I was a bit overwhelmed with a ton of captivating articles in my Twitter feed earlier tonight. I wanted to get caught up on Twitter, so I just popped the most interesting looking articles open in my browser, then went back to TweetDeck to finish up. I’ve finally managed to blaze through reading all those links. Here’s what I learned…
MUST-Read Weekend Links – SXSW, Google, iPad 2, Crazy-Busy, Android, DHH, Twitter and more!
Posted by swedegeek on March 13, 2011
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The Singularity will occur in 2045
Posted by swedegeek on February 13, 2011
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So, I’ve definitely heard of Ray Kurzweil and the notion of the Singularity quite a bit, but I’d never actually read much about it. This was a very interesting read that explains the premise behind it and Kurzweil’s efforts to engage (debate) anyone who doesn’t believe it’s coming:
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2048138,00.html
Some of it honestly sounds like it’s straight out of the sci-fi series by Peter F. Hamilton I’ve been reading lately, so I’m interested to see what people think. Enjoy, and see you in 2045 when we all get assimilated!
p.s.- Apologies if I’m years late to the Singularity party and everyone I know is bored of discussing it. If that’s the case, who has the signup sheet?!?!
Report from Post-Mubarak Cairo (plus pictures!)
Posted by swedegeek on February 11, 2011
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My sister-in-law Jill has been living in Cairo for the past few years. That made an awesome excuse for taking a most memorable trip to Egypt back in 2008. But the recent protests and now subsequent resignation of Hosni Mubarak as the country’s president are the topic of this post.
Jill has been keeping the family back here in the States updated as much as she can. She has a good network of people there – both Egyptian and other expats – who had been keeping an eye on the volatile situation. Things were most concerning when the Internet was down and phone use was sketchy. But today she sent out a much more celebratory message about what’s going on in Cairo along with some photos. With her permission, I’m posting what she shared with us…
Woot is off: How to lose the Socialnomics game
Posted by swedegeek on December 18, 2010
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I’ve been posting some rage tweets the past couple days about Woot.com. Finally, the cryptic 140-character rants have teased my loyal following too much. They have demanded I explain myself. Here’s the longer version of my tale being on the receiving end of an abysmal customer service experience by Woot.
Startup Concerns for Scaling and Coolness
Posted by swedegeek on October 12, 2010
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Of recent, I’ve been getting involved in a side project with two burgeoning, smart entrepreneurs. The idea we’re working on is really exciting (but secret!). We’re now getting passed some of the initial brainstorming and trying to get some prototyping done.
As we move into actual development, there have been some conversations over the technology stack we should use. Specifically, I was asked to make a comparison between PHP with MySQL and Ruby on Rails with a NoSQL option. The perception being that Rails and NoSQL was better, more scalable and certainly cooler than using PHP with MySQL.
Being I’m supposed to be the lead in this area, and seeing it as an opportunity to share knowledge, I did a bit of research to come up with decent backing for my thoughts. I realize this has been discussed many times before, by smarter people than I, but the end result of my response seemed worth sharing with a wider audience. So, here it is with some minor modifications from the original…
Open Letter to Cholula Hot Sauce
Posted by swedegeek on June 13, 2010
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Apparently, I got really pumped by seeing Cholula® Hot Sauce on the shelf at Meijer this morning. Every time we’ve run out of the stuff I’ve scanned Meijer’s hot sauce selection in hopes that they started carrying it. Always disappointment, followed by an annoying trek to Kroger to restock my supply. (FYI, I really don’t care for Kroger, thus the annoyance. The store is right across the street from the Meijer I go to.) However, that disappointment has ended today.
Then, out of lazy Sunday curiosity, I started checking into Cholula’s brand online. It was nice to see they have a decent looking website and some cool “wearables” in their online store. However, their marketing site is entirely in Flash (navigation, forms, content, etc.), the baseball caps have sizes (WTF?) and they have no social networking presence, at least not anything actively operated by them. Apparently I’m feeling semi-activist today, so I chose to write them a letter with a laundry list of my thoughts. Here it is…
Wardriving in the Name of Research
Posted by swedegeek on June 7, 2010
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I’ve been wrestling with Father Time of late in getting a chance to get some more blog posts rolling out. As you may have noticed, the old man has been seriously overpowering me. But, then I got to thinking, I already generated a bit of content that could be re-purposed and posted here. This amazing thought came about as I was working on my most recent homework assignment for the Business Data Networks and Telecommunications (aka, INFS-750) class I’m taking this summer. It’s one of the core courses for the MSIS program at Dakota State University.
This really was one of the cooler assignments I’ve had to do so far for my Master’s program. I was required to go wardriving in my neighborhood and write-up my findings on “conducting the wireless survey,” which is just PC-speak for wardriving. So without further adieu, here is what I submitted for the assignment, with some minor edits, plus a bonus mention of a possible business venture/idea. Continue reading »
TEDx Lansing – Notes Summary
Posted by swedegeek on May 22, 2010
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Okay, I’ve got everything recorded in the appropriate posts as notes from the most excellent TEDx Lansing event today. It was a really great day with fantastic presentations. Tons of good thoughts and ideas for Lansing and all of Michigan. I certainly wasn’t perfect in recording things, whether omissions or inaccuracies, but I did what I could. Continue reading »
TEDx Lansing – Session 4
Posted by swedegeek on May 21, 2010
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TEDx Lansing – Session 3
Posted by swedegeek on May 21, 2010
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