Wow, I couldn’t believe that this is a real word.
Automagically.
I thought my colleague was using it as a gag.
But when I asked Dr. Google, there it was.
Automagically – Automatically + Magical
It refers to the use of computer automation and how when well-implemented it seems almost like the process is magical, ingenious, and oh, so easy.
So this is the goal for us that all our processes and efforts should be poof–automagically done and there it is! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This adjustable computer desk stand from Veridesk for sitting and standing is awesome.
Someone got this in the office, and it is the talk of the town.
It comes as one piece, no assembly required and you just place it under your computer–simple, easy!
Just push the handles on either side and the desk height adjusts variably up or down.
I found it on Amazon for just $325-$400 depending on the size and whether you have a double monitor.
My colleague at work said just try it and you will feel so good–this seems like a good healthy deal. 😉
OMG, this is awesome.
This Lily Camera Drone is “throw and go” and simply lands in your hand.
You can set it to follow you–almost like a guardian angel– or to lead you where you need to go.
Records video, sound, can do slow motion, and takes photos.
It has a tracking device.
It’s waterproof.
Awesome for extreme sports or personal surveillance.
Would like to be able to communicate with it by voice command, and also see what it sees and hear what it hears with augmented reality glasses or on a smartphone or wearable.
Finally, if only it would come with a laser to zap anybody or anything bad that may come at us–that could be reassuring.
Costs = $619 and ships in May 2016.
That was easy. 😉
Washington D.C. Metro Emergency Instructions
Ugh, long and boring.
How ’bout this instead:
– Don’t Freak Out
– Don’t Get Out
(unless your in immediate danger)
– Don’t Take Your Bulky Stuff Out
– Don’t Fry When Your Out
(stay away from the electrified 3rd rail–zap!)
Easy, smeazy. 😉
[Note: Follow instructions at your own risk.]
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal – sorry so fuzzy, train was moving)
So data is like clouds…
Clouds want to be free roaming the wild blue skies similar to how data wants to be searchable, accessible, useful, and so on.
But with data, like clouds, when it rains it pours–and when data blows about with the windstorm and is compromised in terms of security or privacy, then we not only come away wet but very uncomfortable and unhappy.
Then, as we actually end up putting our data in the great computing clouds of the likes of Amazon, iCloud, HP, and more, the data is just within arm’s reach of the nearest smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer.
But just as we aspire to reach to the clouds–and get to our data–other less scrupled (cyber criminals, terrorists, and nation states)–seek to grab some of those oh so soft, white cloud data too.
While you may want to lock your data cloud in a highly secure double vault, unfortunately, you won’t be able to still get to it quickly and easily…it’s a trade-off between security and accessibility.
And leaving the doors wide open doesn’t work either, because then no one even needs an (encryption) key to get in.
So that’s our dilemma–open data, but secured storage–white, soft, beautiful clouds wisping overhead, but not raining data on our organizational and personal parades. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I am at this place of business this evening, and I overhear someone trying to apply for a job.
Note, I feel bad for the guy who is looking for extra work, but the interview just is going all wrong.
– Easy-Smeasy – He asks “What is the easiest part of the job?” Ugh, didn’t sound exactly like he was looking for a challenge.
– Keep your head down – He exclaims, “And never do someone’s else’s job!” What about helping where the help is needed?
– Great facilities you got here – He ends with, “And when I work here, my kids are really going to love coming to use the facilities here all the time!” Not exactly, a what will I do for you strong ending.
I didn’t get to hear the whole interview dialogue, but this was enough to get the idea about some things not to do in an interview.
The funny/sad thing was, I think this gentleman really thought that he was going to get the job after all. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Some people are averse to change and to technology–and then there is Gary Sernovitz.
This guy in the Wall Street Journal today boasts how he is one of the last 9% of American society that goes without a cell phone (let alone a smartphone).
At 40 and as a managing director of an investment firm, he says if he needs to make a call he uses one of the 30 working remaining payphones in Manhattan or borrows his wife or a strangers phone–so much for personal independence and self-sufficiency. Does this guy (and wife) live at home with his mommy too?
He calls himself a “technology holdout” and actually goes on to says that he is scared of getting a cell phone because he is afraid of losing himself.
While admittedly, many people do go overboard with technology, social media, and gaming to the point of addiction, I am not sure that getting a cell phone is alone a major risk factor.
Sernovtiz says he adheres to Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of simplicity–and that inventions “are but improved means to an unimproved end.”
Thoreau went to live in the woods to “live deliberately” and focus on “only the essential facts of life,” perhaps like many ascetics and spiritual guides before him have. And as such, this is not a bad thing when done for the right reasons.
But Sernovit’z One-sided message is a negative one, because technology as any tool is not bad in and of itself–it’s how we exert control over the tool and ourselves, balancing productive use from misuse and abuse.
If Sernovitz is so afraid of using technology, perhaps he should question himself as an investment manager and disavow use of money–which can be used for many evils from greed, hoarding and selfishness to financing terrorism–and instead go back to bartering forest lumber and chicken eggs?
When I asked my 16-year old daughter what she thought of Sernovitz’s article, she said he can’t differentiate “simpler from easier.”
Don’t mind me if I pass on this guy’s book, “The Contrarians.” 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
For those of you neat freaks out there, you probably have been sold on the King of Vacuum cleaners–the Dyson!
Dyson, a British company has built a vacuum cleaner (and fan and hand dryer) empire with 4,000 employees and $1.5 billion in sales.
For a number of years now I have used Dyson including their super powerful (and expensive) “Animal” bagless cleaner–this thing actually ate up one of my phone cords and tore it to shreds.
I’ve also had other Dysons and my experience has been that while they look really nice in their bright yellows and grays, and sort of sleek for a vacuum, but they tend to break down–especially the motor for the brushes that work on the floor that I find accumulates hair and dirt around the spinner until it stops working.
The other thing that I’ve found with the Dyson is they come with so many annoying attachments, many with no place to actually attach them all–I think it is overkill for most people’s basic cleaning needs.
After going through a number of Dysons, I finally got fed up with paying so much and getting so little, and we decided to stop “investing” in short-lived Dyson vacuum cleaners.
Instead we said let’s get a simple, cheapo, Dirt Devil for like 50 bucks and run it into the ground. If it stopped working we could replace it 6-10 times for the cost of a single Dyson!
We purchased the Dirt Devil, and my expectations were very low–I actually considered it an experiment in purchasing this low-tech machine, and just seeing what we would get.
Well, it’s been about 3 months and I can’t believe the amount of vacuum you can get for so little money with the Dirt Devil–it is bagless like the Dyson and without scientifically measuring the amount of dirt it picks up, I’d say it is almost equivalent in getting the dirty job done.
Additionally, the Dirt Devil–doesn’t come with all the useless attachments–a case where more is less–and it weighs only around 8 pounds, which is 1/3 of what the Dyson weighed–so it is much easier to use around the home.
Similarly, when I look at the cool Dyson fans without blades, it seems almost magical how they actually work, but frankly who cares if it cost $300-$450 and doesn’t work as well as a basic floor Vornado that sells for about $120.
My opinion is that Dyson is generally overpriced and underperforms–but at least you’ll have the image of innovation and performance, even if not the reality at the price point.
Anyway, If I had a vacuum cleaner dream, it would be to one day get one of those “commercial” vacuum cleaners that you see being used in the huge buildings–almost non-stop use–and they may cost a little more, but they actually give you more as well. 😉
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Molly DG)
With voting, this was the first time I’ve ever:
– Voted early–even though it was on the last early voting day.
– Had to wait on any sort of real line to vote–this one was about 30 minutes long!
– Waited outside in the cold on a line snaking around the building–until the election volunteers had a heart and let us all in and out of the cold.
– Had electioneering occurring right outside at tables and people handing out “information” until maybe 25 feet before the doors of the polling center–in the past, this activity was always kept far away and and they didn’t have the nerve to approach you as you were literally going inside the polling stations.
– Got to sit down at a voting machine–always had to stand up previously, but from the sitting position and the “ergonomics” of the voting machine, you could hardly see them properly.
– Had virtually no voting privacy–the machine faced the walls with the touch screens facing inward towards everyone else in the auditorium.
Despite all these voting firsts and most of them disappointing, the one voting first that I would have liked to see and didn’t was Internet voting, where we would usher voting into the 21st century with ease of voting, convenience, and privacy.
For some reason we can bank, shop, and pay taxes online, but to vote, we’re still stuck in the dark ages and it seemed like overall it was getting darker.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This new robot named Baxter, by Rethink Robots, is practically being touted as the greatest thing since Swiss cheese–“allowing our people to use their minds more than their hands”–but this demonstration video shows a clumsy and awkward robot instead.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek (18 September 2012) actually calls it a “huge disappointment” and I’ve got to agree.
The product manager in video calls Baxter–developed with $62 million over 5 years–“easy,” “complaint,” and “collaborative,” but unfortunately Baxter, the robot, comes off looking anything but as he slowly and laboriously tries to pick up and move items from one location to another, and the product manager pulls his arms and pocks at his screen/face to program it.
While I am a huge fan of robotics and see their potential to transform our society–where robots can becomes surrogates for humans in everything from work to even odd companionship, I do not see the breakthrough here by Rethink Robots–except in the affordability of this robot to be used in manufacturing for only $22,000 a unit.
What I do like about Baxter is that it is generally a good-looking device–with a solid looking grey base and long 9 foot wingspan red stretch arms. I even sort of like the eyes and brows giving it a humanoid nature, but the quirky and flimsy looking red screen hanging off the main body looks chinsy.
Also, if the robot is so “friendly,” you’d almost expect it to be on wheels and mobile with the ability to speak, so that it could more genuinely interact with others, but it does not.
Baxter is the brainchild of one of the pioneers of the Roomba vacuum–another toyish device that I wouldn’t spend a dime on.
Maybe, the way to look at it is that we need to take baby steps before we get the real iRobots coming to us–and hopefully that day will come soon.
andyblumenthal 