A Social Contract
Ramblings on the collision of technology and human nature
Ramblings on the collision of technology and human nature
Warren Adelman
GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman, Personal Blog
Goodbye Mr. Bond
A colleague of mine shared a story about a Chinese anti-terror unit practicing for the upcoming Olympics--on Segways. I suspect the founder of Segway, Dean Kamen, didn't have this in mind when he launched the company, but money is money. Now they have a whole Police and Government unit.
When I saw this photo only one thing came to mind--a quote from Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond's nemesis:
"Goodbye, Mr. Bond"
But in all seriousness, I have no doubt that these Chinese troopers are indeed accurate, efficient and deadly. Now if we could just replace human legs with wheels.
A Win for Technology
I have a son away at summer camp presently. He didn't want
to bother with contacts so decided to wear glasses. He doesn't
really like his glasses so we reinforced how important it was to wear them for his eyesight.
A couple of days after he got to camp we checked their website for
photos of our son. Within a few clicks we found him--sans glasses.
Busted!
A quick call to the camp director remedied the situation. Score one for the tyranny of parents and the power of the Internet.
to bother with contacts so decided to wear glasses. He doesn't
really like his glasses so we reinforced how important it was to wear them for his eyesight.
A couple of days after he got to camp we checked their website for
photos of our son. Within a few clicks we found him--sans glasses.
Busted!
A quick call to the camp director remedied the situation. Score one for the tyranny of parents and the power of the Internet.
Blogs That I Like
Recently one of my readers asked me to list a few of the blogs that I read. Here are a couple I often peruse. When you have taken a look, let me know what you think.
TechCrunch (who doesn't!)
Ill-advised Tour (He has not been posting for a long time but still worth a read for historical travels).
and, of course,
Testing 1-2-3
As I prepare for a trip to an ICANN meeting, I'm prepping for email blogging
for asocialcontract.com on GoDaddy's QuickBlogcast service. This is just
a test as I work on further tethering my life to the Internet
Warren Adelman
Sent from Blackberry using GoDaddy MobileMail
for asocialcontract.com on GoDaddy's QuickBlogcast service. This is just
a test as I work on further tethering my life to the Internet
Warren Adelman
Sent from Blackberry using GoDaddy MobileMail
Cellphone to the Rescue?
One of my colleagues shared this story with me tonight from a news station in Orem, Utah:
Automatic car features are supposed to make life easier for motorists, but they may be leaving some people without the know-how to do things the old-fashioned way. That’s what happened to a driver in Utah County
A woman called Orem police Friday afternoon needing help because her battery died and she was locked inside her car.
When police arrived, they found the woman sitting in the car, unable to get herself out. She couldn’t hear the officers instructions through the rolled-up windows so she motioned to them to call her on her cell phone, according to police.
Once officers were able to talk to the woman on the phone, they were able to tell her how to manually operate the slide lock mechanism on the inside door panel to open the door and free herself.
“I'm just glad she had a cell phone to call for help,” an officer said.
A woman called Orem police Friday afternoon needing help because her battery died and she was locked inside her car.
When police arrived, they found the woman sitting in the car, unable to get herself out. She couldn’t hear the officers instructions through the rolled-up windows so she motioned to them to call her on her cell phone, according to police.
Once officers were able to talk to the woman on the phone, they were able to tell her how to manually operate the slide lock mechanism on the inside door panel to open the door and free herself.
“I'm just glad she had a cell phone to call for help,” an officer said.
Should she really be behind the wheel of a car? Should they charge her for the rescue? Notice her name does not appear in the story.
All in all, not quite as dramatic as the soldier who called in artillery support via a collect, long distance call during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada.
The Twitter Sub-Culture
I am a relatively new user of Twitter. My account is twitter.com/asocialcontract.
This presence-oriented, microblogging service, which has grown by leaps and bounds, has received a lot of attention (albeit most recently for outages and personnel issues).
Not too long ago it made headlines when an American student used it to announce his arrest in Egypt. He was freed the next day. I'm sure the Egyptian authorities were not aware of Twitter, however, it is surprising that they let him keep his cellphone. Doh! Lucky American.
Anyway, I have been tweeting away and pondering the best use for Twitter. During this time, a number of people (not just co-workers) have decided to "follow" my tweets. What will they learn? I tend to tweet about what I am doing at work (if it is not confidential) or something interesting I have stumbled upon or am involved in.
At the same time, some are claiming that Twitter is a huge time sink. Well I decided to do some random searches on Twitter and the results are a bit dismaying. Check out the following links and the associated tweets:
No question that some people have WAY too much time on their hands. There seems to be a whole Twiiter sub-culture that tweets about the most useless information possible. I hope nobody is following them!
Every outlet for human interaction or expression will indeed produce its idiots. There is no shortage, for example, of moronic journalists, but there are also many great journalists who have helped shape world events.
I think Twitter is what you (and your followers) make of it. In the years ahead, I think it will have an indelible impression on our social discourse.
A Special Post from A Guest Writer (One of My Readers)
“I’m surrounded by idiots!” So sighed Scar, Simba’s evil uncle in Disney’s “The Lion King.” This is how I feel now, almost everyday, as I venture out amongst the public. It seems people are unable to conduct a simple business transaction without getting it wrong or causing everyone around them pain and discomfort.
It seems this comes into focus every morning when I simply try to buy a bagel.
First, people are unable to correctly form a line. They walk in, stop in their tracks and form the line so that either no one else can get behind them, or they are blocking traffic so people can neither enter or exit- thus creating greater confusion.
Their behavior on line (or in line if you prefer) only aggravates normal people further. The line is comprised of many individuals, each of whom is annoying in their own special way.
You have the person who is on the cell phone talking about absolutely nothing -- no life-threatening situation, no critical business discussion- just total vacuous speech. All leading nowhere. The conversation usually proceeds as follows (you can imagine the other end of the conversation just from the responses):
“So what are you doing? REALLY? Me too! I’m standing on line to buy a bagel- that is soooooooo weird! We are both standing on line at the same time, only at different places…” “I wish I had known then I could have stood on line with you for your coffee, then we could have come over here and you could have stood on line while I bought my bagel…” And so on and so on.
Meanwhile, the line is progressing and it is finally the cell phone person’s turn. Does she hang up and tell her friend she will call her back? Of course not, this is much too important a call to terminate. So she tells her friend that it is her turn and that she has been so busy talking that she doesn’t know what she wants. Then she repeats the same thing to the clerk. Don’t worry about the people behind you, no! The details of her boring life are much more important.
Another favorite is the mother-child scenario. Usually, the Ute (See“My Cousin Vinny”) has been misbehaving with the mother saying “no, Johnny, no.” Of course she doesn’t want to discipline the child because she wants to be his friend rather than his parent.
Finally the pair get to the counter and the mother asks little Johnny- who is no more than 2 and doesn’t know his alphabet -- what he would like off the menu. He looks at her like she’s crazy for expecting him to read, then says, “I want a Happy Meal.” Mommy says they don’t sell those here, what else would he like? Johnny replies: “Chicken Nuggets.” Of course the mother could not have done this while she was waiting and ends up telling the clerk “he’ll have a plain bagel with nothing on it.” Which is what she should have done in the first place, rather than trying to empower Johnny and advance his reading and social skills.
Then, the person directly in front of me always orders a dozen bagels. Nothing hard there, right? Wrong! Here is how that conversation unfolds:
Customer: Ummmmmmmm, I want a dozen bagels
Clerk: Ok
Customer: Ok, I’ll have one poppy… how many does that leave me?
Clerk: 11
Customer: Ok I’ll take two sesame. How many is that?
Clerk: (annoyed) 3
This excruciating process continues till we hit the magic twelve. Then of course the clerk says, “you have 12 you get one more.“ The customer responds, “but I only wanted a dozen.”
Finally, it is time to pay for the purchase. The customers seem genuinely surprised that they have to pay. Did they pull their money or credit card out while standing there? (Of course the cell phone girl didn’t -- because she is still talking.) So after fumbling they pay for the purchase, begin to walk away and say, “I forgot -- I want a latte.”
What bothers me most about this is that if people thought about anyone else other than themselves, the line would move much faster. The total disregard for who and what is going on around them seems to get worse every day…and every day I mutter: “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
It seems this comes into focus every morning when I simply try to buy a bagel.
First, people are unable to correctly form a line. They walk in, stop in their tracks and form the line so that either no one else can get behind them, or they are blocking traffic so people can neither enter or exit- thus creating greater confusion.
Their behavior on line (or in line if you prefer) only aggravates normal people further. The line is comprised of many individuals, each of whom is annoying in their own special way.
You have the person who is on the cell phone talking about absolutely nothing -- no life-threatening situation, no critical business discussion- just total vacuous speech. All leading nowhere. The conversation usually proceeds as follows (you can imagine the other end of the conversation just from the responses):
“So what are you doing? REALLY? Me too! I’m standing on line to buy a bagel- that is soooooooo weird! We are both standing on line at the same time, only at different places…” “I wish I had known then I could have stood on line with you for your coffee, then we could have come over here and you could have stood on line while I bought my bagel…” And so on and so on.
Meanwhile, the line is progressing and it is finally the cell phone person’s turn. Does she hang up and tell her friend she will call her back? Of course not, this is much too important a call to terminate. So she tells her friend that it is her turn and that she has been so busy talking that she doesn’t know what she wants. Then she repeats the same thing to the clerk. Don’t worry about the people behind you, no! The details of her boring life are much more important.
Another favorite is the mother-child scenario. Usually, the Ute (See“My Cousin Vinny”) has been misbehaving with the mother saying “no, Johnny, no.” Of course she doesn’t want to discipline the child because she wants to be his friend rather than his parent.
Finally the pair get to the counter and the mother asks little Johnny- who is no more than 2 and doesn’t know his alphabet -- what he would like off the menu. He looks at her like she’s crazy for expecting him to read, then says, “I want a Happy Meal.” Mommy says they don’t sell those here, what else would he like? Johnny replies: “Chicken Nuggets.” Of course the mother could not have done this while she was waiting and ends up telling the clerk “he’ll have a plain bagel with nothing on it.” Which is what she should have done in the first place, rather than trying to empower Johnny and advance his reading and social skills.
Then, the person directly in front of me always orders a dozen bagels. Nothing hard there, right? Wrong! Here is how that conversation unfolds:
Customer: Ummmmmmmm, I want a dozen bagels
Clerk: Ok
Customer: Ok, I’ll have one poppy… how many does that leave me?
Clerk: 11
Customer: Ok I’ll take two sesame. How many is that?
Clerk: (annoyed) 3
This excruciating process continues till we hit the magic twelve. Then of course the clerk says, “you have 12 you get one more.“ The customer responds, “but I only wanted a dozen.”
Finally, it is time to pay for the purchase. The customers seem genuinely surprised that they have to pay. Did they pull their money or credit card out while standing there? (Of course the cell phone girl didn’t -- because she is still talking.) So after fumbling they pay for the purchase, begin to walk away and say, “I forgot -- I want a latte.”
What bothers me most about this is that if people thought about anyone else other than themselves, the line would move much faster. The total disregard for who and what is going on around them seems to get worse every day…and every day I mutter: “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
A Great Blog
I wanted to share this great blog with my reader(s).
Brilliant
Apropos as I mess around with my Blackberry trying to get Twitterberry to work!
Enjoy it.
Skynet Continued
I wrote about military robots some months ago. Advancements continue. These little robots (TALONs) are already in the theater of battle in the Middle East.
They have been the subject of some controversy. There were news stories that they had to be shelved after the gun fired without command. In many ways I would question calling this one a robot. It is really a weapons platform handled by a remote operator. But you get the direction we are moving in, right?
They are manufactured by a very interesting company called Foster Miller. They make a wide variety of robots including ones used for pipeline maintenance, industrial automation and the rather chilling nuclear services category. (The one used in nuclear environments is known as CECIL).
Elbit Systems in Israel has fielded a similar robot known as VIPER which is pictured below.
Do you think this is how Cyberdyne Systems got its start?
Facebook And Not So Super Secrets
Unit 8200 in the Israel Defense Forces is a signals intelligence group that has for the most part been shrouded in relative secrecy outside of Israel.
Enter Facebook!
A soldier from the elite unit was sentenced to a brief 19 day stint in prison for publishing photos taken at his base to Facebook. It appears to be the first case in Israel where a soldier has been sentenced to jail for leaking secrets on a social networking site. I'm pretty sure it will not be the last.
It is just hard to contain information in the face of the rapid proliferation of technology and the Internet. Before Facebook it was cellphones. Israeli soldiers stationed in various hostile areas were on the move with cellphones in hand. Sometimes the other side was listening.
In the wake of the Facebook incident, the IDF issued new warnings to soldiers on the use (or misuse) of information given the plethora of new leakage points. I'm sure the effects of the warning will fade quickly.
As for the jail sentence.... Probably not much of a deterrent. For an offense like this in the IDF he was probably confined to base and made to clean up kitchens or paint old fences.
BTW-- If you take a look at the bios on the Internet of management teams at Israeli technology companies you will often see service in this unit included. And if you look at other Internet data repositiories there is a wealth of information that can be pieced together on the IDF. Just do a search on YouTube and see what you turn up. You'll find an interesting miitary exercise here:
One of my other favorite armed forces, the Canadian Forces, is also wrestling with the Facebook phenomenon. Recently it noted that soldiers need to be wary of their interactions on social networking sites. The Canadian National Defense Department warned that terrorist organizations were monitoring social networking sites to gleam intelligence information.
Of course the Canadians should also keep an eye on good old fashioned garbage cans. Seems that 26 pages of blue prints for the new Canadian Counter Terrorism Facility were found dumped in the trash. You can read about that here.
Watch for my post on the dark side of Second Life.
Warren Adelman
A Social Contract is the personal blog of Warren Adelman, CEO of GoDaddy.com. The blog represents his personal thoughts only.
