@ sixes & sevens

Workplace mantra (with Chihuahua)

Thanks to Oleg for pointing this presentation out to me. Go directly to slide 28. I uploaded this from Slideshare, but it can't distinguish among multiple blogs on a single account. I had to cut and paste from libraryofprimitiveart.

Innovation Starts with I

From: hblowers, 5 days ago

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Presentation with Tony Tallent

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Long-tail or Tail-end?

For all the praise and encouragement I've gotten from my younger colleagues on my responsiveness and adaptivity to the latest in web-based wizardry, I have hesitated until only now to join Netflix. Yet it had nothing to do with learning the web interface; rather, it had everything to do with committing my time to watching DVDs of movies I've largely missed or skipped.

Part of this is a nostalgia for the 'movie house experience'. I may be relegated these days to sitting by myself in the movie theatre, but at least I was in the company of others. Watching movies at home is such a ... solitary activity. But waiting for movies to appear in revival houses or to rotate onto TCM or some other movie channel -- and during hours when I could actually watch it -- is really an incredibly 'inefficient' way to see what you want to see. Mind you, I haven't yet gone the way of Tivo or getting a DVR.

And so the plunge.

What is instructive is that as soon as I registered, I looked for a way to put my movie queue onto my blog. Netflix, being at heart a commercial entity, wants to be in on sharing my preferences with other customers, actual or potential. Hunt while I may across their web pages, only one way to share with friends: finger them for Netflix. And this is something I'm reluctant to do. I'm not exactly certain why: I have not qualms about using del.icio.us to share bookmarks or Bloglines (or as of today, Google Reader) to share my feeds. Clearly all three of these concerns will gain by my participation and sharing on their sites.

What exactly sets outfits like Netflix apart from these other enterprises? The feel-good aura of social networking? That's what I'm thinking at this point.

The beginning of scanner mania?

Over Christmas I mentioned to my brother Doug, quite as an aside, that I could really use a scanner to embark on the illustration of my definitive history of New York State automobile license plates. He said he had spare scanners, would I like to take one back to New York? Why sure, I answered, if you're offering. So I lugged (not really; it's incredibly lightweight) the scanner back and this evening loaded all the necessary -- and not doubt lots of unnecessary -- software. As a test I popped a recently acquired real photo postcard (RPPC) into the scanner and ... Presto!

The 300 dpi original scan is truly magnificent and, trust me, a high enough quality for my purposes. I reduced it and converted it into a jpeg for this post, otherwise the detail would blow you away.

Elnora is just a little ways outside of Schenectady. The New York plate in the photograph dates from 1913; the postcard was postmarked May 24, 1915. I can't make out the make of the automobile -- even the original isn't detailed enough for that.