Our day at Infineon Raceway: A technology success store

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Would Britt and you like to go to the NASCAR race at Sears Point (now Infineon Raceway) on Sunday?
DW: I've already been to a NASCAR race.
Me: This is different. This is a road course. And that day was freezing cold. This will be nice weather.
DW: Right, this time it'll be over 100 degrees and full sun.
Me to myself: Okay, this isn't going well. Time to drop it.
DW: But you should go.

Okay. I'd always wanted to see a road course race at either Sears Point or Watkins Glen. It was one of the things on my bucket list, but I'd resolved that it wasn't going to happen this trip. I'd already spent one day of this vacation at a conference, and I wasn't about to tack on a solo day at a NASCAR race. So I let the subject drop, and contented myself to bonding with the race crews staying at our hotel. Being on right coast time I was up and getting coffee at the time they were headed out to the track each morning. For three days straight I'd been picking their brains-- mostly about their technology, but occasionally about just plain old racing stuff.

Then on the day of the race, at breakfast, two hours before we'd need to be at the track, which is 40 minutes from our hotel if there was no traffic to contend with, my DW says, "We would consider going to the race if you can get us seats in the shade." I'm like, "Great! I'll see what I can do." All the while hearing the theme song to Mission Impossible playing in my head. I sprung into action.

My challenge:

• All 102,000 seats were sold out
• Time was short.
• The requirement for shade-- does it even exist?
  
• There are no on-site scalped tickets to the event-- you can't even get into the parking lot without a ticket.

Bottom-line: It took me all of 10 minutes to score shaded seats right above the pits and the start/finish line. Dang I love the internets. The technologies: Google -- does shade even exist at Infineon? Yep, and VERY limited. Craig's List-- is anyone selling tickets? E-mail - are the tickets still available and where are they; shade? ATM - copious amounts of cash required. SMS - guided directions to the rendezvous point for the ticket exchange. This is what success looks like:

We had a great time at the race. My DW enjoyed it way more than our experience at Rockingham a few years ago. It was a decidedly different crowd from a typical NASCAR event. Not wine and cheese exactly, but without question a lot less alcohol was being consumed. We had such a good time that I've decided that just one road race isn't enough. I've edited my bucket list to include a day at "the Glen". Maybe next year.

Seesmic: Just say no

Seesmic-- I'm not even tempted. BUT, I did find this Cathleen Rittereiser ramble quite amusing. And yes, I'm posting this because she gives me a shoutout. Be sure and stick with it through the banana part.

The seedy side of Scrabulous that I'd totally missed

I'm feeling really stupid, that as the Commissioner of the Twitterverse Scrabulous World Championship Series, that I didn't know that Scrabulous had a secret side. You can imagine my shock when I come to learn that it has this whole other "purpose": How a stuffy board game became became a sleazy internet pickup joint:

Because on its surface, Scrabble is no Twister. Its board is a prosaic, melancholy wash of pallid blues, reds and grays. Opportunities to maneuver are restrictive (no saucy diagonals allowed). And scoring is banal — most letters are worth an underwhelming one point. Most mood-killing of all, the game is slow and it's long — a ten-minute wait between turns isn't uncommon. Combine a fireside game of Scrabble with a bottle of Chianti, and you and your date will be asleep before the first triple-word score.

This monotonous pace, however, is perfect for an online game of smutty Scrabulous. For many players, once the lewd dialogue begins, it supercedes the game itself. Long stretches of time between turns mean ample chance to hone one's dirty talk. "I don't think people really pay attention to the game once the flirting has begun," says Jack, a serious player with an impressive rating of 1,500+. He often seizes upon his opponent's distraction to win the game and further increase his rank. And he appreciates the metronomic rhythm that regulates and compliments the natural back-and-forth of verbal seduction. "The excitement comes from the fact that you have to take turns to flirt: your turn, my turn. You have to wait until the other person has completed their turn before you get in your next line."

I had no idea. My in-game chats have been restricted to things like, "nice play", and "where you been?" I'd been living under the "comfy" assumption that Scrabulous was all about the game. One should never be surprised when it comes to the internets. Live and learn.

Chroma key and Second Life machinima

I've spent a fair bit of time over the last couple of weeks learning about creating chroma key video. I've been really slammed of late, and most of my play time has been carved from when I might normally have been sleeping. My goal was to mix some Second Life machinima with some real-world video. It's been fun to learn, and where my first effort is rather trivial, I did learn some things that I will be able to put to use on more practical projects in the future.

I started off trying to create this using green backgrounds. I basically created a big box in the sky with several 10x10 panels that I had turned green. It was a lame attempt to emulate green screen production techniques. The problem was that the side walls and the floors, even though they were covered with the same color of green, were presented in Second Life with shadows. So I was dealing with two different shades of green. Where Final Cut could handle the two different colors it was still mostly a pain to have to use two different filters. There was also a lot of green in the avatar's skin, and after playing with the skin color it was still difficult to get good results. I tried several things to get around the problem with the raw captured video. I tried completely closing in the box from any ambient light (is there such a thing in Second Life?), but that didn't solve the problem either. What finally worked was to not use green at all, but to use black. It was too easy!

Here's my video... I'm afraid to publicly admit how long I spent making this. It took a long time! I am gradually getting faster and smarter with Final Cut. It's been a lot of fun, but I still have a long ways to go.

Giving thanks to Steve Ballmer

I made a killing in an Inkling prediction market this past weekend when the MicroHoo talks went down the tubes: Will Microsoft announce a successful buyout of Yahoo! in 2008?. I started shorting the deal last week at $84, and just kept buying all the way down.

I have no idea how the corporate world works, and how you are supposed to consummate these sorts of deals. For all I know it's against the law to talk to the buy-out target before the fact. Regardless, I think the whole notion is stupid. Think how much better this would have gone in a transparent world? Where Steve sends Jerry an email, or even better-- a tweet, and says, "Can we talk? I want to share an idea we've had with you." Then they get together over a beer, "discover" that they have pretty different cultures, that there are significant barriers, and that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Maybe things just aren't done that way in business-- how would I know? We don't deal in numbers that big in academia. I do know that a little transparency might have led to a whole lot more trust, and if the deal couldn't be made at least they wouldn't be facing such a brutal and very public failure.

Regardless, their failure catapulted me into the top 100 traders at Inkling, and on to the leader-board for the week. And for that I am thankful!

Science tattoo blog

This is a good example of serving a niche: Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium. It features scientists and their tats.

I (a science writer) wondered aloud if scientists had tattoos of their science. The answer was yes, and this site is the evidence. I'll be adding a new tattoo every day until I run out (if that day ever comes). If you want to share your own scientific ink, send it to me with some explanation.

Kind of cool. I've placed "getting a tattoo" on my bucket list. Hey, it had to have something and this was an easy one to steal straight from the movie. Of course, I have no idea what tattoo I would get, and I figure the longer I wait the shorter I'll have to live with the consequences of a bad decision. I'm thinking I might be getting my tattoo post-humously.

I do have to admit that I am partial to the idea of something from science. Pictured is my favorite from Carl's site.

My fake identity lives

After months of no activity, all-the-sudden my Joseph Locher fake identity starts getting email again. Go figure? Fake identity generator

The good ideas for Internet based businesses just keep on coming. This site will generate you a fake identity. My first identity was a tough one: Teodoro K. Odonoghue. No way I could ever remember the spelling of the last name. My second try got me one I can live with. What's not to like about living in a place called Horse Cave?

You can get your own fake identity here: Your Randomly Generated Identity. Once you have a fake identity be sure to drop Joseph a note. Especially if you get Elvis Presley.

Twitter must start blocking new accounts

I've seen statements like the following a lot of late. About how we Twitter users are uber-connected, leading-edge, ahead of the curve, the smartest people in the whole world, and on and on: Twitter is dangerous

By the way, if you think Twitter isn’t mainstream enough to matter, think again. It’s currently got almost 700,000 users, many of them influential early adopters. Twitter isn’t going away, and like all tools, it can be used for both good and evil. Balancing Twitter’s dangers and benefits may not be easy, but you’d better start thinking about it today.

That is so true. Place the power of 140 characters in the wrong hands and nations could fall.

Of course, we Twitter users were a lot more influential when there were a lot less of us. All these new people are just diluting the early-adopters' voice, making it no longer the world's most important sounding board. That's why I propose, at a minimum, that no new people be allowed to create accounts from this day forward. Even better, to help preserve that lab rat feel, I propose that anyone who created an account, say after Dec 2, 2006, have their accounts disabled.

Internet addiction Korean style

This is one of the stupidest things I've read in ages. From the NY Times: In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession

"I’m not thinking about games now, so maybe this will help,” he replied. “From now on, maybe I’ll just spend five hours a day online.

Like a week long government sponsored camp is going to help people who really do have a problem with obsessive-compulsive disorder? I'm sure there are people who will read this article and think it's a good idea. Sigh! Don't they know these kids are in training to be gold farmers? Leave them alone!

Wouldn't they be better off just making a few good government sponsored movies? Something like the 1947 classic Shy Guy:

Phil, a student who recently transferred into his high school, keeps to himself a lot, spending time in his basement building radios and record players. His dad notices that he has no friends, and tells him that, like the electronic parts he assembles, "you have to fit in with all the other parts." Realizing that the reason he has no friends is because he's not one of the "crowd," Phil studies the most popular kids at school, in order to see what traits they admire most, so he can be like them and fit in.

Rob Stone of ESPN eating a chili pepper

In an attempt to lower the readability level of this blog I bring you this video of Rob Stone from ESPN sampling a New Mexico State University grown chili pepper.

I'm thinking Rob might not score too high on an IQ test.

Closed/Private wins in the end

I was there for the birth of the ClosedPrivate Initiative. Anne Zelenka has the full story, well as much as she can disclose. I'm thinking she might be a tad in the dark:

Facebook moved first with the F8 platform. Then Google (GOOG) and a coalition of other social networks responded with OpenSocial. Now, at today’s Defrag conference, semantic web startup AdaptiveBlue has announced ClosedPrivate, the latest strike in the worldwide social applet war. CEO and founder Alex Iskold apparently instigated the ClosedPrivate effort in a closed and private elevator meeting before continental breakfast on the fourth floor of the Hyatt Regency.

I wish I could tell you more.

Advice for getting started in Second Life for women

Sue Waters has another funny post, this time about getting started in Second Life: I’m on Holidays! Real life? Or Second life? It is chockfull of good advice such as:

Can I say NEVER, NEVER let a man take you into Second Life when you are a beginner.

I'm not sure what she meant by this. I think she just got the wrong man. I gave her the following advice to use when shopping for hair:

I’m going to share a tip on the whole hair deal. The flexi hair is a must. I can’t tell much about your hair in the screen capture you posted, but here’s the secret for checking it out in-world.

In your gestures you have a mechanism to make your avatar do a flip. (WARNING: DON’T DO THIS WITH PEOPLE AROUND WHILE WEARING A FLEXI DRESS.) Anyway, do the flip and watch your hair move from several different angles. This is a must.

You all didn't know that everything I know about fashion was learned in Second Life.

Your avatar after death

Nicholas Carr while discussing YouDeparted comes up with a brilliant revenue idea for Second Life: Corpse-generated content.

Second Life, for instance, could offer its members, for a nominal fee, the ability to have their avatars turn into ghosts after they pass away. The ghosts would just randomly float around the virtual world for eternity. They could call the service Third Life.

This is something I hadn't considered when I discussed handling my eventual online departure. If it could be combined with something like this new Twitter API called 1000 Monkeys I think this idea could be a real winner. The way 1000Monkeys works is that it mashes up random tweets to make brand new ones...

Now, how sweet would it be if your Second Life ghost avatar could randomly mash up things that you'd said over your lifetime and talk in-world?

If we had a feed on favs I wouldn't have to do this. I'm so conflicted.

TwitDir top 1000

Wooo hooo! Top 1000 in every TwitDir category. A big thank you to all my new peeps. Next stop - Twitterholic. :)

Techmeme, traffic, and the Ukrainian Air Show of 2002

I'm getting a huge number of hits this morning to my blog. I had no idea that you could get so much traffic talking about an air show disaster that happened in 2002. The thing is I didn't write about the Ukrainian Air Show disaster, but Techmeme thinks I did.

For those of you who followed the Techmeme link I hope you aren't too disappointed. You'll find no crashing airplanes here.

UPDATE: Now the story about the Techmeme problem is on the Techmeme front page: Techmeme and Google Shared Stuff: WTF?, and here Canadian Writer Buys Google, TechMeme Thanks to Strong Loonie, and here Techmeme Confuses Me Sometimes. Kind of funny.

QOTD: Sue Waters on multitasking

Sue Waters definitely raises the bar: How Do You Fit Everything In! DO YOU Ever Sleep?

Pondered whether I could run two Elluminate sessions (virtual classrooms) on my computer at the same time and decided if both sessions could run then it meant my computer could cope so I must be able to cope!

Oh my! Have to appreciate that logic. Reading her post had me crying I was laughing so hard. Perhaps it hit a tad too close to home.

Writely, Presently, Calcy?

I do on occasion find myself calling Google Docs, Writley. And yes, I did call this new thing from Google, Presently. It makes perfect sense to me, and I hope it sticks.

So, when I saw this piece by Zoli Erdos it made me laugh, Where is Writely?

It’s funny how bloggers insist on calling Google’s new presentation app Presently. There’s no trace of using this name on any Google affiliated blogs. It wouldn’t be logical, after killing off the Writely brand.

But if Presently perseveres, could we see Writely back? And what does it mean for Google Spreadsheet? Calcly?

Works for me! Presently it is, and I don't want to hear another word about it.

In desperate need of Twitter followers

This is serious! I have dropped out of the top 1000 in the "follower" category on TwitDir.

See that big ugly hole? This has happened in spite of the fact that I have grown my followers by over 25% this past month. This has to be rectified. I will never make the TwitterHolic list this way. It's become an obsesssion with me. Please help me out and follow me. I promise to follow you back.

Shopping for shoes on the Internet

I walked in to the living room at my parent's home last night to find my sister and DW shopping online for shoes. The conversation went like this:

Me: If you're shopping for shoes I know just the site.
Sister: I have my site.
Me: Okay.
*long pause occurs*
Sister: What is your site? I'm just wondering...
Me: Zappos.
Sister: That's my site. How did you know about it?
Me: I have my sources, and I blogged about it once. Want me to read you the post?
Sister: No!

The "No!" reminded me of one of my favorite quotes, you know the one from NON-WORKINGMONKEY: "I don't know. I don't want to know. I never will know. More importantly, I don't care. Now go away and leave me alone..." I am shopping for wedges on the Internet.

Fashion Tip #3: Wearing pink

My good friend Anne posted this to Twitter last night:

aafromaa: At the Louisville Bats game (AAA). It takes real men to wear pink shirts.

Seriously? I try to stay on top of these trends since moving to the top of the fashion blogging A-list, but somewhere I'd totally missed real men wearing pink (periwinkle, fuschia, rose).

I'd just been to a NASCAR race last weekend where I was on the lookout for new fashion trends. I'm sorry, but I failed to observe a single man wearing pink. Well, excepting all the very morbidly obese pink men wearing no shirts whatsoever.

Which brings me to my Fashion Tip #3: If you're going to sport pink be sure to wear SPF 50.