Technology as Miracle

Photo credit to Nic Wise.

I’m Catholic.  With the big C as in “love the Pope,” but really with a small C as in “my parents made me do it.”  I start with this to say that I’ve never been much of a church person.  But, I go on and off.  Over the summer, that was more on than off, because I was staying with relatives and doing my darndest to prove that yes, I am one of those bright and shiny young people who looks forward to church every Sunday morning.  I don’t think I was fooling anyone.

On the Other Side of the Digital Divide

Or, Gutter-Diving Isn’t Enough

Photo credit to lisainglasses.

I live my life with my feet (or more so, fingers) firmly planted on the internet.  But, this morning, I read an article about the other side of the digital divide.  (Yes, ironically, I read it online.)  The premise was that Paul Miller, a tech columnist for The Verge, had given up the internet for a year.  Through this abstention, he explored how the other half lived and how living like “them” might change his perspective on the world.

Searching for Meaning in Spam

Photo Credit to .::HMU::..

I get a lot of spam – on this blog, on my work blog, and my corporate website.  It feels like the snow that’s still coming down even though it’s March.  (When will it stop?!)  Most of it is rubbish, utter nonsense that I delete out of hand, easily recognizing it for the gratuitous references to Viagra, work from home jobs, or off-shore e-mail providers.

But, sometimes there’s something about it that makes me stop and pay attention.  The way that, even though it’s cold and you wish it would hurry up and get to spring already, perfect snow can still make you think of Santa and Christmas magic.  There’s something about them and the way they’re written than makes me think that they can’t all be from a computer program in China.  And maybe there really is a long lost Nigerian prince who needs my help.

Dawn of the Facebook Dead

Photo credit to atomicjeep.

A while back, I wrote about the possibility of social automation leading to digital dopplegangers who stayed around long after our deaths (Digital Ghosts – Something creepy this way comes).  Looks like I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about this topic.

@tomscott, creator of the hilarious Actual Facebook Graph Searches tumblr and subsequent meme, created a (also hilarious) video on this topic.  When Facebook Resurrected the Dead takes a mock historical perspective on the creation of the digital afterlife.

Do Your Patriotic Duty, Reply to Nigerian Scam Emails

Photo credit to B RosenHow

Microsoft recently released a study, Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?, that made me geek out in so many ways. Microsoft’s research team undertook to statistically explain the “give me money, I’m a Nigerian price” ruse that so many of us have seen in our inboxes.

If you’re at all like me, you’ve received this kind of email and laughed at it, thinking othat nly the most gullible person would fall for it. Turns out, you’re right and that’s the point. As Microsoft’s paper explains (in all of its statistical glory), the Nigerian prince scam is designed in a way so as to alienate all but the most gullible email recepients.  At first, a con that immediately disqualifies potential victims doesn’t seem to make sense. After all, these types of things succeed because of the sheer volume of them; the emails cost nothing to send and the  success of the attack comes in its scalability.

Of Paradigms and Pirates

Photo credit to askpang.

The other day, I talked with coworker who is retiring after 50 years at my company.  (Can we just take a minute to revel in the fact that anyone works at a company for 50 years?  ‘Cause wow.)  We talked a lot about how computers had changed the way the company operates in so many ways, from the work that we do to the ways that we interact with each other.

She’s a very nice old lady who was trying to be positive about the changes, but I could tell that, underneath it all, she blamed computers for causing change that she couldn’t keep up with.  She said that over the years, she’s learned how to use a number of programs for work, but had never figured out the computer as a whole.  Like the way you learn to say “Una mas cervasa por favor” or “Ou et les toilettes?” when you’re traveling – you know the meaning of the phrase, but don’t necessarily understand which word is which.  For her, every new program or task was another set of memorized steps – she couldn’t get to the underlying logic of it, nothing was intuitive.

Would a digitized rose smell as sweet?

It’s the end of paper… I’m not sure if I care.

Photo credit to y-a-n.

The other day I got a wedding invitation… via Facebook message.  My reactions, in this order, were:

1. Friend 1 and Friend 2 are getting married!
2. They like me enough to invite me?!
3. A wedding invitation via Facebook message – that’s just wrong.
4. Of course they sent the invitation via Facebook, it’s the only way that they have of getting in touch with me.

For the vast majority of people in my life, Facebook is the only way that I have of getting a hold of them, and vice versa.  I don’t keep Outlook or Google contacts; I definitely don’t have a phone book.  My phone is synced to Facebook, so it automatically grabs my friend’s numbers and e-mail addresses.  Directly or indirectly, my knowledge of how to get in touch with people stems from our Facebook connections.

On Representation in a Digital World

Maybe I should represent this post with a printing press.

Recently, I’ve been struggling to get my head around how we, graphically, represent our work.  I work at an accounting firm, and was asked to assist with the design of our new trade show banners.  There are a lot of schools of thought as to what should go into a trade show display, but they all seem to agree that, within a second of looking at your booth, someone should be able to understand what you do.

I wanted to find an image that was shorthand for accountant – the way a wrench means a mechanic and a stethoscope means a doctor.  So, I thought about everything that we do and tried to match each task up with an image.  Turns out, they’re all the same image: someone hunched over a computer.  For anyone who works in my company, from a tax preparer to someone in HR, a pictographic representation of their work would be the same – for me, in the marketing department, too.  I didn’t want to put a picture of someone staring at a computer screen on our banners (didn’t seem too inviting), so I copped out and put “CPAs and business consultants” in big letters with pictures of our shiniest, happiest team members.

QR Codes and the future of technology

Photo credit to stuart63

Or, Futurist Ramblings and a Terrible Novel Idea

I’m still working on those QR codes, so I’m still puzzling about squiggly, little boxes and what they mean for the future.  My puzzling’s been taken even further thanks to Mashable’s contest: What Will the Next 40 Years of Technology Bring?  Mashable’s giving away a shiny new laptop to the person that can come up with the best answer, and as my laptop’s been threatening an unstable hard drive of late, I’d really like to win.  (Also, I just like winning.)

I’m not a futurist, although I’d like to be.  (Best business card title ever.)  So, here’s my answer, where I think we’ll be in 40 years:

Photo credit to fotologic

In 40 years, we’ll have a virtual layer on top of the real world that will be with us wherever we go. QR codes and location-based networks are just the beginning. First we’ll have screens that we can point at codes (although hopefully they’ll be better looking than the current black and white jumbles) and then we’ll have glasses (which we’ll wear all the time) that will allow us to see the virtual layer all around us. After that, we’ll move to contact lenses that are in all the time, so that the virtual layer will always be part of what we see. That lenses will allow us to see cont

ent (largely ad-based) that will be layered on top of everything. It’ll be customized to who we are personally and our preferences and interests. Targeted marketing will no longer be confined to a screen, but will be everywhere and on everything. We’ll see each see our own subjective virtual layer, full of feeds to which we subscribe, and ads which we’ll all (still) be trying our best to avoid.

QR Codes and Modern Hieroglyphics

Or, Beam me up, QR Code.

As part of launching our new brand at work, we’re getting new business cards.  This announcement is more exciting in Oprah Voice – “You’re all getting new business cards!”  And, the new business cards will have QR codes on them.  (“You’re all getting QR codes!”)  Clearly this announcement should inspire couch jumping.  Actually, it’s inspired me to spend way too many hours staring at squiggly little boxes.

“But Maggie, what’s a QR code?”

“Thank God, I worried that your question was going to be what’s Oprah, and then I was going to worry about you.”