timeless feel to it (musically), while it still is quite timely in its messaging, turning it without a doubt into one of the best albums to have been released in 2006.

Vancouver: A City To Love - Part 3

Main Library - UBC
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

The past few days, I've been sharing the experience of our recent trip to Vancouver, at the end of October 2006. In case you missed them, here you have links to part 1 and part 2 of the story.

Days 3 and 4 (first half)
On day 3 we started experiencing the great many things about the public transportation system of Vancouver. It works as follows: there are three major zones in the metropolitan area of Vancouver. You get a ticket at any of the transportation options available (we used the bus, the SkyTrain -metro/monorail- and the Seabus -a ferry just for people-) and you can travel up to 90 minutes within the zone(s) your purchased your fare for, transferring between bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus in any direction. The buses are very timely and clean and the bus drivers friendly and patient with stupid tourist questions. All in all, it was an experience I'd recommend to anyone planning to visit the city: skip city tours and get to know the city using public transportation. Not only will you save yourself money; you will also get to enjoy another of the special things about the city.

After spending some time in downtown Vancouver, on day 3 we took the bus to University of British Columbia (UBC). UBC is not only Vancouver's largest high education institution. It also houses lots of beautiful things worth visiting and taking pictures of. They do a pretty good job at detailing themselves on their web site:

The university boasts some of the city's best attractions & recreation facilities, including the Museum of Anthropology, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, and endless opportunities to explore forested trails in the adjoining 763-hectare Pacific Spirit Regional Park.

UBC is no exception to the Asian influence in Vancouver. As a result, around campus you can see buildings, sculptures and gardens that boast the signs of a culture that has established itself for several generations now in Canada's third largest metropolitan area. So, we spent pretty much the rest of the day there, breathing in the university's diverse offerings to come back satisfied, after a very long walk around campus.

Day 4 started out in the heart of Chinatown, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This picture of Andreina was taken there and it reflects the sensations that fly through your mind as you spend time there. The serenity in the garden is hard to describe in words. The combination of architectural elements, junipers plants and water ponds, accomplish a unique sense of tranquility that invites you to meditate and free your mind from the noise of life's everyday problems. From the garden's web site:

The peace and tranquility inside a classical Chinese garden reflect the many symbols found within. It is a harmony of contrasts, of dark and light, solid and empty, hard and soft, straight and undulating, yin and yang. This place was created to be savoured over a lifetime. New meanings are found in the symbolic objects and plants; new pictures are seen as shadows play across the rocks. The Garden unfolds itself slowly.

Tomorrow, I will share with you the rest of our fourth day, as we drifted into Gastown, Downtown and other areas of the city... It was a long but lovely day. As a reference, here you have links to part 1 and part 2 of the story.

Producing Pampers, Saving on Pampers

A little known fact to some of the people I've met in recent times is that I used to work for Procter & Gamble (Pampers, Pringles, etc.) I was with them in Venezuela, between 1996 and 2000. Now, a little less known is what I used to do, considering that I had concentrated during my Bachelors and Masters on Electrical Engineering (EE). I used to work in the manufacturing facility where they MADE PAMPERS in Venezuela.

First, I was in charge of the Electrical Maintenance of the production lines (that's as much of a connection you are going to see between diapers and EE, so don't hope for more). Then, I was a production manager in charge of one of the diaper production lines. Last, I left the Operations environment to work on (ready for more changes?) HR: I was in charge of recruiting and training for the whole facility (some 600 folks back then).

Those were good times and they helped lay the foundation for most of the management background I now have. Now, the irony today is that I worked producing something that nowadays is such an important part of my budget. So, to help those with kids who now consume tons and tons of diapers on those little ones, check out the tip offered by my friend lemuroo, to help you win stuff while you buy diapers for your kid(s). I mean, you are going to spend the money anyway: why not make something out of it, don't you think?

Chiste: Reingenieria En La Orquesta

El presidente de una empresa recibió entradas para asistir a una función de la Sinfonía Inconclusa de Schubert. Como tenía una cita previa, y no podía asistir al concierto, le regaló las entradas al ingeniero jefe del departamento de reingeniería de procesos en la organización. Al día siguiente el presidente le preguntó si le había gustado la música de Schubert y, en lugar de expresarle sus agradecimientos con una exclamación de júbilo, el ingeniero le dio un memorando donde analizaba las funciones de la orquesta. Decía el memo:


De: Director de reingeniería
A: Gerente general
Ref: Análisis técnico de una sinfonía inconclusa.

Después de agradecerle su obsequio de unas entradas para el concierto de Schubert, al cual asistí con mi esposa anoche, en razón de mi cargo en esta compañía me veo en la obligación de hacerle mención de algunos problemas que percibimos desde el palco.

Durante largos períodos los oboes no tenían nada qué hacer. Creo que se debería reducir el número de ellos y repartir el trabajo entre el resto de la orquesta, evitando así los frecuentes espacios de inactividad. Observé además que los doce violines ejecutaban las mismas notas. En mi concepto esto es una duplicación innecesaria y el personal de esa sección debería ser drásticamente reducido. Si lo que se requiere es un mayor volumen de sonido, es mejor utilizar un buen amplificador.

Se hizo mucho esfuerzo en la ejecución de las semifusas: en mi concepto, este es un refinamiento excesivo. Por lo tanto, se recomienda redondear todas las notas a la fusa más cercana; de esta manera se podrían remplazar los músicos expertos por músicos principiantes que resultan menos costosos.

Me parece inútil la repetición con instrumentos de viento de los pasajes que ya interpretaron las cuerdas. Si se eliminaran todos los pasajes redundantes, el concierto podría reducirse de dos horas a veinticinco minutos con los mismos resultados. Encuentro también inútil la presencia física del ejecutante del triángulo, que trabaja poco y podría ser remplazado por un oboísta en los tiempos que permanece inactivo.

Dado que cada músico tiene su partitura en frente, considero que el papel de director es inoficioso, puesto que su trabajo no añade valor a la orquesta, y ni siquiera la baqueta que usa produce algún sonido.

Según este análisis, puedo afirmar que si Schubert hubiera conocido la reingeniería, definitivamente hubiera podido concluir su sinfonía.


Del señor gerente,

Marcelo McKenzie
Director del Departamento de Reingeniería

Vancouver: A City To Love - Part 2

Downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

Earlier this week, I shared our early experiences during our visit to Vancouver, between Oct. 21 and Oct. 28, 2006. Today I will share what we did during day two, most of which was centered around park life. I intended to write this part yesterday, but things out of my control prevented me from doing it.

Day 2
Being so close to Stanley Park (see the proximity in this Google Map), with such gourgeous weather on a Sunday, nothing made more sense but renting a couple of bikes and heading out to explore the park and all it had to offer. The p42.blogspot.com/2006/09/vancouver-moose-ings.html">Vancouver travel guide we had gotten pointed out that the biking tour around the park took about a couple of hours. We took longer than that, because there were non-stop beautiful things to see around every corner. Between the games light played with the early morning fog among the trees and the natural beauty of nature in the fall, it was impossible not to stop to take pictures left and right. We took a close look at Lions Gate Bridge from below and continued our trip.

Eventually, we decided to head into the park (we were biking around it), following the dirt paths that were set for it. From a beautiful experience it turned into a magical moment. Again, the light made for some amazing views, but the overall realization that you were no more than minutes away from a city of 2.5 million people, while you were deep in woods packed with tall evergreens, where you could only imagine thinking about nature, was very powerful. It reminded me a bit of the experience of going up the Avila in Caracas, though the paths, while not paved, were a lot easier to go through.

Our ride through the woods in the park took us into a beautiful little lake packed with . There was only one person sitting there, besides us, contemplating the majestic view of the water partly shielded from the sun by the tall trees. You could have stayed there forever... but we kept going, until we got the aquarium. It was there that we began missing Santiago, but that's another story. The aquarium was world quality, actually one of the best ones I recall having visited. Perhaps what I enjoyed the most in it (I had never seen them before) were the Beluga Whales. It was a very special show that marked the end of our visit to the aquarium.

After we headed out, we spent the rest of the day strolling down Robson Street, which is referred to as Vancouver's Rodeo Drive. I don't know if the comparison is fair, because it doesn't feel as overwhelmingly fancy as the Hollywood spot, but it does offer tons of options for shopping. We caught a glimpse of one of the World Series games in a local bar before heading back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

I will keep posting about the rest of the visit tomorrow shortly... in the meantime, here you have a link to part 1, in case you missed it.

Animator Vs. Stick Figure

My friend Rorro shared this very cool animation of an Animator vs. a Stick Figure. Absolutely take the time to check it out. It's worth it.

Fredo Viola - The Sad Song

Wanted to share with you a beautiful musical discovery I made. It is a song titled "The Sad Song", by Woodstock-based artist Fredo Viola. He has a My Space page and was recently signed by an indie label.

This is the video of "The Sad Song". Besides being an incredible track, the video has a pretty cool thing about it: it was entirely shot with a point-and-shoot portable camera and pieced together in After Affects.

There's no stopping what creative people will be able to do as more and more technology brings the barriers to entry down. Each day it becomes clearer that we are living in a Flat World...

Shady Signs

I saw this sign yesterday on my way back from the post office and took a shot of it. If this doesn't shout out shady to you, I don't know what would. I mean... if you are an investor with that much money to give to apprentices, can't you post a decent sign at least? ;)

Jack Johnson: Better Together

Seen the Curious George movie? If you haven't, you should. I didn't have any expectations for it and was gladly surprised with it. And one of the things we liked the most about it was the music in it by Jack Johnson. I had listened to his work before and had found it a bit repetitive. While it still can be that way, it's nevertheless highly enjoyable. Here's a video of him performing "Better Together", a song from the movie, live.

Workplace Generation Gap

I received earlier today this fantastic article that walks you through the differences between today's workplace generations:
-Traditionalists: Born 1900 to 1945
-Baby boomers: Born 1946 to 1964
-Generation Xers: Born 1965 to 1980
-Millennials: Born 1981 to 1999

Really insightful for managers having to work with multi-generational associates, reports and peers. It came in as an interesting complement to an earlier article I erad on CNN Money titled "What Do Gen Xers Want?"

Full Sail Hiring: Interactive Content Developer

Summary
The Interactive Content Developer is responsible for the production and maintenance of rich media (video, images, audio) content and new designs for Full Sail's online education courses.

Qualifications
-Education/Training – Minimum of Associate’s degree in Digital Media/Design.

-Experience – Minimum 1 year of design and multimedia experience, preferably in an online environment (student portfolio counts!)

-Skills/Abilities:
* Video production experience including storyboards, shooting and lighting
* Strong design skills: ability to translate visual needs into appropriate image solutions including motion graphics and animations.
* Strong familiarity with Flash production pipelines and programming.
* Outgoing and self-started, able to work independently and produce content.
* Excellent written and verbal communications skills.
* Strong interpersonal skills. Liaising with people at all levels of the organization is necessary. Ability to create relationships with people.
* Ability to manage multiple projects in various phases of production.
* Strong organizational skills.
* Computer Proficiency: Microsoft office products and the Internet, graphic software packages (Adobe Suite), audio/video editing software (Final Cut Pro), hardware tools (Apple Computers and HD Video Cameras).
* Other – Occasional evening hours and weekends may be required.

Responsibilities
-Work under the supervision of the Online Education manager
-Pre-produce, produce and post-produce shootings for online lessons.
-Design and produce high-end graphics to enhance the experience of the online lessons.
-Integrate multimedia content with the existing publishing systems

Interested candidates please send your resume to cd at fullsail.com

Basecamp Turns 1 Million

The 1,000,000th user created a Basecamp account yesterday. I've been using it for all my projects since I found out about it. I highly recommended it for distance collaboration, task management and overall project management.

Congratulations, 37Sigtnals, the folks behind Basecamp and many other high quality web 2.0 products that make life in Web Project Management easier!

Vancouver: A City To Love - Part 1

Stanley Park from the Hotel
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

From the moment you land in the Vancouver International Airport, there's something to love about the city. From the air, you sense there's something special you are about to see, and boy are you up for a treat! Over the course of the next few days, I will be sharing the story of our days in Vancouver (between Oct. 21 and 28), trying to give you a little more than a tourist's perspective, but nevertheless my attempt may end up stopping at tourism tips at times... since, after all, that's what we were. :P

Day 1
We were fortunate to land a very nice room in The Lord Stanley Suites On The Park, where we were within steps from Stanley Park, and very close to Robson Street (the commercial avenue of Vancouver) and Denman Street, which offered us with something special to eat two of our nights there.

Also withing walking distance was English Bay, a lovely space with gorgeous buildings and a beach set up with treetrunks by the seaside. Some people walk, others walk their pets or job, other bike or skate... and then some just sit down and chat with someone else, read or quite simply stare at the view. We did a little bit of all, and spent quite a bit of time around the famous Inukshuk

Tomorrow, I will share some of our experiences while we biked through Stanley Park, an experience worth living.

Symantec: A Customer's Worst Nightmare

After several attempts to get my upgrade from Norton AV 2006 to 2007, I called their support telephone. They walked me through the same steps I had followed (not their fault -they had to) and eventually passed along my issue to tech support, since it was a tech issue. After over 20 minutes of hold time (this was after 10 p.m. EST) I finally spoke with a rep and she walked me... through the same steps I had gone before (anyone taking notes about cases back there, to save the customer the hassle of doing the same things??)

After the tech rep took me essentially to the same spot that the "regular" customer service agent did before, she told me in order to do the technical troubleshooting required, I'd have to pay for the rest of the technical call. I complained indicating that it was unacceptable to have to pay for this, considering my install of AV 2006 was working just fine (for a whole year) until I decided to upgrade to 2007 (instead of simply renewing my subscription, which would have cost the same). I indicated that if I had to pay, then I wanted my money back for the software... to which she said OK and she gave me a refund.

In sum, with Norton Antivirus 2007 I couldn't get my previous subscription information to be recognized by them in any way and when things got too complicated for them, they argued that I had to pay for the rest of the support call. In a nutshell, they provided me with the worst software customer service experience I´ve gotten in a very long time.

I am now officially switching to Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0, which I just learned about. Maybe the Russians won't screw me up!

Air Guitar Playing Comes True

Air Guitar: Tempest
Originally uploaded by discobabel.

Indeed it's here! A wearable instrument shirt that helps you perform a mean air guitar... producing sound! From the creator's site:

Our air guitar consists of a wearable sensor interface embedded in a conventional 'shirt' which uses custom software to map gestures with audio samples

How's that? Hendrix: I've nothing on you!

World Diabetes Day 2006

From WorldDiabetesDay.org:

November 14 is World Diabetes Day! More than 200 million people worldwide have diabetes. Many of them do not receive the care that they need. This year's campaign focuses on diabetes in the disadvantaged and the vulnerable.

The figures are very impressive:

Every 10 seconds one person dies of diabetes. In the same 10 seconds, two people get the disease... More than 230 million people live with diabetes. If nothing is done, this figure will exceed 350 million within a generation and undermine the benefits of improved standards of living worldwide.

What can you do to help make a difference? You can sign the petition to the UN to vote in support of a Resolution on diabetes that acknowledges the seriousness of the global epidemic. Easy enough, huh? Then do it. It only takes 10 seconds and you could be making an impact.

Making Flash websites searchable

Earlier this week, I ran into a very good article that summarized the best practices to help make Flash websites searchable.

Though Google claims the opposite, Search Engines are mostly "blind" to Flash websites. Think of it as the same problem faced in the world of Artificial Intelligence: having computers tell the context within visual (photo, video) content -it's a very tough problem that, to this day, still has few good solutions, most of which are partial and limited.

So, Jeff Kamerer, a computer scientist who has worked on the Flash authoring team since 2002 authored a simple yet fairly complete article where he summarizes the easiest things for you to do to help Search Engines find your Flash-based website. And the nice thing is that most of them don't entail rewriting your Flash application!

Cheaper Apple Memory and Display

Here's two tips I got from different friends:
-For cheaper memory for your Apple computer (at least for the Mac Pro, it was so), visit Crucial The Memory Experts. Gotta thank Danilo for this tip!

-If you want the same technology that powers Apple flat displays, but are not too keen on having the Apple logo on them (or having them be stainless steel, etc.) you should get yourself a Sceptre Widescreen Monitor. It has essentially, from what Mat shared with me, the same technology as your beloved Apple widescreen displays, except for the missing "USB ports on the monitor, which isn't a really big deal being that there's not much that you'd want to plug into a monitor via USB."

I may get myself one of those flat displays in a few weeks (maybe for Christmas), but in the meantime, I just went ahead and purchased an extra 1GB of RAM through Crucial, since Adobe CS2 runs terribly slow on these machines, given it was software natively written for PowerPC-based Mac computers. In order to get it to work on Intel-based Mac computers like mine, it goes through a Mac OS X-built-in emulator (regardless of the fact that Apple says "There's no emulation") called Rosetta, to dynamically translate most of your PowerPC-based applications to work with an Intel-based Mac.

The goal is to hopefully get the Mac to pick up speed while working with Adobe CS2, so that it can be set up to be the machine for "creative work" that we want it to be. I will let you know how that turns out once the RAM upgrade is installed.

The Battles, From Vancouver

Every time I can, I dig for new music. Our recent trip to Vancouver was no exception, and while I was checking out the music on the listening stations of Zulu Records (the best independent record store in Vancouver), I asked one of the guys in the store what local act did he recommend I listen to if I was into Broken Social Scene, The Dears, etc. Without a doubt, he said: "The Battles." So I listened to them. What a trip it was!

Only available to US listeners via iTunes for the time being, the band's Tomorrow's Eager Hands is a masterpiece from end to end, borrowing influences from The Beatles and David Bowie with a psychedelic flavor to them. They redeem this "trend" of "The..." bands that has invaded the market in recent years. :)

Genesis For Piano

Yngve Guddal and Roger T. Matte rearranged various classic Genesis pieces dating from the Nursery Cryme days all the way to Abacab for piano and put out two albums with the result: one called Genesis for Grand Piano and the other one, late last year, called Genesis for Two Grand Pianos.

The samples I've heard are gorgeous... Sorry to do this to you, Genesis lovers, but you simply must get them.

Tip: if you have an iTunes account, you can get them for less in there.

My First Computer - Commodore 64

Photo by: Bill Bertram

My friend Gilberto sent me and other friends a message a couple of days ago on what his first computer and his first video game was. His first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 (I remember that one) and his first video game, Super Pong. Rorro jumped in and mentioned how he used to own an Apple II+ with the incredible amount of 48K of RAM and an external 5 1/4 floppy disk drive.

So I dug into my "memory files" and remembered my beloved first machine. It was a Commodore 64 (the CPU, RAM, etc. was housed inside the keyboard shown above). I had a 5 1/4 drive too (and it weighed like a ton!) and a dot matrix printer that did a decent job for its time. Thinking back, it's pretty amazing the amount of things you could do with one of those computers back then.

As for video game console, my first one was the Atari 2600, another classic of pixel-based, TV-displayed games. To think that the Atari Flashback 2.0, a revival of that console, bundled with tons of legendary titles can now be purchased for less than $30!

How about you? Which were your first computer and your first video game?

Manuel Rosales en el juego Caracas - Magallanes

En verdad, el mundo es otro... aqui tienen la reaccion de los fanaticos en el partido Caracas-Magallanes ante la entrada de Manuel Rosales al estadio:

$330K Raised For Diabetes in Orlando!

I found out last night that the Orlando Walk raised a total of close to $330,000 for diabetes. Pretty amazing, huh?

Original post (11/07/06):
I learned yesterday that the Orlando Pump Club Team, on behalf of which I was raising money for this weekend's Diabetes Walk, raised a total of $3,100! I still don't have word about the total amount raised, but I am very happy to hear about the results of our team, at least.

Again, thanks to all of you who gave to make a difference!

The Continuing Adventures of Tim

My friend Tim is one of the NICEST people you can have the fortune of meeting. I really mean it.

Recently, I was honored to have him at my blogging workshop last month, and out of all attendees, he was the one that decided to take the step: Tim now has a blog and he titled it "The Continuing Adventures of Tim" (though we may see a title change in the coming weeks, I suspect). ;)

Welcome to the blogosphere and happy blogging, Tim!!

Designing Interfaces

Not just for designers...
I arrived at "Designing Interfaces" with a hunger for detail and references as we head deep into revising the interface of a whole section of a web site I am in charge of. And the timing couldn't have been better. Jenifer (with one "n") Tidwell is right on the money when it comes to offering a broad range of options to address just about any interface design need you may run into. Her experience working with Matlab's Mathworks didn't limit her to offering advice for client software interface design.

Tidwell goes well beyond it, delving into web design and mobile interface waters, which she swims with equal comfort and efficiency. As a matter of fact, at times the presentation of samples from alternate media/platforms (client software or mobile) pulls those of us who are more comfortable within web application development out of our comfort zone, presenting us with innovative ways to solve old problems.

All in all, this becomes a must reference for anyone needing to learn or polish skills in software interface design for any medium. And this is not limited to designers: I am an Application Development Manager and I learned a lot from "Designing Interfaces" too.

Note: if you are feeling experimental before getting the book, check out the companion site. It's loaded with some of the good advice you are bound to find in the printed thing.


P.S. The duck in the cover is cool too! :)

Wikipedia Fork

I just learned about this "fork in the road" for Wikipedia:

Larry Sanger's Citizendium aims to weed out biased or incorrect information and obscenities by creating user registration and editorial controls, in contrast to the more open submission process at Wikipedia, where Sanger once worked as editor-in-chief.

Maybe they are concluding that it is too open to be fair? Who's to have the final call? Interesting questions...

Trust: What Keeps Us Evolving

As I was reading through Thomas Friedman's fabulous book The World Is Flat, I encountered a thought that has been popping up more and more lately (specially in view of recent concerns over the impact on election results due to the increased adoption of electronic voting machines):

Page 320: [Trust] is what gives you the predictability that allows you to take a big leap... Without trust there is no risk-taking and there is no innovation.

This thought struck a powerful chord with me, but if this thought doesn't quite make as much sense to you, consider the following segments and how trust lies at the heart of their ability to remain innovative:

-Sites such as eBay and LaLa: these two are examples of places that rely heavily on users commending (positive feedback) or reporting (negative feedback) the behavior of others, as a means of coming up with an overall score (or karma) for everyone, which ultimately affects their ability to even operate in the system: low karma users in LaLa (those who don't deliver on their promise to send a CD) get little or no albums and negatively ranked eBay sellers have reduced chances of selling due to their poor fulfillment history. Where does trust come into play here? Technically, there's nothing (other than hearing back from the upset user that was affected by it) preventing a user from giving negative feedback about someone, even if the transaction was performed as expected.

-Product Recommendations: I am an Amazon.com reviewer. I don't do it for a living, since I get no payment for any of my reviews: they are either products I use, read, hear, watch, etc. on my own anyway, or promotional copies I receive (as a top 100 reviewer) to check out and give my opinion on. Now, I have gotten enough "useful" votes, to make me a top 100 reviewer over time, but there is a definite element of trust involved in this, since typically you vote on a review as being useful on the spot, before making a purchase (I have a hard time thinking of a customer going back after a purchase, to "make that reviewer that talked me into buying this piece of junk pay")

-News Sources: Who to trust? These days, as Friedman says, the truth is available out there... complete... in a bunch of pieces. But it has become quite the endeavor to put those pieces together to build a version of what's going on that you feel comfortable with. Typically, what most users do is choose who they are going to to trust, and stick with them. As an example of how misleading this can be, consider the case of my mom who was telling me this morning how surprised she was that I had been wrong with my prediction of the election results. When she went to bed last night, the Republicans were holding on strong to their majority in the two house. She was watching FOX News.

-Encyclopedia entries: as empowering as it is to be able to correct a typo in an obscure entry of Wikipedia, without even having to log in to do it, it is scary the ease with which a flawed entry can be made, with consequences ranging from an irrelevant piece of incorrect information getting published to an all-out scandal due to someone's reputation getting tarnished. In the case of the latter, of course, Google's caching makes it close to impossible to undo the mistake, even if the Wikipedia entry gets edited (which it normally does).

Now, where would these four segments be today if trust were not at their foundation:
-We'd have no eBay or LaLa, period. After all, how would you know who to buy from, if they had no visible history for you to see whether they stick to their end of the deal or not?
-You'd be at the mercy of merchandisers and product manufacturers alone, and whatever perception they are able to build about their products in your mind. Better to go with the aggregate mass of independent reviewers, don't you think?
-You would only have limited choices to get your news and information, and you'd have to swallow the pill that the channel that caught your attention was able to shove down your throat.
-You would be missing on the potential collective knowledge and know-how of millions as opposed to a handful of specialists editing the content of encyclopedias, vastly limiting the number of topics you could learn about.

There's no free lunch, as my friend Luis says: there's no sacrificing some things to gain others, as shown. But it still seems to me that a trust-based environment and products that are developed with trust at their core, are the way of the future, since they indeed allow for innovative solutions to be offered and in the end, in spite of the shortcomings here and there, the majority benefits from that.

In a future post, I will deal more with reputation management and systems for ensuring trust is not imposed but safeguarded from forces opposing it. I'd love to hear any comments you may have on this topic.

1,000 posts!

DSC01235
Originally uploaded by mrlerone.

I can't believe I passed the little milestone without properly acknowledging it. I am sorry, blog.

Yesterday I wrote my post #1,001. I know this is a bit self-indulgent on my part, but I wanted to take a moment to thank anyone who has ever read my blog, those who have the patience to continue to do it, and those who have given me content ideas for it and feedback to make it a (hopefully better) blog over time. :)

It's been a fun 4+ years. Here's to another 1,000 posts! Light up the fireworks!!

Content and Community Management Service

Thought I'd share the rundown about a company I learned about not too long ago. They are called Bryght.

Bryght (not a typo, it's spelled with a "y) offers a hosted solution for those in search of having a dynamic site that also offers the best options to host an online community without having to be a technical guru.

As they say on their web site:

Think of Bryght as Salesforce.com for content and communities. We are not RedHat; we don't sell Drupal software bundled into distros or support software; all we do is offer hosted services.

The solutions they offer are based on Drupal, an open source content management platform. Don't know about Drupal? You may not be alone, since it's only a little over a year old, but check out a sampler of Drupal-powered sites, as a reference of what they system can do.

What I liked about Bryght, when I first learned about them, was that they offered what felt like turn key solutions that suited users based on their specific needs, ranging from the basic setup of a domain and hosting service, all the way to features deep into community and content management, all this leveraging an open source platform that keeps getting growing every day.

So, next time you need a content and community management solution, shoot Kris and his team an e-mail.