August 2008 Archives

Sun 08.31.08 - At the Assumption Church for the Long Beach Greek Festival.

1) No more voicemail.

2) SpinVox converts all my voicemail messages into text form or as an email.

3) Did I mention no more listening to voicemail?

I won't continue to tell you how excited I am that I have not had to listen to voicemail the last month... But I am excited and going to tell you about it. SpinVox, I love you.

Anyone who knows me spent a few years in the mid-2000s remembers being very frustrated with me, as I had my voicemail turned off completely. Yes, I flummoxed some poor defenseless AT&T Wireless employee by calling to request that my voicemail be completely turned off. It took about 15 minutes for me to convince him I was serious and that I wanted it completely deactivated. Turned off.

I happily lived from 2003 to 2006 with no voicemail on my mobile phone. I did have an answering machine at home that I would listen to when I was ready, which was usually at the end of the night & I would return calls the next day. And folks could text me on my mobile or send an email which I check multiple times a day from my computer & mobile. I have had an email enabled mobile since 2003.

Why did I do this? I really love asynchronous technologies and methods of communication. By asynchronous, I mean that the technology or communication that does not require instant response but allows the person receiving to read, process, and to return the communication when ready. Many have written about the stresses of always being on and plugged in, my way of dealing with the expectation that some folks have that one will always be available NOW is to set boundaries as to when I am available.

No, I will not pick up a phone call after 10pm or before 10am, unless it was prearranged. No, I don't pick up the phone when I am in a store or in a meeting or when having dinner. Etc.

Thus voicemails pile up. Some of them are important communiques that one needs the info fairly immediately, some are just "Hi! Was thinking about you!", some are long funny ramblings, and some are random who the heck are you. By the time one has dialed up the voicemail, listened to the messages, wrote down the important bits, deleted the rest, and hung up, I am frustrated by the inefficiency of the whole process.

Thus the genius of SpinVox. Our new best friends at SpinVox have a nice set of computers that record the voicemail from the caller when you can't answer your calls, the nice computers then use voice recognition software to translate the voicemail to a text and/or email, and within 1-4 minutes a nice text arrives at one's phone and a nice email comes down the pike as well.

One never has to listen to one's voicemail ever again. Thank the deities of voice recognition software!

Example a client called me the other day, when I was trying to talk to the Auto folks at the Toyota service area and I could not pick up. Before I finished my conversation with the Toyota service rep, I already had a set of texts waiting for me with my client's message. So, efficient. So nice.

Receiving texts and/or emails with the voicemails transcribed is particularly when folks are giving details that you would otherwise need to write down, like directions or phone numbers, as they arrive already written down.

I have chosen to receive both text to my mobile and emails to my gmail, I have been saving every voicemail to email for later reference. Why? Well, some of them are darned funny as the voice recognition does not get every detail right and does its best to compensate, its translations can be darned funny.

SpinVox does save all the actual voicemails for you if you want to listen to them or if it did not get all the important bits. The parts that the software can't recognize and transcribe is rendered as ________ and SpinVox gives you a reference number for that message. A reference number? Yep, so rather than listening to every danged voicemail to get to the one you want, when you call in the SpinVox system will ask which message you want to listen to. Fabulous!

SpinVox also allows you to verbally blog to your website, as well as send messages and other services, but I am still so excited about SpinVox converting voicemails into text form that I have yet to explore their other services.

My only complaint about SpinVox is that it took me months to get signed up as when one goes to their website it appears from the front page that the service is only for the UK and folks who have UK based mobile carriers. I was under this impression until May of this year when James Whatley, SpinVox's evangelist, corrected my error and let me know it was also for the US and many other countries. It is not until one clicks on the "SpinVox for You" menu item that one sees that one can choose a country other than the UK. The country options should be on the front page so that SpinVox does not lose business.

SpinVox, thanks for the great product and user experience. Y'all rock.

Now the Presidential campaign gets interesting.

Let the games begin... See you in November at the polls.

Mark Cuban on "How to Jumpstart the Economy - Tax Free Small Businesses" - This is a reasonable and rational idea. Thank you, Mark.

I am currently sitting in the lounge of the local Toyota dealer/service place waiting for my car to be done. And I have my earplugs in, the earplugs that are rated for 34 decibel sound reduction. And it is still loud enough to hear everything clearly.

Agh!

Either my earplugs are failing or my local Toyota dealership is one loud place, piped in muzak, big widescreen tv in the lounge area at full blast, and people trying to talk over all of this. How does anyone get any work done here? How do they cut deals for cars in this noise?

I am one of those folks who can't work or read or code unless it is quiet. I can't listen to music, even low instrumental music, if I want to read and comprehend what I am reading or if I want to code and not make mistakes. If I try to write while a bunch of stuff is going on around me, I will end up transcribing whatever the distraction is, which makes me a great live blogger at conferences but makes it hard to write while there are distractions.

In my immediate family we have a joke about Hanens and TV that basically goes along the line of if you want the Hanen in question to listen to you and look at you and comprehend what was said, do NOT turn the TV on or walk anywhere near a TV.

Yes, people, I come from a long line of amusing, creative, very bright, but easily distractable people. My Dad calls it being ADD, I call it that we are curious and are interested in a wide variety of inputs.

I am constantly astounded that folks can get much done or remember what is said in the noise that pervades so much of modern life. I make a big effort to have a quiet and peaceful house, I don't own a TV or a stereo or radio. Thus, going out in to the big wide world can at times be a aural and visual assault.

Conflicting TVs & piped in music (both at once) are now common while at the supermarket, gas station, car service lounges, outdoor malls, etc.

Does this bug anyone else?

Video link via TheBrad.

And in other Notes:
Gedblog on "100 Reasons Why McCain Won't Be President of the United States".

A year ago, if you had told me that Barack Obama and John McCain would have been running for President as the nominated candidate for their respective parties, I would have had a hard time choosing between the two. But as Gedblog details out above, Maverick McCain has become Republican FlipFlop Biiii-atch Boy McCain. Fare Thee Well, Mr. McCain, when you rediscover your Maverick Bipartisan side, email me.

In the meantime, when is Michelle Obama running for President?

I would like to extend a hearty congratulations to my lovely and smart friend Yvonne Cooprider Manganaro on her recent (July 25th) marriage to Frederico Manganaro. May your marriage be blessed with laughter and little people.

Photo of Frederico, Lauren (peeking out between F&Y) & Yvonne by me (Ms. Jen with my Nokia N95) from last night at Alex's Bar just before the Lords of Altamont went on stage.

My tip of the day: How to sign up for a plan without a 24 month contract with AT&T Wireless in the US.

How? Easy. Buy your own Nokia Nseries phone and let the Sales Human at the AT&T store that you just want to get a sim chip and plan for it with no contract.

Ok, maybe not so easy. The sales human may try to sell you an AT&T branded phone from the store on top of your desired call & data plan. Resist. Bless AT&T, but at current time they are not carrying any Nokia Nseries phones due to the fact that Nokia will not back down on disabling the GPS & Mapping features (go Nokia!). AT&T would like to sell their own navigation/mapping solution for an extra $30 a month.

As an aside, let's do the math here (as of Aug. 2008):

Cheapest Apple iPhone is $199 with the mandatory 24 month AT&T contract (in the US). But you also have to pay AT&T $30 extra dollars per month for their GPS/Maps feature beyond one's phone & data plan, which is an additional $720 over the course of the 24 months.
$199 + $720 = $919 (real price of iPhone with GPS)

Cheapest Nokia N82 purchased on Amazon.com at the beginnging of August during a sale is/was $379*. A Nokia purchased outside of AT&T does not have disabled features, thus the GPS and mapping is free.
Thus the real price over the course of the device's lifetime is $379.

In my world as a photographer a Nokia with a 5 megapixel camera for $379 is a much better deal than a 2 megapixel iPhone for $919.

Now to get back to my point, if you show up at the AT&T store (or T-Mobile) with your own unlocked device, then you don't need to be in a contract. Multiple month contracts are a way for the carrier/operator to make their money back from subsidizing the cost of the mobile device. Last week, when my Mom and I went into the local AT&T store to purchase a sim chip and get a plan for her new Nokia N82 the sales support representative was very helpful and pointed out to us that he was taking off the 24 month contract requirement before I had to mention it.

If the AT&T sales human that you are purchasing a plan from does not rightly see the above logic, then find the manager to eliminate any contract requirement for a person with their own phone. The sales human will still get their commission regardless if you are in a contract or not, appeal to their finer nature.

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*If you gasped at the cheap price for the Nokia N82, start watching Amazon's prices on Friday through Saturdays, that is when they seem to drop significantly. If I wanted to switch my Mom over from an evil little flip phone on Verizon, I had to find a similar price to what Verizon charged her two years ago. Now she is free.

Fri 08.22.08 - Ryan staked Bird's sunflowers last weekend as they were falling over. Soon the seeds will be harvested, then soaked in salt brine, then roasted, and then we can eat them.

File under odd but True: This summer at least once a week we have had June Gloom (maritime inversion layer clouds) until 10am or noon. Usually, from July 4th to October or November, we are cloud free. The days we have the inversion clouds it makes photography difficult.

I would like to encourage y'all to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009.

Moleskine to Mobile :: Consume or Create!

"Mobile devices are the frontier consumption vs. creation for over 2.5 billion people in the world. Do we, the people, use our mobile devices to consume other's creations or do we create with our mobiles? As designers, developers, and creators, will we let the manufacturers & operators define the mobile space or will we?"

Please go vote.

Today Scruffy and I were driving out of the local CVS parking lot (I had to buy Draino to unclog the kitchen sink - a monthly occurrence in a 65 year old apartment building), when a man pulling into the parking lot in a large white van rolled down his window and screamed at me, "It's Illegal!"

My first thought was, "What is illegal? You, Mr. Nosy, driving a large white vintage van that is rusted & bleching black smog?"... if it isn't illegal, it should be.

What he meant was that Scruffy was sitting in my lap. Both of my hands where on the steering wheel, my mobile phone was in my purse, and Scruffy was not obscuring my vision.

But, and a big but, is that a Californian state legislator is attempting to pass a bill through the State Assembly and Senate to make it illegal for small dogs to sit on their owner's laps while driving. I don't know if it has passed, but with all California driving laws, if it has already passed it will mostly likely go in effect on January 1st or July 1st of the next year with much fan faire and public education.

I have heard of the bill being up for vote, but I have not read that it passed (I read the LA times every day) nor have I seen public notice as to the date it will be in effect if at all. So, I am not worried.

I am not a person who likes to borrow trouble before it happens. Thus, I am not going to worry about a law that may or may not have passed both houses and been signed by the Governator. A law that if it did get passed has not been activated and publicized yet. If...

Scruffy likes to sit in my lap while I drive, most of the time he lies on my lap and naps. Sometimes if we are driving slow and the window is cracked he likes to put his nose out the window. I don't let Belle sit on my lap while I drive, as she is too tall and obscures my vision. I don't let Magnus sit on my lap the few times he has been in my car, as he is too young and bouncy and does not respect the fact that I need both hands/arms need to be on the wheel. Scruffy is well-behaved, most of the time, and does not cause trouble.

But you know about those small lap dogs... nothing but trouble, which is why, I surmise, the Nosy Legislator from Fresno is trying to pass a law to ban Scruffy from sitting on my lap.

More importantly to the point I want to make, all of us have broken the law or a law of some sort in the last week or two, be it not stopping for a full 5 seconds at the stop sign or driving through that yellow light as it was turning to red or not using a hands-free while talking on your mobile and driving (I saw you) or you took office supplies home with you or you used your office computer or phone for personal use ... or ... or ...

Tues 08.19.08 - This evening I drove up to LA to Venice Beach to meet up with a very jetlagged Donna & Colin from WOM World along with Amir, Bryan, Jean, Jeb, and Mike at the Sidewalk Cafe. As we were walking out, I looked up and was enchanted by the blue of the sky, the old wires, and the striped awning.

Tues 08.19.08 - This morning, rather than going to take boxes to my storage room, Mom and I took Scruffy to Dog Beach. Scruffy, at the end of our walk, found a seagull feather to bring along.

Mon 08.18.08 - I think it is time for Alex to vacuum.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82 in Chennai, India.

Fri. 08.15.08 - Happy Birthday to the Republic of India!

Fri 08.15.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95 at Dog Beach, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Tues 08.12.08 - Today my brother kindly repaired both the damaged case and the volume / zoom button of my Nokia N95 with his solder iron.

On Saturday, Scruffy decided he was going to chew on my phone and damaged the back plastic housing of the mobile to the point where it would have to be replaced or the phone would be ruined within a couple of months from exposure. That evening I ordered a Hello Kitty faceplate / housing / case that I found on Amazon.com to replace the damaged one.

By a strange miracle of the US Postal Service, the Hello Kitty faceplate arrived today. I was quite excited, pulled it out, and realized quickly that it was meant to be snapped on over the existing housing not a replacement for the original. I tried to snap it on, but the Scruffy chew damage was such that the Hello Kitty faceplate would not snap on. At all.

After lunch, I went in search of my brother who is very handy and can fix an amazing array of cars, boats, objects, etc. Luckily for me, he was working from home and had his gas powered solder iron in his truck. I decided that the case could not get any more fubarred, so I let him see if he could melt the plastic back into place.

And he did! Yeah! It doesn't look pretty, but the case now snaps on properly and protects the electronic innards of my mobile.

While he was at it, I asked him to solder down the broken volume / zoom contact point and it is now working again! Yeah!

Super Joe to the Rescue!

Sorry folks, I have a lot to blog about, but due to a rocky last few days I am just plain tuckered out, so I am about to close Chick-a-Poo the Wonder computer and go read a real live book-type-object and then go to bed.

As a note to me, here is what I do need to blog about before Wednesday (this week, hold me to it):

1) Jabba the Hut, or how I am really over the public fascination with 'girl on girl action'. Bah! What bullshit, esp. when you are the one being devoured by a drunk chick whose friends are holding you in place. Yes, a drunk married woman with kids molested me last night in the name of titillating men, who laughed but no one helped me out. If a guy did this, it would have been molestation, but because it was a girl, everyone laughed. Bah!

2) Write about how amazing and wonderful SpinVox is. SpinVox has set me free from voicemail. Thank God.

3) Write about the Opera Web Standards Curricula. Write about how funny it is that your two articles are not about mobile, but on Tables and Forms. Ha. ha. ha... eek!

4) Encourage folks to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009. Go vote.

5) Hubris.

Things that happened this weekend not to write about:

a) Inviting a friend and his wife to a show at Alex's and then they show up with 3-5 knuckleheads in tow who proceed to embarrass me with their trailer of a trailer of a trailer from the depths of Murrieta behavior and throwing gang signs the whole evening. Ugh. Ugh. Did I mention Ugh?

b) The amusing encounter yesterday whilst at a nice restaurant in deep south LA county suburbia with a movie / tv star attempting to be incognito all the while he was staring at me, as if he wanted me to notice him and be impressed. Note to said movie/tv star: Ditch the beanie, Dude. No one fucking cares, Artesia is not Hollywood. Either drive south of the 10 freeway and be a normal human or just stay up in the West Side and be a *star* but leave the beanie and your paranoia at home, esp. when eating at Udupi Palace.

Sun 08.10.08 - Los Mysteriosos played a great set at Alex's Bar tonight.

Is blogging a writing / posting activity that one does with a specific web based content software that allows one to publish to a website chronologically or is it a writing / posting activity that is about keeping a web log of one's life / thoughts irregardless of software running the web site?

If the second, then I have been keeping a weblog (self-publishing) in one form or another since 1996, when I put up my first internet homepage on my exciting 6 megs of space on the Boston University web servers (ACS3, if you must know). From 1997-1998, I had a home page over on the earthlink.net servers. From 1999 - 2003, I hand coded pages of writing and photos at the Barflies.net. And from 2003 to present, I have used Movable Type software at Blackphoebe.com and barflies.net to publish my thoughts and photos.

All this being said, if blogging is a software than my biggest influences were Ben & Mena Trott at SXSWi 2003. If blogging is a community, then Jish is my biggest influence, as he was the first person to be nice to me and invite me into the group at SXSWi 2003 (previous to that, I was an outsider from the Music world).

Previous to attending the first BlogHer in 2005, I had no idea who Dooce was, other than folks I know liked her blog. My first inkling into the web celebrity that is Heather Armstrong is when I was getting out of the car at the parking lot of the Westin Hotel pre-BlogHer 2005, and one of my friends got out of our car and shrieked, "DOOOOOOOOCE!" as loud as humanly possible.

The tall, blonde female person getting out of the car next to us looked horrified. I was mortified and busied myself with unloading the car. While I had not read Dooce's blog up to this point, but I understood in that instant the full power of internet celebrity. One would think it was 1964 and the Beatles had just landed.

During that first one day BlogHer conference in the summer of 2005, I was both excited by being at an event that was for and by women bloggers and more than a bit alienated by the whole thing. All my web related conference attendance up to this point was SXSW Interactive, which does have many bloggers but the focus is quite different. What I did like about the first BlogHer was how homegrown it was and friendly.

The same group of us, plus a few more, traveled up to San Jose late July 2006 for the second BlogHer. This one I spoke at and once again met folks that I would not have otherwise crossed paths with. Yet again, there were aspects to BlogHer that were just plain weird, mostly some of the interpersonal communication and overt familiarity, as well as judgments that folks made about others just based on their blogs genre (mommy bloggers vs. the business bloggers) or by the content on the blog. Odd but true.

The last two BlogHers (2007 & 2008), I did not attend due to other commitments. I did seriously consider going this year, as this would be the only place to meet up with a whole set of great bloggers who don't attend SXSW or other tech events. But in the end, the price of staying in San Francisco, project deadlines in July, and the general weirdness at the other 2 BlogHers I attended kept me away.

Why bring this all up now?

Happy 08.08.08!

I like the numbers 2, 4, and 8. I can't remember where I was on 02.02.02, mostly likely in Orange or at dinner with my Dad, as 02.02 is his birthday. On 04.04.04, I shot this fun photo of the Wittlest Cowboy in the West. And most of today was spent in Alex's Bar world: meeting, blogging, lunch, meeting again. Now I am home with Dog A & Dog B writing this to you.