Seek

'you're bone marrow isn't producing enough red blod cells'

What?! Rank that one up there with phrases that i never expected a doctor to say to me. But say, he did. So , now what? 'sometimes we never know why', i don't like that answer any better. No treatment yet. More tests. Great This is getting better and better.

For some reason, i think of the overeard conversation between the lab technician and the insurance clerk that occurred while i sat in the almost empty waiting room. It went something like this:

'we don't have enough money ' 'i only have enough supplies to last a few days' 'i can't help that' 'there is is this one thing i wanted, how much do we owe?' 'i'll check' ... 'over four hundred' Then silence.

Am i sick? A hypochondriac? If sick, with what? Is not knowing but fearing the worst case worse than learning the worse? At the moment, something like purgatory.

I Shouldn't be Surprised that louisgray's shared items still tops My Reading Trends

Back in February, I reported that "I had [unknowingly] shared more of louisgray's shared items than anyone else's in the last 30 days." As I explained in the original post, Google Reader Mobile doesn't tell me who shared a post with me.  It just tells me information about the source post.  I very rarely use the desktop version of Google Reader; however, out of curiosity I checked my trends tonight only to discover that Louis Gray is still leading the pack.

This probably should not have surprised me as Mr. Gray continues to provide a noticeable influence to the tech sphere I currently find myself within on-line.  However, I was surprised, because I have made drastic changes (more than once) to my feeds since that original post.

So, I just wanted to say "Thank You" to Mr. Gray for continuing to point me to information that I find interesting.  Perhaps, I should also say an "I'm Sorry" to anyone  out there that has to put up with the duplicates that I am throwing their way from my own shared items feed.

Echo Chamber Break Out

I want OUT! Of the echo chamber that is.  How?

• I know!  I'll add hundreds, even thousands of feeds.  Wait.  I've tried that.  FAIL!  After a short time, the information seems repetitive and echoes back at me.
• I know!  I'll join lots of social services.  Wait.  I've tried that.  FAIL! Even when my friends vary to some degree, the information seems repetitive and echoes back at me.
• I know!  I'll surf until I find other subjects, try new blog searches, and escape somehow.  Wait.  I've tried that.  FAIL!  Other subjects become boring and are within themselves their own echo chambers.
• I know!  I'll rejoin the mainstream. Ugh, never-mind.  I'm not that desperate yet.

Maybe, I don't really want out.  Or, maybe the echo chamber is really about perception.  Fresh voices and viewpoints are needed, yes.  They are actually there, of course, if we just take the time to notice them.  In the mean time, we also need trusted sources of information.  So, I'll try to look for the fresh voices and different viewpoints and consider just how much of an echo chamber I truly exist in.

For now, I'll leave the echo chamber behind for at least a little while by turning off the Internet, leaving the house, and enjoying the great outdoors.

Well, okay, not completely off. I'll take the MotoQ of course to check in and the iPod Touch in case I run across free wireless. 

Someone pass me some echo, will ya?

Twine

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I have been evaluating Twine for the last several days.  I am enticed by some of the semantic advertised qualities but I keep having a hard time firguring out how it fits into my online life.  Please share with me:

• how it fits into your life
• how you are using it
• invite me to your twine
• otherwise clue me in

so that I can better understand and provide a better test the service myself.

There is a Downside to Being A Geek

This evening I came home from the doctor's office armed with copies of test results and the geeky assurance that I would find out everything I needed to know on the Internet.

I now wish I had left well enough alone. I'm sticking with the doctor's simple explanation and the simple hope that things are back to normal when retests are done in a few weeks. That is, if I can manage to block out all those worse case scenarios that I just read about. Sometimes the information available is just too much and the availability of Star-Trek like medical devices are just too imaginative.

I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica

More specifically, I qualify for the  Britannica Webshare program, a question which I posed just the other day.  The registration process was fairly painless.  Apparantly, I now have free access for 1 year.  The only place that I became uncomfortable was when the registration process required an address.  I'm not in the habit of giving that kind of detail away as related to my SeekGround persona so I'm not saying that they got a real one.

In January I wrote a post where I admitted that I was jealous of today's kids. If Lumifi triggered jealousy, the online version of Encyclopædia Britannica has triggered a state of ugly envy.  In that January post I showed a screen shot of a Lumifi query involving John Donne.  My initial search of Encyclopædia Britannica lists 67 results to peruse.  When I click on the first related link, I learned that John Donne "... is often considered the greatest love poet in the English language" but I also found a lengthy article which goes so far as to show me how to properly cite my reference (a skill which always gave me problems):

MLA style: "Donne, John." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Apr. 2008  <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933>.

APA style: Donne, John. ( 2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933

They have an iPhone Edition. There are links to related articles and even an Internet Guide.  They link to what they call the "Web's Best Sites ... thousands of websites rated and recommended by our expert editors."   In fact there is more available here than I have words to describe but don't take my word for it because you now have full access to this article on John Donne just by following this link:  John Donne

More details regarding how this works here. They of course have language within their TOS which limits how content should be used.

UPDATE:  In the process of reviewing this post after it was published, I realized that the link that should give my site visitors access to the John Donne article was broken.  By that time, I had signed out of the Britannica website.  When I signed back in, the website that I was presented with was entirely different than the one that I had originally used.  This concerns me greatly.  I actually liked the earlier version better.  I don't know if I stumbled across the difference between the paid version and the free version or if they have just completely updated/changed their site presentation and I got caught in the middle of the process.  In any case, I'm not comfortable with the feeling that this leaves me with especially after having written a glowing post.  I plan to evaluate further and will post accordingly.  Also, the posting of the John Donne link did not seem to go very well and I had to go way out of my way to make it work correctly.  I would like to hear some feedback from someone that does not have a subscription to the encyclopedia as to how following this link works for them.  That link again was:    John Donne

Do I Qualify?

I have been out enjoying life lately; therefore, spending less time keeping up with the Jones's of the on-line world.  I haven't been around FriendFeed much (to my regret) even though I truly love the service and it was my internal excuse for acquiring an iPod Touch.  I haven't been much of anywhere on-line really except for FriendFeed (occasionally), twitter sms messages (occasionally), and Google Reader (more often but still occasionally).  So, I'm feeling very out of the loop.

Tonight, I sat down to spend sometime feed reading through the mobile version of Google Reader on the iPod Touch, when I discovered a post by Dan Colman on Open Culture which informed me about a new program called Britannica Webshare.  This program appears to give web publishers ( blogger, webmaster, or writer) complimentary access to the complete Encyclopædia Britannica on-line.  I nearly fainted when I read the story.  I practically lived in the Britannica encyclopedia set when I was in school.  I always viewed them as the best set in the library and nothing else has every quite measured up since including wikipedia which I can't quite bring myself to trust.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I qualify based on this blog?

Their registration page asked for my email address, first name, last name, URL, website description, and comments/questions.  The description piece stumped me at first.  I wonder how others would describe my little blog?  Anyway, I decided to describe it as follows:

My site is a blog which makes me a blogger.  The subject matter is eclectic although lately it has focused mostly on technology topics.

Surrounded by Technology

There were 3 family groups scattered throughout the waiting room, mine included, as I sat in my chosen spot. Within five minutes all three groups had used some sort of technology.

I, of course, alternated between the MotoQ and the iTouch once I discovered that wifi was available. I took and posted a picture to flickr, browsed google reader and friendfeed, and read Twitted SMS messages.

The young mother with a teen aged daughter used her blackberry with assistance from the teen to place a conference call. Apparently, the topic of conversation was insurance information. A website location was verbally shared as well.

Even the family in the middle got into the act at the last minute by taking a cell phone call.

This started me thinking about how pervasive technology is in our lives. We are surrounded by it and expect for it to work and even place oir lives on its hands constantly with little to no thought about how it works. We climb into and out of elevators. Do you always look to verify that the elevator car is there when the door opens?

The other day as I drove down the street I noticed two young teenagers, decked out in sports uniforms and carrying sports uniforms, walk out the front of their house and over to a parked vehicle. The leader found the rear passenger door locked so immediately slid over to the driver's door, quickly punched in a code, and then accessed the vehicle all before the Mom had ok locked the house and stepped out into the driveway. The struck me and stuck with me because of how common placed it seemed. Are metal keys becoming a thing of the past?

Lately I've noticed that I have cone to dependvon spell checker, grammar check, and even electronic calculators. Long division by hand? You must be joking! I don't even perform simple addition much anymore without the crutch of a spreadsheet being near at hand. Write more than a few sentences by hand? Not on your life if I can help it. I wonder what the next skill be that falls under the trampling feet of a piece of technology that will do my thinking for me?

Tech Envy & The Consequences

Sometimes I am an early adopter; sometimes not. Sometimes I begin to believe I can pass as a geek; usually not. The truth is geek gadgetry can be very expensive. Geek knowledge doesn't grow on trees but is gained through experiences and time but it doesn't hurt to also have a certain level and type of talent. When it comes to early adoption of online services I find that I don't feel the need to to try out and review every new service that comes along.

Some would say that I've gone overboard on the electronics that I have acquired so they would probably think I'm weird if they knew all of the items that I have wanted but have not acquired (yet). They don't understand why I need 3 cell phones, 2 television sets, 4 computers (2 personal, 2 work = a laptop and desktop each), 2 cameras, a digital voice recorder, a DVR, a DVD recorder, a gps device, a zune, etc (you get the picture). What they don't understand is that I don't need most of the listed devices; but I wanted them. At any given time, I most likely have several of these devices within easy reach. Usually I have some excuse that seemed important at the time before I make a purchase bit then the biggest underlying reason is usually tech envy. I will also purchase something if I think it will make my life easier. For example, I purchased the motoq because I had recently discovered Twitter and texting on a regular phone just is not my cup of tea.

My newest tech toy? An Apple iPod Touch (aka iTouch) which I am using to create this blog post. Why? I spend all day on a computer so when I get home I don't want to spend much time on either the desktop or laptop computers. I have been spending a lot of time with the motoq instead. However, the motoq doesn't work very well with some web sites and services. Now I have the best of both worlds and can compare them to each other. Something about the hand held devices still seem like pure fun vs the work that I equate with the larger computers.

When I start having problems I wonder how the people who still can't figure out their VCR will ever manage with some of the newer gadgets, technology, and services. What is my latest geek stumbling block? I've recently been given a new email address which I have yet to figure out how to access. Grumble.

Gut Reaction

Many years ago a computer programming teacher acting in the role of a mentor advised his young students to think carefully before responding to questions when approached by an interviewer.  I was one of those students.  He said that should he ever be approached by a microphone wielding reporter with cameraman in tow, he would want to sit down with a cup of coffee and carefully think through his responses.  Realistic or not, this made sense at the time. If you are going to have your 15 minutes of fame, shouldn't it be based upon your true beliefs and not due to your gut reaction?

Obviously, this statement was made long before the advent of the Internet as we know it today.  In fact it was before Microsoft Windows became part of our every day life.  Back then, should you have something that you wanted to share with the world you would write a book, write to the newspaper editor, or in the case of the school environment write essays.  In all of these cases, time was an important aspect of the writing process in that you would have time to truly think through what you were writing.  The subject matter would be researched, outlined, paraphrased, written, edited, and re-edited. So, the advice was given in an environment where people did not need to practice self-editing as the words came out of their mouths or flowed through a pencil/pen onto paper.

For me, the dynamic has completely changed.  It seems like much of what I read, primarily on-line, is a gut reaction to something else also written on-line which is likely also a gut reaction.  While I have read many blog authors state that their process is thought out whereby they plan out what they have to say, I have a hard time believing that they are able to stick to this process in the fast pace environment of on-line activity.  It seems to me that many of the services that we now use encourage the gut reaction response.  If you are using Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, Blog Comments, Jaiku, or other such services and you see something that you find interesting, disagree with, or even agree with, you immediately respond.  If you don't say what you have to say right then and there then you likely will not think to return and respond later.  Not to mention, that the conversation would have moved on by then anyway or someone else will have beaten you to your point.

So, are our responses our true beliefs?  Or just, gut reactions?  Have we become better at self-editing as we write?

Having the Last Word & the 20 Second Attention Span

I couldn't sleep so I just sat down to catch up on some Internet time. (Side note:  If this post seems incoherent, I'm planning on blaming it on sleep-blogging!  Get it?  Instead of sleep-walking I was sleep-blogging? Oh, never mind.)

I first visited one of the few blogs that I prefer to follow directly on the blog itself instead of reading the feed through Google Reader only to discover that even Will is trying to organize his web habits in an attempt to deal with information overload.  I also discovered that he not only likes FriendFeed but is planning to use it to help deal with having "too many moving parts". My favorite quote from this post is "It's weird how many sites you can use without actually visiting the site itself."

I then preceded to FriendFeed.  Lately, I haven fallen into the habit of first checking to see if anyone has commented on my stream.  Then, I move on to see if anyone has followed up on any of my prior comments or likes.  Then I return to my Friends tab to see what my friends have been up to and add new comments and like indications.  Finally, I click on the "Everyone" tab just to see what floats to the top and possibly add comments and like indications (time permitting of course).

When reviewing my FriendFeed Discussion stream, I keep having the impression that the I am having the last word.  I suppose there are various reasons for this:

• I'm a conversation killer.  Anytime I comment, I effectively kill the conversation.
• I'm commenting too often so no one else has a chance to get a word in edgewise. (I don't think my comment stats support this theory because I have only commented 21 times this week).
• The posts that I comment on are not that interesting to other FriendFeed users.
• The impression is false.  There are 30 posts on the first page.  Of those 30, I appear to be the last commenter on 14 of them. The number increases to 17 on the first page if I look at just the Comments page.
• Conversations move on as people continue to post or link to posts about the same general topic and I may be missing the rolling discussion as it moves on without me.  Or at the very least, i have not commented on other posts within the rolling discussion.
• Our attention span on-line has shrunk to something like 20 seconds so that we move on to the next hot topic and do not return for more in depth discussion of previous hot topics.

Are you having similar impressions about your discussions?  If, why do you think that it is?  If not, why do you think I'm having that impression?

Toluu Introduction Ends with Toodles

I received my invitation to Toluu at exactly 11:26 PM last night, not that I actually read it then of course.  I found the sign off on the invitation email interesting "Toodles" they said indicating of course "Goodbye."  I expect that this is anything but goodbye but perhaps "hello" and the beginnings of further coexistence.

Toluu is all about finding new feeds based upon what other people are reading. I have tried similar services in the past such as http://www.feedbuddy.de/ and share.opml.org (now retired), none of which I have used in a long long time.  I think Toluu is different though and may retain my interest.  Why?

• Toluu's user interface is extremely slick, easy to use, and fairly simple.
• Continued development will play an important roll.  Will they support it?  Share.opml.org has been retired and feedbuddy is broken for me (probably because I loaded several hundred feeds into it).
• My friends are using Toluu.  I am interested to see what they are reading and how that matches to my feed.

I actually have records of more than one set of OPML files.  My first decision when starting to use Toluu was which OPML file should I use?  I decided to use the version that I am currently using in Google Reader which had 75 feeds.  I'll obviously have to reload the OPML as I add additional feeds to Google Reader.  My alternative choices are explained in the post where I described how I scraped my Google Reader clean.  I like that Toluu offers the ability to remove a feed.  Based on my subsription history, I will need this feature.

During the time that I have been writing this post my top match has changed from http://www.toluu.com/mhmazidi to http://www.toluu.com/jeffisageek so obviously as other people load their feeds and as we all continue to modify our subscriptions these match numbers will move around.  I do find it interesting that I am currently listed as 89% with jeffisageek when he has 8 posts and I have 75.

Toodles (for now)...

Hopefully NOT Trashing my Blog

Today FriendFeed decided to support Disqus.  This fact came to my attention several ways and I decided to try out the service based upon this comment thread on FriendFeed.  I managed to somewhat easily include the commenting feature into SeekGround on Tumblr.  However, when it came to including the service in my blog I quickly realized that I was a lost ball in tall weeds.  Where do I turn in my geek badge?

So, I think I finally figured out how to implement the service to the blog and this is the test post.  Sadly, There will be no future updates to the blog until I find up from down in the world of templates.  Seriously, my nerd ego has taken a bashing here.

My Disqus profile can be found here:  http://disqus.com/people/SeekGround/

It's about ME not YOU

I am a consumer of information content, technology, and services. I want what I want so give it to me and do not dare to try to block my way! Okay, feeling better now so let me explain what I mean.

I have had the unfortunate pleasure to sit through a variety of training classes (management, customer service, train the trainer, etc.) which all had one underlying theme: if you want something from someone you must keep in mind that all they want to know is 'what's in it for me?'

So, what's in it for me to visit someone's blog or website? Until recently, my response would have been 'not much.' there were only a handful of sites that I visited directly more than once on purpose. The number decreased with my increasing usage of Google Reader. Now however, I find myself going through services such as Twitter, LinkRiver and FriendFeed to a site. Why?

I do not particularly care where I read the information (with the exception of content stealers), or how i get there as long as the notification of new content is fast. First come first serve so to speak. I may choose not to comment on a blog in favor of commenting within a service such as
FriendFeed but without FriendFeed I never would have visited your blog to begin with. Without Twitter and Google Reader I never would have discovered 90 percent of the bloggers that i am familiar with today.

So, do you want to expand your viewership? Stop thinking about what you want and start thinking about what people like me want.

I look for Lijit

A service that I use daily and really like is Lijit.  They bill their service as being all about the ability to search those you trust - you're friends:

Using the power of people, their content, and their connections, Lijit enhances the way your readers search for and discover information on the Internet. You serve as a filter for all of the results your readers could possibly receive, ensuring they only receive the most relevant results from the source they trust…YOU.

They even go so far as to claim that the service increases page views.  My assessment would be that they increase quality page views which increase the likelihood of future revisits.

I must confess that I primarily use the service to look at my search stats. (I may not be trying to grow my audience but I do like to know how much audience I have.)  It gives me a snapshot view of page views, page views with re-search, searches, top referrer, top re-search term, and top search term.  In then goes into greater detail for each one of these items plus much more.  The stats contain the following tabs:  Summary, Readers, Searches, and Exposure. If I so chose I could make all of this information public.

I include the Lijit widget on my blog which contains one of the coolest features of the service. "The Lijit Explorer is an interactive, visual representation of a blog's network. "  However, you do not have to use the widget in order to use the service.