Tretakoff Musings
As usual, The Sports Guy does it again: a great column about how
Boston fans have had it good for some time now. The key areas that make me wonder if we were separated at birth:
"In the past 30 years, I watched the following players and coaches in their primes (or something that was reasonably close to their primes): Bird, Orr, Pedro, Clemens, Esposito, Havlicek, Cowens, Neely, Bourque, McHale, Tippett, Parish, DJ, Fisk, Nomar, Manny, Bledsoe, Lewis, Brady, Parcells and Belichick.
I watched seven championship teams. Seven. Including two Super Bowl titles in the past three years. I also watched countless other teams that came damned close (including the '75 and '86 Sox, '76 Pats, '85 and '87 Celts, '78 and 79 B's, '96 Pats and last year's Sox team).
Four fantastic things happened over this time, at least for me:
1. Watching the '86 Celts on a day-to-day basis. The best team ever. I haven't seen hoops played quite like that before or since."
Skipping #2...
"3. Watching that first Super Bowl victory in New Orleans -- the day the impossible happened. I still remember going into halftime up 14-3, the Superdome buzzing, that unparalled feeling where every fan realizes that something memorable could happen, that you should just be happy to be in the building ... and right as we're all realizing this, U2 comes out and sings "Beautiful Day." Never before has a song matched a sports moment like that. At least not for me.
4. This isn't a distinct moment, but it matters to me and many others growing up in Boston in the '70s: When I was a kid, I got to read columns from Leigh Montville and Ray Fitzgerald in the Globe every day. Peter Gammons covered the Sox. Will McDonough covered the Pats. Bob Ryan covered hoops. This is what we grew up with -- five guys who knew what they were doing. And if that doesn't make sports a little more special for everyone involved, I don't know what does."
'Nuff said.
Free headset for your cell phone?
Kind of a cool idea, though it smacks of the early days of the web.
:: FreeHeadset.org is giving you a free cell headset, plus $3.94 for shipping. Not bad; a little cheaper than the $5 you can get them for on eBay.
Great article today on Wi-Fi htospots in San Francisco, courtesy of Doug Fleener, by way of the Wall St. Journal:
San Francisco 94110
Is Really a Hot Spot,
My Wi-Fi Tour Shows
May 24, 2004; Page B1
After spending the better part of a week methodically, albeit figuratively, peeking though my neighbors' walls, I can't shake the thought: Why can't we all just get along?
If you're one of the millions of people who have bought a wireless computer networking product lately, you very probably, in the process of setting it up, detected other Wi-Fi products belonging to your neighbors. This happens because Wi-Fi signals can travel several hundred feet. When I got my first wireless network two years ago, mine was the only one. Now, I can "hear" three others, just from my living room.
I wondered: If there are three right around my house, how many are there in my neighborhood? I set about finding out, though with an expansive definition of neighborhood: my entire ZIP Code, San Francisco's 94110.
For this census, I used my laptop computer equipped with a wireless Wi-Fi card, as well as a free program called Netstumbler, which listens for Wi-Fi devices and keeps a log of what it finds.
There is nothing remotely illegal or improper about this. Wi-Fi products, as part of their normal operations, freely transmit information about themselves. Marius Milner, the author of Netstumbler, says using the program is analogous to driving around and recording the addresses of all the houses that have their street numbers posted out front.
Note that simply detecting the presence of a wireless network doesn't mean you can access the computers connected to it or can use it to go online. If the owner of the network has turned on encryption, as is highly recommended, the actual contents and operation of the network will be shielded from your view. (I discover that fully half of my neighbors take this step, far more than I would have guessed.)
I set out driving, back and forth, for many long hours. (How do cabbies do it?) While I was only logging technical information about the networks I was encountering, I learned that sometimes, the technical can also be personal. When you set up a home wireless network, you can, if you want, give it a name. Many of the names I was seeing -- 2boysNlove, imaginaryfriend, DONTBOTHER -- made me feel as though I was eavesdropping on other folks' somewhat personal affairs.
The undertaking also provided a window into the ways that society and technology intersect. Netstumbler makes a bonging sound every time it detects a network. In Bernal Heights, chock full of Volvo-driving Kerry voters, it was bong-bong-bong, virtually one for every house. My laptop was quieter in the flatlands of the Inner Mission, home to working-class Hispanic families living in three-story apartment buildings. And in the public-housing projects on Justin Drive next to the freeway, it was utterly silent.
In the end, I counted about 3,000 wireless networks in my ZIP Code. The 2003 population of 94110 was 75,000, meaning we have one Wi-Fi access point for every 25 people.
For my project, I had borrowed from my neighbor Brian Warner, a famous programmer in the Python computer language, a small GPS receiver that plugged into my laptop and recorded the locations of all the networks I was seeing. When I was done, I made a map of them.
With a lot of help from the folks at ESRI, a mapping-software company, I added to the maps a bit. For instance, I calculated per capita wireless ownership by census tract, and then mapped it. I also mapped average household income. It's no surprise the two are highly correlated.
In fact, the more affluent parts of my ZIP Code had nearly 10 times as many hot spots, per capita, as less tony areas. It's the old-fashioned digital divide, updated to the age of wireless.
In the early days of Wi-Fi, buffs would drive around like I did -- they call it "war driving" -- and look for "hot spots," delighted each time they found a new one, meaning, perhaps, a chance to get on the Internet free of charge. Now, if you look at my map, you quickly realize that by now, the entire city has become one big hot spot. Soon, much of the world will be.
But these devices aren't yet living up to their full potential. Currently, none of the Wi-Fi networks on my map talk to each other; they are all little islands onto themselves. Networking engineers, though, are laying the groundwork for something called "mesh networking," which would take all of the devices you can see on my map and connect them into a single, cohesive system.
You would still have network security, but you could, if you wanted, allow network traffic besides yours to hop around using your Wi-Fi gear. Cellphone networks work this way; so does the entire Internet, to a certain extent. The advantage to you of having network devices cooperate like this? The system would be there for you when you went out walking or even driving.
Mesh networks are expected to start appearing in two or so years, and I can't wait. Imagine the fireworks when BigGreenOnBosworth runs into BIGMOUTH_STRIKES_AGAIN.
Check out the map!
Just when I though browser innovation was dead....
NetCaptor comes along. Seems to support all IE things, and adds tabbed browsing, like Safari on the Mac. It's clean, fast, and seems great; even works with the Google toolbar!
Ok, this might be the most useful Palm software...ever.
Ilium Software's eWallet stores EVERYTHING: on your PC, Palm, and keeps them in sync. Every account, every clothing size...you name it! I just bought it: it's THAT GOOD.
Some random rants
Ok, Ive been storing them up, but here they come.
1. How Not To Run A Business, Pt 1:
Our offices are just past the Ferry Building in Downtown San Francisco. The
only parking nearby is a lot right next to us that charges $35 per day (and
you thought gas was bad!), or a lot in the next Pier over, Pier 3. Pier 3 is
operated by Hornblower Cruises, and they have an automated parking system.
Now, tell me if youd park here if these happened to you:
a. The main entrance to the lot is closed down for construction. The new
entrance s located some 100 yards away, but is not marked and is 1/3 the
width of the previous entrance, making it extremely hard to see.
b. The new entrance to the lot is a dirt road on the side of a pier, with
the San Francisco Bay inches away from you.
c. Many of the lots spaces are taken by construction equipment, forcing you
to park under prime spots for seagulls to relieve themselves on a regular
basis.
d. Heres how the lot works: you drive in, past the place where you pay. You
find a space, about 1/8th of a mile away from the payment area. You make a
note of your space number. You walk 1/8th of a mile to the payment machine,
pay, get a ticket, then walk 1/8th of a mile back to your car to put the
ticket on the dash. Then, you walk the same 1/8th of a mile to the front of
the lot, so you can leave. No, you cant pay first, before going into your
space, since you wont know what space # you are in.
Now, youre probably asking why anyone would park there? Well, the folks at
Hornblower have decided that wasnt enough to discourage business, so they
have added the following:
e. The daily fee has gone up from $13 to $15. And that is from the time that
the construction started!
f. Not enough? OK: their payment machine, which you have to hike ¼ mile+ to
get to and from, now no longer accepts credit or debit cards. Instead, you
must have exact change cash. No exact change? No parking: hike your lazy
butt back 1/8th of a mile and go find somewhere else to park.
g. Still not enough? The number to call for assistance? Voicemail, where no
one has responded in over 5 hours, and counting
All this for the privilege of parking with them. Yes, I take the ferry most
days, but cmon: how hard is it to run an OPEN FIELD OF ASPHALT WITH PAINTED
WHITE LINES?!?!?!? Im not asking for a new Iraqi governing council here
!
One of the funniest, smartest, and upbeat folks I've ever had the pleasure to work with and know is Doug Fleener, who's
daily musings are a must read, especially if you are a fan of good customer service and good retail practices...as well as the origin of my much maligned expression of "Boy Howdy!"
Finally, all of my RSS issues have been worked out, and the blog is back to normal updating! Thanks got to Blogger Support, who really stepped up for a free service, and to FeedBurner, which makes my life so much better!
I'm feeling a long list of rants coming on, but I'll save it for when I have more time. Look for one in a few moments!
This makes me proud to be a Marin resident:
270 cows generating electricity for farm. A new day has dawned. ;-)
Not entirely an irresponsible press, but...
It seems to me that, as a reporter, it's your job to get the facts straight; everything else is secondary. But the folks at Computerworld, in this article:
Security threats raise concerns about Bluetooth - Computerworld don't seem to have gotten the message. After reading that fixes were available from Bluetooth.org, i serached for half an hour in vain...only to find nothing. The response from Bluetooth.org's PR:
Dear Josh,
Thank you for your interest, but the reporter did not get that quote exactly right – patches WILL BE available in the summer timeframe.
Sincerely,
Sarah Talbi
Marketing Coordinator
Bluetooth SIG
So, I'll keep my Bluetooth secure until then...
Remember when the web was cool? It is again: there's a free service to take all the RSS formats out there and translate them to standard RSS!
FeedBurner - The spark for syndication success actually does what it says, and does it O so cool! As a result, the RSS feed for Treakoff.com is now accessible to ALL readers, including those in
Trillian!
I have seen the future...and it is WORSE than Minority Report!:
Marketing "Wiz" Develops Urinal Advertising
If you're a marketer who is trying to capture a male audience is a way no one else has, urine luck. A company has developed an interactive urinal display designed to capture the attention of men when nature calls.
Wizmark's newly patented device has a promotional ad message contained inside an angled 3.5" lenticular waterproof display, as well as flashing lights that are activated either by either someone's physical presence or by urination onto the screen.
When activated, the screen also emits a pre-recorded audible message of up to 16 seconds duration, said Richard Deutsch, who invented the interactive plastic deodorizing unit for Wizmark, Islip, NY.
Deutsch said the unit is going to be marketed for use in bars, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, race tracks, movies theaters, airports and train stations for either commercial or public-service messages. He added the unit is ideal for anti-smoking, anti-drug or anti-drunk driving messages.
