Sixteen years ago today, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.
People were amazed that someone had the quick wit and capability to capture this with their camcorder. This was the modern-day Zapruder video, leading to national public outcry and criminal charges against the overzealous cops.
Today, capturing these incidents is no surprise at all.
The camera is always on.
If you've ever been humming a tune trying to figure out the name of the song, there's a place you may find your answer.
Nayio.com offers what it's calling a v-tool, or a humming search engine.
You hum the song into your PC microphone and the site compares your notes with a group of 500-byte MuGenes -- virtual fingerprints based on unique melodic transitions from songs in Napster's library -- and returns potential matches.
There are roughly 5,000 songs that have been encoded so far.
Hum, no fooling.
So over the holidays I assure my mother-in-law that I can figure out why she can't tap into the Comcast wireless feed into her house.
Turns out that Comcast, which provides her with broadband access, initially set up her wireless but neglected to give her a network key (or the correct one).
No biggie.
I call Comcast and after explaining the situation, the snooty woman on the other end tells me it's a Dell problem, and that I need to contact Dell.
Um, OK.
So I call Dell and as the polite rep walks me through all of our settings, doing his best to trouble-shoot with me. Turns out the issue is that we need to reset the modem/router (Comcast supplies a hybrid). Because we're unable to do this without Comcast's assistance, I'll need to call Comcast.
Ugh, I'm thinking.
After going through all of the correct phone prompts to access a wireless representative, I get a woman who after listening to my situation says:
"Are you referring to all of that Internet stuff?"
"Um, yeah," I say.
"Well you've reached billing in Louisiana."
"But I followed all the prompts to discuss my wireless issue."
"Well they get very busy and when they do, the calls usually come here."
Great. So instead of putting the customer in the queue to speak with someone who may be able to help, Comcast sends the customer to billing in Louisiana.
Unbelievable.
The next day we switched to Verizon and we're fully wireless.
Comcast should stick to cable TV and leave Internet and telephone to people who have a clue.
Is Google really this smart?
One of the benefits of the company name that perhaps founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page didn't even think of is how easy it rolls off the tongue of a toddler.
I've mentioned to my daughter a few times that we're going to "Google" some web sites that she may be interested in, like "Boohbah," "Teletubbies" and "The Backyardigans." Or perhaps we're going to "Google" some images like the moon, cups, shoes and hats.
Now, every time she sees a computer she says "Google."
Granted, "Google" is a close cousin to "goo goo" and "gah gah," typical vocabulary for a baby. But the fact that someone who's only been part of the planet for 18 months is equating Google to using a computer is pretty amazing.
Was early branding the intention when naming the company?
Doubtful, but who knows?
Perhaps Google really is this smart.
This one is just plain wrong.
A sales assistant at a small company in England was fired via text messaging.
Imagine checking your phone and seeing this message pop up: "We will not require your services anymore ... Thank you for your time with us."
Huh? Not even a ...:(
That's what happened to Katy Tanner.
Looks like her previous employer could use some HR help.
Enough with the chain mail.
There's nothing more annoying than receiving an e-mail that tells you to forward it to a finite number of people or bad things are going to happen to you.
These e-mails can come from family, friends and co-workers. In today's information age, aren't our in-boxes full enough without getting these calls to action? Shouldn't whether or not we forward something be optional?
Yesterday I receive one that had 21 tips from Tony Robbins on how to improve my outlook on life. Many times I won't even bother to read through these, but they were short, to the point and worthwhile. The problem with the e-mail was that I was told to forward it within six minutes or I would get a "very unpleasant surprise."
Who needs this?
The e-mail went on to suggest that by sending it to 1-4 people, my life would improve slightly. By sending it to 5-9 people, my life would improve to my liking. And if I really wanted to make an impression by sending it to 10-14 people, I would have five surprises in the next three weeks. Finally, by sending it to 15 or more people, my life would improve drastically and everything I ever dreamed of would begin to take shape.
Um, OK.
So I hit the delete button.
This is nothing more than pyramid spam, a ploy to clog the world's in-boxes under the guise of helpfulness and fearful superstition.
Here's an interesting venture:
View or post classifieds for free on The Mega Board, a brand new site that connects buyers to sellers, people to people and provides a bulletin board for events of all kinds.
Since the site is relatively new there's not a lot of content, but my guess is that the "buckets" will fill up quickly. The usability is clean and there are classic organic marketing tools to spread the word about new activity.
It's definitely worth a bookmark.
OK. I caved. Sort of.
Thanks to the generosity of my in-laws, I am now the proud owner of an iPod with a 60GB hard drive.
So now I will load my music, packing the iPod with Iron Butterfly "Ball," Anandi "Forever Days" and Velvet Revolver "Contraband," among the other hundreds of CDs in my collection.
It's a wonderful gift.
But I will not use the shuffle feature.
At least not yet.
I refuse to officially join the random-happy MP3 generation.
Oh, I have my share of MP3s. Probably more than 1,000. They sit on my hard drive, entertaining me while I work and sometimes finding themselves part of a new mix CD.
But my music is anything but random.
Ever since I was old enough to press record on a cassette tape player, I have been making my own tapes or CDs. I choose the song order. I create the mix. I set the mood, the ambiance, the spirit of the music.
And I get a rush from my audience's reaction.
One of my passions outside of the workplace is mixing music. Give me a few hours, a chewy red Zinfandel and my music collection (not just the MP3s), and I'm content. And very engaged.
You see, I was born to mix. That's what I do. In the early '70s, I simply recorded songs off the radio. It was difficult to create my own order, but if there was a song that didn't fit the mix, it was erased.
In the early '80s I was so obsessive of doing things my way that I re-recorded The Who's "Who's Next." I thought the album should open up with "Going Mobile," not "Baba O'Riley." I actually sat in front of my father's stereo and queued up the nine tracks on the album the way I wanted to hear them.
OK. That's a bit impulsive. And my apologies to Pete Townshend, who commands a lot of my respect with his perception of the order of the universe.
Don't equate me with Alfred Molina, the crazed mix-master in "Boogie Nights." But it's clear I like to have control. I put a lot of time into my mix CDs. One of my best friends and I have made a career of creating music mixes, which we called variety tapes in the early days.
So when this same friend tells me how much he loves his MP3 player and the random mixes it produces, I feel a little sad. He's lost control. He no longer is the master of his music domain.
I guess it's OK if he likes the Doors' "Soul Kitchen" segueing into Madonna's "Material Girl." Not that it's such a bad transition, but he didn't think of it. He's letting a machine determine his mood and the vibe that propels his day.
It's not for me. If "Soul Kitchen" is going to segue into "Material Girl," it's going to be because I created the moment by design. I will not let a machine try to delight me.
It's like opting for a "Quick Pick" when playing the lottery. Why would you let a machine pick your numbers? If Karma is going to deliver you millions of dollars, wouldn't you feel better if your numbers hit the jackpot?
Then there's the dating thing. Since I'm married I don't run into this, but how embarrassing would it be to have a date going well and you're trusting your MP3 player in random mode to set the mood? Elton John's "Your Song" segueing into Nine Inch Nails' "Pinion" will kill a moment pretty quickly.
I like MP3s. Digital music technology is incredible. I love using MP3s to create soundtracks to digital home movies and I love using sound-editing software that allows me to smoothly mix music, fading in and out, crisp and precise.
But bits and bytes will not mix my music. The order I hear songs is up to the artist or up to me.
It's just not negotiable.
Be careful how you name your business. Or your band.
The power of the Web is all about keyword search, drawing the straightest line from query to satisfying result.
So, when the anthrax scare in late 2001 made headlines, lots of inquiring minds were introduced to the '80s glam rock band Anthrax. A good thing? It put a tired, forgotten band back on the map. But surfers probably were left wondering why someone would name their band after a potential national crisis.
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in our lifetime, walls of water devastating a city. But do you remember the band Katrina and the Waves? Kind of creepy. And ominous.
Keyword search can sometimes get you in trouble, especially if you're innocently searching for Chinese takeout after a long day at work or browsing for new music.
You can imagine the search results for Oriental Delight, a local Chinese restaurant, and Brazilian Girls, a new band I read about in Newsweek.
Um, OK.
Be careful what you name your business. Or your band. Think about keywords. And think about relevance.
